"Conan the Pirate" Topic

Since Michael over at Crom's Anvil (cromsanvil.co.uk) is doing such a cracking job in bringing the various towns and locations of Hyborya to life for us in 15mm I thought I'd try my hand at something a little different.

I really like the stories of Conan as a rogue or pirate so, after seeing Darryl Hunt's preparations for Ghost Archipelago over on his blog Daxio's Uneventful Day(daxiosuneventfulday.blogspot.be/?m=0), I decided to try and build myself some ships.

The idea is to start on the Vilayet Sea with the Turanian navy and the Red Brotherhood pirates.
Then, If I like it, expand to the Western ocean with the Black Corsairs (Belit!) ,Barrachan Pirates and Zingaran privateers.

This is the first one, she's going to be a Turanian navy patrol/pirate hunting ship

I printed out some templates and made the hull out of some perspex sheets I had lying around. Then I added coffee stirrers as decking.

Then some cereal box card, more coffee stirrers and match sticks for the railings, doors and to close off the hull.

Some wooden dowels for the masts and more cereal box card for the outer hull planking

And finally a coat of paint to tie it all together

Once I settle on a name it will be painted on the banner which is removable, I'm also going to add another bracket to the top mast so I can add a national flag that way I can use it for different nations/pirate groups ( We've captured the ship, HOIST OUR COLORS ! )

And now I can start planning the next ship…

…and a sea board, some islands, a harbour, sea creatures… Oh look! a white rabbit… … wait mr rabbit don't go into the hole…

…wait for meeeeeeeeeeeee…..

Congratulations.
Thats a very nice looking ship.

Well done that's a great bit of work.

!!

That is fantastic!

Spectacular!

Nice ship!

Very nice indeed!

Thanks for the encouragement guys! 8)

Started laying down the hull for the next ship, she's going ti look a little bit different. ;)

Cheers,
Stroezie.

And here she is, my second ship,

I tried to go for a slightly more mediterranean look like a dhow or felucca.

This is going to be a pirate ship, a sleek fast moving vessel, perfect for chasing down fat merchants. I envission her as a Turanian noble man's pleasure craft "liberated" by the red brotherhood.

Here's a side by side shot with my previous build so you can compare.

I also recieved the first of my pirate crew which you can see on her deck.

A name for this ship?

Should be obvious: "Grifon!"

Just a little cleaning up to do here and there and then it's on to the painting !

Cheers,

Stroezie.

This project is really looking great.

Dan

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the launch of Conan's new ship "GRYPHON"

Really happy with how her figurehead came out 8)

And her name proudly displayed on her stern.

I've also recieved the rest of the pirates I ordered so I guess I'll have to paint up some crew for captain Conan first ;)

Then it's on to the small boats.

Cheers,

Stroezie.

I needed a break from painting the red brotherhood pirates ( I'll post them soon ) so I decided to tackle some monsters

The first mini is from Alternative Armies japanese Sengoku range. It's an oni a kind of japanese orc/ogre but when I saw it I immediately thought "Efreeti"

A bit of filework changed his sword to a big scimitar and softened down the hard edges of his trousers making him look a bit less samurai and a little more 1001 nights but don't take my word for it here's a pic

The other figures are a true Conan classic, "Grey Apes"

Also from Alternative Armies these just required a paintjob to take them from gorilla to their Hyborian counterparts.

Sadly there was only one pose so they all look more or less the same

That's it for now, pirates to follow soon…

Cheers,

Stroezie.

As promised "Pirates!"

The minis are a mix of Mini figs from Caliver Books and Barbary corsairs from Capitan games.

getting a bit crowded on deck 

A more colorfull collection of scum and villainry was never seen

There's a few small conversions in there as I had to remove/cover up some guns on the occasional mini. Nothing mayor, the crossbow men were actually holding muskets and the shields are covering the remains of pistols that sort of thing. All in all I'm happy with how they came out.

I also painted these as possible charracters but I don't know if I'll use them for CROM as I'm not totally convinced that they fit the overal style.

Cheers,

Stroezie.

Finished To'mas of clan Selec, my "Manly" barbarian  :D

Glorious mustache, big hairy manly chest and a fur speedo he's going to be a real lady killer if you ask me.  :-*

For those of you wondering, I did this mini in response to a few remarks in the Conan-what inpires you thread over at The Wargames Website ( thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/conan-what-inspires-you ) about the difference in how we imagine Conan and how he is portrayed in the books.(ie. with a big hairy chest, the lip warmer was a bit of frivolity  on my part.)

For instance

Hour of The Dragon – Chapter Three:

"Wrenching away the bow and an arrow he staggered toward the opening of the pavilion. So formidable was his appearance, naked but for short leather breeks and sleeveless shirt, open to reveal his great, hairy chest, with his huge limbs and his blue eyes blazing under his tangled black mane, that the squire shrank back, more afraid of his king than of the whole Nemedian host."

Not planning to put a hairy chest on all my barbarian figures but, being quite the hirsute gentleman myself, I felt there should at least be one hairy chested mini in my collection to make up for the gross under representation of furry chested heroes in miniatures in general. ;)

Cheers,

Stroezie.

Time for some more classic Conan

A crypt with guardians and the mouldering bones of previous adventurers (all from Alternative Armies)

This fine looking gentleman from the Barbary Corsairs pack from Capitan Games, I think he's meant to be the captain of the corsairs but well see…

And last, that staple of every good Conan story, a giant snake ( to my shame I can't seem to remember where he came from)

I like the fact that he's big but not to big.

That's it for now but I've just recieved my CROM-funder mini's and terrain so stay tuned for more soon(ish).

Cheers,

Stroezie.

Wow! You've put a lot of work into your fantastic ships and minis, and it's paid off! Congrats!

Wow, I'm liking the Corsairs too!

Dan
PS. I wonder if those are the figures in these 2 "Berber" sets:
link
stonewallfigures.co.uk

Excellent..very inspirational

Stroezie

Here are some bits for your land adventures, specially to spice up your snake temples:

TMP link

Dan