Katsumoto

try double sided tape!

Mini tutorial - woodcarving part 2 So I'll use this post to show you guys how to carve the same flower only using a different tool and to be more precise a rotary drill. I've used a Dremel, it broke down. Changed it to a Proxxon recently and to me it's all the same and does the job fine. So, do not fixate to much on brand but more on what's available and how the handle lies or fits into your hands. It's again a personal preference. Some of the users prefer a old school dental drill, the one with belt drive. Again, it's up to you! With a rotary drill, you need bits. Please use good ones made out of strong hardened metal. You only need a few so it is wise to spend your dollar / Euro etc on good bits. I use a medium to low RPM to carve. With sharp bits you'll get through the wood easy as a hot knife through butter and you don't burn your bits. Again the same preparations are in order prior to carving as with is mentioned with the handtools. 1) Make a good drawing on scale 2) Select a piece of wood and shape the wood so it can accept your drawing 3) take away the excess of wood so only the outline of the piece to carve remains. When you did all that, time to carve! With a rotary tool, you need to use a different technique, but you can follow the same steps as with hand tools. Find the deepest point and the highest point. In my case for this flower, the center of the flower is the highest point and also the edges of the leaves. The deepest point is just around the center part of the flower. So, for my example I use a pointed bit to carve a circle on the deepest point. With the first two steps, your lines are gone. You need to redraw the lines for the step you want to execute. When finished with the previous step, your lines are gone again. So you need to draw the lines for you next step. When finished with carving, it's time to clean-up the work. You can use some fine grid sandpaper, a sanding pad, a polishing disk etc etc. What you want to achieve is to soften the hard lines and to smoothen all the details a little bit. It will improve the overall appearance. This is the end of the second part of this tutorial. Maybe you want to try woodcarving? I would say, give it a go and perhaps you will like it. I think it will enhance your model and personalize your model ship more. And last but not least, to quote Norm Abraham "the most important safety rule is to use "these" (pointing at his glasses) safety glasses". You don't want a chip of wood into your precious eyes. Good luck with yours and perhaps you will show it here on this forum as well. I'm looking forward to it. If you have any questions related to this tutorial, please feel free to comment in my buildlog or send me a pm. Cheers, Peter

Mini tutorial - woodcarving part 1 So along the way I got some questions about carving, which tools I use and how I do it. First off all, it's not only the tools. It's a combinations of the right tools, the right type of wood, a very good drawing and some insight how to carve. Experience and skills do help as well... 😅 You have to start somewhere so I tried to find stuff about woodcarving. Well, guess what. Most of the material I have found was about carving on a big scale like make a bear out a log with a chainsaw or carving a human form, leaves or animals with expensive chisels. None of it that really comes close to the scale we ship modelers have to work on. However I found one document of a fellow ship modeler "modelshipwright" or Bill Short, also a member of this forum, who made a very good and detailed document of how to carve with a rotary drill. I believe he uses an oldschool dental drill with beltdrive. Again seeing experienced French model shipbuilders using "Boxwood" to carve the smallest details into, I figured out just to try it, buy the wood and tools and experience a bit. This was a couple of years ago, and this is what I want to share with you. First of all let's get the obvious out of the way and you perhaps question yourself which tool is better, handtool or rotary tool? Well there isn't really a "better" tool only your personal preferences counts. This topic isn't a contest to see which one is better, (I know you Americans out there loves a good contest or two 😛) but a comparison of both to show you that you can get the same result with both tools. 🙂 I'll hope you find this tutorial helpfull, there was some time involved to make it... Carving with handtools I'll start with the handtools. I use wood gouges of the Pfeil brand. They are very small Lino wood gouges which comes in different shapes and sizes. You can get them online at various webshops. There are of course a lot of brands selling micro gouges. I just like the shape of the handle, it fits my hand perfectly compares to others. As you can see in the picture below. I have a couple selected. I have a choise of more than a couple because I really love the gouges, however for this tutorial I use only two of them. So, I'll show you step by step how to carve a simple flower. As always you need to do the following prior to carving. 1) Make a good drawing on scale 2) Select a piece of wood and shape the wood so it can accept your drawing 3) take away the excess of wood so only the outline of the piece to carve remains. When you did all that, time to carve! Find the deepest point and the highest point. In my case for this flower, the center of the flower is the highest point and also the edges of the leaves. The deepest point is just around the center part of the flower. So, I use a half round gouge to start from the highest point of the leaves and carve into the wood in the direction of the center. Be sure you don't cut away the center!!! After this step, your reference lines / drawing is gone. So for the next step is to re-draw the lines you want to remove for the next step. The next step is to carve on the lines you just drew, only the shape of your object guides you in which direction you should work. For this instance in need to separate the leaves from one another. The line is wide and deep on the edge of the leave and becomes thinner and shallower in the direction of the center. So I start from the center en work towards the edge and I use a different gouge with a "V"shape. Next step is again to draw your lines to carve...In my example the line that divides the leaves into three sections. To carve these lines I use the same gouge as the step before with a "V" shape. Again from inside towards the edge of the leave. When finished with carving, it's time to clean-up the work. You can use some fine grid sandpaper, a sanding pad, a polishing disk etc etc. What you want to achieve is to soften the hard lines and to smoothen all the details a little bit. It will improve the overall appearance. For this tutorial with handtools, I did not fixate my work piece. It is however a preferred way to do so. You're working with very very sharp tools and you do not want this into your fingers, believe me. Second, when your piece is securely fixate to your workbench, cutting mat etc, it's much easier to operate your tools with both hands. You can use double sides tape to fixate your piece. You can also use a mild glue. It depends on your preferences again. And last but not least, to quote Norm Abraham "the most important safety rule is to use "these" (pointing at his glasses) safety glasses". You don't want a chip of wood into your precious eyes. Next part will be part 2 where I use my Proxxon rotary tool to carve the same flower. Different tool, different technique, same result! Cheers, Peter

I think all we ship modelers have a lot of patience... 🤪 But thanks Yves, it's much appreciated! 👍

There are different sets with different sizes... Amazon.com: Pfeil : Linoleum and Block Cutter Set of 6 Tools : Set B : Tools & Home Improvement

I took a picture with better lightning, to show the depth a bit more. @Bobg, I use a Pfeill tools and also a Proxxon Rotary tool with micro bits as well...Indeed it's very small and fragile. 🙂

Chapter 14 - Woodcarving continues In this update I'll continue with carving. This time the upper part of the bulwark aft. It starts with a drawing of the design. Because the pattern repeats itself over and over again, I only needed to draw a section. I made a cardboard template and drew the outlines on a piece of wood. With my bandsaw I sawed a slide of 3mm. It need to be thinned down to approx. 2mm. However this is for later. A dry-fit of the wooden part, just to be sure my measurements are fine... Before we start with carving, the outline has to be cut out. Because of the small size of the carving, I couldn't use my scrollsaw and used my Proxxon / Dremel and my needlefiles. Another dry-fit... Time to carve. I'll start with the flowers, then the "C" parts. The three flowers on the right are done for the first step. (first step is to carve the depth and the shape) Step 2 is carving the details. It will take some while to do both sides of the ship but luckily there is no deadline... To be continued, Peter

Thank you for the nice comments guys! I’m truly honored! 😀

Nice and clean work Bob! I will follow allong the way if it's fine with you! 🙂

Chapter 12,99 - constructing the rudder and helm I've done some work on the rudder. Made out of walnut of course... Next update the rudder with helm will be placed on the ship. see you next time and thanks for all the likes and comments! Peter

Hi Yves. It's the Professional building slip of Hobbyzone. I believe there is a review of this one somewhere on this forum. It's a great tool, but also has it's limitations like any other tool out there. Professional Building Slip (hobbyzone.pl) Thanks for stopping by and the kind words! 👍

Chapter 12 - Woodcarving and stern remodeling In this chapter I'll focus on the stern. I had to remodel this part to my liking and I happily could buy some real boxwood. Then I realized I made an error and the frame is to high. So, I took it apart again, adjusted the height, made a new frame and assembled it again. Let's say I wasn't too happy in the beginning... 🙄 Time to find a use for the boxwood..... I made a drawing of a Baroque theme of Acanthus leaves. That's it so far, this topic is back on track with the current status of the build. regards, Peter

Chapter 11 - Main hatch, pumps and bell tower In this chapter the hatches at the main mast are being constructed and placed on the main deck. I did not used the metal parts of the pumps and bell tower, made my own out of walnut. Besides the main mast opening, there is a hole for the pumps installation. Next chapter will be the stern remodeling...

Chapter 11 - Davits So the davits needs to be fabricated and some other parts at the Fore. I fabricated everything out of American Walnut and throw away the pre-cut plywood parts. They are horrible to place on the ship.... I was a bit anxious because I needed to cut out parts of the upper railing....there is no way back when you put your blade into it.... Next chapter will be the hatches at the main mast...

Chapter 10 - making gunportlids In my previous post I made a single lid for one of the gunports. Time to fabricate a lot more. This is the process of making these lids. The hinges are done, need to blue these with Birchwood Caseys Brass black. On to the lids itself. The same process as for the oarlids. Cover every part with veneer... I'll place these lids in a later stadium on the ship.

Thanks Yves, it's one of my favorite ships as well. We share the passion my friend! Thank you Bob, for leaving a comment and following along! 🙂

Chapter 9 - Guncarriages Pffff....I really did not update my log for some time......🤪 During last Christmas, the warf was closed, but I did some designwork on a guncarriage. The metal ones provided with the kit aren't too bad, but I decided to make a testcarriage out of wood. Left the one provided with the kit. Right the one I made Okay, these will do....now I have to duplicate 19 more

Chapter 8 - Profile strips and first steps into carving I've made some walnut strips and cut out a profile into a dull blade. Time to scrape the profile into the wood. This dresses up the sides of the hull a bit. Next step is to make a test carving out of Castello Boxwood. I prefer the real boxwood, but it wasn't available in my area. I'm not convinced about the endresult tho. The castello boxwood is a bit softer than the real thing. I'll have to think this one over and I let is rest for now. Time to experiment with the gunport lids. I made one as an example for the rest. so, one down, many to go....

Chapter 7 - Hinges for the oarlids So, the oarlids are closed, but needed some hinges to simulate opening and closing of these lids. I made a new design for these hinges which I saw on another Xebec. One down, many to go...

Chapter 6 - Bulwark reenforcement. I've used some walnut to dress up the inside of the bulwarks. The railings also placed on top of the bullwarks. Time to place the two gratings. I've let them curve a little bit just in sync with the top of the deck. regards, Peter

Chapter 5 - Oarlids Well I decided to close the oarports with lids. To make these I did the following... I cut some veneer strips and covered the sides of the plywood. The plywood parts were to small so I had to enlarge them. Then the front and back as well...

Chapter 4 - Stern, gratings and prow I've replaced the plywood stern and made a new one out of limewood strips. All other plywood parts I've replaced with solid walnut. At the prow of the ship, some gratings has to be made. I use a cardboard template to cut out the gratings. regards, Peter

Chapter 3 - Second layer hullplanking (part 2) Both sides done. Pretty pleased with the outcome. It's always a challenge but exciting part of the build. regards, Peter

Chapter 3 - Second layer hullplanking I've done my prepwork prior to planking. Did my calculations, battons placed (green lines) so time to put some planks on shall we?! I work from the wales to the first green batton (line). Each section contains 5 strakes. On all bulkheads the width of my planks are even. Now I fill in section by section until the last garboard strake will be placed. I can place the garboard as last strake, because there is no rabbit in my keel otherwise I suggest to place this one as the first strake on the hull. One side done, other one to go!

Chapter 2 - preperation of the hull first layer planking In this update I'll show you the first layer of hullplanking. Some photo's were lost during editing, but I can show the result. I begin with the stern. Btw, this ship will be bashed beyond believable.....My mission is to let you forget this is a kit.... I used East Indian Ink to blacken the bulwarks. The kit comes with Sapeli veneer strips. It's a sort of Mohagony color. I'll change this for American Walnut. Placing the wales... Preparing the hull for second layer of Walnut veneer. Put some lines on the hull for reference....See these as temporary battons which devides the hull into three parts excluding the garboard strake.