15mm Pirates Adventures

[Teardrop World]

Nearly three years ago, I had dream: build a full table dedicated to Piratesque adventures. I painted a bunch of small guys from Peter Pig, then planned the table: 1,2 m x 1,8m of city and jungle. Bought some palm tree, then life events made the project sink as fast as a Spanish galleon.
I recently peeked at the Sarrissa site and discovered their small MDF modules, 200mm. Nice photos.... and I frantically exhumed my old project from the oblivion beach. Smaller modules, 200 x 200mm custom made: Plastic printed frame with locking system, styrofoam glued onto.
Modules/scenery planned:
City with docks, fort, tavern. Jungle featuring a Cannibal village, a pirate fort (Stevenson's inspired), swamps....

At least twelve modules should be made. First test with the marketplace, the houses are printed and badly painted (but they are beautiful after some grog). A few minis and accessories to give a flavour, as the modules will be bland.

[Poiter50]

 the houses are printed and badly painted (but they are beautiful after some grog) 

[FifteensAway]

Well, dude-ly, don't sell yourself so short.  They're not that bad.  And where did you get the market stall?  And the buildings for that matter?  I know, printed, but tell us more.  And the cobblestone with the circular center, where'd that come from.  Looking forward to seeing more - and soon, dang rabbit!

[Teardrop World]

@FifteensAway: The market stall is scratchbuilt, I should make more of them. Buildings are from different source: Najewitz Modellbau (huge historic collection) for 20mm, reduced at 70% - and Printable Scenery for 28mm, reduced at 55%. More easy to print at this size (and faster).

The cobblestone are embossed with the classic metal part of brushes (road), and .... exotic tools (7.62mm and 5.56mm ammo cases) for the pavement. A little anachronistic for a pirate table, but black powder bullets aren't very useful for this purpose 

Two modules for the docks/low quarter: the Warehouse and Trading Post. The Warehouse is painted and glued, the Trading Post are nearly completed, only the buildings to paint. :



Received accessories and tools today, all from Woodland: moulds for plaster rocks, tree/bushes skeletons to flock, and dead trees/stumps (cast in white metal, very heavy). Jungle modules to come soon.

A close shot of the market stall.


Another module at work: the Tavern area, in the High Quarter. A double module to allow elevation change and "pitoresque" street. (Le french word is mandatory for a pirate game, mille sabords!)

Cheers

[FifteensAway]

Well, your work is certainly challenging me to up my piratical game, that's for sure.  I suspect you will have a really gorgeous playing surface when all is done.  Keep it coming!   

[Teardrop World]

I suspect you will have a really gorgeous playing surface when all is done

Hum.... Ceiling mounted cheap sound system (printed fixations) for sound effects (with an Ableton controller), and a few cheap RGB light show drived by a sh***y DMX Showtec light console. This allow a theatrical ambience, but the light are LED and hurt the eyes. YES IT's GORGEOUS     We use this table for dinner too, with the light show! Convincing your wife for the absolute need of such a romantic installation should be easy 

Return to the piratesque post.

A few ships made a few years ago. They are designed with removable sails and mast, for wrecks and storage. Built with small wood planks glued onto a styrofoam hull. Roping or not roping? Candy eye model = roping, practical model = no roping. I'm always over jealous for all of you who make superb models, and try to hide my lack of skills with artifices: Those ships aren't diabetes for the eyes, but allow sails manoeuvres, and have real wood.

The first ship. I used to build some Mantua models before, and it helped greatly for the design.



Mast and sails out. Sails are just hooked on mast. I used a short piece of aluminium tube glued in the hull, to keep the mast in place. Without it, the foam isn't strong enough to allow frequent moving of the mast.



I plan to use a French RPG as a solo tabletop game, "Pavillon Noir" Black Flag in english. The rules allow detailed fencing with location hits, and more detailed sailing rules - command, crew, manoeuvres, gunnery.... An impressive book, completed by a few Osprey on the Spanish Main and pirates/bucaneers.
Read the following with the more atrocious french accent you can imagine:
-Ahoy, Messieurs! Vee are on ze sea for four month! Forget le madame, all we can eat now is ze cuisse of le frog!

Enough triviality! Another view, the second ship. Cannons are modelled in Blender from an historic plan, printed by Shapeways and cast home in white metal. Don't need to use heat resistant silicon (very expensive and very brittle), the standard food silicon allow dozens of casts without much trouble. Silicon for food is more expensive than standard, but if you can pour hot chocolate in it, you should pour a little hotter metal.



Cheers

[FifteensAway]

That is a nice, practical gaming ship.

For a look at my pirate stuff, check out this link - when you have an hour or three to waste!  :

https://carobbeansea.blogspot.com

[Teardrop World]

That is a nice, practical gaming ship.

For a look at my pirate stuff, check out this link - when you have an hour or three to waste!  :

https://carobbeansea.blogspot.com

     Impressive! The naval battles must have been a blast! My setup and city will be hugely smaller  How did the Bluemoon figs look with Peter Pig and Rebel, as Bluemoon are 15/18mm?

Just completed the Trading Post module today - fresh paint! This module is to be placed on the dockside, with the Warehouse module. There will be a fourth module in the city's low quarter: the forge, and small houses.

[FifteensAway]

I'd say the Bluemoon pirates are one of their 'smaller' ranges.  Peter Pig are surely smaller.  Rebel sort of in between.  And that matters...why?

Not to me a whit.   

I'm having too much fun with my miniatures to care what the 'purists' think.  We are taking little metal toy soldiers, getting them painted up, and pushing them around the table like a kid on holiday.  What the heck can ever go wrong with that!?    

I know the arguments about a gun can't be the same in two different sized same 'scale' miniatures.  I just choose not to care.  Like I said above, I'm just having fun.

Buying from all three ranges - and Miniature Figurines (close to Rebel) and Museum Miniatures (closer to Bluemoon) which each have a pirate range and of which I have some from both - just adds more variety to the mix. 

I figure one day when the burden of storage and setup gets excessive, I'll just selectively take out enough unique figures to create a nice little skirmish pirate setup (and join the rest of the scallywags who do that now) and have several score of figures without any duplication at all!  And then sell, trade, or - gasp - give away the rest.  [It's a hobby, not an investment.  If I can light up someone's life with my unwanted figures one day, that'll be pretty cool.  Unless I find a higher bidder!  ]

Don't forget to check out Irregular Miniatures - they tend larger, though. 

[grant]

What a great project! 

[War Monkey]

Agree a very nice project indeed! Looking forward to seeing more.

[Teardrop World]

I'm having too much fun with my miniatures to care what the 'purists' think.

I'm afraid to be in full accordance with your point of view. I have some bigger Museum and they fit well, and are listed as 15mm. But as Bluemoon are listed as 18mm, in a scale creep world where 25mm is in fact 28, 28 is heroic 32, 32 mean 35, is 18mm more like 20?.....   After watching your pictures, there's effectively not much difference. I'm definitely not a purist: a couple of microns are a minor inconvenience. 
My main concern is the printed size of the houses - a bit small, optimized for my 200mm modules. All houses where intended to have a playable interior, but I eventually glued the roof of the smaller houses. The next module is base coated and should be finished this week. Experimenting jungle module using plaster rocks made with Woodland molds, and made a few trees with plastic tree skeletons. The jungle modules will be the hard part of the project.
Thank you all for your kind words.

Cheers

[FifteensAway]

I've never gotten on very well with interior gaming whether in 15 mm or larger scales.  I'm happy to keep the action in the great outdoors.

As to building size, having them a tad small will serve you well.

Really looking forward to seeing your jungle sections.

Coming along nicely and at a good clip.

[Teardrop World]

It took me longer to complete the low quarter module, as I spent the week working on a mini fantasy campaign for Ranger of Shadow Deep. It will take longer to complete the tavern double module.

A close view of the low quarter. The blacksmith is here, because the dockers need a lot of free space to work, the people on the market place don't want to have plenty of horses in irons, and the rich of the high quarter appreciate a quiet street. The poor can support the continuous sound of a hammer on the anvil. 



A view of all the modules made for now. Frontline of the city: a line of dock module is planned, back of the city - a line of fortified wall to protect the citizens from a jungle attack.


By the way, just received today an addon book for Pavillon Noir. A blast. L'Art de L'Escrime (The Art of Fencing). All french speaking swashbucklers here should take a look at it. A description of the different schools of fencing (spanish, french, german, italian). As most of the books on the age of pirate are in english, it's refreshing for the langue de Molière speakers to have access at so much historical informations. Well, I'm gonna paint more 15mm swashbucklers this winter.

Cheers

[FifteensAway]

Continue to enjoy watching your project develop.  Looking forward to more.  You have lots of nice street clutter but I think you will need about three to five times more than you have now!      Don't forget a little bit of greenery here and there - besides the anticipated jungle.