"modern naval miniatures made from clay" Topic

small-scale modern naval units of the soviet and american navies
made from clay
used for Harpoon rules
the scale is one inch to two hundred feet

the clay cost four dollars
buying these units from GHQ would have cost me well over $300 USD

the US navy is on the right side, including the JFK carrier, followed by a Wasp, Coronado, the California cruiser, and a pair of Burke destroyers

on the left is the soviet fleet, with Kirov closest, sovremeny, Udaloy, and others in line

far away are the subs, mostly russians
[URL=http://s716.photobucket.com/user/lambentdream/media/P8030018.jpg.html]

here is a view from the far side, so nyou can see the subs up close
theres a typhoon, and oscar, akula and a speedy alfa subs
against a los angeles class attack sub and a pair of coastal defense subs from scandanavia
there were rather easier to make than the surface units,
and the soviet ships were the hardest to make
those soviets ships are really very cluttered-looking
[URL=http://s716.photobucket.com/user/lambentdream/media/P8020015.jpg.html]

Really cool.

Fabulous work and a great result all round.

Those are great! What type of clay did you use?

Ditto, they look great!

Great work – for the life of me I've never been able to sculpt a straight edge/corner, they all end up rounded, so it's really impressive to see straight edges all over!

hey thanks guys, thats nice
it was self-hardening clay, by the way. very cheap and easy to use
the trick is using a tiny little rolling pin, and a razor blade
I roll a lump of clay out with the little bottle, just like rolling out a pizza dough
then cut it on a piece of glass with the razor, into the little boxes, rectangles, or masts I need to represent the general appearance of the ship

the best part is, really, that I am no longer limited by the selection of GHQ, or C-in-C

right now I am making a russian amphibious assault group, with the Rogov, three Ropuchkas, and an auxilliary support ship, to simulate a russian invasion of Norway

this is what happens when you have no social life at all

Very nice. I had "imagi-nation" fleets made of modeling clay when I was a middle school kid. They were late 19th century style vessels.

Thatīs great with the clay, I have a ton of that stuff but I had never thought about making ships with it. I will definitely give it a try!

it takes some practice but I am sure youll get the hang of it
good luck, thanks again, guys

Very impressive!

I used to do this for WWII/WWI miniatures when I was a kid.

very impressive

Dude, you got game. You could cast and sell those.

lol, thanks again
do you realize how much I would have to sell them for?
each one takes about a WEEK!!
but thanks for the compliments anyway
wait til you see my wargame boards!

Wow brilliant. Please you need to do a blow by blow tutorial (or sausage by sausage ;) of how you build your ships.
Very impressed but willing to try, could I use oven fired clays
Cheers

the hull is the artistic part
a small tube of clay is laid out on a small mirror
with moist fingers press it into the hull's basic shape
you can hone it down later , after its dried, with sandpaper
the superstructure, as I mentioned, is made by rolling out blobs of clay with a small bottle as a rolling pin
when you have the desired thickness for the decks, cut with a razor blade into the rectangular shape you need
the masts are likewise cut with razor
the guns are just small balls of clay rolled between the fingertips
Ive used bits of toothpicks to represent cranes and such
missiles can be made in a similar fashion
glue the bits together with white glue
painting with arcylics adds strength
Ive used both self hardening and oven-dried clays, both are fine
its all about planning which shapes to try to represent
it takes practice to make the smaller parts
good luck

Those are chuffing excellent. You have a good eye for getting the lines of a ship spot on. Please post any other pics you have of other stuff you've made.I'm off down the shop right now to get some milliput.

thanks mate, I'll do that for you
especially since you Brits invented miniature wargaming
I was planning to make a couple threads in the terrain forum
about some of the gameboards Ive made, and am making
that might be interesting to you
at least I hope so

Nice work, gameboards. Well done.

Very cool! What's the approximate size?