That's a placeholder name, just seems to be the best one I've thought of so far....
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| 20mm steam yacht to complement the fishing fleet. |
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| On this one I built the parts in sections and incorporated the deck sheet from my Tealight ironclad card model. 20mm crew from Langley (bought mine unpainted!). The skin around the ship's hull is simply unpainted card. Using a 'solid' rail around the deck has two advantages. Firstly, it makes it look as though the boat has a reasonable freeboard. Secondly, it 'hides' the bottom half of the superstructure making it look better as far as proportions go. |
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| Comparison with 25mm figures - a 20mm figure included to give an idea of the difference. Again, 25mm is just a bit too big to work well on this vessel. |
This one gives 20mm adventurers/expeditions a suitable form of transport. It generally looks good though longer and wider would be a lot more accurate - looking at that superstructure the cabins must be very small! I might also look at making a scaled up version for 25/28mm.
Overall, this looks like a much 'cleaner' model than the fishing boats and would lend itself well to further detailing. I like it.
I like the Princess - a nice practical model. If you do make a 28mm version, I wonder whether you might manage more of a clipper bow and maybe a stepping of the gunwales to give that sense of motion you get with a yacht?
ReplyDeletePossibly (probably?) not due to size and method of construction. The use of wrap around card for the sides of the boat would make a clipper prow difficult, stepping up the gunwales more likely but the boat itself is really always going to be shorter than it should be - this means that perceived freeboard has to be restricted.
DeleteI like it. I must make some boats for ampbious ops with my SSMs as they range up and down the Danube.
ReplyDeleteBasic models are very easy if you are prepared to accept not going for anything other than looks reasonable - true accuracy takes a lot more time, effort and skill!
DeleteA fine looking vessel Rob…
ReplyDeleteI think that the simple clean finish workd well with your shiny toys…
All the best. Aly
It's also easier to do:)
DeleteRob-
ReplyDeleteI don't reckon those 25mm (much less the 20mm) figures look all that out of place. Possibly that 'solid rail' helps there, too. I find that going 'underscale' works very well for ships and boats as well as for buildings and such. Whatever else the 'Arkham Princess' is intended to be, commandeered by the military, it would make a pretty useful transport vessel.
Cheers,
Ion
I'm not sure that the term underscale really fits with these. Looking at the vesssels that 'inspired' this, the the legth to width ratio is about 10:1. I think this one is about 5 to 6 to 1. Likewise, even though they are wider scalewise than length, those cabins plus corridor are less than 8' wide in total... so completely undersize. The main thing is create an impression. For that, the most important thing is actually height. On a ship, the doors and portholes have to 'look' the right size - in this case, Think they are just a bit too small to look right for 25mm.
DeleteThey look OK to me, but I guess it comes down how one likes the 'look' of the thing. A couple of years back I built a paddlewheel river gun boat that I've crewed with 20mm figures. The boat is very 'underscale' compared with the figures, but I find it (just) acceptable.
DeleteSomehow, I thought I had posted something about this, but find the only pics are somewhat distant ones in the course to the (now suspended) 'In Darkest Aithiops' campaign from early last year.
Cheers,
Ion
I like her too - I built a Napoleonic frigate (here https://1808534.blogspot.com/search?q=frigate) and bits of it (the deck cannon in particular) ended up way too small - but I was still happy with the end result - it's only been on a table once, of course!
ReplyDeleteIt's about looks. A 100' steam yacht is about 16 body lengths long. So in 20mm, a bit over a foot. Easily doable if the boat is the sole centre piece, not so good if it's a 'bit' player. That would allow a width of about 3" - cabin size on superstructure would be about 8' if no corridor. Most luxury steam yachts were a lot bigger - for 'expedition' purposes I would be looking at making a model nearly twice that length! I think I will need to play a bit more to really find the ideal compromise on these!
DeleteWhatever the technical bits, I like the look of this.
ReplyDelete'Bathtubbing' is a term of this sort of mucking with dimensions to get something to immediately give the mind the impression of an original thing even though its not an accurately scaled model.
Trouble is, when I get started on something like this I tend to get carried away. I'm partway through a gunboat, then I'm thinking about hybrid cruisers and battleships... reality is slowly drifting away from me...
DeleteWell done. The decking makes the model.
ReplyDeleteOver the years it has justified the time I spent doing it!
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