Napoleonic Era Miniatures by Thukydides - 1/700 - 3D-Printed Hulls

[Thukydides]

Welcome to my build log for documenting progress on my semi-scratch builds for Napoleonic Era vessels for wargaming. These miniatures are designed to work with Black Seas by Warlord Game, though I am already planning on doing some homebrew rules to add a bit more realism and variety to the ships.

 

Related Threads & Resources

Black Seas Game

Demonstration videos

 

Table of Contents

Log #1 - Cutters Part 1

Edited 10 hours ago by Thukydides
corrected log title

[Thukydides]

Log #1 - Cutters Part 1

I was inspired by a recent new member post by @Linus Spjutsberg to take a dive back into wargaming. Doing a bit of research I realized that though the miniatures that come with the official black seas game from Warlord Games are very nice, they had a number of problems. In particular I thought the masting and rigging was often out of scale and I figured that it might be a fun project to see if I could improve on it. See below for an example of the models that come with the starter set.

The second issue was that the smaller ships were made at a different scale than the larger vessels. Presumably this was done to make them a bit beefier on the tabletop, but I wanted to have ships that were the correct scale relative to each other. So I found some 3d models from turner miniatures and got a friend to 3d print them for me.

 

Step 1 was to try in see what I could do with the mainmast. Below you can see my first efforts in various stages of completion for the three cutters I am building first.

For scale perspective, each of the above squares is 1cm. The mainmast was made from 1/32 in brass rod. This roughly equates to the right size at 1/700. I cut them to length based on the dimensions for Vanguard Model's Alert kit allowing a small bit extra at the bottom for where they insert into the model (A). I then filled the top 5mm into a square (C) and glued the topmast to this section (B). The topmast was made from 0.02 in rod sanded down to gradually reduce to 0.015 in. This was slightly overscale, but one of the main challenges with this build is balancing accuracy with durability. I need to be able to handle these on the tabletop.

 

The trestletree (D) was made by using some fine wire I had on hand (about 0.01 in thick) to make the framework. The stop to hold the main boom (E) was made by sliding an Amati copper eyebolt leftover from my Alert build onto the mainmast and gluing it in place. Once the glue dried I cut off the front part leaving only the semicircle piece at the back of the mast.

And here is the current state of affairs. I have also added the boom which again I made slightly oversized using 1/32 rod thinning it down to about 0.02 in at the front. My biggest problem at the moment is figuring how best to secure the driver to the upper part of the mast in such a way that it is not too fragile. I have some ideas, but more on this next time.

Edited 11 hours ago by Thukydides

[wvdhee]

Very cool 😎