The Voyages of the ‘Fluffy Bunny’

There wasn’t going to be a Spanish/ French faction, but as the narrative developed in my head. in additionI had been  reading about Queen Anne’s war, I decided to give a more Spanish/French look to some of the extra boxes of Plastics I brought.

Virtually all the Plastics are multi factional, and can be used to eek out both my British and Pirates, even the Regulars  who all at sometime used blue for their Provisional Regulars.

Whilst building both the Sailors I went predominantly for woolly hats and caps as for some reason thought it had a more gaelic  feel.

I used a lighter Speedpaint blue for some of the sailors and militia lighter than the Contrast Levidian Blue, but predominantly went for the Yellow Speedpaint from the starter speedpaint box.

In addition I found in a pile of the freebie Sprues some AWI American’s and thoughtvthe Buckskin figures would work as aids advisors etc to all sides on the various Indian raids during the various wars of the time.

The figures are a bit spindly looking than are the Firelock (or correctly proportional) but height and equipment wise look ok along side.

Painted predominantly with Skeleton Horde Contast over a Wraithbone base coat  and a final thinned out Agrax Earthshade wash.

Painted principle with thinned out Contrast Levidian Blue.

Had a discussion with Gerry about these particularly with Reference to their use by the British, and a bit of licence was used here  most had to provide their own uniforms and not until around the 1750’s did Blue take over from Scarlett  but wanted them to be different so went for Blue and only varied their Britchs.

It appears both French and Spanish also used prodominantly Blue for their provincial regiments, They look better uniformed  in the osprey books , but I would imaging things like the breechs would vary of time depending on resupply.

Now I’ve finished the side project for Terrainfest I can post some updates on this project, which has been added to even as that project took up a lot of free time.

As an extra birthday present back in September I brought one of thr Firelock Resin Barks, which although painted needed the edition of some suitable Raven decals from A Game I won’t mention.

All painted with various Contrast paints over a Zandri Dust, mainly as I wanted a worn look as the paint began to fade and wear off in Sun Sea and Sand.

Well it’s took me best part of a week to build it  no fault of design,  goes together very well and any problems were more to me being caggy handed than the model itself.

Now for those not in the Know HMS Troutbridge was the long suffering near Indestructible Destroyer Escort in the Long Running Radio Comedy ‘ The Navy Lark, which had as members of its cast 3rd Doctor Who John Pertwee, Leslie Phillips,  and in the early series Ronnie Barker. The ship was famous for its many collisions with Docks , other ships etc, and never seemed to take any damage whilst nigh on wrecking everything it hit. Hence the crest above  and the motto ‘Everybody Down’.

I have a fair few of the series on Amazon,  and still like to listen to episodes over Sunday Lunch, the time it was traditionally broadcast.

So when I came to give my Sarrisma Precision’s Frigate it was the obvious name.

Now as previously stated, I will not be doing rigging , as it will get in way of figure placement,  and in this case the model is modular to ease both storage, transport and play. ( Particularly of want to use it foe Silver Bayonet) . It is already looking like the easiest ship to transport to Asgard. As the Masts come of rigging it would be bloody silly.

Next will be the Painting, but need another can of Zandi Dust 1st

Had a couple of weeks break, for holidays and stuff.

Any way finally finished the weathering on the Wooden quays.

When I brought the above from I also brought a row boat and their barge.

The ships boat I didn’t weather as I thought it may be the one that is looked after.

I did some weathering on the barge  for accumulated barnacles  but not sure it really woks here, comments would be appreciated.

If any one looks at My Elizabethian Sea Dogs Project,  I already have quite a lot of suitable terrain for the Caribbean,  but  I didnt really have any dockside terrain  so, having seen them at WMMS brought some of Blotz’s wooden Jettys.

Now how to paint them, I figured that with the very voracious tropical worm that loves timbers the wood would have to have been heavily creosotesed they would be dark, but fading grayish with age so I decided to try GW Contrast Cygor Brown, a very almost black brown , but thinned  out as I still wanted the planling to show.. I found that of you haven’t thinned it enough  add more water as your applying it and it begins to lighten ( helped a bit by it soaking into the mdf.

Once that has dried , I dry brushed with a mid coloured grey from MP paints.

Now this would probably be enough for most, but think I’m catching Gerry’s lets make life complicated. Above would probably work for Rivers and Fresh water lakes  Kevin had mentioned Moss, but neither of us were sure it would survive in a salt water environment. So I googled old sea Water wharf which showed one with a coating of dead crustaceans over a lot of the wood nearest the waterline, so I thought,  try some of that sand textured pint I’ve got.

If you may have noticed the newer undamaged pieces I confined the paint to just around the lower support posts. But on the more distressed prices I was a bit more Liberal on the side panels and also put it around the damaged areas.

I then tried Sepia wash  but didn’t like the effect so change to GW Gryph Charger Grey. Once that had dried , dry brushed it with white to get that petrified look they have.

I Imagine any 1st nation readers would echo above statement reading the history of the various Native American wars. Any way have now painted what will be the more English/British Colonial Militia, plan is to use the different head gear in the set to make the next batch of 10 have a more Gallic/Spanish look, though all can be cross used .

Although I varied the coat colours, about 50% of them I did in the same colour GW Contrast Space Wolves Grey, They are not standardized  in cut , but figured it might be,they try and wear similar colours, if based from from one of the bigger towns, its seen more as a shooting club, so the older members have purchased, or got wives to make them jackets of the same colour whilst the newbies are still wearing wot they brung.

The more gallic miiltia may have a similar theme to help pick them out on table.

One of the heads was bareheaded, and I didn’t notice the negro features till the undercoat was on. No problem free’d slave etc.

Now I did Bla k Ceaser and can’t say I really got it right so this time tried a different tack.

Now on a later section on terrain I’d tried GW Contrast Cygor Brown, a very dark brown almost black, and I can see why it turned off Gerry, , but I tried thinning it and used  out on the Wooden Jettys I’m doing for the project and liked the shade it did on that so thought!

It worked better than I expected, and using the neat colour for the facial lines got a good effect,

I have now decided that with a bit of multi denomination units I can have 4 Factions, the original 2 Pirates and British, plus Spanish and Native American.

So here are my 1st unit of ‘Something Indian’s’

Main shin tone is GW Reikland Fleshshade.

They were a bit of a pain to build, but easy to paint with Contrasts.

Before I actually managed to get any B&P figures I had brought the various Black Scorpion figures, and partly on Whim some Jacobite Highlanders.

I then wondered what clan , and what Tartan I should do, so called up a list of Clans, and was suprised to find a Clan Cochrane,  who originated from Scandinavia in the 10th century. Now years ago I had looked to see if my own Surname Cockayne had a tartan, and it didn’t . But never thought about of the many variations of my last na.e over centuries   now as my name is Norman French  maybe these are distant relatives!

Any way I found the Kilt.

Didn’t look to bad so I attempted it on these figures, if anything it was less of a pain than the socks!!!

For those wondering how I have written them into the narrative  , they have been sent to the Spanish Main , over an Ancient Fued started by Captain Alice,’s Elizabethian Ancestors over the matter of missing Bunnies.

Finally I’ve done two Pirates of Legend Samuel ‘Black Sam ‘  Bellamy and Mary Read.

Well after my suprise at weekend, here are some recent additions that were on the pai ting board. Much more to come including big and little ships, and sone terrain.

1st of is the last of my British Marines/38th Foot, with floppy hats, technically they didn’t have light companies during this period… but I’ve watched to much Sharpe not to have a light company.

Think I’m finally getting the faces right with way less effort than in earlier units.

Anyway now the whole unit done yeaheee ( these were the one I thought would be hardest to do)