"War Artisan frigates" Topic

Ever since discovering the wonderful models on War Artisan's site, I've been working towards a long-term goal of assembling both fleets from the Battle of the Chesapeake. That goal is VERY far off, but in the meantime, fleets need escorts and scouts, so I've put together a handful of frigates:

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Outstanding work. Look forward to seeing the SoL

Very impressive.

Very nice. I love these ships. I just finished all the ships for Lake Erie, and I am slowly working on the Battle of Toulon.

Iīm a big fan of War Artisanīs ships, and yours look great! I am especially envious of your outstanding rigging. Well done!

They look great. looking forward to seeing more of the fleets.
Be safe
Rory

They look great.

One slight nitpicker's comment: sailing ships look more natural if you angle the yards like they're catching wind from the beam or quarter. I know it's counterintuitive, but it was often actually slower to sail with the wind directly astern--each mast's sails would cast a"wind shadow" on the one in front of it.

Beautiful work on some awesome kits Weirdo. What scale did you build them in?

KniazSuvurov: Yeah, I learned about that after about half a dozen of my ships were finished. At this point I'm going to stick to straight yards for consistency, but if/when I start a new fleet or do some generic merchanters/privateers, I might angle those.

whitejamest: I did them in 1/600 scale. The bases are about 4" long.

I personally like the perpendicular yards look. Any orientation you choose will be wrong most of the time in the games anyway, and the wind astern look is as correct as any, whether or not it was the fastest possible orientation. Also I think it minimizes the visual weirdness when your ship is sailing one way and the sails are turned to the opposite side that they should face. Also I just like it better visually, but that's just a matter of taste.

Nice look!

The Battle of the Chesapeake is a big project, and I wish you the best of luck pulling it together. I'm not sure you'll be able to fit it on a real table in 1/600 scale. I had to go down to 1/2400 scale to get battles that size onto real tables.

- Ix

the wind astern look is as correct as any

Well, actually my point was that it isn't . Even a ship headed in the exact direction the wind was blowing would have zigzagged back and forth, catching the wind alternately on one quarter and then the other. But as I said, I'm just nitpicking. The models still look great.

Any orientation you choose will be wrong most of the time in the games anyway

This reminds me of an experience I had once on a Mexican coach bus. There were two clocks at the front, showing completely different times. I asked the driver which one was correct. He pointed to the first clock, and said, "that one's set incorrectly; it's always wrong."

I asked him about the other clock. He said, "that one's broken. It tells the correct time twice a day at 10:19."

Saying that the ship could make the fastest time by zigzagging is not the same as saying that therefore a ship would never sail with with the wind directly astern. There would be so many other factors to consider in a given situation for a captain to determine a course. Zigzagging while closely engaged, or while navigating inshore, may not always have been very feasible, as it might have been while sailing alone on the open sea. I'm not trying to argue that it's the fastest route from A to B, just that it was undeniably done, and therefore is as "correct" a sail setting as any. "Correct" meaning it was done historically, not that it's the fastest. Similarly ships didn't spend the majority of their time with studding sails set, but it is as "correct" to model them set as not, because it is not unhistorical.

Nitpicky, but I like the nitpicking :)

I really like that bus driver. Not sure why exactly.

Well, if any sail setting could be said to be "more correct" by dint of being used most often, it would probably be topsail and jib… But how many ship models do you see at topsail and jib?

KniazSuvorov,

I think James is right and I know that to rig ships with angled sails is very hard too do! I set all my sails square as james, Weirdo, Vol and Julian do. I do use different sail-settings for fun, to be different and to help I.D. model ships.

Be safe

Rory

Yellow Admiral: Oh yeah, it'll definitely be tricky. To be honest, I'll probably never actually game out Chesapeake, it's more a fun goal to slowly build towards while I play with the ones that are finished. But the ships, they'll be pretty! :)

Weirdo, your rigging is really lovely, did you do as Jeff recommends, using thread with glue on it?

While I have had success making the models (in 1/600th as well- less fidley that way!), my rigging leaves much to be desired.

Nah, way too many pieces for me. I much prefer the method of long "runs" of thread, using Rory McCready's tutorial, found here: link

Thanks for that, it looks almost doable! I will have to give it a try this weekend. Good luck with the Chesapeake!

I've been contemplating getting some of War Artisan's ships! Those look quite impressive.

How did you do the bases?

What method did you use for the rigging?

1:600th? Aren't these the 1/300th line?

For the bases, I went online and found a nice picture of water's surface, printed it out, then glued it to a nice thick piece of cardstock. I do a lot of dumpster diving into the recycle bins at my office, and claim any empty boxes of good non-corrugated material for stuff like this. Cut the result into pieces of the desired size, tint the edges with a blue marker, and queso! Sea bases! The name labels astern of each ship were made in excel.

For the rigging, I used the tutorial linked above. The process works exactly the same as for metal ships, you just have to remember to poke holes in the gunwales at the appropriate points before stepping the masts. One on each side a short distance behind each mast, one on each side roughly where the catheads would be, and one all the way through under the bow like a nose piercing. I reinforce the paper around the holes after that with superglue, and as a result have never had any issues with the paper tearing.

Those ships are from his 600/900 scale line. I go 600 scale, because bigger ships are prettier. :) Also, easier to rig.

Weirdo,
Your ships look great. I look forward to seeing them in action. Or/and added too?
I'm glad to have been a little help too you with rigging.
Be safe
Rory

Very Nice. Well done.

Lovely work, Weirdo (And hats off and a big +1 to War Artisan for his very cool models.

The only suggestion I'd make is to consider painting black those parts of the masts that would correspond to topmasts, topgallants and royals.

B