A friend gave me a Lindberg Jolly Roger kit a few years back and it’s been sitting in storage and I pulled out the dusty box last week after deciding to build it. I want to make it into Blackbeard’s “Queen Anne’s Revenge”. I know there is no way to make it accurate as there is no way to know what his ship actually looked like. But I thought it would be a fun build and look really cool in my living room with his personal Jolly Roger flying from the aft flag staff.
Note - This is the Jolly Roger kit, not the Blackbeard kit by Lindberg. I love both kits, but I think this will be a much more believable QAR then the other kit which is all wrong for a pirate ship. But let us NOT start that topic of discussion - please!
I use an airbrush or rattle cans for cars. I’ve never made a ship before and don’t know much about painting ship kits. I love sailing ships and I kind of have an idea of what it should look like. I sail as a personal hobby and sailing is heavily in my blood.
I will do white under the waterline. Maybe a buff or cream-tan for above waterline. Blue with gold trim around the great cabin (idea taken from the docu-drama staring James Purefoy). I’m not sure how to do weathering or make wood coloring look good.
Also a big hurtle; the Lindberg kit is a 30 gun ship. QAR was a 40 gun. So if I count the aft chase guns (these are not really there on the kit, but gun covers are molded in the transom piece) Anyway if I remember there are either 2 or 4 gun covers, that leaves 6-8 guns to come up with. So to solve the gap, I thought of mounting swivel guns on the quarterdeck and fo’c’sle. A pirate ship would’ve had these. Any ideas on how to fabricate these?
I’d love to get lots of great ideas so please share them!
