"Laser Dreamworks 28mm Ships" Topic

Hello folks. I "need" a small-to-medium ship to fill out my little mixed-use sailing fleet. I recently learned about this source. The link is
laserdreamworks.com. The ships look great and have just the level of detail that I desire. Most of them are reasonably priced. In case it matters, I'm looking in particular at the cutters Nelson or Lee, perhaps the barque La Belle, just possibly the 12-gun sloop. My problem is that I have no idea what I would be tackling, and the site owners are not helpful on this (yes, I know, not a good sign). Has anyone actually built one of these models? FWIW I have done quite a bit of modelling, would rate myself probably 7 on a scale of 10, and am particularly comfortable with wood models.

They are "in between."

They are [obviously] not the same little assembly required of a resin ship but not ship in a bottle difficult or even plastic model ship difficult.

They come flat shipped in punch out sheets with precut pieces.

I think they are very nice.

I consider myself less than a 7 (in modeling, not looks, clearly) and I was not overwhelmed. But, again, it will be more work than the standard wargaming ships on the market.

While the following is for a less complicated Viking Long Ship, it gives you an idea…

YouTube link

I've had good responses from them in the past, so that is a bit surprising.

I doubt you'll have any trouble with them.

Are you doing 15mm, or 28mm?

Mako, I'm in 25 / 28mm. Thank you for your comments. BTW they responded quickly, its just that they really didn't explain.

Zoltar, your link was to an R/C PT boat but I searched and easily found your review. Very well done review, thank you. While I realize the longboat is pitched as entry-level, it looks to me now that the boats are almost ridiculously easy to assemble.

Zoltar, your review answered my biggest question, namely was I going to have to bend the wood? Seems obvious now but how clever of them to cut against the grain so to speak, thus presenting fully curved pieces.

I noticed that the models lack detail other than cannon but that is easily rectified from numerous sources catering to the "serious" model boat-builders (which I am not).

Zoltar, another question for you.

While the construction looks dead-simple, my one experience with PAINTING the laser-cut MDF or plywood (a 4ground building) went poorly. I found that the laser-cut edges in particular just did not want to accept paint. Do you have any additional comments or suggestions on this? Thanks.

I suspect a little sanding should help correct the painting issue.

Another option to consider in this scale, are the very nice, resin, Ainsty pirate vessels.

They are superb.

Mako, I should have thought of trying sanding. I'll see if it helps.

I have two of the ships offered by Ainsty – the sloop and the merchantman. The masters seem to have a complex life of their own; I bought mine about 18 months ago from Dixon. They were a bit cheaper than the same models from Ainsty and were excellent castings. I found that a bit puzzling at the time, and I see that the Dixon site no longer lists those ships. Curiously, the Dixon man of war was NOT the same model as the Ainsty.

FYI Games Of War has what has to be the best value going. Its 4-gun resin Sea Dog sloop is a very good model – to be fair, not quite up to the Dixon / Ainsty, better in my opinion than the Old Glory – and was 15 pounds when I bought it (is now 18 pounds). Amazingly, shipping from their UK home to me in the States was FREE.

Well folks, I took the plunge. Ordered the US 8-gun brig Lee and it arrived today.

Some initial comments:

1. The instructions are printed on very high-quality paper – 28-pound bright white, extra smooth. There are lots of color close-ups of a brig being built.

2. I have read them through carefully. They are good but there are a couple of points lacking clarity – for me, anyway. I will be querying the designer about those. One thing to note: I saw nothing about the need to glue a board between the main and quarter decks, plus (I think) a trim board. I believe I've identified the cut-outs, but they have no key, i.e. unlike the other cut-outs there are no alpha-numeric identifiers.

3. I got one big surprise, and frankly not a pleasant one. The foundation of the hull for this model is a piece of insulation board! I expected die-cut layers of MDF like the rest of the model and I would definitely prefer that for both heft and accuracy. Sanding the MDF smooth would have been far easier than the free-form final shaping of the insulation board, with I think a superior outcome to boot. At least the inaccuracy about this in the instructions is in the customer's favor: the instructions say that the insulation board is about an inch thick and recommend cutting or sanding the bottom down to a 3/4ths inch thickness. In fact my kit was supplied with a piece that needs additional shaping but is already at an appropriate "finished" thickness – about 5/8ths of an inch. Its a good thing that I have no practical use for one of their "large" (2 feet plus in length) ships because I don't think a styrofoam hull base would be sufficiently rigid.

4. The two MDF boards with most of the parts are cleanly cut through. I am leaving them in their shrink-wrapping until I am ready to start as it obvious that some of the parts will actually simply drop out once unsupported.

5. However, some of the pieces for building up the sides of the vessel are not cut accurately. It may be that this is not evident in the finished model; we'll see.

6. They do a very good job of indicating which is which for the masts, bowsprit and yardarm. However, all of them have one end that is not cleanly cut and will need sanding (I should note that a piece of rough and a piece of fine sandpaper are actually included in the kit).

7. There is one very puzzling and very visible design flaw. The bowsprit does not go out straight over the prow! Instead it is offset to one side. Looking at the design of the build of the bow, this appears completely unnecessary to me, but unfortunately it is built into the design, I don't see any practical way of moving the bowsprit to the appropriate centered location. I know this is meant for gaming, not as a fine or detailed model, but still …

8. The supplied 6-pound cannon are nicely detailed, but they have a LOT of flash which I estimate will take as much as an hour to remove.

9. Again, I know this is not meant to be a finely detailed model, but it would have been nice had metal grate covers for the two hatches been included. There are no aftermarket suppliers for these as they have to be custom-sized for these particular two hatches.

So … I see that some mods / additions are needed. I'm going to cut a piece of very thin lumber to match the bottom of the hull after the final shaping; even if painted and sealed, I don't want the bottom of my waterline model to be styrofoam. The steering handle is never going to survive the rigors of play and I will replace it with an aftermarket steering wheel. I may also add a windlass and certainly a couple of aftermarket anchors, probably a lantern casting for the rear. Even though it may be unhistorical I'll probably add a figurehead.

This is going to be a matter of "chipping away". I'm going to pre-finish the model; the design almost cries out for that approach. So first I need to head to the hardware store and get the smallest natural matte urethane finisher that they have, and use this for the main and quarterdeck.

Progress is going to be slow. First, I've assembled a number of wooden models for my "other" hobby, model railroading, and I'm a firm believer that all glued pieces must be weighted or clamped for a minimum of two hours. This means in practice only step per evening, and some evenings I won't have time at all. Second, you are likely in trouble if the parts get separated from the main boards early, because it could be difficult to later identify them with absolute accuracy. So the pre-painting will also have to be done in small batches, and for wood, I believe really needs to be allowed overnight.

I'll post again after some progress, but it actually is not next on the workbench, will probably be several weeks before I start.

"There is one very puzzling and very visible design flaw. The bowsprit does not go out straight over the prow! Instead it is offset to one side".

Presumably, the kit was reasonably well researched before being created.

I'm unfamiliar with the brig, Lee, however I do know that a lot of cutters of about that size have two holes, either side of the bow keel strip, and that the bowsprit is inserted through those, as needed/desired, depending upon the wind/sailing conditions. It is removable, as well, I suspect to make the vessel a bit more compact when in port.

Therefore, it may be possible that is the case with this vessel too.

Would love to see a progress report, when/if you have the time.

Mako, that is very interesting and I never knew that. That will be my explanation when asked why the bowsprit is off center. However, in that case the kit should have had options for either side of the prow – it doesn't, just the one to port.

As you can see, this project has slipped in my schedule. Total hobby time has been on track but a couple of other projects were jumped in the queue …

I'm surprised I didn't see this thread sooner. I have their sloop USS Wasp. I found that the sanding of the foam insulation board hull to go smoothly and quickly. I am quite frankly a very sub-rate model builder but had no issues with building this model. I am planning on buying their HMS Cyane later this spring after I finish organizing my new office/wargaming room.

I would like to find out how to make furled sails for these ships in order to make them look better while they sit in port for my cutting out parties.

Here is a link to an earlier thread about building their ships which includes a link to his very helpful blog posts:
TMP link