Pirate ship project [30/9 New photos]

[manatic]

So, I got into pirates. You know, "just a few miniatures, a piece of terrain..."

Now I've got a huge pirate ship that I'm starting work on. I'll do the longer write-ups on my blog and the short and sweet recaps here on LAF. The model I bought is the Black Pearl from the Zizzle playset, and it's massive. I'm looking to repaint it and work on it to ease gaming, but will also keep most toy functions intact.

The full write up is here: http://dawnofthelead.com/2015/05/07/pirate-madness/

[manatic]

Started working on the ship. My first thing to work on was one of the crow's nests. Originally it looked like this:



Pretty nice, but posing a severe risk for miniatures - it's a long drop to the deck. There was also a mechanism inside, so you could pull out a piece of string - see the handle in the pic - and then press a button to wind it back in.

I removed the mechanism and added a bunch of coffee stirrers and a ring made out of cereal (or chocolate, rather) packet cardboard. I still need to make the planks more even and add some putty to round out the corners of the lower support ring. This is how it looks now:







Yes, it could be a lot more neat, but I'm counting on the power of painting. I still think it's a marked improvement on the original both in terms of looks and of practical gaming use. Comments and constructive critique welcome, as I really haven't done this sort of thing before.

[shandy]

Cool ship! With skirmish rules like Flashing Steel, it could work as a playing surface in its own right...

[flags_of_war]

very very nice

[manatic]

Cool ship! With skirmish rules like Flashing Steel, it could work as a playing surface in its own right...

This is indeed my plan, down to the game system even!

[manatic]

Work is steadily progressing, here are some work in progress shots. There's still dremeling and such to do, so it's a bit rough at places. You can check http://dawnofthelead.com/2015/05/10/ship-building/ for the whole blog post, or just settle for these:

Rebuilding the poop deck front wall to cover the oversized doorway:



Adding detail to the inside of the railing:



Adding detail to the weirdly untextured part of the cabin roof:



Chopping down the oversized balustrade:

[manatic]

Work on the ship progresses! You can read the whole thing here: http://dawnofthelead.com/2015/05/18/more-ship-building/ or just settle for the photos.

Adding planking and detail to the second crow's nest:



The poop deck before spray painting, with added detail (the wall ornament is a broken swallow earring and the door ornament is a WHFB shield boss):



The two crow's nests spray painted:



The poop deck sprayed down:

[manatic]

More work done today. Details here: http://dawnofthelead.com/2015/05/31/batten-down-the-hatches/

[Colonel Tubby]

That's a really great transformation - can't wait to see the completed project.

[manatic]

Here's the latest progress shot:

[manatic]

On to the foredeck!

If you want to read the more detailed posts on the ship, they're all handily collected here: http://dawnofthelead.com/tag/pirate-ship/

[Duke Donald]

Great job! That's shaping up well. Looking forward to seeing the ship completed.

[manatic]

I bought some cannon for the ship from Ainsty, but they turned out to be too small (read: realistic, unlike my ship): http://dawnofthelead.com/2015/06/30/run-out-the-baby-guns/

I'm thinking of maybe using them as oversized swivel guns, what do you think?

[War In 15MM]

Love those Disney ships.  You're doing a great job on this one.  Richard

[Eric the Shed]

the cannons look the right size to me  - too big as swivels...