Lou Coatney's "paper model" pop-ups.

[LouCoatney]

I assume most all of us have played classic old Battleship and Stratego or maybe the latter's naval equivalent Dover Patrol.

Well, I've gone a step farther with my Task Forces and Convoys: A Naval Chess Game (free to print off and play on my CoatneyHistory webpage) which I designed for my then-7-yr-old daughter Johanna Grace ... who immediately started beating me in it. (Last year, she wowed her school's faculty by not missing a single question in her 3rd grade year-end math exam, which they take quite seriously here in Norway. And she's murder in Othello. Anyway, ....)

Came the problem of concealed pieces which can move. It quickly became apparent that just having counters face down on the hexagonal board especially for the "advanced" - not really - "historical" - general scenarios, anyway - game.

Expecting people to buy wooden blocks to glue the faces on was slightly unrealistic, so I came up with the idea of a triangular cross-section pop-up/stand-up piece ... not quite a 3-dimensional model, but ....

You print the sheet off onto heavy/cardstock paper, score the fold lines, cut out the pieces, fold them into their triangular cross-sections, and glue (the bases). Sound familiar?

(I wonder if this could be a good transition into paper model ship building, since my free plans for those are there on CoatneyHistory as well. I should add the suggestion to the game's page.)

(By the way, doing the individual ships and planes pixel by pixel is like trying to build a 2-D model with square Legos. )

I won't be posting more on here about this than just this one thread, but I thought you guys might find the idea intriguing. Here is the first sheet, but I also have pieces/sheets for the World War 2 British, German, Italian, French, and Russian ships.

Note that the subs are their periscopes and their snake-like wakes.

Photos:
Ship Sheet 1
U.S. Navy's Johanna Grace Coatney - then 7 - stalking Daddy's already depleted Imperial Japanese Navy squadron

[wireandpaper]

I am glad to see progress.
Are you still considering publishing your models in abook?

[RyanShort1]

I like it. Also wondering if the "rules" could be adapted for other kinds of pieces, like Lego models...

[Don Boose]

I'm glad to hear that you continue to develop table-top naval war games, Lou.

I enjoyed seeing the image of Johanna exercising her naval strategy and operational art.

Don

[LouCoatney]

Thanks, Don. With the self-isolation and the kids 2 hours away over here in Norway, our Google Hangout video chat tonight was a very happy event. My kid sister (68) finally got to "meet" Johanna, her youngest niece by far.

And when game players tire of using their heads and want to use their hands, the paper models on my CoatneyHistory webpage are right there for them. (Sneaky recruiting! )

Ryan, I think Legos have been used for game playing pieces, and I think Lego even came up with at least one such game.

Thanks, Wire and Paper. Once I get them colorized, I may post more of my drawings on Wargame Vault for downloading.

I may transfer some of them into WV from being FREE on CoatneyHistory, so any of those that are, right now, you should download right now.


Maybe I should put new ones up on CoatneyHistory for free for a couple weeks, and let PaperModelers folks know. Hmm ...