Hobby | Black Seas HM Brig Speedy

Because being technically right is the best kind of right, Speedy does not get the designation HMS, as she is not a ship, as she does not have 3 square rigged masts. So she is His Majesty's Brig Speedy. This ship, and her captain, are famous for punching way above their weight class. Which is ironic, as Warlord Games decided to cast this in all metal, making her incredibly heavy for her size when compared with the other ships I've painted so far. So an extra coating of matte varnish to keep from chipping. 

Gaming | Empire in Flames Mordheim Campaign

It’s a new year, it’s a new Mordheim campaign. That’s just how it is. Last time, we started in the city, but this time around we’re taking a page out of the Mordheim: Empire in Flames supplement. Which means we’re arriving in the rural areas surrounding the City of the Damned. Our mission: loot and burn the greedy peasants’ and their households. 

Hobby | Black Seas L’Hermione

After I established my paint recipe for French ships, it’s time to toss that aside for some “historical” realism. You see, this ship exists today. Sure, it’s a replica of a past ship, but all the same there are actual reference photos that exist. So for the Hermione, I went with the colors, or a close approximation, that she currently is painted in. 

Space Din-O-Pionions | Goals for 2025

Another turn around the sun and we find ourselves facing another year. New Years can be new opportunities, or a chance to finish the ones we set out for ourselves last year. I've taken some time to clean up the hobby desk, organize some collections, and generally make things more accessible to make my goals a little easier to achieve. Now lets see what I plan to do. 

Review | Space Dinosaur Minis 2024

And so another year comes to a close. This was the year of exploration for me, as I tried a plethora of new games, from the far distant future of 40k to naval warfare during the age of Napoleon. Of course, a few little models got painted as well. I joined a few challenges from various other blogs, and now I'm a part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to finish of this year and start the next. Overall, I would say that it's been a good year. 

Paint Recipe | Black Seas Spanish Navy

I’m moving through all of the major nations present in Black Seas, and now it’s the turn of the Spanish. I have painted a Spanish ship before, a large merchant vessel, but it’s not the “official” scheme used by Warlord Games to denote our Iberian friends. I use official loosely, as there weren’t really standardized paint schemes in this timeframe, more like pick a color out of this pot, and it was almost always a variation of yellow it seems. Regardless, here’s the red version.

Tutorial | Making a Brigantine for Black Seas

Black Seas has a great set of models, but if there's one ship type you get a lot of, it's brigs. Not that there's anything wrong with brigs. It's just that, at least in terms of plastic models, you jump from tiny little un-rated brigs up to 5th rate frigates. And there's also a jump from the even more minuscule gunboats to the brig. Yes, there are resin models that fill those gaps, but they are harder to acquire as you have to get them direct from Warlord Games, which gets expensive, or hope you get lucky on Amazon or Ebay. Luckily, other folks have noticed this problem and have converted up some solutions. This is my attempt.  

Hobby | Stop, Martello Time

One thing that's really easy about naval wargaming is that the terrain can be really easy; just throw down a blue cloth and you're done. That doesn't mean that there's no terrain either though. A lot of naval actions happened fairly close to shore, or involved land elements as well. That includes these little guys known as Martello Towers, which is a misspelling of the Italian martella, or hammer. 

Paint Recipe | Black Seas French Navy

I’ve been working my way up in ship sizes to the largest plastic model available in the Black Seas range: the 3rd rate. They come with generic figureheads and stern galleries on a standard 74-gun body. However, you can also purchase unique ships that come with their own bespoke ornaments cast in white metal. This particular example is the Bucentaure, of Trafalgar fame, that comes in the French Navy box. 

Paint Recipe | Black Seas United States Navy

Last post, I painted up an American brig using more generic ship colors. That wouldn't do for the USS President, one of the famous six US frigates. I went for the classic black hull with white stripe that you can currently see on the USS Constitution in Boston harbor. I visited that ship earlier this year, and what I saw informed a lot of the decisions I made.