Salute 2027 “Rules! More like guide lines”

Project Blog by Cowboygamer

Recommendations: 22

About the Project

For the past 3 years my club has presented 2 tables at Salute convention in London. In 2026 we were still painting and gluing parts at 11pm the night before the show and so this time I am determined to be ahead of the game. I also wanted to go BIG so I started working on ideas within weeks of getting back home. After some discussion my wife declared "Pirates are cool" and who could argue with that. So we decided to do a pirates of the Caribbean style battle between 2 full size boats (this also gave me the excuse to finally get a new 3D printer).

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My wife tells me I need another 8 inches!

Jul 28 2026

Tutoring 3

Skill 4

Idea 4

1 Comment

So how does this terrain system work? Aparently it starts with a base of grids made up of 35mm by 35mm squares. I then plug in all the different blocks as if I am playing Mine craft until I have created the terrain I want.

So I printed enuf grids to build an 8" by 25" ship which I thought was going to be more than enuf. but when I printed the hull blocks the proportions were not right and my wife informed me that I needed about another 8" in length. for some reason my friends at the club all found this very funny......can't think why.

So now the first ship has streched across 2 folding tables in are flat and i have to admit she was right. At this point you will notice that there is no floor inside the ship, this is because I am concentrating on getting the main structure built before filling in the deck space. It is worth keeping in mind that each square is 35mm across so to allow my 60mm bases to move around I need 2 squares of open space for a base to pass.

Work starts on the main deck which includes the captains cabin. After the base grid each extra floor is supported on a much thicker grid that not only has spaces for the blocks that sit on top of it but also the key blocks from the level below that stop it from sliding off. Also smaller floor grids are used to support the stairs that will follow.

Finally the scale of this project starts to sink in as I remember that this is only 1 of 2 ships for the show.

Each solution causes a new problem

Jul 25 2026

Tutoring 3

Skill 4

Idea 4

No Comments

First decision was to chose a game system to use. A number of systems were in the running but in the end I felt that "En Gardde!" by Osprey Wargames fitted the swashbuckling style of the Pirates of the Caribbean films best. This however presented my first problem, this game is a small skirmish game designed for about 6 to 10 models which would not be the big spectacle I was looking for.

So how do I add extra models without over complicating the game. Thanks to a suggestion from a club member I decided to use bases inspired by the game “Test of honour”. In that game some models are mounted on 25mm bases that in turn fit into a larger 60mm base. doing this with my pirates would allow 3 models on the table to represent 1 model in the rules. This is would allow me to Trippel the number of models on the table without increasing the game complexity. It also removed the need for wound counters as I can just remove models from the larger base each time it takes a wound. The problem this caused was most ship models don’t have the open deck space to fit a 60mm base.

So searching the internet I came across Dungeon Blocks who have a number of modular terrain systems primarily designed for TTRPG. One of these sets is for pirate style ships which would allow me to design my ships with the deck space I needed for 60mm bases. Yes the ships would not be historically accurate but I don't care about that, we are going with rule of cool. As you might have guessed by now, this left me with a problem. This was now even bigger than I had intended and I only have a "Saturn 3" 3D printer which was not going to cut it. Trying to transport all that resin to London by train was not a viable option.