Ainsty | Dawn of the Lead

Posts Tagged ‘Ainsty’

Piratical 2017 recap

January 6, 2018

This year has been a weird one hobby-wise. On one hand, I must have painted less than 20 miniatures all year, which is very few even by my modest output standards. On the other hand, I’ve been fairly prolific with terrain – building a whole new pirate board for example. To showcase what I’ve done this year, I set up most of my pirate stuff on my new board for a major photo shoot. To be honest, this is what I’m mostly in the hobby for: I game very little, so the pirate project is more of a dollhouse thing than something for frequent gaming use. I think this goes back to old Citadel Journals, where dioramas with tens of minis were used to display the variety of miniatures available. Another, more recent example and a great inspiration has been the pirate gallery on War in 15mm.

The table has many items that I haven’t featured in dedicated posts. If there’s something that catches your eye, just let me know in the comments and I’ll do a separate post. There will be one on the table itself, too!

My pirates have become by far my most enduring and consistent project of the past years. I’ve stuck almost exclusively to them since 2015, and there’s been no drop in enthusiasm. On the contrary, I’m more and more interested in the 18th century (and there has been a bit of an overspill into 17th and 19th century too) and I’ve for example amassed quite the collection of books on the subject. Might be a post or two in those, too.

You can click on any photo for a larger version, opening in a new tab.

The governor and his family survey the town

A wealthy merchant with his bodyguard in tow – a highwayman lurks behind the turn

One of the governor’s footmen keeps an eye on the pirates making landfall

A scoundrel with a heart or an assassin?

A boatload of pirates lands on the jetty

Trouble might be brewing

It’s Jean Blanc – the Unkillable Frenchman!

The obeah woman and her maroons keep watch

A pirate is about to get hanged – is this what drew the Frenchman?

“Nasty business, hanging.”

The captain makes sure the king’s law is carried out

A few pirates got off with an easier sentence

On Tyburn Island, trade carries on

…even in the shadow of the gallows

Speaking of trade, the governor’s men have discovered a stash in a beach cave

A footman keeps watch as the cave is investigated

At least the weather’s nice

…unless you’re working

…let alone using the outhouse

Barrett’s dead drunk in the pigsty again

“Need a hand wi’ ‘im Peg?”

Old Rogers’ cart is a landmark by now

Whatever happens on the island, the Queen knows about it

So, that’s where I’m at now! Feedback is most welcome. To all new readers and regulars, happy 2018 and thanks for stopping by!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged 4Ground, Ainsty, Antediluvian, Black Cat Bases, Black Scorpion, Blue Moon, Casting Room Miniatures, Foundry, Front Rank, Galloping Major, Hasslefree, North Star, Redoubt, Renedra, TTCombat, Warbases | 35 Comments »

Salute 2017 part 1

April 26, 2017

It’s that time of the year again! Salute 2017 is now behind me, and I’m sitting at an AirBnb in Dublin – the city I’ll be spending the next three months in. As I noticed I haven’t posted in a long while (and the blog is at its slowest in terms of views since January 2010), I figured it’s about time for a post-Salute post. This post will focus on what I bought, I’ll make another one with photos from the show itself. If you can’t wait for the show photos, I suggest you hop on over to this blog for example.

Salute was fun as usual! I spent time with old friends and made new ones. I was especially hanging around the Random Platypus games, which were great fun. If you’re not on the forum yet, you should be.

My Salute haul was quite reasonable, for a given value of reasonable.

Cute Random Platypus dice that I bought to support the forum and because they’re cute random platypus dice.

Plastic miniatures from the Banner Saga boardgame that I was kindly given by Ian of Fenris Games, who I talked into Banner Saga. They’re surprisingly nice miniatures, and should be a nice change from my usual 18th century fare, speaking of which…

The Duelists and the Duelists booster pack from Blue Moon Manufacturing. I’ve been eyeing these for ages so I grabbed them when I had the chance. Lovely assortment of 18th century civilians here, and really characterful sculpts.

Balthazar’s Marauders by Foundry was a purchase inspired by three things: my reading up on slavery, visiting the brilliant London, Sugar & Slavery exhibition at the London Docklands museum and my long-standing need to add maroons to my pirate project. Differing from the picture, the pack actually had eight individual miniatures instead of six. They are lovely, lovely sculpts and will give me a great chance to work on different skin tones.

Three miniatures from this Gun crew by Foundry, that were given to me in the Random Platypus pre-Salute meet-up, as well as a bag of cannon!

This Random Platypus from Hasslefree Miniatures, that I received as a gift. He’s brilliant, isn’t he?

Three unknown miniatures given to me by Phil of Slug Industries. They’ll find service in my pirate project obviously. Does anyone know where they’re from?

A full Political Parody Party from Dave of Dear Tony Blair. Love these foul little creatures!

I had lost hope in finding these North Star pirates, but was given them as a gift by Andy from Ainsty Castings. I was super, super happy to have my hands on these.

I got the latest two Hounds of the Dagsterville from Jon who was working the Ainsty stand. They’ll be running around the streets of Port George soonish.

And last but not least, these adorable Bunnies from Bad Squiddo Games. I bought them as a gift, purely on their cuteness factor.

Looking back at that list, I was given a lot of miniatures. Either everyone sees me as being really poor, or I’ve made a lot of wonderful friends in this hobby. I’d like to think the latter is the case.

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged Ainsty, Bad Squiddo, Blue Moon, Dear Tony Blair, Foundry, Hasslefree, North Star, Salute, Slug Industries | 8 Comments »

Pirate housing

April 11, 2016

I’ve managed to finish another building for my pirate town. This is another one from Warbases – a combination of their single storey modular building and a piece from the lean-to set. I’ve covered them in coffee stirrers, and hidden rough spots with more coffee stirrers. The window sills and lintels are made from matchsticks, and the roofing tiles are laser-cut strips also sold by Warbases. The flowery grass tufts are from The Army Painter and the barrels are from Ainsty.

Click for a larger version

I wanted to paint a different colour from my usual fare, so went for a yellow finish. Yellow tends to be a right pain to paint, so I was happy that I could make it intentionally grubby. The end result is fairly pleasing and adds another touch of colour to the table. The building is intended to be fairly generic, representing a typical house in the pirate town.

This piece is my last hobby production for a while, because next Tuesday I’m off for a five week trip to the UK and Ireland with my girlfriend! Plenty of hobby related things in store on the trip, from Salute in London (let me know if you’re there, come and say hi!) to visiting Warhammer World in Nottingham to some pirates vs. ninjas gaming hosted by Paul who runs the wonderful sho3box blog. Add to that all the museums, geeky stores and battlefields, and I’m in for a treat! I will be updating the blog as I go – and as I have time – but understandably no new miniatures or scenics will be finished during April and most of May.

Comments and everything else welcome, dear readers!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Pirate town, The Army Painter, Warbases | 9 Comments »

From the painting desk #39 – A pirate in a hurry

February 28, 2016

It’s almost March and I’ve only just painted my first miniature of the year. Ok, in my defense I’ve mainly worked on terrain, but still…

Anyway, here’s a running pirate! He’s another Foundry one, and like all the others, a nice and characterful sculpt. For his shirt I went for the colourful-but-grimy look, which came out decently enough.

Click for a larger version

I had to fix the hand holding the sword a bit – either I’m completely misreading the miniature, or there’s some very lazy sculpting there. The hand didn’t really seem to be holding anything, the grip of the hilt was just sort of on top of the hand. I added a lump of ProCreate putty to make it look more natural.

With my impeccable sense of humour, I also present the obvious reason for the pirate’s running state. It also conveniently allows me to show the outhouse by Ainsty that I recently painted up. The outhouse was a fun little diversion, as it was very quick to paint and is a nice piece of scatter terrain. The good thing about painting this kind of model is that it’s supposed to look ramshackle, so you can just flail away with the paint and it still looks suitable. So here it is in all its glory, ready for some cagafuego.

Click for a larger version

So, first model of the year, but the project is moving along nicely. Comments…ah, you know it already.

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Foundry, From the painting desk, Pirate town | 6 Comments »

Shabby chic

February 22, 2016

Another finished Warbases building, one of their range of modular, simple pieces. Now, when I say simple, I really do mean simple. The basic modular building is a featureless box with a slanted roof. Of course, this makes it perfect to modify, which is why I bought quite a few. I originally intended to make a Spanish Caribbean style town which is why I bought the original few. My vision changed, but I still wanted to use the buildings of course.

After the stable, I wanted to build something a bit more fancy, yet in the same run-down style. That’s where the in-game story for the building started. I’ve found that much the same as with miniatures, providing a mental backstory to a building helps me make it more interesting and detailed. As the whole idea of my town is that it’s a British trading outpost that has slowly slid under pirate control, I figured that there would be some fancier buildings for the officials and other upper crust types. This building was maybe once owned by the local magistrate or a rich trader. After being taken over, it has slipped into decay a bit, but is still impressive.

Click for a larger version

I wanted the building to look both shabby and impressive at the same time, so while I made it plastered (to set it apart from most of the other buildings that will have wooden exteriors) I made sure to make the plaster cracked and the nice blue paint faded and dirty. I added a balcony from Warbases and put in some extra decoration using coffee stirrers, and made supporting and decorative columns from barbecue skewers. The balcony and the window frames and shutters were all painted white, but heavily weathered in keeping with the run-down look. I also added a small patio from squares of card, but made sure that stones were missing and some misaligned. The roofing was done using the laser-cut sheets available from Warbases.

While I wanted the building to look worn, it needed to show that whoever was inhabiting the place still appreciated it. The next few steps also came from necessity.

First up were the windows. While I’ve now bought windows with smaller panes, the original ones were great, big, abyssal black holes in the walls and didn’t look right. I solved this by painting in some curtains. It makes the house look more lived-in, plus provided an extra touch of colour.

Click for a larger version

Next were the balcony detailings. I had done the coffee stirrer bits quite quickly, resulting in pretty rough gaps at the balcony corners. This was easily remedied by putting in some nice flowers flowing down over the gaps. They also made the balcony look much more lavish. In order not to make it look too fine, I used small plastic barrels by Renedra (procured through Bad Squiddo Games) as flower pots.

Click for a larger version

As a final touch I added some details around the place. The bales of cotton and other goods (by Ainsty and Renedra) in front of the building are intended to be a non-subtle show of wealth, while various patches of grass and the vines creeping up the wall just add a bit of colour.

Click for a larger version

I’ve already got a suitable tenant for the building, a female pirate by Reaper Miniatures that I also picked up from Bad Squiddo. I’ve already dubbed her “pirate queen” in my head, so this should be a nice, shabby palace for her!

Photo © Reaper Miniatures

This piece took plenty of work, so I’m happy to say I’m satisfied with the result. Comments welcome as always!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Bad Squiddo, Pirate town, Reaper, Renedra, Warbases | 12 Comments »

Finished stable

February 6, 2016

I’ve finished painting the Warbases stable shown in a previous post. I added a small crate and a barrel from Reaper’s Bones 2 set, kindly donated by my friend Joonas, plus some sacks from Ainsty. In the painting I went for a coloured, but severely weather-beaten look. The idea was that this used to be a nice little green stable with blue door frames back when this was still a respectable little town somewhere in the Caribbean. Now, with the addition of pirates and the lack of both horses and upkeep, it’s showing its age and is mostly used as a storage space.

Click for a larger version

For a long time during the painting I wasn’t really happy with it, but to my great surprise it really came together in the end, especially with the basing. In its finished state, I quite like it! It has also in my mind confirmed that the quite simple and plain Warbases stuff can be made into very nice terrain pieces without too much work.

Comments appreciated! Also, because it would be crazy not to squeeze in a stable-related pun, here’s a great song from the 90s:

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Pirate town, Warbases | 16 Comments »

A cart

February 1, 2016

As part of the scatter terrain for my pirate town, I just finished a wrecked cart by Ainsty:

Click for a larger version

The piece has plenty of things I love. It’s nicely detailed, crisply cast, takes paint something wonderful and I got it to look fairly nice with near minimal effort. I painted the base to match the pirate board and glued in some tufts of grass to make it look like it has been stuck in the ground for a while.

This was a quick little piece but makes for a good addition to my table. The inside of the cart is big enough to place goods or a miniature there, so that’s an added bonus. At £5, this is a bargain, and I got it for even less during Ainsty’s latest sale. Go on, get one! You won’t regret it.

Comments welcome as always!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Pirate town | 6 Comments »

2016 kick-off!

January 7, 2016

Without further ado, six days into the new year and I’ve finished my first painted things. Granted, they’re simple ones but you have to start somewhere!

Palm trees

I bought two varieties of plastic palm tree from vendor “everestmodel” on eBay. They were cheap and definitely look nice enough. I based them on 40 and 50 mm bases, gave the trunks a few drybrush layers and painted the bases to match my pirate board. While they were very quick jobs, I’m really happy with them and they are very effective in creating that Caribbean pirate vibe. Sorry for the harsh lighting in the photos – because of the height of the taller variety, it wasn’t easy squeezing them into frame. I’m still pondering if I should give the leaves some paint as well, but at the moment they look nice enough. That one brown peg at the top of the tallest tree needs to be tidied up, though! As you can see from the photo, they really are quite tall and the thicker palm trees really have some heft to them.

Click for a larger version

Market stall and goods

This is one of the two market stalls that I scratchbuilt earlier, painted using really cheap euro store acrylics. I applied a dark brown undercoat, then used a dabbing sponge to apply a patchy coat of lighter brown. After that it was three layers of drybrushed highlights in grey and white, and I think I managed to pull off the sun- and salt-bleached look quite well! The market goods are from Ainsty Castings, and I painted in an East India Company logo on the bags to suggest they might not be the most honestly acquired goods (and also because I’d just watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and the EIC was fresh in my mind). The cloth worked quite nicely too, so all in all I’m very happy with this piece. I didn’t attach the goods to the stall as this allows me to use them elsewhere if needed. Funnily enough I didn’t do any measuring when building the piece, and the trade goods fit the stall only by happy accident. I’m not complaining.

Click for a larger version

With these done and some other pieces half finished but well on their way, 2016 is looking very good for my pirate town so far. Comments welcome as always!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Pirate town | 11 Comments »

Unleash the Cagafuego!

July 4, 2015

In my previous post I lamented too small cannon, so I wanted something bigger. Remembering I had just the thing in my bits box, I got to work. Said “thing” is a WHFB cannon from the 6th edition boxed set, now 15 years old. It’s not in the best shape, having had bits glued, removed, re-glued and so on, as well as fairly haphazard filing and smoothing of mould lines and such.

Courtesy of me 15 years ago

The cannon itself is a big, ornamental beast as fits the gothic fantasy look of WHFB. This led me to thinking that obviously such an ornamental piece on a pirate ship must be looted from the Spanish. Seriously, is there another explanation? I think not. This also gave me the chance of using one of my favourite words ever, as I named it…

Cagafuego!

Impressive name, isn’t it? Of course, it has a historical background, as it was the nickname of a Spanish ship captured by Sir Francis Drake. As Wikipedia will tell you:

Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (Spanish: “Our Lady of the (Immaculate) Conception”) was a 120-ton Spanish galleon that sailed the Peru – Panama trading route during the 16th century. This ship has earned a place in maritime history not only by virtue of being Sir Francis Drake’s most famous prize, but also because of her colourful nickname, Cagafuego (“fireshitter”).

Seriously, is there a better name for a massive Spanish cannon than “Fireshitter”? I think not. It appeals both to my love of history and 10 year old’s sense of humour.

Cagafuego is a huge piece, and I’m thinking that its role on the ship is that it’s a piece mainly for intimidation. Due to the build of the ship and for practical reasons, it’s only going to carry some seven cannon altogether – much fewer than a ship of this size historically would have. Of these seven, six will be normal sized and Cagafuego much larger, so I’m thinking that it’s always a bit of a spectacle when it’s utilised. You know:

– Captain, they’re not striking their colours.

– Very well then. ROLL OUT CAGAFUEGO!

The only problem was that I didn’t have a carriage for the gun as the original mount was a field one, not suitable for ships. Having grown more accustomed to working with plasticard and coffee stirrers, I figured I’d try my hand at building the carriage from scratch, resulting in this:

Click for a larger version

It turned out alright, I think! Sure, anyone into things like history and realism will probably find plenty of things wrong with it, and there are some irregularities here and there, but to my fantasy pirate eye it looks as it should. The core structure is plasticard with an old Warmaster base underneath. The wooden bits are coffee stirrers, the wheels are cut from 10mm diameter dowel rod and the axles are decorative studs meant for clothing. The smaller iron rings are plastic pieces from the original cannon set and the bigger ones are from WHFB orc weapons. As with a lot of my woodwork, this one also relies a lot on the “it’ll look nicer once painted” factor, but I have high hopes!

To cap off the post, here’s a comparison shot of Cagafuego and my existing Ainsty cannon as well as a Foundry pirate. Neat, right?

Click for a larger version

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Foundry, Pirate ship | 3 Comments »

Run out the baby guns!

June 30, 2015

Eventually, any project will suffer minor setbacks. I received my order of 6 cannon from Ainsty. Lovely, crisp castings, great detail…and far too small for my heroic-scaled ship. See here:

Click for a larger version

While it’s quite realistic in size, that’s very much the problem. I’m not at all faulting Ainsty, as the problem stems more from my massive ship – even with the base the cannon barely reaches over the side at the gunport. I’m going to need bigger guns, so I put in an order with Thomarillion for some more beefier guns:

Now, what to do with the six guns I already own? They will probably find employment in small coastal settlements, guard towers and such. I’m also thinking I might use some of them as very large swivel guns like shown below, what do you think? I feel it might work with a bit of converting.

Click for a larger version

That’s all for now! I’ll put up a post once the Thomarillion cannon arrive. Should someone arrive here looking for measurements for the Ainsty cannon, they’re

Length of cannon 30mm
Length of cannon + carriage 34-35mm
Height 15mm (highest point with level barrel)
Width of carriage + wheels 21mm

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged Ainsty, Pirate ship, Thomarillion | 9 Comments »

Dawn of the Lead

Posts Tagged ‘Ainsty’

Piratical 2017 recap

Salute 2017 part 1

Pirate housing

From the painting desk #39 – A pirate in a hurry

Shabby chic

Finished stable

A cart

2016 kick-off!

Unleash the Cagafuego!

Run out the baby guns!

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