I'm on a Boat! (Conversion Help Needed)

[reegsk]

Howdy Btowners! Okay, so if you haven't seen the video, search Hulu for "SNL I'm on a Boat"...hilarious.

Ahem, moving along. So I have a great idea for my Vamp Counts army -- a creepy, flooded valley/swamp theme. That being said, instead of having corpse carts that would get mired in the, well, the mire (damn I'm punny today..hah), I thought up the idea of having corpse boats. Here's my problem -- I'm not so great at searching teh internets for modeling stuff unless it's GW or Reaper. Does anyone know of a company that would sell a, preferrably, plastic kit of an old wooden boat? Even a rowboat would work, as I plan on vampire counting it up. It has to be roughly the same size or a little larger than a corpse cart, because to keep it GT legal I'm going to use the upper half of the corpse cart model (the pile o' bodies and bone-like cage). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Ironhide]

Well, you can't use another company's model if it is going to be for a GT. It would probably have to be scratch built. You can find scratch built kits at a hobby store like Hobby Lobby or HobbytownUSA. I'd recommend doing it like a viking funeral, except the bodies are locked in the cage.

[MagickalMemories]

Their rules are tailored to gaming models... you can't use, for example, a Privateer Press or Reaper model... unless it's converted.
GW rules are that a certain % (I don't recall how much) has to be GW bits. I think they allow gs to count towards that, but i'm not certain.

I think that, if he's using a generic toy/model boat and adding a plethora of GW bits to it, he has nothing to worry about.

As for where to find one... ::shrugs:: Got me.

Google-fu on "toy boat" brought this site...

http://www.thetoyboat.com/

The "Arts and Crafts" section has something you might like.

If that doesn't work, google-fu "toy boat" and poke around.


Eric

[reegsk]

Thanks MM, I think those'll do nicely!

And you are correct, sir. At least according to the '08 GT rules packet (I haven't bothered to look this year), only 51% of the model has to be GW. So I figure if I include the top part of the corpse cart and maybe add a few more bits on, with the boat being only about half of the model it should be tourney legal. Green stuff is, I believe, counted, but kind of a grey area.

[MagickalMemories]

You can always cover the boat with narrow strips of balsa wood to give it that "plank" look. At that point, it won't even LOOK like a toy boat anymore.

Eric

[Crestion du Sable]

It may be because I tend to use LOTS of balsa wood in my work.... I was going to suggest building one out of Balsa and canvas... Similar to what I did to make my War Mamuk that didn't have the houdah with it.

Dave

[MEDEVL]

Another good source for building materials for scale boats is coffee stirrers. You can get a box of wooden stir sticks for next to nothing and they work great.
FYI Ral Parth used to make a mini of Charon in a boat that might be useful to you for ideas or something.
http://www.collecting-miniatures.com/ol ... able_3.jpg

[wookieegunner]

Instead of buying a boat, why don't you take some zombies, lay them on the base, and lash them together with carpet thread like they were a bunch of logs that had been lashed together into a raft?

[porkuslime]

Instead of buying a boat, why don't you take some zombies, lay them on the base, and lash them together with carpet thread like they were a bunch of logs that had been lashed together into a raft?

Someone has been reading the Tales of the Black Freighter...

-Porkuslime

[reegsk]

That's an awesome boat, Medevl. Is it OOP?

[MEDEVL]

Yeah, it's OOP. Unfortunatley Ral Partha went out of business several years ago but you can still find their minis on Ebay and places like Bartertown. Another company formed with some of the old employees and they make some of the older stuff but I can't remember it's name.

[porkuslime]

Yeah, it's OOP. Unfortunatley Ral Partha went out of business several years ago but you can still find their minis on Ebay and places like Bartertown. Another company formed with some of the old employees and they make some of the older stuff but I can't remember it's name.

Iron Wind Metals is the new company..

[orctez]

How about popsicle sticks? They are very cheap, even at hobby stores and you can split them in half lenght-wise and make some really nice rough hewn looking boats. I use them for my mordheim terrain and they work out great!

Art

[Ironhide]

Plus the fact that you can get popsicle sticks with popsicles attached!! Win,win!

[reegsk]

Indeed, Ironhide.

And porkuslime, thanks for the name. I checked out their website, but, unfortunately, that's not a model they carried over, or decided to make a newer edition of.

As for the popsicle sticks, would you guys recommend getting some sort of toy boat or boat model as a base, or just use some pink foam? I'm sure I could find a bunch lying around. I'm thinking that, if the boat itself is pinkfoam and popsicle sticks (with maybe a ratty sail), I could include the upper portions of the corpse cart with the guy riding on it, and maybe throw some zombies clawing at the sides of the boat out of the water to make sure it goes above the 51% GW requirement. Our local tournies drop that req, but it'd be nice to spend all that time on models and have them be tourney legal anywhere.

Lastly, a big thank you to all of you guys for chiming in. I had planned on just using Btown as a board to trade my unwanted crap for stuff that I could use, but it's nice to see there's a decent core of regulars that keep an eye out and respond pretty darn quickly with helpful advice.