HMS Sophie, WIP Part 1

[Dusts off blog]

This will be the first in my series of WIP posts to detail the progress on my HMS Sophie project.
I am working on a (roughly) 28mm tabletop Royal Navy Sloop. The model is scratchbuilt, mostly from scrap material about the apartment. Unfortunately, i have lost the camera with the earliest stages of construction on it.
The hull is built at the waterline for gaming convenience, and is cut and shaped from one piece of wood. I used a 2 x 6 from the local Home Depot (left over from my blank drill musket). I rough cut the shape using hand saws, then honed it in using a rasp file. The deck and gunwales were smoothed and shaped further with planes and a chisel.
The forcastle and quarterdeck have been built up using Basswood panels, and I have built gunports cast in green stuff from an original in wood and plasticard.

Moving on to something a bit more visual, i have begun the phase of constructing my masts and spars. The images below show the progression as i've been working on the fore topmast. I started with two dowels of progressively smaller diameter and filed the joining parts to be a bit square. I then added some supports for the fighting tops (i lose sailor points for not knowing their names), cut from basswood. On top of this is placed the tops.



Also important for the rigging, I have been constructing my own blocks, cut from dowel. They are notched around, drilled, and soaked in C-A glue for strength.











So far i have made 32 of these for the shrouds.

More on rigging and some pictures of the hull in the next post.

Ship's Crew

This is a shot of my Foundry Swashbucklers crew i've put together. I am using the boarding pike models sans pike, so that they can be handling the ship's lines instead.

The figures are pinned to GW bases topped in coffee stirs for the ship deck look. I unwound some jute twine and retwisted it to be rope-sized at scale, and made some proper coils onto the bases.

The ship is more of a fun story than the men, though. My friend rescued it from the dumpster outside a maritime museum, and it was in sorry shape. I spent a good amount of time bringing it back to life with replanking the deck, redoing the rigging, and, of course, giving it a new paint job. The schooner is as of yet still a work in progress, and it leaves me wanting for a bigger ship that could actually hold some guns, but it is a fine craft nonetheless.

Napoleonic British Infantry, Spain 1809, part 2

I have completed my test group of British Peninsula War troops. They were a blast to paint. For some variety, I gave a few grey trousers and the rest white. I really enjoyed putting these together, and love the way they look with varied poses. My favorite is still the one with the bent shako and the desperate look on his face. The basing is starting to have the effect I want when you put them all together.

Napoleonic British Infantry, Spain 1809

As is my new MO, I've started to work on an aggressor force to pair with the French Napoleonic Line Infantry. The Perry Brothers are at it again with another great plastic set. I gleefully picked these up as soon as they became available. The models are their best plastic kit yet! The poses are both dynamic and lifelike. They have really caught a lot of small gestural detail, and these only look better in bulk. The figures look great both individually for skirmish games and in a line together. You have great options for shooting, at the ready, and various stages of loading, They all look straight from the manual of arms, too. One of my favorite options is to have two soldiers sharing out cartridges.

Given my love for the Sharpe's Rifles series, I've chosen to paint them up for the Peninsula Campaign. I prefer the earlier shakos with the gold plates and plumes. It also gave me the chance to do some cool things with the bases. From what I have seen in pictures, Spain has a very interesting and varied landscape not too different from that of my native California. I tried to give it a scrubby look along with rough ground.

 

I'm painting these up as 44th foot since I like yellow facings on my redcoats, and also for the convenience factor of having the regimental colours come with the set. It is worth noting the variance of trotter packs in this set. Though this model shows just the basic pack with greatcoat, there are a variety of other accoutraments attached to the packs, from extra shoes to cooking equipment.

My officer is hatless, and I think he looks a bit like Mr Wickham. 

For this set I've also finally wizened up and worked on magnetic bases, which should ease gameplay, storage, and transport.

A bit of scenery

This is an older image of a small town scene I build in 28mm. Originally intended as  Warhammer Fantasy terrain, it works well for small European villages and for Pirates scenery as well. I built this piece back while working for Games Workshop, as store terrain. The brick was all scribed into insulation foam using a pen, and much of the rest of the construction is all coffee stir and foamcore. Doors and Tower are from GW.

French Voltigeur 1812-1815

If there is a uniform of the Napoleonic French Army that interests me, it is that of the Voltigeur. I love the yellow trimmed shakos and epaulets. The Perry plastic French came with several Voltigeurs in dynamic skirmishing poses. These will make a visually interesting contrast when flanking the march attack posed centre companies and Grenadiers. The figure seen here is my first tester Voltigeur.

I am excited to get these figures painted, as the would make for a great small warband for a Skirmish level game, and should pair well against British Rifles.

Another bit of fun the Voltigeur figures offer is the chance to dirty up the model a little. In addition to the usual bit of stain at the bottom of the trousers, I've added some dirt stains on the knees to give the impression he's been skirmishing out in front of the main columns and off roads in the wild.

French Officer on Horse, 1812-1815

Being a bit of a lead scrounger, I dug up what appears to be a Wargames Foundry Napoleonic officer in a used bin at a FLGS. With some cursory research, I decided to paint him  to lead my French Line Infantry, though it is difficult to make out what he acutally is. Painting horses is always fun, and I enjoyed the watchcloak as well.