A bit of fun - Cat Attack!!!!!!

"Captain large ginger cat on the port side" calls the lookout.

The captain sees the beast and makes a hard turn to starboard. To their horror the crew realise that they have no cannon and the beast has taken an interest in these little people.  The Pirates grab their weapons and anything close to hand. Some grab muskets but the bullets don't seem to bother the huge animal.

One giant fierce beasty that is. Can the pirates scare it off or will they be cat food?

 Realising their peril the Crew grab spears and harpoons to fend of the monster. But fortunately for them the cat is easily distracted and is soon consumed by the fluttering of the sails. The crew organise and prepare to defend the ship...

The Giant cat suddenly focuses on something else

... But just then a giant fish leaps from the sea on the starboard side and the cat leaps clean over the ship and dives after it. The captain and the crew of the Abigail sail away as fast as they can to escape. Once they reach port they go around telling their tail of the great ginger beast. Although many think it is nonsense a few hardened sea farers talk in dark tones about the cat of the feline sea.

just a bit of fun hope you enjoy it. I'm working away at some boats and some Oronegrean artillery crew. so there is more to look forwards to in the coming days.

Fishing Vessel 2 - Miguel

The second boat is now done. This one is slightly more generic. This vessel is Bermuda rigged aft and has a jib sail in front. I'm slightly less happy with the colour scheme for this one. Also included in this post are some Fig pics. With the final members of my Oronegrean family and an artillery officer on display. On with the pics :-D

El Miguel, (or Michael) is slightly wider than Carlos providing a more stable platform from which to fish from and a larger storage area for the catch.

As with Carlos vessels such as the Miguel are a common sight in Oronegrean waters, especially along the northern coastline where the many rivers create a nutrient rich environment that supports a large stock of fish.

Once again a whittled down toothpick becomes the tiller for the boat.

Now we get to the pictures of the latest batch of figures. Oddly there are more pictures of them than the boat but that is due to poor planning on my part.

Here they all are in the little supply building

Here is an Oronegrean artillery officer, I felt the choice of using Airfix British artillery was a good one. The uniform suits the Oronegrean colours (dark blue, yellow, white and pink for small details). And they don't look wrong next to Oronegrean troops

Oh crap he's seen me!

Finally the last two family members for my Oronegrean family. Sophia and Alberto.

 

 

Anyway that's all for today. I hope you enjoy the latest addition to my little fleet and the figures. I'll try and take better ones before I put their Bio's up on the Oronegro blog.

Oh and I better not forget my latest follower ScannableGoose from quite a few places by the looks of things. Welcome to the blog my friend. And to you all have a good day/night. :-D

Fishing Vessel - Carlos

Well the first of the hulls made during the Boat Building Bonanza has been finished. Introducing the Carlos. A small fishing vessel based on the Italian Paranza boat which used to be a common sight in the Adriatic sea. My model is not a direct replication given the purpose of the vessel for wargaming. But I am glad that I chose that teal colour in the end as that works quite well. Anyway on with the pictures.

Carlos with the rest of the model fleet.

on the left there you can see the boats that are yet to be done.

Sail is standard A4 folded over with tin foil inside.

Bow view with the name displayed proudly.

Stern view

 Here you can see my father whose nickname is Carlos (amongst other things) with his boat.

Nice view of the sail from this angle

And below as a bonus are a couple or recently completed figures. One is a militia fighter, hunter or perhaps a pirate, very generic and useful. The other is a member of the Oronegrean elite. Dressed in the Oronegrean military colours and a wig this man could be an officer in the Oronegrean armed forces.

Perhaps these men are protecting themselves from pirates?

Or are these men pirates who have taken the Carlos and it's crew hostage?

Well that's it for the Carlos. Hope you're all well and enjoying the start to 2016. And on that positive note let me introduce my latest follower Ace Jagger, welcome to the blog my friend.

And to you all a good day/night. :-D

Boat Building Bonanza

Usually I do not post Work in Progress items on this blog as they have a dedicated spot on my Projects and Crazy Ideas blog. But today I was a bit mad and got into a hull making frenzy. So in addition to El San Francisco (the big one) I am making a few smaller boats. Unlike my ships these are made from two layers thin foamcore (the thickness difference can be seen in El San Francisco compared to the rest). All are in various stages of construction.

Ruler and figure are there to help with scale but all (except San Francisco) are less than 30cm (1 foot) long.

In this little flotilla is a Dhow, a Cutter and an Italian Paranza. El San Francisco is a smaller warship although I am not quite sure of the type as the hull was prepared two years ago so what it was meant to be has been lost to history.

A variety of hull shapes, some sterns are very square. An Additional level of foam will be added to the stern of the Dhow (top left) and cutter (top right).

 These are the more common vessels to grace Oronegro's waters. Small and useful they are the fishing vessels, small trade ships and transports that can be seen at dock in nearly all coastal towns and fishing villages dotted along the coastline. These will be useful in many scenarios giving Oronegro's navy something to protect or maybe even fight should pirates be on the prowl.

A fleet on the move. I have high hopes for these. Now where to store them once complete? oops didn't think about that.

El San Francisco is still undergoing planking with cardboard, structure of the poop deck also needs doing before planking can take place. This is a long and tedious process which is why doing some boats is a nice break from making large ships. It also means that instead of increasing my fleet by 4 ships this year I am easily going to increase it by 9 vessels.

Well that is all for today. Hopefully by the next blog post I may have got one or two of these complete. Maybe also find a place to put all these boats but that is the eternal problem any person involved in this hobby faces :-D

Thanks for reading. And to you all a good day/night.

18th Century Oronegrean infantry

Hello one and all. Today I present to you a substantive post. A really substantive one. The first in quite some time. Here we have a completed Oronegrean unit. 20 men, one officer, one flag bearer, and two musicians. There is also an additional soldier who is a guard for the regular infantry commander.

I seem to have misplaced what I usually use for a background so this will have to do for now.

Oh and later today I'll do a post on the Oronegro blog for these two

The whole lot of them. I am very glad I chose this colour scheme. The dark blue goes well with the yellow and white

close up on the command group. A high ratio of men compared to the unit as a whole but standard for Oronegrean units of the type.

the left flank

the right flank

 Well a bit more on the troops themselves. This is a unit of 20 regular Oronegrean soldiers with a command group of 4. This unit of 20 is one of two that make up a combined Oronegrean Century which also includes one unit of 20 Cazadores and one unit of 16 Grenadiers . This calls for each of the units to be self contained with their own complement of officers.. A combined Century such as the one these men belong to is the smallest strategic unit of the Oronegrean Army able to fight by itself in a number of situations.

Anyway that is all for this post. Hopefully these guys will get their own post on the Oronegro blog soon.

And as always have a good day/night everyone.

Back with pictures

So as I said I am back. But text isn't really what you're here to see now is it? You're here to see some 1/72 scale models. So I shall deliver. Here is what I have completed since I have been back. Some 18th century Oronegrean troops, civilians and a bull. So onto the models!

This officer is the first figure to be painted since I got back, maybe my first in almost a year.

I must confess that despite my love of the modern/near future period figures from this earlier time a more rewarding because of the details.

although to be fair this does make them a real pain to paint. But it is worth it.

Finally here we have the next member of my Oronegrean family started so long ago.

I'm quite happy with how this figure turned out despite how rusty I feel with my painting

A drummer, I finished this one off this morning. Glad I chose that pink and light blue for my officers and musicians

This guy I just finished earlier this morning

Another member of my little family. This is Fernando, above is his mother Maria

this just leaves eldest daughter Sophia and second youngest son Alberto to paint.

Oh and a bull. A fighting bull. I found it very hard to tell if I was finished. Given it is basically all black how do you tell?

Well that is enough of the completed figures. How about a couple of shots of where I am working? Below are some pics of the garage where I do my painting.

Your eyes do not deceive you that is the hull of a new model ship on the left there

Chaos best describes this but out of this chaos new figs shall rise!

Well that is all from this post hopefully I'll get a few more figs done soon. That boat should be done before I go back to Uni. Perhaps I may even start another BIG one. I already have a name for my upcoming vessel and as usual it is from one of my followers.

Anyway to you all a good night/day and a happy new year!

Still alive

Well hello everybody. It has been a very long time since my last post. I have been very busy at university this past year and unable to paint in my little room. Now it's the holidays and I'm back with my parents for the break. And with the garage clear I have got back to painting. Nothing to show just yet as I only just started. What I can say is that I have got some 18th century Oronegreans under-way and maybe, just maybe another boat.

I'll keep you all posted.
And too you all have a nice day/night.