I have wanted for years to run a 20mm Somoli pirate game. The only problem? 20mm scale ships are huge. There is no where to buy anything like that and even the HO scale ones are way too expensive. So I started experimenting with insulation foam. I have constructed a prototype of a patrol ship that might be involved in such an operation. It's not based off of any actual ship, my only real needs were that it was open enough to allow based figs to be used on it and I wanted a helopad. Here's where it started.



I cut the hull and superstructure out of foam and shaped it using sandpaper.



Once I had the spacing down, I began to fill out the shape with foam core. I used thin nails for the railing posts and two dowels for the mast.



Several attempts at painting failed until I finally settled on a latex indoor/outdoor house primer that happened to come in grey. Three coats of it gave me close to the smooth surface I wanted. I also carved my best rendition of a Mark 5 naval gun out of the foam with a dowel barrel.




The first real attempt at precision painting started on the flight deck. I used a textured flat black spray paint to simulate non-skid. I learned immediately that a white paint marker wasn't going to cut it, the head was too wide and it didn't work well on the textured surface. On a hunch I tried a metalic silver sharpie and it made beautiful lines with the help of a metal straight edge, the circle was traced around the mouth of a shot glass.



This is where I stand right now. I'm calling it 75% done. I'm working on a radome for the mast and I still need to find some stuff for various other attachments. Looking for a good material to make the railing cables. I non-skidded the rest of the ship, added the gun, the sea sparrow launchers (if you look close, you'll see they are torpedo tubes pulled from a PT boat model) and added some more little details. The .50 caliber machineguns were taken from the top of some of the strykers I got from Target. I added the windows and used the horizon reflection technique I saw on here a few years back and I used window sreen to make the safety nets around the flight deck. The windows really brought it to life. I learned alot on this build. The cargo ship will likely be about 6 feet long, built in sections so I can transport it. I plan to make a smaller steamer type ship to play with until I feel up to tackling the really big project. If anyone wants some close ups, let me know.

So...what do ya think?

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"Pain heals, chicks dig scars, but glory lasts forever."

Sorry mate can't see the photos

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"The first thing people do in this situation is panic"
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ERG, ok. I tried to host them off of facebook. Guess that's a no go. I'll host them properly and edit the post. Thanks for the heads up.

Ok, hopefully that worked.

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"Pain heals, chicks dig scars, but glory lasts forever."

That is really fracking cool! Looking forward to see the final project in use!

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"Violence. It might not be the answer, but it sure cuts down on the questions."

Omar's Workbench - Gaming Blog

Looks great!!!!

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"The first thing people do in this situation is panic"
"Good, I am glad I am doing it in the right order!!!'

Looking good

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excellent ship great idea, as you say ships in 20mm are big i am still working on my container ship for the same sort of games, we plan to fight on the ship it's so big
looking forward to seeing the game it's used in
shaun

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Wow, that's a beaut!!!

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Shawn Carpenter
Game Designer, Ambush Alley Games

"I don't wanna be remembered as the guy who died because he underestimated the threat posed by a monkey."

Oooooooooooh man, excelent work!

Wow, simply awesome!

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"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." –- Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

That looks great !!

Can't wait to see more.

What are the measurements for this ?

Cheers

Mav

Very nice!

My "dreams" of a container/cargo ship for my games may become reality...some day (oh, and I game in 28mm so it be frickin' huge! ).

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I could agree with you...but then we'd BOTH be wrong.

It measures 26 inches from bow to stern. not sure about beam and height. Just got home from a "game day" with the local wargaming group...so it's still in the car.

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"Pain heals, chicks dig scars, but glory lasts forever."

Here's my newest update. I'm in work on my medium sized ship. It isn't as big as I want but I'm still pioneering the build technique as it were. I still consider myself in the prototype phase. I have purchased a hot wire foam cutter from Hobby Lobby, I already forgot how I lived without it.

Here is a wide view. It's about 4 feet long.



Here's a closer look at the aft end with a 1/72 scale helo for scale and some 20mm badguys on the superstructure.



And finally the closeup of haji in control.


Now I need a group of South African pirates, some British Sailors and Marines, and some hostages. I'm not up on the current retailers, anyone steer me in the right direction? I'd also like a couple of RIB boats that are either armed or big enough to be armed and carry some figs.

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"Pain heals, chicks dig scars, but glory lasts forever."

Update to the update, I just ordered a mess of 20mm African militia that will make great pirates from SGT Major Miniatures.

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"Pain heals, chicks dig scars, but glory lasts forever."