The Trireme is an ancient Greek war ship with three tiers of rowers, and designed with a hidden battering ram fitted to the prow of the ship, and under water. These effective warships helped the Greeks to maintain their oceanic supremacy. Triremes have a particular style, one which model boat aficionados will recognise for their distinctive ram. If you want to make yourself a simple model of the ship, you may do so out of card stock and a few simple materials.

  • The Trireme is an ancient Greek war ship with three tiers of rowers, and designed with a hidden battering ram fitted to the prow of the ship, and under water.
  • Triremes have a particular style, one which model boat aficionados will recognise for their distinctive ram.

Download and print out a trireme template. You can find a template located under Resources.

Glue the template to a sheet of card stock.

Decorate the trireme. Paint or draw in the sides of the vehicle with a light brown wood colour. The eye of the ship is typically made blue. The deck should be a darker shade of the wood, and the same shade as the oars. Paint the sailors to look like people.

Cut out the pieces of the Trireme model. Do not cut the marines into individual pieces. Trim the oars into a comb shape, rather than cut them into individual pieces.

  • Paint or draw in the sides of the vehicle with a light brown wood colour.
  • Trim the oars into a comb shape, rather than cut them into individual pieces.

Score the fold lines, which appear as dashed lines. To score an object, press the utility knife or a scissors blade against the line, but do not cut through the material.

Fold the ship into a trireme shape, and glue the tabs into their places. Leave the model to dry overnight.

TIP

You can use an image editing program such as Microsoft Paint to enlarge or colour the template.

WARNING

Children should supervise children when assembling the model, particularly when using the utility knife or scissors.