Pirates in YAAAAARRMOUTH

In England in the last few years there has been a terrific event that has happened up and down the country called Museums At Night. In some cases people can stay overnight in some museums, but in most cases various museums are, as  the event name suggests, Open at night.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by my friends Ian and Kitty at Black Knight Historical and they asked me if I would like to do an evening for Museums At Night. It was in Great Yarmouth, 110 miles from here. Bit of a trek really, but the thing that swung it, was that it was to be a pirate for the evening. Winner!

So last Friday I found myself doing a 220 mile round trip to go and play at being a pirate at the Toll House Museum in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Apart from having to suffer what passes as A roads in Norfolk I had  a great evening. The Toll House museum is the oldest building in Yarmouth, a little gem of a place. Solid stone, heavy doors, shuttered and barred windows, brilliant.

We saw hundreds of folk, from little pirates to interested adults. And got to talk about all aspects of piracy and a whole lot more. Piracy as a reenactment period is a tricky one. The Golden Age of Piracy was only about 25 years and 'doing' pirates when you aren't on a ship is pretty tricky. The Toll House I think was probably the next best thing. I would love to do more piratey things, if I could get some more of my crowd into it, but we are soooo busy that might be a tad tricky. Still it would mean an excuse to buy new swords, shame:0)

My thanks must go to Black Knight for the invite; Ian Flint for the Dragoon pistol, might let you have it back if you are nice to me:0) The Toll House staff for making me most welcome and the brilliant public of Yarmouth and its environs who came out in force to hear tales of Edward England, Edward Teach, Calico Jack,  Mary Read and Anne Bonnie. I hope to be back next year:0)

Cheers Cap'n Swallowtail Timmy

Ohh and a nice man from the Norfolk Museum services took some great photos too...

 Scary aren't I?

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

Well it has been a tad quiet on the blog front recently, for which I apologise. However I have been rather busy working on a variety of different things. All of which prevent me from logging on here.

The reenactment season had already begun and I spent the Easter weekend at two different events at Kentwell Hall and Kenilworth Castle. Both good events for completely different reasons.

At home I have two or three different projects that I will post some pictures of in the next few days.

Firstly I have been blackening my 15th century armour. I have completed my Barbute (helmet) and have nearly finished the right leg, right gauntlet and left arm. Some bits need reassembling. This summer I will be the Black Knight, and just hope it doesn't get too hot.

Secondly I have been working on my Brig, armour rather than pirate ship. this is a huge task. It will have 180 plates of steel riveted to black velvet by 1400+ rivets. The armour plates are being shaped at the moment to fit my curvy form. this project I hope to have finished by the end of June. So time is pressing.

Thirdly my gaming energies have had to be redirected. I was working on a 40mm pirate project for Salute 2012. Unfortunately (for the South London Warlords and gamers), a good friend of mine is getting married mine on the same day as Salute and I am performing the ceremony, in a strictly secular way. The wedding is to be a Steampunk affair and this year instead of building wargames scenery right now I am building full scale Steampunk scenery so it can be used for photos on the day. there will definitely be photos of that, but I cannot reveal anything until after the event as the happy couple have not seen any of it yet:0)

So here a couple of photos of toys that won't be at Salute 2012:0( They might make it in to a WI article about Blackbeard though, If I can get it written.



Sash and Saber 40mm pirates. Smashing. Lots more to come. And new scenery too. Watch this space.

Right I am off to try to finish a F&IW article for WI. Only a few weeks late.
Cheers
Reverend Timmy

Piratical Progress

As previously stated this winter will see two projects and blimey if they both appear, at the moment, to be ticking over nicely. One game of VBCW (Very British Civil War) played, two more to come this week. Figures being painted like a fury. (VBCW post to follow) After one game of VBCW I had a wobble and my SALUTE2012 plans were nearly derailed as all of a sudden I fancied taking VBCW to SALUTE, and in some ways I am still tempted to, afterall 99% of the scenery is made and there are several of us painting toys for it. However I just can't help thinking that there might be several VBCW games at a show like SALUTE as it is a game very in vogue right now. So I think I am going to go with the more ambitious plan of 40mm pirates for SALUTE.

Yes that means all new figures and terrain but I love a challenge and the modeling side of the hobby is so important to me. I want to take new and fresh models to SALUTE, so that's what I am gonna do:0)

The first model for my new Pirate town is well under way. It is a smithy with an attached house. I doodled some concept sketches for this one (probably during a staff meeting) and the actual model is turning out pretty close to the sketches, with only the odd thing like location of chimneys and doors being any different.

As usual I am using foam board and balsa wood for the main structure on a hardboard base. The roof of this model will have cardboard shingles/slates, many of the other buildings will have pantiles.



I am having a lot of fun with this model, a new scale is always a welcome change and I am looking forward to the finishing process and the details that I can add. I have several other sketches that I will post including a map of the whole port which will show the scale of the project. Hope I am not biting off more than I can chew. But then it won't be the first time I have done that. Heyho! More progress updates soon.