40-gun Old Glory man o' war ship

Heya guys!

I thought I'd share this with you all, working on a 25mm scale Old Glory ship. It's a 1800th centruy-ish ship. The idea is to use it to both fantasy/historical wargames and scirmish games. For example, it's a pretty cool idea to have a ship docked in mordheim, a large river flows through. No idea how big, but just an idea

Anyhow, the ship has accessabel lower deck, for- and aftcastle witch makes the progress a bit tricky. I'm weak for true scale things, and my first idea was to make the ships rigging as real as possible. But since it can be "opened up" all lines and ropes would make that impossible. So, I have to compromise.. a bit sad but I think it will be pretty nice anyway.

Yes, I know, no pictures so far but I'm making this post at work. Later tonight I will add a few!

Kindest regards,
Gabe

That sounds cool...please do post some photos when you have the chance. Old Glory's Shipyard has been sending moi siren calls for some time now.

I fully support this new notion of nautical nonsense!

You have the monstrous old glory man-o-war? Wow... I really can't wait for pictures. So far I have seen only one post of them. I remember the poster saying that the ship is too huge to properly move it around on the table so it is that big that it is not even very suitable for gaming - except for stationary action of course. Anyways, again, I can't wait!

How big is it? Bigger than a Megabloks ship? (24-30 inches)

Welcome aboard MM! Eagerly awaiting photos as well.

This whole idea with a ship made for gaming has grown from a small gunboat to a warship. My old glory order was an act of pure insanity since there are no sufficiend pictures what so ever of what you get and how the ship looks close up. And almost no information text.. nothing! I just saw all the gunports with guns looking out and the totaly awsome idea with interior access and knew I just had to give it a shot. Lucky me it's very good detail, plesent size and lots of guns. But the aft balcony, detailing and ornaments I don't know if I like. I have some major modification ideas I will try out

And to all of you who think this is overkill, I will probably not use all 40 guns! 38 will be enough and a few swivel guns

Von Kurst: 28 inches (71cm) so its prety big. Thanks!

cianty: We'll see if it's to big or not when the maiden voyage takes place

Some quick photos, this is from last night when I unboxed the ship and all accessoaries:


This will be my inspiration when it comes to rigging and interior:


More to come.
Kindest regards,
Gabe

She's a BEAUTY! May a Fair Wind always be with you.

I had a hard time sleeping last night becus I'm thinking of this project all the time, is there a cure somewere?

I forgot to say that I have a crew for the ship aswell. Bought it together with the ship, I thought that 20man would do. But what I did'nt know was that the ship included a 30 man crew! Found that out when I unboxed the ship and all. So that makes my crew 50 man strong. A real ship that had 35-40 guns had a 250-300 man strong crew (officers and soldiers included). So, my ship will be undermanned but if I had "full crew" it would prove very hard to use in gameplay, so I will go with the lesser number. Will still look very crowded!
I still have no officers and soldiers yet though, but I know were to hire them My plan is to paint the crew with some basic colours so they can be used as crew no matter what flag och style the ship sails under.

If I'm inspiering you all with my ship plans, check this site out: www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk they sell all kinds of details and stuff for model ships. Will make an order from them later on, I'm weak for details so I guess it will be alots of items in my order

DeafNala: Thanks!

Kind regards,
Gabe

Having trouble sleeping? A tot o' grog mate!

I have a Black Pearl that I can cram 80 models on to the decks and another 10 or so in the tops, but that's with only 8 cannon (32 gunners) for a Seahammer game. 1:1 scale for a miniature game is impossible to do. Fun to try though.

Von Kurst: A tot o' grog ye say, will try that

Black Perls a nice ship. Did you make it yourselfe or is it a ready model / model kit? Sounds very cool!

Kind regards,
Gabe

Hey Gabe,
The Pearl is a wonderful ship. There were several kits available. I acquired one of the mega bloks toys on e-bay.

http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/building-toys/mega-bloks-pirates-of-the-caribbean-3--black-pearl-ship-1066-.asp

I have cut on it a bit to make it toy soldier friendly. Not as detailed or realistic as the Old Glory, but handy for the types of games we play.

Cheers,
Jim

Hey Jim,
Looks pretty nice! Made some reaserch and found a few pictures of a game-ready ship. Will take this idea to my friends, thank's for the info!

Kindest regards,
Gabe

I have painted some cannons today. I thought that red on the carriages would look good with the bronze guns.


Will order a few eureka guns and use them were old glory uses half barrels. So, more guns to come!

Kindest regards,
Gabe

I like your color choices...that's quite an arsenal of hardware the ship is totting. NICE PROGRESS!

Nice. The cannons look good.

Really superb stuff so far. I always thought about trying something like that myself and find your work quite inspiring. I would find the rigging quite daunting though, wouldn't know where to start.

Thank you guys!

dr. willett's: I agree, the rigging will be a challange. But there are lots of good detailed pictures, and forums around the web that is very useful. And not to forget, alot of books! Here is one book, most excellent information; http://www.all-model.com/Rigging-1/Rigging%20period%20ship%20models.html

I have made some progress, cut out some gun ports and the floor grating. Will replace the not very good looking resin grating with real ones made from wood.

Last picture, just trying out how it looks with masts.

And here are a few shots of the balcony and stern, I'm not very happy with how they look. I will remake it


Kindest regards,
Gabe

Interesting photos. Just like my Brigantine I can see a lot of air bubbles that destroy the structure/detail of the surface.

Cianty: Yes, much bubbles on the more detailed surface. Will fill them up with greenstuff or model putty.

Wow that rigging resource is wonderful! (I'm not a big fan of rigging for skirmish gaming. Any rigging we have catches hands or models and sometimes ships go flying. But it looks so cool!)

Good to see you progressing Gabe.

Was some time ago I posted a update of the build, but fear not, this project is very much alive. An update is soon to come, just have to fit some more gun ports

Kindest regards,
Gabe

Yay!

I'm making a minor change to the ships armament, there will be total of 44 guns instead of 40 guns.

Total guns on port and starbord side:
18x 18lb guns
12x 12lb guns
10x 6lb guns

Total guns in stern and aft:
4x 9lb guns (long)

Tomorrow big update and lots of pictures.

Kindest regards,
Gabe

Time to share some more of my progess.


First picture is the lower deck out of the box, as you can see there is huge cannonballs and the cast grating.
Second pitcure from left is lower deck after I spent som hours on removing the cast detailing and added new gratings ans some other details. But I was not satisfied with it so I spent some more hours working and the result is on third picture. Forth and fifth is colseups of what you can see on third picture.



The little loops on the walls by the gunports will be used like this when the decks are painted and the guns are glued in place



Some pictures of the stern. There has been alot of changes, esp. to the balcony, railing and ornaments. I actualy removed a big peice of the cast resin ornament detailing under the balcony and added another gunport. That took many hours working my way though the resin. Compare with the older pictures and you see what I mean
I still need to add a stair to the bridge and a railing, will use the same style as the rest of the wooden pillars.



This is the cast gunports vs the new ones. As you might exspect I was not so happy with the old ones so i made them go away and replaced them with much better looking ones.



The fore castle was to small to fit all four cannons that Old Glory was planning, so they sugested that a half gunbarrel shoud be used istead of a full size gun. I solved the problem and extended the forcastle roof. Still, I have to make a real wall instead of the thick resin wall. Thinking of reusing the doors and many the window aswell. And my exstension made it possible to add two extra 6lb runs, nice!



And the weather deck (top deck) got some changes to! I replaced all resin grating with real ones and made it possible for the ladders that lead up from lower deck to fit. I will add ropes around the pillars, don't want the crew to fall down!


And some random pictures.




As you can see, I still miss some guns (they should arrive shortly) and some other detailing. I'm still waiting for the cannon balls I ordered long time ago, that halted my progress pretty much actualy. Well, when what you can see on the pictures is done, the hardest and most challenging part remains: the rigging and sails! But I got great tools and lots of pictures and manuals stand by for that task. I guess constitusion and a steady hand might help a bit to.

Finaly to everyone that might read this thred, I complain alot of the ship and that's becuse Old Glory has a crappy homepage with almost no pictures or information of what you get. I dident know what I was ordering realy, I took a chance. It's a great platform if you like to customize and build stuff of your own. If you are thiking of buying one, I hope my pictures and information might be helpfull
And by the way, this is the picture they supply on the website:


Kindest regards,
Gabe

thanks so much for all the photos! You have put a lot of effort into the ship and it shows. Excellent work!