And here is the last of the old stuff I can post - a 44 gun East Indiaman, a 1:1200 model from GHQ. Throughout this era every European nation worth its salt could boast an East India Company, a private organization chartered to conduct trade with the nations of, well, the East Indies. The most powerful of these companies, such as the British and French EICs, operated enormous merchant fleets, and to protect their fabulously expensive cargoes they maintained their own private military apparatus as well. They also often enjoyed close support from national militaries, as their operations were so important to the economies of their respective nations.
I painted this model to look less like a national navy ship than many of these vessels actually did - in particular British EIC warships were commonly painted just like Royal Navy vessels. I wanted something that could fill a number of roles, as needed.
As I always do with these models now, I replaced the bowsprit with one of my own making (of steel and brass rod) because it adds a great deal to the strength of the model. I also raised the hull up slightly on a thin sheet of plastic, and mounted it on a resin sea base from Langton Miniatures, putting a plastic base with a magnetic layer under that for ease of transport and storage.
Great looking ship and nice basing.
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me what you used for the ratlines? I have a very large collection of GHQ naval, and my ratlines by thread are less spectacular than yours!
Hi Soldatetain, glad you like the model. For the ratlines I use the photo-etched brass pieces available from Langton Miniatures. They are a lot faster and simpler than doing it with thread, and I like the look of them too - especially the fact that they have deadeyes on them. They also do add to the strength of the masts a little. Generally it's probably best to get one size down from the ship class the Langton product is recommended for. So if you have a GHQ 74 gunner, get the Langton 64 gun ship ratlines. Hope that helps!
DeleteJames
I followed your link from TMP and wow! I am blown away by your painting!! Amazing stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks Abwehrschlacht, I appreciate it. I visit Storm of Steel a lot :)
ReplyDeleteA quick question: What kind of plastic do you use to elevate the ship from the base? Platicard, or some such?
ReplyDeleteAlso, amazing painting work done to your ships! Very inspirational.
Thanks, glad you like the ships. I do indeed use plasticard sheets - just whatever I can get at the local art supply store. Hope that helps!
Delete- James
James - Thank you for your great blog filled with these beautiful ships! You are partially responsible (along with Clash of Arms' "Close Action") for my sending my hard-earned money to Langton Miniatures. My box just arrived in the mail yesterday and I am planning on starting on a French 40 first. I have painted a lot of figures in the past so I am not too worried about priming, painting and assembly, but I am unsure about the rigging.
ReplyDeleteI love your rigging technique and I have a question for you: Do you drill your masts and hulls to run the rigging (as it suggests in Langton's How-To book), or do you just knot and superglue? I have studied your pictures and I don't detect drill-holes. It looks like you wrap the masts and glue the ends on the hull, yes? Any hints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
- Jeff
Hi Jeff, thanks for the kind words. I'm certainly very happy to think that I've helped give some inspiration to a fellow modeler.
DeleteI almost never drill holes in the masts or hulls, though I've run in to situations where I had no choice. I knot the string on one end and fix the knot with glue (or glue it directly to the hull after scraping away a small amount of paint) and then place a dab of glue at the other end and wrap the string around the yard, or what have you. That takes a few seconds of holding to become secure, and then I often touch it with a little more super glue before trimming, to make it stronger.
The disadvantage of wrapping rather than using drilled holes is that it can add thickness to the ends of the yards, but I use a very thin monofilament nylon thread, so it's not as much of a problem. It's also probably stronger to tie off to pre-drilled holes, but they're such delicate models no matter what. Also I'm a little too lazy to drill holes....
Hope that helps!
James
James -
DeleteThat was a HUGE help; thank you! My thread is on order and should be arriving soon.
My last hurdle is figuring out a hull paint scheme for my French 36. I am trying to avoid the yellow to make it stand apart from my forthcoming British fleet and I thought that it would be fun to do a red-hulled ship. I love the Hortense 40 with its red and thin white line. If I could just find something like that in a 36...
Since I am just starting out in this period/area, my library isn't up to snuff yet. Darn it!
- Jeff
Glad I could help Jeff. Happy to offer any advice I can as you get to work on Langton's excellent models!
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the color scheme question - the yellow and black "Nelson checker" is a great look for a ship, but it can get a little monotonous after a while, and it can be fun to mix things up. A black hull with a red strake along the gun ports would work for English and French frigates, and probably for other countries too.
One of the advantages of the fact that the major navies of the period often used similar paint schemes is that a given model can work on multiple sides - that's the only reason I leave off the flags and pennants. Eventually when I have a large enough collection I'll add those on.
I enjoyed the write up of your Close Action game on your blog - that's a rule set I've recently heard of and thought about checking out. But I've been getting in to Flying Colors recently, which I enjoy a lot.
James
James - I appreciate your offer of advice. I'm sure that I will take you up on it! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI have just finished the super-gluing of all of the various parts and I'm ready for priming. The spritsail was particularly fiddly to apply and kept falling off; I think that I need a fresh bottle of glue. I'll definitely need it for the rigging!
I'm also happy to report that I found a reference to at French 36 that has a red strake: Didon (1785). There is a picture of its capture and it shows a nice brick red color in one of the images. Of course, there are other images that show a gold strake...
Thanks for the compliments on my Close Action AAR. That game is a ton of fun! It seems that you and I are coming at this hobby from opposite tacks: we started with CA and we just ordered Flying Colors! How do you like Flying Colors?
- Jeff
Jeff, I like Flying Colors very much! When I first started gaming this subject matter I actively avoided hex-mat games, thinking that I would find the hexes to limiting. Instead I find I like the precision and convenience of them. I don't end up taking forever to move models around with turning circles, counting off notches on little arcs and so forth. It speeds things up while still leaving plenty of room for tactical maneuvering.
DeleteI've got a copy of Flying Colors: Serpents of the Seas, because I especially like small-ship engagements. I enjoy it very much, especially the extra level the card system adds to it, but I also would not mind having a little more detail for the management of individual ships. It's nice to do away with that for larger fleet engagements, but for duels and so forth I wouldn't mind the extra detail.
How do you find Close Action's detail level?
Regards,
James
James - I was worried about the same thing when I chose Close Action! I thought that the hexes would take me away from the feeling of commanding a ship, but I was wrong. There's no fussing and fudging with movement. You move. You're done. There’s no arguing. Easy! It is a much faster experience and the tactics are still important. I also like the feel of the hexes... it reminds me of old-school wargames and that makes me happy!
DeleteI am very excited to play Flying Colors... and I know that my friend Michael picked up Serpents of the Seas so I am doubly excited to look at those rules! I like smaller engagements so that piques my interest. But, that said, I haven't played any large engagements so my opinions might change. Ha ha!
To answer your question: I find the detail level in Close Action fascinating! I love the nuances and all of the choices that you make as captain. I’ll wager that you’d like it too. Some people found the rules to be hard to digest, but it wasn’t so with me. Just like Flying Colors, you move, you fire, allocate damage, clean up and then go again. That isn’t hard. As a matter of fact, I actually picked up a non-official supplement called “Bloody Red Flag” by Albert Parker, the highlight of which gives rules for twelve (12!!!) directions for ship facing on a standard hex grid along with signaling and other rules. The 12-direction rules are pure genius! It’s the best seven bucks I’ve spent in a long time.
I could go on and on, but I think one of the things that I like best about Close Action is that everything happens all at once. I umpired two people who had never played before for our first game. They weren’t bored at all. They were plotting their moves, moving their ships and firing at the same time. I believe that’s why the game scales so well. There’s no down time for anyone!
I’m sorry for the long-winded response. I’m enjoying our discussion (and I’m learning a lot from you), but if you don’t want it in your blog comments we could always move to email. My French 36 is coming along nicely. I just wish I had more time to paint. Are you working on any ships right now?
- Jeff
Jeff, no need to apologize for telling me about such a great subject! I've never heard of a 12-point facing system for hex spaces. That sounds like something I definitely need to look into. Maybe it can be adapted to other system as well, like Flying Colors. A tantalizing idea......
DeleteOne difference between FC and CA, going from your description, is that FC does not involve plotting movement ahead of time, so players are always able to react to their opponents last move. I don't know which approach makes for a better game, but I look forward to trying plotted movement out too. Does everything happen "simultaneously" in CA?
I haven't had much modeling time recently, so I'm progressing very slowly through a few small vessels - a xebec, a schooner and a brig. I'll get some pictures up when I can finish them off.
I look forward to seeing the Didon shape up!
Regards,
James
James - The 12-point facing rules contained in "Bloody Red Flag" are great to read... even if you don't want to use them. They are very well thought out and interesting to go over. I'm sure that you could bend them to work with Flying Colors.
DeleteTo answer your question: yes! Everything happens at the same time in Close Action. You are responding to your opponent's last move at the same time as they are responding to yours. It makes for a compelling, edgy game of cat-and-mouse. You know that you have a perfect move to rake your opponent's stern, but they know it too. So how will they react to move out of the way? Or will they purposefully not move out of the way? It reminds me of some of the passages from the Aubrey novels where Jack is trying to get into the head of his opponent. It is a whole lot of fun and I highly recommend it!
I haven't had much time to paint recently either. My wife and I have a new son (our first) who is five months old and we are still learning the ropes. If that weren't enough, we also moved! A lot of our stuff is still in boxes, so I feel a little guilty when I take time to paint. So I only do a bit here and a bit there. To get my naval fix I am reading Woodman's "The Sea Warriors." It chronicles the true-life tales of ships and their captains during the Napoleonic Wars. You'd like it; it has lots of small frigate actions.
I'm looking forward to seeing your ships roll out of dry dock!
- Jeff