Hello!
I've been out for a couple off weeks ... because a mixture of work, work and even more work have been keeping me away from the LAF... besides that, this project also took some my time!
when the LotHS rules came out I borrowed them from a friend of mine and thought that piracy would be a nice project ... because life in R&D world can be somewhat stressing!
So ... another project was stacked in my gigantic pile of TODOs ... unfortunately Torradas (my fearsome enemy) also fancied the idea of sailing the the vast seas of plunder! and started working on a vessel of his own (you can see the Pollo Diablo on his blog:
El Pollo Diablo)
So I could not waste time painting XX century lead while an old nemesis was already plundering old lady's retirement war galleons on the shore of Tortuga and started my own ship!
I've started building the boat around Mid March... with a couple of days devoted to my 15mm british recce army for fow (because of a really big tournament that took place here in Portugal in the beginning of May. If you like wargaming tables, check this from a French Chap that took some really nice photos of the event:
http://zoom13.club.fr/tournoilisbonnefow2008.htm)
And managed to finish the boat in the beginning of June
But lets start from the beginning:
Bought some cardboard (the one with foam in the middle) for the overall structure, a couple of wood rods, used 2mm thick balsa sheet I had bought a couple of years ago, some string, a couple of bits from nautical modelling, white glue, cereal boxes, plaster, toothpicks and lots of cigarettes (I think that counting all the ones I've smoked during this time -> this was the most expensive item in the whole project) and for the figurehead I used an old GW's horse Head.
Took a while seeing some XVIII century boat photos on the net to get some inspiration, and chose to do a sloop! my favourite boat from Sid Pier's Pirates Computer Game! Besides making a somewhat look-a-like boat, I also wanted a gaming piece, so I was very generous with the overall measurements in order to get enough space for a dozen miniatures to walk freely around the deck.
Drew the overall measurements in the cardboard and started to build the ships skeleton:
this was enough for a first skirmish I've made with Torradas for testing the rules...
After the first impression, we came to the conclusion that the ship was too wide for a sloop, so I opted to do a merchantman instead, since this would be a nice preying element for the buccaneers and a way for me to make a honest living out of the Caribbean, and in the end rejoice myself with a couple of lead governor daughters who happened to be pursuing a handsome rich gentleman with a nice year income instead of rotten scab-infested pirates with really bad healthcare insurances!
Back to the drawing board... I needed to add a fore castle (think this the correct term in English) to add a bulkier look to the ship, so I've added a front structure to the ship, and covered the whole thing with thin cardboard stripes:
after all the planks were glue, I started to put all the ship's protections in balsa wood ...
during this time I used plaster to fill all the gaps in the model, and sanded it to get a smooth apearence.
almost in the end the ship looked like this, you can noticed the plaster yet to be sanded in the side of the ship:
this was the final version of the hull, you can also notice that I've added two openings for the cannons, and already had the first items for the masts:
after the hull was done I had to add railing all around the deck to avoid the overall monolithic look, unfortunately this adds a little love-boat feel to the ship but it breaks the monotony! Also used fine grating to do the widows (this was an idea from Torradas). The anchor and the wheel are pieces from "Artesania Latina" which is a company that sells naval modelling bits!
the masts were just pretty straightforward to do, even added a gallows nest, and for the lower sails I've used folded newspaper:
You can see the newspaper clearly in this photo, in order to get a sturdier effect I covered the lower sails in white glue, the first sails were already in place, Used thin cardboard to do them and used pins to pin them in the masts. Note the banner poles added, these are removable in order to use this fine vessel for several nations or even the pirates:
the final version of the ship with all sails in place in three different angles! I've opted not to make the ship in full sails in order to have more space for the crew to wander around and to give more sail diversity! I didn't add ropes to the ship since this would certainly ruin the playability
the undercoat in dark brown!
in the middle of the hull blockpainting
the hull fully painted
and the final version:
and I also managed to paint a couple of deck hands in order to command the boat (while I paint the royal marines)
So, it's done
It was great fun to make, and I've learned that for this type of work you should make a decent plan and spend sometime in the beginning thinking of the details, because if you don't -> you'll waste time trying to fix things that should have not been made a certain way!
It's not really a boat in the modelling sense of it (It wasn't my real objective to do that), it has loads on inaccurate bits, but it is a damn fine vessel for wargames!
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