Speeljacht by ccoyle - FINISHED - Seahorse - 1/50 - CARD - 17th-Century Dutch Pleasure Boat

[tmj]

On 6/29/2024 at 8:52 PM, ccoyle said:

I decided to stiffen the whole thing with thin CA.

How did you apply the thin CA? I typically smear CA finishes onto certain projects using my bare fingers, never stopping while smearing... then spend the next few hours defoliating my fingers while peeling off the cured CA layer. There 'must' be a better way!    

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, tmj said:

How did you apply the thin CA?

 

Using an extender tip like these:

 

 

Easy to find online or in Hobby Shops -- probably got mine at Hobby Lobby.

[tmj]

I probably have a thousand of those things and they work great for applying the CA, but when it comes time to 'smear' thick coats of CA around, for good and even coverage... nothing beats 'this'! "Just don't ever pause in the smearing process, not even for a split second until the ol' finger has been lifted off of the wood!" I don't need to tell anyone 'Why' they should not stop moving that finger. That's a bit obvious! Believe it or not, the cured CA actually peels off of my fingers rather easily if allowed to sit long enough for natural body/finger oils to soak in and release the thick CA cap from my fingertip(s). One, maybe two hours. Don't do this if you still have any delicate work to perform right away. Do this last. Until I peel that CA cap off on my fingers, I find it impossible to pick my nose or even accurately scratch my *ss. I wouldn't want to even attempt to handle any small parts immediately afterwards! Notice how smooth and finger-print free my fingertip is! 😏 

            

[druxey]

No fingerprints? The perfect crime awaits!

[ccoyle]

4 hours ago, tmj said:

but when it comes time to 'smear' thick coats of CA around, for good and even coverage... nothing beats 'this'!

 

Okay, I have to admit that I don't ever smear thick coats of CA around. I only ever wick thin CA into card or paper. If anything beads up, I quickly wipe it off with a paper towel.

[ccoyle]

So, last night I did a thing:

 

[GrandpaPhil]

Chris,

Your Speeljacht is looking good!

Edited July 27 by GrandpaPhil

[ccoyle]

Got the taffrail and stern timbers done this afternoon. I will spare you the painful details of their construction (not any inherent kit flaw -- just some uncooperative glues 😒 ).

 

[ccoyle]

Doesn't look like much, but I got the second layer added to the keel, did some minor filling and sanding, and then added the finish layer to the keel. We're now ready to add the finish layer to the outer hull. 😬

 

[ccoyle]

Moving along with the finish planking. The first seven strakes have been added. This goes faster than one might think. Once you've been cutting out card parts free-hand for awhile, it becomes rather second nature, so cutting out one of the long planks doesn't actually take all that much time.

 

 

I'm pleased with the progress so far. I was happy to find that the first hint of brown on the hull planking aligned perfectly with the brown on the stempost.

 

 

That same plank came up a bit short at the stern, but the kit supplies extra colored stock, so it will be a simple fix.

 

 

That's it for now!

[ccoyle]

Some more progress to report. I now have all of the finish planking below the wales completed. I'm not happy with how visible the seams are, and I will be doing some work to correct that to my liking.

 

 

If anyone is planning to build this kit using the laser-cut frames, here's a word of warning: DON'T throw out any of the scrap 0.5 mm card! There are plenty of parts that need to be laminated onto 0.5 mm card stock, and with care you can fit most of them onto the scrap 0.5 mm sheet.

 

Before doing the upper hull planking, I decided to work on the interior cockpit planking. This will provide some extra rigidity to the upper bulwarks. You'll notice that I also added the uppermost outer bulwark plank -- this is to help with the positioning of the rest of the bulwark planking yet to be added.

 

 

Someone asked in another topic about the stiffness of card model hulls. I can verify that this particular hull is now pretty solid by this point in the construction -- no fears about it being too delicate.

 

Cheers!

 

[Michael Mash]

Hello Chris.  Looks like the issue you were dealing with back on July 21 has resolved itself.

Lots of additional layers and parts since then.  Looks real good. 

Mike

[ccoyle]

Short update here. I have the foredeck's inner bulwarks installed.

 

 

I will be traveling during the next week, so this will be the last update for awhile. Sadly, I can't bring my models with me. 😢

 

 

[druxey]

Shaping up really nicely, Chris!

[ccoyle]

I'm back from vacation, and the speeljacht saga continues. Here's a glimpse of where we are with the hull (port side filled, sanded, and painted):

 

 

What you may perhaps notice is that there isn't really much, in my view, to recommend the filled and sanded side over the untreated side. There's still plenty of obvious seam work. To emphasize the point, here's a broadside view of the port side:

 

This after at least three fillings-and-sandings (I lost count).

 

Here's the untreated starboard side:

 

Like I said, I'm not really seeing much, if any, improvement on the treated side, so I'm leaning strongly toward abandoning the effort (just the hull treatment, not the entire model). This is, after all, a rookie paper planking job, so just getting the build completed will be counted as a success. For future builds, I think that much more attention needs to be given to the first layer of planking and getting the hull closer to the correct shape.

 

While all of this is happening, I have a lot of airplane kits calling to me, and I ordered four more as a birthday present to myself, along with some 3D-printed after-market accessories for an A6M2 build, including a printed Sakae radial. 😮😬 So I need to keep this build moving forward!

[Keith Black]

 Chris, I think it looks great. One side is going against the wall, who's gonna know?

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

One side is going against the wall, who's gonna know?

That was my logic, too.

 

I now have the outer bulwarks and wales installed on the port side. Gonna need a bit of trimming at the aft end..

[ccoyle]

Starboard side done.

[Keith Black]

 That turned out swell, Chris. No evidence of the issues encountered in post #49. 

[ccoyle]

I finished the cheek knees, but I boogered them slightly, so you get no picture. 😅 You'll just have to keep an eye out for them in subsequent updates. In the meantime, it's off to the stern carvings! 😮

 

In case you haven't picked up on it, the transom carvings are not set on a solid transom. They form an open framework through which one can see into or out of the boat. This means that there is a lot of fiddly cutting to do, which is not made any easier by the fact that the part is laminated onto 0.5 mm card stock.

 

And here's the piece cut free.

There is detail in the printing that I can't even discern without my magnifier.

 

Believe it or not, there is a piece to glue onto the back side.

 

Hold that thought for now. 😳

[druxey]

Well, ain't that a fun challenge, Chris!

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Well, ain't that a fun challenge, Chris!

Yes, it ain't! 😂

 

BTW, I was in your neck of the woods last week -- sort of. I was in Fort Frances. Not really that close to you, but at least in the same province!

[Glen McGuire]

That's a nice job carving out that transom design, Chris!  

[Coyote_6]

That is gonna be a challenge!!  Amazing cutting so far.  

 

If they don't match up perfectly and some card shows on the backside do you color (touch up) with colored pencils or something or just let it go?

 

One of our wooden ship modellers did a card model and he said it was so much more challenging than wood.   I believe him.  Great work Chris!

 

Steve

Edited August 24 by Coyote_6

[ccoyle]

2 hours ago, Coyote_6 said:

If they don't match up perfectly and some card shows on the backside do you color (touch up) with colored pencils or something or just let it go?

 

Hold that thought. 😉

[ccoyle]

So, to answer Steve's question, since there is a 0% chance that I could get the printed back side to match up with the already cut out transom piece, I opted to paint it instead.

 

Here's the front side again. The layering on the left-hand lion has been done, along with the coat-of-arms. The pieces for the right-hand lion have been cut out.

 

Finally, the completed piece.

 

That completes the most difficult piece of carving work, but by no means the last. Stay tuned!

[Coyote_6]

That 3D vibe is awesome!  Nicely done sir - paint looks perfect!

 

Steve

[Michael Mash]

I think you did a fine job with that stern carving.

Not an easy task.

 

[ccoyle]

Stern work progresses.

[Ronald-V]

That looks beautiful!