28mm Pirate ship construction
Introduction
This pirate ship is based on the model by Gary Chalk from the Wargames Illustrated magazine (also
available on the Wargames Foundry website).
I decided to used some different materials such as
Foamcore and plasticard instead of balsa. This was mainly because its what I had lying around
and I like the look of the plastic card for the decks instead of balsa (generally I've found it hard to get balsa to
come out looking good).
I made the model slightly longer but that was because of how it came out after I broke the image
into two halves and printed it on to 2 pieces of A4 paper, and then joined it together.
Materials Used
5mm Foamboard
PVA glue
5mm Balsa wood
HO woodplanking Plasticard from Plastruct
Thin card (from cereal packets or similar)
3mm thick Balsa wood strips or sheets
Wooden Coffee stirrer
Poster board pins
4mm, 6mm and 8mm Dowel
0.5mm Plasticcard
Exacto Blade tube
Fine mesh
1.5mm Cardboard
Cloth for the sails
Construction Photos (Click on the images to see a larger version)
The main hull sections.
Here's the initial deck that I cut out using the templates and a Eureka 28mm figure for comparison.
To hold up the masts I used a couple of old plastic tubes that the Exacto knife blades
come in. I cut them up and used part of the tubes in the hole in each deck section. The
bottom part I glued to the base section. I did this because I wanted the mast to be
removable for carrying.
I also decided to make the doors slightly lower than the deck so I had to cut some steps out
of the foamboard
Plasticard deck.
I measured it using the original templates and cut it up using some scissors. The card is pretty thin
and easy to cut and the detail is good. I also gave it a light sand to add a bit more
texture to the wood grain. I also used the offcuts for the steps down to the doors.
I've also glued the bulkheads on to the hull sections and added some reinforcing. I used
foamboard offcuts to help reinforce the joints.
The bulkheads
The bulkheads were slightly lower
than the plans as I had to allow for the thicker foamboard I used for the hull sections.
You can also see the recesses for the doors and the details on the steps.
Front and rear parts.
The diagram was a bit confusing for the rear before I realised there was 2 pieces!
After I glued those together I used some modelling putty to try and smooth the gaps. The
front piece was made from 5mm balsa wood and I copied it from the design but made it as
bit taller.
The decorative parts are made from thin card and the details cut out with a modelling knife.
Decking details.
I got out my dremel and scribed the deck so it looks like there are planks and not
just continuous strips of wood. As you can see from the photo I went a bit crooked
on some of them! Also you can see the hatch that I made from some plastic mesh that
I had, (I think its from an old 1/35th model) and the edges are from 0.5mm plastic
card
Also the rear quarter and front bow have been glued onto the model.
The sections
Here you can see how the different layers are glued together and the reinforcing that has been
added. I used PVA to glue it all togther and more PVA in the joints once the glue had set.
