HMS Surprise for Black Seas

I recently got into the game Black Seas by Warlord Games. Always fascinated by the age of sails I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some of the vessels.
Master and Commander being nt onoly the name of the starter box but also one of my all time favourite movies I decided that I wanted the HMS Surprise for the gaming table!

Scratch building could be too fiddly and as an owner of a 3D printer I decided to make good use of this technology.

I searched online for a ship base that I could use and discovered to my my surprise (sorry for the pun) that there already was a model I could use for a reasonable price.

Here is the link:

https://www.myminifactory.com/de/object/3d-print-british-frigate-hms-surprise-38-guns-163036

This model from Henry Turner comes without sails but he also provides a free generic masts and sails set:

https://www.myminifactory.com/de/object/3d-print-free-generic-mast-pack-163006

However the masts are very thin at this scale so I wanted to use some wire to give the connection points a bit of strength as I intend to play games with the models. I came across a similar sails pack for free but without the bottom part of the mast and with holes ready for pinning:

https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/combined-masts-and-sails-for-1700-scale-age-of-sail-ships/

They are done by Simon Mann and he also provides a free generic boat pack ideal for the ship’s boat:

https://www.wargaming3d.com/product/ships-boats-in-multiple-configurations-single-stacked-and-with-crew/

I printed all the parts, cleaned off all the supports and started dry fitting.

I then cut the wire (I used a large paper clip) into the needed lenght by measuring it against a frigate from the starter set.

For painting I searched on the internet for some detailed shots of the ship as well as movie scenes, but the accuracy doens’t have to be 100% at this scale.

I wanted to recreat the HMS surprise as seen in the first scene of the movie with the staysails between mizzen, main and foremast.

I primed the ship white and the shrouds and the anchors black.

I also primed the sails white and then giving them some shadow using Citadel Zandri Dust through the airbrush. The masts were painted with Vallejo Tan Yellow.

I painted the deck with Citadel Zandri dust, the inner side plate steel legion drab. The hull was painted with Vallejo German grey as well as all the black parts of the ship and the yellow stripe was painted using Vallejo Tan Yellow.

The black parts were washed with Nuln oil and the other parts with Agrax earthshade except the sails.

After painting was complete I started to do all the rigging using black sewing thread. I will use nylon chord the next time as the sewing thread starts to frizz when sprayed with varnish.

Then I attached the staysail between the masts gluing it to the mast at the top and to the thread.

Then I attached the ratlines which I got from a set from Micron miniatures:

https://www.myminifactory.com/de/object/3d-print-masts-sails-and-ratlines-frigate-222187

I simply like them more than the printed ratlines from Warlord Games but they had to trimmed at the top.

I then varnished the model and attached the flags.

And here are some pictures of the completed model:

Thanks for reading and until next time!