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Post subject: Making Turrets for WAS Scratchbuilds (seisen)
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Several people have asked how I go about making the turrets for my AAWAS scratchbuilds. There is really no "science" to it at all, so in response to the requests Im posting a quick "how to" for my BB/BC main gun turrets. Plenty of other modelers have much more detailed methods, and better looking turrets for sure, and I encourage others to share their techniques here.
First is finding the sheet styrene for the turret. Im not precise at all, I just grab what is generally an appropriate "thickness" for the turrets that are for whatever ship. You'll see that I have already cut a "turret ring" or "barbette" from styrene tubing and attached it to the ship figure...
Next, just cut some squares or rectangles of an approximate width and length for the turrets you are creating...
Depending on the "style" of the turret, just rough-cut to shape using a chisle style exacto-blade. Here are three examples of rough-cut turrets. Top is an American "hex" style, middle is more of an Italian and German style, and the bottom is more Royal Navy/UK style. The turret's facing is to the right. Notice one has an angle-cut front...
The next step is the most important for my technique...sanding. I prefer to use the fingernail emeryboards the ladies use on their nails. Standard files can be too rough and the emeryboards give you better control and surface area...
We'll work with the UK style turret in this example. Sanding the sides of the turret you are eliminating the corners of the rough-cut creating a rounded look. Pictured are two different sizes of styrene rod. Again there is no science to it, using what looks best for an appropriate thickness of the gun barrels...
Having decided on the "thicker" rod for 15 inch or 16 inch guns, we've cut two random lengths for the barrels. No need for precision here as we will shorten the barrels later...
To attach/affix the gun barrels I use superglue. No "pre-drilling" with pin-vise or "pegging"...just hold the barrel with your tweezers, dip one end into some superglue (making a small ball of glue on the end) and then attach to the front of the turret. The glue is intentionally excessive as it will create the look of "barrel covers" where the gun and turret meet...
Here we see the turret with both barrels attached. Be sure to pay attention to the distance between the barrels. It can be wide or close, but if making several turrets for the same ship, try to be consistent here...
Now cut the barrels together to make the appropriate length. Again I prefer to just "eye-ball" the cut, but take care to make barrel lengths consistent for turrets on the same figure...
Now taking a rough-cut length of styrene strip, measure a section to represent the sterioscopic/optic rangefinders for the turret. This is just simple detail here. If you like, you can add small "verticle" pieces of styrene rod to represent periscopes or fume-extractors. You can also add AAA "gun tubs" or even pedistal mounted light guns for a more detailed effect. Attach/glue the strip styrene to the top-rear of the turret...
Now all that's left to do is attach/glue your turret onto the barbette/ring on your ship figure. Pay attention to the placement of the turret here, you want the front of the turret just at the front of the barbette/ring so that there is plenty of "overhang" from the rear of the turret. This will make your ship look accurate/appropriate from a profile view...
And that is it guys...nothing fancy at all!
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 Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:38 pm |
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Thanks for the tutorial!
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I have to make a new sig because my old one is too wide for this new look... |
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:02 pm |
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Thank you Seisen! That should help me a lot!
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:23 pm |
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Resident Swede
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You're a bad ass with that knife boy 
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| Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:14 am |
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I refuse to sit here and have my ship shot out from under my ass!
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No nothing to it at all... what he fails to mention is that he has the steady hands of a brain surgeon and has modeling talent comming out the wazoo not to mention better than 20/20 eyesight! I call Bunk! He is really a super hero moonlighting as a humble custom modeler!
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| Sun Jul 20, 2008 9:03 am |
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Does one of the ships have wooden turrets made?
I really like the 'how to' articles.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Thanks for sharing the know how.
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James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. |
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| Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:15 am |
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| Schlachtschiff Bismarck wrote: | | No nothing to it at all... what he fails to mention is that he has the steady hands of a brain surgeon and has modeling talent comming out the wazoo not to mention better than 20/20 eyesight! I call Bunk! He is really a super hero moonlighting as a humble custom modeler! |
Have you ever seen the Monty Python sketch "Bicycle Repairman?" That's what this reminded me of.
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| Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:24 pm |
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| hey_yu wrote: | | Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. |
Give a man a credit card...
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I have to make a new sig because my old one is too wide for this new look... |
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| Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:21 pm |
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AHF Bronze-Rated Trader
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| hey_yu wrote: | Does one of the ships have wooden turrets made?
I really like the 'how to' articles.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Thanks for sharing the know how. |
Yeah, on occasion I do use cut pieces of wood dowel rod. Just dependes on what the turrets are for. Dowel works great for the old French "Steam Boiler" turrets of 1900-1913 vintage. You just cut the rod to an appropriate thickness, angle the top forward by sanding, and glue on the gun barrels...same kinda technique.
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Mutants For Nukes! |
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| Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:48 pm |
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Post subject: turrets
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Looks great dude you must have good eyes my bifocals leave me guessing.
Ray
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rcbecker1
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| Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:00 am |
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Resident Swede
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| Aquarius wrote: | | hey_yu wrote: | | Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. |
Give a man a credit card...
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...and there's no end to his miseries 
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| Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:53 am |
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| I love the "style" of your ships. The have a clean, retro look ... perfect for Aeronef "Steampunk" models. |
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| Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:24 pm |
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AHF Bronze-Rated Trader
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That is terrific set of step-by-step photos. I really appreciate your willingness to share your technique and skill.
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| Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:06 am |
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| jfkziegler wrote: |
Have you ever seen the Monty Python sketch "Bicycle Repairman?" That's what this reminded me of. |
Just watched it on YouTube. Very funny! 
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| Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:14 am |
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You have got to be kidding!!
You can do this kind of stuff with a sheet of plastic!!
Great, just great. What skill. It must be nice to be talented.
Hey, in the back ground are those pre-dreadnoughts? I would love to see more of them. What is the story on them? A new game or just for fun?
Fantastic work. I am just blown away. |
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| Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:42 am |
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Forum Administrator
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| chessteve wrote: | You have got to be kidding!!
You can do this kind of stuff with a sheet of plastic!!
Great, just great. What skill. It must be nice to be talented.
Hey, in the back ground are those pre-dreadnoughts? I would love to see more of them. What is the story on them? A new game or just for fun?
Fantastic work. I am just blown away. |
First off,  to the forum!
Second, although it does help to have the talent of Seisen, you can actually learn to do pretty nice work just by a lot of trial and error (and a lot of advice from talented people like Seisen).
I started out producing crappy work about a year ago, and while my work is still far from fantastic, I have at least learned to make it servicable despite my lack of talent.
As for the pre-dreadnoughts, we like to make a lot of custom cards on the forum, so sometimes we model pieces we like, make cards for them, and then stick them into our games.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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| Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:48 am |
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AHF Bronze-Rated Trader
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| chessteve wrote: | You have got to be kidding!!
You can do this kind of stuff with a sheet of plastic!!
Great, just great. What skill. It must be nice to be talented.
Hey, in the back ground are those pre-dreadnoughts? I would love to see more of them. What is the story on them? A new game or just for fun?
Fantastic work. I am just blown away. |
You'll get the hang of it. Dont stress trying to make something perfect, just nail down the overall "look" of what the figure is supposed to represent and you'll be fine. Also remember no one is perfect at this. For each ship I make that I am happy with/can live with... there are about 3 to 4 real disasters that look like they came from a Macaque Monkey on crack! Even the more experienced of us live by "trial and error".
The pre-dreadnaughts are nothing new for many of us. The guys I game with frequently play "between wars" scenarios, or hypothetical War Plan Red/Black/Orange etc etc. Sometimes we play pure WW1 too. For the most part, all the "old WW1 or Pre-WW1 ships" that I make, were present during WW2 somewhere. Often training ships, colonial service ships, or accomodation ships, most of the Naval Combatats of WW2 had some ancient ships serving in some form or another.
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Mutants For Nukes! |
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| Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:44 am |
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