Uncharted Seas: Dwarf Fleet - Test Paint

Today saw a quick-ish initial paint of a few ships in my Iron Dwarf fleet for Uncharted Seas.

The idea is to borrow from the palette of some dazzle schemes used on ships around WW2 but maintain the hard lines of the ship design rather than break them up (as would be usual with a dazzle scheme). Most dwarf ships I've seen have had a light or dark wood colour for the deck however I chose to go with a dark blue/grey washed with black - if challenged I can claim the timber is "Darkwood" :)


There's obviously more work to do but I'm happy with the scheme itself. A touch of gun metal and/or chrome on the guns and some restoration of the beige plates to make them less dirty should get them up to a point that I am happy with.

I'm contemplating air recognition circles on the turrets and decks in a contrasting colour although this will have to wait until later.

Prussians: Infantry Test Paint

I did a test paint for each of the infantry regiments that will be in my army as per my previous post. On the left is Forcarde and on the right is Itzenplitz.

At this scale the difference is negligible; if you look carefully you'll see that the cuffs are different colours (red and white respectively). It's almost unnoticeable but their collars and pompons are also different; Forcarde has a blue collar and red/white pompon whilst Itzenplitz has a white collar and yellow pompon.

Overall I'm not sure that I'm happy with the job I've done but will press forward and hope they look okay when they are ranked up and properley based. Perhaps a highlight on the blue coats will help bring out more detail.

...also Forcarde needs to have his bayonet straightened!

Prussians: Rossbach Uniforms

I don't like to call in sick at work (in fact I take pride in not "chucking sickies" in this job) however tonight I've been too nauseous to either lie down or walk around - although sitting upright seems to make me feel better... which is a good excuse to sit at the computer and continue my gamer "research" (hopefully my typing doesn't wake Emily up).

Koenig Krieg: Seven Years War Prussians
I've been playing around with colour schemes for my Koenig Krieg Prussian Army. These are uniforms of some regiments that took part in the battle of Rossbach (November 1757) so by choosing these colours I can rest assured that my army will not be too divergent from history. Of course most of my opponents won't know (or care) but at least I'll know!

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* Musketeers: Major-general von Geist Brigade

Nr. 13 Itzenplitz Infantry

The flags are quite striking and the white lapels/cuffs on the infantry are appealing - although I'm not sure how that much white will look on the front of the model. A test paint is required!


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* Musketeers: Major-general von Geist Brigade

Nr. 23 Forcade Infantry

This regiment has the classic Blue/White/Red scheme of the Prussians in this period allowing me to use these models to 'stand in' for other infantry.


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* Dragoons: Seydlitz Brigade

Nr. 4 Czettritz Dragoons

The buff/straw colour of the breeches, waistcoat, collar, lapels and turnbacks give this uniform a subtle variation from the infantry whilst the red saddlecloth keeps the overall colour scheme linked back to the rest of the army.


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These choices keep the army paint scheme limited to a palette of Blue, White, Red and Black with a little Beige for variation. This extends to flag colour allowing individual units to look different to each other without breaking the overall theme of the army.

Of course all of this is pending how the test models look - I may yet ditch these schemes in favour of something more exotic (such as Nr 10. Finckenstein Dragoons with their orange collar, turnbacks and saddlecloth). However for my first Seven Years War army it would be wise to stick with more conventional (or 'generic' if I may be so bold!) colour schemes.

...and now I'll try to lie down again ...poor sick me!

(World of Warcraft) Dogfish: Ding 60

World of Warcraft
I've been casually playing my Orc Shaman with increased frequency - a few nights ago he hit level 60. I remember when that used to be a big deal! I have a lot of characters although most of them linger in the mid-20's as I get bored with them and move on to another. Actually I only have one level 80... but I digress!

Here he is in Shattrath City wearing various quest reward bits and partial sets from the Auction House. I've always thought "Shattrath" was an unfortunate name for a city (well, an unfortunate name for anything not related to a particular body function).

I went with Aldor although I don't think it matters as he'll be off to Northrend before he has sufficient reputation with them to unlock anything interesting.

Prussians, Dwarves & Samurai

I went on a journey with Emily today in search of an airbrush and an appropriately sized air compressor. Bunnings had an air compressor that was the right price for my budget - although it was still too large for what I want despite being the smallest they had.

We continued our journey and ventured to a nearby hobby shop where I did find the right size of air compressor (a lovely little brass model that is small enough to sit on the bench while I paint) although it cost over twice as much as the beast at Bunnings! If I hadn't already spent my toy money this fortnight I would have grabbed it - but my bank account can't take any more hits of that magnitude without sinking... so I guess it will have to wait until next pay.

Speaking of spending money, I have new toys that deserve a mention.

Koenig Krieg: SYW Prussians
Last weekend I popped into the Brisbane Muster to see what was happening. There were a number of interesting games being played (everything from a modern Iraq encounter in 1/72nd scale to a Blues Brothers car chase game - complete with soundtrack!). I didn't have time to play anything although I did hover near the Koenig Krieg booth long enough to check out what was on offer... once I saw all those bicornes and tricornes ranked up in neat lines I had to open my wallet! Also, the game is written by some Brisbane guys so I felt obliged to support them.

I grabbed an army deal (2 bags of Musketeers, 2 bags of Dragoons, 1 bag of Generals) and haggled gently for a good price on some resin bases - commiting me to yet another project: Seven Years War Prussians.

The plan was to get the airbrush and air compressor up and running today so I could get these guys undercoated. Now it looks like they'll have to go back into the box for a little longer.

Uncharted Seas: Iron Dwarves
I've been hearing good things about Uncharted Seas on the net. It's a fantasy naval game (re: Man o War) that has been around for a year or so and is published by a small company in the UK. The ships have resin hulls and pewter sails which I believe is a great idea (based on my experiences with Flames of War tanks).

After carefully considering the available factions I settled on the Iron Dwarves; mostly because they suit my usual wargaming play style but also because they are not affected by wind direction (yay steampower). So anyway, they arrived the other day in a suitably large postage box.

By my calculations I'm the only Uncharted Seas player in Brisbane (and one of only a handful in Australia) so it might be a while before I get a game! Still, that's a good excuse to buy a second fleet for a friend to borrow ~ assuming I can convince anyone to play... Emily has already made it clear that she will not be joining me on the high seas.

Legend of the Five Rings
I've been meaning to "get into" L5R for years. A few months ago I discovered that now is an excellent time for new players to get into the game as a new set of cards is about to cycle in - and make most of the old cards redundant for tournament play (well, the old cards can still be used in Legacy tournaments, but as a new player I'll be avoiding them anyway).

So off I went across the internet in search of a bargain (this sparked a short but intense flamewar on the forum which I won't go into again; other than to say I got a good bargain from Troll & Toad in the USA). Only a week later (!) I received a box of "Glory of the Empire"; the first expansion that is legal for Celestial Edition tournaments.

I went along to my first game last weekend. Four of us met up at Ace Comics in the city and had a small match. As these were my first games (since dabbling briefly in L5R way back in 1995) I didn't do too bad; two losses and one win. That result sounds worse than it is - three of us ended up with the same win/loss record for the afternoon... the fourth player in this equation actually got through undefeated! So overall not bad for a new player.

I have "Death at Koten" on order from AEG which will add to my Celestial Edition collection and help buff up my newbie deck, hence the lack of spending money for today's air compressor.


Wrapping this post up I'll return to the start; having abandoned the air compressor idea Emily and I decided to head over to Carindale for some non-gamer shopping. It was nice to spend the day together and casually wander about the place looking at things - although the crowds were annoying. Despite my best efforts I actually returned home wothout purchasing anything!