Black Seas Brig Bash

 After seeing what several other folks have done with all of the extra brigs that Warlord Games includes with it's squadron packs, I decided to try my hand at creating something else from two of the brigs. What I came up with is a 22 gun corvette and a 12 gun naval cutter.

Standard brig below with new corvette and cutter above

With scratch masts set in place to prime

Standing rigging done on the two bash ships

Finished brig, corvette and cutter

With scratch clear acrylic bases I'm experimenting on.

Here are photos of the individual ships:

The Cutter

The Corvette

Black Seas Royal Navy Brig

 This is a typical Warlord Games Black Seas brig modeled for the Royal Navy. The plastic spars were cut away from the masts and new spars were mounted properly in front of the masts. 

Black Seas USS Constellation Part 2

 Here is the completed Black Seas USS Constellation. Again the modifications include installing rigging tie-off rails at the base of each mast, quarter boat davits, cut away the plastic spars and replaced with steel rod at the proper angle for a quarter wind, extended the fighting tops, topgallant mast platforms, and finally a custom dolphin striker. And one more thing, I decided to do scratch sails.

Black Seas USS Constellation Part I

Here are a few shots of the Constellation with the standing rigging finished. Next task is the sails!

Back to Black Seas

Well it has been twenty two days since my accident and at the risk of grossing everyone out I will resist the great temptation to show you what it looks like now. At the ten day mark I dutifully went back to the urgent care facility to see how it was mending and whether the stitches could be removed or not. I had doubts that were justified as it turned out. The nurse removed the bandage and told me to wait. This time instead of a PA I got a Doctor. Woohoo I thought. He asked "When did this happen?" at least three times. I asked if he thought it was healed enough to remove the stitches and his reply was to take out every other stitch and see what happens! There were eleven to begin with, by the time he took the fourth stitch out I was bleeding again and it was fairly obvious the finger had not completed knitting. So he cuts some adhesive closure strips to try to cinch the wound back together where it split when he pulled the stitches. Then, where it was bleeding he gets a regular bandaid and starts to stick it on, but he can't find anywhere that the adhesive won't be stuck to the wound. I was pretty amazed at this "Doctor". So he hands me a wad of gause to hold on the bleeding wound and tells me to come back in three days, then walks out. So I wait, expecting the nurse to come back and bandage me back up with the splint and all, like it was when I came in. I waited half an hour and no one came in. So I opened the cabinet and helped myself to what I needed, bandaged and splinted myself, then walked out. I didn't go back. Last Friday July 31, I removed the rest of my stitches, at my hobby desk, with my own tools! I stopped wearing the bandage and splint on Sunday. It is still weeping a bit when I bang it on something or bend it a little. But the main thing is that it is on the mend!

So on to Black Sails which is what this post is supposed to be about. 

The photo above includes the remaining two plastic 38 gun US frigates plus one of the plastic third rates from the 3rd Rate Squadron pack. As I have mentioned before, each ship sprue contains extra parts like stern plates, figureheads, anchors and boats. In addition the US Squadron pack came with an additional pack of metal sterns and figureheads. So...sitting around with my useless finger while it was still hurting a lot, I made silicone molds of a frigate and a 3rd rate. The two light tan ships in the photo above are the cast result with some of the extra stern plates and figureheads attached.

One of the plastic frigates with the supplied metal Congress stern plate. 

Also, as I have mentioned in a previous post, the named sterns are not all that accurate, specifically the stern plates for the Chesapeake (already built) and the Constellation. The one provided is the curved stern from the 1853 Constellation sloop of war, not the original frigate. 

1853 curved stern

So I selected one of the generic stern plates that more closely resembled the original frigate stern and then created my own name plate to mount just below.

Now that I can do a little modification work again, I have done a little more work on this frigate.

 The modifications include installing rigging tie-off rails at the base of each mast, quarter boat davits, cut away the plastic spars and replaced with steel rod at the proper angle for a quarter wind, extended the fighting tops, topgallant mast platforms, and finally a custom dolphin striker.

The next post will likely be this ship when it is done. Then after that may be the cast frigate below.

Best of fortune to everyone and thanks for stopping by.

The End of Ships For a While

Yesterday evening, as I was finishing up working for the day, I had an altercation with my radial arm saw and came very close to losing a finger. I mangled it pretty bad through the glove. It took about 40 minutes to round the wife up (she was working too on another section of the property) and get going into town to an urgent care center. It was late in the day, after 5 PM and we hit two centers before we found a third that was open. It was excruciatingly painful and by now I was in the second hour of holding pressure on it to control the bleeding. by the time it was X-Rayed and the PA showed up I was well into the third hour of pain.

But even more painful were the needles inserted (it took five) to numb the area to allow for stitching. It took eleven stitches, and not pretty ones either. I am extremely lucky there was no bone or tendon damage. I have to wear a splint for 10 days and then return to the center to see if the stitches can be removed. They told me I most likely will never regain feeling in that finger again past the first joint. That will certainly make it difficult to rig a ship for sure.

Ares USS Constitution

Here is the last Sails of Glory ship for Gunner. The Ares version of the USS Constitution included some funky looking boats glued to the sides, in the wrong place covering up two cannon per side. I removed them and installed davits in the proper position bracketing the mizzen shrouds. There are now four cannon with stubbed barrels where the boats were glued. Ares does some really weird stuff. At least on this one they have the stay sails and spanker billowing in the same direction. I repainted the deck and the deck furniture. As with the others, sails were cut away and dressed, and new masts were inserted.

The Original Toy Ship

I had more trouble fitting the rigged ship back into the packaging it came with, so I had to make several modifications. I used a larger 1st rate box I had stored to fit the packaging in.