Well here before me are the pirate leaders of da path. You have worked this project to the full and I am proud of you (although you should get more playtesting done its a big issue).

DWQ is bascily relying on you guys to give us issues to submit. So we need them!

You people are the best of the best when it comes to pirates so could you all if possible write as many articles as you can! We need making of type stuff (ie. if you did fluff talk about inspiration, if you did painting give us technniques, if you did rules give us reasoning).

PLEASE help us with this otherwise we'll be in trouble.

P.S. A pirate battle report would also be superb.

Well, I call tabs on fluff inspiration, although I cant promise anything big!

Krusty

I wrote a how-to-build-a-ship waaay back when. Do you want me to dust it off and re-post it here?

@krusty- A how the fluff inspiration worked would be great! Also an "only" DWQ peice of pirate fluff would be nice.

@ Warboss kurgan- Please do dust off the ship thing , if it has pictures too it would be awsome!

We still need more help though everyone!

A how-to guide for the Hogwasha

Bitz:

*Orc models - Very Important!: have them to hand at every stage of building your ship, for scale and accessibility reference.
*Black foam-core card (this has a matt finish so the glue sticks better and is more forgiving at the black under-coat stage!)
*PVA Glue (AKA white glue or wood glue) don't get the cheap school stuff, it's rubbish. Get DIY wood glue grade.
*Hundreds of Coffee-shop stirrers (like very long, half-thickness ice-lolly sticks) The company I work for buys loads of coffee from a near-by coffee shop for meetings and we get a cup-full of these every week. But I don't encourage you to take a handfull every time you buy a coffee. At all. In any way.
*18x3/4 inch doweling (the mast) If I'd planned it better I would have made two masts.
*12x1/2 inch doweling (the yard-arm)
*2 screw-in metal hooks to attach the yard-arm to the mast
*Thick cotton thread (rope to tie up the sail)
*12" square piece of old cotton bed linen or similar (the sail)
*An "artists" paintbrush - about 12x3/4 inch and tapered (the bow-sprit)
*Some metal icons - I used the Boar's-head from the Boar Boyz Standard as a figurehead and a Skull and Crossbones 40K Nob Banner pole for the stern.
*Plasticard (the metal teef around the Foc'sle)
*A wheel from a plastic Orc chariot or similar
*A few dozen Pins (to hold the foam-core together while the glue is drying)
*"Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Master and Commander" on DVD for erm…. research

Build:

Ship building is not a quick project. It will take most people a couple of months to complete so don't get disheartened if it's taking forever! Having a deadline helps but having three friends racing you to finish their ships helps a lot more! Every time one of them tells you the have got a stage further you will be spurred on towards your aim of nautical warfare!

The lower hull is not quite an oblong, it tapers toward the front to give at least the illusion that the thing could move through water! I cut a simple "base" first - 12 inches long by 4 inches wide at the front and 6 inches wide at the back.

The sides of the hull where tricky. I took a while to decided what profile I wanted the ship to have: A low central Main-deck (about an inch or two above "water-level"), a raised Foc'sle (about 2 inches higherthan the main-deck) and a higher rear Stern-deck (about 4 inches higher that the main-deck). The Foc'sle and Poop-deck would be separate parts but the sides still had to have a cut-out for the central deck (allowing for the height of a model so an Orc on deck can see, shoot or fight over the sides). The front is at an angle forward but the rear is vertical.

I glued the sides to the base and pinned them in place then I could take measurements for the front and rear foam-core panels. This system of "build, measure, cut" suits my way of modelling much more than cutting all the pieces first then assembling (I always find I've cut them the wrong size and angle - math is not my thing).

The Foc'sle and Stern-deck are squares of foam-core (large enough to put war machines and crew on) with three-quarter-inch high strips fixed round three sides as the gunwhales (again, measure against an Orc model so the crew can see over them!). Both were made completely then attached to the hull. The central deck is supported by several stips of card that run across the width of the hull.

When everything is dry and sturdy (be patient!) mark where your mast will go by drawing round the dowel - mine is right against the front of the Stern-deck so the vertical surface helps suport the mast. Cut the hole inside the lines so it fairly tight fitting. I didn't fix the mast in place so it can be lifted out for easy transportation. If the hole is a bit too big don't panic: you can line it with wood afterwards to making it smaller.

Cover the entire thing in wood. Don't be too fussy: it's Orc workmanship after all. It still takes ages though. Allow about a month for this bit ! Leaving about a millimetre or less between each "plank" makes undercoating more fiddley but is worth it for how it looks when painted. Much better than the too-smooth look of planks butted-up together.

Take some time to add details like the ship's wheel, trap-doors, hatches, doors, ladders, bodged repairs, etc. Keep the decks flat and uncluttered but don't make them boring. The vertical surfaces can by as busy as you like! This is where the DVD's came in handy. I have no idea what things on ships look like but the nice film makers have done real research for me. I added "kite" shaped plasticard plates (with rivets made of sliced spear-shafts) in to the foc'sle as Orcy teef at this stage.

Screw one of the metal hooks into the mast a couple of inches below the top - make sure it ends up with the "open" side upwards (you might have to push something sharp and pointy into the mast first - watch your fingers kids!). Do the same with the other hook into the centre of the yard-arm.

Lay the linen square for the sail on to a piece of polytheen - a plastic carrier bag will do - and paint watered-down PVA all over it. Turn it over and PVA the back as well. Use the thread to loosely bunch-up and tie each end and two other places, equally spaced along the sail. Put the sail by (on a clean bit of carrier bag) to dry for a couple of days. When it is dry it should be a wrinkled looking solid lump. Easy to paint and hard to damage. Hang the yard (and sail) on the mast and you are almost done (you just have to paint it!).





(I'm going to take some better photos of the finished ship :D )

Garbag has asked for a Pirate Tactics article (*Linky*)

He's said to write it in private so maybe we should throw some pointers together here :o)

I'll start:

Put Swivel Gunners into woods to get the best out of them. Skirmishers move through difficult terrain with no penalty and these short-ranged shooters with little or no armour need to be protected so they can unleash the hail of lead at an unsuspecting enemy :D

They should also flee if charged while "unloaded", since they can re-load the turn they rally... if they rally <_<

Are we going to do this using little snippets for each unit or are we concentrating on army tactics?

Up to you!

If we collect everything we can think of we might end-up with army tactics! :D