Blood and Plunder Piragua Built as Sid Meier's Pirates War Canoe.

[Wingnut]

I'm building ships again.
Firelock Games is producing some really nice looking models and I opted into both of their kick-starters. This left me with a number of kits needing to be turned into playable ships. 
When I got the Piragua, inspired by the mention in Black Sails by Jack Rackham, the sail plan of the kit just left me underwhelmed.
Wanting to do something more with the boat I took a look at Sid Meier's Pirates war canoe model and began work.


This is the end results:








One ship finished, several more to go.
More Images here: https://fistfullofseamen.blogspot.com/2019/05/what-hells-piraqua-amyway.html

Wingnut

[Friends of General Haig]

Great end result 

[gamer Mac]

Nice work

[OSHIROmodels]

Brill 

[Ragnar]

Nice one. 

How did you make the sails?  Asking for a friend.   

[Wingnut]

Ragnar,
The sails are Evergreen .005 architectural plastic sheets. I use a similar pvc strip to make the sail appear to have panels. Each are cut to fit the individual masts. Make sure to use a micro-whole punch to create the attachment loops before you prime the sail. Primer makes the plastic very brittle. After priming you stain them. Clear flat sealer should be the final touch. 

Wingnut

[Ragnar]

Ragnar,
The sails are Evergreen .005 architectural plastic sheets. I use a similar pvc strip to make the sail appear to have panels. Each are cut to fit the individual masts. Make sure to use a micro-whole punch to create the attachment loops before you prime the sail. Primer makes the plastic very brittle. After priming you stain them. Clear flat sealer should be the final touch. 

Wingnut

Thanks for the tutorial Wingnut.

When you say the plastic is brittle, are you at all worried about them cracking?

[FifteensAway]

Looks good.  Plastic thin enough to get that billowy look, too, 5/1000ths of an inch is pretty thin.

[Marine0846]

Great looking ship.
I agree with you,
 B & P do a poor job on their sails.

[Wingnut]

(warning)
The billow effect is the result of a standard discount heat gun from Harbor freight. With the thin PVC plastic it can have mixed results. It ranges from flowing banners and sheets in the wind to rumpled taffy like strips of irrecoverable plastic. I don't recommend it for any of the sails you arn't willing to just start completely over on. The  heated flags work really well although this one I didn't use it on. If you decide to try it make sure you heat the sail after you lash it to the spar. The resulting shape will probibly never be laced to it again.

Wingnut     

[Munindk]

A very clever conversion

I might have to try something similar, as I too find the B&P design a bit boring.

[henerius]

That is a leap forward in looks for the piragua! Well done.

[stavrous]

Nice, I have shy'd away from the Piragua since I didn't like the sail configuration.  But your modifications have made me think about doing my own now.

[El Frantico]

That looks awesome! I especially love the oars stowed over the side. I've been meaning to make a bundle of oars like that to hang off the sides of the quarterdeck to denote a ship with the "sweeps" upgrade.

Piraguas were usually square rigged with short masts that could be stowed for simplicity, but I've come across descriptions of various alternate rigs for them. Wouldn't surprise me at all if there were a few lateen rigs like this cruising around.

[Byblos]

Top notch !