ccoyle

Hello my friends,
 
I made some progress again  
 
The galion is finished. I had to make some improvements because of dimensions of parts, but it quite fits.
The rest of wales on upper parts is glued also ( so all of them are there finally  )
As the next part I´ve just started balcony - it will be reconstructed - I don´t like the graphics used by shipyard on this parts ( and, by the way, there is something different on the picture at the front of the kit  ). As surface finish I used strips of foil. Now I have to produce all of ornaments ( letters E and R, fleurs de lis and flowers ). Why do not complicate some things.    I tried to check dimensions of it with the ship - it fits.
 
 
Jan

 

Matti: yes, it looks
 
I glued the keel on the ship finally. Now I can to do some color improvements on the hull. Momentary I´m working on handrails
 
Jan

I've started making treenails, using cut off and sharpened at the end hypodermic needle. Needle needs to be only gently pressed to the veneer and twisted several times.

     

And finally, a few dabs of touch-up paint here and there, and a careful separation of the model from its working base (sliding mono-filament line between the two does the trick neatly), and V108 is done, done, done!



 
I hope you have enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I have enjoyed creating it.  I really, really hope that at least a few of you will be emboldened by this little treatise to step out and try a card model of your own.  Let's see what you can do!

Thank you very much for your kind words B.E., Ferit and Bob.
 
This afternoon I've painted the masts.
 

 

Just fabulous Chris. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to post this excellent tutorial.

And finally, a few dabs of touch-up paint here and there, and a careful separation of the model from its working base (sliding mono-filament line between the two does the trick neatly), and V108 is done, done, done!



 
I hope you have enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I have enjoyed creating it.  I really, really hope that at least a few of you will be emboldened by this little treatise to step out and try a card model of your own.  Let's see what you can do!

ccoyle, absolutely fantastic.

Regards,
 
Alexandru

Generally speaking, card model parts are numbered in the sequence in which the designer intended they be assembled, but it doesn't always make sense to follow this sequence.  For example, if we follow the part number sequence on this model, the forecastle deck (13) would be followed by the hull side skins (14) ('skin' is the card modeling term for any large outer part that covers the internal frame 'skeleton' -- get it?), and finally the stern skin (15).  This is a bad sequence for several reasons.  First, there are parts that go under the forecastle deck, and it makes more sense to install these before adding the deck.  Second, the stern should be skinned first, for reasons I'll explain later.  Stuff like this is why the diagrams and parts sequence should be studied and pondered before doing any assembly.
 
Now, look carefully at the parts sheet where the hull skins are printed (parts 14-16).  Parts 16a and 16b are optional rubbing strips; these features are already printed on parts 14 and 15, but by adding the optional strips, you give your model a little hint of depth.  This technique is called 'doubling', because you're doubling the thickness of the part.  You need to decide now whether to add parts 16, because adding them later will be a huge headache.

 
Either way you decide, there is something very important to take note of in the way the parts are laid out on the page.  Notice that if you cut out the parts in the numbered sequence, i.e. parts 14 first, parts 15 and 16 will be left on a narrow strip.  If you then continue to cut out part 15, parts 16 will be left on even narrower strips.  This, my friends, is very bad.  You see, if you then continue to cut out parts 16, the narrow strips will want to splay away from your blade as you cut, and this makes cutting long, thin parts from narrow strips of parts sheet unnecessarily difficult.  To do the job right, ignore the numbering sequence and cut out the parts from the outside edge of the sheet and work towards the center.  Thus, the cutting sequence should be 14L, 16b, 16a, 15, the other 16a, the other 16b, and finally 14R.  Work carefully and note that some of the edges are not entirely straight, but slightly curved.
 
I'm going to show you the assembly sequence with the rubbing strips included.  These need to be added to hull skins before the skins are attached to the model.  Start by coloring the edges of all the hull skin parts.  Part of the inside of 14L and 14R will need to be colored where the bulwark extends slightly aft of the forecastle -- this inside portion will be visible on the finished model.  I also color the top inside edge of each hull skin just in case it extends ever so slightly higher than the hull frames. 
 
We're going to start skinning with part 15 and work forward, and here's why: If you start with 14L and 14R and work aft, if any error creeps in, the resulting gap will be somewhere amidships.  If you start with part 15 at the stern and work forward, any error creep will be at the bow, and fixing that problem at the bow (if it occurs at all) is easier than fixing it amidships.
 
Here's part 15 and one of its two rubbing strips (16b):

 
Use a fine-tipped paint brush to apply a thin layer of glue to half  the length of the rubbing strip, and then carefully fix it to part 15; when that's completed to your satisfaction, repeat the process with the remaining half of the rubbing strip.  In the following picture, you can see part 15 with the rubbing strip added on the left, but no strip added yet on the right -- you can judge for yourself whether the extra effort is worth it or not.

 
Next we'll tackle applying a skin to the hull!

Fantastic tutorial Chris, I've really enjoyed following your progress.

Chris,
 
As ever your log is very informative and interesting. This is producing a superb model.
 
Love the reflection of the ship in the glass in the first photo of posting number 10 - could almost be on water.

So, how do our thread railings look on the model?  Judge for yourself:

 
Adding the railings consists of measuring off the right length of railing to add, adding any extra stanchions that might be needed due to cutting to length, and gluing the railings to the model.  I use PVA for straight sections and CA where necessary to tack down any sharp curves.  I brush the PVA onto the deck where the railing goes, not to the railing itself - these springy railings are a great way to spread unwanted glue on your model.
 
Here's the finished forecastle railings:


 
The forward flagstaff is a short length of wire.
 
Anywhere there are angled bends in the railings, I prefer to cut the railing at the joint and glue down two separate panels.  Unlike photo-etched metal or card, thread does not like to make nice, crisp bends.

So, how do our thread railings look on the model?  Judge for yourself:

 
Adding the railings consists of measuring off the right length of railing to add, adding any extra stanchions that might be needed due to cutting to length, and gluing the railings to the model.  I use PVA for straight sections and CA where necessary to tack down any sharp curves.  I brush the PVA onto the deck where the railing goes, not to the railing itself - these springy railings are a great way to spread unwanted glue on your model.
 
Here's the finished forecastle railings:


 
The forward flagstaff is a short length of wire.
 
Anywhere there are angled bends in the railings, I prefer to cut the railing at the joint and glue down two separate panels.  Unlike photo-etched metal or card, thread does not like to make nice, crisp bends.

The Digital Navy V108 kit does not, with a few exceptions such as the bridge wings, include railings for the model, nor does it include any templates for railings.  But hey, it's a free model, so we won't complain too much, right?
 
But that doesn't mean you can't add railings.  Railings add a lot of subtle visual appeal to a card model, and there are four ways you can add them: 1) made from paper, much as the bridge wing railings (these create the illusion of open railings); 2) after-market laser-cut railings (to my eye these are overly stout-looking, but they come pre-cut obviously, and that's worth something); 3) photo-etched railings (the best-looking and also most expensive option); or 4) thread railings.  I'm going to show you how to do option #4.
 
Start by downloading the free railings template at Paper Shipwright.  You'll have to go through the whole checkout procedure, but relax - you don't get charged anything for the transaction.  The Paper Shipwright template is in 1/250 scale, so you'll need to scale it up for 1/200 by printing at 125% of the original.  At that size, you won't be able to print the template on one sheet of paper.  What you do absolutely need is both ends of the template; I managed this by printing two copies of the template in landscape mode. 

(L to R: full-sized template, middle portion enlarged 125%, two copies at 125% printed in landscape mode.)
 
Next you'll need to glue the templates onto some heavy-duty cardboard.  I found that a case for liquid fabric softener worked well -- it's very rigid, because of course liquids are heavy.  Use spray adhesive to glue down the templates.  In this picture you can see that I've spliced the two landscape-mode copies together to make a single template.  There's also a thread ladder template, which I won't be demonstrating, but which works in principle exactly like the railings template.

 
Next, remove the center portion of the template.

 
You're now ready to start wrapping thread.  I use quilting thread, but regular thread will also work.
 
The template works like this:  At each end are tic marks labelled two rail, three rail, and four rail.  These are the marks you will use to align the railing threads.  Notice that the two-rail marks actually consist of three marks - the bottom 'rail' is actually used to mount the railing to the model and doesn't count as one of the real-life rails.
 
On opposite sides of the template are drawn railings with the stanchions spaced at different intervals.  The smallest interval is about 5.5 mm.  The stanchion locator marks on the model are 6 mm apart.  I don't know about you, but I'm not going to nit-pick over 0.5 mm, so I used the 5.5 mm spacing.
 
Start by wrapping the rails first.  Use some tape to secure the thread right on top of the tic marks.  Go ahead and use all four sets of two-rail marks - you'll get four lengths of railing as a result.

 
When the rails are done, cut the thread and secure the end with tape, taking care to ensure the thread stays taut and properly positioned.  Next, add the stanchions in the same fashion.  You have to kind of train yourself to concentrate only on the stanchion interval you want to use, otherwise you wind up with irregularly spaced stanchions.  You can cut off the other stanchion spacing guides if you find them too distracting.


 
When all the rails and stanchions are wound, it's time to secure the joints by giving the entire railing set a coat of diluted white PVA glue.  You can also try medium-cure CA, which will make the railings stiffer.  I didn't use CA this time around because my bottle of medium-cure is on the old side and is more like medium-slow, which is too viscous for this job.  Before brushing on the glue, I find it helpful to add some tension to the railings by sliding a piece of dowel or strip wood under the rail threads at either end of the template; this will push the rails up and against the stanchions.  After the glue dries thoroughly, you can paint the railings in any manner you choose.  I use gray spray primer.  One thing to take note of here is that any thread will have some fuzz on it.  Quilting thread has less fuzz, but it still has it.  Spray painting causes build-up on the fuzz, and too many coats can make this build-up unsightly.  It helps to pick off as much of the fuzz as you can before and/or after painting.
 
When the paint is dry, you can remove the finished railings from the template.   Here's my set:

 
At this scale and template length, I got about four feet of railing, which should be more than enough to do the model, even if I mess up on some and have to try again.
 
 

Great work Chris,
 
I am really enjoying following this log.
 
Cheers
Slog

So, how do our thread railings look on the model?  Judge for yourself:

 
Adding the railings consists of measuring off the right length of railing to add, adding any extra stanchions that might be needed due to cutting to length, and gluing the railings to the model.  I use PVA for straight sections and CA where necessary to tack down any sharp curves.  I brush the PVA onto the deck where the railing goes, not to the railing itself - these springy railings are a great way to spread unwanted glue on your model.
 
Here's the finished forecastle railings:


 
The forward flagstaff is a short length of wire.
 
Anywhere there are angled bends in the railings, I prefer to cut the railing at the joint and glue down two separate panels.  Unlike photo-etched metal or card, thread does not like to make nice, crisp bends.

Believe it or not, there's just a few things left to do on the basic structure.
 
Something we didn't add way back during the hull construction are the propeller guard struts.  Same as we did with the bridge supports, start by carefully punching holes in the hull above the guards (there are locator marks).  Cut small pieces of wire slightly longer than needed for the finished strut.  Insert one end through the hull and pull the opposite end down onto the propeller guard.  Secure it with CA.  When the glue dries, the loose wire ends at the hull will allow you to move the guards up or down to get them level with the waterline.

 
The galley stack (61) is one of the last parts for good reason -- it is easily knocked off the model if it is mounted earlier.  A long, cylindrical part like this can be made from paper alone, but I prefer to give it some more substance by rolling the 20# bond version of the part around an inner core, in this case styrene rod.  Start by tacking the glue tab side of 61 to the rod.

 
When that's dry, simply roll up the remainder of 61 onto the rod and add the cap.  Notice in the previous picture that I left a small stub of styrene at the end of 61 - this will be a locator peg for mounting the stack on the model after drilling out the locator mark on the roof of the galley.

(You may notice in this photo that two of the photo-etch rungs have come off the forward stack.  They disappeared into the ether and have not been seen since.  I had to cannibalize two replacement rungs from the PE fret.   )
 
The anchor crane (51) will require some very careful cutting.
 
 
Start by removing all the interior white bits, using the push-cut technique we learned earlier.  Before removing the crane from the parts sheet, stiffen the part by applying some CA to the back side.  Parts 56c are a pulley; adding it to the crane requires making a tiny cut into the end of the boom and then inserting the pulley.  Probably no one will notice if that's too much surgical detail for your liking and you omit the pulley.  After cutting the crane out, folding up the back corners, and adding the base and pulley, I gave the whole thing a coat of gray spray paint before mounting it to the deck.  You can try adding a cable if you so desire.

 
Next we'll make the anchors (56), but we won't mount them to the model until after the railings are added.

 
The anchors are another assembly I prefer to paint after constructing them.  Punch the holes for the stocks before cutting the anchors (56a) from the parts sheet.   Cut out and glue the flukes (56b) to the anchor arms.  While those dry, you can use the template (56c) to cut two small pieces of wire to length for the stocks and add the bend.  The knobbed end of the stock is easily made by dipping the wire into some PVA glue.  The surface tension of the glue will pull it into the desired round shape.  The glue shrinks as it dries, so you might need a second dunk.

 
Add the finished stocks to the anchors and give both assemblies a coat of black paint.

 
Next I'll show you how to make something that will really add a sharp touch to your model: thread railings.

Ship's boat (48) is next.

 
A paper ship's boat is mainly all about forming, forming, and more forming.  I don't color the edges before hand, because whenever possible I like to paint the boats after making them.  I use my scribing tool and the round end of a paintbrush to get the shape of the boat (48c) as close to the finished product as I can before I glue any of the seams.

 
Next I seal the seam at the stem and add the transom (42d).

 
I glue the middle seams last.  The boat now has its basic shape.  It might need some additional forming to get it to match the outline of the caprail.

 
After the boat is painted, add the thwarts and caprail (42a and 42b).

 
The kit doesn't include any boat chocks, but I can't imagine the ship wouldn't have had them.  They're easily scratch-built from scrap card.

 
Mount the boat on the chocks (or to the deck if you opt for not adding the chocks).

Hi Chris,
 
Superbly done!
 
Reg

Ahoy All!
 
This is my first build here on MSW. Most of my recent work has been in the model railroad world of structures kits and details, but I thought I would share this prototype build of an upcoming kit that I am designing.
 
The Arrow Lakes Lumber Company commissioned the construction of the CR Lamb in 1907 for $23,000. She was built by G.B. Ward, a boat builder from the Maritimes, working in Kamloops. Constructed with a wooden hull, she was 91 feet long and twenty feet wide, with a draught of four feet. The vessel had two 34 horsepower engines made by the Schaake Machine Works in New Westminster for a gross weight of 192 tons. She spent more than two and a half decades serving the logging company and residents fo the Shuswap Lake before being bought by Captain William Louie. He ran the boat well into the 1930’s providing cargo carriage, passenger services and even moonlight cruises and dances on-board. C.R. Lamb was decommisioned in 1936, her hull filled with gravel and now rests underwater in the Thompson River at the end of 8th Avenue in Kamloops BC.
 

 
As an interesting aside to the CR Lamb story, Captain Louie who had captained the CR LAMB for 15 years and then bought the CR LAMB and continued service into the 1930's with the boat, was of Chinese decent, but born in Canada. He took a lot of flack from government and press when he forced the Waterways commission to keep the opening span bridge working on the Thompson River long after the government had deemed it not necessary for shipping traffic. He was somewhat of a unspoken legend in these parts, keeping the steamboat working well past its prime of the early teens of the century. He even converted the upper deck of the ship to a dance floor and had bands and parties under the stars on the lake. Wow, that must have been a great time!!
 

 
I did do up a 1:160 version of the model which is a bit less detailed compared to how this build of the 1:87 version is going.

 

At the stern is a small hand winch.

 
The two sides (46a) get doubled.  After these parts are dry, cut out, and colored, glue the gear (46d) to the inside of one side panel, then use a small pin to make holes for the crank.  There's a template on the parts sheet for forming the crank (46e), which should be made from very fine wire - which I happened to not have on hand anywhere, so I used some less-than-ideal larger gauge wire.  Assemble the drum (46b and 46c); when that's done, attach the drum to one side of the winch.  Don't attach the second side until after the crank is inserted.

 
Thread the crank through one side, then the other, then glue the second side to the drum to complete the winch.

 
Glue the completed winch to the locator marks aft of the gun mount.  The side with the extra gear goes to starboard.

At the stern is a small hand winch.

 
The two sides (46a) get doubled.  After these parts are dry, cut out, and colored, glue the gear (46d) to the inside of one side panel, then use a small pin to make holes for the crank.  There's a template on the parts sheet for forming the crank (46e), which should be made from very fine wire - which I happened to not have on hand anywhere, so I used some less-than-ideal larger gauge wire.  Assemble the drum (46b and 46c); when that's done, attach the drum to one side of the winch.  Don't attach the second side until after the crank is inserted.

 
Thread the crank through one side, then the other, then glue the second side to the drum to complete the winch.

 
Glue the completed winch to the locator marks aft of the gun mount.  The side with the extra gear goes to starboard.

Building the guns is straightforward, albeit another exercise in handling tiny parts.  Start with the mount base plates (57a).

 
The stand (57b) is another conic section.  Glue the finished cones to the base plates.  Set these aside for now.

 
The carriage consists of three parts, the carriage slide (57d), a wheel (57e) (Traverse? Elevation?  Your guess is as good as mine.), and a mounting bracket (57c).

 
Fold up the carriage slides carefully, then attach the barrels, wheels, and brackets.

 
Glue the guns to the mounts...

 
...and the mounts to the aft deck and forecastle.


 
Now you're done with the armament!
 
Go to Part VIII: Building V108 - Miscellaneous Bits

I'm not familiar with the proverbial "s***-house rat," but I gather that's a compliment.    Actually, I have the eyes of the proverbial cheap headband magnifier, without which this work would be impossible for me.