Palms, wip

Welcome to the Jungle.

Unfortunately I've had very little time to make much progress on my pirate project butI have managed to make some inroads into getting some insights into how my palm trees may well be  based up.
I've experimented with several ways of doing it. the major choice being do the base, add the trees and  paint or paint up the base then add trees etc, before adding them. The latter does mean repainting parts of the base though where the trees etc. are added. I'll be using both methods I'm sure as my whim takes me.

The wip, so far.

The individual bases still need a lot of work done to them because of a 'shortcut' that I thought I'd take, missing out the 'middle' colour before adding the final highlight. The effect just wasn't what I wanted and consequently I've had to go back over what I've done so far.
The photographs don't do justice to the size of these pieces (I really should have added a figure for scale - next time though I will)  as they'll more than cover an area of 2 x2 ft .

New base on the left, church one ion the right

The photograph on the right shows one of the new pieces alongside the one I'm most happy with (the one from the church).
The Church one used three colours for the base, the two trees are not in their original plastic state and the base has had some plant pot fibre lining added too.

Reverse view

One of the larger pieces - approx 8 x 6 inches

Here's some individual shots of the pieces so far, two of each showing a second view, a rotation of 180 degrees.

Boring 'reverse' view of above.

The other large piece, but a bit sparse for my taste.

Another view of the above. Bored yet ?

Definitely a work in progress - can you tell?

Yup, another one (*yawn)

"Stay awake there at the back"

I guarantee it's boring for me too

Are we nearly there yet ?

This base is nearly finished

But it's still really, really boring

So that's it then, half a dozen or so bases of nearly finished trees and stuff, in various states of completion. Over the next week I'll still be messing about with these in an attempt to get them to the state where I want them. As I have about five times as much again to do, I'll be waiting for the space in my games room to once more become available before mass production begins. in earnest. I'll also be trying to finish off the last pirate ship.

Apologies for such a long boring post but as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Brig

View from the pointy end

This is my attempt at creating a larger model, from the toy pirate ship, to represent a Brig.
|It's not as good as I hoped it would have turned out, but is still perfectly acceptable as a wargaming piece as far as I'm concerned.
It won't win any prizes for painting either, I think I must have painted over the hull half a dozen times as I couldn't quite get the effect I wanted.
In addition to the extra inserted piece of hull section, I also added a few hatches and a door, all made by my fiend Captain Jack.
Being top-heavy because of the masts would make the model usable, but once I added the six home-cast cannon (lead/tin mix) isn't not that bad and wights a lot more!
In the photographs I  think there are a dozen figures on board and whilst to me it looks busy, it doesn't look that crowded.

Broadside view.

Blunt end

Close-up view showing Captain Jack's hatches

View from the other side

Door - another Captain Jack addition

Another view of the pointy end (bored yet?)

Obligatory boring view from above

So, the model finished as far as  I'm concerned and with two down, there's only one to go, which should be finished in a fortnight or so; in the meantime I'm working on making some 'jungle' terrain, which I'll probably be posting about next week.

That's it then for this week, thanks for taking the time to look and I hope you found something of interest; as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

The Church

Front(ish) view.

I've used the last week to finish off the church,  especially the internal detailing, using the bits and pieces I've been making over the last few weeks.
The 'yard' had an undercoat of a dark brown, highlighted by a lighter brown and finally another highlight of a sandy colour.
The photograph to the right shows the front facade with a figure (of unknown origin) that is the closest I can find to some sort of of clerical chap.
He's a bit diminutive compared to the more usual "28mm" figures, but fir for purpose imo.
The tower is about 13.5inches tall (35cm) and the footprint is about 9"x20" (22.5cm x 50cm). The height to the ridge of the church proper is about 6" (15cm) above the courtyard which in turn is two layers of foamboard above table level.
The top two levels of the tower are not glued in place (for ease of storage).

Side view

View of the other side (before I remembered to add the tower)

Rear view (again, sans tower!)

From my original ideas, I've added a lean-to to the rear of the main building and dome flora to brighten up the churchyard. In addition I' made a couple of benches (one is just visible below the lean-to's window.

Close up of lean-to - foundry figure to the right

Some flora (boring uh?)

View of tower., with added menace

The top of the tower

Bird's-eye view

lots of space for figures despite all the 'bits'.

Moving on to the inside, the photograph on the right shows the overall interior of the main building.
The only scenic piece that I'd previously made that wasn't included was a confessional.
Despite a confessional being an integral  part of any Catholic church I omitted simply because of space, but I did manage to get in a few pews (all cardboard); a font (foamboard and bbq skewers); a lectern (matchsticks and card); an altar ( foamboard and tissue); and a pulpit, foaboard, cardboard and bbq skewers). The large cross was made of thin plastic.

Front door and font

Altar end

Altar and lectern close-up

Pulpit

Pic showing a figure can be placed between the pews (just)

View of the Priest's quarters

The pic on the right shows the lean-to''s interior, which I decided would be the spars living quarters for the priest. Scratch build bits include a table, with book and candle  (no bell), a be and a cross (of sorts) on the wall. The floor is covered with 'stuff' (used, I believe. as lining for flower pots); it's a tighter space than I would have wanted but it's sufficient for my purposes.

Lurking with intent (though actually in bushes)

Finally here's the 'flora' from the courtyard, made not only for 'colour' and variety  but also as a test piece for my jungle terrain (which even now is under production).

Base coloured to match courtyard.

Yes, there's probably a lot more that I could o this model, some more detail, some extra highlighting etc., but as far as I'm concerned , it's finished!

That's it then for another week (it's back to the ships for me next week), I hope you've found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Sloop

Good enough imo

I've had another busy week (busy for me at least) and my wips have spread out from my restricted space to cover about a square metre of our living room floor (with few complaints so far).
I've manged to get one of the three ships as finished as it's going to be, that is to say it's finished enough for a wargame at home though by no means up to show standard. There comes a time with the detailing on all builds I do, that I say, enough is enough.
Here's a few pics of the model, with some crew too

Busy deck

The right-hand side (technical ship term)

 When I started to fill the decks with figures, I did find out that I hadn't considered the height of the figures fitting under the front and rear spars, so the helmsman and anyone on the main deck has to be wary !

Front view (pointy end for the non-techies)

Rear view (blunt end)

View from above (who'd have thought ?)

Another one...(boring huh?)

Close-up vie (only slightly less boring)

Cannons - as finished as they're ever going to be!

In addition to finishing off one ship, I've been doing bits and pieces towards finishing off the church, mostly painting but also some of the internal detail that I wanted.
The extra cannons that I'll need if I ever have all six of my ships on my table (an unlikely prospect) have been completed but as I have 14 gun-ports on the current three models I'm working on and only a dozen extras completed I'm going to have to have a proper audit of how many cannon I have and how many more I'll need (especially as I'm also contemplating building a fort).

Not as bright in reality as it appears in the pic.

Obligatory boring pic.

The photo on the left shows the various bits I've scratch-built for the church. There's a half a dozen pews, an altar (with two pieces for a cross to sit on it), a bed and a table and chair, along with two benches intended for outside. They're all mostly painted now and just need to be glued into place once I've decided on the internal layout.
The confessional I made, a while ago, will probably not be used due to the restricted space - such is life. 

Another pic, just in case you're not bored enough

So that's the first of my three £10 ships finished and  over the next week I should finish the church off, barring any new real life crisis preventing me doing so,

That's it then for another week and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.