Pallets

I wanted to try a small scatter terrain project, making pallets. I have some barrels and am going to be casting boxes soon from Hirst Arts molds with Rob.   I am planning on putting some of them on pallets.
One of the things I have that make these projects easier is The Chopper from Northwest Short Line.

This makes cutting wood evenly and quickly much less of a chore.

I considered making a little jig to make these, but finally settled for two parallel lines 1 3/8s inch apart.  That was the size of my pallets.  I had some small basswood lying around, and I just used what I had.  First I set two wider pieces so they were touching the outsides of the parallel lines.

Then I glued three more pieces of wood across that, using small dots of viscous superglue.

 I seem to have missed the final picture.  I glued 5 smaller pieces of wood across the 3, making the pallet.  This is the finished product beside a 25mm figure.  The pallet is a bit too big, but doesn't look too bad.

I did about 10 of them in 20 minutes, and then ran out of wood.  Here is what I have done so far.  I plan to get more wood.  They make up fast, I can do it between other projects.

When I get them finished with the loads on them, I will post more pictures.

Sails for the ship

I had posted a picture of this ship previously, but without sails.  I had started and stopped with this project a couple of times as I wasn't satisfied with the result.  I ended up buying slightly heavier cotton cloth, which looked better.
My current plans are to finish 2 x 10 gun brigs, 2 x 8 gun schooners, 2 x 4 gun cutters and 2 x 4 gun sloops.  I still have a lot of sails to cut.  I actually only have 3 ships ready to rig, but 2 more have the masts done and are ready to paint.
I want to mention once again that I probably would not have been able to do any of this without the use of my Optivisor.  My eyes are not what they were, and it works well not only for painting but for the stitching and running of small black thread.
The rigging is definitely for wargaming.  It only bears a vague resemblance to the actual rigging of a ship.
The next step is to buy a bunch of 15mm cannons for the ships.

More Ships

I have built two more ships.  This is the original one, plus another small one, and a 10 gun brig.  I still have to figure out how to do the sails, and at some point I need to bite the bullet and order a ton of cannons.  I plan to do another 10 gun brig, two more small ones, and about 6 more either 6 or 8 guns ships.  I have 4 more in process.
When I cut the hulls for the next ship, I will see if I can do a tutorial on how I build them.  I pretty much have the process down now.

Small Ships

Last week at our regular game, Jaye started talking about doing small ship battles using rules in Rockets Red Glare, a set of rules for the War of 1812.

One thing holding us back from this is that we don't have any ships.  There are commercial ships available, but they tend to be a bit pricey, and a more toward the larger side than we need.

I thought I would make an attempt to scratch build something that would work.

This is my first attempt.  Its a bit rough.  I made the sides too high, and had to trim them off with scissors.  They are just made of cardboard.  I think it will look better with some cannons and some 15mm crew.  For scale, its about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide.  I also need to do something about sails.

As for cost, most of it was stuff I had.  There is a layer of balsa and a layer of 3mm light ply.  The masts and spars are dowels.  All in all, its less than $3 of materials.

I have 2 more cut out and waiting to be built.  Another one this size, and a larger ship about 10 inches long that will be a brig with about 5 guns per side.

If the guys think that this will be acceptable, I will go into production mode and make about a dozen in various sizes.