Silver Sea Dogs

1. I hadn’t done a bad job on Captain Alice, but really hadn’t got the Errol Flynn figure I really wanted, as it happened I got a lot of Facebook posts from Hero Forge and thought why not , so played with program, went for a generic set of pirates, that cover a wider period, plus it fitted how Flynn is dressed in early parts of Sea Hawks , and couldn’t help doing a modified Captain Alice as I actually envisaged her. I wanted to paint them myself so went for premier Black Plastic.

Wasn’t too happy with above photos so tried one more.

They are in my modified Silver Bayonet, so I needed some cavalry,  even if like Ben I hate painting horses. So I got some Mounted Arquebusers from Warlord Games, I will be using the Perry’s Plastic Late Medieval Cavalry later for Lancers , using spare Conquistadors heads.

I had a couple of figures left on the Conquistadors , and Ghost Archipelago so did them, two as Spaniards and one as Sea Dogs.

Well not posted for a fortnight, main reason is I have done some odd bits but mainly been busy with building a Galleon for the game…… why err cos ~I could!
Found a lot of the suitable models were a bit pricey for something that is likely to sit at the side of the table most of time, that is until I found the new range of Galleons that TT combat has done for Carnivale and their Streets of Venice range, although not totally right thought with a few modifications would do.
What I didn’t work on was how big it is, and how much of a pain it would be for a clutz like me. There was no part no’s or indication of which frame the parts came from on the online instructions, and some odd bits appear to be missing and had to be manufactured from spare bits of the frames. (if they were on them still haven’t found them)
Well, it was sort of built and began modifications, 1st I added some Swivel guns, using spare 15mm cannon either from the ACW epic starter box or odd Napoleonic Cannon I got in freebies from Warlord Illustrated. They were modified by cutting of the wheel lugs and some of the trail. I added a Crow next using the screw bit on top of fizzy wine bottles, and then cut the head of a plastic unicorn toy that was donated by the 9-year-old.
I intend to stick some white cloth over the sail shapes tying them on with thread post painting , plus I intend to add some deck guns, and cut out the firing ports, but they have been delayed in the post.
There was a thought of don’t paint it leave it as it is but needed to coer up some of my errors and filler on the ship hull so decided to give it an overall spray with GW Zandri Dust rattle can spray, why this shade, I happened to have a full can of it and it looked about right for base.
It looks quite good and match the colour of the Revenge I found on Google.

Well not posted for a fortnight, main reason is I have done some odd bits but mainly been busy with building a Galleon for the game…… why err cos ~I could!
Found a lot of the suitable models were a bit pricey for something that is likely to sit at the side of the table most of time, that is until I found the new range of Galleons that TT combat has done for Carnivale and their Streets of Venice range, although not totally right thought with a few modifications would do.
What I didn’t work on was how big it is, and how much of a pain it would be for a clutz like me. There was no part no’s or indication of which frame the parts came from on the online instructions, and some odd bits appear to be missing and had to be manufactured from spare bits of the frames. (if they were on them still haven’t found them)
Well, it was sort of built and began modifications, 1st I added some Swivel guns, using spare 15mm cannon either from the ACW epic starter box or odd Napoleonic Cannon I got in freebies from Warlord Illustrated. They were modified by cutting of the wheel lugs and some of the trail. I added a Crow next using the screw bit on top of fizzy wine bottles, and then cut the head of a plastic unicorn toy that was donated by the 9-year-old.
I intend to stick some white cloth over the sail shapes tying them on with thread post painting , plus I intend to add some deck guns, and cut out the firing ports, but they have been delayed in the post.
There was a thought of don’t paint it leave it as it is but needed to co er up some of my errors and filler on the ship hull so decided to give it an overall spray with GW Zandri Dust rattle can spray, why this shade, I happened to have a full can of it and it looked about right for base.
It looks quite good and match the colour of the Revenge I found on Google.

I now have all the bits to re-create the famous scene from that Docu-Drama ‘Aztec Rex’

Gaming in the Gaps for Warren.

For Warren and the rest of you that want to know what happened….. the Cannon ball bounced of T-rex, at which point everyone scarpered into the trees..

Well time from some more Mythical Creatures courtesy of Hollyweird. Dinosaurs and Aztec  Gods , courtesy of those ‘Historical’ epics ‘Aztec Rex’ and ‘Lost Tresures of the Grand Canyon’ ( the later wit Star Gates Micheal Shanks ).

Apart from a T rex that I got from Smythes last week, I already had a selection of Dinosaurs that I picked up about 20 years ago.

Also my Aztec God things are Draconians from the old Mage Knight range.

Think they will need a touch up with Agrax Earthshade,  and possibly rebasing. But the Dinosaurs particularly the two big ones came really nicely painted as Warren mentioned years ago on Numerous shows.

I’ve been waiting for some books on Aztecs that I was getting for my Birthday,  and in the meantime decided to start on 1st of mythical Beasties. Sometime ago Kevin got me a box of Wargames Atlantic Giant Spiders, which I had put off building as he had found them a pain to build( the legs weren’t sticking on, thinknhis plastic cement was naff as when I used Tamya Liquid I had no problem)

I has already put some big tree Spiders in the Historical encounter table, which are supposed to be dog sized which appear in Ghost Archipelago,  and the Little one in the box are ideal. ( Historical in that they appear in most Jungle movies of the 30’s and 40’s in Hollyweird).

Now with these I thought I’d try a variation of the method Ben mentioned on OTT a couple of weeks ago, Where you undercoated Black, dry brushed Grey and White for Zenithing and then used contrasts over the top.

I didn’t have any black undercoat,  so with white base undercoat gave them a GW Gryph Charger Grey Base coat, to match the Dry brush effect.

I then messed it up by using the new GW Bad Moon contrast paint, which turned it yuk covering up most of the effect the grey had done.

To rescue them I had to go over them in GW Ivanden Yellow and the old stand by Thinned out Agrax Earthshade wash.

This was a bit long winded so the 2nd batch got the Grey base, then just Ivanden Yellow over the top which seems to have worked, seem to have got same effect without 2 extra processes.  Not finished yet but you can see effect.

When I got the Blackadder set I originally had been looking for some Elizabethian Civilian figures, and found above when looking on the Assault Groups range.

There will provide incidental figures, npcs and objectives.

1st attempt so sorry about quality but here is ‘Silver Sea Dogs the Movie

Well 1st real attempt at a video which despite the quality may give a taster of the type of games possible. No narrative as how many of you will understand my Black Country accent, specially on tape.

As in ‘ Rashin Frashin Ralice Dastardly ‘ for any Wacky Races Fans.

For my last Sea Dogs band as in the above members of Captains Black Alice and Sinistre Susan , I wanted a more roguish new Hollweird pirates whilst retaining an Elizabethian Look, this meant going through various Ghost Archipelago and Frostgrave boxs for suitable heads and arms. For the latter a few of the muscular bare arms and wpns were chosen from Frostgrave Barbarians box set.

Now I also wanted a more cosmopolitan look to there crew, so Montanga is from the Dark Continent,  a former Slave rescued by Alice and Susan from a slaver ship, who has sought to repay his former captures ( and put a fee pennies in his pocket ) He has developed a deep friendship with Gallowglass Phelan, who has escaped his hard life in the North of Ireland to make his fortune o  the Spanish Main

I had Umbopa from King Solmans mine partly in mid for this figure, and is a head and arms from the Frostgrave Barbarians box   but the skulled head is from Ghost Archipelago Natives. Phelan is a Barbarians head on a Fireforge Scandinavian Infantry body and arms.

0Another roguish pair who are not from the septered Isles, a Barbary Pirate Mustapa and a Greek with Spartan blood in his veins (at least a lot of Wine from the province at least)

Mustapha is completely parts from the Ghost Archipelago box, why an Arab, well I was watching an old Gregory Peck Cavalry movie which for some bizarre reason had the old Black and  White wolfram Lon Chaney Jr as an Arab in the Cavalry,  who went round calling everyone Effendi,and thought why not.

Gergios well its a mythical/mezo American game, so he would be there looking for Ancient Aliens of course! The figure is head and body from Ghost Archipelago Crewman and arms from Conquistadors box.

Arris and Hagman , are old Royal Guardsmen,  Pals who heard of the Gold in the Spanish Main and decided to cash In.

As There is a Captain Blunt there had to be these pair , Arris is a Ghost Archipelago head on a Conquistadors arms and Body  Hagman is straight out of Conquistadors box.

Finally making up the band are the Fresh faced Grym Lock, brother to our esteemed Captains, Tor a descendent of Vikings with his hammer Moaner, and well know cad T. Thomas head schemer for the crew.

Both Grym Lock and Thomas asr all Conquistadors box, Tor is Ghost Archipelago Crewman body and head with arms from Frostgrave Barbarians. 

Bit pushed for time when did 1st photos of my esteemed Captain and his entourage, so here are some better shots.

Well been a busy couple of weeks. There was a rules Ammendments update on Weds, with the Historical Animals added to the Beastery.

Finally Finished Mt Senior Captain to go with my Colour Party for the Sea Dogs, continuing the story narrative, Here Captain General, Sir Rees Wibbly Wobbly  having had his usual inner Ear problem finally arrives at the Ambush site  to claim the Credit.

Totally unaware that he is being shadowed by a equally lost party of Amazonian Natives ( known by all the other Tribes as ‘Werethehelarewe’ tribe.)

Painted very similarly to the Aztecs but using undiluted Fireslayer Flesh, the skin tone being lightened with Vallejo Game Colour Parasite Brown.

In the Meanwhile in the Town of San Juan, the Governer Santiago de Warzan de( when a Spanish noble of the period tells you his name its a good idea to have a good book to pass the time,) has learned of the prospective ambush, and has raised the Town militia under Sgt Riaz ( he isn’t a noble) all 6 of them, and 4 blokes who just happened to be at the local Cantina when the muster was called.

Here we see the scene of him extolling his troops to march to victory, forgetting that the escort may be being turned to Chutney as he speaks, alas he ends the speech with the traditional ‘he obviously is far to busy with affairs of state to join them much as he wishes he could ( he and the honour guard carefully edging towards the Church Door in case they need to make a run for it).

It is to be noted that he is safe, most of the Guard fell asleep half way through his name, and the 4 drunks are well drunk !

It’s only years of discipline that has got them marching and most of the regulars are still asleep!

All watched by the rather bemused German Mercanary Gun Crew with their Gun Erroll ( you always have German Mercanary’s one it’s traditional,  2 they can change sides particularly if nobody pays them.

The Gun was an E bay find  bigger than I thought it was going to be , but fits with the narrative of it being a Sea Dog Ship Killer, brought from Hamburg and the crew initially hired to provide training…. The crew are metal from the Assault Group and have been left slightly grubby looking as in have yo ever fired a black powder cannon?

Now there are no Cannon rules in Silver Bayonet and it has been added as an objective for games as in capture/save the Gun. I will be thinking up rules for it, but not so much for player use but more for something for the bored Umpire to do, and to spice things up (Gerry this is for you)

Kevin’s Neices sometimes like to play games with us at Asgard,  so as I mentioned I converted two figures from Frostgrave,  and Give you the Most Despicable Sea Dogs on the Spanish Main   ‘Captains Black Alice and Sinistre Susan’.

I wanted some Elizabethian ladies as Npc’s , objectives etc for game so did a search and found that ‘The Saault Grroup did some metal ones, so I went for those with a Elizabethian Gun Crew, for same reasons but whilst on site found my new Captain   his foolish friend, and there was a spare place on the boat. They had to be brought.

Well once all that’s done, a bit of Gold for Earrings, a tidy up of the sheilds, bases painted ork Flesh and the painting stage is finished. Once varnished they have patchs of static grass added to base, some hobby tufts and done.

And here are the Aztec Hunter completed earlier in the week.

Having done the base colours ,I then give them an overall wash of 50/50 GW Agrax Earthshade Wash, though for the warriors I avoided the nappies. This gives a slight tan to the main flesh tone and a more bronzed look.

post drying I dab a bit of white with a dot of black for eyes, like when Gaz does it (on 15mm geeze) It doesnt matter if they are abit wide eyed and googly as will tidy up in later stage.

I then started doing a bit of design on the sheilds, I may have got them the wrong way round as two I did with the wicker bit on the outside, but this actually worked in my favour as able to use the grid as a guide to painting the styalised Bird I wanted,

Its now that I start tidying up, 1st the face going over lines on the face with GW Contrast Fireslayer Flesh and slightly lightning the details of face with the Army Painter Tanned Flesh shown in the earlier update., This also tightens up the area around the eyes. I use the same technique on the details and rest of body to give some contast to the skin tone

As I said in the earlier update , these are fairly easy to do once I’d worked out the method.

Firstly I give the Flesh areas a coat of 2/3rds GW Contrest Firesslayer Flesh.

1. I generally check the previous figure on completing one, to smooth out pooling and check for missed bits (there always is)

Once dry I go over any mistakes with GW Corax White, before next stages.

Then I do the hair, mostly GW contrast Basilicum Grey, I prefer it to any of the Black’s as it gives good shading and if not dark enough can be gone over later with GW Nuln Oil.

The obsidian edges and spear heads are done in GW Contrast Terradon Turquoise for the obsidian look.

The nappies this tome I kept whitish using GW Apothocary White, to pick them out from Hunters who had thinned out Skeleton Horde.

The sheild fronts are GW contrast Iyanden Yellow.

I finish off the block painting with GW Skeleton Horde for the wooden sword body, Leather ties for spears and sheild backs.

The Sheild trims and the Mohawk on the guy with the Blow pipe were done in GW contrast Gryh Hound Orange, and Spears in Snakebite leather, then I’ll leave them to cure a bit before the washs .

1. Again I had one of Drr’! moments , which came it tow Drr’!s  when it came to the Mythology for game and how to do a revised beastery list.

• Initially I planned to use the Ghost Archipelago beastery list revised,for Meso-America and use models from my old Mage Knight Collection and use the closest looking to fit the bill. Here I had my 1st Drr! moment after I began sorting out possible suitable figures

• it was then it hit, me , I’m doing a new Beastery and resulting encounter table so why not make both match the figure I had rather than than the other way round.

So as can be seen above I began sorting out the various figures into sections using those trays for themes of monster for the Beastery and table. I had begun a table but was struggling on how to adapt it and what beasts to put in it but, with above done should be able to  begin re-writing it. I originally planned to make it a mix of historical and mythical , and had been thinking of changing it to 2d10 rather than the 1d2o to put in the the bell curve which Silver Bayonet uses, which is why I have picked them as a basis over Frost or Stargrave. It was here I had the 2nd Drr! moment :

• It crossed my mind that anyone who might be interested in this idea may have been put off by the Fantasy Element , historical Grog nards you know who you are, and may wish to use it for a more historically themed/40’s cinematic game. I will at some point be doing some scenarios and certainly the 1st few intro ones will be historical to help players get used to the revised stats and mechanics

So I know plan to do do encounter tables h & m , for those who want to stay historical just use h;

• Anyone else will roll die for encounters any die will do,  evens use historical table ,odd (aptly) use the mythical table.

In the meanwhile on the historical front I have been working on  my 1st group of Aztecs , I started with the basic semi naked natives 1st , as these can be used as native guides for the Spaniards .

Now I did a test figure and did a series of rooky mistakes:

I firstly didnt mix/shake the proposed skin shade bottle , GW contrast Fireslayer Flesh so it dried Gloss , Although I do varnish  matt later find gloss makes it more difficult to see detail.

Secondly I didnt thin it out and it came out a bit darker than I want (though may use it as is for Ghost Archipelago native figures later)

There was an upside though, post matt varnishing the figure to see how it looked found that Army Painter Tanned Flesh works well to lighten tone down .

Anyway here is the finished figure not bad in the end :

With the next figure I initally tried a 50/50 Fireslayer Flesh contrast to water and found it a bit light, and had to build up layers to get it the tone I wanted, it didnt particulalry matter if it didnt match the 1st test figure as people come in different skin tones within the same ethnic group in reality .

Decided post above to try a two thirds contrast to water and it gave the finish I wanted so that is how last 3 figures in batch were done, and am quite happy with the results.

Now if your wondering,  I haven’t forgotten the above  just waiting for the Aztecs to arrive at Asgard.

When I collected them Found a box of Ghost Archipelago,  Savages which will be Amazon tribesmen.

For those Historical Grognards who are wondering that Aztecs had been pretty much wiped out by the time of the Sea Dogs  you are right, as far as we know. Also as the game is based on Silver Bayonet and the arrival of Gothic Horror, if we move that to Mezo America, you have the option of not only the horrors which have travelled over from the Old World but the new Myths and creatures of the New World.

So the idea of a handful of Aztecs holding out In the Jungles and Rainforests is not so far fetched, Currently we have to o ly  look at the Sky History of ‘The Search for Aztec Gold’ to get the idea that some Aztecs escaped to hide goodies . Recently I remember disputed archaeological finds of a Aztec/Mayan human Sacrifice culture that sprung up in Arizona  to disappear suddenly.  The major controversial part was from native American Historians I think horrified by the thought of human sacrifice in Nort America, but it would actually be a noble story if this culture was from Mezo America and I wondered if the Horrified Tribes of New Mexico , Arizona such as Apache wiped them But if some Aztecs moved south into the partly abandoned Mayan territory, plus you have the Mayans themselves who held out till the 17th Century when their last Independent City fell. The Incas who were not found till 20 years after the fall of the Aztecs  and held in  hidden Jungle city that held out tfor a further 30 years and beat the Spanish more than once in battle.

So there is a lot of scope, with the Ghost Archipelago Tribals I intend to build parties of Amazonian tribesmen, who can be scouts or adversaries.

The Inca were actually fighting a war if expansion ( which wasn’t going well) into the Amazon Bason. A natio  an age ahead of both the Mayans and Aztecs for they were bronze not stone age.

On top of this we have the plethora of actual natural Beasties that are trying to kill and Eat the various parties all of the time…some may have mutated into Giants as in Big Spiders and naturally Ants.

MesoAmerican Mythology 

Now as the Silver Bayonet is very much Napoloenic Troops fighting things that men are not to know then we will need to add this aspect to the Elizabethan period, if anything the various combatants would even have more phobias and fears of the unknown than their Napoleonic Bretheren.

The Europeans would have brought over their own myths and monsters and in addition would have begun to pick up the myths and monsters from Mezo-American culture with the even bigger fear of pagan and unnatural (to Europeans) religions .

Vampires

I had a drr moment with this, thinking its a European thing………were are Vampire bats found………

Its just we think its from Europe

to quote as source on google Alexansdra Paleaaz

The Aztecs’ chief god was Huitzilopochtli, also known as the Hummingbird Wizard. They believed Huitzilopochtli constantly warred with the other gods in order to keep the Aztecs safe. He needed constant nourishment in order to keep fighting and his preferred choice of food was—human blood. To keep him fed the Aztecs waged war constantly and sacrificed tens of thousands of people every year, mostly prisoners of war. The preferred method of sacrifice was cutting out the heart, which Huitzilopochtli was said to have favored as much as blood. Even earlier than the Aztecs were the Toltecs who sacrificed countless people, including children, to placate the god Tezcatlipoca. Tezcatlipoca is the primary villain in Evanescence and the father of the vampire race. According to the myths, he too has a great thirst for human blood and is the ruler of the night. When conducting religious rituals for the gods, the Aztec priests adorned their bodies with black paint, matted their hair with the sacrificial victim’s blood, and also filed their teeth to sharp points. Vampire much?

Were Animals

Not totally sure on this ,one apparently they do appear in mexo american mythology , and a google search for Jaguar and Wolf Warriors did bring up illustrastions of each, very possibly skin walker type creatures.

Now there maybe some wondering why I have gone off on a tangent on this project for Silver Bayonet,particularly with the conversion, for those of you who don’t wish to jump from Frostgrave or Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago,  there is a set of Black Powder rules in one of the Frostgrave magazines. Spellcaster 1, available from Amazon.

1. I have a fair few Skirmish Napoleonic figures for Silver Bayonet,  British Army, Navy, Spanish Guerillas , and a small no of French so didn’t need to paint or build anything for that.
2. The Shiney, I liked the ideas that both the Conquistadors and Aztecs conjured up. Kevin’s idea for using Silver Bayonet gave me the excuse , plus figures can be used for Border Reavers for the Spanish  , and for Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Aztecs (Again I have a fair few Pulp Figures for that)
3. It was a period I knew little about  I find a lot of the fun with a new period or Genre. I have been enjoying reading up and watching some bloke on U-tube.
4. It’s been fun getting help off the Community from Discord with the Standard and Warrens been using his new AI arty friend to produce me some images.
5. It will use my Star Wars Legion Scatiff terrain
6. I brought Ghost Archipelago and finally get to use some of ideas in it.

So let’s see a more graphic view of my idea.

The Scene:

Capitan Rodriguez de Cordoba de Castallan, de Deguella ( goes on for 5 mins) and the San Paulo Guard., are taking the shipment of King Philip (the whatevers) gold and silver, graciously donated by his loyal subjects of New Spain( as in stolen from, tortured from , plundered and raped, and those were the nice Spaniards) and is taking over land to the Port of Vera Juan, unluckily for them Captain Blunt and the Good( start cheering) crew of the Unicorn have got wind of this shipment and intend to relieve the Spaniards of this task and give the hoard to Good Queen Bess (after taking a small finders fee).

Picking a suitable place to discuss the matter with Capitan Rodriguez (etc) ,they make use of the local fauna for recreation whilst waiting for the Spaniards,  unaware of how well it hides them !!!

Notes on above, the Pack mules are old Redoubt minatures from their Napoleonic Range strangely enough. The Jungle Terrain was built originally for Star Wars Legion, the Columns are Egyptian,  and  the ruins are from Monolith.