From half-timbered houses to more early medieval ships (WIP)

[PhilB]

Construction continues. Here is a pic with both the fore and aft upper deck sections in place, as well as the keel segments, which will be radically trimmed down at some point. In the foreground you can see my first test ship, and in the background my first cog, with all its faults -erm- learning moments.



Next step is to get some paint on all the bits I've added, and do a much lighter greyish-brown wash over most of the wood surfaces before some of them become inaccessible. I still haven't decided if I should make the upper deck sections removable or not. There's not a lot of headroom under there, but I suppose I could still model bags, barrels, coils of rope and such stored in those spaces, but I couldn't place a miniature and then put the lid over it. Not enough space.

The plan is to add a railing along the top edge of the hull, as well as some additional braces inside. And then I have to decide if I want to leave it as is, or add bow and stern castles. What do you think?

[Pattus Magnus]

I think if there are going to be fore and aft castles, gluing the deck in makes sense. You can develop the castles fully to get the playable spaces.

I am incorrigibly lazy, though!

[PhilB]

Now the deck is glued in place, just waiting for it to dry before going after the paint. I slimmed down the mast by about 20-30% and trimmed down the bow post and the stern post to close to half their original width. I think it's looking much better. I've also begun applying some grey drybrushing, but I want to be careful not to lay it on too thick.





I've got a few more hull and interior details to get ironed out before deciding how to build up the forecastle and sterncastle. Here is a view with cardboard templates in place. My gut tells me that the forecastle is too big. But I also want enough space for several figures with 25mm washers as bases, so it's a tough call.

[Belisarius]

Fabulous builds on both the houses and the ships . I’m in awe of your carpentry skills . This is a great thread. ✔️

[PhilB]

Thanks, Belisarius. But one of my goals in posting all these details is to show that building a model ship needn't be laboriously complicated. I know that serious model ship builders spend ages shaping the strakes and planking the hulls of their ships with fine woods that make them real works of art. My effort is a quick & dirty version of that, with a single sheet of wood for each side of the hull, not comparable at all to the wonderful ships of serious ship modelists.

I've tried to show that anybody here could build a similar ship with minimal tools and few cheap materials. The plywood veneer from a box of Brie cheese was a wonderful discovery, for this current model, I love using materials I've scrounged from the recycling bin.

[PhilB]

Construction continues after a brief interlude to paint our new carport.

I'm struggling with the aft castle. I've got the underlying structure done, but can't decide if I should leave it completely open like in this first pic, with all the beams simply dry fit (and so a little tippy):



Or if I should blend the aft castle into the ship's structure with a sort of "skirt" like in this picture, with a cardboard template temporarily clipped in place:



Some period artwork shows the aft castle fully integrated with the ship's hull, even when it overhangs the sides of the stern, as it does here. But those are invariably ships with a stern rudder. This one will (soon!) have a side rudder, so it can't be fully enclosed. But I'm tempted by this skirt idea. What do you think?

[Codsticker]

I don't have enough knowledge of the subject but my inclination is enclosed. In any event, I think your work so far very impressive.

[Gangleri]

Love the curved roofs on the building and the "paintings" on the interior!  Ship looks great too.

[PhilB]

I finally took the decisions that were necessary for the aftcastle: no skirt, just arched supports branching out from the supporting beams, and the aftcastle will not be removable - too many fiddly parts that could easily break off.



The crenelations on the aftcastle walls needed to be supported by some sort of braces, so I spent a few hours doing them. I had to plan carefully so that the corners would fit together, but that planning paid off. Another thing I would change for a future project is use slightly heavier wood, like 2mm instead of 1mm, and perhaps a *different wood*, for the decks and castle walls. With 1mm balsa, once you've scribed planks into both sides, there's not much margin for error. <g>



I had to take this pic before actually gluing on the aftcastle walls, but I like the overall look. Next will be finishing the forecastle, building the side rudder and a pair of ladders. Then I may dare to venture into the arcane art of rigging... maybe. A minimalist approach to rigging might not interfere with placing and moving figures too much, we'll have to see how it goes.

[Ray Rivers]

Nice progress!

¿1mm balsa? 

[PhilB]

Yes, the decks, the fore and aftcastle decks and the castle walls are made out of 1mm balsa sheets. Works great, as long as there is some sort of bracing to reinforce it. I know I should have gone and ordered some 2mm-thick balsa at the same time, but didn't, so I'm working with what I have. The next step up (that I have on hand) is 4mm, which is far too thick for any of those purposes.

When I need some sturdier material, I use cardboard from old bank calendars that I stock up on every year. They hand em out like candy, here in France.
Should be bank calendar season soon!

[Coronasan]

The ship builds are excellent, all from scratch, much more authentic than my conversions of Playmobil ships. I am impressed that you get them symmetrical, when I have tried, they get a bit wonky.

[PhilB]

I am impressed that you get them symmetrical, when I have tried, they get a bit wonky.

That is actually very, very tricky and not 100% successful. For example, When the ship only had two sides and a bottom, and I was first installing the ribs, I lined up the ship on my work mat and tried very hard to put them in symmetrical positions on the two sides (and fore to aft, but that's less critical. Later on, when I had the upper deck in and was adding those little L-shaped knees, it became apparent that I had not been entirely successful. But you have to look hard at some of these details to realize that it's not fully symmetrical at all points.

I think once you have the basic hull shape successfully in place, the rest is a question of testing, fitting, eyeballing and re-doing abything that just didn't work out. Of course, the *real* ship modelers build elaborate jigs and place each strake or plank individually. What I'm doing here is waaaay down the scale from the true ship modelers.

[Coronasan]

Of course, the *real* ship modelers build elaborate jigs and place each strake or plank individually. What I'm doing here is waaaay down the scale from the true ship modelers.

Everything I make is with game play in mind, there has to be easy access to place and move models and there has to be plenty of space for models to fight to the death! When I have converted ship models, I go very light on the rigging so I can get my hand in there to move stuff around. It is the same for my buildings as well, they are terrain for games, not historically accurate buildings.

I have huge admiration for the *real* ship modellers out there, I have seen impressive work that I could simply not attempt!

[Cacique Caribe]

What a beauty!  Fantastic results.

Dan