Customer Spotlight: The Revenant

By Contributor Dan Carlson

The kit is Firelock Games’ Light Frigate. I used mainly a dark brown for the hull, and then I used a crimson color for all the trim save for the fancy parts. I picked red because it’s my favorite color, and the 18th Century Spanish Warship, The Santisima Trinidad, of 130 guns was painted red to showcase her power. So I figured my flagship should be boldly painted.

I started off blowing the powdered resin off the hull and using a hobby knife to carve out the gun-ports. After that I primed it with just a spray primer. The first step was applying my dark brown all over the hull, then going over the trim and middle “stripe” with my crimson color. After that, I had my brother (Tyler Carlson of Grave Hammer fame, Alex and Mike posted his Undead sloop to the FB page once) do the gold trim due to an anxiety condition I have that can sometimes make my hand tremor, making fine detailing VERY difficult. After that, I put a brown wash paint over everything to make it look like it had been at sea for years but was still maintained.

The rigging is pretty standard, and I don’t plan on disassembling my baby for any reason, so I opted out of that option.

I decided to use a still fabric for the sails. The red sails were inspired by the pirate hunters in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. The real MPV was my brother’s girlfriend, Bobbi. She hemmed the sails and made them look outstanding! After they were sewed up I coated the sails in watered down Elmer’s glue and used a blow dryer to make them look “full” of wind.

My favorite part of it was the final product. The kit is solid and it looks amazing. While I was building and painting I’d have Black Sails on in the background, and the show really inspired me as far as the “filthy yet functional” aesthetic for the whole ship. Painting the red trim and “stripe” was my favorite part. That’s when that little voice in my head screaming “Oh my god, this is happening!” was at it’s loudest. When all was said and done, the ship looked exactly like a pirate ship of my own design, totally unique.

The ship’s name is The Revenant. It’s always been my ship for pirate themed RPGs and Pathfinder sessions. I’m currently writing a short story about a pirate captain named Dussak and his ship shares the same name. Being able to bring my story to life was so exciting! I’m currently writing up scenarios to replicate battles in my stories and I couldn’t have done it without Firelock Games and Blood and Plunder!