Ship Model Construction
for Colonial-era Gaming

This page will take you step-by-step in building a dhow, or native sailing vessel. The hull techniques are similar for other types of ships and boats.

Tools

Hobby Knife (such as X-acto) Extra Blades or Sharpening Stone. Dull blades make for ragged cuts and frustration. Steel Straightedge for cutting. The cork-backed steel rulers sold in art supply stores are ideal. The cork prevents slipping while cutting. Ball-headed sewing pins. You need these if you are using white glue (PVA) instead of a glue gun. Get pins with a glass or hard plastic head. The cheap pins with the soft plastic heads have a distressing habit of punching through the head and into your finger when they encounter resistance more solid than cloth. Pencil. Single hole punch. These look like a pair of pliers, and can be had in a variety of sizes at an office supply store at very low cost. It is worth having several in different sizes, but for the dhow, you will need the 1/8" size. 2"-wide clear plastic gridded ruler. These have grid lines printed on them and are useful for making parallel lines, such as deck planks. Paper clamps. The kind with the folding wire handles are good and inexpensive. Paper clips could be substituted. Medium Sand Paper (optional) Hot Glue Gun (optional) If you have a hot glue gun, you will not need the pins or paper-clamps. French Curve. (optional) Get these at a craft or art supply store. Do not get the very small ones. 8" or so is about right.

Materials

Corrugated Cardboard for deck material. An old heavy carton is the right color, and free. Thin posterboard (sometimes called "railroad board") Parchment-style calligraphy paper or other light-colored paper for sails. White glue - PVA water-based glue such as Elmer's in the US Hot Glue (optional) for the glue gun. Dowel 3/16" for masts, 1/8" for yardarms .22 Cartridge Case or Brass Tubing (optional) to take the 3/16" dowel Balsa wood, 1/16" sheet. (optional) Brass wire (optional) for flagpoles, etc. Copper or brass tubing (optional) of proper size to take the flagpole wire.

Building a Native Dhow
The dhow has been the typical sailing vessel of many African and Middle Eastern cultures for centuries. Dhows plied (and a few still ply) the Nile, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and beyond. They are lateen-rigged (triangular-sailed) craft with a square stern and prominent prow.

The following instructions will tell you how to build a simple dhow, using the Major General's TEMPLATES. The size is about 7" (178mm) long by 2.5"(65mm) wide. This dhow will handle twenty-four 25mm figures on 15x15mm bases with some overlapping. All sizes given are for use with 25mm figures. Reduce or enlarge accordingly for other sizes. You can build it as-is, or use the templates as a starting point for creating your own design.

You can see a finished model on the Dhows page (though not precisely the same one).

Download and mount the templates, as described on the template page, or create your own, using a french curve to get get a graceful smooth shape. Cut out the Deck-Half template. Use the hole punch or a knife to notch the straight side of the template for the mast location. Place the template on a piece of paper, trace around the template, then flip it over along the straight side to trace the other half of the deck. Remember the small circle for the mast in the center. You now have an outline of a deck, approximately 6"x2.5" (153x65mm). Place figures on it to see how many will fit. You may wish to overlap the bases, but leave room for the mast. If not enough figures fit, then you will need to modify the templates.

With a sharp, soft pencil, draw a series of parallel lines to represent planking, about 3/16" (4mm) apart, and about 12" (306mm) long on a piece of brown corrugated cardboard. An inexpensive clear, gridded ruler from the art supply or craft store will help keep the lines parallel. Keep going until you have a lined area a little wider than your full deck width. Now place the Deck-Half Template on the center line and trace around the curve. Flip the template along the centerline, and trace the other half. Then cut out the corrugated deck.

If you wish to have a short, raised deck at the stern, cut a separate piece in the same way, but using only the rear 1.5" (38mm) or so of the template. On the edge which will be exposed, angle the cut backward, so that the deck edge is undercut and the corrugations do not show. Also, cut a another piece of deck material about 1/2"(13mm) shorter than the short deck. This spacer-piece will be glued underneath the short deck to raise it higher. The fact that the spacer is shorter will allow figure bases to be slipped underneath the short deck to maximize the number of figures which can be put on the main deck. You can also make a short deck in the bow (large enough to accommodate only one figure). The Deck-Half template shows the suggested cut-points for the short decks.

Cutting the Hull
Make the hull of thin posterboard, the kind used for gradeschool projects. Buying board of the proper color is better than painting, as heavy application of water-based paints will warp the thin board. Light weathering by drybrushing will usually not affect it.

Take the sheet of thin posterboard in your hands, and flex it into a curve. Relax it and rotate it 90 degrees (so that your hands are on the other two edges) and flex it again. You may find that it curves much more easily in one direction (with the grain) than the other (against the grain). When you lay out the hull sides, do it so that the curve of the hull piece will be with the grain (see illustration).

Cut out the Hullside Template. Remember to cut the area between the tiller and the transom. Cut small notches at the fold lines where the prow meets the hull, where the transom meets the hullside and where the rudder meets the transom. Place the hull template on the edge of the posterboard (remembering to lay it with the grain), and trace lightly around it with a sharp pencil. Put a mark in the notches at the fold lines, and one at the upper end of each fold line. Flip the hull template over and do the same for the other side.

If you wish to draw strakes (the wooden planks which make up the hull), use the Strake Template, and draw the lines on with a sharp, medium-soft pencil. Avoid the temptation to use black paint or ink on a light colored hull, since the contrast will be too great. On the transom, draw parallel horizontal lines to match the hull strakes. If you are really obsessive, use the template to draw strakes on the inside surfaces of the hullsides, too.

Cut out the hullsides and make the hawseholes at the bow with the 1/8" hole punch. Score the fold lines with the back of a knife or a dry ballpoint pen, and fold as shown. Put a permanent curve into the posterboard by drawing parts of the hullside over a table edge under tension, applying more pressure where more curving is needed. Test fit against the deck piece. Continue to draw the parts that don't conform to the deck shape over the edge until you have a reasonably good fit.

Building the Hull
Test-fit the hull pieces to the deck. The fold lines at the prow and at the rudder should come in full contact with one another. If they do not, the deck piece is too long or too wide for the hull: cut a thin slice off the stern of the deck piece to shorten it, or trim the deck piece at the sides of the stern if it is too wide to let the transom pieces join.

Working on a disposable, glue-resistant surface, run a bead of glue down one edge of the corrugated deck. Place one of the hull pieces against the deck, starting at the stern and working forward. (If you are using white glue, secure the hull temporarily with a few ball-headed pins inserted at an angle so they will go into the cardboard corrugations instead of empty space. Remove the pins after the glue dries.) Do the same for the other side of the hull, putting glue on the prow and rudder. (If you are using white glue, wipe it to a thin layer on the prow and rudder to avoid warping, and use a paper clamp or paper clip to hold the prow and stern pieces together while they dry -- or you can use double-sided tape, and dispense with the glue altogether, on these pieces). With hot glue, of course, you won't need the pins or clips.

After they dry, you can paint the rudder and prow a different color (a brown permanent marker works well, and will not warp the board).

Glue the scrap spacers to the bottom of the short bow and stern decks, then glue them down to the maindeck.

Making the Mast and Sail
Cut a length of 3/16" (5mm) dowel for the mast. Rough-taper the end with a knife or pencil sharpener, and smooth with sandpaper or a file.

Cut a length of 1/8" (3.5mm) dowel for the yardarm. Taper the ends with sandpaper.

Cut an angled notch in the mast to fit the yardarm. You can get a better fit by wrapping sandpaper around the yardarm piece and using it to shape the notch. Glue the yardarm in place. (If you are using white glue, a paper clamp will hold the joint together while it dries). A bit of string, glued and wrapped around the junction point in an X, will look good and strengthen the assembly.

Cut a triangle of parchment-style calligraphy paper for the sail. On the bottom and side edges, cut a slight inward curve. This type of paper has irregular splotches and a slight texture that looks good as sails. It can usually be bought by the single sheet at art supply and some office supply stores. If you cannot find it, use other light yellowish-, cream- or buff-colored paper. Put a curve in the sail by drawing it over a table edge. You can glue the sail directly to the yardarm, or you can glue small hooks made of thin wire onto the sail, so it can be slipped on and off the mast assembly, depending on whether the ship is moored or underway. If you want the hanging sail to billow out a bit more, a pin projecting forward from the mast will push the sail forward and is inconspicuous.

Mounting the Mast
It is useful to be able to remove and replace the mast. This requires a socket solidly mounted in the deck. If you live in a country which trusts its citizens with firearms, the ideal socket is a spent .22 caliber cartridge case (available free in unlimited quantities from the ground at any firing range). If not, you will have to use a piece of tubing, or else drill, poke or cut a hole in the deck, then glue the mast permanently in place. (You might want to do it now, while you're still permitted to own sharp objects). Paint the socket, or wrap with string to simulate rope wrapping at the base of the mast. A slight forward cant to the mast can look attractive.

Final Details
Some may find that the basic dhow looks a bit too plain. Small details can be added, but should be kept simple, sturdy, and should not interfere with figure placement.

For hatch covers, you can stain 1/16" (1.6mm) balsa to match the deck color, and scribe plank grooves into it. Then cut out squares 1" (25mm) or so on a side, and glue to them to the deck. "Open" hatches can be made from black paper or thin posterboard with a "frame" of thin balsa strips.

If you drew strakes on the inside of the hull, you may want to cut thin vertical strips of the posterboard and glue them flat to the inside of the hullsides as ribs. Trim them flush with the hull edge after the glue dries.

Use thin brass wire for flagpoles, and glue the flags permanently around them. A small section of brass or copper tubing from the hobbyshop can be glued to the boat's stern, or pieces in each corner of the transom, as flagpole sockets. Make sure that the tubing size fits the flagpole wire exactly. The copper (but not the brass) tubing is soft enough to be cut by rolling it under a sharp knife blade. If you don't glue the poles in the sockets, you can easily change flags.

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Copyright©1998 David Helber. No commercial distribution of images or text from any page on this site without written permission.