Release the Kraken!

“Men may sail the seas for a lifetime and seldom, if ever, come in contact with the nightmare monsters that inhabit the caves and cliffs of the ocean floor. Gazing down at the slightly muddy water, the men of The Unicorn saw a squirming mass of interwoven tentacles resembling enormous snakes, immensely thick and long and tapering at their free ends to the size of a man's thumb. It was a foul sight, an obscene growth from the dark places of the world, where incessant hunger is the driving force. At one place, down near the bulge of the hull, appeared a staring gorgon face with great lidless eyes and a huge parrot beak that moved slightly, opening and shutting as though it had just crunched and swallowed a meal of warm flesh.

("Fire In The Galley Stove")” 

― William Outerson, Monster Mix

   Not long after I bought the Juliette, I started looking around at other piratey things I could add to my collection and I found this kraken on eBay. I have no idea who actually makes it but I was really captured by the idea. As my ship project had stalled badly this went into my lead mountain and that's where it sat for quite some time.
   In my head I have a vague idea of doing a multi-ship free-for-all game that involved the crew on deck as much as the ship's cannons themselves, but I wanted some way of mixing it up and a kraken felt like the right answer.

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The Juliette

'Take what you can, give nothing back' 

       – Pirates of the Caribbean

   The Juliette is a pirate ship I bought back at Salute in 2015 after being talked into buying one by both the guy on the stand and my dad. She was built within a week or so of the show, but there is always something in a big project that you just can't quite get right and makes it stumble, in this case it was the sails. I wanted to be able to move figures around the deck, but also have something that wasn't just a really nice hull with a dowel rod to represent a mast. So this was my middle ground, sails well above the deck, so the space is free for my clumsy hands. She isn't a display model, she is a wargaming ship.

   The ship, herself, is from Ainsty Castings, while most of the mast components are home made from dowel rods. The sails were made from pillow cases by my sister in law after my first attempts looked terrible. The details, including rails, ship bell, wheel and cannons are a mix of the bits that come with the hull and extra stuff I picked up from Games of War. The figure head is from Britannia Miniatures and is way too grand to go on a small sloop like this but it's pirates, so who cares.

   The guns are a laughable mix of four pounders and a single pair of six pounders at the front. I might need to do something about them if she is to have any chance of getting a prize.

   The crew are, mainly, from Foundry Miniatures, bought on the same day as I picked up the ship, but there is a North Star Miniatures cabin boy and a Reaper Miniature pirate woman. The parrot is also from Reaper, while the sharks* are from Black Tree Designs.

* You have to

have sharks

With the Pirates of the Caribbean series being on tv recently and the wife and me watching Black Sails, I dare say more pirates will grace this blog, and I already know exactly what my next post will be about. . .

Thanks for reading.