SIDE-TRIP! DETOUR AHEAD!
It's not that I don't mind scratchbuilding, but I also can't resist a really cool kit if one is available. I'm still waiting for the kits to come, so I'm kind of on hold right now.
I thought "I'm working on my ship game, but I don't want to play with counters. I've bought some 1/2400 scale ships from different sources, so why not start on those while I'm waiting?" I already knew that a lot of the oddball stuff I want isn't made by anybody in any scale, which is why I bought the resin kit. So I decided to scratchbuild a French Fusee class armored gunboat from 1885 and see if I could make one and then cast the other three in the class. I'd better, because I really don't want to play with flat counters! I had purchased some models of similar size, but they looked nothing like the Fusee class. They were so far off I couldn't even convert them.
So I put together some of the photos I have of the class and printed them out, then printed out the counter sheet. I printed a side view to the correct scale and glued some plastic sheet together to get the correct freeboard on the hull, then glued one of the printed counters to it so I could cut out the correct shape.
Plans:
Plastic:
Pattern:
The finished model will only be 7/8" (22.25mm) long.