This weekend has been one focussed on modelling as it was some nice to be outside (and it was dusty modelling work). My next English Civil War campaign will have to wait until tonight.
Back to the modelling. A couple of months ago I bought Naval Wargames by Donald Featherstone, a bit of an opportunistic buy, and it is one of those books where I enjoy reading the odd chapter here and there and looking at the various old black and white photos. Anyway, as I have been adding a few units to my Spencer Smith Napoleonic armies I though it would be quite useful to add some ships for a future campaign. One of the photos in the book was of some home cast flat ships of the Napoleonic period.
Now I do not have any casting experience (yet) but do have a bit of modelling with balsa wood, MDF and cardboard. So with that in mind I thought I would attempt to create a semi-flat ship inspired by the original photo.
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| Finished MDF ship |
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| The inspiration from Naval Wargames |
The following are a series photos going through the process for creating wooden ships.
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| First I cut out a couple of cardboard templated |
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| Not a good photo of the MDF with outline to be cut out, but the templates help creating consistency between models |
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| Using a jig-saw I cut out the ship centre. |
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| Next I cut out bits to show the rigging and make the two side bits for the hull. Using the templates again to mark out the hull pieces ignore the rigging. |
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| The two hull pieces are stuck on. |
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| Everything gets sanded and the bow and stern are shaped. Finally, a toothpick is added for the bowsprit. |
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| Bases are added |
That is the end of the MDF and toothpick work and it is time to move to the cardboard and painting phase.
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| Sails are added. Again I use a templates to help speed things up. |
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| Cereal and snack boxes come in very handy for the sails. The based get flocked to help provide some texture for painting later. |
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| The whole model get a good coating of PVA glue before a coat of grey undercoat. |
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| Painting begins and the rigging is drawn on with a pen. |
I won't go through the whole painting process. Once painted the whole model got a coat of PVA glue to seal it and make it glossy. The finished ship...
So far the production line has seven ships of the line and a couple of frigates all ready for adding sails and painting. Cost? Less than $5.
Again, your artists eye of seeing exactly where a project is going even before the first cut comes to fruition. Great job on the ships.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm. This was one occasion when things all worked together well.
DeleteVery nice - and clever with it!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeletePeter these are bloody brilliant! I'm going to have a go at a few of these next week. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThanks and all the best with your modelling next week.
DeleteThe ship looks great, Peter! As Horm mentioned, you knew exactly what needed to be done and how o accomplish the task. How long did it take to build the ship?
ReplyDeleteI produced 9 ships in all over the afternoon. The latter models took about 20 minutes to complete the MDF work. The cardboard sails take 10 minutes. Then its on to the covering with PVA glue, undercoat, and paint, which are pretty quick setting aside drying time.
DeleteA lovely bit of modelling. And it's the painting that really brings it together as well. A great take on the Featherstone original.
ReplyDeleteThank you. The painting is fun to do and the final coat of PVA glue to make it glossy helps disguise any mistakes.
DeletePeter, these are wonderful. I think kits for similar ships would make a very viable commercial product for one of the companies that does MDF work!
ReplyDeletePeter
I too pondered that as I sawed away with my jig-saw. It is quite amazing what they are doing with laser cutting and MDF now-a-days.
DeleteWonderful ships. I may have to try my hand at this with the students in my social studies classes. We did ships earlier this year from card board cereal boxes.
ReplyDeleteThank you. They were fun to make and I plan to make a few more sloops and a couple more frigates to complete the collection.
DeleteBrilliant work again, Peter. I particularly like the idea of flocking the bases to provide texture. I've always just used filler for my ships bases.
ReplyDeleteI tried flock as it is quicker is than applying filler.
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