Scenario Background

I have figured out the scenario for my next Sharp Practice game and how I will incorporate the Frigate into it. Now I just have to get time to finish the Frigate and play the scenario. For the write up, read here: http://platoonforwardstories.blogspot.com/2011/10/captains-courageous-or-light-company.html

Rigging is Complete! The scenario is coming together.

Well a few hours of work and the rigging is complete. The wire has received a coat of black paint and looks the part. The mesh stays do not look as bad as I had feared they would. I wish I could have gotten them tighter but that just was not going to happen.

I started cutting sails from the cloth provided. I was starting with the fore mast sails when I realized that the look I was going for would require me to gather the sail in to represent them furled. The cloth was very heavy and just did not look right nor would it take the right shape. I think I need to get an old handkerchief and use that for the sail material. I checked around the internet to see what other manufacturers are doing for sails. Sail Power and Old Glory do not seem to use them. Thoroughbred Miniatures uses paper. I think I will try the handkerchief.

This view shows the difference in the sizes between the thread and the wire for the rigging. I took one more shot but it was blurry, so I will put it at the bottom.

Now, what on earth am I going to use this for? Well, the scenario is coming together quite nicely and will be the fourth installment of Captain Beesley and the Light Company - my Platoon Forward campaign. Stay tuned. This is getting close to being done.

More Work on the Frigate

Well last night I had the opportunity to work a little bit more on the Frigate. Most of the main rigging in in place. The braces still have to be done as well as deciding how to do the shrouds and backstays. The model came with a mesh that you are supposed to cut to shape and glue in place. I am tempted to just go with this. Another method would be to cut more wire and glue a multitude of those together for them. I do not think my patience can handle that. Anyway, I spent an hour on it and achieved remarkably little for the effort. I should be able to get cracking on it again this weekend. My mother-in-law has offered to babysit and my wife feels the urge to scrapbook. This could be one of those rare golden opportunities to get something done.

Frigate Updates - More Rigging

The rigging of the ship is proving to be a tedious task. Unfortunately the pictures I took are rather terrible. So I will only post one of them here. You can make out the wire that I am using on the table top and on the model. I think this will take several more hours of work to get this part done.

Frigate Update - Rigging

I attempted to use the rigging that came with the kit. It was a close to nine feet of elastic cord. This did not look the way I wanted it to so I pulled it off of the ship and tried again. War Artisan Workshop has instructions for rigging their ships by running elmer's glue on cotton thread. This creates a stiff thread that you cut to size and glue in place. Their ships are 1/300th scale. I tried to fix the elastic cord this way and that was a total failure. What I settled on was using lengths of cut floral wire. This will need to be painted black but it will serve the same purpose as the stiffened cotton thread for the smaller scale ships. It is sturdy and will hold its shape while it is glued in place. I also glued a dolphin striker and a spar across the bow spirit. Both of these still need to be painted. And speaking of paint, I got the interior railings painted as well. It is really starting to shape up. No pictures this post. I will try to take some at lunch and update this.

Frigate Updates pt 5 - Painting Started

Well this has been a productive weekend for the Frigate. I managed to get the ship primed and an initial coat of paint on it. I am using the painting guide found here: http://www.larsonweb.com/Transfer/Miniatures/Sail/NAPSHIPS.htm I went with the Black hull with yellow stripe.

I realized that I never made the gun ports for the five main deck guns that are open. I will make these out of card stock paper and super glue them in place. I managed to make one but have not gotten around to fitting it in place yet. It seems very fiddly and I am not looking forward to it. I am also wondering if that would be entirely necessary. Looking at the Fist Full of Seaman blog I see that his French Frigate of similar size (just in 28mm) does not have those same gun ports with hatches. I may just leave off.

Still looking for a good name. So far The Pickle and Bessie have been the suggestions so far. Neither are grabbing me yet. There used to be a great Campaign for India naval game on the web that had some good French ship names like Ville de Fromage and Droits des Animaux. The website that chronicled the campaign seems to have dropped off the web now and I can't find my link to look it up on the internet archive. Oh well.

I was thinking of something along the lines of HMS Indigestible, or HMS Inconceivable or something along those lines. Some other thoughts I had ran along the lines of: Indecipherable, Indeterminate, Irrelavant, Irritable and Irredeemable. No one can top the names of the ships over at the Fist Full of Seaman Blog (fistfullofseamen.blogspot.com). He even has a back story on the names of most of them. Very clever. Anyway, the ship has a nice little spot on the stern to paint it in. Speaking of, here is a picture of the stern.

The project really feels as if it is coming along now. Once I get some more of the painting done, it will be time to rig this thing. I found an excellent guide to rigging the ship on this site: http://www.warartisan.com This guy has paper models in 1/300 scale and they look fantastic. If there were crews and such available from Baccus or Adler, I would think seriously about going with this scale for small ship actions in Kiss Me Hardy. His rigging suggestion is to use cotton thread and rub the thread down with elmer's glue. This stiffens the thread and actually serves to reinforce the overall result. He said if rigged, his 1/300 models can be dropped from a table top height and not suffer damage. That will be worth looking at.

Aghhh! I keep forgetting to add the dolphin striker. Well, maybe tomorrow.

Thursday's Update

Well I managed to finish work binding the yards to the masts.  Tthat has proved to be a very tedious task.  Once that was done, I primed the whole mess and began to surf the web for painting ideas.  Nothing really jumped out as a great idea.  So the color scheme will be rather basic.  A black hull with a yellow stripe along the gun ports with the gun ports painted black.  The deck... well I still don't know what I will do with that yet.

Any suggestions on a good name for the ship?  Funny or serious suggestions are welcome.

Frigate Updates Pt 3

Not much progress last night. But all of the yards are glued. I decided to add the top gallant masts to the ship as the masts looked too short without them. No royals though and no flying jib. I will add a dolphin striker. Just trying to figure out what the length would look right. I have been lashing the spars to the rigging. It is a tedious chore but I think it will look good when done and add strength.

Here is an over all picture of where I am so far.

This next picture is a close up to show what a 15mm miniature looks like on the deck of the ship. I purchased naval figures from minifigs.com two years ago. As well as some from another vendor that I can't remember. Maybe Battlehonors. Anyway, this is one I have not done anything with. It seems to put figures on the deck, I will have to derive a new basing mechanism as small bases will be needed on the tight confines of the deck. I will be buying some sailors from Thoroughbred Miniatures to put some on the rigging and the like. I have a figure that someone (Terry I think) gave to me that is holding a telescope. Definitely a great officer figure.

Well, at least it is some progress.

Frigate Updates pt 2

I managed to get some time to mess with the ship again. I have mounted the Masts and Top Masts. The fighting tops are in place and I drilled and mounted the booms for the Spanker sail. I still need to wrap those joins in thread as well as the join between the bow spirit and job boom. Given that, here is what it looks like now.

That one is a little dark but you can make out the detail. Here is a brighter one taken on my work tray.

My wife was frowning greatly at the mess I was making in the living room working on fitting the masts and such.

Here is where I would like some advice from you. Do I add the flying jib, Dolphin striker and top gallant masts to this? Or should I leave the masts as they are? I am not sure what I should attempt. For those not familiar with all of the nautical terms, here is a great reference site that gives all of the parts in a couple of pictures: http://www.wanttaja.com/navlinks/SHIPVIEW.HTM

Frigate updates

I managed a couple of free moments this weekend to tinker with the frigate. I spent some time working on the gun ports. several of them were filled in by spilled over resin and had to be cut out. Then the detail work of the ship has some rough spots. In the bow of the ship, some of the details were filled in with bubbles of resin that were lodged in various crevices. Some bubbles were present along its outside lines that had to be smoothed.

Also there are several spots on the hull where it appears some of the detail work has broken off and will have to be replaced. Fortunately none of these was catastrophic and all easily dealt with. Once the carving was done, the ship received a thorough washing.

Then came an attempt to fit the masts to the ship. Well, that proved interesting. The instructions that came with the ship mention that all of the masts are cut to length. Yet for a 3 masted ship, it only came with 2 masts. As I fooled with it, the masts themselves were way too big and would need to be cut down. There is plenty of wood for the operation but the instructions were misleading.

Each mast comes with a resin fore, main and mizzen top. Each of these had a huge amount of resin flash that had to be cut away. The Top Masts, Top Gallant Masts and yards included in the model were bamboo skewers that will need to be cut to length. The only problem point that I am seeing is that all three of the masts have holes pre-cut for them. But there is nothing in which to mount the bow-spirit. I think I can figure out where to mount it without too much trouble though.

I will drill the hole for the bow spirit this week and cut and shape the masts to post a picture of the progress. I plan on getting the masts and tops installed before priming

I will get more time to work on this over the coming weekend. Stay tuned.

On other news I have sold 24 copies of the BTH Western Desert Campaign Supplement. Thank you to all who have purchased. Once you have a chance to read through it, I would appreciate it if you would post your thoughts on the blog here. I am interested in improving it. I have had some e-mail feedback and will be making updates to it based on that feedback. If/when the next version is complete, I will notify all who have purchased and give you the opportunity to get the revisions for free. Thanks again everyone.

Another Oh Shiny Moment

Well the purchase occurred a while back but I just now have gotten around to looking at it to complete.

I found this 28 gun Frigate online over a year ago. No clue who make it now. I have a bag of parts for the masts and rigging in my cabinet.

The ship is a resin model scaled for 15mm miniatures. I bought some guns for it too. (now where did I put those...)

Now, can anyone recommend how to begin painting this? Do I need to prime it? What primer should I use?