overdale

After the addition of a little spackle here and there the water was sanded smooth and covered in glass fiber.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Then on to the water baseboard.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

The Austro Hungarian version had a much larger conning tower which had to be replaced from the kit version.
 
 

 
 
 

 
A communication buoy was made to replace the kit version.
 
 

 

 

 
 
The new conning tower was added with the platform (which had to be dismantled every time the sub dived!) 
 
 

I'm building this to fill an empty case I have left in my workshop. I ordered it for a Garwood speedboat model for a client but I failed to take into account the hight of the plinth the boat sat on and the case ended up an inch and a half too low.. (Yes, even 'professionals' can make that sort of simple mistake after 25 years!) I was left with a beautifully made brass bound glass case that was not suitable for virtually any kind of ship model but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it.
 
After much pondering, I came up with the idea of a waterline submarine diorama. rom what I could see, the U boat scene has been done to death by modelers so I decided to look a little wider afield and came up with this Austrian company that produces a resin casting of a submarine made by US Holland company in the early 1900's. Several European nations purchased these small submarines as part of their naval build up before the outbreak of war in 1914. The subject of the kit is a Austro hungarian version. There is not a lot of information in the way of drawings available for the US version but there are quite a few photos so I decided to convert the kit to the US version operating circa 1915.
 

 
  The kit is rather pricey, but beautifully made and the brass etchings are a marvel of fine detail. I didn't have to do a lot of work, a new conning tower and communication buoy, some tower railings and periscopes being the most major items.
 
I decided to set the sub on it's way home from a cruise heading inbound through the channel passing a small boat with a couple of coastguards repairing a channel buoy. Taken from a photo I had found earlier in my travels.
 
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The hard choices made, I set about the conversion. Not as easy as it looked due to the fact that virtually no two C class boats were the same apart from the hull. They all seemed to have different features attached at different point. Some had an anchor door, others didn't, some had a conning tower deck twice the length of others in the same class. It all depended on which photo you looked at and there are not enough photos available of any one single boat to model it completely so I wound up 'approximating' some of the details. (which made a pleasant change!)

For those that are (still) interested, I received a couple of photos of Boston's new home. The client is an orthopedic surgeon and a keen woodworker. (No surprise really as he uses similar tools for both!)
 
He built the exquisite table and base for the model as I was on the final stages of construction and finally married the two together last week.
 
As you can see, the table is stunning. What can't be seen in the photos is the top of the baseboard is beautiful quartered and inlaid burr walnut panels. The Boston is somewhat overpowered by the reflections but I think it lets the beauty of the table stand alone.  I will of course be getting better photos later but I can't imagine finer surroundings for my work than this. 
 
Dan.

I'm afraid I find rigging to be extremely tedious and it is the least liked part of a build for me.
 
 
Sorry..   

I saw this headline and thought it referred to the old practice of placing an actual message inside a ship model by the builder. Quite a few messages have been discovered in 17th and 18th century ship models since the advent of fibre optic cameras allowed conservators to probe the depths of models without disturbing anything. I've seen them myself  several times over the years in my work with museums. The messages are mostly greetings from the builder describing the date, the weather, his family, all sorts of things, and is a charming link across the centuries. 
 
In fact I've done it myself on most of my ship models in the last 20 years since I first found out about the practice.  It's a great way of injecting just a tiny part of your personality into your work. It may never be seen by anyone,  but then again.... it might!

Interesting to see the lavish use of pen and ink for the skylights and doors. Not seen that much these days. It's very effective but requires a steady hand.
I suspect a lot of builders back then were proficient draughtsmen too and were more familiar with lining pens etc. 

Pretty much there now. Just bit of tidying up and a few more rigging lines.
 
Sorry about the small photos again but I will be doing a finished set of photos with a proper background so I'll try and make them bigger then.
 
 

Thanks Mike.
I would love to say I used some 'special' varnish mix for the Boxwood, but I just sprayed it with  good old Minwax matt finish in a spray can.
 
The trick is to get the hull wood sealed as soon as possible after you are happy with the sanding, and build up several layers of varnish. That allows for a lot of inadvertent glue marks, paint etc to be scraped away later in construction without affecting the wood itself underneath.
 
When the model is finished, the final finish is done with Minwax flat varnish from a can mixed with Acetone and sprayed with a small, cheap hobby spray gun. The acetone melts the surface of the original varnish when it hits it, blending or removing scratches and marks and then evaporates very quickly leaving an excellent flat finish. 
 
Dan.

For those that are (still) interested, I received a couple of photos of Boston's new home. The client is an orthopedic surgeon and a keen woodworker. (No surprise really as he uses similar tools for both!)
 
He built the exquisite table and base for the model as I was on the final stages of construction and finally married the two together last week.
 
As you can see, the table is stunning. What can't be seen in the photos is the top of the baseboard is beautiful quartered and inlaid burr walnut panels. The Boston is somewhat overpowered by the reflections but I think it lets the beauty of the table stand alone.  I will of course be getting better photos later but I can't imagine finer surroundings for my work than this. 
 
Dan.

Added the rudder boards and started undercoat paint.
 

I'm afraid I find rigging to be extremely tedious and it is the least liked part of a build for me.
 
 
Sorry..   

Pretty much there now. Just bit of tidying up and a few more rigging lines.
 
Sorry about the small photos again but I will be doing a finished set of photos with a proper background so I'll try and make them bigger then.
 
 

Use progressively smaller brushes to remove the loose dust cobwebs etc. then vacuum with an empty biro tube pushed  through a piece of card and placed over the vacuum hose. The narrow suction can be more focused into crevices without tearing off fixtures and fittings.
 
Finally, I spray the rigging with matt varnish which turns the remaining dust particles on the rigging transparent and completely transforms the whole thing.

Mike,
It's nothing that can't be remedied.
I would wipe the surface over with mineral spirits every 12 hours for a couple of days. As it evaporates it will dry out some of the oil. When the whole thing is dry, then add very light coats of Tung oil until you have the surface you require. 
 
Dan.

For those that are (still) interested, I received a couple of photos of Boston's new home. The client is an orthopedic surgeon and a keen woodworker. (No surprise really as he uses similar tools for both!)
 
He built the exquisite table and base for the model as I was on the final stages of construction and finally married the two together last week.
 
As you can see, the table is stunning. What can't be seen in the photos is the top of the baseboard is beautiful quartered and inlaid burr walnut panels. The Boston is somewhat overpowered by the reflections but I think it lets the beauty of the table stand alone.  I will of course be getting better photos later but I can't imagine finer surroundings for my work than this. 
 
Dan.

Hi Vivian,
I built a Ming Dynasty junk some years ago. As there weren't many drawings of Junk hull shapes around, I based the hull on the plan from the Amati Red Dragon kit.  I enlarged the lines to give me the hull shape at 1/48 and built it on bulkheads as per the kit but everything else was scratch built.  After the Caravel, I'm sure you won't have any trouble building it, but if you need any advice about deck fittings traditional colors and designs, or how to make the sails don't hesitate to ask.
 
Kind regards,
 
Dan.

Vivian, 
here are a few more photos of the junk as requested. It's about 20% larger than the AL red dragon kit.
The last two are of another model of a similar junk set in a storm. It was an inch and a half long. The rigging was stretched contact adhesive, the sails were paper and the sea was clay.  The porcelain fragments next to the sea are Ming dynasty, recovered from the wreck of a junk that sank in the China Sea.
 
Hope the pictures are of use, any questions please feel free to ask..
 
Kind regards,
 
Dan.

Started the painting.

Finally finished.  I'm delivering this to it's new home in PA next week and won't be sorry to see it go. I have had more delays and distractions with this model than anything I've built that's twice as complicated.!
 
On to the next one..

Starting the final assembly.
 
 
 

This subject is the next in a series for a client who buys and restores old speedboats and cruisers.
It's a 1929 33 foot Baby Gar speedboat which will measure 33 inches (hopefully) when complete. I'm afraid it's all rather rough at the moment but I have reached the staining phase and with some time and a  lot of coats of varnish it might finish up ok!
 

 
Basic frames and first planking.
 

 
Plywood skin for the decks.
 

 
Mahogany outer planking.
 
How it should look when finished. A similar boat.
 

I think he was.  He started me off on another 1/12 scale model of one of his boats on the day I delivered the Lulubelle..
 
 
 

And finally, after the hull was painted I finished the interior details in the wheel house and added the glazing. I chose clear polystyrene because it was available in a thin enough sheet to work as scale thickness glass. What I hadn't bargained for was how easily it scratched and marked. I ended up replacing a lot of it several times due to inadvertent dings and scratches.
 
On to the fixtures and fittings. Pretty much all were scratch built from wood. I had hoped I could get at least some aftermarket parts like anchors or cleats and other deck fittings but almost everything on the boat was unique and converting a commercially available part would have been more trouble than it was worth. I did manage to find a pair of left and right propellers that were a perfect match and the stern flag. That was it, the rest were scratch built.
 
I asked the client to have a  good look at all the photos I'd taken to see if there was anything I'd missed or something else he wanted added before I finished it. He asked for his personal pennant to be added to the top mast and the New York Yacht Club pennant added to flag post forward. Also he had a tiny NYYC pennant pained on a storage locker on deck and he wanted that painted on. That was one of the most awkward parts of the entire project..! Finally he wanted a fender shown on the deck to indicate the boat was still a working vessel. So I obliged, and then packed it into it's large case. I set off for Greenwich Conn. to hand it over, not wanting to see another 'Dollhouse' project for a long time only to be handed the drawings of a Gar Wood speedboat to be built in 1/12 scale and told to "get to work"
 
Thanks for your kind comments everyone. I'm glad you like it.
 
Dan.