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Sunday, April 17, 2011

5 Completed Napoleonic Ships

 I was able to spend a good chunk of Sunday morning finishing up 5 Napoleonic Sailing ships - in the front are 2 French Third rates (74 guns) and behind them 3 US ships, 2 Third Rates and the 44 gun USS Constitution.  I'll be adding specific names to the ships later this week.

 Here's a close up of the French ships.  All of the models are 1/1200 Langton models and, as I've posted in the past, they are the best table top miniatures I've come across.  I find the rigging (which I've done at a very basic level) to be very challenging but I think these came out OK.  I stall have a bit of detailing to do.
 Here is the US contingent - I still have some shading to do on the decks, but I'm happy with the results.  You might notice the bases are different shades of blue - I find this helps with recognition on the table top, especially for new players who aren't sailing nuts like me and notice different sail patterns etc.

 A close up of one the Frenchies.





Here's a shot of the ships in line.  Once my son's robotics team season is complete (the world championship is only a few weeks away (4/27 - 4/30), I'll get the game room back and will get some games going using the Trafalgar rules.

Next up will be a French Second Rate and two French frigates.

8 comments:

  1. They look fabulous ... How do you like the rule system your using ?

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  2. Very nicely done and a cool subject.
    Love the rigging and water.
    Cheers
    Paul

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  3. Yes, the do look great. So, what rule system *are* you using? We use FLoB.

    The other thing I'm interested in is finding an effective way to do the rigging so that the wire or thread doesn't lose tension. If you look at my efforts, which used fine "metallic" thread, you see that not all the rigging is taut. I'm still working on solutions to that one.

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  4. Thanks for the comments

    We use the Trafalgar rules and are happy enough with them. I haven't really tried other rule systems for sailing combat so I'm open to suggestion.

    As for rigging, I can't always keep it in tension either. I have some elastic thread that works better but I only have grey left and that just doesn't look "right". I've tried thin brass rod, which works on 1/600 and larger scale ships but doesn't work that well with 1/1200

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  5. Lovely ships all rounds mate, great job!

    For rigging, we use the following for bowstrngs, which may be of use:

    1. Tie a long length of thin string from a balcony, and tie a weight on the end

    2. sequentially apply 2-3 coats of PVA to the string, allowing each to dry and it will become very stiff

    3. Cut sections to length and glue in place. They will never go slack

    Hope that helps!

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  6. I have chosen you to receive the Stylish Blogger Award. The details can be found here:
    http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2011/04/award.html

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