20 Gun Sloop - GHQ 1:1200

GHQ's 20 gun sloop is a beautiful model in 1:1200 of a type of small warship that would have been common to every European navy in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Three-masted ship-sloops performed a great variety of roles, from scouting for fleets, to commerce raiding, to convoy duty and more. Command of such a vessel might represent the first assignment for a newly minted captain, and many an ambitious young officer accomplished remarkable exploits in such craft.

I have rigged this model with nylon paintbrush bristles, and built my own bowsprit from brass rods for greater strength and detail. Sea base is a resin piece from Langton Miniatures, and the ratlines are from the same source.

Here are a couple shots of the sloop trading shots with an 18 gun brig, another GHQ model.

6mm AWI Continental Line - Adler Miniatures

The beauty of 6mm miniatures is that you can pack a whole lot of them in to a small space, and create units that are actually close in number to their historical counterparts. Below are Adler Miniatures Continental Soldiers, in this case the majority of the 1st Maryland Regiment for the Southern Campaign. They don't have as much detail as the larger scales of course, but there is plenty to keep the painter busy and to please the eye at close range.

For realism I've included a fair amount of variation in "uniforms," a word that has to be used pretty loosely for the Continental Army. Some soldiers have mismatched outfits, some are completely out of uniform.

I also have not yet done much work at all on the bases, just giving them a simple coat of green as a temporary measure. I need a few thousand more of these, so the full base treatment will have to wait a while.

In addition to the march pose Adler offers two others for infantry: firing figures and advancing figures.

Le Coureur, 8 Gun Lugger - Langton 1:1200

Here is a fun example of a type of rig seen often in the waters around France - the lugger. Langton's 8 gun lugger model is based on the historical ship Le Coureur, which was first laid down in 1776. This was a very sleek vessel, built for speed rather than slugging it out.

In 1778, before official declarations of hostility between France and Britain, le Coureur sailed with 3 other vessels that encountered a far larger British force. After refusing to surrender and trying to make a run for it, she was chased and brought to a fight by the cutter HMS Alert. After an hour and a half of battle 5 men were killed and 7 wounded (out of a crew of 50) aboard le Coureur, and she struck her colors. She remained in British service (as HMS Coureur) until 1780, at which time she was captured by Americans.

I have replaced the masts with brass rods for greater strength and better scale, and used nylon brush bristles for rigging. Base is a metal piece by Langton, mounted on plastic and then on magnetic sheet.

18 Gun Brig - GHQ 1:1200

Wait, where was I? I guess it's been a while since I added anything to the site. But I'm happy to have photos to share of the latest project I've completed.

This is GHQ's 1:1200 model of an 18 gun brig, a very common type of vessel used in a variety of roles by all the European navies of the time. It was in just such a ship that the famous British naval hero Thomas Cochrane encountered and defeated the Spanish Xebec frigate El Gamo in 1801.

I've created my own bowsprit out of brass rods (for better strength and accuracy) and used nylon paintbrush bristles for rigging. Sea base and ratlines are from Langton miniatures, and the whole is mounted on a plastic sheet with a magnetic layer on the bottom for ease of storage/ transport.