Black Seas - First Frigate

When I bought myself the Black Seas boxed set late last year, I thought I'd have the models made in no time at all!

Experience with the two free models that came with WI left me under no illusion that these were rather fiddly little miniatures to finish to an acceptable standard.

My original foray into Napoleonic Naval warfare was using GWH Trafalgar Rules back in 2011 (http://timstanks.blogspot.com/search?q=trafalgar). For this I used 1/1200th metal castings from Warrior Miniatures. These were one piece hulls with masts and separate cast sails that were very easy to assemble and paint up.....and most importantly..........did NOT require any rigging!

So far from the boxed set I have only finished one model, a frigate.

I mistakenly assembled it completely...including the masts. This made painting the deck problematic and any future models will be assembled without masts for painting purposes!

Initial rigging using black thread. Note the blobs of super glue drying with a whitish bloom

I used Contrast paints as they worked well with a matt white primer on these models as there is lots of deeply engraved detail for the paint to flow into.

Once completed it was time for rigging.

I keep this simple. There are pre-moulded holes in the hull wall by each mast. I simply thread black cotton through these and form a triangle with the cotton secured at the top of the mast using a blob of super glue.  To speed up the setting of the glue I spray an accelarent...mentholated spirit!

I used to buy the Gale Force Nine Super Glue Accelarent from Firestorm (£3.60 per bottle) and it used to disappear in no time as it evaporates. A quick Google taught me that the key component in super glue accelarent was alcohol. A quick experiment with meths proved it works just as well and cost a fraction of the real thing!

Once these three bits of rigging were complete I run a length from the bow sprit via the main masts to the mizzen masts, fixing in place along the way with super glue.

When all this was done, I attached the ratlines. These are printed on acetate sheet and require cutting out with a sharp knife. Attaching them with superglue is a little awkward, and I found in practice they were 2-3mm too long. They look OK in most cases, just be careful to keep glue to a minimum as it dries with a white finish on the acetate.

Last job was the sails. These come pre-printed on thin card, and more importantly, pre-cut too. This speeds things up a bit!. Having pushed the sail from the sheet I added a bit of curl to them by rolling them around a paintbrush handle. hen I attach them to the appropriate mast or rig line using a single bead of superglue along the top edge only.

To accommodate the super glue and rigging at the top of the mast I cut a small notch out of the smaller sail first.

The last step,  was to attach a flag to the rearmost rigging. These come pre-printed on paper, but require cutting out with a knife. They then simply fold around the rigging and glue together with PVA.

I know they should strictly be facing the other way due to the perceived wind direction filling the sails. But you can't easily see them if you do, so I have them pointing the other way!

The very last job is to touch up the areas of superglue where it has the tendency to dry with a whitish bloom. This was done with contrast paint once again.

The finished article looks OK at tabletop distance and hopefully will prove to be reasonably robust.

The downside is fingertips coated in superglue😕