War Artisan's Workshop

This is the place to check out what I'm currently working on, or to find out more about how I do things.  Below, on the left, you'll find pictures of my latest project;  on the right are links to tutorials that explain my techniques in more detail.

Current Projects

 Work is progressing on the first ships of the new series, "Lake Erie 1813".  Shown below are USS Niagara on the left, and HMS Detroit on the right.  The model in the center is USS Argus, one of the variants which will be included in the Detroit kit.

The Detroit is in the hands of the test builders now, and I'm working on the instructions for the Niagara.  More (and larger) photos of these test-builds can be seen at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/war_artisan/sets/72157627120930633/

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 I took one of the 1:300 test models and rescanned it at 200%.  At 1:150, it's about the same scale as 10mm figures, so I painted up a crew of 10mm Revolutionary War figures.  In larger scales, wargame ships look kind of strange with no crew.  I like the way this looks.  You can see more pictures on my Flickr page at

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/war_artisan/sets/72157625109449759/detail/

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The next ship in the Lake Champlain 1776 collection is a ~50 ton merchant schooner, of a type common on all the inland waters of North America in the late 18th/early 19th century.  It will come in two versions, one unarmed and the other pierced for up to 8 guns.  This model will be a good choice to represent the schooner confiscated by the Rebels at Skenesborough in 1775 and renamed Liberty.  The model is ready, and will be added to the line as soon as the instructions are finished.

(Note:  added to Catalogue 7 December 2010)

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As I was cleaning up the final version of the galley Washington, I was thinking about how she was rerigged by the British after her capture and I became curious to see what she would look like as a brig . . . so here she is, rerigged and flying her captor's colors.

Now that I've done that, I guess I should make a conversion kit so that anyone who builds the Washington can do the British version, too.

Tutorials

The intricate rigging characteristic of sailing ships can be the most daunting part of creating a model ship.  Here's a tutorial that outlines a quick and easy method for rigging wargame miniatures of all types and scales.

Sailing Ship Rigging Tutorial

 A lot of the buildings in my games are made from cardstock.  There are dozens of cardstock models available on the net (check out the links page), but they usually come with only rudimentary instructions, or none at all.  Here is a step-by-step explanation of how I turn a simple cardstock building into a model that would grace any wargame table.

Cardstock Building Tutorial