Building a Pirate Ship - Part 5

Part 5:

Adding details to your pirate ship.

Up to this point most of the work has been shaping and adding the various parts of the ship. In this installment I will outline the steps required to detail the removable quarterdeck piece.

• The primay tool needed is a fine saw tooth blade, which can be fitted into a standard exacto knife.

Cut out the captains door:


This piece is about 3/4 inch wide by about 1 inch tall. I have made this piece about a 3/8 inch thick, however i did not measure the it. Just rough the demension by look. Start by cutting a larger square, they trim the piece, round the top, and place it on the face of the quarterdeck piece.




Tool in the door frame:
The door frame grove seen on the left, is made by pressing the tool into the "door" piece cut in the previous step. Pressing the details into the door, also serves to bond the door to the quarterdeck face.




Also notice I have added three vertical "panels", to form the door.



Adding the wood grain:
This technique you will use repeatdly as you add wood grain to nearly all surfaces of the ship. Here I am adding the wood grain horizontally to the left of the captains door on the face of the quarterdeck. I alternate with horizontal and vertical wood grain as needed.


For example the bevel cut area is vertical wood grain, while the side and inside are all horizontal.


Add port holes:
The port holes are created by adding a bead of clay in a circle. Then I press a compacting dental tool into the bead to form rivets.


If you do not have access to dental tools, then cut the pointed tip from a tooth pick and use the cut end to make your rivets.

Notice on the left bulkhead, I have added vertical lines, to look like panels, before I added the port hole.

=> Also press a circle into the clay inside the porthole to give it the illiusion of depth.

• Do not however, pull an actual hole in the clay. Later I will demostrate painting the port hole sky blue with clouds to make it look like it is reflecting the sky in a translucent or semi translucent glass window.

Adding the wood grain deck:
With the saw tooth blade, add wood grain on the top of the quarterdeck. Then add, wood decking, with the edge of the saw blade, or with a fine edges tool.

The tool show here is the dental compact tool mentioned above. It works great for adding rivets at the ends of each deck plate. Notice how I have added the deck plates in a pattern to make it look like different length of planks had been used to build the ship.

=> The "rivet" marks on the wood planks would represent wood pegs, bolts or nails depending on the area of the ship. For ease of explaination, I will call them "rivets" as a general term, since that best describes the hundrens of little holes you will make on the decks.

Add wood grain on all surfaces:
Add the wood grain and the plank details on the side, and even on the underside. Also add the rivet marks on each plank.

Notice the two vertical boards on the beveled section, which each have only one rivet mark on the top and bottom.

= >Use your creativity with the wood grain, planks and rivet marks. At times I will even add battle damage on ships, or carve speical features, skulls, or other marking to give each ship more character.


Add a railing:

I have used small skewer sticks, carved a grove in the stick, then worked a point to creat this post rail. This too is rather tedious work, however I like the customer look to the post once finished.

Notice I have four holes in the deck, made with a deep plunge of the dental compact tool.

=> I strongly suggest to cut the sharp tips off the skewer sticks. The fine point will draw blood while you work details, adding chians, ropes and rigging. If you intend to use the ship for gaming, it could also cut a careless finger. Trust me on this one, I cut the shape tips off all the skewers or tooth picks used on my ships now. Your finger tips and knuckles will thank you for this suggestion.



Install the rail:

Push the four posts into the clay, using the four guiding holes shown in the previous picture.

Work the post in slowly, twisting as you go to avoid crushing the bulkhead, or mis-forming the deck.

=> Also do not push them in to far, or you will have a post in the port hole. The post on the far left, did just that, so I had to rework the port hole.

• You can also add hinges and a door knocker if you like to add that special touch. The door knocker on this ship is a skull. You can look back on the finished picture above to see the finish details added.

Concluding part 5:

This concludes part FIVE of the Pirate ship build. The next installment will prepare the main deck, and exterior hull for the wood grain and plank details. I will cover in detail, how to strengthen the mast supports, working to bring life to your pirate ship.

Thanks for following the Blog!!

John T Cusack

www.battlefieldhobbies.org