This is the French brig Honnête, my first attempt at a Warlord Black Seas warship! I've always had a fascination with people who have a fascination with the sea, but have never had any sort of hankering for a naval life myself. The last time I set foot on a boat was about twenty years ago, when we were stupid enough to actually pay someone to take three generations of our family on a tour of the Farne Islands, on a day when there was 'a bit of a swell'!
I made the mistake of watching some 'how to play' videos and suddenly, the Postman was knocking on the door with a Master & Commander Starter Set. Why I did it, I just don't know! The idea of painting a 1/700th scale brig model, rigging, fitting sails and ratlines must have been born of sheer madness. But, there were lots of pictures of other people's models, so it must be possible!
There is lots of information out there, but it does take some considerable investment in time and effort to pull it all together. There are some really good tutorials on rigging frigates but the only one I could find on a brig was one where the tutor was using the guide to rigging a frigate in the Black Seas Rule Book.
If you are thinking about having a go with Black Seas, then my best piece of advice is to think in terms of how things appear to have been done historically; make yourself Master & Commander of the ship you are painting and you choose how it's all going to be done.
There is a really good method of rigging your ship with a single length of thread on the Black Seas Facebook page; I adapted that slightly and then went to Stage 3 of the rigging instructions in the Rule Book (the bit about rigging 'backstays') and that was enough for me. It is very very fiddly, but if you keep it simple and work to your own limitations, then it is massively rewarding when you get to the end.
I would definitely recommend buying the bases from Warlord, as I found that all my lovely paintwork on the hull started to disappear with all the handling you have to do when working on the rigging and sails.
This is my, currently nameless, Royal Navy brig, preparing for many deadly encounters with the Honnête. I think that experience is paying off and this attempt is an improvement on the first. Once I saw how much work was involved in getting these things on the table top, I vowed that I would only ever do two, but now I'm thinking that these long Winter nights would be a good time to continue learning and making more of these lovely little ships. I'm definitely not going to build anything bigger than a frigate!
I can see all those Hornblower and Bolitho novels that I have read over the years paying dividends now as my little ships take to the high seas, without any possibility whatsoever of me getting my feet wet.
I have to say 'hats off' to Warlord; they have put together an excellent package in the Master & Commander Starter Set. There is everything (apart from bases!) that you need to get you started. As I said earlier, it has involved a lot of rummaging around on t'internet to get to a point where I feel comfortablish with what I should be aiming for with my little ships, but I would certainly recommend the Black Seas Facebook Group as a source of helpful information. I think I was on the verge of giving up at the rigging stage, until I came across a photo posted on the group page of a simple one thread method of starting off and that got me motivated to press on and have a go.
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