Space:1889 project

[Fortescue-Smythe]

And so it begins...
The idea is to build a 28mm table for a skirmish game, complete with Hill Martian Villa, the HMS 'Aphid' aerial gunboat and a Martian 'Swiftwood' kite. Should take me about three years...  :roll:

Being the scatter-brained creature that I am, I promptly went off at a tangent into a parallel project: translating my naval rules to the Space:1889 background, simplifying them in the process. Which means I'll have to scratch-build some model cloudships. Thanks to some valuable hints about scratch-building flyers in 1/300th scale from Tony Harwood (resident of the SGoM yahoo-group, and this forum as well, I believe), I managed to complete the hull for a prototype 'Hullcutter' screw galley, as you may see in the following WIP shots:





All in all, the result is satisfactory. A bit on the chubby side (like its architect), but that'll be remedied by using a stretched plan and thinner surfaces on the three sister ships coming up next.

Fire away, what?

[Mo]

I like it a lot! I can't wait to see the finished project. It really looks a bit beyond my capabilities, but I'd love to see a tutorial on it when you are done.

Marc

[Fortescue-Smythe]

Uh, a tutorial would be a bit beyond my skills, I guess, but I can give you a quick write-up of the construction so far:
The "frame" is based on deck plans scanned from the 'Cloudships & Gunboats' book. If anyone's interested, drop me a PM, I'll e-mail them.
The decks were cut out from 0.5mm polystyrol (next time around, I'll cut the upper deck from balsa straight away), and glued together via spacers made from 5.0mm balsa wood.
The prow's hull was made from very thin balsa wood (will be cardboard next time, as it bends more easily), same as the hull of the main deck walkway. I added a curved cardboard section to the prow as decoration.
The hull of the stern section was cut from cardboard (GW packaging cardboard, excellent stuff, as it is sort of sealed on both sides, preventing it from sucking up the cyano), bending it over the middle deck sections, which protrude a bit from the plane of the hull.
The prow and keel rams were cut from 5mm balsa and carved with sand paper (is that what it's called in English?). The seams between the cardboard sections of the hull were covered up with thins sticks cut from balsa. The mast is a toothpick, and the flying bridge balsa again.
For tools I used a carpet knife, some files, a nailfile and sand paper. Cyano-acrylate was used on just about all joints complemented by white glue on joints that were not fitted under stress.
Next steps will be rifling through my stuff for some Peter Pig 6mm's for deck crew, adding stays and shrouds, and painting of course.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

looks promising! btw, I'm very fascinating with the Cloudships. Does anyone know any graphic novels/comics/etc. about?

[Westfalia Chris]

Hot damn! Now I want to finish my Aerial Gun Sloop, too!

[Fortescue-Smythe]

An in-progress shot of the second batch of 'Hullcutters', to illustrate the techniques mentioned above:

[fritzy]

Hi, in reply to building 28mm Aphid gunboat etc. I am part way through building the Eagle from the 1889 supplement Ironclads and Ether Flyers. I've made it out of a sheet of foam card in little more than an afternoon. The thickness of the foamcard gives it a very good solid feel. I'm also doing my own version of some gunboats similar to the Locust. these are timber made as if they work out I will try to cast them in resin. I will try to get some photos on soon. If anyone wants more tips on building a foamcard gunboat please ask and I will try to help.  
  P.S. The Eagle will be an American Civil War ship of the North, commanded by Abraham Lincoln, When I get around to recruiting a crew, and not building.


Fritzy

[Fortescue-Smythe]

Foamcard was what I had in mind for the less curved hulls of the 28mm project, too. Do you have any tool tips, hints on mistakes to be avoided etc.?

[Westfalia Chris]

Foamcard was what I had in mind for the less curved hulls of the 28mm project, too. Do you have any tool tips, hints on mistakes to be avoided etc.?

Use disposable cutter blades, and change them regularly - foamboard dulls blades almost as easily as styrofoam does. Use a steel ruler to guide the knife. Other than that, use white/PVA glue, work cleanly, and you should have no problems - I find Foamboard one of the easier materials to work with.

[fritzy]

Hi Westfalia Chris is dead right about blades. One thing i may try but will take time is making any panels a bit larger and cut the foam and one side of the card away to cover the open edges of foam. This should clean up edges and reduce any filling in needed. If anyone's tried this let me know if it works, it will save me a lot of measuring.
   Oh one more tip, measure 2 or 3 times then cut, really saves time in the end.


 Fritzy

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi Westfalia Chris is dead right about blades. One thing i may try but will take time is making any panels a bit larger and cut the foam and one side of the card away to cover the open edges of foam. This should clean up edges and reduce any filling in needed. If anyone's tried this let me know if it works, it will save me a lot of measuring.
   Oh one more tip, measure 2 or 3 times then cut, really saves time in the end.

Fritzy

I´ve done this several times with model buildings, but I have to say that you have to be extra careful, and the time and effort isn´t really worth it, IMHO. I prefer covering the corners either with some plaster/paint/quartz sand mix or adding cornerstones from cardboard - the latter is obviously most applicable to pre-modern European-style buildings.

[Fortescue-Smythe]

I daresay that for riveted steel hulls, you might also fold a narrow strip of cardboard over the edges and add some rivets on both sides. That way you would have a... ummmmh... don't even know what its called in german... well some sort of v-profile type thingy holding together the plates.
Thanks for the tips, everybody.

[Westfalia Chris]

I´d say it´d be a reinforcing girder? Verstärkungsstrebe would be good. I love those, even if they are a bit too low-tech for my preferred style - I like my contraptions to have visible bulkheads on the inside, but only rivets on the outside...

[Fortescue-Smythe]

Reinforcing girder, reinforcing strut, something along these lines.
And here we have another example of how wargaming can broaden your education: I always thought that bulkheads had to be proper walls, and not just the rib-like struts you've illustrated. "Wieder was gelernt", as the Schäferhund would say.
 

[Westfalia Chris]

Well, eigentlich heißt "Bulkhead" "Schott"... aber da können durchaus Durchbrüche drinsein.