Ship Ahoy

Ship, newly undercoated with grey spray and a little paint

Yes, it is a bit of a twee title, but it gets the point across that I've managed to get some work done on my 'pirate' ships this last week, despite some real-life family crises.
It's not much really, all three ships have been undercoated  and had some paint added to them in varying amounts and styles.
Having to paint with the  models on my lap and my failing appreciation of colours (not just the poor light or my lack of painting skills) has met with some  unusual (to say the least) colour combos - must try not to paint in the evenings!
I've tried many colours, washes, highlights etc. but am still experimenting!

Deck of the above, showing hatch.

The back end (technical term "blunt end")

Hatch on the front sloping (?) bit.

Crows nest - a figure now sits in comfortably (20mm square base)

Another view of the deck (bored yet?)

Add caption

To relieve the boredom of the above ship. here's the ship converted to a sloop -style, single masted vessel.
It's the most 'finished of all three and I'm fairly happy with  the overall paint effect - so far, there's still a lot more  paint to slap on.
I'd forgotten just how much painting (and time) that these models take to complete.

View showing the "horns" of the original toy around the gunports

Third vessel, clearly showing the pointy end.

The third vessel (the one with the extra hull piece added) I decided to paint in much darker colour *to hide the joins). Unfortunately thought it turned out looking  a bit too dark,  so it was brightened  here and there without losing it's darker look. The masts, spars etc. have has a least three different colour schemes but they're still not finalised.

You can't see the join if you turn the lights low and squint

Another boring crow's nest

The crows nests were converted in two different ways. The first, abandoned idea, saw me cut a notch out of one and the let it rest on a small platform.already on the model. The second method had me cut s hole though the two remaining ones and the the upper mast was pushed through and located in a hole in the mast below. All three has a couple of rails removed from the rear to allow for the filing flat of the crow's nest floor.

Obligatory really boring picture

The current state of my gaming table.

As mentioned above this last week hasn't all been plain sailing (I can hear the groans), my gaming table, now turned being used as a large storage shelf has had to be moved around whilst I've had #2 son put some shelves up. It turns out that although this is not one of the top priorities in his busy schedule (work, eating etc. seem to take preference) I have had two more shelves constructed and with just two more planned they could be finished soon enough.
If I wasn't so useless with DIY things, I'd have done them myself, but illnesses, uselessness (I recently levelled up) etc. all work me - and I should be up ladders etc nor be near to power tools!.

The two new shelves (about seven foot up)

"Jablite", eight bits, 4 x1.5 ft - enough to cover 4ft x 12ft for under £15

I'm also planning the terrain I'll need for my pirate games, do new terrain boards are in order, it seems pirates rarely fought on modern urban roads (even Somalis it seems)- sad I know. To this end I've been to B&Q and bought some "Jablite" polystyrene block; they're a bit tougher than the more well-known polystyrene ceiling tiles but much less tough than the blue or orange foam more commonly used for terrain these days.  They're 4 foot by 1.5 foot, yes they're an awkward size, but I'm working around the problem.

Plans for one of the boards.

So that's it then for another week, it may seem that I've done quite a lot, but it doesn't feel that way!

I hope you've found something of interest and as always, your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.
.