USS Choctaw by Canute - Heinkel Models - 1/200 scale - CARD

[mtaylor]

I think it's mandatory....  the expression I hear a lot is:  "There will be blood".  So we CA the wound or Band-Aid it and off we go again.  A hardy bunch we are, aren't we?

[Canute]

George, I could re-glue the thicker,laminated parts, which I did with one deck on the paddle wheel housing. If I flub with a piece printed on the heavy paper, I can reprint the sheet. Some archival tape may work, but I don't know where I'd get any, short of mail order. The cost of a sheet of 110 lb. paper and printer ink is low, so just reprint your part. The "kit" is a download on your computer, so once you have it; it's yours.

 

I like to think I'm fairly safe, although I did have a trip to a hospital ER after slicing open my had while cleaning up a pour stub on a boxcar kit Took 4 hours, four stitches and two tries at getting a Tetanus shot. My left hand bears a few scars from sharp objects over the years.  

 

As for Choctaw, I'm not sure if I should glue up all the hull segments first and skin the hull or attach each segment individually, stern to bow.

[cog]

Ken,

 

DNA imprint is mandatory as Mark said, so don't be to picky on that. It's the only way to prove you are the builder(!) It's your builds fingerprint.

 

About the segments ... both methods have their pros and cons. Glueing it up up front might be easier, because you can handle the different pieces more easily, but you may not get correct 'in line'. Attaching the segments individually, could be harder as you are forced to confirm to the hul's shape. However, you follow the hulls line. The chance to deviate is far less compared to the first method. It's mainly a question of preference/choice and whatmakes you feel at ease ...

[dgbot]

Ken I went to fast on my Steeple chaser and the end result was not pretty. Go piece by piece and I think you will be happy with the end result.

David B

[Canute]

David, thanks for reading this. And thanks for the likes, too. Half the fun is sitting at the the cutting board, deciding how best to cut a part out. There are a bunch of nooks and insets and some parts have to interlock.

 

I found the beta build on a papermodeler website, so I will study his pictures closely. The instructions are mostly pictures showing parts, but not too much in the way of closeups. The web pages will be a help. I'm not shooting for hyper accuracy, just trying to get my technique down. I have to work on my gluing, still using too much.

 

The full hull is a poser; should I glue it all into one piece and attach to the bulkheads or do it segment by segment. I'm leaning towards the segments. The original builder went from exposed bulkheads to covered without any explanations.

[dgbot]

Ken as for to much glue I use a small skewer that I shave flat on the end. And use this to apply glue as needed. Just enough to get the job done.. never straight from the bottle.

David B

[Jack12477]

Ken, go to your "friendly" Target store and get some of these toothpicks - they are much sturdier than the average toothpick and work great for applying glue to small areas. I found them in the paper plates section.

 

[Canute]

David, Jack, I'm sitting here reading your kind suggestions and thinking to myself "I've said the same things". I have to think this through, better.

I use an unfolded paperclip to apply glue to the parts. I'm used to putting the glue on the edge of a part, which has a thickness, say 1/32". The paper is hair thin, so I get drips and runs.   I have to use more backing on the joints. "This ain't no Ambroid boxcar, Spanky." And neatness does count.

Like I said, it's my first pure card ship. Another learning opportunity. Thank you both for sharpening my focus.

[Canute]

Finished slicing and dicing my hull components. Some of the cutoffs looked like the debris from punching holes in an old IBM card.    Upon further review of the beta build , I realized the hull sections were glued together and then attached to the bulkheads. Looks doable, except for the small stern segment.

I have to figure out how to bend, curve, glue and fit into the hull section ahead of it.The little black projections on the section in front of the stern are the rudder attachments. That section will have some fun curves. The tab on the stern section somehow fits under the rudder attachments. The blue-gray segment on each section is the part of the hull closest to the deck.

These are the segments at the stern. I may have to trim some of the gluing tabs to get the hull skin to fit around the bulkheads.

I plan to touch up the cut edges with some  cool gray Pantone markers I have. Cool grays are bluish, so it should work on the armored areas.They've worked real well for me in the past on wood as a stain. I'll test before I take a flyer with them, however.

[GLakie]

You weren't kidding about honing up your origami skills Ken.   It looks like the difficulty levels are up there with wood builds. 

[Canute]

George, it's going to be "fun".    I'm cutting out some parts for the section between the paddlewheels and have to add separate doors into these compartments. I'll take some more pictures once I figure out how to manipulate the stern parts. The beta build doesn't delve too deeply in constructing this part of the ship.   Gotta put on my thinking cap here.

[Omega1234]

You weren't kidding about honing up your origami skills Ken.   It looks like the difficulty levels are up there with wood builds. 

I've gotta agree with you, too, George. Difficult enough for me to follow the building sequence from the photos, so I take my hat off to Ken. What amazes me just as much, is how hard it must have been for the designer of the kit to pull all of this together as well. He/she must be one hell of a master origami expert!

[GLakie]

Gotta put on my thinking cap here.

I think you'll figure it all out pretty quickly Ken.  I'd hate to see you damage anything vital!  

 

Patrick, Ken's a braver man than me. I've never even done a wooden build yet, so there'll be a learning curve, until I get that down, let alone trying to figure out how to do card models right now.  And that's because I don't want to damage anything vital either. 

[cog]

Ken,

 

So far very impressive. I read somewhere builders reinforce the joins by adding paper behind it, if they're afraid the 'lip' is to small. ...

 

i found this in my howto's for the interested  paperbuild.howto..pdf

Edited September 2, 2015 by cog

[Canute]

Patrick, George and Carl, thanks for the support. The PDF will be handy, Carl.

 

I did reinforce the connection of the paddlewheel section to the deck, with some wood strips. Butt joints aren't very strong. The cabin area between the paddles will also get some bracing too. It helps to hold the paddlewheel housings square, so should get some strengthening.

 

I'll glue up the hull skins later and see if my process will work. I think I have a technique to bend, fold glue and attach those last two stern sections. Crossed fingers on this one.

[dgbot]

Good luck.

David B

[Jack12477]

Ken, my one and only attempt at card-stock models.  An N-scale D&RGW Rotary Snow Plow - card-stock over a wood base. Built in some time in the late 1970's been in a box in a drawer with my other N-scale rolling stock since probably 1981-82

 

Your model is looking good !

Edited September 2, 2015 by Jack12477

[Canute]

Jack, I like that rotary! N-scale is tough. I have an HO one, unbuilt.
Thanks for the support.

Edited September 4, 2015 by Canute

[Canute]

I colored the edges of the hull skins with a Cool Gray #5 I have.

There are 10 different cool grays (bluish tint) and 10 warm grays (brownish tint). They get darker with higher numbers. Looked OK when I first did it, but after it dried it looked too light.   

 

The edge stands out, though not as bad as a white edge.

 

Glued up the first 4 hull skins, on the bottom only. I'll glue up the sides when it's all one piece.

You can see how the marker, which is alcohol based, bled into the paper.

On the printed side it's not obvious, but it is too light. I think I need a #10 cool gray or a black marker.

 

Also started gluing up the compartments that sit between the paddle wheels. They even have five separate doors.

Only the far, inside, end is glued, so far (the visible 17c end).

 

Still studying the stern parts; not yet ready to apply any glue to those 2 parts.

[GLakie]

Since paper is wood, just thinner, does paper absorb paints differently than regular wood, making colors harder to match?

[Canute]

George, I think so. The edge coloring subject is one often discussed on paper-modeling forums, from what I've been reading. Probably will need more coats.

I'm applying color with an alcohol based marker, not paint. Not much pigment applied there. I've used these markers to color basswood structures, and end up doing several applications. But it does work. The coloring is more like a wash than a coat of pigment.

[dgbot]

On the card models I have done I try to use a darker than the rest. Not easy doing it thiugh.

David B

[Captain Slog]

Hi Ken,

 

I have quietly been following your build and enjoying your progress.

 

I thought I might stick my oar in now since the topic of edge colouring has come up.

 

I have never quite been satisfied with my edge colouring having tried, acrylic and enamel paints, as well as water colour 'blocks' and water colour pencils but have found a range of Faber Castell Pitt (PITT?) artist pens which have came very close to meeting my needs.

 

The grays also come in cool and warm tones but the good thing is there is very little to no bleeding into the paper.  I found using the very tip (less ink) and moving across quite quickly applies just the right amount. 

 

A lighter colour can be applied a couple of times to darken the edges.  Also if a perfect colour can't been matched, the general consensus from what I can gather is the edge should be darker than the main part.  The eye accepts it easier rather than a lighter edge.

 

I covered the PITT pens somewhat in my Bismarck card build log.  I found good matches for the different grays, a green and a brown.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Canute]

Slog, thanks for that great tip. I'll have to get some.

[Canute]

Picked up a set of cool grays and black Faber Castell Pitt pens and promptly went to my shipyard to color some edges. Thanks for the steer, Slog. They look good. I touched up all the parts I had previously used the Chartpak pens on.

 

Continued gluing up the hull skins and still puzzling over the stern pieces. I think I have a fix, but I'm going to try it with some re-positional glue first.

 

Also began the paddle wheel housings.

Paddle housing support

 

Paddle wheel attachment point, bottom of support

 

Exterior paddle housing.

 

The white semi-circle gets another overlay, but its both an inside and outside cut. I'm looking for a good, smooth semicircle here, with a flat at the top of the paddle. There will be an observation platform perched on top of each paddle wheel housing. The red 52 on the housing is the location for a 3 piece bump-out, glued over that spot. The instructions aren't text, just pictures with numbers and arrows pointing in approximate locations.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

[cog]

Could have been my Japanese build instruction Ken !!! Looking good ...

[Canute]

Carl, you're right! make sure you use Catopower's Yakatabune build. He has translated a lot of the early instructions for us Japanese language challenged folks.

[Canute]

Holy moly, almost a month since the last update.   I wish I was doing some useful stuff, but....

 

I dd get a few parts glued up, like the bow, paddlewheel housing skeletons and the lookout platforms that go on top of the paddle wheels. I've got a compass with a knife blade to cut the larger circles, but anything under about 3/8" 10mm is out. I'm looking for some small metal templates, as suggested by Mark, to make those smooth circular cuts.

The hull skinning continues at a snail's pace. The glue tabs need some trimming to fit around the bulkheads. The stern piece is a bear, since it is more like a half of a hemisphere, curving in 3 dimensions. And its about a half inch across and 1/4" high. A tad tough for my meat hooks to fold crisply and emplace.  

Thanks for reading.

[Cathead]

Just discovered this, and my mind is blown, knowing nothing about this kind of model. And the prototype is pretty unique, not a riverboat I'm at all familiar with. Thanks for taking this on and expanding my horizons. I remember doing some origami as a kid, but this is something else indeed.

[Canute]

I've been a fan of the Brown Water Navy and the combat along the various rivers during the "late Unpleasantness" known as the Civil War. The boats were mostly paddle wheel or stern wheel. Some of the US Navy ships, like Farragut's USS Hartford, were screw powered, but they couldn't navigate in the shallower waters inland.

Check this site for some more info: http://users.wowway.com/~jenkins/ironclads/ironclad.htm Some of his links may be dead, but it's a start for getting to some basics.