Pulp Steamer WIP **Updated 7/3/11**

[Damas]

Ho ho, they say, not another steamer thread.

Stay with me now.

About two years ago, just before meeting the wife-to-be, I had an almighty clear out of all things modeling.  Yes that's right, 20 years of lead mountain donated to a couple of school clubs or recycled, tools thrown out, scraps and oddments finally hoovered up and the man space tidied up.

Then wife , marriage, new job, stress from new job.  So the wife goes; "Why don't you start your modeling again, it'll allow you to wind down in the evenings."  Now after some uncharacteristic tears and a really strong cup of 'doctored' tea, I found this place and inspiration struck.

Back story over.

I've picked up a few Russians for VSF/pulp but I still wasn't sure where this was all leading so I flicked through the archives and saw a few inspirational steamers and thought that would be a fun thing to do.

So, the vision.

Now with a basic shape I worked out that the hull should come out a 36 inches and about 6 inches wide looked good.
Then I went and got two A1 sheets of mountboard and started cutting!


I drafted a rough waterline profile and blocked off the compartments and then used t-beams spaced 3 inches apart to raise the sides of the ship.


Here is the main hold, to the left is the main bulkhead, to the right is the bow bulkhead with doors to the fore-hold.


Here is the bow with the intermediate deck started.  I then realised that the upper decks wouldn't be supported.


So I added a bunch of supporting ribs as per the real thing.


And some of the side plating to start supporting the ship.


I then raised the bow ribs, added the chain locker and a bunch of other bits.




Here I added the top of the main cargo hold, the hatch and a secondary hatch for access to the coal bunker.


Now you can see the stern half deck (not sure what that is going to turn into yet.)


The bow is now built up fully, the plating all done (I hate compound curves in cardboard) and the upper deck supports sorted.


Rear deck now ribbed and plated up to the main deck height.

Now with all that done so far since new year I'm going to do a bit of fiddly stuff as a break.

[OSHIROmodels]

Wow, this looks very impressive 

cheers

James

[Mancha]

Welcome back!  And the more steamer build threads, the better.  This one is already looking inspirational.

[Colonel Tubby]

Ho ho, they say, not another steamer thread.

Ah! But 'what another steamer thread' it is! This is looking to be a very impressive build!

I look forward to following this project so please keep the updates coming!

[Ray Rivers]

Goodness that looks quite excellent.

Too bad it is only 36 inches long.   

 

[Michi]

Ho ho, they say, not another steamer thread.

Never too many. What a start, man! Go on, enjoy us with more progress!

[Bugsda]

Brilliant! I couldn't do this stuff even if I had a Luger held to my head, I'm so jealous of your modeling abillity 

[Calimero]

Ho ho, they say, not another steamer thread.

Never too many. What a start, man! Go on, enjoy us with more progress!

Indeed. Fantastic work so far

[Wirelizard]

(I hate compound curves in cardboard)

I can imagine! This is looking awesome so far, I love that almost all of the inside of the hull looks like it'll be accessible to game in (the decks do come off, I hope?), and the fact that you persevered with compound curves in cardboard (!) makes the hull look great.

We must see more! Like Michi said, there can never be too many pulp steamer projects!

[Braz]

  Fantastic work. Love how you are building it up with all the detailed sub pieces. It could be played on right now as if it were in a shipyard.  The hull looks wider than 6" though; probably just the photo angle. Going to use this method when I build my ship...eventually. Thanks.  Any pics with figures for scale?

[Melnibonean]

Great work. You could base a whole game just on the ship itself.

[Damas]

Great work. You could base a whole game just on the ship itself.

The ship was designed to be gamed with (and on), and not just as a shelf filler so all areas are accessible.  All decks lift off and doors open where required.

I have fudged many areas and of course I'm not modeling the majority of the infrastructure of the ship (anyone who would want to rivet count and then detail a three inch foul water pipe feeding a static tank would need serious help! )

The next round of pictures will have some figs in for scale.

[Hammers]

A right nice'un! I don't think we can have too many steamer projects. Each one seems to do it slightly differently.

What a nice wife you have, btw.

[Patrice]

Very impressive work!    I am thinking about building a tramp steamer but I don't know how to do it... This will help.

And, sorry about your discarded lead mountains, but, yes... This should be studied by ethnologists: the traditional ceremony, in our remote wargamer tribes, when young men must suffer a painful but necessary ritual process of deWarhammerization before they enter the adult world (and this rite being often accompanied, sooner or later, by a parallel process of wife-ization).

[Andym]

Nice!! I like the idea of being able to play through it. I feel looking at it that there should be small 28mm shipbuilders making it though. A model ship built like a real one, impressive!