Today I finished the bits and pieces on my painting table.

So I looked at the three boxes of renaissance figures to sort them out for playing Furioso.  PANIC!. 

The figures are gloss varnished.- ok a quick matt varnish should sort that out

The bases are horrible and some are curly. (beer mats advertising Barbican alchohol free lager) - You would think they would last longer than 40 years - Urgent request to add some 300 bases onto Pendraken order I placed last night.

I do not have enough figures to make complete units -  no problem  I have some unpainted Essex/Mikes models  in the garage loft.

When I come down from the loft even I am flabbergasted at the amount of unpainted 15mm renaissance figures I found.

I have Polish, Ottomans, Loads of Italian Wars.  Too many to count so  I weighed them.......... 8  (yes eight)  Kilos.

Whoops

8 kilos! A wonder the ceiling didn't cave in .

An Uncle, upon moving into his new farmhouse, found an unexploded AA  round lodged in the loft. Rapidly 'disposed of' in the  farm river.
Do not try this at home. kids... YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THIS1 

Only 8 kilos ?

I remember at secondary school in the '70's, the police giving a talk in assembly about playing with live bullets and if anyone had some they should hand them in. IIRC a couple of kids did have some, but where they got them from, God only knows.

Have heard of 'Live' artillery rounds being valued 'Fireside' ornaments... until some visitor thought "Eh!" lol!
Or Grenades... minus clip and pin... being 'chucked around' for decades. Still 'live'!
A drunken bunch of 'us' were at a mate's house, long ago, (pre Gun Cabinet?).... HE wasn't there! His shotgun was found... and messed with... until somebody thought... "Hey, This Is 'x's... maybe He keeps it LOADED!" LOL!   No one checked... just put back! 

Quote from: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 27 July 2021, 05:08:51 AM
Only 8 kilos ?

A veritable lead molehill.

Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 27 July 2021, 08:37:56 AM
A veritable lead molehill.

Ah but thats probably just the renaissance box

We had a French 75 shell from the Western Front on our parents mantleshelf for decades after my father liberated it from France in the early 1960s... Until my youngest brother thought it should really be checked. The RE blew it up on a local bit of rough ground. Yes, it was live...

Quote from: DecemDave on 27 July 2021, 09:14:01 AM
Ah but thats probably just the renaissance box

Unfortunately You are correct, there are many others 

Of course you didna buy em, squirrals dropped em off over the years.

Poles and Ottomans!  Get painting 

Quote from: Ben Waterhouse on 27 July 2021, 09:36:14 AM
We had a French 75 shell from the Western Front on our parents mantleshelf for decades after my father liberated it from France in the early 1960s... Until my youngest brother thought it should really be checked. The RE blew it up on a local bit of rough ground. Yes, it was live...

Reminds me of an old schoolpal who contacted me recently on Facebook.
I'd mentioned Carronade and posted pictures from a road trip to Falkirk.
He then mentioned that his house while we were at school (Nice part of Chigwell a few doors down from Rod Stewart) had a pair of Carronades as driveway ornaments.

Interesting anecdote about the removal firm who brought and placed them (A couple of guys who looked like Geoff Capes, none of that new fangled winch and cable nonsense).
He assured me they were perfectly legal. A bit of steel hammered down the touch hole or something.


Warning:
I strongly recommend NOT storing any spare Carronades (or other Nelson era naval ordnance) in your loft.
Modern building standards aren't as demanding as the deck designs of King George's navy.

Re: 'King George's Navy'...have been reading the Patrick O' Brian books... ('Master And Commander', etc.). Now, he seemed to 'know his stuff'... but I am amazed at some of the 'possible' capabilities of sailing ship crews in the novels!
Had always assumed that various 'bits' of mast, yards, etc. ...were 'just there'... and damage was 'jury rigged' to get to port. Are the books credible? Given the size of a Frigate, just  'where' could spares be stored? And crews fully capable of 'raising or lowering', major parts of masts as 'routine' on the high seas? Or, storing 'Carronades' etc. in the hold... until required! Much 'battle damage' repaired from shipboard supplies... or go onshore to find some timber!

Artistic license or 'semi' factual? Hard to believe, but, with woodworking artisan skills and  a couple of hundred crew... 'possible'? Anyone know?

I'm just going to leave this link to explain https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57965260

Aye, but that was in his basement. Doubt anyone's got a loft big or strong enough to keep that in!

Quote from: Heedless Horseman on 27 July 2021, 05:19:06 PM
Re: 'King George's Navy'...have been reading the Patrick O' Brian books... ('Master And Commander', etc.). Now, he seemed to 'know his stuff'... but I am amazed at some of the 'possible' capabilities of sailing ship crews in the novels!
Had always assumed that various 'bits' of mast, yards, etc. ...were 'just there'... and damage was 'jury rigged' to get to port. Are the books credible? Given the size of a Frigate, just  'where' could spares be stored? And crews fully capable of 'raising or lowering', major parts of masts as 'routine' on the high seas? Or, storing 'Carronades' etc. in the hold... until required! Much 'battle damage' repaired from shipboard supplies... or go onshore to find some timber!

Artistic license or 'semi' factual? Hard to believe, but, with woodworking artisan skills and  a couple of hundred crew... 'possible'? Anyone know?

Wikipedia suggests the following

Rigging

Depending on its size and purpose a sail-powered boat may carry a limited amount of repair materials, from which some form of jury rig can be fashioned. Additionally, anything salvageable, such as a spar or spinnaker pole, could be adapted to carrying a form of sail.

Ships typically carried a selection of spare parts (e.g., items such as topmasts), but at up to 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) in diameter the lower masts were too large to freight spares. Example jury-rig configurations include:

    A spare topmast
    The main boom of a brig
    Replacing the foremast with the mizzenmast (mentioned in W. Brady's The Kedge Anchor (1852))
    The bowsprit set upright and tied to the stump of the original mast.

The jury mast knot may provide anchor points for securing makeshift stays and shrouds to support a jury mast, although there is a lack of evidence of the knot's actual historical use.

Jury rigs are not limited to boats designed for sail propulsion. Any form of craft found without power can be adapted to carry jury sail as necessary. In addition, other essential components of a boat or ship, such as a rudder or tiller, can be said to be "jury rigged" when a repair is improvised out of materials at hand.

Re: Sail and rigging. Although I prefer Forrester's Hornblower, the O'Brian books seem to indicate that Sail Warships were vastly more complex and crews much more 'skilled' than I had imagined.
I have not seen HMS Trincomalee at Hartlepool close up, but even HMS Victory isn't all that big. I had never considered ships carrying spare spars or 'wood' sufficient for repairs or replacing gun carriages, boats, etc. , thinking that they would have any available space stuffed with water / food for extended service. The organisation skills just for stowage and access would put much modern business warehousing to shame... when everything was moved by muscle in very restricted space... and as for 'sending up a Topmast' by rigging tackle... in mid ocean! Frankly, becoming rather awed!

As for the complexities of 'sailing' to advantage in a 'chase' / combat... well, don't think MY brain could cope with 'Age Of Sail' gaming! lol.

As for the Panther... the amount of work that must have gone into that... I couldn't 'bodge up' my old cars enough to keep them on the road for long!  ( And, don't you just Love Law and Lawyers... ).

A lot of Royal Navy ships seemed to have a carpenter (or several) on board, that would seem pointless unless they also carried sufficient raw materials/spares for then to make use of?