From RaulM: Merchant Shipping (12 Points)

I've decided to keep the them of merchant shipping going, so this time I have a small merchantman. This model is sold by Warlord Games as a fireship, which is such a niche use-case that I'd rather have it as the merchantman which I can use more often. In addition I painted up a little longboat to use for landing scenarios. 

The model itself is nothing particularly crazy. Technically, with the foremast being taller this would be a ketch rather than a brig. 

The reason I decided to paint her as a merchant is that her deck is modeled with a ton of crates and barrels, which as a fire ship would have been loaded with flammables and explosives. Instead I've given them a more peaceful purpose. 

The longboat is a simple little conversion I did, where I took the largest boat from the 3rd rate frame, sculpted some tiny crew, and given them some oars. Some small, fine work, but not overwhelming. 

I've painted all of the passengers as marines, which gives it a really nice bright pop of color on the table. 

 I've counted the merchantman as 10 points, and 2 points for the little longboat, for a total of 12. 

I've really enjoyed your Age of Sail work Raul, and this week's post is no exception.  That's fine looking Merchant brig suitable for many uses.  Also love the long boat. 

From RaulM: Black Seas Indiamen (15 points)

I've painted a ton of military ships for Black Seas, but what's the point if there are no fat, juicy prizes to chase or a grateful convoy to dutifully escort? Warlord thankfully has provided some Indiamen to make this a reality in your games of Black Seas. 

I purposely strayed away from yellow and black to help distinguish this ship form its escorts. The photography doesn't quite get the coloring great, but the hull is a very deep brown. I also avoided using any of the other types of national colors as I wanted this ship to be generic and usable by anyone for any scenario. 

The model also came with 4 different inserts to give some variety between Indiamen, and I chose the open deck full of cargo. It was a little difficult for me to get that to look ok in this scale, but I did my best. 

For scoring I put this at 15 points to go inline with the frigates I painted last year. It is a little larger and chunkier than those 5th rates, but I didn't have to rig any ensigns or pennants which made my life a little easier so it comes out in the wash. 

What a wonderful fat prize for any raider Raul.  Of course there are equally examples of Indiamen fighting a raider off due to their crew size and armament.  Wonderful work.

From RaulM: Black Seas HMS Indefatigable (25 points)

Hello and welcome to my first post of the challenge! It's a little later than I had hoped, but I've had a lot going on behind the scenes. You're not here for excuses though, you're here for some painted minis. I'm continuing last year's adventure with Black Seas, Warlord Games's foray into Age of Sail miniatures. The scale is 1/700 (although sticklers would point out that it's on a sliding scale and not all of them are true 1/700 and so on and so on...). The first miniature I have this year is the HMS Indefatigable, a rather famous ship in Napoleonic naval circles.

This is a resin, metal, and plastic model. The metal stern and figurehead are technically meant for one of the plastic 5th rate frigates in the Royal Navy starter box, but the Indefatigable is not a standard 5th rate, but instead a razee, which is a larger ship, like a 3rd or 2nd rate, who's upper gun deck has been cut away. So instead I used the small 4th rate razee model, which is made of resin. I also took the masts from a plastic 3rd rate as I thought the 5th rate masts were a touch too small. 

I used my standard Royal Navy colors here, which is an amber yellow with black. The figurehead was a fun little challenge, and is practically a miniature on a miniature. My photography isn't great, but that's a Greek warrior with sword and shield. 

And for those of you that can't really picture what 1/700 scale means, here's the ship next to a Blood & Plunder 28 mm pirate on a 20 mm base. 

As for points, I've scored this at 20 points based on previous challenges, particularly my USS Constitution from last year. 

Welcome back Raul and what an absolutely smashing first post!  A famous ship indeed, now you just need the Droits de L'Hommes for her to fight in a gale.   Just lovely work on the painting and rigging.  Speaking of rigging, I fully support the idea of using the bigger masts, as Captain fellow specifically kept her original masts on conversion from a 3rd rate.  I'm adding in a few points for the flag and the fine work.

From RaulM: Black Seas Cutter and Schooner (20 points)

Life has been particularly busy for me as I just became a new dad, so this will more than likely be my last post for this year's hobby challenge. I was working on a Battle of Lake Erie project, and as part of that I have these two vessels: a cutter and a schooner. 

Both are metal models from Warlord Games Black Seas, although I do think that the schooner comes with resin hulls nowadays. They're fairly simple to build and paint as the sails are sculpted onto the masts, which eliminates a step when compared to the standard Black Seas models. 

The cutter comes in two varieties, an armed and unarmed version. I used the unarmed version, but added a 12-pdr gun to the fore and aft, run out on opposite sides. I based the look off of the HMS Little Belt, that itself was actually the Friends Good Will, of which a replica can be found at the Michigan Maritime Museum. It was fun to use some different colors than yellow and black. 

The schooner got the standard US Navy colours that I've established thus far. It has a little bit of stern detailing, that I embellished with a metallic gold paint. 

These are both planned for a Battle of Lake Erie scenario at some future time. 

As for points, they're both quite small, so I'm taking 5 points each for a total of 10 points. 

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I must admit to getting a bit excited each week when I see that Raul has a post ready for Minioning :-)

And this week's entry is no disappointment either! Two more lovely additions to your Fleets and the great lakes are a wonderful place to sail the lighter hulls. I really like the darker stains on the canvas on the Yankee Schooner too - reminds me of the effect sails get when furled not quite dry.

Lovely work as ever on all the details - worth 10 points each at least!

Most importantly though - hearty congratulations on becoming a Father!!! I'm thrilled for you, as I'm sure everyone else here is too. And you thought Wargaming was expensive.... :-)

- Paul

From RaulM: Black Seas USS Constitution (50 Points) (Lust)

She was lusted after by Paul in my last post, and so I have delivered in the first ring of the Abyss. I've painted Old Ironsides, or USS Constitution, a resin and metal model from Warlord Games Black Seas. 

This ship is the reason I got into Black Seas, as upon my visit I was enthralled and needed to get into some kind of naval wargame where I could use this model. I believe it's one of the earlier Black Seas resin models to be made, as some of the details are quite chunky when compared to the latest releases. All the same though, I like the look of this model. 

I kept the metal masts this time around, as they were thick enough to withstand some touching. With all of the rigging and sails in place they're quite solid. The kit came with a stern davit, but it covered all of the beautiful stern detailing, and I couldn't bring myself to the do that to the model. Instead, I stole the quarter-davit boats from the USS United States model, and I think it nails that iconic look of the Humphrey's frigates without obscuring any critical details. 

I do think the bow railing is a tad chunky, but I think that was a limitation of the casting, as otherwise all of this detail would have been too difficult to cast. I think the Black Seas ships are a "heroic" scale for naval miniatures, as details like figureheads and stern galleries are larger than they should be just so that you can actually read what's going on. And I'm totally ok with that and actually prefer it. 

Based on ratings I've done for previous ships, I'll score this at 20 points, as it's larger than a standard frigate, almost about the same size as a 3rd rate. I've claimed the Lust bonus for this one as Paul wanted to see this model before the challenge was up, and I also have really wanted to point this one. That gives me 40 points total for the post. 

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A fabulous beauty she is too Raul, well worth waiting for! As ever, your work on the rigging, sails, pennants and flags is top notch and worth some bonus points too. 

Thanks indeed for prioritising "Old Ironsides" - thats made my week!

- Paul

From RaulM: Black Seas USS Constellation, Sloop-of-War, and Bomb Ketch (80 Points)

Yup, you guessed it. More Black Seas. I've got another 3 ships done. The USS Constellation from 1854, a British ship-rigged sloop-of-war, and finally a a generic bomb ketch. 

The USS Constellation is one of the named ships that comes in the US Navy starter fleet from Warlord Games. The intent was for it to be one of the original six frigates of the US Navy, but the supplied bits were for the later version from 1854. I did a fair amount of conversion work to the stern to integrate that piece, as Warlord does not make a frigate with a rounded stern. 

This Sloop-of-war is an even heavier conversion, albeit a common one in the Black Seas space. I fused two of the smaller brigs together to make this 3-mast ship. I also took a plastic stern plate from the frigate, and molded it to the back. Finally, I raised the stern deck to create a raised quarterdeck. I did all of this conversion work a long time ago, and I finally decided to paint it so that'll be my exit from Limbo and into the larger world of Dante's Inferno. 

Finally, the Bomb Ketch. Nothing special was done to this vessel, other than that I didn't give it a nationality. I only have 3 of these, and instead of limiting each one to a nation, I decided to keep it generic so I can use it with any fleet in any scenario. 

 For the final points tally, I have:

USS Constellation: 15 points

Sloop-of-War: 15 points + Limbo 20 points

Bomb Ketch: 10 points

For a total of 60 points. 

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What a treat you've sailed in again Raul! You are really doing some fantastic work with these Black Sea ships. The rigging, rat lines, sails and pennants really are top notch. Please take a bunch of bonus points for the great eye for detail in your modelling

I'm hoping you do a USS Constitution during the challenge too: I've been aboard 'Old Ironsides' on three occasions including being "rung aboard" formally, and my name is inscribed on the protective copper hull sheeting under the waterline :-)

- Paul

From RaulM: Black Seas 1st Rate, Xebec, and Cutter (60 points)

My second post for the challenge is even more Black Seas, covering a spread of vessels that all could have been found in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars. A Spanish 1st rate, a Barbary Pirate xebec, and a French cutter. 

The Spanish 1st rate is one of the generic resin Spanish 1st rates that Warlord offers. I didn't like the white metal masts provided, so I took the yards and the fighting tops and attached them to masts I made with brass tubing. The paint scheme is based on the Santa Ana, who fought in several fleet actions, notably surviving the Battle of Trafalgar. 

The Xebec is another Warlord resin model, the large xebec. I kept the metal masts for this as they are chunkier and therefore not as prone to bending. The paint scheme is nothing special, very similar to the official box art that Warlord uses. 

Finally, the cutter. This is a metal model from Hagen Miniatures, with quite a bit of conversion work done to it to add the 12 guns on the deck and the square topsail. I used the Renard for reference, as it was the first thing that came up on google search when I was looking at French cutters.

For points I based it on the small brig being 10 points and the medium frigate as 15 points, so a 5 point up or down based on the size the vessel is given in game. 

1st Rate (XL): 25 points

Xebec (S): 10 points

Cutter (T): 5 points

For a total of 40 points. 

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Stunning work Raul - anyone who has dabbled in the majestic art of naval warship modelling (the creme of the hobby obviously, apart from Miles that is) knows what fine work this is. Wonderful lines, dynamic flags and billowing sails. Stirring stuff!

I'm awarding 20 bonus points for the conversion work, scratch building new masts, the lovely ratlines and taut rigging work - beautifully done!

Fair winds and following seas to you Raul!

-Paul

From RaulM: Black Seas Speedy and Hermione (25 points)

This is my first time posting to the Challenge, so I'm excited to dive on in. With a lull in the action between Christmas and New Years, I had some time to get some hobbying done. My first offerings for the challenge are two vessels from Warlord Games Black Seas: the HMS Speedy and L'Hermione. 

Speedy is an English 14-gun brig-sloop, famous for her action against the Spanish xebec-frigate El Gamo. The hull and masts are metal, and she's painted in the typical Royal Navy fashion with a yellow stripe on a black hull. 

The Hermione is a French frigate, which I based off the current replica of the ship. This is the standard plastic 32-gun frigate model with bespoke metal sternplate and figurehead from the French starter navy.  

Based on some past posts of Black Seas ships, I scored the brig at 10 points and the frigate at 15, for a total of 25. 

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First, welcome to the Challenge Raul! Every year we have new faces in the ranks which I always enjoy to see.

These two tall ships look absolutely tremendous Raul. I'm especially impressed with your shading on the sails, the pennants and flags and the tidy (and painstaking) job on the rigging. Bravo! A great opening broadside for your Challenge debut!

- Curt

From AdamC - Gunboats [Maritime] (44 points )

The family (including myself) have been battling illnesses for the past few weeks painting time has been limited but at last I have something for you. Black Seas Gunboats from Warlord games.

I got this set at sale at the Mayhem Convention, the set has three gunboat squadrons. 

I can see you all counting yes there are four squadrons. 

Well one of the bases had some of the cannon broken off and Warlord replaced it. I did some work on these to make them work (fortunately the front cannons weren't damaged). I really like the gaff rig for vessels of this size. 

Here we have them as intended three guns (one forward and one each to port and starboard) .  I think the gunboat Philadelphia from the American revolution was and inspiration for the design.

You can see the "broadside" guns these were what was damaged on the other base. The sails are metal and painted by me so feel free to praise them this time 😉. Here is my progress so far.

Points wise I don't know if we have had Gunboats since point 1/700 ships where reworked (i found a reference in two separate posts where they were scored at 10 and 6 per base). I would suggest that 6 points seems more correct  points per base (2 per boat) for 24 plus an additional 20 points for the Maritime section of the library. (But adjust as necessary)

 

 

Sylvain: I really like how you created the sea surface on your bases. The waves seems to be at just the right scale for the gunboats. I love seeing submissions like yours that highlight the neglected little guys in the big battles. And yes, I agree with you points claim as these seem to match a 6mm vehicle, which is 2 points. Nicely done!

From Mike W - Bretonnians, Tau & Orcs plus a little more Skulls, Squirrel& Maritime (241 Points)

 In celebration of the recent release of Warhammer: The Old World, I have dug out a small batch of Bretonnian archers to get painted up. Back in the day I had a reasonably big Bretonnian army, mostly classic Archers and Knights, with the release of the new Old World Starter pack of Bretonnians and Tomb Kings, I thought that these figures had finally reached the time that they should be finished.

Six Bretonnian peasant Archers, painted up in the classic Blue & Red livery

On the left is a musician, with a rather large horn! Note the triangle of white circles on the archer's mini shields

Each of these guys has some kind of quilted leather jerkin and Blue & Red robes to denote their loyalties.Central guy seems to have some kind of purity seal on his bow.

So for some reason, twenty odd years ago I had undercoated these guys in dark brown! Thinking about it I read an article in Red Dwarf suggeting that this was a good option to give these peasants a distinctive look. Having undercoated them, my attention was obviously taken elsewhere as they have not seen a lick of paint until this last week.

The other three guys, on the right is a guy that is wearing monk's robes but stands in the line with the other archers in the unit.

I painted over much of the brown undercoat with a 'Linen' coloured paint and then used browns to add in all the leather armour and decided on a classic Red and Blue colour scheme for these guys. I used Army Painter Speed Paints in Red & Blue to do much of the cloth on these figures. I then added detail as I went and opted for three white circles on each shield to unify the group into a single unit, no doubt a retinue of a knight who has a similar heraldry to the mini shields on these figures. I highlighted as best I could and they were pretty much done.

Last shot, guy on left has a linen cap over his hair, believe these were commonly worn under helmets for added padding.

I'll have to see if I have any Knights kicking around my drawers and boxes to add to this humble beginnings of an army.

Another week, another batch of Tau! In completing this latest batch I have just realised that I am approaching the end of my stock of pre-built Tau figures! I have one remaining Crisis Suit figure built and ready to be completed. I'm now going to have to waste valuable painting time and spend this time building more squad members - this happens every year so I'm only surprised that I'm surprised...

Latest Tau squad with accompanying Gun Drone and Force Field marker.

Luckily I'm working a week in arrears regarding my posts as opposed to actual painting and building...

and another view...

...Anyway that problem is for next week - today I have 11 x Tau Warriors, a drone and another Defence Force Field marker. All prepared and painted in my ongoing Tau style, namely white with random Orange panels. Again we have a Tau Infantry squad, with a Squad Leader on his Comm device, a Rail Gunner and nine regular warriors - including one Gue'Vesa.

Rail Gunner on the right, a guy with a combi-weapon center and carbine on left

The Drone is an armed Gun Drone, capable of fighting in the line with the rest of the squad or being sent out on 'point' duty and take the risks that living Tau might not want to take...

For guys with long weapons

A group with combi-weapons, squad leader with comms device in hand is second from right. A Gue'Vesa, human helper, is second from left.

Gun Drone left and Defensive Force Field Marker on right

Moving on, this week's Orc batch is a regiment of these greenskin guys with two hand weapons plus associated standard bearer and musician. Additionally there is a mounted Boar rider and a couple of spare musicians that will be integrated elsewhere into my collection.

17 x Orc Warriors, including standard bearer and musician

Another view

One of the down sides of collecting figures via eBay is that you can't always guarantee if what you get is what you see on the lot photos! This week is a case in point, I have found myself with two drummers and a horn blower all bundled up with the last 4 or 5 lots I have received. Not to worry - I painted them all!😀

Close-up of six Orc Warriors

Five more

And the last 6 orcs

The mounted Orc will joint the small collection of Boar Riders in my army, As a side note, I prefer these older Boar models to their newer ones, and for consistency in the units I have, I avoid getting the newer Boars. I'm sure its just a matter of taste, but a pitfall of having an older collection.

An additional two Orc Drummers

Orc Boar Rider, the tusks on the model were broken when I received it via eBay, luckily I had an old Beastman skull that was cut down and positioned to provide a new lower jaw and tusks for the Boar.

The other side of the Boar Rider

Again I'm coming to the end of my supply of pre-built Orcs, so there may be a pause in the production line as I'm waiting for two Orc & Goblin deliveries to come through to restart this. Maybe, I'll just have to switch to my Lizardmen!

To claim the Maritime Bonus I have completed a Black Seas vessel. Black Seas is a game that really captures my imagination but as yet I have not really made any progress in building a fleet of ships - largely because the detail that I imagine that I would like to see on these models is so far beyond my capabilities.

Black Seas Brig painted in Royal Navy livery.

This Brig as been painted up in classic Royal Navy color scheme with a black and tan hull and red inner walls to the vessel. I have tried some very basic rigging to set it off. I'm pleased with what I have done but disappointingly at what I have achieved is still short of what I have in my imagination. I'll have to come back to this to see what additional detail can be added at a future point - at the moment it is a playable tabletop piece.

Other side of the Brig. Base was painted with GW 'Stegadon Scale Green', white foam added on and then a Blue Ink Wash.

Maritime Bookself added to visits

POINTS

9 x Tau @ 5 Points ea                              30 Points 45 points

12 x Tau @ 5 Points ea                            60 Points

1 x Tau Defense Force Field Marker       1 Point

19 x Orcs @5 Points ea                           95 Points

1 x Mounted Orc                                      10 Points

1 x Black Seas Brig                                  10 Points

1 x Maritime Bonus                                 20 Points

TOTAL                                                    226 Points 241 points

+1 Squirrel (Bretonnians)

+ 5 Skulls

Sylvain: Every week you impress me with not only the quantity and quality of your production, but also with the diversity. It's like you are some sort of mutlilingual painter. Your Taus and Orcs are very consistent and you most have nicely matching armies. Despite your self-critiques, I really like your brig and I hope its the start of a project and that more will come. Well done!

 P.S. I revised your points.