The Black Ships

How to Make Them

by Lynne Viverito

What Phil needed when designing his Black Ship Scenario were Black Ships in some was quantity. Here's how I came up with this template. Since Phil needed many black ships and we couldn't find any at a price we could afford, I scanned a drawing of one. Then I removed much of the details and found out the length and width it needed to be. Ship and Template. At Bottom: Heavy Black Ships As much as I explained to Phil how it would work, he couldn't seem to picture it until I printed and cut and put one together. How many Black Ships can be made? You can make as many as you feel like printing and putting together. This Black Ship is printed on one card stock sheet, the sheet must be turned over to print the second side. Turn the sheet from left to right, do not flip top to bottom as it will then be reversed with wrong ends of boat, the front and the back, being printed. After it has printed out correctly, depending on your printer you may have to wait a couple of minutes to make sure the ink is dry before handling. Then cut away excess paper around the edges, front and back. Once the boat is cut out the sides are then folded up and the ends are gently pulled together. Phil used a quarter inch square piece of foam board, 2 and 1/2 inches at the front and 2 inches at the end, to attach the paper boat too. He also reinforced the front inside of the boat with another strip of card stock, 1/2 inch wide and cut to fit around the prow of the boat. He then added detailing of 1/4 inch strips of wood along the inside of the boats sides, horizontally, and across the bottom as ribbing. Fore and aft decking was cut from Precision Products planking and glued in place. Then the entire boat is heavily painted with gloss black enamel spray paint. To create different details like lattice work and decor patterns is not hard. We found that some decorative sewing material was useful for finishing the ships. Small gold trim was used and highly textured pieces of fabric were used. These can be glued onto the ships and left as is or painted. Find these at any craft shop. Phil choose to make the Black Ships look weathered using dry brushing.  Back to Table of Contents -- Classical Hack Newsletter # 3 Back to Classical Hack Newsletter List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Phil Viverito. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com