Hobby | Black Seas Santa Ana

Now that I've run through all of the ship sizes in the game, it was time to go big. This is the generic Spanish 1st Rate, cast in resin with metal masts. I decided that I would paint her as the ship Santa Ana, as the generic model fits closely with her look. Warlord does provide a unique Santa Ana model, but I don't feel like hunting that one down when this will do. 

Before painting, there was some work to do. First, the model has no rudder. Just smooth as a baby's bottom down there. I'm sure there's a reason for that, but I didn't like the look. So I stuck a bit of styrene down there and called it good. 

The lion figurehead supplied didn't fit on the prow without bumping into the bowsprit, so with a bit of carving and sanding I was able to get it to sit low enough to fit. Which is odd as you'd think it would fit without extra work. 

And then there was the masts. The white metal masts are terrible. I've complained about them before, they work ok when done on smaller ships, but at this size they bend way too much. Just breathing on them is enough to get them out of shape. So I made my own using some brass tubes, styrene, string and bits from the metal masts that I kept: the yards with furled sails, fighting tops, and the very tops of the original masts. 

With all of that done, I could finally get to painting. I just showed you all the "standard" Spanish paint scheme, and so let's throw that out of the window. As I said, I used Santa Ana for reference, and her sides were yellow-ish, with red gun ports. I used AP Desert Yellow, which is a slightly flatter, leaning towards brown yellow.

I used AP Crystal Blue for the few touches of blue on the bow, as well as all over the stern gallery.

For a size comparison (and a tease for upcoming ships), here's the 1st rate when lined up with a xebec and a cutter, the latter being one of the smallest vessels in the game. 

-The Space Dinosaur