Follow along to see how we created the sails for this enormous model!
Our Skies Over Daemoor release on Patreon features some serious skyborne heroes, vicious villains, and many other fantastical aerial characters to spice up your tabletop games. Our awesome Patreon supporters recently unlocked a social goal and are also receiving this colossal ship: The Cloud Breaker.
Materials Used
Archer and I teamed up for this project, and our casual approach meant we often sketched and estimated many aspects — in other words, this project was not entirely a practice in precision!
The materials we used:
- ¼” wooden dowels and bamboo skewers for masts/booms
- paper towels for the sail fabric
- Mod Podge
- Glue
- Magic-sculpt
- Thin wire
- Embroidery floss
- Acrylic paints
Construction & Assembly
After settling on an idea for the kinds of sails we wanted, we built the masts/booms. For example, the back sails (aka the “tail” ) we measured and cut our wood dowels at approx. 5” long. The large sails for the middle mast needed dowels at around 7” long. Archer drilled small holes into the 3D printed vertical masts to give all the dowels somewhere to sit. Tip: when drilling into cured UV resin go slow as the material can crack easily.
We glued them into place and used Magic-sculpt to build up supports around the dowels (Archer would later paint those supports to look like metal). I estimated the sizing and shape for the sail fabric, first in paper:
Archer used the same thin wire twisted on itself to resemble rope, which was also used for extra nautical-fantasy effect. Once all the rings and ropes were attached, it was time to paint.
We collaborated with Spencer, one of our team's miniature painters, to match his color scheme on the boat. I laser cut a stencil of our Broken Anvil logo, and the BAM Cloud Breaker was complete!
If you make sails for your own ship, we’d love to see it! You’re welcome to attempt our method, or design up your own — the sky’s the limit (har, har)!
Want to get help troubleshooting this project, or anything else you’re working on? Join the BAM Discord community to chat with our team, meet other makers, and show off your creations.