T is for Two - Follow-ups

A couple of things which pertain to recent posts, or maybe not so recent in the case of the second item, but which can go together for an eclectic post!

I was very impressed by Brian's pictures of the Charles W. Morgan (I nearly wrote Henry!) the other day and he sent a couple of uncropped/cheat shots to show how they are done. This one shows how he got the horizon shots, and it was simpler than I'd imagined, he just held them up to the sky!

While here Brian's using natural light to get those atmospheric shadows. I can't get these results outside with my little Nikon's, I have to find shade, use a tripod and then employ flash, yet still get quite smoky or flat shots (as the recent and forthcoming board-game pictures attest), if I tried this kind of shot (without flash) they'd be blurry.

I used to get better outdoor results with the old Fuji Finepix's, but they were also the least robust and shortest-lived of the five cameras I've had now, and six I've used since 2007, so it's a 'swings and roundabouts' thing with these digital cameras and you just have to try and see!

Meanwhile I managed to score these from Mike Harding, who always seems to find interesting things. Three FFL from somewhere, when I got the other one (below) a while back (Plastic Warrior Show 2019) someone suggested Argentina I think, but I'm now wondering if they might not be JSP or their Portuguese suppliers (Injectaplatic) as they are that same stiff 'Macau' PVC?

And there's clearly at least two colourways, I wonder if there mightn't be blue ones turn-up at some point, If they are Injecta'/JSP the three poses would make sense, as that is how they sold the slightly smaller Romans, one mounted and two foot per card?

I have no evidence either way, but will put both names in the tags for now. Taken from Timpo, obviously, but probably from hollow-casts, the binocular guy wasn't produced in plastic by Toy Importers?

T is for Thar' She Blows! (Brucie Bonus)

Not technically a pirate-themed item, but then over here ITLAPD has been and gone, but there's still a few hours of it over the pond, so very much on the cusp of the day; here is a lovely diorama from Brian Berke up there in New York, in which an early nineteenth-century whaler (the Charles W. Morgan - originally from Pyro) get a ship-to-ship message delivered by Captain Nemo of the Nautilus!

No blurb, but Brian said;

"A few months ago we went to see the Charles W. Morgan at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut before VOVID-19 closed everything down.

The whaling ship is the last of it's type. Whale oil was not needed when oil was discovered in Pennsylvania and the fleet of whalers was mostly sunk by the Union Navy as blockades to southern ports during the Civil War.

That's the background. I recently dug out a plastic kit of the Morgan and here it is on it's maiden voyage. Sadly it was seen by Captain Nemo, that's life! "

he added . . .

"Captain Nemo wasn't a pirate though revenge against authority started many a pirate on that vocation."

The Captain being actually consumed by a hunger for vengeance and hatred of imperialism; the British Empire (a fledgling America in the recent Radio plays!) which is explained further on Wikipedia!

Also - superb photography from Brian there, I thought?

As mentioned the model has had several boxings under three labels, Pyro commissioned the original tool, Life-like got hold of it in a tranche of ex-Pyro tooling in the 1970's (?) and dropped the name, although it was retained on the runners ('sprues')!

While most recently Academy-Minicraft had a shot, although that's a 1980/90's 'recently' I fear, I don't know if Academy still have it, but Minicraft went off to concentrate on hobby tools (I think) some time ago!

And many thanks to Brian for closing 'Pirate Day', as I think the organisers have simplified the title to, this year . . . in order to expand the concept?