It's Official! We're In.

For those of you who've been following this young blog from the beginning, or have read everything so far, you'll know we were still awaiting final approval from the convention for space for such a large game.  No longer waiting.  We have approval!  Actually, we don't just have their approval, we have their enthusiastic support.

 I am working with the convention for how the game will be promoted on their website and how people will be registering for the game.  As soon as I figure out how to get it posted I will be adding links to both ConQuest Sacramento 2012 and to their other area convention, Pacificon 2012 (that one is in San Jose, CA over Labor Day weekend).  I know how to add them here in the body of this posting to the blog, I need to figure out how to make them links so they are "always on."

Okay, does this mean I should now panic?  Heck no.  As I've dubbed myself, you can't panic if you are the Cecil B. DeMille of Fifteen Mil.  Do we need a demo reel to show at the theaters?  Hmmm.  That just might happen somewhere along the way.

This is exciting and heady stuff.  More buildings soon and hopefully some of the painted figures as well. Time for me to get double busy painting up the native villagers and forces now that I've gotten the last order of figures for them, pictures to follow when done.  But don't get excited about the basing of the figures for now, they will all be based at one big texturing party so that all the bases are to the same standard.

That sound you heard was me and the crew switching into a higher gear.

Here a palm, there a palm, everywhere a lot of palm trees.

I've amassed over 400 palm trees and a great many of them will be used in this game (though based in such a way as to also have utility in other games).  Here are some more greenery photos.  The third photo are of toy 'flat' palm trees that I will probably use in the towns.  The last photo shows some trees outside of the box that came in a board game of some sort.  They are really cool and I will have to come up with a special use for them (or have I already got something up my cavernous sleeves?).

This next photo is of a textured felt I found at Michael's, comes in a couple of colors, that makes for a nice stony ground effect.  Will be using this in this game and others.  Personally, I think this stuff is a great way to represent in two dimensions (the groundcloth): the third dimension of sunken ground.

This is just a halloween hill, comes three to a set, that was on sale at Michael's, part of their Lemax stuff, that may - or may not - be used in the pirate game.  But cool for others to know its out there, quick and easy terrain at a good price - and very light weight.

And you can never have enough lichen and reindeer moss, etc.  The long green things with the red tags will be used to represent seaweed.

Well, that's it for now.  Keep checking back for additional updates - and the revised map.

And now for something a little greener...

Yes, here are a variety of photos, and a few notes regarding them where worthwhile, of some of the growing pile of raw materials for building the islands.

The above three photos are of the trees for Mark's Mangrove Swamp (after my good friend, the late Tony Mark) with some figures in the first photo for size comparison.  The mat is a test bed for various techniques when painting the Great Canvas.  The last picture shows the source: Top Fin's Bonzai Tree.  But they just said mangrove to me when I saw them at the pet shop - I have eight so far but will probably add some more since they will be on at least two of the islands.  For those in the know, aquarium supplies are the tropical modelers best friend.

These two photos are of something I found this morning.  On a whim I walked into the small local pet shop to look for anything that might catch my eye.  Nothing did and I was on my way out the door when, hello, these popped into my vision.  They are for Betta tanks and referred to on the package as Papaya plants.  If I didn't already have a wealth of palm trees these would be a great start for scratch building some.   Seeing them next to 15 mm figures you can see they can be used in the larger scales as well.  Nice detail with the serrated leaves.  I think I'll use these as some sort of large tropical ferns.

A first look at some of the buildings

Since photos keep the interest up and entertain the masses, here are some shots of some of the buildings and other 'strutctures.'  These happen to be for the Spanish town, painted by Mike O'Brien, the man, along with the late Scott Hayes, who started the local club that is making this game possible by pitching in to help out - we just celebrated our 25th anniversary earlier this year.  I especially like the job he did on the barrel pile (from Peter Pig's pirate range).  If you look closely you'll see there are hungry wharf rats looking for a meal.  I believe the first building is a JR Miniatures one and the second building is either from Stone Mountain or Musket Miniatures (I think).

Next up in another post will some of the "raw" materials for the terrain to give an idea of the diversity of flora to be found in and about The Scrubyward Isles.  Enjoy.

A little bit about the ships, for those who were wondering...

The source of the ships was primarily Ross Stores, some from Big Lots.  They were all "mantle piece" ships that came on a wooden stand with two risers to hold the ships up.  I removed the risers and - carefully - chiseled off the keels to make the ships into what I call semi-waterline models.  I'm not brave enough to saw them down more than what they are so they all ride high in the water.  I'd love to add a couple of more ships but haven't been finding them of late - I suspect the factory in China that was making them may be a victim of the global economic malaise.  They can be found, but at much higher prices than I paid for them, generally in the $15 - $24 range.

The most astute viewers will have noted that there are two pairs of "identical twins" in the lot.  I do plan to make some modifications so they each get "individualized."  If I can find more, I'd like to get more armed ships and some more merchant ships (pirates always need more victims) and then I'll cut up the two duplicates to use as Wounded Warriors of the Sea.

Here are a couple more photos, one of two ships - British and Spanish side by side, on the ship on the left is a stand of black primed figures awaiting paint.  The other photo shows a close up of the figures to help give you a sense of scale of the ships to the figures.

Well, I hope all these photographs will keep you happy for a while since real life is intruding and I may not be able to do an update for many days.  But I will work hard to maintain at least a weekly update.  The map will be getting some updating and revisions, hopefully to include more named features rather than the current mostly generic identifications.

Enjoy the ships!  I do.

The Spanish, but are they the Main fleet?

Is that the jingle of silver in the hold?

The guns mount at 24, and then 12, and a merchant ship.

The Dutch are still a sea power in this era.

And here they are:

She mounts 30 guns, then 10 guns, and a merchant.