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Canoe by Voyageur - FINISHED - scale 1:12 - RESTORATION


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14 hours ago, Sceatha said:

That looks great Voyageur, already awesome improvement. Have you managed to identify the original planking wood? Looks a bit like beech i think?

Thanks! I have no idea what type of wood this is. I assumed Basswood but I am no expert. Is beech a common wood used on model making?

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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@Roger Pellett, They are works of art. How long did it take to restore?

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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15 minutes ago, Voyageur said:

Thanks! I have no idea what type of wood this is. I assumed Basswood but I am no expert. Is beech a common wood used on model making?

Beech is indeed used, at least here in Europe, sometimes different continents have different availabilities and I am definitely no expert. I just thought I noticed the beautiful little streaks (pores?) on the planks on one of your photos, which are characteristic of the kind of beech we get around here (see attached photo).

 

Anyways, whatever the material, she's a beauty and coming along very nicely!

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Edited by Sceatha
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I decided why bother restoring a wood canvas canoe unless I actually canvas it. I figure if thing go awry, I can scrape, sand and redo. I propped the canoe on my work stand using a foam block for support. I experimented on scrap wood with CA glue to hold the cloth to the wood. It did not work. I decided to just use spray on adhesive. That worked great! I coated the canoe and laid the cloth over it, pulling it gently and smoothing out the cloth.

I gave it a once-over with the torch to burn off the fuzz and wiped it down with a damp cloth.

I brushed on the mastic sealer. That went on easily with a foam brush. Let dry, wet sanded gently and brushed on another coat.

While the sealer was drying, I cut and sanded my keel piece of maple. It is more of a low, flat bumper to protect the bottom of the canoe when running over rocks, etc...

I’m thinking about prime and paint. I have Zinsser shellac base primer and acrylic paint. Is that going to work? I just spray painted everything when I was building rockets so I want to Make sure to get this right.

 

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I think that the old rule applies for the shellac and paint... test on scrap.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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I worked on the gunwales a bit today. I used the router to cut a channel in the strip of maple. Leaving a small lip on either end. Enough to sand away to get the shape I want. I used a strip of maple about 45 inches long so I would have a backup in the event I screwed up the working pieces. I sanded down to 400 grit and gut it generally the shape I wanted. Then cut the individual gunwales from the that strip. Starboard side has been steamed and is in the jig now. Tomorrow, I’ll finish sanding the hull. I put a second and third coat of sealer on it. With wet sanding in between. 

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Thanks Roger. I have two coats of primer on now and ready for paint. Once I decide on the color(s).

6E08AAA3-D196-446C-8832-347C5770A3A7.jpeg

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I decided to make the paddles out of some old cedar fence board I saved when we replaced our fence about 10 years ago. I cut a board into square profiles and turned them on the lathe. I cut them flat and then sanded by hand. I am really pleased with the results. I made 4 blanks in case I screwed something up. The first one came out good so I have three shots at getting #2. Wish me luck!

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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15 hours ago, Voyageur said:

Thanks Roger. I have two coats of primer on now and ready for paint. Once I decide on the color(s).

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That looks very nice, VG. What kind of fabric is that? That might work nicely for canvasing traditional painted decks, like on the sharpie I'm building. I've been thinking ahead to what I might do on the deck. Is your spray adhesive 3M Super 76?

 

Roger mentioned the upside down canvas method. Though I know of Joe Seliga, I've never seen that. In case anyone is wondering, the "right side up" method is pictured below. From a Rollin Thurlow workshop.

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Cheers,

Cricket

 

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My father lived in northern Ontario and had his canoes re-canvased by local Indians (Cree?).  I believe that they used the right side up approach while wetting the canvas and putting quite a weight of rocks in the canoe.  And maybe re wetting.

The closer you get to Canada, the more things will eat your horses. ~ T. King

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I used the right side up method for canvasing the four canoes that I restored.  I got it from Rollin Thurlows book.  Joe Seliga learned canoe building on his own so developed his own methods.  I met him once.  There is a beautifully illustrated biography of Joe written by Jerry Spelnoc, another canoe guru.  The book was published shortly before Joe died and he signed my copy.

 

Roger

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3 hours ago, Jim Cricket said:

That looks very nice, VG. What kind of fabric is that? That might work nicely for canvasing traditional painted decks, like on the sharpie I'm building. I've been thinking ahead to what I might do on the deck. Is your spray adhesive 3M Super 76?

 

Hi Cricket, Thanks for the comments. I used 100% cotton cloth. I don't know the type of weave. It looks pretty standard to me. Like a thin sheet. I wanted something thin and smooth. The adhesive I used is called Aleene's tacky spray. I have 3M spray adhesive but the tacky spray is much easier to work with. It allows for re positioning easily and I think it would work well for your deck application. I didn't know that they canvassed decks. Is your Sharpie on the forum here?

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Very little progress lately. I’ve been occupied with a couple other things. One being getting my dust collection system set up in the workshop which I finally have in place.

I painted the canoe-poorly, I might add. The tape didn’t do its job and there was plenty of bleed of red into the striped area. I did a bit of cleanup and it looks much better.

It took a while to get to this point because when I first went to paint, I taped everything off just fine and, because I don’t have an airbrush (actually, I picked one up after this all happened) I went outside with a spray can. All went well until I dropped the canoe onto the grass, still wet with dew. Needless to say, I had to sand everything and basically restart the whole process. Oh well.

I’ve got the gunwales dry fitted on and they look pretty good. Perhaps this week I will get them glued up and maybe finish this project by the weekend. Maybe.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I’ve been thinking about the gunwales and how I wanted to do them. I see that there were several different styles Over the years and I think I would like to change the style completely to a double gunwale style where the inwale caps the ribs and connects directly to the outwale as shown in the diagram.

in doing this I will have to redo the deck plates to make them flush with the gunwales. I’ll remake them over the weekend I think.

 

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Edited by Voyageur
Edited photo

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Here is a mock-up I did just to see the scale. It looks sooooo wide but that appears to be in scale with the drawing. I will not be removing the current inwale so removing material from the inside dimension Of the new inwale is necessary. Also I don’t plan on making two separate pieces; inwale and outwale. It is much easier to make it as one I think. Although bending the entire piece may be a challenge.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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9 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

That’s way to wide.  Tomorrow, I’ll try to make a sketch of the gunwales on my canoe with dimensions.  The inwale appears to scale and the most common design does not cover it.

That’s what I thought. I can’t find a good picture of a double gunwale canoe other than the drawing shown above. I attempted to make it to that scale but I agree there could be some trimming on the outwale.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Starting back on square 2 with the paint job. I know I can do better so I sanded it down and primed it again.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Those are beautiful. But probably beyond my skill level. Maybe there are decals out there that I could use. I especially like #22

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I found some decal making materials and think I’ll take a stab at making my own decals. I’d like my canoe to have a nice paint job like those. This old dog will try a new trick. Stay tuned. 

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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The weather is too nice here this weekend to spend much time in the workshop. I did manage to get enough done outside to make me feel like I have earned a bit of time working on this project.

Since my canoe isn’t really any replica of a particular manufacturer, didn’t want a design that mimicked theirs. I wouldn’t feel right about that. I’m no artist but I thought I could come up with something that was my own and looked respectable. I hand drew the paddles on paper. It took several attempts to get it the way I wanted. took a picture of it, emailed the picture to myself and and used photoshop to recreate it digitally. I sized it and printed out a few. I tested the look out on the canoe and I am pretty happy with result. I’ll make decals of them and have my own design. Still thinking about the paint scheme...

 

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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  • 2 weeks later...

It’s been a few days since I posted anything on this. I suck at painting! I finally got a paint job I feel like sharing. I’ve painted it, sanded and repainted three times! I was thinking of two tone but I don’t have the skills yet with the airbrush to feel confident I won’t screw this up. I’m ok with that for now. I think I’ll just put on the gunwale, seats and thwarts and call it completes. Hopefully this weekend?? I really want to move on to the half hull planking project but I don’t want to do that until this is done.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I really wanted a two tone paint job on this canoe so I decided to try to take my airbrushing skills up a notch. I was able to lay down this cadmium yellow. I’m glad I tried, I like the way it turned out.

also, my sister made a doll of our Grandfather (something about her daughter’s school project). She mailed it to me so he could take a row in the dinghy, and later in the canoe. Here’s my Pepe in the dinghy. The orange vest is his life jacket. I asked her to make that since was going in the boat. 😁

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Edited by Voyageur

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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