Bluemoon 15/18mm pirate project

[mellis1644]

Well I have read a lot in this forum, and been envious of the painting skills displayed, but though I would highlight my efforts with a brush for the first time. I have started a mini-project of painting the Bluemoon pirates I got a few years ago. I'm still not sure what game(s) they'll  be used for but they should be good to try out rules such as on seven sea's, Chain reaction and the warhammer pirate rules set etc.

Here is a collective shot:


And here is a shot of the captains:


I'm still trying to decide exactly how the finish the bases - if they need anything more than I have now really. The current bases seem to work well with wood as well as soil so may be the right thing to do.

You can see more pictures here: here on my blog and in the coming weeks I'll post the more crews and figures.

[von Lucky]

Very nice - I think the bases don't need too much else. Maybe a slightly lighter drybrush (they look a little dark and glossy)?

[Driscoles]

Hi,
the miniatures are wonderful. The base is not very good. You can improve the overall look of the whole miniature with a nice base.
Put another layer of sand on it, paint it brown, but not too dark and drybrush with flesh tone and a final brush with bleached bone.
Put some static grass on it and the result will be marv. Promise you.
Cheers
Björn

[mellis1644]

I have my second pirate crew up now and I decided on the basing style. Sorry for the poor pictures.



I may add a few tufts to the commanders and maybe a few grains of sand as shells or something to be seaweed etc. but I tried for a simple beach effect.



Detailed pictures of all the models are on my blog here: http://mellis1644.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/red-pirate-crew/. I found pictures of these figs hard to find on the web so I hope these help others.

[Gutbukkit]

Very nice work. I'm drawn more and more to 15mm. These are great.

[FifteensAway]

mellis, those are some great paint jobs on those figures.  Not so fond of the second go on the base texturing - looks, well, a bit weird - unless your going for a Stargate effect.  Actually liked the earlier bases better.  But, hey, they're your toys so as long as you are happy all is good.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Nice work, I like that with 15's you can crank a bunch out quickly, still with pleasing results.  The basing that you settled on looks like it works just fine, and while I also like flock and grass tufts they are a bit anachronistic with the deck of a ship, so for pirates in particular I think your simple brown bases look effective.

[mellis1644]

I now have another pirate crew done - the green guys. You can see them ll here http://mellis1644.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/green-pirate-crew/

Here are a couple of the pics:

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Nice job!  Green crew is my favorite, so far.

[mellis1644]

The navy crew are now done but my photo's aren't that great. The full pictures are available here: http://mellis1644.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/jack-tars-to-fight-the-pirates/

Here are the naval captains - Dutch (green coats) and British (dark blue coats) officers:

And a selection of the standard crewmen:

[mellis1644]

Well I'm getting to the end of my project which is to get all my Blue Moon 18mm Pirate figs painted. The last lot of figures are done now - you can see all of them here: http://mellis1644.wordpress.com/2014/10/04/supporting-pirate-background-figures/

After all what would pirates be without someone to rob, or someone to sell their ill gotten goods too.

Here are a couple of shots of some of the figures.

[mellis1644]

Final post for this painting project is up - a few ships, for some gaming. You can see them all here: http://mellis1644.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/buccaneer-and-merchant-pirate-ships/

Below is one of the shot's with one of the figures for scale and no masts for ease of play. So now just got to figure out the rules to use.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

The ships look great!  I like that the masts are detachable for gaming convenience.

Regarding rules, I suppose it kind of depends on what you're looking for, but:

I personally quite like "Legends of the High Seas," although that's largely due to my affinity for GW's Lord of the Rings rules.  May not be so easy to acquire a copy, though...

Osprey just released "On the Seven Seas."  Personally, I like a good streamlined game, but from what I've read/heard they sound a little too simplified, even for my tastes.

If you're a fan of the Ganesha games, I believe they have a title that is called "Flashing Steel" or something similar to cover swashbuckling types of games.

[War In 15MM]

Great looking collection.  Richard