I have finished the lower hull of my second "Maiden". I have taken pics to show the build in progress, and will have to work on the instructions in time. It took me longer than I thought to come up with a workable design for the hull, but it came out nicely. The center area is exactly 2" high, at the top of the hull (measured from bottom of matboard base to top of hull), and the upper deck will be exactly 7"wide. Here are some pics of the build to date (I will upload more pics as I progress), Maiden II, there are eight atm. I tried to upload a link, and a post this morning, but when I submited, I received an error message, then couldn't relog on (had something to do with the upcoming store).



If your talking about the bottom, I used a method I tried on the Longboat, and glued the tabs to the matboard hull base underside, this added great strength to the build, securing the hull firmly in place, also allowed for the tighter bend. If your talking about the top where the forward decoration piece connects to the upper front hull, then I will take pics of that later, and explain how I did it. As for the aft castle, yes, and a slightly raised foredeck instead of a forecastle.

Edit #1: I have added a few more pics Conaill, just so you know, though none of the in build pics as of yet.

Edit #2: Due to the heat, my Longboat "Maiden" has to have one of the transparency ladders reglued, as it became soft, and unglued with the heat lately, didn't expect that to happen , but it should be an easy fix .

That's gonna be a sweet looking mini-Maiden! I love the way you've pulled off the very smooth hull angle transitions. Very curvy, and it looks natural.

The glue came undone in the heat? What type of glue? And was it just where it touched the transparency?

Hot glue gun glue. And yes, it was just where it touched the transparency, happened on the other side too. Though the glue hasn't come off of the underside of the crow's nest.

I love it so far ,can't wait to see it finished!!!!

Hot glue gun glue came unglued with heat.......humm...... hot glue and heat...... yep that will do it....

Ran into an unexpected surprise, I've run out of printed interior hull pieces, which are very important to have before I proceed to the upper deck. I thought I had eneogh to finish this build, but it looks like I'll have to set it aside for a short bit. I have finally scraped together eneogh money for a new color cartridge, so it's only a short delay, I will be working on more props from a variety of sets (including some kitbash props), and some of the ArenaWorks buildings I printed out, but for the moment the Maiden II has shifted to WIP on hold !

For the spots where the transparencies touch cardstock, I'd recommend using a superglue gel. the kind that works great for me is Zap-A-Gap CA+ (in the green bottle). Other kinds can bleed through, but this stuff holds beautifully.

Ok, I bought a new color cartridge (though I really couldn't afford it, it's necsessary to maintain my sanity), and I was hoping to be able to print out the needed parts, and have this build finished for this weekend, but everything is going drastically wrong. I can't align the new cartridge, because my black ink is drained dry and it is needed for the alignment process (though it was a brand new cart, and I have no idea how or why), I had three bottles of black refil ink, but they no longer exist (I store all my ink supplies together, and they are just gone, I must be losing my sanity). And for some reason, the installation program was required to reinstall the damnable thing so I could use it (but it was never installed). So instead of building this weekend, I'm going to dropkick my printer into the ocean, and spend this weekend (and several weeks after) in the hospital for insanity, and a broken foot , this is so friggin insane, I just want to !

Edit: did I mention I hate technology !

Edit# 2: now the friggin installation process is all screwed up, and it's not recognizing the hardware, GAH, I give, there's just no point, stupid figgin.....

So your black cart is pretty new, yet is empty?

As far as the software goes, turn off the printer and try completely removing the print driver (check "Add/Remove Programs" and "Printers" under the Control Panel. Turn the printer back on. If you didn't have to install the printer in the first place, your computer should automatically recognize it at this point.

Damn near brand new, only used it to print out ten pages (SavageWorlds testdrive rules). Thought it might be dirty print nozzles, but the thing is light eneogh that I know from experience that it is empty, just boggles my mind (wondering if someone has broken into my place just to use my printer, it's either that or the little green men )


I have figured out what went wrong in this department, and it is fixed. I still can't print till I replace the black cartridge though as it is mandatory for aligning the cartridges to have both carts printing (even if it's just a touch of ink, I will try refill first, but I suspect the ink may have dried out, which would be my fault). The carts have to be aligned properly for printing, otherwise, the paper models will not print out properly (possibly messing with the quality of the print, or even how everything lines up when assembled).

Ok, broke down and purchased a new black ink cartridge (if only to align my carts), will begin building, and may even have time to finish the "Maiden II" this weekend. Will post more pics soon.

Delay this weekend on my build, but it is back on track again, pics soon. One of my friends (one of my ex-gamers, the married couple), just found out that a neighbor (fourplex), who went missing a week and a half ago, was found this weekend, in the bushes, needless to say the light had left her. We are waiting for more information on this current situation, but at this time there is little. It has been really tense around here, the woman was in her late 20's, early 30's, same age as my friend (who has a 13yr old daughter as well), needless to say she's pretty shaken up. My sister, and mother both traverse the area in question regularily, so again, lots of tension.

A less darker delay, this is my first kitbash using a curved hull design. There have been a few delays as this build is very important in determining whether or not I can pull off the First Light builds I plan, which will require curved hull designs (sort of a prototype). The next prototype will be a slightly larger (than this maiden) First Light build, if both work as I hope, then I will go to work on the heavy cruiser, and yes I have already done the measurements nescessary to insure it will fit through the doors, and around the corners, when I have to move it out of the build room, or even out of the house .

Hey SD - does this mean you're planning to do the bottom hull for your Maiden II as well? If so, what approach are you taking to design the hull?

I haven't gotten back to my "Maiden's Bottom" for a while. Mainly because at this point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and and figure out how to fit the curvy design I have in mind with flat strips of paper.

The plan right now is to construct a framework out of foamcore using the cross sections I adapted from existing ship drawings. Then I'll try to cover that framework with strips of paper along the lines of the planking, cut the strips to size, and scan them back in as templates. Add tabs, print out, and try to assemble into something resembling the original design without the internal framework... Wish me luck!

Good luck to both of you!

Shatteredragon, will you be bending the matboard to achieve your curved hull, or will you be making several small angled strips?

Actually, that wasn't the curved hull I was refering too, but yes, I am currently working on a bottom hull for my Maiden II build. If I pull it off, you'll get to see it in the pics later.


Heh, much like foamcore, Matboard does not bend easily, and will more likely fold suddenly while you attempt to bend it. The lower hull I am working on will use Matboard braces, but the external hull will be done out of Cardstock. I would try to explain better, but I'll have to let the pics speak for themselves when I'm done (if it works ).

Sorry for the late reply, I have been very busy of late and a little worn out (just woke up on the couch, and will be going to my own bed for an hour and a bit before work). Things are progressing a bit more smoothly now, and I should have pics up very soon. The delay is mostly that I am working on this build, finishing up the basic parts of my CWU build, and adding a much larger internal stables option to the CWU build (well, outside of general life that is ).

Ok, one nightmare of kitbashing followed by another, and so far this is what I have, there are six pics, and each shows a different angle of the bottom hull so you can see the curve built into it (only one shows the hull without the top). There is also a temporary base, which once I texture in some CWU stone, and redesign, will become the permanent storage stand for this modification. I still have to do the front, and rear, but the center is finished. Let me know what you think (btw, I know buttkiss about ships, so I'm just winging it, literally). See list below for links to the pics.

Lower hull without lower deck
Front
Side shot
Front closeup
Front hull on temporary stand
Upper angle on temporary stand (this one also shows a hint of the interior in progress)

Edit: just realized I lost track of time while building (listening to the soundracks for Nausicaa and Jin-Roh, the time can really slide by). I am off to bed now, need sleep, didn't realize how tired I was till I finished this post. Any suggestions on improvements would be appreciated, as well as tips from those of you that are familiar with ships.

Heh, that looks pretty close to what I have so far. Main diff with mine is that I'm going with a vertical foamcore keel, and I'll have an orlop deck below the Maiden's lower deck (so I get an additional horizontal cross-section as well). Of course, this is the easy part. Getting that complex curvature front and back will be a bitch...

PS: It looks like your keel sits a little deep on your prototype. For the full-size Maiden, I worked out that the keel should be about 3" below the lower deck, to match actual ship diagrams. For your smaller Maiden II, you probably want to aim at around 2.5" at most - it looks like you're getting closer to 4" or so. Otherwise the ship will probably look a little "fat" in profile (see Preview pic side hull, for example).

For reference, the lower deck is two inches in depth, the bottom hull is exactly three inches, top to bottom, total depth is 5 inches. Not sure what adjustment this would require, but if you have a pic for reference it would be appreciated.

Edit: I do not plan to carry the hull design as shown all the way to the rear of the ship, it will begin to slope upwards to 1 inch below the lower deck, the keel slowly disappearing (a very complicated part of the build). I will be doing something similiar with the front, but it will become more apparent as I get further into this little nightmare of a kitbash (required extreme bracing).

That sounds better than I thought - kinda hard to see the proportions on the pictures. Do keep in mind that your Maiden II is quite a bit shorter than the Maiden (right?), so to keep the profile looking good, the depth should probably be scaled back as well.


PS: Ain't curves fun?

You guys impress me.

Before the Maiden was a gleam on Denny's eye, I'd been working on building a ship for use with my games. Curving the hulls was the crappiest work ever...

One of the reasons I'm amazed at the builds WWG produces is how they get complex shapes done on just one piece.

Amazing.

SD, this is awesome. If you want some reference shots of ships take a look at the Maiden's Bottom thread. There are links there to actual ship building plans.

Shatteredragon, that's looking very, very good! I can't wait to see how you pull off the front and back ends... whew!

Conaill, we need to see some progress pics!

Hell no, they are really tricky to do ! Before I glued in the supports the walls were bowing severely outwards, and the whole piece had begun to warp badly. The piece almost became a total disaster, and a huge waste of printed resources. My original assumption had been that the three shaping ribs made from matboard would be eneogh to conform the hull to the shape I intended, boy was I wrong. It took 10 popsicle sticks placed strategically to salvage what I thought was a write off (matboard just wasn't durable eneogh to add the support nescessary).
The back will be surprisingly easy to do. I spent today designing and measureing out the builds for the front and rear hull parts, and may finish one of them tonight. The front will be far more trickier than I thought, and will take a lot of work.


Thanks for the reference, but it wasn't needed . When I first joined the forums, the first thing I did was spend an entire day reading through all the back posts. Since then I have remained current to every post made on these boards, I was very familiar with this thread already, but again, thanx for the reference .


I originally gave it such a deep keel because I wanted to support the whole high speed, ocean runner, for pirates and smugglers (players seem to have a habit of using these types of ships as often as possible). I still have to add the upper deck area, though other than the railing, it will not likely be much higher than the existing deck height. The rearcastle will be different from the original design, but will probably not be much higher than the actual Maidens rearcastle. The fore deck will rise about a 1/2 inch to 1 inches above the current deck. I do not have the ink to print out more hull parts to redo the entire hull, so I will have to build another hull later and use this one as a lesson. If I pull off this hull, then I will be making one for my wolfen longboat as well, and for any other ship that I happen to build (though will probably just use your maiden hull for any true Maiden build I do).

I'm guessing it's that S-curve in the hull cross section that's to blame. In most of the ship plans I looked at, the center section is almost semi-circular in shape, with the actual keel just being a timber jutting out at right angle with the bottom of the hull itself. Without that recurve towards the keel, you should be able to just stretch the hull sheets over the ribs.


Care to shed some light on the design process? Do you use any CAD software? Or is it just a combination of sketching on paper and fiddling around with the model?

Thanx, you just gave me some really good ideas there (even a few that I'm sure you didn't intend too ). Yes, I agree, if I hadn't been so stressing on how to salvage it, I would have taken a pic of the warp, but I was distressing at the time, and quickly trying to find a solution before the glue dried completely (some times I can still salvage even a disaster ).


If I had, or knew how to use it, I might be using software to do this stuff (I'm a little surprised I even know what CAD software is).

I use the latter, though the only builds I've scetched out on paper are my unfinished temple build (still working out a solution to a nasty little problem), the CWU buildings build with the interchangeable slot system, and different sized rooms, as well as current unbuilt parts are all drawn out, and the FL Heavy Cruiser I have drawn up, though I'm still working on the deckplans. The exterior, and a few areas, like the bridge, flightdeck, officers deck, pilot's quarters, and vehicle deck have been drawn up, measurements and all.

Otherwise, it's more like flying by the seat of my pants, not knowing if what I'm doing will work, or be a total waste, like the Maiden II (though I did make a template out of matboard to keep all of the hull supports the same shape). The keep from CastleWorks: Classic was my first ever matboard kitbash, for example, and why I do all my builds with matboard now, if it hadn't been for the flood, that building would have still been around today (damn, I forgot to print it out with this cartridge, I so want to rebuild it, it was a fun building). I just sit there puzzling over the images on the screen, till I see a solution, only the more complicated builds go down on paper (I had three separate ideas for the CWU interchangeable slot system, by putting them down on paper, I was able to see the pros and cons of each system, which is why I ended up settling with the current design).

I will see if I can't scan some of them into my comp later (one of the advantages of this Lexmark is the scan and copy centre built into it, real handy for gaming), if it works, I will post them in my gallery with a link (separate post).

Edit: sorry for the delay in pics, my sister brought over the Neon Genesis Evangelion Series, and I am in the process of watching it through again .

Well final tally of cost and damage was pretty nasty. I lost over 12hrs of work, and $30 in damaged materials (mostly my new ink and cardstock). Though the loss was a setback, there may still be eneogh material left to finish this build. The stack of Maiden printouts was only partially soaked through, so I only lost the top several sheets, the rest survived with no damage. Fortuneatly I had set the Maiden II herself aside to free up space on my work table, otherwise there would have probably been a little lake in the bottom of her hull (yes, there was that much water, eneogh for puddles on my worktable ). I am working on the interior and upper deck as two of the damaged parts were from the lower hull (you can guess which parts). They were what I put a lot of work into, and I don't want to do all that again right now, it was a little disheartening .

Edit: on a brighter note, my mom finally found a job (though not through lack of trying), and my money situation will be much less stressful as I won't have to cover her rent, food, and bills anymore, that was a bit of a financial burden, but it will be a cold day in hell before I let my mom live on the streets.

Sorry to hear of your disaster, SD. Might be a good time to step back and try another project for a bit. Heck, you might even develop some other thoughts on the project in the time away from it.

Good luck on the recovery.

I have added more in progress pics in this build (link at beginning), they were shown first on WWG's Radio, but I won't make you all wait to hear about it .

WAUW Shatterdragon...I can't even start thinking about building something like your maiden II. Way nice, way cool

Greetings,
GRUUMSH

After much fitting and measuring, and a final decision on how I wanted it to look when finished, I have completed the main fore deck, she needs a little patching, and to have the hull skin glued on, but here is the progression so far (the newly added pics are titled Progress cont 01-15), and here is a link for your ease.

Hey, looks like it's coming along great SD! I can't wait to see it finished...

Sacretis