Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Here is what I have done with them so far. Whats pictured has been done for 6 weeks now, just had a bad camera so no pics until now.

Now I have bad lighting to contend with...

The ship is completely scratch built out of balsa. 8" long at the waterline, 3" abreast. Its is named "Le Colibri" or "The Hummingbird" (The name has nothing to do with the Night of the Long Knives. Its to reflect its small, quick and hard to hit stature.)

Le Colibri has taken two additional hull points and two additional custom sailing rig ship upgrades (20 of the 20 beginning shipwright points) These are represented by the color of the wood (black american oak, making it a tough nut to crack) and the mast itself (adding square rigs fore to the mizzensail and three yet to be completed Jibs that will be attached to the bow sprit).

The mast is also removable so that when boarding actions occur, they don't get in the way.

Le Colibri can carry 10 models on 25mm bases, 12 if there are only two cannons aboard.

nice, its cool to see some high seas stuff. I'm intending to buy the book as I love the idea. I just bought some pirate minis from black cat bases to get me in the mood.

How can you tell they are french? Where are the mustaches? Where is the cheese? Where are the rude manners?

LOL! Just kidding. The boat is fantastic. Very nice work. Now make a bigger one! And send it to me!

ender502

nice painting.

Great figs and great little sloop (of war? really, too few masts to be a brig or a schooner) Any thoughts of giving her a wheel/tiller, or a bowgun or swivel guns? Or will those be in game upgrades (the guns I mean; the crew t'ain't goin' to steer the ship with their feet!)?

Oh My Jesus.

I love that ship -- IT'S AWESOME! Good job.

Scratchbuilt, eh? Nice modelling.

~sA

syr8766 wrote:Great figs and great little sloop (of war? really, too few masts to be a brig or a schooner) Any thoughts of giving her a wheel/tiller, or a bowgun or swivel guns? Or will those be in game upgrades (the guns I mean; the crew t'ain't goin' to steer the ship with their feet!)?

I actually have to no plans to give it a steerage. Its just such a cramped ship.

Bow gun would be nice but will screw with the parity of the broadsides. Likewise with sternguns. (small ships can only ever have 4 cannons if I read the rules correctly).
I did make the bow and stern platforms big enough to accommodate them if they ever are needed though.

Swivel guns. I would love to throw 4 of them on there but those are campaign upgrades, sadly.

Very nice, Do you have the John Finch model? its my friends captain.

John finch model?

I have no clue what you are referring to but I am intrigued.

Its a model somewhere in The Legends of the High Sea book, Ill ask my Mate when i see him tomorrow.

IMHO if you want a pirate game you need to go 15mm for the minaitures. Ideally you want a large a boat as possible and to make that happen you cut the miniature scale too to get the optimum in quality vs scale.

Next pull back the time about a hunded years or so. Elizabethan sea dogs vs Spanish is best. Ships in the late sixteenth century or earlier were much smaller, it is quite feasible to model a smaller 16thC warship or two full mini scale.

Orlanth wrote:IMHO if you want a pirate game you need to go 15mm for the minaitures. Ideally you want a large a boat as possible and to make that happen you cut the miniature scale too to get the optimum in quality vs scale.

Next pull back the time about a hunded years or so. Elizabethan sea dogs vs Spanish is best. Ships in the late sixteenth century or earlier were much smaller, it is quite feasible to model a smaller 16thC warship or two full mini scale.

Ummm.... ok.... thanks.

Normally, I would make an incredibly flippant remark about a post that tells me how I should be playing a game or what game I should be playing.

But after reading you post a few times I have come to the impression you haven't ever picked the LotHS book up and read through it. You assume it to be a different game than it is. So for the sake of taking your post seriously, I will take the time to respond with courtesy.

LotHS is a skirmish game, much like Mordheim or Necromunda. This isn't a full blown sea battle game. It is more of a light representation of it. In fact not many games actually take place at sea at all, perhaps 25% at best.

You start with a crew of about 10 men, and you could possibly work your way up to a max of 30 men. You could play this at any scale I suppose, but as most decent model s are made in 25-28mm scales, this is the recommended scale.
Because of the recommended scale, it is important that everybody who plays be on the same wavelength and use the same scale.

Likewise, the scale of the boat is important as well. WYSIWYG is pretty much how it works. If there isn't room on the vessel to be boarded, then there isn't room to place that model to board, etc.

That said, when you first start this game, you start out with a very minimal ship, as I have made in the first post. In fact, the water line profile it has is the max you can have as a starter vessel. It still comfortably carries the crew that you start with. Anyone that cannot be placed top deck, is abstractly considered to be below deck.

This is a campaign game and you have to earn larger ships to sail, mostly by taking them as a prize (which to say the least is extremely difficult to do). This is the reason why you do not want a large a boat as possible.

As for timeline, this is set during what may be considered as "the golden age of piracy" of 1700-1730. This isn't a historical game in the strictest common usage of that term, but more "hollywood historical" if that makes any sense. Historically accurate as you wish to make it, but geared towards fast game resolution and rules.
With that in mind, piracy has long held a romantic spotlight in popular culture and this is where this game revolves around. Piracy throughout the spanish main.

Hellfury wrote:
Normally, I would make an incredibly flippant remark about a post that tells me how I should be playing a game or what game I should be playing.

But then if you couldnt take criticism you shouldn't post in modelling and painting. Nice to see you restrained yourself from biting my arse for offering a good idea.

Hellfury wrote:
But after reading you post a few times I have come to the impression you haven't ever picked the LotHS book up and read through it. You assume it to be a different game than it is. So for the sake of taking your post seriously, I will take the time to respond with courtesy......

Indeed, but most of the best pirate games that involve a ship recommend 15mm aso you can represent larger ships in time. Everything you said below from the game mechanics perspective can be done equally with 15mm or 25mm, including filling the decks etc.
I suppose they recommend 25-28mm purely on miniature quality, so be it. Foundry do a wonderful range of 28mm pirates, I was tempted to buy some myself.

Hellfury wrote:
This is a campaign game and you have to earn larger ships to sail, mostly by taking them as a prize (which to say the least is extremely difficult to do). This is the reason why you do not want a large a boat as possible.

As for timeline, this is set during what may be considered as "the golden age of piracy" of 1700-1730. This isn't a historical game in the strictest common usage of that term, but more "hollywood historical" if that makes any sense. Historically accurate as you wish to make it, but geared towards fast game resolution and rules.
With that in mind, piracy has long held a romantic spotlight in popular culture and this is where this game revolves around. Piracy throughout the spanish main.

This is where my timely advice might be of use to you. If and when it comes to larger ships and crews you will thank yourself for going 15mm, not only because you can make a better ship at that scale (more toys for the same model size hull) but you can have a better naval engagement. Essentially the smaller the scale the bigger the map size in scale. Smaller scale vessels could offer you the opportunity to have a decent gunnery battle before a boarding option.

There are ways around this of course, such as playing on the floor, or never progressing to larger ships or crews, but for every space option you save on you could get a bonus for going down to 15mm. got to play a naval battle on the floor with sloops, at 15mm you could have brigs, or more ships etc. Just a thought.