I’m afraid that my commitment to to producing a weekly blog has been somewhat lacking in recent months. Fortunately, my modelling output has continued at my usual steady rate and I continue to make progress on the various projects on my workbench.
I have been updating my model great ship, which I have yet to find a suitable name for. It is based on Henry Vths Gracedieu but much reduced in scale so that it fits onto a gaming table. I have added some detail to the Forecastle and also a figure head. The figure head is a roaring lion and is made from one of the DeeZee models , DZ23 Lion attacking. A bit of a waste, in that I only used the head, cutting it off from the body and using greenstuff to blend it into the prow of the model. I think that it looks nice though! I have also added a couple of anchors to the bow. They are from the Expo range that we carry. I had agonised about how I would drill through the hull and keep the holes looking tidy. I solved the problem by using two eyelets from a hole punch set that I had. I’m quite pleased with the result.
I also decided to add some shields to the stern castle. I used the large Heater shields from Footsore Miniatures and decorated them using some very old Games Workshop transfers that I had found in my bits box. I’ve also painted a few free hand. The Percy Hotspur shield is a case in point. It’s a bit rough when viewed close up but looks OK from a distance! Incidentally, the coats of arms that I have used are either fictional or wrong for the time period. It’s not a problem for me, I just want something that is representational that looks nice on the wargames table. At my age, I’m not going to get too hung up on making a museum quality accurate scale model of something that didn’t actually exist anyway.
I have also made and painted a few more fighting crew for the ship. I now have another 12 archers completed. Again, I have been pretty easy going with the livery and have gone for a mixture of liveries rather than one specific type. As Gracedieu was built in the latter part of the Hundred Years war, rather than the Wars of The Roses, I have used the Perry’s Agincourt set for the retinue. That is also my excuse for not being consistent with the livery!
The Great ship is more or less complete now. I will add another 8 archers to the crew, giving her a compliment of 24 archers and 18 Men at arms. This will make the great ship a formidable opponent when playing ‘Boat Hooks’ – that is until my opponent plays the special event card that will make her run aground! I’ll also add another 12 shields on the stern castle to finish the decoration there. I am toying with adding some removeable rigging, for display purposes, made from wire but I am in no rush to do so!
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