"28 MM YANGTZE GUNBOAT" Topic

Breakdown of project below images:

I had so much fun doing the makeovers of my swap meet broken-toy Disney and Playmobil sailing ships for my pirate collection that I decided to undertake the building of a Yangtze River gunboat. The foundation items for this project were twin Playmobil ship hulls bought over the last couple years at the swap meet. I bought the hulls with the gunboat project in mind, but until my experience with the sailing ship redoes I lacked the motivational spark to get the project going. As I indicated above, the finished gunboat hull is a composite of two Playmobil hulls. I needed two hulls because the Playmobil ships were only about 15 inches long by 6 inches wide and had a one inch loop on both sides that I wanted to cut out thus further reducing the length of the hull. They looked stubby. So my idea was to cut as much as I could out of the second hull to add to the main hull and in so doing fill the space once occupied by the loop and add additional length to the final version of the hull. It turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be, but I managed to get four usable inches from each side the second hull and that gave my gunboat a length of 18 inches. Once that was done, it was pretty much just a question of how much stuff I could put on her decks with the space those decks offered. I made the deck from Evergreen V groove plastic. I built the cabins and bridge out of Legos and Duplos (again from the swap meet). I then covered the Lego/Duplo cabins and bridge with Evergreen Plastic. The windows and doors are also made from pieces of Evergreen Plastic. The ladders and rails are by Plastruct. The metal fittings are Reviresco, and the two 37mm guns are by Pulp Figures. I used a lot of Squadron Green Putty to smooth the sides of the hull, and yellow-gray Milliput provided additional strength to the hull and a base that hopefully looks a bit like water. For this posting, I've placed two figures on the boat to provide a feel for its size. The painted figure is from my Foundry Chinese Pirates and the unpainted figure is a future-crew member of the gunboat from Pulp Figures. The project turned out to be a lot of fun to build. Hope you enjoy it.

Excellent results.

Rick

That is a beautiful ship. Hat's off to you for the skill to put that together.

Thank you both for your kind words. I have been thinking about building a gunboat for about four years. I've had the hulls that were the key for making it for about two years. Once I got started, I knew what I wanted to do, but through most of this project I was not sure I could pull off what I had planned. It was a lot of fun, but it turned out to be far more complicated than I thought it would be. Anyway, I'm really happy with the way it came out. And I do appreciate your generous words and the fact that you took the time to write. Richard

Great work. I never would have thought they were Legos.

Very nice boat. Hope you blast some pirates with it REAL soon

I had wanted to build my own gunboat for some time. In the end I chickened out and bought one from whoever was selling the Greenfield version in 15mm. It's a side wheeler. I ended up kit bashing it.
Since then I've managed to make a smaller steam boat. I've also got a dhow started. It's been sitting a couple of years.
I really like your work Richard. This most recent is nothing less than inspirational.

79thPA, I've used Legos and Duplos on a lot of my builds because they offer both strength and tight angles. Before I started using them, I was spending much more money on plastic interior support to strengthen what I was building. That was money spent on things that weren't seen. I also had trouble getting consistent right angles; something was always a little out of line. The Legos and Duplos solved both those problems. And since I get them at the swap meet, they are pretty cheap. Nick, so far my gunboat has no crew. Building this gunboat was a process of satisfying an itch that had been begging to be scratched for several years. Now that it's built, I'll have to work on getting that crew done. Robert, I did the same thing for my Sudan gunboats. I manage to get some inexpensive Greenfield (inexpensive because when I bought mine they nearing the end of the line for the mold/they were in bad shape but the stern and side wheels were still good/that was lucky). I used those boats as the core of my hulls, kept the paddle wheels and wrapped Evergreen plastic around the hulls. I got the hulls for about $5 USD each on a closeout table at a hobby shop. I bought five (2 sidewheelers and 3 stern) and built a small fleet. Thanks so much for taking the time to write and for the generous comment. Oh, if you're interested in my 15mm Sudan gunboat fleet, you can see it at url=http://www.warin15mm.com/The-Sudan.html

Sorry about the no url for line. I tried to fix it several times on the above comment but I am doing something wrong and it won't accept. If you want to see my Sudan gunboat collection, just google War In 15MM and click on the Sudan Gallery. Again, I'm sorry about the Error problem. Richard