"Building toy-like model warships" Topic

I am putting on a naval wargame at this year's Conference of Wargamers (COW2016) in July, for which I need a number of model ships. As the battle is going to be set in the late Ironclad/Pre-dreadnought era and will use blue Hexon II hexed terrain, I need a number of suitable models.

Having looked around for robust models that are easy to pick up and that will fit inside a 4-inch/10cm hex – and having found none that fit the bill – I decided to build my own. The first ships I built looked like this:

I have since refined the building process, and have published it as three separate blog entries as follows:

How to build a small generic pre-dreadnought battleship: Part 1: The hull ( link )

How to build a small generic pre-dreadnought battleship: Part 2: The armament ( link )

How to build a small generic pre-dreadnought battleship: Part 3: The superstructure and final assembly ( link )

The model looked like this when it was completed:

The methods I have used can be scale up or down; all you need are some basic tools, the necessary materials, and a bit of patience.

Nice. Will you paint them in garish colors as well? Many years ago I was infatuated with such things and build many ugly fleets for a rules set appropriately entitled "Silly Ships." I chose various nationalities, sometimes of landlocked countries, and named them all ethnic food dishes. For example the flagship of the Germanic fleet was the Prinzessin Kartoffeln (Princess Potatoes). My models were more towards 1/2400 though, using whatever extras I could from "regular" miniatures.

So your models bring back fond memories. Best of luck at the conference.

Very nice indeed.

Great work!

-Will

I like it.

Bravo!

21eRegt,

The models will initially be painted grey … but I hope to repaint them in Victorian livery (black hulls, white upper works, buff funnels) if I have enough time.

As to names … well at present I don't have any ideas, but yours sounds like an excellent suggestion.

They look really good.

Get your game on! Good looking ships.

Some inspiration for names here:

link

and here:

link

Bon voyage!

JimDuncanUK,

Thanks for the excellent suggestions!

Bob, I love your ships! I've always enjoyed the ones depicted in your Colonial campaigns, too. Alas, I lack your skill set and cannot replicate those models you build that capture so well the fun and whimsy that are all too often missing from my games.

Ragbones,

Thanks for your kind comment!

I try to make my methods as easy to follow as possible so that anyone can copy them.

Bob, another idea is to use wood, joiner biscuits. They come in three standard sizes up to just under 3 inches, and they are very inexpensive. You can also buy round bits to use as turrets. I built a bunch of ships using these a year or so ago, inspired by what Tom (?) from Skull and Crown had done.

Nnascati,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have seen these used for making small model ships, and I have looked for them in our local hardware store, but they only sold very small biscuits. I may order some online to use for the hulls of smaller vessels.

These are super! Hope your game is well received.

Very impressive; however, would not NAVWAR 1:3000 pre-dreadnoughts have been suitable?

Those are really cool.

I was into the notion a bit over a year ago. I only completed one- my chibi interpretation of the French predread Brennus :

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The Beast Rampant,

That is very impressive … and I suspect that I will be producing something similar in the future.

Hagenthedwarf,

Navwar models are nice … but too small for my banana-sized figures to pick up easily. They also won't fit in with my existing model ships.

Ahoy and LIKE.

As a simpler/quicker alternative, why not get hold of the ships from the Diplomacy game?

More names:-

Cirrhosis of the River.
Marlin Monroe.
Pier Pressure.
Eggs-to-Sea.
Seas the Day.
The Codfather.

And my all-time favourite – She got the House.

Somewhere or other, there is a Wiki page listing all the names of space vessels from a Terry Pratchett-style series of fantasy books. They are firmly based on the Royal Navy (and its various colonial derivatives), but downmarket/negative: eg HMS Vincible. Anyone else seen this or remember the name of the author?

Lots of period flavor in your models. Well done.

Bob,
First its nice to see that some people still remember 'THE' reason we wargame is to have FUN. IMHO, if your gaming for any other reason, your doing it wrong.

Its pretty clear your 4" hex map is also wood, unless these over 50 eyes are diseaving me. Did you build that as well?
Just a quick guess, the 'map' is a board(s) with hexes simply drawn and then cut with a router. Correct?

Brings back memories of using scrap wood in granddaddy's workshop to build a few of my own. Of course they had NO scale and were about 2 Feet long. LOL

A Great-safe way to share your interest in wargaming with a young child / grandchild.
My Hat is Off too you Sir.

@Part time gamer

Bob will be busy getting ready for COW.

I'll answer the question for him.

The hex board shown at the start of this post is made from blue tiles from the Hexon 2 range by Kallistra.

kallistra.co.uk/?page=8