Ghost Ship

This post will feature a fun project that I took on for our "Pirates in September" month at the N.W.A. Club.
We used a "Club Modified" version of Legends of The High Seas. One of the "Events" of the day was that when rolling for "Initiative" (who moves first) a player rolls a 1, 5, 10, 15 or 20, on a 20 sided die, either "The Kracken", a "Maelstrom" or a "Ghost Ship" appears on the table. The placement is determined by a die roll from the umpires. This made for much laughter, from the players, when unleashed on anybody other than themselves.
I was building my Pirate Ship at one of our "Make a ship in our Dry Dock" days (where a few of us got together and worked on our ships), when I overheard the organizer say that a ghost ship will be an addition to the game (We have played for the past 2 years). I already have a "Skeleton Crew" and was thinking of building one anyway, so I volunteered to make one.

I made it out of foamcore (for those who don't know what that is, it is polystyrene foam between thin card), thick cardboard (from advertising boards), wooden rods of different thicknesses, cotton and some left over 40K stuff that I bought from a Club member who didn't need them any more.

The sails were made of some cheap cotton material which I pegged on the clothes line for 4 weeks, in the sun, wind and rain. I then ripped it and pulled big chunks off the sail and sewed it onto the painted wooden rods (I forget the proper naval term)

I decided to have a bit of fun and added a bit of damage, with one of the occupants looking out

All of the skeletons were from the spare 40K bits and pieces from another Club Member.

This particular one is about to swan dive from "The Plank"

I thought that I might have some crew just "Hanging Around"

Here is the sniper in the crow's nest......well he's near it.

The ship's Figurehead is "The Grim Reaper". This was made with greenstuff and a couple of bony hands, one with a scythe. 

Another crew member hanging about

If you look closely, you will see a hand coming up through the grate.

The ship's wheel is made from a 40K spare part with skulls on it.

Also, if you closely again, you can see that the hand rails are actual hands.... again, from the 40K spare parts pile

For turning the ship, I have come up with an easy way, using a false bottom to stay put and the ship turns up to 45 degrees, as per the rules. I will feature this in my next post.

This swimming skeleton is what you hold on to, while turning the ship.

And it is a great talking point....

I tried to use as much of the spare parts pile as I could. Here you can see the anchor rope coming out of the mouth of a demon. You can also see some weapons that I used to form the bow railings.

I painted the whole ship with Jo Sonja's Carbon Black. I then added Jo Sonja's Titanium White to the Carbon Black and drybrushed the whole ship, adding more Titanium White and drybrushing again until I was happy with the result.

I hope that you like the pics, I will post some crew later too.

Update

Just a little update on my first blog. The figures that have been used for the Saxons are from Eureka Miniatures in Melbourne. The Cavalry is from the Wars of the French Revolution series in 28mm.

The Cavalry is actually from the Austrian Cavalry, as the uniform is exactly the same. Eureka do have Saxon Cavalry, but they are from the 1812 era.

The Infantry are actually Russian Infantry as the back packs were slung on the hip rather than the middle of the back and the rest of the uniform is so close, you would have to know the uniform inside out to know what is different. 

The Grenadiers were made by taking the head of an Austrian Grenadier and attach it to a Russian Infantry figure. Nic, the fabulous guy from Eureka then made a mold and made about 160 figures for me, some for the Club Member client and some for me.

Sorry for forgetting that information, I will get better at passing on more information.

I will also work out, eventually how to put on the blog, how to follow me. Monsieur le Rosbif & Johnny Frog has volunteered to give me some assistance, he is a nice chap isn't he.... 

Until next time,

Take Care