Tollyman

Hello Dennis. Tollyman here, and finally getting back to working on my Norden. Of course I had to refresh my mind by going back to your blog - my go to site - to get myself back into the modelling mode. I had done one half of my hull planking, then got sidetracked for the past year, and finally got back at it a few weeks ago. So now I have planked the second half, and will be joining them together as my next step. I have sanded and primed the hulls, but will wait until they are together for colored finish paint. Which brings me to my questions. It looks like you spray painted the hull. Do you mix your own paint, and use an air brush, or is it from a can? If so, what color did you chose. It seems all photographs of Nordens appear to have blue hulls. Also, did you use matte/flat finish, gloss or what? There are lots of color choices with automotive touch-up paint, but it is all glossy enamel. These are presumably wooden fish boats, so I don't think they try to get them with a pristine shiny finish. I like the fact that you added scuppers. The model doesn't have any, but it is not realistic for a deck of this type to not have scuppers. Did you cut them to any specific scale? Thanks for any comments. Gary

I have a hot air heat gun. I haven't tried it, but the nozzle gets quite hot and could probably be used to bend planks. (Much hotter than a hair dryer). Has anyone tried a heat gun for plank bending?

Hello to this great group. I am new to ship modelling, and I have been doing some online research before tackling my first model. I have looked at several tutorials and forums, trying to get as much information as I can before I tackle my next few steps. I would like to start by thanking you all for your contributions, pictures and videos. It certainly helps. I have started on my first build, a Billings Norden 603, plank on bulkhead construction. I am about to start the framing, and have a bunch of questions and some comments, so I thought I would ask them all in one posting. Planking Gluing . I have decided to use CA type glue (medium or thick). Hopefully this will avoid pins or clamps but I will have to work fairly fast. I will practise a bit before working on the model. Plank Bending. I have a Hot Shot Steam Cleaner and tried bending some planks. It seems to work fairly well, but will have to experiment a bit more. Broke one board already, and I notice some separation of the wood fibres in the ones that did bend. Maybe I am trying to bend it too quickly. Plank Cutting. I can cut planks to rough length before mounting, using a scalpel or Exacto type knife. But how do you trim planks once they are installed? Let’s say that you need to trim 1/8” at the stern after installing a plank. What is the best way to do that? I imagine using a knife would be difficult. Is there a fine saw that you use? Dremmel? Keel Gluing. This particular ship comes with the keel split in 2 halves. Instructions say to plank first, then glue the keel together. However some people have posted that they glue the keel halves together first, then plank. I think the latter would be more difficult, but planking each half individually might lead to warping. Comments? Hull Finishing. The hull will be a single layer of planking, and will be painted, so I will need to fill in the cracks. I have seen various methods including wood filler and glue & sawdust. Has anyone used gyproc (sheet rock) filler? This works great for nail holes, baseboard joints, etc. so why not for a model? I want to get the hull as smooth as possible – this model scale is 1:30, so a scratch of 1/32” (0.8 mm) equals a gouge of almost 1” (2.5 cm). Ouch. Decking Glue. I have seen several tutorials on how to lay out the wood decking strips. But I haven’t seen anything that tells me what sort of glue to use, or how to fasten the decking in place. I plan to stain this decking to look like a teak deck, so I don’t want any glue residue which will not absorb stain or finish. How do you guys fasten the decking? Scuppers. I plan to add scuppers to this boat. A real boat would have provisions for quick drainage of water from nets, rain, or spray in rough weather. So I will endeavour to cut some scuppers in the perimeter bulwarks. Sorry for all the long winded questions, but I thought it easier to post once vs a whole bunch of individual posts. Thank you in advance for any help and suggestions. Cheers, Gary

Hello Popeye. I am a newbie to model ship building, and have finally started to build my Billings Norden, which I bought 3 years ago. I am about to start the planking. Thank you for all your excellent pictures and comments. And thanks to others who posted their pictures - of real live Nordens. Obviously they are all slightly different - each tailored to individual owners. And so it is, to some degree, with individual modellers. I've really picked up some great tips on this site. I will be bookmarking it and coming back often. Might even have some questions. Thanks again.