The Argo ~ Finished

So I managed to finish my version of The Argo on Christmas day.
I'm pretty happy with the results although I found painting freehand straight lines on an unusually shaped curved surface to be quite difficult. So the lines are a bit dubious in some places.

It's for a display/participation game so it's very colourful and can fit about a dozen 28mm figures on 25mm bases. However, I wouldn't expect that many figures to be on deck at any one time (it's assumed most crew members will be rowing or minding the ship while the "real heroes" are doing all the hard stuff).

The way 7TV works is that you have a small core of Stars and Co-Stars and all the rest are Extras. So in this game the Stars will be brightly painted in full armour ~ Jason, Medea, Orpheus, Atalanta, Polyphemus, Zetes (because he's got wings!). I'm not sure if I'll include Heracles at this stage. Medea and Orpheus are there as spell casters.

All the rest of the Argonauts will be represented by the unarmoured figures seen below. They are in their "Sailing the Ship" garb and a handful will act as Red-Shirts for accompanying the rest of the Away Team. The only one to be named will be Typhus ~ the navigator.

Anyway, here's the photos:

The reason I added a base is to keep the ship stable when moving figures around

as it isn't waterline and otherwise has to rest on the small sanded line of the keel.

Something New for 2015

Well it's been a very long while since I added anything to my blog. The reasons being illness in the family. However, things being resolved I'm back to modeling and sculpting and a new project for 2015 (even though it's still 2014 and I've already started).

The new project is a dramatic Jason & the Argonauts game for the new year which will be displayed at several Melbourne events throughout the year - Little Wars melbourne, Nunawading Wargames Accociation's (NWA) Open Day and for the month long Pirates in September again at NWA.

This is going to be a big game using the 7th Voyage rules by Crooked Dice and will involve a bunch of Greek Heroes, a couple of Olympians, Harpies, Skeletons, a bloke names Talos and the Argo.

And speaking of the Argo, I've already started making it. I saw another blog where a guy used a plastic kit of a viking longship as the basis to make the boat and I thought I'd copy his idea. I used the 1/72 scale Viking Longship model by Revel.

And here's what I've done:

The first thing I did was put the hull together and sand off the keel. I thin cut up the prow and the stern:

I then added some pieces of plasticard, balsa and modelling putty to make the chassis for the prow. I also made some plasticard decking and glued it in place.

More plasticard - this time held in place with rubber bands to get the curve required.

Then I did the same for the stern (you'll also note that I fixed some card above the bit where the oars stick out.

And here's what it looks like:

But that's not where I stopped...

I built up the walls on the prow, added a load of Miliput and sanded the crap out of it until I got thoroughly sick of Milipt powder all over the place.

And I added the decking:

And did the same to the stern...

Then I sanded more Miliput for what seemed an eternity and once again created snowdrifts of Miliput powder (you can see it all over the cutting board. 

Then I forgot to take photos for a while and ended up with this:

I was planning to add a fan/fin thingy on the stern but decided (after the last pic) to just sand it to a taper (just when I thought I had seen the last of powdered Miliput).

But that's not where I'm at... I started painting and will post more photo's soon.