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 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 AndrewB: BOATAPALOOZA! (75pts)

Today we’ve got BOATS!

First, the challenge demanded a ship for the Pirate Ladies from my last post, which I have obliged!   This is a little tub from Printable Scenery, which I had my friend with an FDM printer scale up slightly and get rocking!  Boy howdy, this is different from painting resin printed stuff.  That said, I assembled some basic masts and rigging, which give off a taste of realism while still leaving the decks unencumbered enough to be played on.  I have loads of cannon already painted, so I haven’t included them, but I may pull out the whole collection next time I finish some pirates, just so you folks can get a taste, and they’ll surely be included! 

There should be more than enough room aboard for my 11 pirate ladies, so that’s nice.  In terms of size for scoring, the hull alone is almost a foot long, and 5ish inches across.  The masts obviously extend far over the 6inch mark, so I figured somewhere between one and two boxes might work, maybe an even 30pts?  For my time investment, I’d probably be better off painting six 28mm folks, but this was a fun aside! 

Next, I’m taking part in a bi-weekly painting stream over on YouTube on the ‘Not Jay’s Tabletop Gaming’ channel, and this Saturday evening’s stream(the first couple hours) focused on WWII Royal Navy vessels.  I painted up HMS Rodney, HMS Roberts, and a pair of destroyers!   These are all 3D printed models from Ghukek’s Miniatures scaled up to approximately 1/1200, as always, for floor-style games!  

First, HMS Roberts!  This relatively small vessel punches high above its weight class with a huge 15” twin turret!  It’s shallow draft, comparatively light armor, and slow speed make it most suited for shore bombardment type work, but anything getting hit but a 15” shell will wish it had picked a different fight.  

Next, a pair of destroyers!   The classes are written on the underside of the hulls, but I wasn’t smart enough to add them to my notes, so at the time of posting, I’m not sure, but the ship on the left appears to be a J-class or later, while the ship on the right sports the older style of single gun mounts, maybe an I-class or so?  Let me know what you think!  

Lastly, HMS Nelson!  I can’t get enough of this treaty-era battleship, and luckily, by the time WWII rolled around, most of the vessel’s wrinkles had been ironed out, leading to a productive career, notable tangling early on with KMS Bismarck!  The triple 16” turrets on the bow have always ready caught my eye, in a way that other similar designs(looking at you, Frogs) haven’t been able to.

With the wonderful resources of Mal Wright’s guides to British and commonwealth ships to guide me, I realized just how insanely varied most camouflage was, and elected to go with a unified scheme that might reflect a number of ships being pulled from minor refit/repairs at the same port facility being put to quick use in the channel or nearby.  We’ll see how it works out as I paint more ships!

As you can see, fine painters, I tried to make a high- contrast paint job that will make good use of the heavy shadows and high brights to allow players to pick out features from a further distance!   As for scoring on these four, Rodney is by all means slightly larger than the Spanish American ships you’ve been enjoying, so 15pts seems fairly appropriate, while the others are probably closer to 10.   

Total, that should hopefully bring my points for the post up to 75, with 45 from the WWII ships, and 30 from the 28mm pirate vessel!  

Look forward to my super hero post, I believe I’ve found something that may work. Keep painting, I’m pulling for you! 

From TeemuL: The participants wanted a pirate ship and that is exactly what Andrew delivers! Great job, listening the community in particular. It is a very nice ship, and those WW2 ships are great, too. I tried to move the last two photos in to the middle, but they don't want to be there... Your point request sounds reasonable, so I'll go with it.

AdamC: High Adventure, Under Construction and Black and White 135 Points (1 Squirrel)

I've been quite for a bit catching up on things since my latest round with Covid. I haven't been idle but progress has been slow.  First up is my first 1/700 scale sailing ship of the Challenge.

I'm submitting HMS Sophie from the original Master and Commander. Lucky Jack's first command and the gate way to many adventures across the Mediterranean seen here sailing past a volcanic island (you can just imagine Steven hopping in frustration as we sail past undiscovered natural wonders).

HMS Sophie is a 14 gun Brig built by cutting down two standard Warlord brigs (the other parts will appear in 20 gun sloop later if all goes well. )

Sophie a fine ship ready for many adventures, in the book that included clashes with Barbary Pirates, French Privateers, a Spanish Xebecc Frigate and almost escaping a Squadron of French Ships of the Line. Sophie is descred as having a white streak at her gun ports and this factor is used to desguise her as a Danish merchant.  Brigs at this scale are worth 10 points if I recall correctly.

The volcano was a beat up aquarium piece I picked up for free a year or two ago. I thought she would make a fine terrain piece. 

Her dimensions are about 5"x5"x4" if a six inch cube is worth 20 points so I would suggest 14 points for this one.

One other little detail of the design I used a tealight to create the impression of an active volcano. On to Under Construction.

I have no idea how old these are or when I started them.  I think I started (and almost finished them) in the 2022 challenge but they could be from the previous year (when my last Scotts post was).

This is a group of shooters that I would probably use as irregular infantry. 

The Wolf hound with the officer is a touch a have been adding to a number of my Scotts armies it has no historical basis just a fun touch.  There are 8 15mm minatures so another 16 points. 

Now for Balck and White we have some Games Workshop Goblins for Lord of the rings. 

I felt that Grayscale was perfect for Tolkien's Orks (and Goblins) both because it makes them look like the inhumman monsters that I belive Tolkien intended them to be but because they typicaly liked to fight in darkness. 

I realy like the twisted forms of there boddies though one wonders if such malformed beings could actualy survive in nature, never mind brutalized militerized society but since they are all twisted I guess it works. 

These seven figurese where my test to see how they looked and I will be doing more (hopefuly in this challenge) These Goblins shot get me another Squirrle point (7x25mm figures for 35 points)

OK points review: 

MHS Sophie: 1/700 scale Brig 10 Points + 20 for High Adventure

Volcano: 5"x5"x4" terrain cube14  10 Points (estimated please review)

Highland Scotts: 8 x 15mm 16 Points +20 for Under Construction

Goblins: 7x 25mm figures 35 Points + 20 Points for Black and White

That should put us at 135 Points. 

You have been busy Adam.  Love the conversion on HMS Sophie, I am looking forward to the 20 gun brig.  I assume that you cut a short bow "half" and a "short " stern half of the two hits so that the  long "halve" will make the bigger ship.   You're getting to be a daft hand at the chopping and reassembling of these Warlord kits - a regular Ygor of the sea.  I also love the repurposing of the aquarium volcano feature.

Your math is a bit off on the Volcano - I make it 100/216 of a cube with I am rounding up to 10 points.  But because the minion can both give and take away, I am adding back the 4 points for the conversion on the brig.

AndrewB- the Hatchery

 Try as I might, I was unable to find a single miniature with any sort of feathered feature to fill my spot in the Hatchery, so I had to get a little creative here.   Along with a couple other Royal Navy vessels, and an armed brig not sporting Nelsonic colors, I present to you HMS Sparrow!  

Sparrow is pictured second from right.  I wasn’t exactly sure how to get perfect sea bases out of these stellar steel bases from Wargames Accessories, but I hope those will suffice in the meantime.  I haven’t named, or researched proper history to name the others as of yet, but I prefer painting in small batches to singles with naval vessels, so you’ll hopefully pardon me on that as well.  

I was unable to find any 1/1200 ships scrolling through some pages of the ‘naval’ tag, so it’s up to the fantastic minions to discern the score on top of the 20 from the challenge!  My next chamber(Armory) is in the basing process, look for it in the next few days!

From JohnM:More Black Seas (94 points)

 

Over the last couple of months I have much enjoyed painting my first Age of Sail miniatures. To be honest, they are the most enjoyable minaitures I have painted in quite some time. Over the last couple of years, my focus has been on gaming and terrain and much less so painting, which in most cases I have been happy to hand off to the professionals.

These miniatures, however, are a lot of fun and once assembled look great on the table. I have also played a couple of games of Black Seas and that has been fun as well. To prepare for a game tomorrow night, I decided to paint up and assemble (the assembly is the more challenging part of the process) some more ships for my Spanish fleet.

1st Rate (yet to be christened)

Lots of guns

 

This is a resin and metal model, I have heard some complaints about the metal masts and they are a bit more of a challenge with the rigging but I think it came out OK.

3rd Rate (the Montañes)

 

An all plastic model

 

Gunship Squadron

Single Medium Cannon in front.

I did these in Salem, but my mat was in Montreal so I will have to darken up the base a bit.

Not 100% sure on how to score these but my friend Adam in his recent submission developed a scheme so I will follow that. It seems a Gunboat Squadron is 12 points, a Brig is 10 points (I would have thought this would have been a bit more as it certainly takes more time to paint, rig and apply sails to a brig than paint the gunboats), a 5th Rate was 18 points, so I think + 8 more for a 3rd Rate which is quite a bit bigger that the frigate as you can see below (24 points) and finally +4 points for the 1st Rate, which is only marginally bigger than a 3rd Rate (28 points) is reasonable. So I am hoping 68 points is a correct amount, but I will of course leave the final determination to the experts.

My Spanish fleet

These look really great and look good in full sail. The point scheme is sensible, never disagree with Adam on ships but it would be nice to have something for scale as I have no clue how big a ship is (somewhere between 1" and a 1' at this scale. I'll add a couple for the flags as I did with Adam but your maths is shocking - or mine is but I get that to be 92 + 2 for the flags = 94