Future Islands ?

Having a strong Guernsey connection has made me rather enamoured of Martello Towers, and so when I saw that Brigade Models did Black Seas-sized Martello Towers it was inevitable I would have to buy some. 

And here they are in all their teeny tiny glory!

The islands are irregular MDF bases I picked up at the Attack! show from Products for Wargamers, and will soon be providing challenging obstacles for my two navies to try and avoid running aground on! 

The Big Little Ships

 Having sworn blind that I'd not get suckered into buying any more ships for Warlord Games Black Seas game (after all, as long as you have a handful of ships for each side, does it really matter how big they are?), I of course cracked recently after seeing a good deal on eBay for two of the biggest ships in the roster, some 1st Rates.

The pair I got were a French and British "Generic" 1st Rate - it seems if you buy a "named" ship (ie Nelson's Victory etc) then it costs another tenner or more than a generic 1st Rater, and frankly neither me nor any of the people I occasionally play this fairly beer-and-pretzels game with would know the difference anyway. 

So, here's one of the two beasties in pre-priming mode:

Unlike all of the others I have, this is a resin hull with metal masts - which does cause a bit of concern about whether they will be more bendy than the plastic ones in the other smaller ships.

Speaking of which, here are all 4 of the sizes of ships I now own - left to right is 1st Rate, 3rd Rate, Frigate and then Brig.  Anyways..

And here is a ship painted up on it's own before rigging. I did the colours much the same as the previous ones I have made, so the key colour here is GW Contrast Yanden Yellow, which gives that great golden hue to the hull. 

And here is the finished (British) article in all its glory.

Given these were such big ships - and also due to my concerns over metal masts possibly bending - I did add some "extra" rigging to this one too - to make it look more busy, and to actually try and use rigging to hold the masts in place (which is what I think it was used for in real life too - which is reassuring if true).

This rather disturbingly annotated picture shows the main extra bits of rigging. Essentially I added two more sets of double-rigging going forwards from the top of the Main and Mizzen masts to the holes in the sides of the ship which the Warlord guide suggests are used for rigging going up to the rear of the Main and Fore masts. 

This sort of anchors the 2 big masts at the back with cotton rigging both fore and aft, which should surely be more secure?

I also found this great guide on JJ's Wargames Blog from back in 2019 which gave me a guide to adding a sort of spiders web of rigging at the back of the ship, which also anchors the Mizzen mast to the horizontal bits that stick out at the rear - so again its structurally beneficial as well as deeply psychologically traumatic and borderline insane to add this stuff to the basic Warlord Gide rigging arrangement. 

Frankly having even as many of these things as I do own is ridiculous given how infrequently we play, but they are just so cool I am sure I will end up succumbing and buying some more .. maybe if eBay throws up some bargains ! 

  

Here's all my Blogger Black Seas content:

• First Steps
• The full how-to guide with tips and tricks
• Third Raters
• Adding a resin-hulled First Rate, and some extra rigging ideas 
• A whole page of these, together with some info on how they were painted and some tips I picked up on how to do the rigging as well.

The Plastic Crack Podcast

 I was kindly invited onto the Plastic Crack Podcast on Monday night as a guest, and had a great time chatting nonsense about all things wargaming-related to the guys.

During the chat quite a few "Madaxeman" and also "Britcon" things came up, so I thought it might be handy to try and pull together some links here so that anyone who hears or sees the podcast and then stumbles across this site will not have to rummage around in the metaphorical bits-box that is Madaxeman.com's menu structure to see what on earth I was taking about!

In no particular order therefore:

28mm Successor Phalanx, a painting and building guide

A recent battle report, featuring the army of Spartacus, plenty of speech-bubble soldiery, and with commentary from Hannibal as well at the end of each report

A mercifully short "highlights package" from the Madaxeman Podcast in which we run through an episode of "I'm Sorry I think You're An Arse" while discussing whether GW paint names have just gone too damned far.

Who Played What, the 2023 review of the UK Ancients competition circuit

A link to the Madaxeman YouTube Channel 

Evidence that I do base AFVs in 10mm and below, (in what was also perhaps my last ever Arrowhead order..)

Rigging Hell! , the Windy Ships starter set and a lot of black cotton

Victrix Galatians, with waterslide transfers from Battle Flag

The BHGS/Britcon stuff is also here:

• The Britcon Web Page on the BHGS site
• Gaming Systems on offer at Britcon 2024
• If you are interested in having a chat about bringing your game or group to Britcon, email me via the BHGS 

You can also listen to the episode on Spotify or watch it on YouTube as well: 

Enjoy!

Ships in the, erm, winter..

 I finally cracked, caved in, conceded defeat and bought some more ships from Warlord Games for Black Seas ..

Yes, having said for almost 2 years that this was a beer and pretzels game, and that having more, bigger ships would not add  anything to the experience... well, of course, that was all lies anyway. 

So, here are a couple of 3rd Raters - one done as British, one as French. I do also have the third that comes in the set but haven't rigged it yet. 

The painting style and technique was exactly as the previous sets , as was the swearing while doing the rigging

And, just to prove they are different to the Brig and Frigates I already have, here are all three, ready for Goldilocks to steal their porridge !

Here's all my Blogger Black Seas content:

• First Steps
• The full how-to guide with tips and tricks
• Third Raters
• Adding a resin-hulled First Rate, and some extra rigging ideas 
• A whole page of these, together with some info on how they were painted and some tips I picked up on how to do the rigging as well.

Black Seas - Rigging Hell!

 OK, maybe it's not all that bad, but the pun needed using anyway so ... I now have a handful of fully-completed ships for Warlord Games Black Seas game, and they are so spiffing that I've popped a load of them in the lightbox and taken some snaps, some of which are previewed here.

There is a whole page of these, together with some info on how they were painted and some tips I picked up on how to do the rigging as well on the main website  

If you want to see more there is a whole page of these, together with some info on how they were painted and some tips I picked up on how to do the rigging as well.

Ship Ahoy! 

Here's all my Blogger Black Seas content:

• First Steps
• The full how-to guide with tips and tricks
• Third Raters
• Adding a resin-hulled First Rate, and some extra rigging ideas 
• A whole page of these, together with some info on how they were painted and some tips I picked up on how to do the rigging as well.

Last week I started doing a little ship ..

 ..and being very, very careful with my typing as well.

Yes, the Black Seas starter set that arrived the Christmas before last (I hope it wasn't before that!) has finally started, with a test build and paint of a Brig.

First impressions are that it's very easy to make (so far..), very light, and is actually TINY! 

I'd been toying with various ideas involving buying foam storage and 9L RUB boxes, but honestly I'm not sure this will merit such investment and space as I can't see even a box full of a few of them justifying the excess foam. Instead I've put a layer of Magnabase on the bottom of the hull so they can be kept on a ferrous surface, as I can't see them shaking off anytime soon.

This model was sprayed white as part of a mass-undercoat session last week, and then done in Contrast Paints, which I thought might do a good job of picking out the woodwork details. 

The paints used were Nazdreg Yellow on the deck, Skeleton Horde on the hull and (I think) Gore-Grunta Fur on the mast. 

With the benefit of hindsight I'll probably swap the Skeleton Horde and Nazdreg Yellow over and do the ships sidewalls with the yellow colour. 

There is no "right" way to do these, but a few skulks around the internet seemed to suggest painting some of the spars black - and it does make the model pop a little more than leaving them natural (or unnatrural given the paint used) wood.

This is where it's ended up - very quick and easy. 

Next up, making more of them... and then ... Rigging! 

Here's all my Black Seas content:

• First Steps
• The full how-to guide with tips and tricks
• Third Raters
• Adding a resin-hulled First Rate, and some extra rigging ideas