Its been almost five years, but the Wreck is getting raised once more! My Savage Tide game has finally come back to this point, revived from the catacombs of failed campaigns by dimension hopping sorcery!
Some of you may recall I built the Wreck for my previous Savage Tide game. I wanted to get photos up, but didn't have a digital camera at the time. Well, it went into the attic, and its coming down now. I'm assembling it, and will take photos and upload them to my facebook page.
It begins!
Just finished reassembling it from its original state five years prior. I'm gonna do a little touch up work I never got to before, then post pics. Don't worry, I'll put a link up.
An interesting note, at the normal depth of a ships hull, most of the vertical measurements are rather... cramped. Especially for the poor ballista operators on the second level.
Also an interesting note: ballista apparently offends the message-board spellchecker system.
Facebook album uploaded!
Facebook album uploaded!
That looks awesome... it's the first time I've actually been able to see it properly
We're about to start BWG and was dreading getting to SoS as I couldn't work out the map
Now I get it... ;)
How long did it take to make?
Total man hours was probably about 25-30, three or four hours at a time. Granted, I had already figured out a lot of the tricks from previous models, this was just the biggest to date.
Total cost was pretty negligible. About 5$ in glue, 5$ in marker pens (pretty much drained by the end), and 5$ for a can of blue spray paint (made the ocean much easier. Cardboard I just got out of the recycle bins behind various stores.
Best of all, fully disassembles and fits into two boxes. All structures can be accessed internally, with walls and doors either in place or drawn onto their floor-plans (for the tighter spaces like the ships). Buildings can be easily removed as well (a must in my games, as my parties often take terrain damage to new levels).
Not bad for 20$ and some free time, I think.
I'm glad you were able to put it back together so we could see it! When I made my version of The Wreck it didn't cost a whole lot either. I think I spent about $30 all together with $10 of that being the base map from Kinkos (I had it printed in black and white on a 36"x48" sheet of paper). The rest was me printing out the decking from the Maiden of the High Seas (which I made for STAP) to glue onto plastic sheeting (pole signs from work for free) so they would hold up to having some weight on them.
It was definitely worth the effort I put into it. I couldn't imagine running that battle without having the model to use. Once you see it the scale of the thing hits you. I didn't tell the players I was building it so they came over for the session to see it for the first time.
The following battle was one of the better moments of the campaign.
Really impressive set up, looks like that would make for a great layout to play on
That is seven different kinds of awesome, BB!
A question for you, as this has inspired me: How did you make the central tree and still have the decks of the ships (to get into the hull maps) removeable?
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I'll try to post a few more pictures to that gallery, but in case I forget, here is how I built the central tree:
Tree is one cardboard tube with slits in it to allow a popsicle stick to be slid through, making a run on either side for a ship to rest on. I screwed the plastic cap of the tube to a thin peice of wood that rests under the base tile. Those caps are usually so freaking tight that they can deal with the wierd torque created by this off-balance architecture. So when I assemble this, I put the wood+cap down first, then the cardboard tile with the ocean and such, then stick the cardboard tube-tree through the tile and onto its cap.
Ships are constructed by first making a base and top peice that is pretty much exactly what the magazine illustrates. I only draw interior walls both for ease of construction and because minis get crowded easily enough without trying to slide them around 1 inch slots. I then made a 2 inch high (effectively 10' in scale, about right for a ships hull in most cases) wall that I curled around the base, making a sort of bowl. (Tip: when making curved walls with cardboard, pay attention to the "grain" of the cardboard, that is, which direction it naturally bends. Always use this to your advantage, never fight it.)
For glue, I use Tacky Glue, works best in my opinion for the least investment. Hot glue is tempting for speed, but is always more expensive than you think and proves aggravating if your going to store the object: temperature changes over the seasons will break the hot glue's seal. Superglue is the best connection, but is far too expensive in bulk and will make for stiff, sometimes too stiff, connections. Also, superglue that misses its target can be a royal pain; Tacky Glue is easily cleaned up, even after it dries. I've once had my pants CATCH ON FIRE from an errant drop of superglue. No joke. Cheap black slacks and standard superglue plus chemical reactions equals flame and a molten hole in my pants.
Then I glue at the appropriate connection point a carboard bracket for the tree-tube. I make these just by wrapping a 2" piece of cardboard around the tube tightly, then gluing it together, but NOT to the tube itself. Usually gives a good snug fit, and if its loose, just glue a small strip of cardboard inside the bracket to fill in the space a little.
Then just cut the upper decks where you may need to remove them from the tree without having to lift them off, and you're good to go.
Again, I'll try to post a few "detail" pictures, if I can remember when I wake up.
Thank you so much, BB! My group does not have the room for the entire map, (By my calculations, I would need 5' by 7' and our gaming table is 4' by 6.5', and due to children and pets, the floor is not an option) but I am most definitely making the actual Wreck. Age of Worms had taught me that three dimensional combats need detailed accurate mapping. Again, many many thanks!