2500kgm3's Shipyard

I have started working on the second ship. It will be much smaller than the previous one, as you can already see from the structure in these pics.







I am quite worried about it being way too small indeed. I will build it, however. I suppose I will find a way to use it. I intended it to be smaller, but now that I have it in my hands, it looks much smaller... a full sized warband will be pretty tight there.

Actually I can't tell the size from the photos, but I am kind of slow. Including your completed ship or even the small boat or a miniature would clarify things. Your photos of the other ship are taken from a different angle that make it difficult for me to compare the sizes.

As for playing games on smaller ships we have used 8-10 inch long ships that are 3-4 inches at their widest as our pirate ships for years. We use square bases for our miniatures for the most part although some players prefer round bases.

Either way the ships are crowded, but I like the look of a crowded ship on the table rather than a huge ship that would sail with 200-300 man crews in reality battling with 15 to 20 crew models. Modeling actual cabin or hold space, fighting tops and ships boats help. We always have ships boats available as both a tactical option and a necessity to relieve crowding.

great looking ship, well done

Yeah, Giant Dreadfleet would be awesome, don't you think so? xD

The main deck has been assembled, and I have put some reference models on it, so you can judge its size:

From my perspective it looks like a proper vessel to be fighting Mordheim scale battles on. The bow is a bit cramped but that is inherent in the style of ship.

I will point out something that was brought up after I built my second ship. The decking runs parallel to the length of the ship on real ships instead of cross wise. Its been nearly 10 yrs and I haven't been bugged enough to change it, but I am conscious of the direction of planking now.

Looks very promising!

Finally, I have some progress to show you.

You can see here a teaser of how the ship will be decorated.

The doors are extremely tiny indeed. Lets just pretend pirates squeeze through them xD

Looks like this is going to be another classic. How many ships are you planning to make?

Thanks for the work in progress shots. I might try building a ship now I can see the technique you have used. Before seeing this I dont think I ever would have attempted one!

I intend to build two small rowboats for the skaven, and maybe a dwarven ironclad. An elven ship and a ghost ship after that? maybe, but I shall try to build some islands before. These two ships are still far on the horizon.

The next step on this corsair ship is by far the hardest one. Getting the sides of the ship to have the propper curvature can be painful.

The other side of the ship has been completed. Here you can take a look at the side of the ship, after I tried to repair the warping:





And now, my question of the day. Would you build TWO chinese style small boarding rowing boats for skaven, in this style:




Or...

Should I just scrap that and go for a mutated fish-ship such as the one in dreadfleet, even if I am not quite sure of how to build it yet?



I am not even sure of the second option being doable, since my usual techniques would not be enough, but... What do you think?

You sir, are a brilliant cardboard engineer!!

The rotting leviathan from Dreadfleet is crewed by undead Skaven, so unless you have a VERY cool themed Skaven crew for it I vote chinese style rowing boats.... Having said that.... I'd love to see someone make a "dead fish" ship in Warhammer scale!!

If I may make a little constructive criticism of your latest, beautiful, creation... I have to say that the decking planks should run lenghtways, from prow to stern; not port to starboard.

And with sails assembled:







As you can see the warping was reduced to a minimum.

However, as I have started to pain the ship with the black basecoat, the warping was back. With a vengeance. Right now, the warping is worse than ever on one side only. I don't know the reason, since I took my time to make sure that would not happen. But it happened, and I am not sure of being able to fix it this time, since the method I used to correct the warping can not be used again.

Regarding the deck planks, as an architect, I find it much more aestetically pleasent this way, and won't change it for this ship. I will consider that for some other ship, such as the dwarven Ironclad. I probably won't for the skaven rowboats.

Painting has started. I started with the basecoat and inking. Sails and highlighting are still on my to-do list.

I had some problems with my home made black ink and some parts of the ship ended way darker than intended. Therefore I did the only thing I could do. Darken the whole hull and consider this ship is built out of dark, strong exotic wood.

At least, it looks like a ruthless corsair ship now, doesn't it?

What do you think about painting the sails red? would it be way too dark?

She looks good...if you're not happy with the dark color, a couple of lighter dry-brushings would set that straight. The red sails would look cool; there was a piratical clan of Scots (the spelling of their name escapes me, but its pronounce Leah a med ) whose red sails were their trademark.

If those doors being too small really bugs you, could you not paint or model a stairwell in front of each, giving the impression that the crewmen would be walking 'down' into the hold?

Fantastic stuff too - you're giving us all ideas!

2500kgm3 wrote:

The other side of the ship has been completed. Here you can take a look at the side of the ship, after I tried to repair the warping:





And now, my question of the day. Would you build TWO chinese style small boarding rowing boats for skaven, in this style:




Or...

Should I just scrap that and go for a mutated fish-ship such as the one in dreadfleet, even if I am not quite sure of how to build it yet?



I am not even sure of the second option being doable, since my usual techniques would not be enough, but... What do you think?

A slimey, fleshy ship could be made from something similar to this:
http://renfieldin28mm.6sided.net/2011/11/23/how-to-make-slimes-oozes-puddings/

Finally, I went for black sails, mostly because I have changed my mind about my next proyect: It will not be a pair of rowboats, and I am saving my red sails for that.

However, I had the rowboats already designed, so that means I will have to redesign the next ship







The black fades to grey along the sails, but it is not really visible on these shots

And now, from the point of view of a shark:

https://youtu.be/GAi_jA8TxY8

Nice video! I'd go for the rowing boats for Skaven (with rowing slaves), I am not so sure why they'd have big slimy swimming things to travel the high seas with Also, if you want to use them in-game, a normal ship might make more sense than a big swimming something that will likely want to eat the others.

Eliazar wrote:

Nice video! I'd go for the rowing boats for Skaven (with rowing slaves), I am not so sure why they'd have big slimy swimming things to travel the high seas with Also, if you want to use them in-game, a normal ship might make more sense than a big swimming something that will likely want to eat the others.

I agree, such monster-ship would make more sense for followers of Nurgle than for Skaven.

I love your ships.

Very fine modeling.

Are they stable enough, although they are made out of cardboard?

man you have made some really nice ships.
I´m looking forward to see your rowing boat. I hope you will make them in the chinese style.

Do you use your ships for gaming? I´ve found some old WD's with rules for battles with ships. I think your ships will fit there were good.

Another great completed ship and nice video too. Excellent!

I love the Jaws video...COOL IDEA!

Wow! It's the flying shark of Ultimate DOOM!


Nice ships!
I think a fleshy horro ship would fit for clan Moulder, Clan skyre would have very steampunky ships