Spectre's first crack at boats.

For too long I've been drooling over numerous posts involving campaigns with boats (I'm looking at you, Von Kurst), so I decided to finally give building one a shot.  Why build one instead of buying?  Aside from the fact that I am indeed quite broke and the cheapest I could find on eBay was in the neighborhood of fifty bucks, I had a bunch of cardboard, glue, and coffee stirrers lying around.  I figured, why not?

I started with a simple cardboard cutout of the basic layout of the primary deck, and lined the mid-section with wood sticks.  The aft section was a simple cardboard frame.


Next was a cardboard frame for the stern deck.


Finished the stern deck and prow.


Looking around at my bits of cutouts, I found 4 identical triangular pieces that I thought looked cool to start the side frames.


I wanted to have two openings on the sides between each of the middle walls.  They were low enough for a model to be seen behind them, but high enough to provide a little cover!


I added some ladders for access to the raised bow and stern decks, as well as additional reinforcing of the mid-deck, as it was starting to curve a little in the middle.  I also glued the starting frame onto some styrofoam blocks.


I lined the stern deck with wood, and finished the reinforcing of the mid-deck.


Cardboard was much easier to work with on the aft deck.


I also used cardboard on the lower part of the frame and glued it to the styrofoam bases, and held them together with tape while the glue dried.



Taking a bit of a break to let the glue dry and set fully.  So far, I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along.


I still need to do a lot more before it's finished, but if you guys have any tips or advice to offer, I'd gladly accept any and all!  

Even as a W.I.P. piece, she's a BEAUTY. You may be doing her from scratch for economical reasons, but there is something deeply satisfying about creating a model from materials on hand. GREAT WORK!   

Looks great so far! Looking forward to seeing this as a finished piece!

Me? What'd I do?  

#1 always ask for advice before starting a project. Advice in the middle of a project is usually along the lines of "well what I would have done..."  

I for example always carve the whole hull out of foam and then sheathe it in cardboard. But I like carving styrofoam, so its my material of choice. And lately I'm starting to look at all those solid hulls and think 'I could have some archers in that cabin if I would have made it accessible..."

But I really like just taking materials and jumping into a project to see where it goes, too.

How many masts are you thinking about? I strongly recommend making them removable if you are going to play games with the ship. I accidentally-on-purpose glued the masts on one of mine and its been a pain ever since. Hard to store, inconvenient to game with...

Square rigged or lanteen sails?

Guns?

How wide is your base? Narrow bases get tippy once gamers start messing with moving the boat or just moving things on the boat.

Great start mate. I'll be watching your progress.  

Thanks for the encouragement fellas.  Hopefully I won't fizzle out creatively on this one like so many of my other terrain pieces.  I also agree with Deafnala:  I do think this will be more satisfying than just buying one.

Von Kurst wrote:

But I really like just taking materials and jumping into a project to see where it goes, too.

That's pretty much what I did.  The base is about an inch and a half wide, but it's flat styrofoam, so I can easily glue a wider base of cardboard on it if I need.  

I'm thinking of two deck guns on the bow, each facing at a 45 degree angle off the front.  This can give a pretty wide arc of fire to the front, and doubly so if a target is straight ahead.  I'm planning on keeping the aft deck clear to position my crossbowmen there.

As far as sails go, I'm thinking of a single removable mast and sail, and for that reason, I'm leaning more towards a square sail, since lanteen sails attach to the front of the prow (If memory serves right)

Sails and guns: sounds good.

Inch and a half? Are ye daft lad? Sounds real tippy to me. Back when folks first started messing with cannon and really big sailing ships, several ships that were the pride of their nations, the Mary Rose for example, just flipped the first time they tried to maneuver. My narrowest ship has 3" of deck width and a waterline width of 2.25". The Megablocks Black Pearl is 6" wide at deck height and 4" at waterline.

Based on those dimensions, VK, I'm definitely gonna have to do some gluing of flat cardboard to balance it, since the floor of the mid-deck is 4 inches wide. Thanks for the tip. 

Been working some more on the ship, and here's what's come along so far:

Using some curved pieces, I added these to the stern of the ship.


I also lined up the sides and reinforced the railings on the sides.


I lined the sides of the undercarriage with wooden sticks.


And to the front of the undercarriage.


I also added the railings off the stern deck, leaving two openings for the deck guns I mentioned.



The last thing I did for today was lining the aft deck with wood on both sides, as well as the tops, leaving a definitive railing. Pretty cool I thinks.  

She's coming along SPLENDIDLY! She looks sleek & fast...GREAT WORK!   
Who or what will be her crew?  

Had a little more time tonight to line the aft deck flooring with wood.


And here's the back.  As soon as the glue dries, I'm planning on adding the rudder.


@Deafnala:   Here she is with her future crew!  My stout-hearted Reiklanders are back for more adventures, this time led by my favorite blonde with a Crossbow.  So far they've not had great success in terms of victory (I'm currently 1-6 for battles), but losses of life have been mercifully few.  After showing this ship to the lads tonight, it got them talking about which kind of boat would suit their warbands, and I'm hoping to get started on another boat soon.  

The Reichlanders are a FINE crew for your craft.  

She has the look of a river gunboat with a couple of heavy guns mounted forward in the eyes (port & starboard of the forecastle). This was a fairly common arrangement in boats/ships that operated on the Rhine & Danube.  

Great progress there!