January Pledge - Buccaneer

I took a break from painting over Christmas (…the dining table was needed for other things!) but its time for me to get back to work. I have a long to-do list for this year and first on that list is a nice Buccaneer Captain that I bought last summer. I also have a load of other pirate crew models (Plastic Corsairs of Umbar from the Games Workshop LOTR range) to complete but this model is my main target.

At this point I would have liked to have said who the model was made by… but I threw the packaging away and can’t for the life of me remember the manufacturer. (Note to self: Don’t do that!!). I think its part of the Black Scorpion range but it’s not pictured on their website. This model is approximately 32mm tall (29mm to eyes) and quite slender compared to some ranges. The detail is very fine but despite this the moulding is crisp and there were few cast lines or areas of flash to clean up. Other manufacturers of good pirate models include Crusader Miniatures and Freebooter Miniatures. I've bought minis from both in the past and been impressed with the quality of the castings.

I started by cleaning the model is a soapy solution and used an old toothbrush to get any mould release and skin grease off the surface. I let it dry thoroughly and then gave the model a black base coat. When I started painting miniatures – way back when I was a wee lad - it was commonly recommended for models to be given a white base coat. However over the years I have found that I prefer to start with black. I slightly dilute the paint 4:1 with water to ensure smooth coverage that doesn’t obscure the details. Sometimes a second coat is needed to fill in missed areas. I feel that this technique can give a model more depth and certainly makes black-lining easier (provided you have a steady hand and patience during the base coat stage).

I will post more pictures as I progress with this project and hope to finish with a model that stands out on the games table.