Anyone have any ideas on how to make sails for 28mm scale ships?

[Rabbitz]

Hi all,

i am currently in the process of building some 28mm Scale ships and would really like to add sails to them.  I have never done this before and was wondering what other people use.  Any advise, links, pictures etc would be greatly received.

Here are the ships so far.



They are from Laser Dream Works and are, in my opinion, a real pleasure to make.

[traveller]

You have some sail pdf templates here:

http://uhu02.way-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/05/full.

I use just paper but I guess just can cut up a bed sheet to get some real canvas feel 

[elysium64]

I recently took WIP photo's of my first attempt to make a sail, but haven't done anything with them yet as the actual model and figures aren't finished yet, but will post up the WIP's for you as the result was great.

1. I created a jig from some scrap rod pushed into a bit of styro foam, but you could use nails and wood or whatever is handy. 0.5mm cotton was tied between rods and secured with a dab of super glue. For your ships I would make the bottoms of the sail a bit wider than the top.




2. I then made a solution of PVA glue and water about 50/50 (you could at this stage add a dark canvas paint to this mix to pre color sails prior to dry brushing when sail have set). I used two tissues/toilet paper-effectively 4 ply, cut to size soaked in the PVA mix, removed and excess liquid brushed off with fingers (a bit messy this). The tissue was then drapped over the jig and left to dry (about 12-15 hours)



In hind sight I would cut the sail slightly narrower so the tissue doesn't actually touch the base board as when it dried the whole thing shrunk a little and being stuck to the board some of the billowing shape created was lost (I managed to remedy this to a degree when attaching to the mast.
3. once dry I cut the cotton from nails leaving a reasonable length of spare cotton at the top of sail for attaching to mast and also the two outside bits of cotton on the bottom of sail for attaching to rigging. Paint sail and then attach to masts.

Finished result:






I hope this helps.

[fastolfrus]

The last ones I made I used old cotton handkerchiefs - thinner than sheeting, stronger than paper.

[Cherno]

Here's what I did for me Lego sails:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3351&view=findpost&p=871521

[OSHIROmodels]

Wingnut on this very forum has an interesting way to do them and it doesn't look half bad 

(can't find the relevant threads but a bit of searching will sort you out).

cheers

James

[Marine0846]

Really like the look of the sail.
Will have to try making one.
Hope it turns out as well as yours.

[Rabbitz]

Thanks for the replies,  those sales are fantastic.   Is each sail just one piece of tissue paper  size or more?

[fastolfrus]

Just remembered that Playmobil sell seperate sails via their customer service department.
You used to be able to get a service catalogue in the middle of their main toy cataloge

http://www.playmobil.co.uk/on/demandware.store/Sites-GB-Site/en_GB/Link-Page?cid=CUSTOMERSERVICE

[elysium64]

Thanks for the replies,  those sales are fantastic.   Is each sail just one piece of tissue paper  size or more?

Not sure if this refers to my post, but if so yes the sails were made from two tissues layed on top of each other (so no more than the size of one tissue), cut to size then dipped in the PVa mix.

[gamer Mac]

elysium64 - those sails look great and I will be stealing that idea for my next set of sails, thanks

Rabbitz - I used some material off an old lamp shade to make these sails on my Royal Navy sloop

[Mitch K]

Elysium64,

Those look absolutely superb - I shall follow your advice for my curragh build!

Thanks very much,

M

[Iron Haiden]

Nice work hutch.

Now when can we set up a time for you to show me how to build terrain.
Cheers

Hayden

[Patrice]

Some of my friends use thin cloth:


Others use paper sails, folded round the masts. With such paper sails, you can take sails off the ships when the ships receive damage points in the rigging: