The People of Port Largo - 'Ello Governor

Although I have not posted much about the Port Largo pirate project lately, the miniatures, buildings, and ships are coming along quite nicely.  Four other minis are just about finished while the inn and a blacksmith's shop are not far behind.

Quite a few pirates are walking the streets of Port Largo and the ladies are doing their thing as well, but there has been a lack of other inhabitants (aside from a lonely barkeep) for the booming seaport.  Over the next few weeks that issue should be rectified.  In fact, the change starts today with the introduction of Governor Thomas Haldane.

Governor Haldane arrived in Port Largo in 1714 seething with indignity at having been posted to such a minor possession of the King.  Though he is from a fairly prosperous and influential family, his enemies back home sought to remove the Jacobite sympathizer from court and send him to the remote British outpost.  Once on the island however, Governor Haldane made the best of his predicament.  Thomas is heavily involved in the illegal trade on the island and has amassed quite a fortune through his interactions with the pirates and privateers of Port Largo.  Though the pirates and privateers know they have a high ranking ally in the Governor, they also are aware of his precarious nature.  At any moment, the tide may turn and a crew once under the employ of Haldane as privateers may become hunted pirates by the very man that initially empowered them.  A common question of ship captains as they dock in port, "Which way blows the Governor?" illustrates the uncertain loyalties of Thomas Haldane.

The miniature representing Governor Thomas Haldane is from Black Scorpion.  That should come as no surprise for regular readers of this blog.  I'm quite smitten with Black Scorpion and own most of their pirate range.  When I first saw this mini, I knew he was destined to be the Governor of Port Largo.  The sculpt has a close resemblance to a certain Governor from a certain Disney movie and fit the image of what I wanted in my game.  I was fortunate enough to purchase the miniature a few years ago when he was still available in metal (I'm not a fan at all of their resin products but that's a story for another time) but those seeking the mini now may not be so lucky.  

Painting was fairly simple.  I wanted a rich color that suggested wealth without looking too outrageous.  I basecoated the mini with GW Beastial Brown then worked up through several different layers of GW Snakebite Leather and GW Bubonic Brown.  The vest was painted using various cream colors and brown washes.  To add a bit of contrast and color, the scarf was painted using the ultramarine triad from Reaper.  The rest was fairly standard fare. 

My only complaint about the painting is the parchment roll.  From a tabletop standpoint, the writing looks just fine.  Now that I see a closeup photo however, my attempt at freehand looks pretty darn terrible....especially the red wax seal I tried to replicate on the bottom right hand side.  It looks like a big brown blob.  Oh well....

Despite his shortcomings as a miniature, I'm sure that Governor Thomas Haldane will make quite a impression on the island of Port Largo.  I can only hope that my crew remains in his good graces during the games of Legends of the High Seas.

More Bloody Pirates

One of the best things about keeping your workbench and miniature queue full of models in various stages of completion is that output tends to come in groups.  Though days may go by without the gratification of completing a single miniature, the sense of accomplishment of turning out three or four at a time certainly makes up for the days of dearth.  Due to a rare all-day cloudy day here in the Keys, I was able to turn out a few pirates to join my Legends of the High Seas crew.

Ready to sign the ship's articles and go on The Account.

All three miniatures are from the Artizan line of pirates.  Abel is on the left though he will be known as Blaze in my LotHS campaign.  Slugger O'Toole is the center pirate though he has yet to be named for the game.  And finally, Moses is on the right.  I rather like the name Moses for a pirate but using the names given to the miniatures by Artizan feels like cheating so he will probably come to be known as Cane.  I will simply "steal" the name Moses and use it with another miniature.

I am in the process of working out backstories for the main pirates in the campaign and have a few ideas for Blaze and Cane.  The former is an escaped slave from Jamaica.  He is wanted for several crimes on the island including arson (hence his name), piracy, and murder.  His coat, pilfered from a merchant captain in one of his first raids is Blaze's pride.  He is rarely seen without it despite the weather.  He is quite jovial when the mood suits him but his propensity for violence is becoming legendary.

Blaze wearing some of his plunder.

Escaped slaves joining a pirate crew was a rather common occurrence during the golden age of piracy and Cane is yet another such example.  Escaped is not really the correct term for his entry into a life of piracy.  "Liberated" is probably more appropriate.  Cane was taken during a raid on a sugar cane plantation on the island of St. Kitts and endeared himself to the crew with his acts of brutality on board.  Rather than being sold off with the other slaves plundered from the plantation, Cane was kept from the auction block and soon proved his worth.  He rarely speaks and either does not know his name or chooses to keep it hidden from the others.  On one particular night not long after he was taken from St. Kitts, he was dubbed Cane by one of his shipmates during a rum-sodden dice game.  Although the shipmate was promptly  pummeled for the offering, the name stuck and Cane now answers to it.

Cane with his blunderbuss.

 


I do not yet have anything in mind for this chap right now but for some reason I keep thinking he is Dutch.  If he remains so, his presence in the Caribbean would be easily explained with the Dutch still being maritime powers in the Caribbean during the golden age.  Yes...now that I think about it I rather like the idea.

A Dutchman from Curacao??

On another note, when I was looking through these photos I noticed that on most of the Artizan miniatures there are very small "holes" in several places...mostly around interfaces and joints.  I went back and tried to fill in some of these holes after I noticed them but they are apparently deep enough that very watered down paint would be the only way to get color in there.  At this point, the minis are good enough for table-top gaming so I would rather not risk getting runny paint everywhere to fix the problem.  The presence of the holes however sours my attitude toward the miniature line a bit.  I like the sculpts but I do not like the imperfections.  Now that I know what I'm looking for I have noticed them on the two unprimed minis as well.  I'm assuming this is a casting issue...perhaps old molds or maybe the curing process allowed air to escape and form the depressions.  I wish I would have noticed them earlier.

Have any of you had similar issues with Artizan miniatures or other lines?  If so, how did you fix them and what do you think causes the holes?