[Tha Tall One]

Hello everyone,

Some while ago, I found myself in the posession of the Generals Compendium, by far the greatest warhammer book out there (in my opinion). While it is quite old, early sixth edition i believe, it was written in the era that the hobby was more important than money. My eyes immediately fell upon the naval section, setting in motion my creativity, and inspiring me to build a navy.
While gargantuan clashes of fleets are something to aspire to, I decided to begin small at first. A few small ships can still make for an exciting scenario and spice up some otherwise ordinary battles. River raids, embarked reïnforcements, coastal warfare... just to name some ideas. To start things off I began construction on two longboats for my upcoming Chaos fleet.

Here you can see one of the boats still very much under construction, and one somewhat finished and filled up with marauders. They are two small vessels capable of holding 14 marauders.
I started with a foam base that I cut into a rough shape, sanding it to the correct shape afterwards. I cut up a lot of planks roughly 5mm wide and as long as possible. After gluing them down to make the deck, I got a square beam of wood that I managed to slightly bend to form the bow. For the right curvature however, I had to break the beam carefully and glue it back together. The hull was made by gently bending the planks around the foam and sticking them to the bow with glue. This process broke many planks (and many more sprung loose from the bow), so only the strongest remained to make up the hull. Where the hull stuck out above the deck I glued another layer of planks on the inside as reïnforcements. Some doweling and string made the mast.
I quite enjoy making these, however frustrating the curved planking may be. (Luckily, this is over now.)
I am busy making the sails and figureheads, after which they will be ready for painting.

 

[Moriouce]

That is some nice longboats! Great work so far. Would be cool to write some houserules for boarding actions and have some boats for another army aswell! Have catapult-ships and rams. Could be truly epic!

 

[neferhet]

aww yeah! back when i played fantasy, the idea went up and forth for me until i (sadly) dropped it. It's good to see someone took the sail and is building a fleet to raid the puny humans! have some rep!

 

[Tha Tall One]

That is some nice longboats! Great work so far. Would be cool to write some houserules for boarding actions and have some boats for another army aswell! Have catapult-ships and rams. Could be truly epic!

The Boats section in the Generals Compendium encompasses boarding actions as well. No house-ruling is necessary. Your other point however, I'm already working on:

This is a medium Dark Elf attack vessel capable of holding 17 men on the middeck, 12 on the aftcastle and a reaper bolt thrower on the forecastle. I'm building this as a surprise gift for a friend of mine, who has a quite nice dark elf force. I based the front on a classical Greek trireme, but the rear is much more modern. You can see further plans drawn on the cardboard. The pirate is just for scale. While I added some spikey dark-elf aesthetic, I tried to keep it modest. The hull will not be planks like the longships, but I will thicken the cardboard egdes and smooth it with paper. I imagine the Dark Elves sand down and paint the hull. I will do planking on the decks however.
It is no Black Ark, but I think it would still make for a formidable ship and fearsome opponent.
And yes, it has a ram.

 

[Moriouce]

Sound great all the way! The DE ship looks mean! Can we look forward a fantasy-naval-battle report in the future? Think that would be awesome! Even though I don't play fantasy.

 

[neferhet]

That DE ship looks wicked! Fantastic! Also, looks simpler than the marauder ships or is it me?

 

[Old Man78]

Great creativity I love what you have done have a delicious heroin and choc chip rep cookie

 

[Tha Tall One]

Thanks for the remarks guys, I really appreciate the support!

@Moriouce: Of course! When the 3 boats are finished I'll arrange a battle with my Dark Elf playing friend, that to his surprise will be on water instead of solid ground. As the longships lack any warmachines or missile troops aboard, I'm afraid it won't be a fair fight. I still think it will be a lot of fun however!

@neferhet: Yes and no. It is much simpler in respect to the materials used. The Chaos longboats are made with bend wood, which was a lot harder to do than the cardboard hull of the Dark elf ship. Additionally, the longboats are much more curved due to laying higher in the water, the dark elf ship is much heavier so lies much deeper in the water, thus I gave it less curvature.
The dark elf ship however, is larger and has an aftcastle and a small forecastle. Especially the curved stairs giving access to the aftcastle were not easy to make. The prow and ram of the dark elf ship are also more complex than the simple bow of the longboat.
To summarize: The Dark elf ship is more complex in design, but made with easier materials.

I'd be glad to answer any more questions you might have!

 

[Moriouce]

This would acctualy open a door for me into fantasy!

 

[Tha Tall One]

What can I say, pre-8th edition Fantasy is really much fun!

Here's a picture of the second longboat with the hull finished. I've also started working on the figureheads of both.

 

[Mossy Toes]

Some while ago, I found myself in the posession of the Generals Compendium, by far the greatest warhammer book out there (in my opinion). While it is quite old, early sixth edition i believe, it was written in the era that the hobby was more important than money. My eyes immediately fell upon the naval section, setting in motion my creativity, and inspiring me to build a navy.

Ah, the General's Compendium. One of the few books I bought in my brief dabbling in WHF, which I read and reread until the glue of the spine crumbled and the pages fell out constantly. That brings back memories, that does. The campaign rules, the boats, the siege expansions...

*sighs wistfully*

Excellent boats, here. Bending wood is a frustrating medium to work with, so I applaud how smooth and symmetrical those longboats turned out.

 

[Haskanael]

this is some realy realy pretty stuff, I've always been a big fan of the old fashioned long boats, ( any ships under sails realy) and you seem to pull them off quite nicely!

 

[Tha Tall One]

The Dark Elf Ship is coming along quite nicely. Finished the woodwork on the decks and door and wrapped the hull in paper to smooth out any lines in the cardboard, but not before adding a second layer of cardboard to the railings. Finished it off by adding a cardboard strip atop all edges to hide the multiple layers of card and paper.

Hole's there for the mast.

 

[Iraqiel]

Brilliant stuff there mate! Perhaps you could make an island fortress with some catapaults and a jetty to even out the competition in that game?

 

[Tha Tall One]

I was thinking more about putting this mean man in command of my longboats:

If I get him to board the dark elves, they probably won't be happy :biggrin:. For some ranged capabilty, I thought about possibly arming my marauders with javelins, despite this not being in the army book.
Additionally I want to add some shallow areas and rocks to the table. My longships would be able to cross the shallows, while the Dark elf ship would probably get stuck on a sand bank. The longboats are more manouvrable as well, and can switch to oars should the wind be unfavourable.
So it'll be my job to lure the dark elves onto the rocks or sandbanks and board him, and his job to evade boarding attempts and sink Wulfrik's ship as soon as possible!
I guess this will probably make for an interesting battle!

 

[neferhet]

oooh, nice nice nice!!! Khaine is greatly pleased, i can tell for shure!

 

[SwedeMarine]

Dude this is really inspiring stuff. Im glad someone is actually modeling this. Keep it coming man we want to see more! +rep for you

 

[Tha Tall One]

Thanks guys!
Some more information on the Dark Elf ship here.
Perhaps you'd like to know why there's these slits in the hull:

On the forecastle there is a rotating platform upon which the Bolt Thrower can be mounted. If this machine is anchored in place, it won't fall overboard during rough weather, yet is still able to pivot round to fire at enemy targets. The platform is moved by two crewmen belowdecks, turning the axle on which the platform rests. As they are effectively aiming the weapon, it is important for them to be able to see the enemy. These slits allow them to look outside and take aim. The crew op top reloads and adjusts the weapons trajectory for the right distance.

The platform does actually spin round on the model, if you move it with your fingers. It is a truly simple mechanism that works surprisingly well. It rotates quite easily, yet does not come loose. I cut the trim on the outside circle from masking tape, and made rivets from pvaglue. The trim around the central hatch is also made of masking tape. I think it's texture looks somewhat like cast and hammered metal.
I drybrushed the slits with black paint to see them beter. It was quite hard to make them evenly sized otherwise.

Once I've finished the rudder, we'll take a look at the backside of the ship.

 

[Creon]

Honestly, looking at the Slits I assumed it was for Dark Elf Sea Monsters to breathe below decks. Are you using current edition army lists, and the 6th Sea Rules? Makes me want to come to the Netherlands to challenge you, but I doubt I could convince the Wife that's a good vacation

 

[Tha Tall One]

Why would seamonsters need to breathe? :wink:
I use both 6th ed. rules for naval combat and armies, though once I've got my hybrid 6th/7th ed. finished, I'll start designing my own armybooks in which I will add some more army-specific naval rules and units.
Should you ever come to the Netherlands, I would be happy to accept your challenge. If you're interested in art, history and museums, the Netherlands can be a quite nice destination for a holiday.