Archive for the ‘Pirates’ Category

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »
h1

From the painting desk #71 – A whale of a time

April 8, 2020

Ok, this is in fact more a case of a whale out of time. I finally finished painting up a wonderfully disgusting whale carcass from the Depths of Savage Atoll Kickstarter. Regular readers might remember that I showed this three-part print back in September. It sat for a long time undercoated on my desk, and as often happens in these cases, once I actually got to painting it, it was a decently quick affair. I tried to play it a bit loose and not get too fiddly – basically just washes, drybrushes and some very rough layering. The carcass looks horrible, but in a good way, I think.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

It’s really relaxing to paint large, chunky pieces like this from time to time, it’s so different from the more intricate work required by 28mm or smaller minis. What’s more, painting something that’s supposed to look tatty, dirty and rotten, makes it even easier. It’s a rotting whale carcass, how neat does it need to be?

This will sit on a beach somewhere on Tyburn island, lending the place a quaint, nautical atmosphere. An old whale beached and eaten by scavengers, or a mighty ocean predator crushed by the Kraken? You never know…

I’ve been slowly building up (if not painting) a whole bunch of stuff to wash up on a shore – shipwrecks, half buried and broken barrels, driftwood, that sort of thing. I hope to make a kind of a ship graveyard at some point. This poor whale will fit right in.

In other news, there are no other news. Nothing is happening, I’m spending a lot of time working from home and quite enjoying it to be honest. Wrestlemania 36 was fun, the second season of Kingdom was really fun, season three of Castlevania was fun, the fifth season of Outlander is fun and a rewatch of Godzilla: King of Monsters reminded me that it was still fun, too. Life is not bad, all things considered. Hope you are keeping safe!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | 10 Comments »

h1

From the painting desk #70 – Fountain

March 28, 2020

A quick piece I finished during an evening of lazy painting. This is a wonderful fountain from the Wightwood Abbey set (available as a freebie on Thingiverse) by Infinite Dimensions Games that I printed on my Lotmaxx SC-10. A simply paintjob of a grey primer followed by a liberal application of washes (Agrax Earthshade, Seraphim Sepia, Athonian Camoshade for the inside walls) and then drybrushed layers of sandy colours up to off-white, then some more mucking about with washes. In pieces like this it’s not usually a very systematic process for me, which I think helps me keep it looking more natural.

Photo of painted miniature fountain

Click for a larger version

I wanted the water look brackish and not too fresh, so went with a VGC Cayman green base and slopped on some lighter tones with plenty of Lahmian medium to help with blending. Once happy with it, I added three thick layers of gloss varnish. It’s not a super fancy water effect, but I like how it turned out!

The fountain was printed at a time when I was still experimenting with FDM printing (to be honest, I still am). While the layer lines aren’t nearly as pronounced as in the windmill I showed earlier, they’re still more visible than in my latest prints. However, I think the piece is perfectly adequate for gaming – especially considering it was free! As you can see from the Black Scorpion mini beside it, it’s a sizable piece.

In other news, I’m looking at getting some gaming mats just for setting up my minis and townscapes. If there’s something good to be said about this whole pandemic thing, it’s that more time at home means more energy for projects and more space for the imagination.

Posted in 18th century, 3d printing, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged , | 10 Comments »

h1

From the painting desk #69 – A Scot and a Spaniard

March 1, 2020

Two more painted miniatures join the populace of Tyburn Island, both on the more lawful side of things. First up is a Scottish sailor from Galloping Major. As part of my new year’s plans to push myself a bit more in terms of painting technique, I decided to try my hand at painting tartan. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a strong dislike to freehand painting, which I’m consciously trying to get over. Tartan seemed like a good thing to try.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Some tutorials, some painting, some repainting, some trial and some error later I was surprised to have something I’m quite proud of! It looks like a tartan pattern to me and that’s what I was going for, so I’ll put this in the success column. Overall this was another fun mini to paint. Galloping Major miniatures are clean and pretty bulky, which makes them very painter friendly. I have a full set of 18th century sailors and I’m looking forward to painting up some more of them.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

The second model I painted was a printed one from a file by 3DBreed Miniatures. A freebie from their 1775 Join or Die Kickstarter (which I backed), it’s a rendition of Bernardo de Gálvez, a Spanish military leader from the latter half of the 18th century. The print came out wonderfully on my Photon, and I’m happy with the paintjob as well. I went with quite bright and clean colours – he’ll be a wonderful officer, gentleman or a rich merchant captain. I have a bunch of lovely STL files from the Kickstarter, and I’m looking forward to printing more of them!

As usual, I feel like I’m struggling terribly with my photography. Not sure if I’m lighting up my minis too harshly, showing them in too large close-ups or what, but in the photos they look like they’ve been painted with fingerpaints. Le sigh.

Posted in 18th century, 3d printing, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged , , | 19 Comments »

h1

Fembruary 2020: Emilia

February 22, 2020

Alex over on Leadballoony is currently running the Fembruary challenge. This excellent initiative is running for the third year in a row now, with Alex describing it as follows:

the deal is ‘Paint at least one Female miniature’ – it’s that simple! I’m not bothered what genre, game, manufacturer, painting style or material you go with. It can be a squad, a single mini, a diorama, or whatever takes your fancy… I’m just looking for awesome portrayals of the feminine in miniature form, as part of an ongoing conversation about how women are presented within our hobby.

I’m definitely up for that! As my Fembruary effort I decided to paint the governor’s daughter from Black Scorpion. I’ve had the mini sitting half-finished for years now, so I figured that I’d remedy this too. Two birds, one stone, etc.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

As you’ve no doubt noticed from the post title, the young lady is named Emilia. While you might assume that this is a reference to my amazing wife, I actually painted the miniature to depict the character Emilia Rothschild (as played by Angela Dotchin) from the excellent, dumb, feel-good show Jack of All Trades.

The main characters of Jack of All Trades: Jack (Bruce Campbell) and Emilia (Angela Dotchin)

Here’s Emilia posing with The Daring Dragoon, Jack’s alter ego. I don’t think I’ve shown him before, although he has featured in a Halloween battle report some years back!

Click for a larger version

This brings my painting tally for the year up to 2. Only 98 more things to paint to reach my goal! Then again, I’m super happy to have managed to participate in Fembruary – thanks Alex!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged , | 17 Comments »

h1

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2019

Merry Christmas! You can click on the card to view a larger version.

 

Posted in Editorial, Pirates | 10 Comments »

h1

From the painting desk #68 – Another motley crew

December 23, 2019

Fighting the urge to present them as mötley crëw, here’s another batch of pirates – they never end, do they? This time it’s a mix of custom printed Heroforge pieces and miniatures I bought as physical objects. It’s funny how that has become a meaningful separation with the printer!

Click for a larger version

First up are the brothers Mulligan. They are Heroforge creations, as you can probably see. The thing I love about Heroforge (and I might have to make a separate post on this) is that you can create your own pieces and tell your own stories. In this case, we have the good brothers. While I’ve never given them first names, I imagine them as this Irish duo, a classic combination where one is a huge, burly brawler and the other a fast-talking gunslinger. To tie them together visually I painted both with pale skin and red hair, and I think it works pretty well.

Click for a larger version

Next we have the big swords. The woman on the left is another Heroforge piece, while the man is from Black Scorpion. While placing them side by side like this reveals the softer details of Heroforge pieces – especially compared to super crisp resin – I’m happy with both. Another thing in Heroforge’s favour is the control it gives you in customizing your minis. In this case I wanted a bit more diversity, so I wanted to create a female pirate who wasn’t whipcord-thin and abnormally busty. Instead I made a pirate that to my eye looks strong, with the heavy blade adding to the effect. I also gave her black African features.

Click for a larger version

The final pair of this post are a pirate lord from Reaper miniatures (sculpted by Bob Ridolfi) and a drunk pirate (sculpted by Evgenii Tkachenko) I found for free on Thingiverse. The pirate lord is especially lovely, a really characterful piece with his expensive clothing and flowing locks! I gave him a blue and yellow colour scheme, which made me instantly think of Sweden. Who knows, maybe he is a Swedish pirate lord. Painting Reaper miniatures always reminds me that I should paint more Reaper miniatures. The drunk pirate, despite the sculpt’s simplicity, manages to have character as well. There’s something about the pose that I really like, he looks very much like a henchman.

I’m usually not a huge fan of how my minis look in these portrait-style pictures, so I figured I might start setting them up in some more scenic shots in addition to the close-ups. So here you go, here’s the pirate lord addressing his motley crew. I think they look like a wonderfully interesting group. To me, this is what I want to achieve: tiny little narratives with colourful characters. I don’t really game with my minis, so these little stories are what makes stuff interesting for me.

Click for a larger version

As I’m writing this, my new printer – this time an FDM one for printing larger pieces – is on its way. Man oh man, this hobby never ceases to surprise me.

Posted in 18th century, 3d printing, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments »

h1

Halloween 2019

November 23, 2019

Nowadays, I put on a Halloween game every year, and 2019 was no exception (you can check out previous games by clicking on the Halloween tag). There’s obviously always some sort of horror theme, and this year I went loosely with sharks. The concept of the game was simple: a pirate ship had been wrecked and it was up to the survivors, floating on debris, to race to the shore. Unfortunately for them there were plenty of sharks about. Oh and the Kraken.

The game itself was surprisingly good, if I may say so! The mechanics functioned really well, it was a close game in the finish, and everyone seemed to have a good time. There was even talk of maybe developing it further and turning it into an actual game. Who knows – I’ve long wanted to publish a game. Pirates were knocked off their rafts and eaten by sharks and the Kraken took the ship’s boy. As usual, shown below is a collection of photos taken by the players, I hope the feel of the game comes across!

And of course it wouldn’t be Halloween without themed foods, so…

Halloween is really fun evening for us every night. This year it however came at a cost: painting all those sharks means that I’ve been going “Baby shark do-doo-do-doddo-do” a lot. Oh well. Do-doo-do-doddo-do.

Posted in 18th century, Game reports, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged | 23 Comments »

h1

From the painting desk #67 – A piratical assortment

October 12, 2019

While I’ve been printing a lot more than painting recently, I’ve still managed to complete some pieces! I’m definitely seeing a risk here, though – printing is fun in itself, but it’s also adding stuff to the painting pile something fierce.

I recently read a book on Barbary pirates. Or rather, make that two books (both are very interesting, and well worth your time by the way). While I’ve thus far been mostly interested in pirates of the Caribbean variety, I must say that a little foray into the Mediterranean and North Africa does tempt me a bit! Luckily I had a couple of Barbary style pirates from Foundry kicking about, so these went on the table.

Foundry 28mm barbary pirates

Click for a larger version

These two miniatures offered me the chance to use quite a colourful palette, so I threw in some turquoise and rich purple. I wanted these two to stand out a bit from my other pirates, many of which I’ve painted in more muted tones. For the skin tones I went for a bit darker look than usual. As with most of the Foundry pirates, these were fun and easy to paint and turned out pretty nice!

The next three pieces are printed ones from the Depths of Savage Atoll Kickstarter that I’ve mentioned quite a few times by now. They were very much test prints, so they have some minor issues such as some lines on the pirate’s blade and some soft detail on the parrot, but I didn’t want to throw them away. Waste not, want not and all that.

Depths of Savage Atoll miniatures

Click for a larger version

From left to right (if it wasn’t obvious) there’s a parrot, a hulking pirate and a strongbox. Parrots are obviously iconic in a pirate setting, and I decided to paint this one as something instantly recognizable, a scarlet macaw. It was a great chance to break out some really bright and lovely colours, and I’m really happy with the end result.

The big pirate didn’t really impress me initially, but once I started painting the mini I quickly warmed up to it. In my project to overcome my freehand painting aversion, I put some tattoos on him to add some interest to those large skin areas. I could’ve gone for more intricate designs, but I’m quite happy with how these simple pieces look. I wanted them to look faded and a bit rough, which also makes them more forgiving.

The third piece is a strongbox. At least that’s what I painted it as, all steel and brass. It wouldn’t be difficult to paint it as an actual octopus on a wooden crate, but I wanted a kind of Pirates of Caribbean mystery chest vibe – a piece you could build a scenario around.

I’m looking to get some more painting done this weekend, stay tuned for when I post about them…in December, knowing myself.

Posted in 18th century, 3d printing, Pirates | Tagged , , | 15 Comments »

h1

Photonstering

September 15, 2019

Apparently I am now what is called a Photonster, as I’m completely hooked on the Anycubic Photon I mentioned in my previous post. I’m really not exaggerating when I say the printer has been running almost day and night after I got it, and I’m in love with the results. There’s been a bit of trial and error, but so far only a couple of prints have failed and even those were due to user malfunction and could actually be salvaged.

Obviously my main interest has been in 28mm miniature stuff (although I’ve also printed a pair of earrings for Emmi), and the printer is wonderful for that. I’m still playing with the settings a bit, but it appears that it’s fairly easy to get a lovely result with minimal if any print lines showing. The detail level is more than adequate, easily ahead of Reaper Bones minis for example. It’s not on par with resin or the best metal casts, but it’s not far behind either.

I was initially worried about everything being very messy and time consuming, but those fears proved to be unfounded. The plant-based resin I’m using is very low odour, and now that I have my cleanup routine for the prints in place, even that bit is easy. After printing the prints are dunked into isopropyl alcohol and scrubbed lightly with a toothbrush to remove excess resin, then rinsed with water and detergent and then cured with UV light (in my case by putting them out in the sun, I’m still waiting for my UV lamp to arrive). It’s a bit of work, but no more than say, removing paint from old minis.

What have I been printing? Sharks! Pirates! Battlemechs! Monkeys! Parrots! A dead whale (yes)! I definitely see a very, very real chance of going overboard here. Luckily enough I’m at a good place in my hobby right now, more in the “time to get rid of stuff I don’t need” zone than the “I don’t know what I’ll use these for but I’ll get them anyway because” one. Shown below are a couple of the pieces I’ve done – a shark and some fins that I already painted up, the aforementioned whale carcass, another shark model from PrintYourMonsters and a pirate from Depths of Savage Atoll. I undercoated the pirate to bring out the detail.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

The whale carcass with a Black Scorpion pirate for size

Click for a larger version

With the whale I botched the print a bit – another user malfunction – so had to fix a gap between its head and its body. Nothing new to anyone used to bigger models, though! As you can see from the pictures, the whale is massive. After hollowing the model instead of printing it solid, it cost me something in the range of 5€ in resin, which isn’t an awful lot. The pirate shown also shows how the printer really makes it viable to print 28mm minis, I have metal stuff that has less defined detail.

So, if it’s not clear by now, I love this machine and I can’t recall the last time I was so excited about a hobby thing. While this may of course be a passing thing, I’m sure going to ride this wave while it lasts!

 

Posted in 3d printing, Pirates | Tagged , | 16 Comments »

h1

From the painting desk #66 – Gun battery

August 4, 2019

A 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!

Posted in 18th century, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged , , | 8 Comments »

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »
%d bloggers like this: