"Those pirates are animals" Topic

Each week I attend my local swap meet in the hope of finding an item or two or more that will enrich my miniatures collections. But now and then what I discover is something silly that I just can't resist. During this last month, silly and pirates came together a couple of times, and I've decided to share them with you. Four weeks ago I came across a broken pirate ship music box in a baggie. The baggie held a sailing ship that was much the worse for wear with masts broken and partly missing, but even so it was a pretty little craft made of plastic and crewed by a teddy bear, a kitty, a bunny and an elephant -- pirates all. A couple weeks later I came upon another pirate ship of larger size but uninteresting shape with nice masts topped by well-shaped crows' nests and crewed by penguins. The penguins were all identical black and white little fellows with head scarves, eye patches, small swords and wooden legs. Finally last week I discovered a third sailing ship that was missing its masts but had a nicely shaped hull for all of that. This third ship plus the main mast from the second ship became the vessel for the penguins. With those three purchases, I had an investment of $6.50 USD. Added to that was a 25 cent pirate flag and a 50 cent sail for the penguins and all that remained was some minor mast repairs, and detail work, general gluing and new paint for all. In two of the pictures posted here I've included a Foundry Pirate to provide a sense of scale. I have no practical answer for the question of why I did this project, but I had a great time, and I'm certainly glad I did it. Hope you enjoy my little sea dogs (actually, no dogs – just a bear, a kitty, a bunny, an elephant, and penguins). With this little detour behind me, I'll return to working on my 28mm Pulp era Egyptian archeological dig.[URL=http://s1082.photobucket.com/user/rgarretson/media/IMG_0628_zps2fb852f5.jpg.html]

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Cool! Would love to see how they scaled with Eureka's Teddy Bear pirate minis. Looking at the Foundry pirate, it looks like it they would be a close match. Any maker information on the bear, bunny, elephant, ship?

So cute! I really like the bunny in the treasure chest :-).

Really glad you are enjoying them. As I said they were fun to do. The ship that is crewed by the bear, kitty, bunny and elephant was originally a music box, and I had to remove some of the "music" stuff in order to reseat the ship more snuggly on the water. Unfortunately, when I did that I junked the plastic bottom cap and that is probably where any manufacturer name was located. Sorry I can't help with a manufacturer. When I repainted that crew, I tried to stay as close to their original colors as possible. Thanks for taking a look and writing. Richard

Too funny and I could see this being used in a game of Gnome Wars.

I should have added that the ship I'm using with the penguins (which is not the ship the penguins came with) says Disney on the bottom. I should also note that the area around stern/helm area of that ship appears to have come with a rail, but the railing was broken off on both sides so I put those onion-shaped balls in that area because I had six of them in my junk-and-stuff box, and I didn't have a rail that would work. whitemanticore, I'd forgotten all about Gnome Wars. I saw a really wonderful Gnome War game layout at Historicon in 2012. Thanks for reminding me, and thanks for writing. Richard