Last night I spent around 3 hours tying knots. Good thing I still remembed what I learned in camping merrit badge!
First thing was to find a new thread to replace the twine as a friend recommended over at heroscapers.com
Found this one at Walmart and decided to give it a shot.
Not crazy about the color but looked a lot more detailed and defined than the twine.
I liked the twine's color more.
I tried not to use glue as it would change the color of the thread, plus since I was doing rigging I wanted to have some fun and use as many knots as I could remember to give it a nice detailed effect. I cant remember the name of this knot but its used to keep ropes from fraying in the end. I used it on the main mast several times.
I was able to give this dowel a nice wooden grain by rubbing a hack saw blade up and down it a few times trying to get deep gauges, then used sandpaper to get rid of the little strips of wood that stood out. One base color, a dark brown wash and a very light tan drybrush.
And I used the little circle thats found on the end of guitar strings as part of my rigging.
Its starting to come together. Still not crazy about the color.
Also a few decorations on the top yard.
The top of the main mast I kind of went overboard with the " rigging" I included a Forestay and a back stay ( a rope going from the top of the mast to the front of the ship and one to the back to hold the mast in place) Its just for looks as it is not really needed as the main mast is very stable.
Again a little top heavy on the rigging but I was having some fun with it.
Its rigged in such a way that I can raise or lower the sail as needed. I can remove the mast and the rigging if it gets in the way of gameplay.
This is how the longship is starting to look with out the rigging in place
This is just a test, I will make new clips ( hooks) and stream line the taught line hitch knots ( a sliding knot to tighten the ropes) or I might just make smaller knots and much smaller hooks.
I like how the color of the figurehead matches the sail but I will paint it blue like the decorations.
Also added another line across the top of the sail to make it look like it is holding the sail in place.
It seems like a lot of rigging and it might get in the way of gameplay but this was more for fun then actual functionality, plus it takes seconds to remove the rigging and mast if they get in the way.
I also have it set up so I can lower the sails and roll up the lines inside the sails they are not in the way. Break out the oars!!!
The shields are way to small, so this just doesnt look right but I kept them since I had already made them plus they cover up the imperfections of the sides I casted to fill in the gaps.
( And I already used the decals on them....)