Monday, January 6, 2014

From TamsinP: 15mm Pirates (48 points)


'Avast! Strike your colours and be silent know before I make ye settle your abaft on a knobbly belaying pin and I send ye all yelping to Davy Jones' Locker with a stove-in dungbie. Savy?'

Ok, that's all the rude Pirate Speak I've got...

From Tamsin:
Aaaaarrrggghhhh! My pirate, errmmm, buccaneer army is off the marks with this entry.
The main troops of the buaccaneer army in FoG:R are "other buccaneers" (Musket*, Impact Foot, Average, Warriors), "ordinary buccaneers" (Musket, Sword, Average, Medium Foot) and "veteran buccaneers" (Musket, Sword, Superior, Medium Foot). These 24 figures are clearly very, very veteran. In fact, they are so veteran that they are skeletons! To distinguish between the different types I've decided that the "other" will be 3 to a bse with 1 firearm and 2 melee weapons, "ordinary" will be 3 per base with 2 firearms and 1 melee weapon, leaving the "veteran" which I'm doing as 4 per base.

The figures are 15mm from Rebel Minis and were great fun to paint. I started from a white primer washed with warm grey ink to help show the details, then shaded the clothing using acrylic inks. After sealing the inks with a spray of matt varnish to prevent them bleeding, the belts, scabbards, wood and basecoats for metals were painted, followed by another wash with warm grey ink. The metals were then painted and the bones highlighted.

With hindsight the second ink wash should have been brown or sepia and the highlighting of the bone should have been a more yellow-white. However, as they are in the sun soaked Spanish Main, the bones would be somewhat bleached, wouldn't they?

I'm pleased with how the inks have worked for the clothing - they've given a nice faded look, with the warm grey wash giving a grubby "out of the grave" appearance.
Tamsin, that is a very cool unit of ragged & bony-assed troops. I love the various muted colours and I particularly like the fellow who has his head firmly tucked under his arm - very sensible, I think.

These 24 sea dogs will give Tamsin 48 points. 

'Yo Ho Ho!'

(Um, that last bit is meant to be 18th century speak, not 21st century...)


24 comments:

  1. I remember when you bought your pirate horde last year and I'm pleased to see them making an appearance.

    I like the idea of using the inks for the clothing and you're right as they are not opaque they give that sun faded look.

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  2. Very nice Tamsin. As always I like your 15mm stuff!

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  3. Yo Ho Ahoy! (That says it all if you have seen the cartoon. If not a quick youtube search will reveal it!)

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  4. Fantastic...they look really very cool indeed. They'll be a lot of fun to use. They also take me back to the 1980s - I remember playing the Tercio Renaissance rules (or possibly Newbury...) and I think there was a Buccaneer army in there for the late 17th century which could wipe the floor with just about any other army in the game. Not bad for a bunch of drunken pirates from Port Royal! I wish we'd had your figures back then, though!

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  5. "To err is human,
    To aaaaarrrrr! is pirate"

    Thanks for the kind comments guys.

    @ Anne - you can probably expect a bunch more of the pirates before the end of the Challenge. The black ink is opaque, so I watered it down; the rest were transparent.

    @ Sidney - in a tightly themed tournament setting I think in FoG:R they can be very effective, but where they might face cavalry they are a bit vulnerable.

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  6. Tis a fine start to yer army thar lass!

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  7. arrrgh.
    these be fine beauties Tamsin.

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  8. @ Jenni - indeed, but the army will need a bit more meat :)

    @ Kev, Fran and Christopher - aaaarrrr!

    @ Curt - *cough* points not added to total *cough*
    (and thanks for all the hard work you're putting in with this)

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    1. Um, yup that is your total.

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    2. Umm, nope - the 48 points for these haven't been added. I should be on 644 (I was on 596 after the Villain points were added).

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    3. Maybe the totaliser in the sidebar hasn't updated?

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  9. Hmm, its showing 644 for me. Maybe a Blogger glitch? Lemee reset.

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    Replies
    1. Okay, that seems to have worked. Sorry for that Tamsin. I was seeing one thing and everyone else another? How odd...

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    2. Yet another Blogger glitch I guess. Cheers for sorting it :)

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  10. These are great and I too really like the guy with the head under his arm

    ian

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  11. Ooh.. Aaaaaar. Nice me shipmate. When is it ham night?

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  12. Pirates - so cool! Very well done Tamsin.

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  13. @ Ian - the headless skellies are rather spiffing

    @ Dave - is that for the ham dram production of Pirates of Penzance?

    @ Greg - cheers

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    Replies
    1. Tamsin - you need watch the beginning of the animated Pirates and the Scientist
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs5LkCHaUBo

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  14. Great work some great looking figures

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  15. Excellent figures Tamsin, what a great set of figures!

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  16. These are seriously good fun Tamsin, lovely job too.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)