Another War Artisan Card Ship

Here is another excellent card ship from War Artisan Jeff Knudsen. This time a 1/300 scale 10 gun sloop schooner of the Revolutionary War. This build went easier than the last one, being a larger scale than the 1/1200 scale I built the 64 gun to. Everything went as the instructions directed, except for the channels. I couldn't figure them out so I made two out of bits from an old credit card. I also did not wrap the main sail around the mast like the instructions suggest as I think it looks more accurate unattached. I really think this little schooner looks good. Kudos to Jeff for another great design.

 

Merry Christmas Shipmates

Hope your stocking is stuffed full of gaming toys this year!

My first War Artisan Card Ship

Here is my review of War Artisan's card model of a 64 gun ship of the line. This model is a freebie on the website, http://warartisan.com/. The owner and designer, Jeff Knudsen, provides a few of his excellent models for free so folks can try them out before purchasing. I downloaded this one quite a while back meaning to try it right away, but I then learned to scratch build and had so many Langton, GHQ and Navwar hulls to build (still do!), so it has taken me a long time to get around to trying this card model.

I must say, this model went together very well and very quick. I added a balsa base to strengthen the hull and that's all really. The instructions already include balsa support for the raised quarter deck, forecastle and poop deck. The most time was taken to build the masts. I chose to add my stepped masts rather than the suggested single shaft masts in the instructions. There are two sail choices, the Simple sail set and the Advanced sail set. I chose the advanced sails as they allow for more detail to be added. Just a few other added embellishments were made to the sails. The standard and running rigging are done like my other 1/1200 ships. Overall I am really impressed. This would be a really fast way to put a battle fleet together. No painting at all, just some touch up with colored highlighters. Very cool! My hat is off to Jeff!

With Navwar 74 and Davco 64

1960's 1/250 scale Pyro Brig

It has been quite a while since my last post, last June in fact. The summer was not that busy and I had plenty of time to spend in the shipyard, but to tell the truth the creative juices just dried up. I sat down in the dungeon a lot and thought of doing something, anything! It just wasn't there. I watched a lot of movies, got caught up on everything Netflix and Amazon Prime had to offer. Without gamers to play with, I just lost the incentive to build anything for gaming.

Now it is winter and too wet to play outdoors. My UK friend Rory recently finished a beautiful 1/500 scale Airfix Victory. It turned out so nice I was inspired to build an old 1960's 1/250 scale Pyro Brig of War I picked up on eBay a while back. It was a partial build so I had to take it apart first and clean it up. It was two cannon short, had a broken mast, and was missing the flags and stern decal. I chose not to make ratlines for it, so just rigged the shrouds. There is no ship's boat, which I have always thought odd with these models, and I just didn't feel like taking the time to make one (I am just barely out of my creative block after all). So here she is:

Banned From TMP

Another blogger friend jmilesr "Lair of the Ubber Geek" had a post with a similar title a few days ago. It seems he got sucked into a divisive trolling thread initiated by the Editor of The Miniatures Page Bill Armintrout. There were actually two threads, one on the Wargaming in the UK board entitled Wargaming: "A British Hobby?" http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=453973, and one on the Wargaming in the US board with the title "Arrogant America  Gamers" http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=454023. Regardless of the titles, both threads were an attempt by Armintrout to get support for his contention that British gamers are arrogant and intolerant of anyone not British. I followed the links to both of these threads and was stunned. I would not have believed the Editor would do something like this. There were almost as many "deleted" post as there were remaining posts. The overwhelming consensus of response was that the complaints the Editor outlined did not in fact exist, on either shore of the Atlantic. Many accused him of baiting and trolling, stirring the pot, etc. The more adamant comments disagreeing with Armintrout are being deleted by him. The more persistent comments trying to speak reason and calling for him to end such divisive threads are being banned from TMP, like jmilesr and now myself. It is almost like the man has been possessed by some demon. What he is doing is nothing short of evil. Many good folks who contribute a lot to our miniatures community are being stifled and banned from TMP. Well it is his website and he can live with what is left of it after he drives his advertisers and membership away. There are other websites with more civil editors I am told.

Knowing I was likely to get myself 86'd for civilly disagreeing with him, I quickly posted on the Age of Sail board a goodbye to all of my friends with a parting suggestion that they all peruse the two divisive threads for their own education about the Editor. but Armintrout deleted it and locked my account before anyone could read it.

So now this blog is it for communication, until I find another suitable forum to post to. There is still the SOG Anchorage site though it is limited to mostly Sails of Glory fans of which I am not, but they are all really good people, from all over the world I might add, no National arrogance, no ethnic stuffiness Mr. Armintrout!

Revell 1:450 Spanish Galleon

I just finished Revell's 1:450 Spanish Galleon Plastic Model. This is a nice little model, miles better than the Pyro BonHomme Richard I built a while back. The first thing I did was cut the hull down to waterline. Then I cut a balsa wood insert to fit the hull for some strength support and glued it in place. I made some modifications like deck grating, stern and inner deck rails that did not come on the model but were pictured on the box art. I installed a mizzen yard and flag pole extensions for each mast. I haven't figured what to use for a base yet, or if I even need one. A base would probably protect the weak oars, so I will most likely make one.

Comparison to my 1:1200 ships

Ares Ottoman First Rate Bash

In early 2015 I modified a couple of Ares Sails of Glory first rate models for a friend in Arizona. I was going through my past posts and found the first one I did, but not the second. For some reason or other I never posted it, Looking through my photos from early 2015, I think it might have been the poor quality of the photos I took, or I might have intentionally decided not to post it because I didn't take the usual finished photo sequence. So I have borrowed the very nice photo my friend Gunner took to post on the SOG Anchorage website when he received the ship in the mail. I am including the poor photos first, then the nice one last. For some reason Gunner wanted this one to be an Ottoman first rate. I did pretty much the same modifications to this one that I did with Gunner's first ship (see "Sails of Glory Kit Bash" January 2015). Doing this model inspired me to  create my own 1/1200 scale Ottoman first rate from a Navwar model (see Navwar Ottoman Empire Selimiye 122 Gun 1st Rate, February 2015). Anyway here are the photos. Better Late than never I guess.