The Ship Builder’s Progress

The Turkish fleet. These are going to be limited to plain black hull sides, possibly with the lower hull in brick red, and with the inevitable white trim around the main deck.

The Royal Navy. The single thickness hull templates at the top of the picture will be painted brick red for the lower hull and the layer above will feature the thin white ‘boot strapping’. The main deck will also have a white trim.

After what has been the best part of three months I am finally on the last lap of my on and off seasonal chesty/throaty thing - an affliction that is not serious but is extremely wearing. I tend to lose concentration easily (more so than usual!) and suffer from what feels like a permanent slightly nagging headache - tension based and no doubt due to the coughing. In short, it means that I am at somewhat than optimal efficiency and so most gaming related activities are greatly reduced.

The pictures you see above at this stage do not look like much but I was able today to get the models up to a tipping point prior to the next phase. I cannot begin to tell you how good it felt to be knee deep in MDF once again and in a meaningful way! 

I have a few pieces I am waiting on from Warbases but I am at last at the stage where at the very least the lower hulls can now be undercoated prior to painting. The main decks will have their hatches etc added before being painted so that the first phase will be just the lower hulls. I want to get all the hulls completed  (I am waiting on half a dozen pieces main deck pieces from Warbases for these) before I tackle the masts, bowsprits, flagstaffs, flying decks, funnels, turrets and barbette mounted guns. 

I am quite pleased, relieved even, to be back in business and am also delighted that the 24 of the 16 models planned are back on track….