Following my success painting up my swaggering and swashing band of miniature pirates, I now present my first two 28mm ship models - the Lochinvar, and the Alert!
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| The Lochinvar |
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| The Alert |
These models are modified kits from Flagship Games and Scale Creep Miniatures. Like my pirate figures, they have languished unloved in a box for twenty years.
The Lochinvar is a sloop, rigged with a square sail. It is armed with four light cannon. The name Lochinvar has deep personal meaning to me; It's the name of my family's first sailboat, which was named after our beloved West Highland White terrier Lochy.
The Alert is a gun ship, with fore and aft rigged sail. It's armed with light cannon and swivel guns. The name comes from a ship in one of my favourite stories - The Call of Cthulhu.
As you can see in this picture below from the Scale Creep website, the rigging included in these model kits is very basic. It's simply a mast, a spar, and two screw eye hooks to mount them.
I added much more detail by using a technique I found while surfing the internet. By using screw eyes, elastic thread and lobster clips (like you find on a necklace), I was able to create removable rigging.
This setup allows me to simulate battle damage during games and, perhaps even more importantly, lets me store the ships without risk of snapping off a mast! I can even swap out different sails, to show rigging changes during a game.
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| The Lochinvar at half-sail |
For the sails themselves I replaced the standard paper ones with thin sheets of foam. This gives the sail more strength, and more definition. Each sail is attached with jump rings, available from craft stores.
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| Lobster clips, screw eyes and jump rings |
I'm very pleased with how these two small boats turned out. I am hoping to play a few little battles soon... Pictures to follow!
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| Avast! |
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