Making Coastal Forces

Thomas suggested in a post that I do a tutorial on how I put my ships together. To be honest it isn't that easy as I put them together in odd moments during the day, so am not always in a position to take useful pictures of each stage in the process. But here's a few pictures and some basic notes on how I go about making stuff.

Remember, I'm not trying to make realistic scale models here. I just want something that's a step up from using cardboard counters.

First off, the bases of the vessels are the ubiquitous lolly-sticks or coffee-stirrers. You can get these from craft shops. The lolly-sticks are about a centimetre wide and the coffee-stirrers half that. Note that I've found that actual coffee-stirrers, grabbed by the handful from cafes, can be slightly thinner than the craft ones.

The coffee-stirrers are good for the gunboats and torpedo boats. The lolly-sticks work for anything else.

Find the length of the vessel and do the necessary maths to work out how long a piece of stick that equates to. I suppose at this stage I should say that I'm working in 1/1200th scale. It's a good one to work with, since 100 feet on the real thing equates to a nice useful 1" when modelling. Saying that I actually make mine in multiples of 5mm, just because it's easier to measure. Anyway, cut the stick to length. Use the rounded end of the stick as the bow. 

I then shape them with an emery board (the kind you do your nails with). Make the gunboats and torpedo boats look sleek and keep the freighters and so forth looking wide and slab-sided. You'll get a feel for what works.

And here's some cut up and ready to go. I put pencil abbreviations on them to remind me what each one will be: 'SV' for Small Verpostenboot, 'SF' for Small Freighter, 'MF' for Medium Freighter and 'ML' for Motor Launch.

On one I have sketched out what needs to be added in terms of superstructure. That one will be an Isle-class Trawler. In addition I have cut two smaller pieces off teh end of a stick to be the raised bow of two of teh vessels. The bits were to hand, so I did them before I took the picture.

Loads of steps skipped here, but here's three Fairmile B motor launches and the Isle-class Trawler. The superstructure is small sections of lolly-stick, or bits of matchstick. I used thin card from a cereal packet to build up some of it as well. The masts are pieces of florists wire - drill a small hole and pop it in with some glue. The gun turrets/platforms are made with the two things you see at the top of the picture; the shaft of a cotton-bud* and a Hama bead. I cut sections from them with a sharp blade.

Anyway, I have a look at pictures of actual vessels and then work out what the key features and shapes are and replicate them using whatever's to hand. All stuck together with PVA glue, aside from the masts which are superglued in.

I mount each on a base, and then paint it grey. The base is painted in blue. This is temporary; it means I can use them relatively guilt-free because they are kind of painted. But at some stage I will start painting them properly.

The big blank bases are blinds for the hidden movement component of the game. They are made from what I guess are tongue depressors. They're big fat lolly-sticks, anyway. I picked up a ton of them from, of all places, a barbers shop that was shut down by the police for being a money-laundering operation. They were easier to get home than the pool table.

Anyway, I hope you found that useful. As you can see, the whole process is pretty obvious when you break it down. The end results won't win any prizes, but they give the right vibe, and that's what I was after.

*Plastic-shafted cotton-buds may be harder to find as there's a move back to the old paper shafts now. I bought a lifetime's supply a few years ago, though.