On Dark Tides - Cooperative blog for sculpting and casting ships

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Welcome to our smallscale log for sculpting and casting a range of evil dwarf ships! The aim of us volunteer enthusiasts is to create a fantasy steamship fleet of both escorts, cruisers and capital ships, and maybe even a fabled oceanic ziggurat fortress down the road.

So far we have on board the following members: KNC (sculpting), Grimstonefire (sculpting), Fuggit Khan (sculpting), Red Skullz (sculpting), and Jackswift (building frameworks).

At present and if everything goes well, we expect to release the range in three waves, with one wave consisting of the smallest escort vessels, and the other waves containing larger ships and submersibles. Each of these three waves will consist of a bundle of several individual ship classes, so collectors wanting squadrons of some type or another will have to purchase several bundles. That will help repay the moulds. Picking just one or two ship classes from a bundle won't be an option given the limited market (which we intend to reach as well as possible with forum advertising and so on).


Demolition Ship

The first finished vessel is this demolition ship, probably the smallest of all boats. Note its lack of anchors. It's equipped only with sturdy fastening rings to be towed along by the fleet en route to battle. Length 2cm:



And a raw WIP picture of the current five escort ships on my workdesk:



Should you have ideas and suggestions or wish to volunteer with your abilities, knowledge or sponsorship, please share your thoughts here!

C&C welcome as ever.

[Tagren]

Really cool stuff! Is it just going to be evil dwarves or do you also have future plans for other races? Is it for any specific game?

[dragar]

Nice sculpts I love sculpting myself

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[Karak Norn Clansman]

@Tagren: Thank you! Those signed up now aims just for evil dwarves, but who knows where it could end up? I'd love to get a few sculptors together to release some Elven ships and so on. No particular game in mind, though we hope to get in touch with someone who can write us a little rules set. Of course, inventive players could probably use these for Uncharted Seas, Man o' War and so on.

@Dragar: Thanks, it sure is fun, eh?

Slave Galley

A friend of mine insisted on the nose ram. Is the level of detail sufficient? Would you like to see something more on the miniature? Are the tower's crenellations and the ballista's shallow holes castable? The ballista holes can be filled up, and the top of the tower can be cut off to be cast separately in the mould, if need be. My weakness with straight lines, proportions etc. should be evident for the sharp-eyed among you, yet I hope this is not a serious detriment. Might return for a few touch-ups later on. Length 3,4cm:





As you can see, the ram placement is based on early modern galleys. Also, do you wish a second slave galley based on this Assyrian bireme? It would be a double-decker, with lower ram and lines of round shields around the platform. But it would have to fill some weaponry niche, such as sporting harpoon guns, a catapult or just count as a dedicated archery platform. Input wanted.

[dragar]

What material you using for the base shapes? I could look into some undead ships? Or another got a commission sculpt I'm finishing off but after that I'm free to help

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[dragar]

What material you using for the base shapes? I could look into some undead ships? Or another got a commission sculpt I'm finishing off but after that I'm free to help

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Sorry your only doing dwarfs read it wrong lol if you have any art work I really don't mind helping if you need a extra sculpter

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[Karak Norn Clansman]

@dragar: PM sent.

Jackswift over on Chaos Dwarfs Online has served us a treat with his first sketch for a capital ship:

An initial sketch idea for a battleship type model. Steam paddlewheel driven, although a steam galley idea would work as well (the top bit o sketch was originally going to be galley style). The smokestacks would have to either be more upright, or the model would have to be cast from the side. The side cannon would probably be fewer and larger. Bear in mind this is an initial sketch only. I've started on a top down, but haven't finished it, but let me know your thoughts.



Kinda been thinking Monitor and Merrimac (Kansas) style.
Cheers, JR

What do you think about it?

[dragar]

I like it!! How long and wide do you want them?

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[Karak Norn Clansman]

Size is up to your discretion, though about 5-7 cm of length for large ships is a good rule of thumb. Note that we'd like to see lots of details on all sculpts.

What would you like to sculpt? The battleship there (Jackswift will buid up the frame and send it off to the sculptor)? Something else, perhaps of your own invention?

[dragar]

Ye I'd love the battleship to start and it'll give me a few ideas for something else

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[dragar]

Do you just want the one master or a variation of the pic too?

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[Karak Norn Clansman]

Change of plans, if you don't mind. It will take a while for Jackswift to work on the battleship basis in any case.

As a tester/entry to show us your skills, would you be interested in sculpting an evil dwarf slave galley based on this double-decker Assyrian bireme? With a corvus assault bridge on the second level, and the ram down at water level. No mast or sail necessary, though we'd like to keep lines of tiny round shields around the raised deck if possible. Length about 3 cm, width incl. oars circa 1,5 cm, height circa 1,2 cm not counting assault bridge (we won't keep strictly to the millimeter, but approximately those measures will keep it in line with the escort ships on my workdesk). Put your mark on it, but try also to incorporate some style elements from my slave galley if possible. The ram certainly don't need to be a nose, it's more welcome if shaped as some kind of proper ship's ram.

Also, some kind of harpoon gun and definitely an idolatrous statue is welcome if you could fit it in somewhere. Otherwise you can leave a blank spot on the aftmost part of the second platform and let me sculpt a statue if you don't want to do that particular bit.

It will be tricky to keep the galley castable in one piece (railings can't be high in that case, and undercuts need to be minimized), so you might find it necessary to build it cleverly as a one-piece model, or strike out for a multi-part model for the sake of mouldmaking and casting. It's up to your judgement, should you wish to take on this volunteer task. Also, remember to pin any protruding bits like ram, rudder or assault bridge before sculpting to keep it strong and durable.

We'd like to have that second slave galley to up the escort kit to 6 in number before launching the mould. Since the escorts will be the first ships to get cast, that means your galley will be there with the first release wave.

How does that sound?

[dragar]

Sounds good to me I'll do a few sketches first try get a feel are there any chaos dwarf drawings your basing the fleet round don't want the ship not to fit in with the fleet

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[Karak Norn Clansman]

Nice! I don't use any sketches but you can look on my sculpts and Jackswift's sketches if you look for common design elements to incorporate.

No worries, though, we're very inclusive here, as we should be given the varied history of different styles associated with evil dwarf ranges. This means that each and every one of our five or so sculptors are likely to come up with unique styles, and they'll still all be cast in the same moulds. We might borrow design elements from each others, but ultimately a cohesive colour scheme is all it takes to bind the disparate ships together. After all, eccentric diversity of styles speaks of mad inventor shipwrights pursuing their own vision, resulting in a fleet of various mad ship projects, including triple artillery catamarans and hull drill submersibles and slave galleys.

Of course, these drawings of mine could perhaps give some inspiration.

[dragar]

Nice leave it to me

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[Karak Norn Clansman]

@dragar: Looking forward to it! Besides, please register on CDO and take part there when you've got sketch/sculpt to share if you haven't already planned to do so.

Sketch update from Jacskwift on CDO:

Partial top down sketch.**The top view is slightly longer and the photo is at an angle which makes it slightly more out of proportion and skew, but you get the general idea. I am torn between doing the prow as below which makes the ram more of an effective warfare tool, or doing it as more of a triangular wedge and making the ship as a whole about half again wider.**The latter might be a bit more chaos dwarfish (dwarfistic? dwarfy? dwarfitudinal?... ).**If separate pieces, the smokestacks would be 2 to a side and probably larger and thicker, or could be revised as centermounted:



I envision the massive deck cannon mounted on a giant round gear so that it can turn as well as leverage up and down.**Finally, I am undecided as to whether the beard plates are flat to the hull, or jut out a bit.**Thoughts?

[dragar]

As for the gun it all depends on the ships rules and strength it has to have a weakness and maybe only firing it's main gun from the front could balance it's strength as it does look like a hard hitter......just a thought; )

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[mrtn]

Pretty cool stuff! I don't have a use for them at the moment, but I'll sub and tag along for the ride.

[Karak Norn Clansman]

@dragar: Good point, since firing the main gun forward would leave the broadside batteries useless that turn. We'll have to cook up some rules for these beasts down the road for sure!

@mrtn: Tackar! We'll try to make you and others get a use for them. Minis first, then some kind of rules system if possible.

Grimstonefire over on CDO stands for the next treat:

So here is my early WIP ship.

It's on a monster cavalry base.**Obviously a lot of work to do here, pretty much all over actually so no need to list everything.**But I am thinking of redoing the bucket line as not happy with that.



Next up the hammer ship concept.**The prow needs some thinking, as to how the hammer interacts once fully down.**Drop the ram or not?



Lastly, the rough version of the catamaran Destroyer.**I am going to name all these ships properly btw, when inspiration strikes.**The side sponson things will be done as horns.**There's two decks of rotating guns, as it's not obvious on the design.



Something I note looking at the work of you guys is the surface level detail over the hull is much greater than I had planned.**But I could take my designs up many levels of detail.

[akai]

Nice to see projects from paper sketch coming to life!