Steam Launches
for Colonial-era Gaming
Except for the Lady
Bodgett, all the launches are built of thin posterboard (also called
"railroad board") around a deck piece of corrugated cardboard
or foamcore board. Benches are made from balsa.
Vertical-boilered Steam Launch
The boiler is made from the barrel of a large permanent-marker pen, with brass tubing for the stack. The engine cylinder is made from brass tubing and brass and copper wire. The design was inspired by the African Queen.
The Katesha,Katesha's boiler is made from a candy packaging tube. The launches have a small piece of brass tubing in the rear, which holds the flagpole securely but allows easy switching of the flags. The captain is evidently taking some target practice at nearby flotsam.
Steam
Ram
The German double-boiler, triple-cylinder steam ram is not too useful as a gaming model; it was built primarily as a psychological terror weapon, and because it was fun. The boilers are some kind of packaging tubes. The stack and connections are flexible drinking-straws. The engine cylinders are fired 9mm cartridge cases (which can be picked up off the ground at the local shooting range, if you happen to live in a free country); they have a nice nautical polished-brass look without any painting at all. The toothpick flagstaff should have been replaced long ago. The menacing prow is just a slit piece of foamcore board which can be slipped on and off.
The boilers take up so much room that the ram's transport
capacity is very limited for its overly large size. But it has a proper
undercut stern, unlike the earlier launches.
The Excursion Steamer
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