How to Build a Wargaming Warship Part 1

or more specifically a Cruizer class Brig Sloop. Well after trawling the Internet for suitable small Warships to represent some Pirates and a first rate Boat of the line I looked down at my Napoleon Total War and found this little statement...
"ship plans courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, London."
Now so far all the searches I had done for ship plans had taken me to model ship builder forums, Which are really useful... if your not making wargaming ships I needed a large selection of old drawings, sure plenty out there but not a nice selection in just one place... until I went to the Museums Internet site and then with a bit of knowledge gifted by Uncle Wiki I was set to build... and now you can too! P.S I am still building this ship and Paul so please hang tight as this is only the first part...

Preparation: get some plans...

go online and look for some plans some are free but the best are not

To do this you can search the Internet for all the kings of images you want but simply typing into Google "sloop ship plans" is not really going to help to much and typing "Cruizer ship plans" will normally only give you pictures of the Beagle. (HMS Beagle). So if you know what you want go http://www.rmg.co.uk/ for the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich... ignore the fact it tells you the page does not exist... then go to collections and start looking :-)
Also try Wikipedia for some basic ship Dimensions convert to the correct scale and then Round them UP to the nearest cm or if you use imperial... umm... not quite sure half inch? perhaps. Rounding up is better as ships in scale look smaller for some reason.

some information from Uncle Wiki... I should have looked at the crew size and gone oh it is huge

This is some "Lines" of a Cruizer class brig sloop

 Now that you have your plans get some materials.... You will need! (for this stage)

• some french curves (well more useful than necessary)
• a pencil
• Foam board, polystyrene or other foam material
• Craft knife
• some thick card, foam-core or some hardboard or a material thinner than the foam
• A ruler
• cutting board
• PVA glue
• patience and lots of it :-(

Step 1: getting the rectangle

 it is important that you get the overall length of the ship and the width so that you can make a rectangle. Draw this rectangle onto your foam and then score the foam before cutting.

Do this process twice.

Now that you have your rectangles you need to cut them out. do this carefully as you will need to do more measurements later on.  I recommend that you only cut one out for now.

 Step 2: Getting the curves
Now ships are not giant rectangles so we need to put in the curves for the bow and stern to do this make a grid pattern on the face of the foam. I put "vertical" lines every 3 cm.

Now you must look back at the plans to see what the curve on the actual ship is like. Now go to your foam sketch an proximate curve onto it. in the image across I have drawn the sterns lines and also some lines to represent what the underside will look like.remember do to make these smaller than the plans so bow is thinner and sharper and stern is less rounded.

Now do some cutting this must be done slowly and precisely to minimise the risk of ending up with an odd looking ship later on.

Now do the same on the underside. for this go about 1 cm in from the edge at the side and around 2-3 on the bow and stern... referring to the plans help determine the angles.

now comes the blade destroying part. cut diagonally through the foam from the bottom to the top creating the angles. it helps to cut the lines on the bottom first to reduce the risk of snapping your craft knifes blade!

 Step 3: the layers - poop deck and forecastle
Now that you've done the base of the sloop you need to do the top. re-do steps one and 2 but this time follow the plans more exactly so that the curves on the ship are more like those on the plans.

make sure that the bottom of this layer matches up with the top of the previous one so that they fit together. or else you will be in trouble.

Now cut out the centre of the second foam layer so that you have the ends. These are the forecastle and poop deck. glue these in place. unlike me I recommend that if you have a clamp to use it.

Step 4: the gun deck/ centre of the ship

get your other material, I use some really thick card. its really strong which might be useful later but even some foam core or hardboard will do.

measure up the gap between the forecastle and poop deck. Once again cut out a rectangle to fit in the gap. if there are some curves that need to be taken into account simply trim the rectangle to fit without overhanging the edges.

Then glue down the card, foam or whatever you are using if like me this layer is not thick enough add another until the gap between the layers seems more like that of the plans... so in this case not to big.

End of Part one 
 now step one is complete you should have the backbone of a ship onto which you can put your cardboard skin and planking. More importantly you will need to put the masts on.

Thats all in part 2 though so you need to wait. also I have not even got that far yet.

 


 Now just a look at HMS Paul... progress has been slow because I have been focusing on building the larger ship so Paul will take a while but here is what she looks like so far... She, why are ships she? even when they have masculine names?

the sides are added and just need trimming

nice and smooth... as you can see this ship is also made from cracker boxes

I think this fig is fed up with being used for all the naval posts :-P

Well now all I need to do now is work on the ship so that I can make part2. This ship will be Abigail the Pirate ship that terrorised the Atlantic coast of North and South America and cursed that Caribbean. destroying cities as she went... oh wait that's my sister... its appropriate :-D now my sister does not feel left out.  now just need a few more to complete the fleets.

inside the Oronegrean shipyard part2

Well with Peter complete and Paul on the way let us take a look again inside the shipyard and some future projects :-)

Well I have got some good ships already however I do need some more. I need some pirates for my noble Peter, Anne and Paul when (she's?) complete. so time to layout the foam board and take a look at the possible vessels that could come out of the blank canvas... well card and foam.

as you can see I have about enough board here (and plenty more in supply) for 3 ships larger than the current boats

That big sheet should give me 2 LARGE ships perhaps even a brig or sloop I hope so as the pirates will need the fire power to escape from ANNE

Oh what is that a message from the modelling gods lets read

pretty self explanatory and yes I should have made sure the marker was not permanent before I wrote the message... no I am not a modelling god, I wish I was though be much easier.

another message... better do what it says

OSCAR!!!!!!!!

he is a really silly dog

 well there you go and now off to walk the dog... I took those photo's earlier in the day but I remembered them just before I posted and thought they would go well with the other message... though Oscar is still on the couch :-P

see you later guys and girls

HMS Peter another Oronegrean Rivership

WOW another post, another ship this week has been remarkable hasn't it? well Sorry that I am not able to present a model celebrating international Hobbit day (today) but hey why not another ship?

HMS Peter is another Oronegrean Rivership/ warboat of the 3rd rate boat of the line class. Like HMS Anne, Peter carries 2 guns of an older type and has a square sail along with a lantern one. However there are a few differences Peter has a smooth bow unlike Anne and the raised cover on the stern is slightly better, also Peter has a different rudder design.
This is because unlike Anne, Peter was made by  los Barcos del Mehobeck instead of Alberto y hijos. there are a few advantages to Peters design and a few disadvantages on the whole both boats are roughly equal in the eyes of a captain. Peter is more manoeuvrable while Anne is more resilient and strong. Anne's guns have a longer range and are more powerful, Peter's are easily replaced. Anne has greater cargo/ ammunition capacity, Peter can travel is shallower waters. The list goes on but enough for now. Paul is also on the way so keep an eye pealed for the third, third boat of the line :-D

A look at the new ship to enter the Oronegrean river fleet. Peter is ready to set sail up Oronegro's many rivers and along its coasts

Peter notice there is no eye as the Mehobeck tribe feel that giving the boat and eye will give it a mind of its own... which is dangerous!

a look at the stern, the flag and the different rudder that is one of the things setting it apart from Anne

the tiller and the cabin... you can also just see the rope for docking.

the deck hatch which is larger than on Anne

the bow with the anchor

a side high elevation of the ship

a nice side on view.

and the guns with crosses on. hang on whats that next to the ship?

Anne pulls along side peter

gang planks are put across the gap. now imagine what it will be like once I get a pirate ship... the sea battles will be cool

our intrepid figure that has been showing of the figures crosses the gap

another look at the ships note the new front rigging on both vessels... just thought it looks cool :-)

Peter and Anne sail away.... wait a moment... MAN OVER BOARD... :-P

there you go folks and Paul is on the way... soon we can have some ship battles, and when Matt's AFV's get here (well after Christmas) we can have some mechanised battles also... maybe combine them. will be odd but sailing ships like these (minus the guns) still sail the water.

Thanks so much Matt for the present

A big thank you to Matt (bluewillow) from the Wargaming Guild who is sending me some modern AFV's. I won't open them till Christmas I promise :-D well maybe a peak :-P of coarse I still love my moderns even if I do like the 18th century Oronegro is a project of 2 era's and perhaps its for the best that I get reminded to do both... I have a nasty habit of focusing on a single era which is terrible so help me out there guys...

I am still finding a suitable present for him... he says its fine but I want to give something in return. anyway that's spurred me on to complete the modern Oronegro figs in my painting queue which I shall do after the boats are done of coarse. then perhaps after Christmas a game with the new AFV's and all the modern figs (or at least a sizable selection of them) will occur I will make sure also that I Celebrate Oronegro's first birthday. The day I came back from Argentina (really a year and its so sad that I was not able to contact my host family).

so stay tuned and it you are after any of the following... These I'm interested in trading or giving as gifts

• Ancient Carthaginians
• Macedonian Cavalry
• Persians
• Mongols
• or some Thracian's

I might have a present for you too! :-)

Inside the Oronegrean shipyard! or..

A Peter &Paul Progress Post or a P&PPP  for short :-) anyway this type of post usually would go on the projects blog but as I am running a discussion on what to do about infantry for early Oronegro I decided to more it over here besides you all liked Anne so much that I though Peter and Paul should be documented during construction. I am not quite happy to show off the construction process of my models as it can help when it comes to making changes. Also I only just took these photos so not much has changed except some paining but if you decided to view this post several days later I recommend that you advise should be focused on Paul's construction and not Peter's. WARNING the images you are about to see show models in an unfinished state and being painted with sub standard paints those of you with extreme loyalties to Vajello paints or other paint brands should look away now :-P

Peter (background) and Paul (foreground) built by a different shipwyard to Anne but one right next door so that they have many similar features and some different ones

Paul is a little worse for wear I had to make it with the broken craft knife and then a large knife from my dads tool box as I had no alternative. so a little ragged so I think Paul will be constructed once Peter is done

this little symbol is the Mehobeck Cross, the Mehobecks were one of the first tribes the Colonials met in Oronegro. their cross is a mixture of their own monotheistic symbol the arch and the Christian cross.

A look down Peters Deck, a little dirty but I'll sort it out later.

Peters Bow... I really should have named her Wallace and Anne, Grommet because both are made from Cracker boxes :-)

a birds eye view... when the bird is flying into a boat in the hands of a giant

A comparison of the two boats

NOTE: that Peter has a different bow shape... this is because the shipyard where Peter and Paul were made thought it better than the sharp bow on Anne. However on Anne the Bow is reinforced and because of the shape means more cargo and ammunition can be carried.

a couple more details being worked on Peters guns which are of an older type to Anne's and the cabins door. both of these have been painted more since I started this post.

Oh and Anne's guns for Comparison. THANKS to Ion/ Archduke Piccolo who gave me the tip on how to make the wheels on the gun carriage.

a side and rear view. remember these are just made from bamboo skewers, paper, balsa and card of and some PVA glue and super glue - when I needed it to set fast.

that wooden thing below the mess is the dinning room table thank goodness everyone else is at work (mum), school camp (dad he gets spit roast :-( ) and school (sister)

hehe my new game... yes its old but I love it. just gotta stop cheating, I know, I know its just I like to take over the world and I have a thing for making the enemy obey historical restrictions... and if they do not I kill them.

the flags of the future Oronegrean army and navy 2 BIG ships or boats of the line and 3 smaller ones Peter and Paul and another (or a spare flag) oh and the ships of some others... the French 2 ships, The British 2 ships (note the flag does not include Ireland for historical accuracy) and Pirates 2 ships

Oh and remember how I said I broke 2 craft knife blades well I found another craft knife so I am good... note the safety is on! safety first ;-)

 Well there you have it a small update on the current boat building bonanza. I have managed to use several alliterations in this post so I am either very mad or board or both... lets hope that they are done soon and that the Peter's and Paul's enjoy seeing their ships/boats... they are boats of the line but they might be known as ships to some... I am confused.

Remember to look at my Other blogs Gowan's Projects and Crazy ideas and Oronegro's own blog for more on Oronegro and the planning and other things involved in starting this new Era... I still have that modern game to post but I might not as it was done on the bare table.