WIP-Carrying Case for Spanish Armada

[Nightmoss]

Having just finished my fourth ship I decided it was time to think about how to transport them if/when I ever get the chance to engage in some Age of Sail combat. Following up on the idea I got on the Maine Wargamer's site I made a trip to Michael's to see what kind of inexpensive wooden boxes they might have. I found a smallish box ready to be stained and finished for less that $20. Then it was off to the local hardware store to get some brass latches, handles and something called magnetic paint. I wanted to try the paint instead of using a sheet of metal in hopes to keep the weight down. All my ships have small rare earth magnets in the wooden base to hold them on a metal surface. Rustoleum sells pints of this stuff, also for around $20, but don't believe their claims that 3 coats of the paint creates a good magnetic surface; try six coats before the ships hold strongly in place. A top coat of latex interior paint helps detract from the utility of the magnetic paint (which is black), but I may still try lining the box bottom with thin felt? I also want to put tabs on the corners of the box so the top lines up more easily when latching.

I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, but some additional adds will make it even better. I'm also going to look for a large wooden box for carrying more ships. I think ten is the maximum I'd want to put in the box and I'll need room for 15 if I'm going to build every Spanish ship that took part in Trafalgar.

I threw in a couple photos of the San Leandro primarily to show how I'm going to color code my bases in future; red for Spanish, blue for the French, black for the British and maybe white for the US?

Cheers!

P.S. I don't know if you can see the detail or not, but I used Rory's idea of a darker tan for the lower deck area on the San Leandro. It turned out really slick!

[Gaz67]

Very nice, if you do intend to use felt it might be worth giving it a few more coats.

On colour coding I'd have gone for:-
yellow for Spanish, red for the French, white for the British and blue for the US.

red for Spanish, blue for the French, black for the British and maybe white for the US

[Devsdoc]

Oh! Jim,
Don't hit me! But I do not like your colour code bases. I think it makes your beautiful model ships look like toys. I think flags and pennants is enough. But I would always say "your ships.........." Hope we are still friends, my friend.
By safe
Rory

[Berthier]

Agree to Yellow for Spanish, White or Red for British probably red as in "thin red line" , Green for Russian, Grey for Prussian (they had 1 or 2 ships). I would have chosen Blue for French (Sacre Bleu!) and US...don't know, maybe stripes maybe white if Brits are red. Still leaves the Turks and Protugese, I'm sure we had a similar discussion on colours for another reason some months ago.

Still have basic black you could use as well.

Oh, and the box is wonderful!

[csadn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._racing_colors

:)

[Nightmoss]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._racing_colors

:)

Racing frigates? Sounds like fun, maybe even a scenario in the future?

[Nightmoss]

Oh! Jim,
Don't hit me! But I do not like your colour code bases. I think it makes your beautiful model ships look like toys. I think flags and pennants is enough. But I would always say "your ships.........." Hope we are still friends, my friend.
By safe
Rory

Not to worry, Rory. I come here for ideas and opinions and you're certainly welcome to present yours. I've actually decided to put the color bases on hold until I see what's coming from Ares. I think that will be one of my questions for them next week at GenCon. Take care.

[Devsdoc]

Not to worry, Rory. I come here for ideas and opinions and you're certainly welcome to present yours. I've actually decided to put the color bases on hold until I see what's coming from Ares. I think that will be one of my questions for them next week at GenCon. Take care.

Jim,
I think that Langton's smaller ships may go better with the SOG ships I have seen (4 of them), with your bases. Yours will still look tons better than theirs. I still stand by my comments.
Ba safe
Rory

[7eat51]

Very cool idea.

I remember another post, somewhere, that mentioned something about the dangers of earth magnets. Does anyone know anything about this? I remember it seemed odd to me at the time - something akin to governmental over-reaction.

I am inclined to same color bases, but I am new to AoS minis. For those of you who have played a lot, have you found it necessary to have additional national identification, or would such a move be more aesthetically based ?

[csadn]

Racing frigates? Sounds like fun, maybe even a scenario in the future?

Well, there are tales of frigates being raced -- the best-known is a British frigate captain who made the mistake of challenging USS _Constitution_, and got his aft handed to him.