Some progress updates

 Couple of things I’ve managed to do or get photos of in the last week, nothing particularly exciting but progress nonetheless.

I bought a naval wargaming mat. I wanted another Cigar Box Battle Mat but unfortunately Northstar seem to have stopped stocking them. When I inquired I got quite a brusque reply which said no they no longer stock them and didn’t give any other options. Looking at Northstar’s site though I discovered that they now sell GeekVillain gaming mats from the U.K. (presumably its cheaper for Northstar). I bought a naval mat from them (cheaper than CBBM) and when it arrived took it outside to look at it in the sunshine.

It’s a big blue sheet. And my poor Black Seas brig that’s had to be repaired twice from dropping and crushing. 

My opinion? It’s O.K. It’s just a fleece blanket dyed blue and has none of the quality you feel you’re getting with CBBM. I know it’s only the sea and there’s only so much that can be done artistically but it still feels a bit phoned in. The slight textural pattern that is present looks more like it is due to the dye interacting with the fleeces structure rather than artistic additions. Maybe once I play a few games on it my mind will change but I still keep looking at CBBM and wishing they had a U.K. distributor. 

I also managed to get a test tree painted (having re-scraped it and filled the trunk join with Vallejo plastic putty) after noticing how scruffy they looked in the last pictures. So I took my test tree, picked up my new, much coveted can of Vallejo spray paint and sprayed it brown. Trees aren’t brown though, but unfortunately the spray I had was. A couple of minutes pass where I consider buying a grey spray paint. I decide to see what I can do and set too the trunk using my standard basing grey (GW Mechanicus Standard Grey) followed by a dry brush of Ushabti bone and a wash of Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. On this one I also tried some GW Skeleton Horde contrast to bring it all together. As you can see from the picture Archimedes (Archie the rescue parrot) was in a very helpful mood during this process and I did not manage to work at peak efficiency - he’s all about parrot inclusion.

Once greenery (the non psittacine kind) has been added the base will blend into the table.

Archie in his chosen habitat. It turns out kitchen cupboards are just hollowed out trees but come full of jam and other exciting things. Open cupboards in our house with trepidation.

I also managed to paint about half my Peter Pig Chain of Command British platoon for Normandy. They seem a little dark but are painted in the Coat D’Arms British battledress triptych of paints so I know they’re correct and don’t really want to lighten them to allow for scale. Either way they are helping keep me motivated.

That’s about it (there was more but Blogger is almost unusable currently and after three re-writes and an hour of swearing I’m tired). Stay safe and well,

BALM

Plastic ships and imaginary men

Greetings,

As previously mentioned I thought I’d start to use my blog properly and provide my opinions on the games or models that I’m currently obsessing over. Without further ado welcome to my first venture into Age of Sail gaming.

Black Seas by Warlord Games. 3 lovely little brigs

So in November (I think) last year Warlord games released their first foray into Age of Sail gaming called Black Seas. At the time I was interested mainly because of the model ships (they are ships not boats, accordingly that’s a faux pas in traditional AoS gaming circles), they are charming and it’s hard to deny the appeal of tiny sailing ships on the table top. Having looked at Black Seas and read some of the reviews of the rules however I wasn’t as convinced. The rules are very simple (there is a section called advanced rules that I think should have just been part of the standard section) and are intended for fleet actions (not too surprising for a game for Ships of the Line, if there was only one ship it would be more of a dot). Whilst the sight of a line of 1st, 2nd and 3rd rates cruising across the table and unleashing devastating broadsides was appealing, I am supposed to be reducing my collection not just adding another pile of shame to it, so I held off.

About a month ago, having stared so hard at the delightful little 1/700 scale ships I could see them when I closed my eyes, I started to look for rules I might enjoy so I’d have an excuse to purchase some. I have played other AoS games before, my favourite being the Avalon Hill classic Wooden Ships and Iron Men (counter based and all included in the box, well worth the purchase if you see it at a reasonable price) but what I really wanted wasn’t a fleet based game but rather something focused on single ship to ship actions.

Black Seas American Frigate by Warlord Games.

Through some scouring of the backwaters of the internet I discovered a game called Post Captain by ODGW games. This seemed right up my street stream, it was detailed and really seemed to make the gamer feel like they were sailing the little ships across the table. I took a gamble and purchased the rules from Caliver books (no link for you as you tried to make me pay a surcharge for using PayPal, barbarians) and was pleased to see that upon purchasing a hard copy you got access to a digital version from ODGW. Now I haven’t played the rules properly yet (just sailed a couple of ships around a table badly) so can’t give a fair review of the game, I can say that I’m really impressed with the rules from reading through them. They are detailed, well written and laid out, including the best written description on how sailing works I’ve ever read. Rules in hand I asked my mum for a box of the Warlord Frigates and Brigs as a birthday present and started to get excited.

Post Captain by ODGW games. It’s thorough, well written and bizarrely loose leaf and punched in a system only used by our American friends.  Off to Tesco for a binder and poly pockets I went.

Models in hand I scoured the internet for inspiration and found a truly excellent blog written by a true artist. JJ’s Wargames is written by the eponymous JJ and covers a broad range of subjects, what caught my eye was the 1/700 naval category and when I clicked on it I was blown away (seriously stop reading this now and check it out, come back though) his level of work on the Warlord ships was amazing. He had done the standing and running rigging, pennants and flags and in some cases had added some tiny photo etched crew to the decks. I scoured his site and was inspired.

Isn’t she beautiful, I’m in love and have spent many hours just staring at her. Some things need improving but she’ll be my ship whenever I can use her. There’s even a little gig on davits I modelled on the back in case, as her Captain, I have to abandon her. Room for me and my parrot and not much else.

So this is my first attempt at a Brig of war, temporarily entitled the ‘Salty Lass’, and whilst the rigging was a learning process (the next will be much easier) I really enjoyed the time spent. She will be my British privateer for running down the French and plundering merchantmen on the high seas. There is a little bit of rigging left to do: from the mizzenmast to the foremast and down to the bowsprit, and the rigging on the sprit itself still need to be done. I decided trying to do the running rigging might be too much for my nerves currently and reasoned that they were intended as gaming pieces (doesn’t stop JJ but I’m not on his level... yet), I did add some brass etched ratlines (instead of the perfectly serviceable acetate ones included in the kits) by Meridian from Navy Models and Books (excellent service, fast friendly and very reasonable; a true pleasure to deal with) which whilst fiddly to install do look amazing and add a level of structural rigidity to the model. I also shamelessly copied JJ’s idea of using clear perspex pill bases from Fluid 3D Workshop. They have an excellent range of bases for all the ships (Brigs, Frigates, 2nd/3rd rates and 1st rates can all be found here) and were very reasonably priced with a blistering fast delivery time. The bases I chose were 2mm thick so my ships would have a robust base that would be easy enough to pick up and prolong the models tabletop lifespan. They extend about 3-4mm from the outmost points of the yards and give a nice amount of space in front and behind the model. I may try to add some waves or water effects using PVA or a water effect material in the future but haven’t researched this enough yet (I’ll let you know how that goes).

So that’s it, my first (and definitely just the start) of my adventures in little ships. I’ll try and review PC as soon as I have played it. I’ve bought a couple of beautiful Warlord merchantmen to use as targets in my privateering enterprises and have a miniature shipyard sat on my workbench.

Black Seas merchantmen by Warlord Games. Merchantmen were often older ships that had been in service for some time so these little beauties have a classic age of sail look to them. Here’s hoping Warlord tackle earlier periods than the Napoleonic in the future. 

Something I haven’t said is that accordingly (to those that know their stuff) the Warlord plastic ships aren’t super accurate and take some liberties with structure to make the ships more robust and suitable for gaming. This doesn’t really bother me and could easily be remedied by some advanced modelling and if cared that much I could buy accurate replacement masts and sprits/sails from Meridian, it would add about £20 to the cost of each model but is simply above my needs for gaming.

Thanks for taking the time to read all that, hopefully it will inspire you to have a go at AoS gaming. So from me it’s “Blah’de’blah” for now (first person to comment and get where that reference comes from can have a free gift from my mountain of lead, as soon as I’m not on lock down and can get to a post office).

Stay safe

BALM