USS Wasp - Langton 1:300

This is the USS Wasp, an American 20 gun (including the stern chasers) sloop of war, and a lovely 1/300 scale model from Langton. She still needs a fair amount of work - most importantly the weathering of the sails, which adds a lot of dramatic effect, but also the crew needs to be added, the anchors painted, anchor chains added, and flag and pennant, and some more blocks - but I wanted to post the model as a work in progress.

The water that the ships sits on is the resin offering from Langton, and then I've mounted the whole thing on an mdf base, which has a clear acrylic display cover that fits over it.

28mm Gallic Veterans from Relic

The latest figures I have completed are Relic's Gallic Veterans. I've added the command figures to the mix, and you can see a variety of views of them below. Shield transfers are from Battle Flag, and they are on 20mm Lithko bases.

Langton 1/1200 Brig of the Napoleonic era

The latest ship model I've completed is a 1/1200 scale two masted brig of the Napoleonic era, from Langton. Another fun project, and I enjoy packing as much detail as I can into these tiny models. Langton's kit has a ship's boat molded in to the deck of the brig, as some of their other models in this line do, but they tend to be rather out of scale. So I added a boat from GHQ over it (these boats were sometimes stacked one on top of the other in reality) and another hanging off the stern, under little davits that I made from pieces of the carrier the brass sails came on. I also added GHQ anchors.

 Here for comparison are a couple shots of the brig next to a sloop, another Langton piece.

 The sea bases are both from Langton, and you can see here that the brig is mounted on a smaller base, though it is not itself much smaller than the sloop. Incidentally these are not the sizes of bases recommended by the company. I prefer, and strongly recommend, to mount them on bases that are large enough to extend further than the bowsprit, for the safety of the models.

25 mm Gallic Veterans Command from Relic

I've just finished Relic's Gallic Veteran Command, my first foray in to the world of Gauls who, it turns out, are a lot of fun to work on.  Lots of colors and interesting patterns, especially plaids. These figures have a lot of character sculpted in to them. Jacques for one, over there on the right, seems to have taken up a rather grisly hobby. You have to wonder what his friends and family think of that. 

The shield transfer is a decal from Battle Flgas (http://www.wargametransfers.com/gallic--celtic-shields.html) and can be purchased on Relic's website along with the figures. I had not used these before, having experience only with LBM transfers. It didn't take me too long to get used to these though, and I am very pleased with them. They have the excellent benefit of remaining moveable for a little bit after they have been applied, so they can repositioned if you have something misaligned. I like to cut them in half and apply the two parts as separate pieces, then paint up the gap of the the shield spine.

25 mm Relic Iberian Chieftain

 This happy looking fellow is an Iberian chieftain in 25mm, from Relic. He carries a typical Spanish sword and the caetrati, a small buckler with a bronze boss, suited for close combat but offering little protection from ranged weapons. The Iberian tribes were renowned for their abilities to fight fast moving guerrilla-style engagements, which frequently gave the Romans so much grief, and a very small lightweight shield would be a good choice for such tactics. The disc armor over his chest is typical of a well-to-do Spanish warrior of his day, but boasts lavish silver ornamentation showing his status as a chieftain.

Another crisply sculpted creation from Relic, and a joy to paint!

Country Life for the City Dweller

 My girlfriend is a great sheep enthusiast, but apartments in Brooklyn New York often don't have enough room to house humans and a flock comfortably. Nevertheless, I wanted her to have some livestock of her own, so for her birthday I made some pasturage and some sheep to graze in it. They were a hit.

Now, it turns out that there are a number of options for people looking for sheep in 25mm scale, and they vary in quality. The only ones I could get in time were from Old Glory, and I confess they look a little goofy. Their faces remind me of sock monkeys. I've promised to upgrade at a later date, probably to Foundry ones, though she is already a little attached to these guys.

The base is MDF, the groundwork is Sculpt-a-mold, and the water is simply hand painted and coated in gloss finish to give it a watery shine. Various sources for the plant life.

Last of the Relic Carthaginians

 I've done up a few more Carthaginian veterans from Relic, to finish out the set of eight, and thought I would put up some pictures of the group.

 

As long as you angle up the arms of folks in the rear rank, everyone fits together nicely.

Once again I've done the shields freehand, starting with some Roman designs on two of them and adding ornamentation over them. The Carthaginians took over captured Roman equipment, so I wanted to make them look explicitly like they had had previous owners. 

Next up for me is a large bunch of Gauls, so stay tuned!

1:1200 Langton Ship - English 5th Rate, Anglo-Dutch Wars

Here is another Langton 1:1200 naval miniature, this time an English 5th rate from the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century. Actually, this is not a subject I had ever intended to take on - it was a mistaken click I made on an online order form while aiming for a 5th rate ship of the Napoleonic period, a little over a century later. A centimeter on a computer screen, and a hundred years in history. But I figured that since I had the piece I might as well do it up as best I could.

I have realized since completing the model that not only have I made a few errors in the rigging, which is not quite accurate for the period, I have positioned the triangular lateen sail on the mizzen mast in the wrong orientation. I have the short side at the bottom of the sail, when actually it should be the rear-most side. I guess I'm just not as familiar with the ships of this period!

Besides those mistakes, I'm pretty happy with the piece, and with Langton's crisp details. Now, back to the 19th century future.

1:1200 Langton Sloop

Inspired by the beautiful work over at Mike's Leadpile, I have tried my hand for the first time at a 1:1200 naval piece, a Langton Miniatures English sloop of the Napoleonic Wars period. I have been a big fan of Langton models for a long time now, but previously had only attempted their 1:300 kits. This was a rather different experience, but still a lot of fun.

The kits are nicely detailed, considering their size, and the concessions to the scale are few. The masts and bowsprit are maybe a little clunkier than they should be, but that's a limitation of casting white metal so small. The sails and ratlines are photo-etched brass, and give a nice effect.

Building and painting were very quick and straightforward. By far the biggest challenge on a ship this small is in rigging the model. I've used 'invisible thread', a synthetic mono-filament that I think is made for quilters who don't want certain stitches to be visible. It is pretty easy to work with, very strong for its size, and holds its tension well. After gluing in place (avoiding having to tie knots, which put too much tension on the metal masts) I painted it with a slightly thinned-down concrete color. I then went back and touched up any glossy glue points with some matte finish so they wouldn't catch the light. The black lines, representing tarred 'standing' rigging, are a thicker thread. Synthetic fibers work best for rigging, as they don't have the fuzz that natural materials have.

Anchors are spare pieces from a GHQ kit in the same scale. No anchors are included in the Langton kit. Flag and pennant are Langton.






Here is a comparison shot to show the actual size of the model......


...and one with reference to another common measurement: