From the painting desk #66 – Gun battery
August 4, 2019A little over a year back I got in on the Slug Industries Spanish fort Kickstarter and I’m happy to report that I’ve finally finished one of the pieces from it – a separate gun battery. I think the gun battery is a very iconic part of Caribbean pirate imagery, guarding those ports and looking menacing.
The paint job was a mixture of stippling, washing and drybrushing, and I probably should have kept notes as the fort itself will inevitably look different. I wanted a fairly light look, leaning more to brown and yellow than dark grey, and I’m quite happy with it.
You obviously can’t have a gun battery without guns, so I painted three cannon from Thomarillion to go with it. These were a right bastard to paint, mainly because I didn’t spray prime them, leading to those super annoying tiny tiny spots of bright unpainted metal hiding in nooks and crannies that you only spot when you think the mini is finished. As they are quite ornate pieces, I decided to paint them as bronze cannon and I think the effect is nice, I’m really happy with the tone!
Having started painting cannon, I came across a piece that I built during the very early days of my pirate project, four years back. As some faithful readers might remember, this is of course the Cagafuego which finally got painted. A massive, old WHFB Empire cannon on a scratch-built naval carriage, the Cagafuego makes for a nice centrepiece to the gun battery when heavier firepower (or plain old intimidation) is needed.
I was in a bit of a rush and photography is a little off as a result. I set up both a vanilla version with the regular cannon and a pirate-crewed Cagafuego version for some atmospheric shots.
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
Finishing this piece was a nice thing in many ways: there’s always a sense of accomplishment when you get a big item out of your painting queue, it was surprisingly quickly done (I spent one evening on it), it looks pretty Azazely awesome on the table and if I ever want to run a game, it’s a very playable piece for a scenario. Job well done, me!
Dawn of the Lead 
Very nicely done indeed! Does look like it’ll make a nice centrepiece or objective in a game! 🙂
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Thanks John! Glad you like it!
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Nice work. I really like that second photo- the commander scanning the horizon as the sun rises- perfect!
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Is there any stairs at the back? Attached or free standing?
Looks sharp, I like the couple of coloured stones. Getting a big intimidating terrain piece done in swift time is the best.
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There’s a laser-cut ladder supplied with the kit, free standing. I’m using an old plastic ladder that I had lying around, though!
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Cracking job mate – very nicely painted, and super useful too! This would make the perfect plot point in a game 🙂
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Thanks Alex! Maybe I should get in more than one game per year…
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Excellent work Mikko!
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