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Author Topic: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)  (Read 7458 times)

Offline Codsticker

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    • Kodsticklerburg: A Mordheim project
 Very nice work, really impressive construction.

Offline PhilB

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I still don't see how you manage the patience to use *individual* shingles on the roofs of Kodsticklerburg. In this roof, it felt like even the number of shingle *strips* was huge enough.

Offline syrinx0

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Wow.  A very impressive build.
2024: B: 0; P: 148; 2023: B:77; P:37;

Offline PhilB

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Thanks! I'm very pleased with it. We have another game coming up next Wednesday, hope to get some good pics.

I'm thinking about making a smial (hobbit house) out of a spare piece of not-dense polystyrene. A quick project, compared to this one. The plan currently is to have non-linear interior walls, and I'm not sure how to do the interior woodwork and wainscotting. Maybe with paper-printed interiors, rather than scribed cardstock, so as to better follow the curves of the interior. More soon.

Offline PhilB

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Well, our game last night went off without a hitch. You can read the after-action report on the fantasy adventures forum.



I'm particulary pleased with the way the Dwarven Forge walls blend in with the three half-timbered houses. The two on the left are kitbashed from Tabletop Basement kits, with most of the work going into the playable interiors. We got to use the interior of the first house on the left during the initial information-gathering phase, as two characters posed as visiting merchants asking for samples of the fine silks on display. But the main action took place inside the main house, on the right, and around back during the later part of the mission.

Offline PhilB

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Re: Half-timbered houses: Bringing the models together for a game.
« Reply #35 on: September 04, 2020, 10:55:27 AM »
Since my master plan is to make a fantasy-medieval port city section, I also need ships. It isn't my first rodeo (my first cog can be seen in this city scene) so we'll call the two I'm working on now cog2 and cog 3.

I began my first ship by cutting a hull core out of extruded polystyrene. In a minute you'll see why I won't be doing this any more.


The idea is to make a waterline model for the gaming board, so no need for the part of the hull that would be below the waterline. The foam core is intended to give the basic shape to the ship, and it's what I used to prepare a cardboard template for the hull flanks. I got my hands on a new recycled material: the wood box used on some French cheeses (which you can see in the upper part of the previous photo). I decided cog 2 would have a pointed bow and stern, and follow the basic plan of a viking longship, albeit shorter and wider, with a side rudder. Cog 3 would have a flat stern and a stern rudder, so I used the same hull template but truncated the stern a bit.



After a long pause to finish my latest half-timbered house, I finally got the brie box bottom back out and cut the hull flanks. Real ship modelers do this differently: they start with the keel and the ribs, then lay individual planks over this armature. I'm not ready for that yet (maybe someday) and wanted a quick solution. So I scribed planking into the wood of the hull flanks, and set them to soak (8 hours turned out to be enough) in a fish kettle, then clamped them along the inner edge of the brie box lid, to give them about the right bend.



The next day, they were just about the right shape. I was originally intending to glue the hull flanks around the foam core, but I got to thinking: the shape of these pieces was just about right, so I could get away with gluing a small wooden block in the bow and the stern, around a flat piece of balsa scribed to represent the planking along the bottom of the hull. I then proceeded to glue ribs to both inner sides of the hull.



The plan is to add the inner timbers supporting the upper deck, but to have part of that deck be removeable so that I can use the lower hold area as a playable space (even though there won't be enough headroom to leave figures there when the upper deck is in place). I'm just starting to add the mast and some of the interior transverse beams.



So that's where I am today, just getting ready to put on some initial paint and begin work on the fore and aft ections of the keel, the upper deck, and then the fore and aft castles.

I still don't know if I'll add rigging to these ships, or if that would just interfere with placing and moving figures during a game.

Offline PhilB

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #36 on: September 06, 2020, 02:26:42 PM »
So, I got a first coat of dark brown paint on the hull and started on some of the lateral bracing.



I also made a cardboard template for the bow and stern segments of the keel, as well as another cardboard template for the fore section of the upper deck, which then transferred to balsa (with a few adjustments, but some of the notches for the ribs were still too deep - sigh) on which I scribed planking. Once all the lateral bracing is in place, and the stern gets the same treatment as the bow, I'll hit that all with the dark brown paint and then lighten it with a grey-brown drybrushing.

This project is going a heck of a lot more quickly than the last one. As soon as I have 2-3 ships done up, we can play boarding actions!

Offline Ray Rivers

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #37 on: September 06, 2020, 03:12:38 PM »
Looking pretty good to me.  :-*

I think the only really obvious notches with gaps are the last 2 of the inner most left group. You could always press some green stuff from below and fill the holes.

But I don't think it is really necessary.

Offline PhilB

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #38 on: September 06, 2020, 03:29:53 PM »
What I really *ought* to do is redo the fore deck with a new piece of balsa.

Then again, if I add some bracing, along the edges of the deck like in the following pic (not my work) the unsightly holes will disappear.

« Last Edit: September 06, 2020, 03:53:53 PM by PhilB »

Offline Ray Rivers

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #39 on: September 06, 2020, 03:45:25 PM »
Then again, if I add some bracing, along the edges of the deck like in the following pic (not my work) the unsightly holes will disappear.

Was thinking about that too. An easy fix.

Offline Codsticker

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #40 on: September 06, 2020, 04:40:00 PM »
All in all it looks pretty amazing to me (even with the gaps). :D

Offline Pattus Magnus

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #41 on: September 06, 2020, 06:47:01 PM »
Are the fore and aft ribs in the model structural and helping to keep the hull shape? If not, another option might be to glue the deck sections in place before fitting the ribs, and cut the ribs to extend to the deck, since the part of the rib below the deck won’t be visible.

It is a beautiful model as it is, in any case. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the fleet progresses!

Offline PhilB

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #42 on: September 07, 2020, 06:26:33 AM »
Are the fore and aft ribs in the model structural and helping to keep the hull shape? If not, another option might be to glue the deck sections in place before fitting the ribs, and cut the ribs to extend to the deck, since the part of the rib below the deck won’t be visible.

On the first ship in this series, I made the upper deck removable, so as to leave playable spaces underneath. I'm still debating whether to do that here, especially since the plan is to have fore and aft castles as well.

More or less like this:
« Last Edit: September 07, 2020, 06:30:52 AM by PhilB »

Offline Dr. Zombie

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #43 on: September 07, 2020, 07:07:30 AM »
Those look very cool. Could we perhaps see a pic with a miniature in it. I am having trouble visualising the scale.

Offline Ragnar

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Re: From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)
« Reply #44 on: September 07, 2020, 11:18:31 AM »
Just wow, amazing work on the ship.
Gods, monsters and men,
Will die together in the end.

 

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