Make Sail

I have spent my third weekend on my galleon project and am ready to call it complete. There is always more to do but I have to quell my obsessiveness and christen it complete. This was a fun project that used many of the skills I have been developing as a terrain builder over the past couple of years.

The painting process was pretty simple. Brown Modpodge as a base coat for strength. Medium brown basecoat, light brown highlight and an inkwash for the deck surface.

I was going to leave the shipped without rigging. I built it to use in my D&D game and rigging would interfere with game play. In the end I went for it and am pretty happy with the result. I am telling myself if I built anymore ships, they would take half as long and look twice as good because I learned so much going through the build process.

 

 

 

The rigging was completed with the aid of the following blog: https://volsminiatures.blogspot.com/2014/05/rory-mccreadies-step-by-step-guide-to_18.html?fbclid=IwAR2XXEa7glGqMBNlf03zCF7AaV_1-xljhlUtcBXx8VuuK3Mjc5pJMrTXNIk

 

This gentleman's blog helped me rig my 1/1200 74 gunner back in the day. I used this model to help with the mast design and also the rigging.

 

1/1200 Micronaut model

 

 

I took calipers to the 1/1200 model to get the ratio of the masts and yardarms relative to the hull. The masts are 1/2 inch dowelling and the yardarms are 1/4" dowelling. The fighting tops are Styrofoam with nails and string making up the rail. The ship rails are nails topped with balsa strips. I used finishing nails stuck into the Styrofoam to attach the rigging to. I decorated the masts with bands of electrical tape. I harden the string used for railing by soaking it in pva/water. I did this to a bunch of string which I planned to cut into strips to glue to the ratlines as crosshatching but ended up skipping that step.

 

Last step before rigging





 

 

 

The sails were made from paper towel soaked in pva glue/ water solution. I went for furled sails cuz it was easier. If I was going to do full sails, I would have made form out of Styrofoam and draped the wet paper towel over it to dry and harden in the appropriate shape. Maybe for my next ship.....

 

 



 





Boudica's Revolt

I had the pleasure of putting on an Epic Command and Colors game this Saturday. One of the players wanted to use his Early Imperial Romans so I found a scenario for them. The Battle of Watling Street saw the end of Boudica's revolt in Roman occupied Briton in 60 AD. The two sides faced off across the fordable River Anker. We had 6 players, 3 per side with each player commanding a section of the battlefield. I ran the Celtic center and that is the angle of most of my pictures.

The Romans sent their cavalry across the river on the flanks. They enjoyed initial success and took out 5 units for none lost. The Britons quickly reorganized and repulsed the attack and then counterattacked across the river at the flanks, with some success on the right flank. The Romans decided to risk the river crossing before their flanks crumbled. They got a bloody nose trying to cross but eventually drove the Celts back resulting in a 12-10 Roman victory.

It was a pleasant afternoon of gaming in which I met some new players and reminisced with some old friends. Hope to do it again soon.

The scenario map from commandandcolors.net

 Deployment - Rome on the left

Britons stare at the Romans across the river

Roman cavalry attack across the River Anker

Gary's Legions