"25mm/28mm Pirates" Topic

For the last 30 years my hobby focus has been on 15mm military miniatures and my paint of choice has been oil based. But seven years ago I began putting together a collection of 25mm/28mm figures for a pirate collection. In October 2011 I started painting that collection. I finished painting my pirate collection on June 12, 2012. It was my first experience with 25mm/28mm figures and my first experience painting with water-based paints. I organized that collection in a gallery depicting a pirate attack on the fictional Caribbean port of San Cristobal on the fictional Caribbean island of Lagrimas de Dios. The first two thirds of the gallery is a view of the town before the attack. The last third shows the pirate attack. Below are a few samples. I hope you'll take the time to check out the entire gallery at warin15mm.com/Pirates.html

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You've really outdone yourself here. Amazing set up – I love it!

Thanks for sharing. The vessels story was what we dream about. Loved the music group, dude being transported on a hammock,and the guy confined in a barrel, the cobblestone…where to stop?

Thanks to both of you for the supportive comments. When I began working on this project back in October, I had a bit of a learning curve to overcome in that these were my first 25MM/28MM figures, and I had never before used water-base paint. Despite that, it proved to be a wonderful experience. I love 15MM figures, but these larger figures offer so much variety and character it was a joy putting the brush to them each day. It's probably obvious from this gallery, I love the civilian figures doing the routine stuff of line, and the 25MM/28MM figures available are just amazing. Thanks again for writing. Richard

Very nice! I have about 200 pirates I need to get started on.
VR
James Mattes

Yea… Wonderful!
But… Who made that pirate in a barrel fig?

May I link your site to my pirate blog? The work is absolutely stunning.

Wingnut

richarDisney, the pirate in the barrel is a modified Foundry Civil War figure. It came in a pack with stretcher bearers and a punishment part (can't remember the actual name and number but I don't think it's retired). I shaved the long pants of the Civil War uniform to make them have a more 18th Century look and cut the original Civil War head off and replaced it with the head of an Old Glory 25s pirate. Actually, I did another one using a figure from the Old Glory 25s pirate prisoners pack (the pack with the guy in the kettle). I found a plastic barrel I had in my odd-and-ends box, shaved the pirate's shoulders down a bit so the barrel would fit around them and glued the barrel on the figure. Actually looks really good. I was going to use both of them in the gallery, but when I put them side by side having two didn't seem to be as dramatic/actually funny as having one there by himself with the minister preaching at him. Richard

Wingnut, that would be an honor. You are one of the inspirations that kept me going. I absolutely love your blog (look at it all the time), and your collection is the very best! I just finished my Old Glory Brigantine, and I had pictures of Elk Hunt in front of me the entire time. Would it be okay if I linked Fist Full of Seamen to my website as well? Ricahrd

War in 15 you and I need to team up some day. Your town blows mine away. The detail is incredible. I too love the average characters going about their daily toil. The Donkey mill is genius BTW.
"Tears of God"? Sounds like the title of a Rhodesian conflict documentary. Intense.
Was most of the camera work done outside? There is no shadow effect present, keeping your colors very crisp and vibrant. Nice. SLR or point-n-shoot?

Wingnut

Wow that's just fantastic! Pirates have always caught my imagination, but seeing your set up just blows me away! The temptation to dig out my foundry pirates is slowly getting stronger, and how much fun could I have scratchbuilding the houses and terrain! Thanks for sharing! But i must resist the temptation for a little longer.

Wingnut, thanks so much for the generous comments. I really love the average characters the most. In fact, I'm a real sucker for a pack of civilians. I was originally going to scratch build both a donkey mill and a covered well, but then I found that Architects of War made them, and they are beautiful pieces for $12 USD each so I bought them, and I'm really glad I did. The only detail piece I hoped to have that I didn't get built for the gallery is a treadway crane. I have all the pieces (things I found at the swap meet and Evergreen plastic) I think I'd need to build one but I can't find a picture that shows how the thing really works. So that will have to wait. The benefit of photographing a gallery in Southern California in June is we get a lot of overcast days (it's called June gloom). But for picture taking outside it is great because there is very little problem with shadows. The only gallery on my website that has been taken inside (the garage) is "Germany 1945" and we had the garage doors open to provide some natural lighting for that. We used the garage for that gallery because we were having a really sunny November (too many shadows) and because I store my buildings in the garage and that gallery had 63 HO scale/15mm buildings in it so it was just easier to set up where the building already were. My daughter is the photography. She has a great eye. ( She made the name ribbons for the ships.) If there are particular things I want to make sure are photographed, I tell her in advance but I leave it to her to frame the shots. She uses a small, hand-held camera. Sometimes the auto focus presents a problem because the size of the layout board which is 5 ft. x 7 ft means she's really stretching to get some shots and can't really get a clear view of the shot she's taking. Fortunately with today's cameras she can see the shot as soon as she takes it and makes adjustment based on that if needed. Once again, let me say how pleased I am that you enjoyed the gallery. I love your stuff so your appreciation of my collection means a lot. I don't know if we'll ever team up, but I'd really enjoy meeting you and talking.
Richard

Bracken, I have followed your building projects with awe. You are a real talent. I look forward to the day you bring that building talent to the Spanish Main. Thanks for writing and for the kind words. Richard

After my admission to Windnut today that the construction of a treadmill or treadway crane had stumped me, I decided to jump into the project and see what I could do. It's coming along although I'm still not sure how the arm itself is controlled. I think one of my problems in this process has been that the best looking sample crane I have found would probably never really work despite the fact that it looks really good.

That really was a stunning board!

richarDisney, very much appreciated. While I would never pretend that I could capture anything close to the look of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, I must say that it does flavor my vision of piracy. In fact, I hope to go on that ride tomorrow night. I had a wonderful time putting this gallery together. I'm sure we all come to love the projects that we invest our time, money and creativity in. And while showcasing them on TMP smacks of vanity (and for me it is), I know also love to share what I've done and how I did it with others who love the hobby and who might be working through some project-related problem that could be helped by my experience. I constantly draw from the work of others. For me, these galleries are a combination of vanity, payback for what I have received from the work of others and the galleries are an easy way for me to see my figures in the environment I planned for them without repeatedly having to spend hours of set up time to do it. Again, thank you very much for taking the time to write and honestly it makes me really happy that you enjoyed the board. Richard