Completion of Project Trafalgar

In the Summer of 2009, I bought the newly published rule book Trafalgar at Pendragon, in Winnipeg. A few weeks later, Curt offered to play a game with a few ships he bought. Somehow, I got hooked and I told myself: "I want to paint enough ships for the battle of Trafalgar." This represents over 70 sail ships if frigates and smaller vessels are to be included. So back in January 2010, I candidly announced my insane project. In May, I was about 2/3 done. And now, eight month later, here is an overview of the completed work.


I like to fit everything in a banker box. When the box gets damaged for any reason (water, fire, or even worse: kids), it's easy to replace. After the last ship was painted, the whole collection would occupy the surface of three shelves in a glass cabinet. Now seeing how eight month worth of painting fits neatly into this little box helps me better understand poems written by Charles Baudelaire about the futility of life...

These upright trays were built on purpose to store the ships. There is provision for expansions, in case I want to revisit the Age of Sail in the future. The magnificient vessels of Louis XIV's navy come to mind, especially the Soleil Royal. But if hulls are fun to detail, this modelist needs to take a serious break from making sails. Painting decent sails and rigging the masts consume about 2/3 of the time it takes to make one ship.

Here are some of the pieces from the collection. The H.M.S. Victory has been introduced before. Now behold the Spanish heavy hitters: the first rate Rayo (100 guns), Santa Ana (112 guns), Principe de Asturias (112 guns) and Santissima Trinidad (136 guns). These four giants of the sea combine 460 guns. By comparison, there were a total of 417 guns at Austerlitz. And we are talking mostly about 24 and 36 pounders, not silly 12 pounders or smaller. Anyway, it is unlikely that a Napoleonic land army will neatly line up on the beach to challenge these monsters into an artillery duel.

Let's compare the 120 gun Orient, one of the largest sail ship ever launched, to a 74 gun third rate, a 36 gun frigate and an 18 gun brig. Arming ships with more guns often meant to simply add a deck so from the gamer's point of view, a 3 decker does not appear significantly bigger than a 2 decker. Since at 1/1200 it is very hard to distinguish ship classes, the length of the base can serve as a visual clue to the power of the ship.

When you think sail ship, you also think pirates and I could not resist making a few of them. Along the merchantmen Beagle and Hudson's Bay come the Black Pearl (tm) with black sails and the Flying Dutchman, glowing in ghostly green. I thought that if I am to introduce younger players to the game, leading the Black Pearl (tm) would be a lot more appealing than commanding the Polyphemus...

To make the gaming experience more enjoyable, I gathered these accessories:
- Sinking ship markers
- A few boats.
- Movement gages in centimeters.
- Firing gage. The stick goes from yellow to red as the range gets "hotter".
- White smoke to indicate that cannons have been fired and black smoke to indicate fire on board.

My evil plan for the future is to introduce the game to as many players as I can. Then, probably sometime next summer, I will invite them all on a Saturday to a Battle & BBQ (& Bed?) to recreate the engagement at Trafalgar. The game will start at 1:00 p.m. and will end when it ends, however late it goes into the night! One game to bring them all and in the darkness bind them! Mwa ha ha ha!

As for my next project, I have to confess that I can be obsessive compulsive after I set myself a goal. In the past, I have blindly followed insane ideas like: "I am going to collect all the Epic armies!" or "I will build downtown Montréal in 1/300!" (Sadly, ferocious field mice infested the paper made downtown Montréal stored at my friend's place; there were no survivors.) These huge enterprises were fun, but when they last over a year the lack of diversity starts to kick in, especially for my fellow gamers. In the next few days, I am going to complete Curt's commission. Curt asked me for some buildings for the battle at Aspern's church. The church is done and sits unpainted in his kitchen (?). Not long ago, Curt challenged me to build a Warhammer army. If the challenge is still open, that will be my next project in line. I've occasionally painted 25/28mm figures in the past, but never a whole army. So this could be an interesting first for me.