Swashbuckling Pirates Fantasy Setting

[horridperson]

I've wanted to try my hand at painting pirates and 18th century costumes for quite a while and probably always wanted a pirate ship; These days I'm resigned to it probably being in the neighborhood of only a foot long though .  The impetus for this project is the Windward isle game Osprey is planning to publish but my intention for this thread is more about making neat period stuff than discussing things thast are Frostgravesque so I think it would find a better home here.

I plan to build a Chinese styled pirate crew with a cool Junk but my IHMN models aren't past priming because I grabbed some Cutlass marines and got to painting them instead.  They are almost done and jst so this isn't just a wall of text with me rambling about a Fantasy historical setting that might not be of interest to anyone I'll add the the WIP and focus on providing more pics as I add things to the thread.

I got the Marines because I binge watched the Pirates of the Caribbean and the supernatural elements in the stories gave me a hankering for some magic tricks with my muskets and fine cravats.  I'm imagining an alternate English Empire/Near Empire under the rulership of an Immortal Elizabeth.  Drake or a like Drake was able to procure a draught from the fountain of youth which has extended the monarch's reign well into the 18th century.  I can't really decide if she would truly be a ageless virgin queen or a desiccated wreck plastered in powders and cosmetics;  I guess the details don't matter yet.

I don't know what the ramifications of this would be but the general plan is that the Elizabethan Golden age hadn't ended and the only thing actually keeping the English from sweeping the board clean is the Sidhe.

The Fey Folk are malicious and disdain all mortal men but have a very special hatred for the English.  When Merlin wove enchantments that cursed them to never set foot on the shores of Albion (or possibly any land at all)  the Unseelie courts were forced to abandon their homelands to the wretched man things and take to a shadowed nether sea somewhere outside of reality ( Fey ships are ghost like and can sail in and out of the nether sea and real oceans (possibly by night only?).

As loathe as they are to align themselves with any man the Sidhe have made pacts with both the Spanish and French in various schemes to revenge themselves on the English as well as hatching their own machinations and with other Kingdoms of Men. 

Intrigues and High Adventure await all manner of Sailor and Explorer in a New World steeped in it's own magical traditions locking horns with Powers of the Old World in Golden Ageless.

That's the premise in a nutshell.  Here is the marine WIP.

   

[manatic]

Will be following this with interest. Those marines look lovely, too! Some of these might be nice for a Chinese pirate crew: http://www.bushido-thegame.com/catalog/jung-pirates
What will you be using for the Junk?

[mweaver]

Sounds interesting.  Looking forward to hearing (and seeing) more.

I like the way those troops are turning out.  Very sharp!

-Michael

[horridperson]

I considered the Bushido crew because they are beautiful models but chose the Northstar In Her Majesty's Name Black Tong set.  I think they are exceptional models too but the sculpting styles are very different.  I'm hedging a bet that there will be more Northstar Chinese inspired sculpts when they release their Pirate styled game so I will have a uniform aesthetic and a wide range of models to choose from.  I also like the way they match up with some Brigade Games Chinese migrants I picked up for an Old West game (Those poor Tong members might end up very busy ).  I will buy some of those models at some point though.  I really want to paint them.  I just have to convince someone to play Bushido with me.

The junk is gong to be a scratchbuild. I've been able to gather quite a collection of reference material from the web and found some articles dealing with western styled ships built specifically for gaming as well.  By following the materials from the latter and attempting to capture the aesthetic of the latter I think I could pull it off.  I have sketch a couple ship's drawings and have started to assign measurements.  For the sake of practicality the scale of the ships will be reduced to a point where the main decks will be about a foot in length with the widest measurement abeam at 4".  There is a lot of variation in size describing junk but for the marines to take ship I think I'll be consigned to a rather minute sloop (go with pocket sloop ).

Thank you both for commenting.  I hope to get the marines complete shortly and will post them finished when I get a couple of the Tong figures ready as well.  I also need to do an inventory in my dodgy "naval yard" and see just how much stuff I'm going to have to procure before I can actually lay a keel or two.