Sunday 22 May 2022

The Small Boat Section.

 In the previous blog I have shown some small boats for Aelle to attack Lechlade. 

I thought that maybe I should show how I built them. For this you will need;

* Some cardboard. Picture framing cardboard for the base and the thin cereal packet cardboard for the sides.

* Some dressmaker pins.

* Some PVA glue.

* A pair of scissors.

* A craft knife. ( young people might need to enlist the aid of mum or dad.)

THE BUILD.

1)  Cut the base 50 mm long by 25mm wide.  ( 2 inches x 1 inch.).


2) cut the boat shape.This is 50mm long x 20mm wide. ( 2 inches x 7/8ths). If you use thin card, you may have to glue two layers together.



3) Angle the ends of the boat shape about 10mm. ( 1/2 an inch ).



4) Glue the boat shape centrally, to the base.



5) From the thin cardboard, cut some strips 5mm deep x 100 mm long. ( 2/8ths deep x 4 inches long).


6) Glue one strip to one side of the base, using three dressmaker pins to hold the piece in place. Leave this to dry.



7) Once dry, trim the glued side piece. Glue the second side piece to the boat shape, again using three dressmaker pins. Leave this to dry.


8) Once dry, trim this second piece to match.

9) This now completes the boat. I coated mine in Texturing paste although you could coat the model in slightly watered down PVA glue. This is just to strengthen the model.


If required, you could pre-cut a load of pieces and “mass produce” a fleet.


These boats could have a sail added if you want to use them as ships for 2mm, 6mm or 10mm figures. For 15 or 20mm, you could cut the figures in half (two or three ) to represent the boat crew.

In late Roman times these river craft were known as Dromons and were painted light blue. They could hold about 40 soldiers. The Saxons, Danes and Vikings had the same sort of vesssel holding a similar number of men.

The larger ships I built in a previous blog could be used as cargo ships..

The use of boats brings another dimension to the game.


The boats are meant to hold one stand for 15 or   20 mm figures. They could be deemed to hold more stands in the smaller scales.







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