a blood and plunder dutch project

[Arteis]

I'm also doing Dutch.  I based my militia on the marines/soldiers in the recent movie about de Ruyter, who wear green coats. I've no idea what they based their research on ... but it is good enough for me!  I also loosely based my two commander figures on Rembrandt's famous painting, The Night Watch.

[Metternich]

A lovely vignette.

[cahrn]

I don't have an issue with the scale of the Firelock Games range of miniatures, either. There are plenty of different miniatures to field a nice and varied force without having to branch into other ranges.

I'm also doing Dutch.  I based my militia on the marines/soldiers in the recent movie about de Ruyter, who wear green coats. I've no idea what they based their research on ... but it is good enough for me!  I also loosely based my two commander figures on Rembrandt's famous painting, The Night Watch.

I have both the generic commander and the Peit Heyn model. I haven't really painted either one yet, but I think I'm going to have a game coming up, so I'll have to do something before then!

[Metternich]

Below article shows Dutch Marines of the de Ruyter period.  Look particularly at second plate:

http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/2009/07/couple-of-interesting-dutch-marine.html

[cahrn]

I have a game coming up this weekend which has helped to pull this project back out of my low priority queue. We're going to be playing with ships, so I need to get my brigantine painted and rigged this week. I finished getting the main parts of the base colors applied on the hull and applied some wash to the deck and gunwales to try to bring out the cast wood texture before haphazardly drybrushing greys, tans, and flat brown tones. At this point I'm having some regret in my decision not to use a lighter brown for the base color. The hull exterior hasn't had anything done to it because paint keeps rubbing off handling the model during painting. My plan is to finish the decks and gunwales to the point where I want to seal them, then touch up the outside before applying a matte varnish coat. I'm leaning towards making paper sails to finish everything off, but I'm not fully committed one way or the other yet. Here's the current state of things:

Below article shows Dutch Marines of the de Ruyter period.  Look particularly at second plate:

http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/2009/07/couple-of-interesting-dutch-marine.html

That's a great reference, Metternich. I'm going to draw from it when I paint the marines I picked up.  I hoped to get them done by now, but I never got around to it. Maybe I 'll be able to knock them out by the end of the year.

[cahrn]

Cracked on with the brigantine this afternoon and evening. Managed to do a little cleanup work and got the base coat sealed in with a matte varnish. Unfortunately the matte coat is looking a bit more satin than I'd prefer, but everything will be getting another coat or two before I'm finished anyway so hopefully it sorts itself out. Up next I need to finish the hull and do some more detailing and touch ups.

[cahrn]

After a few hours of work each night this week my brigantine is ready for the game table. I figured that using a thick paper for the sails would be easier than using cloth. Originally I'd planned to paint the sails to force a bit of shading and make them more interesting looking, but time ran a bit short and I never got around to it. Overall I'm not thrilled with how the sails and rigging came out, but given that I only allotted myself one day to do them and finish the model for gaming I think it will be ok. I've painted a few 28mm vehicles before, but this is certainly the biggest model I've ever completed and I certainly learned a lot from the time I spent working on it. If I ever do another ship for Blood and Plunder or a similar game there's quite a bit I'd like to do differently. I purchased the Ship Detail Parts pack with this ship, but I ended up leaving most of the separate details off for now. The tiller handle and the stern lantern didn't seem to fit on the model very well, but I'll install the anchors once I can decide how best to mount them. I also opted to have the four aft cannon ports closed, as I didn't really care for how the small cannon barrels provided with the kit looked with the ports opened. Here's a picture of what I'm calling the completed boat and her crew.

[FifteensAway]

Looks pretty good so far - your compromises will allow for greater playability and that seems your goal versus a mantle piece model.  And that, in a nutshell, is for me the essence of a gaming hobby versus display modeling.  We use our models while others look at their models while they gather dust.  Neither is right nor wrong, just a bit different. 

Two constructive critiques if I may: one, take the time when you have it to add the missing basic rigging because it rather stands out with those empty holes in the cleats (I think that is the term? especially because they don't 'match' hole for hole fore and aft) and, two, do a bit of dry brushing on the exterior of the hull to give it a more weathered look that will better match those lovely muted tones of the crew and the well-weathered deck.  And you already know the sails could use that shading you mention once you have more time.

Even so, you've created a very enjoyable to see gaming model.  Excellent job.

[cahrn]

Two constructive critiques if I may: one, take the time when you have it to add the missing basic rigging because it rather stands out with those empty holes in the cleats (I think that is the term? especially because they don't 'match' hole for hole fore and aft) and, two, do a bit of dry brushing on the exterior of the hull to give it a more weathered look that will better match those lovely muted tones of the crew and the well-weathered deck.  And you already know the sails could use that shading you mention once you have more time.

Thanks for giving some feedback, you make some fair points. Funny enough the instructions for the ship show that the small wooden pieces that anchor the rigging have only two holes, rather than four. It would be easy enough to run more lines up to the masts though. I actually intentionally left the front hole open on the bow anchor, There's a bowsprit sail that I am planning on attaching there. As for the hull, there is actually some drybrushing there. Though admittedly it's not anywhere close to what I did on the decks and has been further toned down by various matte varnish coats. I tend to agree with you, though, it could use a bit more of an effect.

[OSHIROmodels]

Great project 

[cahrn]

Here are some shots from today's game, taken at the start of each turn. We played English vs. Dutch Navy with 150 points per side. The English had an untested captain and crew of sea dogs in a light frigate armed with five pair of light cannon and two swivel guns. The Dutch had a brigantine armed with four swivel guns at the bow, two pair of light cannon in the middle deck, and one pair of medium cannon aft. Two small units of Zeelieden, a large unit of Soldaten, and an experienced sea commander crewed the ship. I hoped I could try for a boarding action with the well equipped Soldaten, however closing on the enemy ship proved to be quite challenging. Our game took place on a simple table of all deep water. The English were the attackers in this scenario with the objective of sinking the Dutch flagship. Below is the deployment. Unfortunately we rolled for wind direction and determined it was blowing towards my table edge, thus I would spend almost all of the game sailing at reduced speed into the wind against a heavier ship. Fortunately I had two units of expert sailors to make taking advanced maneuvers a bit easier.


Turn one saw a random event trigger the rain weather condition and reduced line of sight to 28" for the rest of the game. Both sides spent their actions moving towards each other while being too far away for effective cannon fire. The table state at the end of turn one is below.


Turn two was largely a repeat of turn one. The Dutch ship continued slowly towards the English, unable to bring any of its guns bear. For their part the English fired a few ineffective ranging shots. Below is the game at the end of turn two. Following this turn we shifted our models back towards the center of the table while maintaining orientation and relative position so that we would have more table space for maneuvering.


On turn three we were finally close enough to each other for some effective gunnery! The Dutch continued to their bid to close on the bigger English ship which responded with a volley with all of their port side guns, inflicting two casualties to the crew on the rear deck and causing minor hull damage, certainly a fortunate outcome for the Dutch given the volume of fire from the broadside. At the end of the turn I realized I was pretty lucky to come away from a broadside with a mostly intact ship, but another round or two of effective shooting would have me dead in the water. My Dutch were also in real danger of the English gaining a raking fire bonus on their next cannon salvo. The table after turn three is below.


Turn four saw gunfire exchanged between the two ships. After shooting a broadside on the last turn much of the English turn was spent reloading, though they did manage to score some swivel gun hits and kill another Dutch crewman. By now I had shifted my strategy and hoped to try to hook around the English frigate and force it in to the wind so I could slip away with my somewhat damaged ship. I spent my actions performing advances sailing maneuvers turning directly in to the wind. Fortunately I had plenty of expert sailors in my crew and passed all of the tests needed, though I did spend a fortune point to reroll one and avoid a costly rigging critical. Certainly not something I needed while trying to perform evasive action! While the Brigantine was turning away it also managed to fire two of its light cannon at relatively close range, causing several casualties among the English crew and destroying one gun in the rear battery. Here's the table after turn four. I've completed the 'zig' part of my zigzag evasive maneuver. If I can survive turn five I should be able to slip away.


Turn five was the deciding turn. I acted quickly and had my Dutch 'zag' away, trying to force the English to slow down and turn into the wind. The English crew hurried to fire and reload the port batteries, nearly killing the Dutch captain and causing further damage to the ship. The Dutch responded with a deadly salvo from their swivel guns, leaving the captain the sole survivor of the English crew on the stern deck. By now the English were fatigued, and their guns needed reloading. The table state did not change much during turn six, as the English were unable to fire any weapons and the Dutch slipped away in their heavily damaged brigantine to a narrow victory.


In closing I had a fun time playing a naval game of Blood and Plunder. It was certainly a learning game for us, so we kept everything pretty straight forward. I think even a simple addition of some shallows and a sandbar or rock or two would further enhance the game and lead for interesting positioning and maneuvering. Sailing into the wind for most of the game was discouraging at times but I was glad to see I still had agency to position my ship and maneuver. Our gunnery was pretty much ineffective right up until the point that it wasn't! Once we got close enough to get a lot of hits each volley I realized how quickly a ship can get crippled or destroyed.