Dark Elf Corsair Ship

[cultofkhaine]

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement - so far I'm having heaps of fun putting this together, it's like one big jigsaw puzzle.

I think my scale is way out compared to the illustration - mine is going to be smaller (but that's ok, any larger and I don't think it will fit on a table)

STEP 7: UPPPER DECK STAIRS

This stage is pretty much the same as the last one just the other way round, one recess and two stairs

I start again with the back panel and fit the central door. The door is slightly larger for the main cabin area.



Then cut the door recess out and plug the back







I have just thought after finishing now that it would have been good at this point to put some detailing on the doors or even do them like I did the planking - oh well will touch up further down the track.

Next mark out and cut the stair well recess and fabricate the stairs similar to previous step.











Next stage is the two sets of stairs either side of the ship. It gets difficult here because they are sitting just on the back ark of the ship as it curves in, so one side of each stair case is curved slightly.

I start by gluing the side sections first and then the inner sections.







You will notice in the next image that the stairs are slightly out because of the curve in the side wall - not a big issue, but painful for the perfectionist in me

[cultofkhaine]

STEP 8: ASSEMBLY OF DECKS

I am really worried here in case I have jumped the gun in joining these three pieces together to early in the construction - time will tell.

I start with bracing the back panels on both decks above the doors with some extra think balsa 5x5mm



Then glue them together trying to keep them square



I put in some temporary braces until the side walls can add some extra strength to the structure





Finally all three decks are now joined together.



Now what to tackle next?

[Amboadine]

Looking very impressive. I think you are correct that any bigger would not be suitable for a normal games table.
About the stairs, blame it on the slave labour and model a slave being whipped mid deck for his shoddy workmanship

[Phox532]

what are the rules for something like this. Do ships have war scrolls?

[Daeron]

Hah. Not that I know of. Perhaps we should make one?
WFB has an invasion scenario with the landing of a Dark Elf force from Corsair ships in the picture. It allowed you to respawn any destroyed core unit in the deployment zone (not including any magic items and characters that were in the original unit).

Perhaps we could make something similar for AoS?

[Phox532]

While I'm new to the game, I hope that water fights and ships can be a thing. This is awesome and I love looking at things like this. It's pretty great, but its sad there is no official rules to this. On a side note, what are the Black Arks. I got the feeling from the lore that they were basically cities that spells were cased on to float.

[cultofkhaine]

On a side note, what are the Black Arks.

I think Black Arks are much bigger - think floating city!

There is an image here that is perhaps a good representation.

[Daeron]

Yup. Black Arks usually refer to castles or small cities on a rock that is floating on water by powerful magic. But sometimes it also refers to boats/rocks/cities built from, or on top of ancient, giant sea creatures which are controlled by Beastmasters and magic.
Corsairs also use regular ships.

[Phox532]

Yup. Black Arks usually refer to castles or small cities on a rock that is floating on water by powerful magic. But sometimes it also refers to boats/rocks/cities built from, or on top of ancient, giant sea creatures which are controlled by Beastmasters and magic.
Corsairs also use regular ships.

That's awesome. I used to build 3d layered dungeons for DD. I think a Black Ark Battlefield would be awesome.

[Errdrigar]

Brilliant concept and work done so far. I can't wait to see the final result.

[cultofkhaine]

STEP 9: LOWER/MID DECK SIDE PANELS

Time to get a new scapple blade, they go blunt pretty quick and it will make a huge difference for this stage as there is heaps of cutting.

I have decided to do the side panels next and get shape of the ship. I am really undecided at this point because it is not to scale I have a play with a few bits of balsa to get an impression and the side walls look way to high - but I push on having faith the in the drawing... gulp.

I start with some extra bracing around the sides, top and bottom. The 2.5x2.5mm balsa rods are working a treat and reasonably easy to shape around corners. I also decide to go thinner for the wall sections down to 1mm hoping these will bend easier (they do).

The reason I put the bracing on the side was because looking at the illustration - there is this nice thin gold pin line that works as detailing around the whole ship and I wanted to keep this look rather than the brackets fitting onto it.










here you see the bracing top and bottom



and not the beading on the outside









Now that I have the reinforcements in place its time to build the side panels. I cut some 1mm thick balsa down to shape and then work on the windows, also 1mm thick.







I then stick the windows and some frame work for the inside of the side panels to the balsa sheets





Next step is to cut out the windows



Now fix the windows on the outside of the side panels.



At this point there was quite a bit of sanding and carefully cutting away to clean up the beading and windows so they look nice. I then sealed them with my 50/50 mix of PVA and water.

Before I fix them to the side of the deck I thought it would be good to base paint them as once they are on there are quite a few tricky places to get into with a brush - better they look black now, than the balsa showing at a later date.





I then glued the side panels to the deck, very carefully bending them around the curves of the ship. This has to be done in stages so as not to snap the balsa.

[direweasel]

I can't tell which is more impressive - the quality of the work, or the speed of the work. It would take me 6 months to get this far, and still look woefully inadequate.

Very nice work so far.

[Amboadine]

Great update again. You have me convinced I can build my own stuff already.

[cultofkhaine]

STEP 10: FRONT OF SHIP

BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS

I have been having a very smooth run at building this, averaging 2-3hrs a day on it. Its great to sink my teeth into a project this size.

Yesterday I hit the wall with it and had all sorts of major dramas. I cut one of my fingers with the scalpel and bled everywhere (for the glory of Khaine), I was trying to do to much with the balsa wood bending it to an angle it just would not go to and as a result snapped some of the pieces, causing me to restart a major piece. Some of the beading kept snapping and I lost my temper - it was one thing after another, you know when it all starts to go wrong and you know you should take a break but you push on anyway.

Looking back now I probably would have not used balsa wood for this section of the boat, opting for thick card instead, but I am glad I stuck with it and it finally all came together in the end. The main problem I had was trying to get the balsa wood to bend and twist to places it just would not go and as a result it kept snapping. There is an extreme amount of tension at the font of the boat where all the bits come together.

Anyway on to how I did it.

I started by measuring the front section of the boat, then doing some paper moch-ups of how it might look (keep in mind the scale I am now working to looks nothing like the illustration). I was finally happy with the shape and then cut them out of balsa and glued/wrapped them around the front of the ship. This stage was a MAJOR PAIN IN THE AR#$$#%^&%SE!

The balsa was to thin and kept snapping, I should have used card.







I settled on a shape and redrew them (make sure you keep copies of the drawings I used these several times to cut the beading.



I then cut them out of 1mm thick balsa



I then glued them around the side of the boat - this is really tricky this part.



I then cut beading for the front section





I also cut beading for the sides of the wings







I was a little out with my measurements and unfortunately had to trim some of the side panels off



but this worked out ok for the next section of the wings



I cut more beading for the wings





Progressively working up





I am fairly happy with how this came together in the end despite all the problems I had with it. The top sections of the wings need strengthening a bit as there is currently movement in it. Finally I gave it all a good coat of 50/50 PVA Water mix to seal and strengthen it.

[Amboadine]

Very impressive. Great shape to the wings.

[Phox532]

this is looking awesome. I'm super impressed. I give you all my internet points.

[Calisson]

Yesterday I hit the wall with it and had all sorts of major dramas. I cut one of my fingers with the scalpel and bled everywhere (for the glory of Khaine)

but... where is the picture of the bloody finger?

Compliments for the incredible work done so far.
Looking forwards to see the final realization. Floating.

[Daeron]

It looks terrific already. Don't forget to smash it with a bottle of champagne before using it!

[Amboadine]

Floating.

Oh yes, definitely this.

[Ming]

Floating + 1
Really a great job!
And keep up!!!

[cultofkhaine]

Whew - I'm glad the poll ended favourably, for a moment there I thought I might be making two pieces of terrain


STEP 11: FRONT CANOPY

It's getting harder and harder to make any type of plans for this - most of my efforts at the moment are drawing paper shapes and trying to get them to fit the desired shape before cutting them in balsa. There are so many irregular shapes it's becoming a real challenge. Hopefully anyone trying to follow this down the track can look at the pictures and get a fair idea on how to achieve it.

I put two bolt throwers in the front section and it looked a little cramped, so I have decided to deviate from the illustration and just build a canopy to house one war machine.

I started by cutting more paper shapes to fit the area - this was trial and error, I went through many variations until I settled on a shape I liked.



I then cut the bits out of balsa and glued them together.



Once done I glued it in place on the ship



I then cut a top section and glued in place.





I then cut sections for the roof and also glued them in place





I then put some more beading on the inside section of the front of the ship and glued a pine rod to the front. The pine is a lot stronger than the balsa and will not snap.



The dragon head then slides nicely over the pine rod and sits in place. I did not glue this on yet as I still have the back section to make and want to make it easy to move around while working on it.

The front section is now finished for the time being.

[Amboadine]

That archway and housing is great work, love that you managed to get the detailing in.

[Crowsfoot]

That is very impressive, I've just ordered some balsa wood!

[Phox532]

I am loving this. I like the design of the bow. I can't wait to see it painted.

[cultofkhaine]

STEP 12: BACK TAIL SECTION

Now for the back section - I started by experimenting with paper cut out shapes to see what they looked like on the side of the hull. Once I was happy with the shape I then cut the sections out.







After cutting the basic shape in 1mm balsa I then braced each of the sides with 2.5mm balsa







I then cut windows and added extra bracing



I thought now would be a good time to base coat some of the hard to get areas.



Next I glued the wings to the side hull







Finally I finished off some of the side beading along the side of the ship





This all went fairly smoothly - at the end I noticed that one wing sits slightly higher than the other (about 10mm) which is a pain - but I don't think you will notice it when the sails go on.