It's not just a job, it's an adventure!

My Bretonnians had a bit of a brush-up with Admiral Dave's Empire fleet this weekend. The Bretonnians started out with a fire in their bellies, but unfortunately, they drank a lot of wine prior to the engagement and wound up putting those fires out.

Buccaneers make great shields, but they did not do a good job aiming with their catapults - a lot of ones were rolled this game (which is typical of me, so why be surprised?)

The Empire won the day, and the remainder of the Bretonnian fleet sailed back to their home port to grumble and pout.

The fleet awaits battle

The Empire fleet comes over the horizon...

 More photos after the break.

Sailing, takes me away...

Progress on the Bretonnian fleet continues:

Make sure your yards are straight before you attach your sails. Sigh...

Actually, I'm a little further along than the photo would lead you to believe. All but one set of Corsairs have sails and the only things remaining are to add pennants and attach to the bases and touch things up.

I drew up new sails in Photoshop and added a nice gradient to them for a little visual pop. Sadly, you can't tell that in the photo, and it isn't too noticeable in real life either. Bummer.

On the Buccaneers are some masts I had printed up at Shapeways. I think they came out pretty well - they're a little rough due to the material selection, but I think they are a good replacement for the impossible to get original masts.
All in all, I will have two Galleons, two squadrons of Corsairs (6 ships,) and four squadrons of Buccaneers (12 ships!) That's a lot of sails and pennants...

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner!

Best 13 minute 40 second song ever?

Well, due to various issues, it's been a while since my last post. I decided to get back into the swing of things by working on my Man O' War Bretonnians. I primed them, basecoated the yellow, did a Reikland Flesh wash and added the blue. Next up will be the cannon and minor details - I'm not sure if I'm going to paint the trim, though. I think the models look pretty good as they are, and I'm afraid that if I try to paint the fine lines, I'll wind up screwing up the yellow (and we all know how much of a pain yellow is...)

"Yellow, yellow, everywhere, and all my washes stink..."

I've also go the masts and sails to do - the masts should be easy to knock out. In the old days, I printed black and white sails and hand painted them - this time I may just print some high resolution sails out and save myself some time. I've got a little work to do on the bases (mostly ship placement,) but everything is coming along nicely. I think the yellow will look pretty spiffy facing off against Dave's Empire fleet.

There is currently a small craft advisory in the Sea of Claws

I'm hoping to have the fleet completed by the 15th, as we're planning on another gaming day. One of the things I need to do is head over to Headless Hollow/The Esoteric Order of Gamers and print out some ship cards. I'm thinking about redoing all of the magic and Man O' War cards and having them printed on playing cards, being as I sold my sets years ago. Maybe I'll add some new art?

Proposed box art for the Man O' War 2015 Limited Edition re-release