tkay11

Thanks for the nice comments and likes. It's always rewarding to know that others share the same interest and pleasure in this process and its various outcomes. The criticisms and questions are equally useful. @G.L.: Yes. You can see from earlier posts that I had first used a card stand temporarily. It was made using the frame outlines at +3 and -3 to cut the outlines for the supports. I thought that this would work fine. So I just bought a small block of 10mm thick clear acrylic (A6 size = 148 x 105mm) from eBay for £3. This was sufficient for the base rectangle and the two support rectangles. I then used my bench saw to cut it into those three blocks. I cut the outlines for the supports using a scroll saw, finessing with a jeweller's saw. The rough edges were then polished using progressively fine micromesh polishing cloths from 1500 to 12000 grade. The supports were then cemented to the base with Model Z Pro Plastic Weld, which is probably based on methyl melacrylate (MMA) monomer. I have used this before and found it very useful and easy. Apparently you can make this by dissolving acrylic chips in acetone. I applied it with a fine paintbrush run along the edges of the joints. Quick and simple! The polishing of the rough edges took the longest - maybe an hour all told I had taken considerably longer to research the various ways suggested to cement acrylic - although I ended up using the same product I had used for the Sherbourne base. Two videos I found particularly useful were: Tony

Sails I made the sails in the same way as I did those on the Sherbourne, using Modelspan (the same as Silkspan) and following the steps suggested by David Antscherl. (See page 9 of my build log, entry #226 Making sails.) The only difference was that this time, instead of tracing the outline of the sail, I placed the main sail lines on card and drew around the card to establish the outline on the Modelspan. This allowed me to place the holes and the seam lines accurately. The one thing I regret is that for each sail I made a new mix of the acrylic paints, so colouring between the sails was inconsistent. Erm, sorry, make that two regrets: as you will see, when it came to painting the seams I did not dilute the paint sufficiently for the mizzen sail, making the seams on that sail stand out excessively. Still, I left the mizzen as it was as I have treated this build as another in my learning exercises, and no one else will be looking at it other than family and myself. It’s a useful way of chiding myself! Rigging The rigging diagram with the monograph was very helpful. I also turned to the discussion and plans in the excellent Ancre monograph on The Ship’s Longboat which shows the variety of possibilities. Both sets of plans show the tacks and sheets simply held in the clews by a knot at the end of the rope, but I cheated here and simply seized them to the clews – and occasionally added a hook. The monograph notes that the jib was rarely used, and that in fact the boat would often be sailed with the foresail alone. I decided to put all the sails up, mainly to see what it would look like. As with my other models, I used the following simple jig to seize ropes to hooks and blocks. I found that the anchor needed something like 65 metres of rope, equivalent to 1.8metres at 1:36, but I decided to save on my 7mm rope and just cut one metre for it. As you can see, it is lashed to the bow and held on the main davit. Actually the anchor rope is in two pieces: a short piece that goes around the anchor and is lashed to the davit, and the metre of coiled rope that is laid over it on the davit to give the impression of a single piece. Current state of the model It isn’t exactly pretty, but I’ve had a lot of pleasure and satisfaction in putting in the rigging and sails. It was a good learning exercise to understand this way of rigging a longboat – a way that allows everything to be taken down very quickly. In the same spirit, I didn’t glue any of the masts to the boat, nor spars to masts. Everything can be dismantled in the required way. I certainly don’t miss the presence of the enormous cannon! The brail lines made the sails curve, but I ensured they were as smooth as possible by applying a very dilute PVA paste to the sails and blowing them dry with a hair dryer. You’ll note the base I’ve made from 10mm thick plain acrylic. Not the most elegant of designs, but functional. The remaining pictures show the boat in its current state. I’ll do some oars, and am still thinking about adding a portable binnacle, a landing hook, some barrels and a chest. Then the model will be as complete as I want it to be. Tony

Wow! That's fantastically helpful! Thanks very, very much! Tony

Congratulations on a really beautiful build! Tony

Thanks very much. I thought it was modelspan -- I couldn't quite believe they were kit sails! I use the same kind of paper myself, also using the suggestions from this forum. As to the further questions, I was wondering: 1. whether you treated your card stock before and after cutting, and with what type of treatment; 2. whether you spray paint or use brushes; 3. your technique for achieving square edges; 4. and finally, whether you used the additional packs for this card model such as the laser cut parts. Tony

Ann, the Cutty Sark sail and rigging plans with names are available from the Royal Museums Greenwich for £8 each. There are lots of websites that will provide names of sails, parts of sails and rigging. In addition to the advice you can obtain on this forum, there are lots of books that you can buy used from eBay and AbeBooks giving guidance on everything related to ship models. I found particularly useful zu Mondfeld's book on Historic Ship Models. Another thing is to look at the build logs for the Artesania Latina models of the Cutty Sark of which there are many -- on this site as well as videos on You Tube and other sites. Tony

Very nice work as usual. Just one question: are the sails those from the kit, or have they been made using modelplan/silkspan paper (or something else)? Actually, I have a ton of questions about the techniques you use to build a card model to this degree of perfection, but I know that would be asking too much! Tony

Good progress with the planking. You may want to protect the keel and stem with tape before going any further as it looks as though they're already suffering some damage. Tony

One thing that has puzzled me about stiffening card with CA is the type of glue you then use to stick the stiffened card to another piece, especially if that piece has been stiffened by CA. Do you use more CA, or do you use a type of paper contact cement such as Elmers or UHU, or do you use PVA as the glue of choice? I've not had much success with gluing stiffened card, so I thought I'd better check in case it's my lack of technique or simply the wrong adhesive. The other thing is that card seems to soak up a lot of the thin CA. Is there any way of doing this that is more economical? Thanks Tony

I'm not clear whether you mean you're only subdividing and marking the centre bulkhead only. Ideally once you've measured the central bulkhead you also subdivide the other bulkheads so the same number of strakes occur along the full length. Of course it's possible that this means you have to let a stealer in or have a dropped plank, but the aim is to have as few as possible. Let's say it's 20 strakes with 4mm width planks at the central bulkhead, then every other bulkhead is subdivided into 20 strakes and that provides the measurement for the thickness of the planks at that point. Of course, the garboard is excluded from this as it will be wider than the other planks. I apologise if you've already figured this out! Tony

Thanks for the link to the video, Bob. The whole project is really worth a visit to see the progress from start in Dec 2017 to the present. Very impressive! Tony

Well, I did order two HSS blades from Micromark in the US (a 168 tooth 80 x 0.8mm and a 230 tooth 80 x 0.5mm), together with an adapter for the Proxxon, so that I could have variable widths for things such as gratings, but in reality I found that I've rarely used them. I have almost entirely used the standard Proxxon blades which I have bought in the UK - including a very useful one for cutting acrylic. The ones I use most are the tungsten carbide 80mm x 1.5 and the excellent 50 x 0.56mm. I can't find any reference to this latter 50mm blade in current catalogues, so I presume it's been replaced by the 50 x 0.5mm 100 tooth HSS blade (cat no 28 020). The problem with the Proxxon blades is that they have a 10mm bore. So any other blades have to have an adapter to fit. You could machine such an adapter on a lathe. The one from Micromark (cat no 83515) converts 1/2" hole blades to the 10mm required for the Proxxon and costs $7.95 before shipping. So if you can find 85mm blades or less in Europe, this may be worth buying. Tony

I have a Proxxon FET table saw and, after working out how to work with it, have not come across anything that would want me to buy a different saw. I can cut quite accurately down to a tolerance of 0.1mm, and I use the appropriate blades for the job in hand. However, it did take quite some time before I understood its construction well enough and I have to spend time setting it up in conjunction with a digital vernier caliper to achieve this. I also had to read all the tips about the use of saws, as pointed out by Mark. European modellers who have far greater skills than I have seem to be able to produce wonderful models with this saw (in addition, of course, to their considerable talent and a few other tools). Jascha Heifetz, the renowned violinist, was once approached at the end of a concert by an enthusiastic woman who said "That violin has a wonderful sound". Heifetz looked puzzled, shook the violin about, and said "That's funny, I can't hear a thing". Of course, better machines make it all easier, but it's also fun learning to make do. Tony

How about a table saw to its maximum height? You could probably do at least 25mm, and build up the blocks on top of one another -- although you wouldn't need to do it in heights that big. Tony

The best way is to study the planking tutorials in the articles database which you can find by clicking on the button at the top of the page. They are excellent. The first layer of planking is not too sensitive as you can use filler and sanding with gusto to smooth it all down since it won't be seen. However the second layer of planking is much easier if you buy 0.5mm thick strips of wood (cherry is good) including 2 x 10mm wide strips for the garboard planks. When you do your calculations for the number of strips needed you may find that 5mm wide is suitable. Tony

You can check the squareness of the bulkheads using square blocks (such as Lego) or a set square. It's worth the extra effort. Tony

Thanks. This should turn out nicely -- good idea about the modelling clay! Tony

This is a very interesting boat to build. Could you say what your plastic-based filler is? Others have been using a variety of fillers for their card models. Ab Hoving, for example, is using what looks like a standard non-shrinking wood filler. Tony

Generally people prefer to do the planking before attaching the stem, keel and sternpost. This keeps them protected from sanding and allows you to plank very accurately to their edges. If you study the build logs, you'll see how others have managed the double planking. Some, including myself, bought 0.5mm thick strips to do the second layer, including wider strips to ensure the garboard plank fits well. There are good planking tutorials on this site which can be found in the articles database (click on the link at the top of the menus). Tony

The Sherbourne is a good example of this type of cutter, and there are lots of excellent builds of that on this forum. In particular have a look at those by Dubz, Gregor and Stockholm Tar. In these, in addition to the details of the build, are some useful discussions of the historical aspects with reference to original plans and drawings. Tony

Thanks, Ab. I'll get the internet to do my bell ringing. Tony

Thanks, Ab. It looks as though this is a water-based wood filler which can be used immediately (i.e. not mixed from two components, like a resin) and which can also be bought as a powder for mixing with water. Perhaps cellulose-based. Would that be a fair analysis? If so we have plenty of similar products in the UK which would fit the purpose, such as Polycell. Tony

Thanks, Dane. That's a neat small model. What is interesting is that you meet different types of challenge when you do card modelling in contrast to those in wood modelling. In this particular instance, with the longboat, I was intrigued to see how you could approach such a boat and at such a small scale using the frame cut-away method in card. I thought your design looked innovative and clever. It certainly was a good learning experience for me, and made me appreciate the fantastic skills you have in Eastern Europe with card modelling. I'll definitely be trying more! Tony

Ab, I've been wondering about the type of putty you use as filler. Could you make some suggestions? Thanks Tony

@Dane: Your card kit of the 18th Century longboat has been a great inspiration, and I hope you don't mind that I deliberately left it uncompleted in order to focus on this model! Thanks very much for the tips on the metal work. It's much appreciated. @Roger Pellett: Thanks. I really like these small boats. I'll be concentrating more on them once I've finished the Chaloupe, although I will continue my apprenticeship with a Plank-on-Bulkhead model first, just to improve my experience and skills. @VTHokiEE: Thanks for the kind words. I use the term 'novice' because I see each of the models I have made (this is my fourth if I include the partial build of Dane's longboat card kit) as a different area of learning. So first was a kit (Sherbourne) which rapidly became a 'bashed' kit, then the Triton cross-section to learn working from plans, then Dane's kit to learn something about card modelling, and now the Chaloupe in order to understand the 'mould' method of construction. Hence it really is a continuing apprenticeship (perhaps apprentice ship). It looks as though your experience with all those builds of yours will more than equip you to build the Chaloupe. As you can see, it's an excellent model with great plans and, in addition, has a lot of elegance about it. As to the equipment, I can't say you need much. Although I did purchase a metal-working lathe, my inexpensive Proxxon wood-working lathe would have been more than sufficient and in fact I could have done all the 'lathe' parts with a simple electric drill (which I used as a lathe before I bought one). The other main piece of equipment has been my very inexpensive Proxxon Micromot 50 drill with its equally inexpensive pillar (which I modified into a mill at very low cost). The only costly item that I would really recommend is a table saw. The ironwork was done with a simple butane torch and a tube of silver solder with flux built in. Of course you still have to buy the wood and all the other bits and pieces such as drill bits, sanding paper, files, glues etc. However doing so is still, in the long run, cheaper than buying kits -- especially if you find (as many do) that building a kit often involves you in buying extra wood and discarding many of the parts provided in favour of your own parts. So I really would recommend your just jumping in and trying it out. That's what I did. It's a great exercise and you'll feel great at every new step you learn and complete -- a bit like attaining levels in a computer game. Tony