A couple of years ago I tried to design a Viking longship, but as I didn't have that much experience with ship models back then the first prototypes resulted in overcomplicated structures.
So this year I went back to try again and was able to get a much better looking and easier to build geometry for the hull done. I was using reference photos and models to make sure the dimensions and proportions were "believable" and large enough for gaming. A first texturing sketch was applied to see how this could look once done.
Like most of my models I work in the 28-30mm figure space so I made a successful test with packing a lot of minis in to the prototype. That's almost 30 minis on deck in the third pic
So at this stage, when I am happy with the geometry I start a test build and see how the parts go together. With the length of the hull reaching 50cm I knew I had to split parts to make them fit on A4/Letter pages. Also looking at the bow/stern sections I found I wanted to change the original unfold to resemble the flow of planks better.
My hope was that with a good job of texturing I would be able to hide the seams of the parts and make the hull look like one piece!
Let's see how that goes!