Ship's Boat from clay

[t5956ws]

I am working on a scratch built model of the Housatonic. The first ship sunk by a submarine. Housatonic was sunk by the Hunley in 1864 outside of Charleston's harbor. Anyway the ship has 8 launches on 7 sets of davits. Two of the boats I've decided to show the interior details. The others canvased. The point of my note is the I tried to make the dingy out of clay. It worked!!!  I used this method because of it's small size.

 

First I made a top profile full size to scale. I applied it to a plywood piece to make a die of the interior. The profile was cut and sanded. The basic shape of the dingy was sanded to it's final shape.   

I used comon air dry clay purchased from a hobby store. I applied aluminum foil on the plug so it would release from the wood die. I rolled the clay to about 1/16 of an inch. Easily done with a rolling pin or large dowel. 

I formed the thin clay around the plug. It shaped rather easily. It cured for about a half hour so that it was stiff but not hard. I trimmed it to the top of the plug with an xacto #11. It released easily after trimming. I did some preliminary shaping and sealing with a Q-tip and water. 

 

I let the form cure overnight. I pulled out the aluminum foil and the raw plug  was ready for final trimming. 

To finish I was able to sand.  To stabilize I hardened the piece with a few coats of spray laquer.

 

To finish the transom was sanded off smooth with a flat disc sander and a wooden transom applied.  A keel and all of the interior trim parts were crafted and applied.

Below is the finished product. Gunnel was finished with poster board to give it a clean finish.
 

Edited January 29, 2018 by t5956ws

[Jim Rogers]

Nice.