Sunday, May 20, 2012

Project Actium

Well I finally got around to painting and basing the C in C 1/1200th Roman ships I bought from a fellow TMPer several months ago. I split them into two fleets with about equal numbers of liburnian, trireme and quinquereme. I still have several cargo ships to paint too. Here they are representing the portion of the Battle of Actium with Cleopatra preparing to break out - those central ships are previously painted Langton and Valiant models.
Here are the C in C models - the red ones are Antony's fleet and the blue ones Octavian's.
The previous owner had most of the models painted with brown enamel. I soaked them in Green Stuff and used a toothbrush to remove the old paint. After a black undercoat, the oars were dry brushed a wood color. As they are about 60 of these total - I went into a production line method of painting. No fancy colors - just basic red and blue besides the natural wood areas.
I think the ones with covered decks are the quinqueremes - I think.
For the bases I cut up a plastic sign from a hardware store (Lowe's). This was a tip from a TMP post - the plastic is the same type as the Evergreen ones sold in hobby shops; but at a fraction of the cost. This sign cost about $5.00. Acrylic caulking was textured onto the bases and painted a blue green with white caps.
I currently have Roman Seas for rules, but plan on trying other sets out too. I would like a set with less charts; Roman Seas is still a good set though. I like using a hex mat for ease of movement too.

14 comments:

  1. I've been away for a while. Dean, they look great and the idea of using the sign for the bases has solved a problem I've been having with a 15mm project of mine. Thanks for sharing!

    Nate.

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  2. Wow! What an achievement, especially given that you had to strip and then repaint them. Great tip with the sign too.

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  3. Nice job on the ships and great idea about the sign! What rules are you planning on using, Roman Seas?

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  4. Looks like your gonna have some fun games with these bad boys!

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  5. Quality work on the ships - red vs blue! Looks like you'll get some large games in!

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  6. These look impressive in large groups and great job on stripping and painting so many in a go.

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  7. Wow- that's an impressive set of fleets. They seem to paint up very nicely.

    I see some of the models are from Langton - now that you've tried Rod's 1/1200 ancients any chance of jumping to his 1/1200 Napoleonic ships?

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  8. Really beautiful models and work Dean!

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  9. Thanks for visiting and for the kind comments, everyone. I hope to get a Hotz hex mat ordered soon and give Roman Seas another try. It's been sometime since I've played it; but do recall I liked most of the mechanics. Best, Dean

    P.S. Miles - I like the look of Napoleonic era ships, but fear complicated rules - maybe Trafalgar?

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  10. Very impressive and quite a large collection! I haven't played ancient ships in decades so I'll be interested to follow along when you give these a run on the table.

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  11. Excellent work, Dean...great idea with the plastic sign

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  12. What do you think about the news that Warhammer Historicals site is effectively shut down?

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  13. Itinerant:

    Pretty much ho hum; although WAB was my first gaming experience, I came on as a late bloomer, so don't hold much "nostalgia" about WH. That said, I have 2.0 (off of ebay), most of the old supplements, Siege & Conquest, The Great War, Over the Top, and might've even tried Trafalgar. I'm not a tournament player, as most of my WAB buddies, so figure if anything we won't see future stuff - but that was already understood. We all waited in vain for Divine Wind. Not planning on switching to the other contenders either (WAC, HC, etc.). Comfortable with WAB and still haven't played out all the scenarios I want to. Best, Dean

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