Pirates

The first box - very dusty

Yes, I know that this is meant to be a blog about Zombie gaming, but generating interest from anyone else has proved less than fruitful and as I have found that solo-gaming isn't for me I have been looking to finish off some old projects, my Pirates being just one of many.
The task of finding where I'd stored my pirates was frustrating as I found one drawer of them quickly but the second (and the majority of my collection) took a bit of detective work - I guess I really should label all my storage!

Another view of the first box

The first box contained about ninety figures and I was pleasantly  surprised to find that amongst all the pirates wielding various melee weapons and firearms I also had a sprinkling of figures that could be (or maybe were) civilians, amongst them some women who would do well as serving wenches, servants and governors daughters!
There were of course several figures that were obvious destined to be gun-crew and a couple that were helmsmen, standing with arms akimbo.

I was delighted to eventually find the second box, hidden in plain view in a box file along with several others (all unlabelled of course)
Contained within the box was the same mix of figures as the first only more-so, there being some 160+ figures.
All the figures are based on 20mm square bases (and I have no plans to change this either) and have a 20mm magnetic base added too. They all sit snugly on sheet steel and don't move about much - probably much to their chagrin.

Close-up of some of the second (main) box

These were all painted at least fifteen or more years ago when I could just about see what I was painting and I remember not being happy with my attempts at the colour of their bases, though I am fairly happy now. 
The figures are: a mix of Redoubt (the first I bought); a large number of Wargame Foundry (though for some reason not the Treasure Island set - a choice  I regret); a lot of Eureka pirates - purchased from Irregular Miniatures iirc and a sprinkling of Ral Partha. Of course I can't really distinguish which is which now.

The inevitable pirate archetypes

What is not noticeable from the photographs is that that these have all had a gloss varnish applied to them (I think), but it has lost a little of its sheen over the years.
I'm also sad to have to say that sadly these figures have never been used in any games, not a single one! The sepoy/mutineer that I spotted within their ranks has undoubtedly been used in an Indian mutiny game or two and he will be re-deployed to his correct storage with his other comrades.
So although looking a little worse for age and in need of a good dusting off, they're still usable.


As I strive for something to blog about, please don't be surprised if I fall back to showing more photographs of these, I may even be able to drum up some enthusiasm among the few (the very few) potential opponents.


Once more, that's it then for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both appreciated and welcomed.

Cops

The full complement.

Having sorted out my paint-able and rescued the almost-but-not-quite-finished cops that had been sat there for over a year I drummed up sufficient enthusiasm to re-glue the one that had come off his base and retouch all the minor scrapes that they'd endured with their fall from grace (and my paint-table).
It's only been a year and a half since I started these and they're the only 28mm figures I've painted in that time too!

Little and large

In the picture above it's not apparent just how big the foremost figure is, the photograph on the left shows the true difference.
he figures come from both Old Glory and Copplestone Castings and other than these two, they're very similar in size, though one set (I can't remember which now, but I suspect it's Copplestone's) is overall slightly larger than the other.
I've grouped the following photographs, by what the remainder re armed with, irrespective of their manufacturer
I've given them dark blue uniforms with gold buttons and badges and haven't a clue how accurate this is, but I like it.

Primarily armed with truncheons (nightsticks, Billy-clubs etc.)

Thompson and shotgun

Pistol armed

Just in case you're wondering "What about doing zombie games in the 1920s?", well it has already been done! You can read the exploits of Agent Hamilton Square (iirc) and others on Irqan's Plastic Soldier blog here, but you may have to back-track some three or so years! 

I also started sorting out my some of my 54mm figures that were in the great paint-table debacle the result of which can be found on my other blog here.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and as usual your comments are both appreciated and welcomed.

What a week!

Storage sorted for at least a year or two

Last week started fine, I got my blog post out in a reasonable amount of time and had a relaxing time surfing the web, trying (probably in vain) trying to catch up on the myriad of blogs and forums that I'm interested in and catching up on some long overdue correspondence with a fellow blogger.
Tuesday saw me once more at my local grocers asking if he had a couple of veggie trays that I could have for use with my 54mm figures for my arena and for my ever-growing car collection. When he came out of 'the back' where he stores these ready for disposal, he had a stack of a dozen (one is missing from the photo btw). I was of course delighted and immediately used one to relieve the ever-growing overpopulation of my 54mm beasts, victims, gladiators and others.
On the hobby-front I managed to cut a piece of foamboard for my church into roughly the size needed for the area of the altar at the back of the church. My enthusiasm for this build has been faltering of late as I have become aware of how large a project the whole thing would be and despite cutting corners by using crap scrap and building most of what I need I have realised I'll still have to spend money somewhere along the line...

The all 'new' all singing paint table

Wednesday I had a tidy-up of my paint table forced upon me.
A quick back-story is probably in order.
At Xmas, my table was moved to allow for the addition of decorated fake flora and it has taken me until now to return it to its rightful place in the sun!
Unfortunately during the move the entire thing collapsed in on itself scattering paints, figures and sundry other items in gay abandon.
It did however give me the opportunity to 'tidy up' the whole thing and it did give me a bit of encouragement to once more look at painting some of my 28mm stuff - something I haven't done for well over a year!
I did take some photographs of the resultant debris but as in all things techy, in my case, if it can go
wrong it will as the photographs are in my camera but I can't retrieve them.

Still on the paint-table after a year or so!

So in this new-found burst of  enthusiasm and a fairly tidy table I sorted through a dozen of my 28mm 1920s police force, straightened them out, where feasible and did a little touching up of the various scrapes and chipped paint and re-glued one to his base.
I've even managed to do a little extra too, simply adding the final colour to their bases, but that's as far as I've got.
In the background of the photo above you can also see the latest figures that I have ready for the arena (they're the 54mms just in case you haven't realised!)

I can't see me doing much hobby-wise this week, I've both a hospital appointment and an imminent Doctor's appointment to fit in with being grumpier and older.

That's it for this week, on what has been a bit of a soul destroying last seve days.

Church bits

Lectern

This last week has seen me once more fiddling about with bits of scrap, the usual coffee stirrers, card and matchsticks, being prominent, the results of which you can see in the photographs.
First up is a lectern (in case you hadn't realised what it is), small fiddly and really annoying, I think I got more glue on my fingers than I did on the piece itself.
I'm sure you can work out what was made from what to get the end result and I'm also pretty sure you could buy a better looking model of the same sort of thing (probably as a dungeoneering accessory) in either resin or metal very cheaply too.

Front view, with Sid for scale

Obligatory blurry photograph

Close-up of 'book'

Really boring side view

Aviary Confessional

Is it a pigeon coop? An outdoor water closet or jail?
Well, this is my attempt at making a confessional and whilst not based on any in particular it does have feature from many different ones I've found on the interweb.
It has two 'compartments' the left-hand one for the penitent and the right hand one for the priest taking the confession. As far as I could work out the one seeking forgiveness kneels on a small 'step' whilst the priest is sat.

Priest's bit

The confessional has an openable door (just because) with a window made from the usual car-mesh stuff, presumable it's to see if the priest is 'home'.
The divide between the two 'cells' also has a small window, as seen in many a film where the killer shoots or stabs the victim through.
The whole thing took a lot of time to make, mainly because I was waiting for the glue to dry before adding another bit.
I also found that I had to make the roof a little higher than I'd anticipated, hence the hollow box style of roof!

Sid showing off the not so spacious interior

Sid showing how small the whole thing is

Overall look (though the colour is a little off)

Side rear and roof showing how 'tatty' it really is

As a disclaimer to any inaccuracies of terms I've used etc. let me say I know little about the subject matter, but I'm sure I'll be forgiven.

That's it for this week, one in which I've had to reflect upon how to take this project forward, as the more I think about it the more overwhelming it is becoming.

Thanks once more, for taking the  time to visit and I hope you've found something of interest and welcome too, to my latest follower Luciano Bastos, who doesn't appear to have a blog.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated

Life on the Ocean Wave

Ocean Wave tablecloth with submarine

I really couldn't resist the rather twee subject title for week's post as it's also the name of my latest addition to my piratical endeavours.
'Ocean Wave' is the colour scheme name of one of many party table cloths available on line at an interweb near you.
The table cloth is a very thin plastic, but still usable for careful gamers and very cheap too (an essential factor in anything I have to buy these days)
A quick search on evil-bay using "Ocean Wave party table cloth"
will suffice to give you a range of sellers.

Brig being stalked by submarine

The cloth is large! It works out at about 9 foot by 4 foot 6 inches (about 2.7m x 1.5) and will obviously easily overlap my own 8' x 4' gaming table although the photographs show the 'cloth' on my 5 foot x 3foot dining table.
The one gripe I have with this is the numerous creases caused by the way it's packaged. A quick google search of "how to remove creases from a plastic table cloth" surprisingly (to me at least) yielded a lot of very useful answers .
The cost of this bit of kit ranges from £2.49 to an average price of about £3.50 including p&p and you can also find some discounts for multiple purchases too !

Can you see what it is yet ?

I've been a lot better health-wise this week - thankfully, but not very productive, mostly on account of being old and the mandatory grumpiness (that's a word right ?) that comes with it, but I have managed to fiddle about with bits of shite scrap to produce a couple of 'extras' for the inside detailing of my church.
Some foamcard, a bbw skewer and a couple of lumps of balsa wood along with an inordinate amount of pva produced what you see in the photograph to the right. I reckon it's fairly obvious which bits were made from which scrap, but the 'columns' were glued together one at a time, left to dry then the next etc. - very time consuming but as it was all done during half-times and between football matches, but it did fill in the boring bits rather well.

If you squint it looks OK

  For some reason my photographer was more inept than usual and the photographs weren't blurred deliberately to hide the workmanship!
The base would have been made from cork but as I was unable to find any cork scrap I settled for balsa, a medium I don't like working with. The base turned out a bit on the large side and was subsequently cut in half so that figures wouldn't have to appear as if they were peering over the top of it!
Just in case you haven't figured out what it is yet, it's meant to be a font ("A 28pt Font" was the alternate title for this post).

Front view of pulpit.

As there was a lot more time to fill in between football matches I also started on a pulpit for my church, the results of which can be seen on the right.
Its made from many layers of foamboard, the remains of the skewer and some thin card.
I had realised, after the main building work on the body of the church had been completed, that I didn't know a thing about the inside of a typical Catholic church. Boiling down the many features that could be present, I've settle on making a Pulpit, generally situated back left in the church (if you're facing the altar); an altar, either free-standing or against the back wall; a lectern, back right of the altar; a confessional ( - wherever I can fit it in !)  and a font, front right. So, once I've got some pews too I think the inside will look pretty cramped!

Rear view of pulpit - as if you hadn't realised

I've been following Henry Durand's build of his take on Gary Chalk' church with interest, on both his blog and on the Facebook page Wargamers Terrain Tips and Talk, you can see his completed version on his blog here : Plastic Pirates, And if you're wondering why I haven't  commented on his blog about his excellent model, it's because I don't do Google+ and for no other nefarious reasons.
Similarly I don't have the requirement for commenting on many other blogs, though I may be a follower! - Sorry guys, but looking on the bright side I won't be telling anyone that their  Northumbrian flag is wrong either!
I've also seen a fountain on Lord Siwoc's blog, "Brains and Guts" that would be ideal for the  the rear area of my church (and I've got my fingers crossed) - take a look and decide for yourselves.


That's it then for this week, not a lot I know, but every little helps, as of course do your comments.
As always I hope you've found something of interest, thanks for taking the time to visit and your comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

Church 4

Not quite finished, but getting there.

Despite feeling a lot better this week (hurrah) I didn't get as much done on this model as I'd have liked, probably due to being bored with this build and of course the wall to wall football.
Nevertheless progress has been made, the main assembly work has been done and necessary little bits and pieces have also been fixed.
Assembing wasn't as ticky as I thought it would be and all the pre-cut bit seemed to fit together with only a single hiccup (the rear wall) delaying the whole process slightly.
I started the assembly with the tower and progressed to the diagonally opposite corner of the main building with the roof being the lst addition. The walls and entrances were then made to fit.
The photographs tell the whole story

Front facade with 'Oriel' cuti into it

Rear view of the inside

Start of the hatch and the front window

The internal behind the facade also had to have a the hole for the oriel cut into it of course before final ssembly. I decided to have a simple cross frame in the hole, mounted on a piece of perspex.
The photo on the left shows this (along with the  missing tower hatch - another one of those niggly things that are simple to do.

Top half of the twoarched entrances.

The 'major'  building work this last week has been the two entrances to the church grounds.
These are simple arches, made more complx by adding some decoration to them.
The photograph shows the 'detail' I added, simple enough and probably the last time anyone will notice it. The arches were based on the front door cut-out and were built up using foamcard, card, coffee stirrers and matchsticks.
These were then glued to the top of the walls and reinforced by the addition of pieces of card for strength.

Arched gateway in place.

The churchyard walls were all capped with thick card, slightly wider that the two thicknesses of foamboard making up the walls.

The other gateway (*yawn)

Net of the tower roof pyramid

The top of the tower also needed finishing off and rather than copy the domed roof of Gary Chalk's original I went for a tiled pyramid.
I drew a net of the pyramidal structure out on card  and added the stepped tiling as I done with the roof.
My first attempt didn't look right, it was too tall and the base didn't look big enough.
Another was made and looked much better.
The ridges on the tower (and the main church roof) have yet to be added.

Tiled tower roof

Another view of the tower.

Clamps !

The internal roof supports were carefully aligned with the internal walls (where the roof would rest upon) and clamped in place. Half the roof was then glued on and when dry the whole roof assembly was removed; the second half of the roof was then glued in place.
The roof has a folded piece of card across the ridge,joining the two halves and the final strip of tiles has also been added, but like the tower, the ridge tiling has yet to be done.

Half roof, showing the supports.

Here's some more views of the progress so far:

The Churchyard

Rear showing intended additional room location

There still a lot to do on this model before I think about painting it; I intend having a small room fixed to the rear of the church. I also haven't decided how to fill the rather large boring churchyard at the rear, maybe a fountain on some form of arbour. - I certainly won't be using it as a graveyard (still makes me laugh when I see model graves wrongly orientated).
I've also had to do some research on what to include internally and I'll be going for an altar (fairly obvious), a confessional, a font, a pulpit (and/or a lectern) and a few pews.
All the roofing has all the ridges to tile too and I'm sure that there's a host of other things I haven't though of yet!

Once more, that's it for this week thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are appreciated and welcomed.

Church 3

Sills and a door added

Despite having a hacking cough all week and the lure of wall to wall football over the weekend, I've managed an hour's building each day, save for Tuesday when I was just feeling too ill.
The sills of all the windows have been cut and glued in place (coffee stirrers of course) and three door have been made and glued in place too.
The door to the tower is in the wall of the tower section with just a portal into the main body of the church.
The main door to the church has been glued into another internal wall that will affix to the back of the main front facade.

The tower walls with sills and door.

Main door

 Some fiddling about, to make sure the main door aligned with the front portico, was necessary but not too difficult
I used a very thin piece of card (cereal packet thickness) to make the door, overlayed with coffee stirrers - cut to size when glued. The process being repeated for the other side of the door.
The horizontal beams were added and cut to size later.
The other two doors were done in a similar way, save for the tower door having one side left blank as this wouldn't be viewed as I'm not making any provision for figure access to the lower level of the tower.

Obligatory boring photo of glued foamboard bits

The walls that would surround the rear of the building are two pieces of 5mm foamboard, one 40mm in height (the outer wall) and the other 30mm in height (the inner wall).
The outer wall will butt onto the base whilst the internal wall will sit atop the base. I'm hoping that this will give a much stronger join than either of the two methods if used separately.
To add to the look of the walls I also made (and remade after piss-poor calculations) two corner posts for the rear corners.

The corner posts, cut into the base

The aborted post (left and the new post with walls.

Boring floor

The internal floor for the main building has been scored into 1cm squares to give some detail - very easy and effective imo.
I've ran a pencil through the cuts just to show them for the photograph. I haven't yet decided how these will be painted (badly, I'm guessing).

Hatch and floor

The tower has had a little bit of detailing added with flooring made from coffee stirrers and a hatch; lintels on the all the windows have also been added - as previously mentioned.

Fllor/roof - the hatch is yet to be added.

The lower part of the tower's floor has had a similar treatment (hatch still to be added) and this will be glued in place to the tower's base as its roof.









This of course meant that when the tower is glued in place with an the roof fixed in place, access for figures won't be possible, but I'd planned this.
With this in mind I've roughly painted the interior a dark brown as this would be visible from the tower's two small windows.

Boring picture of  tower's internal'paint'.

Internal view of the front

 To finish off this week here's a few photographs of the church in it's current state, but note that it has only been roughly fitted together, so many gaps etc. are present.
This final 'fitting' I'll be taking very slowly, gluing only a single wall into place before 'fitting the next.

Overall view

Front showing the facade

The front facade has had a wash of filler over it and been tidied up a bit, though it does need a lot more done to it
I've also finally decide to have an oriel added to the front, which will be tricky to line up with the internal wall, but very doable.

Another view of the front (in case you hadn't guessed)

This next week there's still be plenty to do  (that front step for one); the perimeter walls have to be finished along with the two entrances; the hole for the oriel needs to be cut through two walls and some form of window detail added. Finally the roof has to be added and although the roof supports have already been cut out (three triangles of foamboard and far too boring for a photo) these need to be fitted and as I hate doing lift-off pitched roofs this could take me a whole week.
The final stage of course will be painting the whole thing, but I've also to decide what to do with the rear 'yard' of the building, which currently is yet to be decided.

Thanks for taking the time to look and apologies for the poorer than normal photographs, but  i hope that there's something here of interest.
Comments of course are always welcomed and appreciated.