Inspirational Amsterdam

I spent the last days of 2018 in Amsterdam. As someone who is interested in old buildings and shipping, the city has a lot to offer in terms of sight-seeing and museums. Thus, the visit was my first inspirational boost for hobbying in 2019.

Buildings

The most obvious and probably most famous thing about Amsterdam (marijuana consumption aside) is the grachten and the houses with their decorative gables.

In preparation of the travel I dug out the 28mm resin facades that I got from Gerard Boom, which he created during his Amsterdam facade project a couple of years ago. Looking at the different pieces helped me be more conscious as I walked around the city and thought about decorations and colour combinations. I have been wanting to paint up the facades for so long and now, after the visit to Amsterdam, this year may finally see me do it.

The Maritime Museum

Of course I had to visit the National Maritime Museum aka Het Scheepvaartmuseum. After all, so far this blog has been mostly about pirates and ships. The highlight of the museum is definitely the Amsterdam, a replica of the East Indiaman from 1749.

The East Indiaman Amsterdam next to the National Maritime Museum

You can visit the different decks, cabins and storage rooms of the ship. It is a great way of getting an at least tiny idea of what life in such a confined space must have been like.

Cannon below deck of the East Indiaman Amsterdam

Books

The Dutch
East India Company Book

At the museum shop I was looking for a good book about the Dutch maritime history, something that would go along nicely with our pirate games. I found a nice book in the form of The Dutch East India Company Book. On 208 pages you can read about the history of the Dutch East India Company, illustrated with lots of photos of charts, items, paintings and whatnot. So far, I browsed through the book only briefly but it looks quite interesting and comprehensive. I look forward to taking the time to give it a proper reading.

Below, I have included a few photos of some of the book's pages to give you an idea of the contents and many great photos that help bring the era to life.

The Dutch East India Company Book (back)

Another interesting find in the museum shop was this comic called "The Battle of New York". There were actually three different comic books available but this one was the only one that was also available in English; the others were Dutch versions only.

I have already read it and honestly I am not too excited about it. You can tell it's an educational book that looks better at first sight than it really is. If you don't expect an actual story-line or characters, then it does work as a nice visualization of the period. I still would have liked to get an English version of one of the other books which was about the Flying Dutchman!

The Battle of New York comic

The Battle of New York comic (back)

So, lots of inspiration for new terrain and maybe even an expansion for our piratical skirmish games. The Dutch Golden Age is a fascinating period and I would love to dedicate some time to creating terrain for it and assembling a crew. With its unique architecture and influential wars it is definitely too often overlooked in our hobby (and probably beyond).



And, damn, do I want a Fluyt now!

28mm Fluyt model from Firelock Games (source)