PlaymoFriends
Creative => How-To => Topic started by: Jimbo on January 07, 2007, 22:01:12
-
Hello everyone,
I thought I would post a few pictures on how to build a ship hull from scratch, for
your Playmobil navy.
The first three pictures are of a basic hull, made by forming the sides of the ship to the shape of the hull bottom. As you see, the sides are bent around the hull bottom, and are held to that shape by bulkheads, or formers that run side to side. ( that's
port and starboard to you nautical types). The sides are then clamped at the bow
and stern. (you know, front and back ;D). This technique can be used for almost any ship you want to build. This is the way I started the Hansa cog.
Then of course the deck goes on and you are on you way!
The next four pictures are of a Playmobil Santa Maria I started about two years ago.
The technique is the same as the easier hull, except that you cut the sides of the ship to the profile you want, before fixing them in place . The formers and bulkheads are also cut to the desired shape to comply with the hull type you want.
On this ship, I formed the lower hull from solid hard wood, cutting and sanding it to shape.
The lower hull is also a great place to put your ballast if you want to make a model
that will sail correctly and not capsize.
Next comes the masts and rigging...and I'm not there yet!
Enjoy,
Jimbo
-
More pictures
-
Thanks for the tutorial, Jimbo ...
Your Santa Maria is beautiful!
Hope that you will complete the Columbus fleet.
All the best,
Richard
-
Nice work , bon courage as the french say ;)
thanks for sharing and keep us updated on your work please :)
greetz
-
Is that an (almost) exact copy of the original Santa Maria, i mean do you have a building plan or is it done by looking at old pictures and go from there??
Rob
-
Hi Rob,
I found a few pictures of "Santa Maria" type ships, and drew scale "plans"
of the sides. Then I cut the side view from heavy posterboard to be
transfered to the plywood for the final cut. The paper template also worked well for a fit and fair test to see if any adjustments needed to be made.
I also drew the Hull shape on paper to transfer to wood. The scale is not exact, as I
"playmobilized" the size and shape to fit the Playmobil klicky. The doors are wider and taller than scale, and the hull is widened at the beam a bit.
Sometimes I make a complete hull from cardboard, then stand off and study it a bit to see if the design is practical. Then I start cutting up the old plywood.
It is kinda easy...sorta...almost :yup:
Best regards
Jimbo
-
Many thanks, indeed, jimbo, for the guide and photos. Quite beyond me to do, but very interesting to see how it can be done.
-
Very nice work!! Looking forward to see it progressing! :)9 :arrr:
-
:)
hi jimbo,
great shipyard.
:wow:
i would just like to warn you that trying to sail vessels built according to old plans can be hazardous.
some portuguese guys tried to do it some time ago.
using XVI century drawings, they built what they thought was a perfect replica of the portugese "caravela" that led the sailor bartolomeu de gusmão from lisbon to the cape of good hope, in the tip of south africa.
http://www.ancruzeiros.pt/ancv-besperanca.html
it was a total flop - the vessel was never able to sail without the help of its engine.
hull weight, sailing area and rigging angles were all wrong.
before setting sail acrosss the atlantic, please be sure to tune your ship for all kind of sea and wind.
it is also very important that you can train your playmocrew in the handling of the boat.
i know they are just made of plastic but they are sailors anyway and, therefore, my brothers.
i would hate to see them drown...
:)
-
Wow, this is very impressive and very well adapted (the shape is actually recognizable).
I'm quite curious how it will look like when it's finished and staffed with the explorers of the new world.
-
Hello all,
Thanks for the kind and encouraging replies.
Cachalote, you are correct in saying it is hard to sail replicas. I made a Playmobil "scale" replica of a Brig. (In the gallery section of this site.)
It did not sail well at first. I had to add ballast, extend the bowsprit, and add larger jib sails to get Her to sail straight.
Playmobil seafarers are able sailors indeed!!
Happy sailing
Jimbo
-
8}
i just realized, reading your post jimbo, that maybe we could try and sail a playmobil boat in the ocean and see if someone catches it in the other side of the world.
:)
more or less like a message in a bottle.
the difference would be that it would not depend only in drifts - it would actually sail.
a real rudder would be needed and an automatic wind rudder to command it.
this way, trimming the sails correctly for a specific angle of wind, the boat would alwyas stay sailing.
do you think this can be done?
???
-
Hello Cachalote,
Wow! Sail across the ocean...I think a fair sized Playmobil ship, fully weatherproof
and as sturdy as the sea itself could possibly give it a go.
(I used to fly over the Pacific in my Navy days and the sea can get a bit nasty
though!)
Maybe we should try to sail across a lake to start with . ;D :lol:
I actually wanted to do that with my square rigger, but I did not have a
runabout to follow it.
One can always dream!
Best regards
Jimbo
-
i think a square-rigged model would be the right one to use.
although the schooners have triangular sails - and should therefeore be capable to sail upwind - they also have a square sail - that makes this impossible.
with a 3750 model - a square-sail ship - we could use the same routes the first portuguese and spanish sailors used in the 15th and 16th centuries - always downwind.
i know the way form portugal - to madeira island, canaries islands, cape verde islands and then brazil.
things will start to be difficult then - crossing the cape horn to the pacific.
another possibility is to go from cape verde to south africa and then to india, timor and australia.
from there to california and then, by land, to arizona.
the other way around is maybe more difficult to find favourable winds.
we hust have to find some playmo-addicts that are willing to wait in the several spots the ship will land.
do you know anyone in all this places?
... maybe if we just put it to sea and expect that someone, in some beach, can find it and write to us - like a message in a bottle.
that would bo cool.
:)
-
Great idea, Cachalote, Square riggers would be the way to go. (I like the
way they look under way!)
I know my wife would love to wait on the island of Madeira. She loves the
place..her name is Madeira.
I would have to build a "prairie schooner" to get from California to Arizona. ;D
I wounder how a couple of years of salt water sailing would affect the klicky
crew.
Jimbo
-
Hi all,
I finally got around to continuing making the superstructure for hull no. 1.
Actually I was going to toss it out, but a co-worker asked me if I could make a ship for his son, so I studied up on old Dreadnoughts, and this is what turned out.
The gun turrets are just hole saw cut-outs with dowel barrels. The rest of the ship is just easily made shapes glued here and there to look kinda like a ship of the early 1900s. The ship is 4 feet long, and is o.k. for the small figures. To use the full sized
figures, the ship would have to be at least 6 feet long.
Now it is ready for paint!
-
Again, great ship!!
BTW, is it The HMS Hood or the Bismarck :-[
Rob
-
Very impressive, Jimbo; great work.
Will you give it the dramatic, zigzag paint job on the hull ship's of that type had in the Great War?
-
Lol
I like the Idea of crossing an ocean with a playmoship ;D
seems your ship starts to get form
Thanks for sharing the pics
Looks likes she's gonna become a beauty
congrats
-
Hi all,
Thanks for the kind comments!
Rob, actually the HMS Hood was part of the inspiration. I thought I would name
the ship the HMS Wood. I went to the flag store and got a British flag just in case.
Playmofire, yes I thought of the ziz zag camo, but it may be a bit of a challenge! Hmmm.
I have two cans of primer on the ship now, so painting is in progress.
Best regards
Jimbo
-
Great ship, Jimbo!
I like the idea of using the kids (small kilickys) for a crew. It's perfect for background photos and it makes the ship look bigger. I did the same thing with the background for a train layout.
Here's your crew ... ;)
-
Nice work! Good resemblence to the design of WW I - battleships!
-
Hi Richard and Hadoque.
Thanks for the encouragement. I am still sanding away.
Richard, great crew. I forgot about those figures. I remember a set of
children with a drum, sword, and a cannon . Are they from that set or are they
customized a bit? They are real cool. I thought I might try customizing
a "dixie cup" hat.....still thinking!
Best regards to all
Jimbo
-
Richard, great crew. I forgot about those figures. I remember a set of
children with a drum, sword, and a cannon . Are they from that set or are they
customized a bit? They are real cool.
Hello, Jimbo ...
The two "sailor kids" are from sets 5402 and 5406.
Please see attachments.
All the best,
Richard
-
Thanks Richard!...
Now I remember. I am sure I have those sets, or at least had them. ???
Best regards,
Jimbo
-
Thanks Richard!...
Now I remember. I am sure I have those sets, or at least had them. ???
Best regards,
Jimbo
Howdy, Jimbo ...
The nice thing about those "flat hats" is that they also fit the larger adult Klickies (see attachment).
-
Hi all,
I finally got around to continuing making the superstructure for hull no. 1.
Actually I was going to toss it out, but a co-worker asked me if I could make a ship for his son, so I studied up on old Dreadnoughts, and this is what turned out.
The gun turrets are just hole saw cut-outs with dowel barrels. The rest of the ship is just easily made shapes glued here and there to look kinda like a ship of the early 1900s. The ship is 4 feet long, and is o.k. for the small figures. To use the full sized
figures, the ship would have to be at least 6 feet long.
Now it is ready for paint!
Very very nice and good work
-
Ahoy all,
She's all done and "under way"! :yup:
She floats quite well also.
Now I will go on liberty for a while.
Best regards,
"Admiral" Jimbo.
-
Ahoy, Admiral Jimbo ...
She looks fabulous in the water!
Thanks for all the great photos. How much trouble would it be to put together some kits that we could buy from you so that we could all have our own "wooden" fleets?
All the best,
Richard
-
WOW! That is a beautiful ship. I am sure she could blow my entire pirate fleet out of the water! ;)
-
She looks great, Jimbo. Very impressive indeed. Have a good break.
-
Thanks everyone for your encouragement, and kind remarks.
Now I am having visions of aircraft carriers and twin turret ironclads. 8}
Best regards,
Jimbo
-
Or how about a battleship with a seaplane deck. The little Playmobil biplane could be converted for the seaplane.
(hmmm, on second thoughts maybe I'm being over-enthusiastic on your behalf here. It would be a pretty massive ship and I've just re-read your post on the size of the battleship. So 4ft for one using the small figures, at least 6ft for using the large figures, so for using the biplane, say, 8ft!)
-
Hi Playmofire,
I have actually thought of that. I sketched out a few drawings to ponder, but it
would have been quite a chore.
The Japanese did that for real in the IJN Ise. (1945) They reworked an older battleship, and installed a seaplane deck on most of the after part of the ship. Don't know how
that worked out though. (Sunk in July of 1945.)
I did build an 8 foot aircraft carrier of the "correct" scale, about 20 years ago for some
friends of Knightmo. It doubled as a toy box, and the bridge had a deck or two for the crew. The elevators opened to the hangar deck to store toys.
It took some doing to load that thing in the van!
It sure would be a dandy project though...maybe I could use it to go fishing. :yup:
Plywood comes in 8 foot sheets......don't even go there Jimbo, its time for your nap!
Also, Richard, I have thought of building kits. The thought scared me. :o
Best regards all,
Jimbo
-
Hi Jimbo
And first of what a brilliant idea/model. I think the aircraft carrier is a great idea but as you mentioned is far too big to build or store. The best idea would be to build an assault ship. I served on HMS Intrepid, a Royal Navy assault ship, during the Falklands Campaign back in 1982. Playmobil already have three types of helicopters that could be repainted to become Scouts, Attack and Troop Carriers. Also the police patrol boat from the harbour series could be mounted on the sides as rigid raiders as our Royal Marine Commandos call them. I have no idea at present how you could build Landing Craft but will work on it. Maybe the cargo ship with a modified bows ? - Craig