First foray into Pirate Ships, advice welcome.

[Astor]

While i'm waiting on some more resources before I begin properly converting my Mega Bloks Pirate Quest ship, I've turned my attention to my other ship, one of Games of War's excellent 'Sea Dog' miniatures. Here is my progress with it so far -



After cleaning up any excess flash and assembling the cannon i'd purchased with it, I turned my attention to the mast. Most of the examples i've seen have been lateen rigged - which have looked good, but looked too Mediterranean for my tastes, so I decided that i'd try a gaff rig similar to this (at least I think it's called a gaff rig ). So, after a lot of cursing, superglue and a screwdriver wound, i'd managed to create a fairly decent looking mast.

The final addition is a bowsprit made from two cocktail sticks and some string, and so far i'm really pleased with the result - i'm starting to see it as a pirate ship instead of a few bits of wood and a lump of resin. 

Anyways, that brings me to my questions - how should I go about painting it, and are there are any particular colours I should be using (if you could recommend any GW colours, that'd be great, as i'm passing one tomorrow)?

Also, i've got some thicker cord for the mast, should I be using it around the booms, or just around the base of the mast itself?

Any help, suggestions, criticisms would be greatly appreciated (well, maybe not the criticism...  )

Astor.

[Alcide Nikopol]

You appear to be off to a cracking start. I am quite interested to see the end results, sir.   

[Galloping Major]

Looking good 

Does anyone have any recommendations for other good waterline models?

[Lowtardog]

There are these GM from Minimi, whihc are very reasonably priced, even if the boats aren`t what you are after the guns are too good a deal to pass up

http://minimi.co.uk/pirates/

[Galloping Major]

Thanks for that link Silent Invader. Really good blog, loads of interesting stuff 

[Astor]

Thanks for the kind words gents. And those minimi cannons do look impressive - the Games of War ones are great, but they're quite small - no bigger than a 2-4 pounder, i'd reckon.

I've undercoated the hull and i'm painting it in Scorched Brown at the moment - it looks lighter than i'd expected, but still like a brown lump - I think some highlights will be necessary. I haven't painted the mast or bowsprit yet, but I think they will need painting as well.

And i'll be sure to take some pictures as soon as the paint's dry. 

[Astor]

Apologies for the double post, but I promised some pictures of my progress so far, so here they are - just the main hull so far -







Painted with a black undercoat, Scorched Brown basecoat, Bestial Brown drybrushed as a second coat, followed by Graveyard Earth as the final highlight. The coloured aft area was painted Knarloc Green (one of GW's foundation paints), with a second coat of 50/50 Knarloc Green and Skull white, followed by a highlight of 25/75 Knarloc Green and Skull White.

All painted in under two hours with a minimum of fuss. I'm really pleased with how it looks so far, and it should look even better with a painted crew and guns. Still not sure about painting the masts, though - i'm beginning to think that it would definitely look a lot better, but it could go either way at the moment.

[Malamute]

Looks good so far. It it were my ship, i'd paint the masts as well to match.

[Calimero]

Are these Dutch Marines in your ship? 
Nice work BTW

[archangel1]

Coming along nicely but I think your bowsprit is upside down! To the best of my knowledge, the jibboom extends from the top of the bowsprit itself.

[Astor]

Thanks for the kind words again guys!

Calimero, yes, they will be Dutch Marines/Naval Officers as soon as they've been given a lick of paint (which will be soon, hopefully).

As for the bowsprit, it's not attached yet, so it can easily be put the right way. 

And I think that yes, I will paint the masts brown to give it a better overall look and finish.