papierschnitzel

Wako pirate ship prototype

I built the first prototype and it all went quite straightforward. Once I add the texture sketching you can get a good feeling how the final version will look. As this is a half size build (15mm figures size), I was worried about the posts of the towers. The ones on the back tower I built in paper. They are 2x2mm. For the front tower I tried out using matchsticks which worked great! 

I only wanted to make some improvements to the hull, as I made the sides too straight. When I compared it ...

Sloop and more ...

Yesterday I talked about the sloop for next month and I thought I'll share what the development looks like right now.

I have been working on the geometry and made a first prototype. It's not perfect - I want to extend the stern a little longer - but it shows the overall look of the next pirate ship. As you can see, it will be the first of my ships to feature gun ports for cannons! 

This build was at half scale, meaning 15mm instead of the usual 28-30mm. The reason being that the shi...

Wako pirate ship concept

After last month's gunship I want to go back to the Asian theme for October. I had planned to do the Samurai Villa building but to be honest I have not had the time to formulate the design to my satisfaction. So while I am in the groove on working on boats, I thought I'll start the Wako pirate ship. I have been wanting to do it for quite some time now.

I decided early that my reference will be the image from the Osprey book 2018-10-04 09:29:04 +0000 UTC View Post

September 2018 files are live!

I have dropped the Pirate Fleet Builder "Gunboat" files and authorized you guys for access  according to your pledges. Thank you very much for your support! 

As usual you will receive an e-Mail with the access links to the dropbox.  I hope you enjoy the new rewards!

I have included a flags file with some pirate (jolly roger) flags, but I am planning to add more flags (so far English, French and Spanish). I will make the available for free and announce as soon as I got more...

September 2018 Content Announcement

 This month the reward set will include the Pirate fleet builder "Gunboat" containing  

• the Gunboat
• a couple of hundred thousand color and texture variations (skins)

I will make the "charge patrons post" in the next days. 

Happy building,

Chris

Scratch build swivel gun tutorial

I created a little tutorial on my site, explaining how I made my swivel guns for the gunboat. This will also be covered in the instructions but I thought I make this a public tutorial for anyone interested.

You can find it on my website (www.papierschnitzel.com) in the tutorial section.

Enjoy ... and happy building,

Chris

Swivel guns and flags

I have built a weathered pirate gunboat and added the swivel guns and a Jolly Roger flag. The flag - like the swivel guns - are removable.

For the flags I am planning to further add a British, French and Spanish flag.

This is one version of the British. I will have to make some research which versions will look best too add. If you have any other flag requests, let me know.

I have wor...

Scratch building swivel guns

As the swivel guns are quite small for the mini scale, I decided to incorporate a very useful material: the toothpick. As with the cannons, there are certain parts that are just better than a pure paper solution. And as both paper and toothpicks are made out of wood, it's still kind of pure "paper" :-)

Above you can see the four swivel guns I built for the gunboat. I am in the process of building a new gunboat with the weathering layers on. It will be an old, used pirate boat. And once it is f...

Completed the sails!

I am very happy to show you the textured sails. It took a while to break down all the details, but I am very satisfied how it all turned out. 

I even added some smaller details like the pins to hold the foresail in place ...

... and the mainsheet at the stern to hold the main...

Mast and ratlines

I have textured the mast (was easy) and the ratlines (was a lot of work!). For this kind of small vessel, I made very simple lines - no ladder thingie - just to hold the mast, as would be in real life. But the good thing is that now I can build all the ratlines very easy, as I developed all the building blocks for them :-)

The one you see above is a detailed cut. If you want it  a little more simple, you could go like this.

2018-09-15 07:16:06 +0000 UTC View Post

Gunboat color customization

I have added a couple of variations, so that no boat has to look like another. 

I have made two basic wood skins. One has a light hull with dark details and the other is just the opposite. In addition I have added lots of color options.

This build has a blue hull with a yellow top rail and top line, a blue bottom line and a white bottom hull.

Here you see the t...

A good rig prototype

I have been trying out a couple of version of splitting the sailing rig and making it removable. Most involved cutting slots into the mast and hooking the sails and ratlines into the mast. But I didn't like this approach, as you had to cut the slots very precise and also I feared the (paper) hooks would tear at some time when used a lot.

I finally arrived at this solution where the sails and ratlines are held by "rings" which just slide over the mast. The ratlines are then tucked into a slot p...

Starting with mast and sails

To get our beautiful gunboat moving, we need sails ... and masts and ratlines.

Above you see a very early test on how to attach the sails to the mast. I then realized also I should include ratlines to help the mast stand on it's own (#myfingersnotincluded :-) ).

I then thought about all the other ships I want to build and that they too will need not only masts, but of different thickness and length. So I started to look at the different masts and am now favoring a little "system" or mast...

Gunboat texturing

Here is a first look at the texturing of the gun boat. I have noticed a couple of things I want to change on the sides, but I like the general direction. The upward bending of the planks was too much, so I will make the curving a little flatter. It looked too squeezed!

For now I have just focused on the sides, so I will add more details to the deck. Where the mast goes will be an indicator and also some grates.

2018-09-07 06:02:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Gun boat prototype

The white build prototype is coming along very nicely. Last month I had time to do some fine tuning of the geometry of the hull. So right now I am very happy with the results.

The mast is more of a rough sketch at this stage. I intend to have the deck texture indicate where the mast is, in case you don't need a mast (or it is in the way of figure movement). Then I want to make a mast, sail and ratlines combination, that will be removable, but will improve the look of this ship - both on the ga...

Back to boats!

After last months exploration in feudal Japan, we are back this month sailing the open seas ... and I am very excited!

I have started the Pirate Fleet builder series with the small rowing boat and the jolly boat. These were my "warm up" and now I am ready to tackle bigger vessels. The one I have planned for this month is the "gun boat" and today I am showing you a concept sketch, how I imagine it.

The gun boat is the smallest of the big ships. With apx. 8" length it is larger than the jo...

SVS Tea house release

I am happy to announce the release of the Samurai Village Specials" tea house" set. 

The set will include

• Tea house (4x4")
• Raised platform (6x6")
• Engawa/veranda roof (6x6")
• Host and guest entrances

As usual all comes in a variety of color and texture variations and support of fold-flat building.

This is the "charge patrons" posts. Once the Patron month-end charging data is processed, I will authorize you for the dropbox folders and ...

August 2018 Content Announcement

This month the set will include the Samurai Village builder special "Tea House" containing 

• 4x4" tea house
• 6x6" engawa/veranda and platform
• host and guest entrance

I will make the "charge patrons post" tomorrow. 

Happy building,

Chris

Building for instructions

First of all, a big welcome to the new patreons! I hope you will enjoy your stay and I am looking forward to building many more model set with you all :-)

Now that the design process is done, I am rebuilding the current sets to take pictures for the instructions.

Here you see the instructions build to the left with some texture variations. 

At this stage I need to check if nothing in the files is missing for someone who is building this for the first time. A very important che...

Tea house, the solo version

This summer was a very hot one. I will not tell you guys how little I did wear during the last month - it was the bare minimum, but I was still decent :-) - yet I often thought about how cooling a silken kimono would be. I have read that one of the reasons why silk was such a valuable commodity in Feudal Japan was, that it helped bear the hot and humid summers in these days.

I have completed the texturing of the entrance parts for the solo house. The humble entrance has a little waiting bench ...

Entrance prototype for the solo version

A little update on the solo version of the tea house. I have optimized the entrance unfold and will start to texture it.

Once I have the missing bits done, I can go into weathering mode and start packing everything up for release!

Happy building,

Chris

Tea house: solo version and interior

I have been working on the version without the raised platform and veranda. When I talk to people, a lot imagine a tea house with them, but very often such a building did not have them. The veranda is an extension of the waiting area where the guest of the tea ceremony would prepare themselves and wait for the host to invite them in.

Here is where the waiting area would be. I have yet to create t...

Texturing the core tea house

For the missing core part of this set - the actual tea house - I started looking at floor plans of tea houses. This helped me to design my own room structure. With this finalized I could then decide how the walls would have to look, to support that.

What all classical tea houses have in common, is a "regular" entrance on one side and a humble "crawl" entrance on the other. The person holding the tea ceremony would enter through the regular entrance and prepare everything. Then when the ceremon...

Starting to texture the tea house

I have completed texturing all the segments except the main house (and the posts which are on the same page as the house).

For the house I want to recycle some of the elder house shoji panels, but I have to check if and how it makes sense. Also I want a mud wall skin for the solo version without the veranda, so I need to do some more planning of the house texture first.

Without the house mo...

Tea house prototype

I have completed the white build geometry for the tea house. This time I did not want to add the veranda/engawa as add-on modules like in the Elder house, so I split the building horizontaly.

Now I have the core building, the raised platform as a full module and the posts holding the roof assembly.

That way the veranda roof is one compact component that you can slide on and off the main bui...

Tea house concepts

The past few days I have been away in the mountains to escape the summer heat. A friend of ours invited us to visit her beautiful house next to a lake which provided not only a beautiful view on the balcony but also cool winds.

I have been working on several concepts and design sketches including this months building: the tea house!

The core building will be a 4x4" building that can either stand alone as seen on the right. This version is modeled after clay wall houses I have found in re...

Waiting for the big ships :-)

First of all, thank you and welcome to all the new Patreons. I hope you will enjoy your rewards this month and I am looking forward to creating the larger boats in the future.

I will take this opportunity to remind you guys, that I love seeing what you have built with my sets, so please take advantage of the community tab to share pics or send them to me (if you don't want to share them in public).

In the meantime I made this little fun pic with what I have got already, showing the pirat...

Fold-flat docks

While the boats are to small to pack some magic fold-flat parts, I did made the docks fold-flat. When you want to build a larger docks area, you want to store them away after the gaming session safely.

So in the first pic you see them disassembled. And here come the two modules assembled. Same system also works for the ramps.

I am very happy with both the quality and the amount of pieces I ...

July 2018 Content Announcement

For this month the set will include the small boats and the docks containing

• 4" small rowing boat
• 6" jolly boat
• 1x4" narrow dock module
• 1" dock ramp
• 2x6" wide dock module
• 2" dock ramp

 I will make the "charge patrons post" tomorrow. 

Happy building,

Chris

Finishing the small boats set

Quick update: Two instructions done, one more to do. 

Then I can start the cut files and I think I will have the time to add fold-flat templates for the docks. For the small boats there will be no fold-flat, there is just not enough space for that. For the larger ones I will try if there is a way, but I am not sure due to the compound curvature of the hull surface. 

All my pirate figures are getting excited to start do their thing with the new models :-)

OK, back to work!...