Trireme fleet (in being)

[valerio81]

So, I am now raising my very own fleet of triremes (and, in perspective, bigger galleys).

I wanted to play ancient naval 1 to 1, with the great Greek fire and roman fury fleet rules by david manley. I found1/1200s too large for that. I started mounting Navwar's liburne on bases and pretende they were triremes (not good for my obsessive personality). I evaluated Outpost 1/3600s (too small). 

Then I said - let's sculpt them myself and then go to a professional moulder to print them in inordinate numbers and spend lots of money for no proper reason whatsoever.

So there it is, attached, my very first sculpt ever. I used super sculpey. I am pretty satisfied because I think you can tell it's a decked trireme. It's around 1/2400, so 2cm more or less. Any constructive criticism please?

I plan to do 2 other trireme, just for variety, and then maybe a merchant or 2, and then have all of them moulded. If all of that works fine, I will move on on the tech scale and do some 4s and 5s for the punic wars.

[SteveBurt]

Very nice, but Tumbling Dice do ancient ships in 1:2400 if you want to save yourself some work.

[valerio81]

Many thanks steve but, now the original idea has taken a life of its own, the original goal dismissed..

[Ragsta]

It looks good

There was a thread on here where the OP was building triremes from plasticard parts - man I wish I could find it again to link to!

[Captain Harlock]

Thats a very nice cute little trireme there. You can use a fine brush and odourless thinner to smooth out or straighten out small details. I bet that they look much much better in reality. Photos can capture details that human eye would never be able to see

[valerio81]

Many thanks! And yes indeed I need to clean them out. This is my first sculpting endeavour and I've got everything to learn, so more than happy for all suggestions like this one!

The second unit is also now ready. Also a trireme but you can see it's a different design. I spoke with an expert and he told me it's not worth to mould just 2-4 ships, so it seems a full line needs to be sculpted. I guess I am going to down 4 each of triremes, pentekonters, quads and fives, plus 2 transport. But I am ready to change my mind if needed!

[Captain Harlock]

Well I feel for you Im also trying my hand at sculpting and its a learning process one sculpt at a time. I would recommend beesputty clay. You need to bake it like Fimo and Sculpey but it has a great property. It can be very firm when left alone but if you work it, just with the warmth of your hands it becomes soft like wax and that makes blending and adding of little details very easy.

And since you are making triremes allow me to provide some inspiration. I was walking around the other day on the mountain that is behind my house and took this picture.



On the far left side you can barely see the edges of the city of Athens. As we are looking to the right you can see Piraeus and the sea all the way to Faliron (the place where the Persians attempted their second landing after the battle of Marathon, but was prevented by the hoplites who run all the way there after the main battle. Towards the middle is a small bay and there starts the streights of Salamis. The little island is Psyttaleia, Aristeides lead a small garisson of hoplites that took care of the Persians who landed there and the remnants of the survivors from the battle of Salamis. The mountain peak on the right side of the port cranes, is the place where Xerxes placed his throne and directed his forces from. When we were kids we used to climb there all the time searching for traces  . The actual island of Salamis is just behind those mountain ridges on the right. Once upon a time that place was full of triremes and everyhing was on the balance.

[valerio81]

Many thanks captain! I now would like to go back to greece..

[valerio81]

Third try. I now realize I was a fool for thinking I could have good results from the beginning.. these are actually prototypes as I find my hand.

I decided I want to go smaller, real 1/2400, Salamina 1 to 1 style. This third unit is definitely the right size. However, it looks like a maggot! A super deformed triere. The mistake was in calculating hull lenght without thinking that the stern would be elonged and curved above the deck, to do the curl. I'm building up some serious shipbuilding know-how here..

[williamb]

Your ships look good.   Athenian and most other triremes triremes were 40m long by 6m wide.  I don't know if it possible with the material you are using, but the oars should be shorter and maybe a bit thinner.   Here is a link to videos of the Olympias.  The sea trials one is very interesting.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trireme+olympias

[valerio81]

I am starting to slowly getting somewhere.. after several other prototypes I have now a fixed measure to use (a mm more or less). The size is right! these latest units are around 1,2 cm, you can see the difference with the very  first model that I am keeping for reference.

I still have to learn to smooth them, and I am still not happy with the tail, oars are still too long. But they look better in the flesh, and I am happy with the progresses I feel am making. I think in another 12 or so tries I should be fine!

[valerio81]

Getting there.. these models looks so much worse in photo, but I am happy to say this is very close to where I want to go. Looking at it from gaming distance, you think "oh, a trireme". Still not able to add the epotis, tought..

Can anybody suggest something to smooth super sculpey after cooking and sanding? Captain Harlock mentioned a thinner, what it is exactly?

[Codsticker]

Can anybody suggest something to smooth super sculpey after cooking and sanding? Captain Harlock mentioned a thinner, what it is exactly?

Perhaps he meant just regular paint thinner or, possibly, something stronger like lacquer thinner or straight toluene.

[valerio81]

And now, for something completely different, a trireme which does not remind one of a moving centipede. We're getting closer.. can you see the epotis? Still need to understand the smoothing and thinning thing however

[valerio81]

And finally, there it is!! This is where I wanted to go. Less than 2 cm. Still margins to do better, obviously, however this is something I'd tolerate on the gaming table. What do you think?

Trick was to sculpt and cook the covering deck first, so I can make it nicely squared. Epotis is definitely where I can do better, but I am very happy!