Canadian Canoe by halvoric - Midwest Products - 1:8

[yvesvidal]

Dan, David,

 

You guys are pushing the perfection to stratospheric heights, with these Indian canoes. This is fantastic.

 

Yves

[halvoric]

Gluing/clamping the first of the two decks (is this one fore or aft?  Won’t know until I install the seats I guess).  I actually had to make these two-piece, cambered and oak-veneered deck units twice.  The first ones somehow got just a bit too narrow, from not taking enough care when shaping.  
 

 

Had to fashion a couple of angle blocks to make a conventional clamp work (held in place with masking tape).  The second clamp is to compress the left side down flush with the side planking.  My pre-bending got the parts close to a perfect fit, but not quite.

 

 

The flat center section will get a tapered cherry “king plank” glued/nailed over it.

Edited February 4 by halvoric

[halvoric]

King plank, final shaped but not yet glued down:

 

Clamping set-up for the veneers (hanging on a plastic coat hanger):

[halvoric]

King plank, glued and shaped, markout for “nails” started:

 

Glued and clamped the second deck:

[halvoric]

The nails for the king plank are made from 24 gauge bare copper wire, half hard, from Craftwire.  I have some 22ga as well, may use that for bolts or screws if my Etsy-sourced brass brads are too big.

 

The pin vise bit is 1/32”, approximately a No. 69 size (about 30 thousandths).

 

I’m leaving the nails longer than they need to be as no one will see the ends.  Maybe will get obsessive about scale length on the next model 😂.

 

[halvoric]

The outwales are made from 3/16” x 1/8” x 24” basswood strips.  Looking at resource photos, the Mike Elliott book, and the archival Peterborough catalog, it’s clear that there is a particular shape to the outwales on the Model 44, the profile of which is best seen in the catalog at the top of the strip canoe page:

 

 

The Elliott book also shows a similar profile (“wide outwales”) found as well on canoes of other makers:

 

I first sanded the inside edge camber to match the top plank, then soaked and bent the two ends to match the curve of the stem end decks (neglected to take a photo).

 

Then sanded most of the top bevel into the strip before attaching, to minimize the amount of shaping needed once on the canoe (still had to do a lot of shaping).  For the other side I will also thin the ends in both taper (horizontal) and thickness dimensions before attaching.  
 

I glued it on with medium CA in 2-3 inch sections, taking care to keep the stock flush with top plank and matching the upturn curves on the deck ends.  The photos don’t show the shaping very well unfortunately.  I think the shape looks more accurate to the full-scale in person. 
 

[halvoric]

Next step will be adding the 6 screws (countersunk/pocketed I think) holding each to the decks on the ends.  Research examples:

 

I notice a fair amount of variation among the research canoes on the final shape and width of the outwales (many are restorations).  So I will try to hit a happy medium.

Edited February 18 by halvoric
Typo fix

[king derelict]

Beautiful work Dan

alan

 

[halvoric]

Four of the six “screws” installed.  Countersunk pockets were darkened with Bitumen of Judea, then a first thin coat of shellac applied to see the effect.  These surfaces will probably get three more coats of shellac applied.

 

closeups

[halvoric]

Making old-looking faux screws, part one:

Starting with these teensy brads, I clamp them in some Vise-Grip pliers as an anvil and then cleave the heads with a cold chisel and little brass hammer.

 

Then sand the heads to reduce the diameter a bit, giving us these (some of the chisel cuts are off center and either look like a Phillips screw or, more often, like garbage).

 

Then they get suspended over a mix of 1 part Miracle-Gro fertilizer powder to 3 parts red wine vinegar, to accelerate a verdigris patina.  I just started using the tea ball (don’t tell the girlfriend) and it works great.  

There’s a piece of paper towel in the solution to act as a wick and speed the evaporation.  I get a good thick patina on copper or brass in about 12-24 hours with this setup.

 

Edited February 26 by halvoric

[halvoric]

And here are the screws after patina.  I have polished up a few so far, and will leave some fully oxidized.

The brass brackets for the floorboards.  Some have been polished with 400, 1000 & 2000 grit paper.

 

The floorboards (in background) have been finished with diluted Judea Bitumen and English Oak (from Model Expo), then 3-4 light coats of Amber shellac (Bullseye/Zinser).

 

How they will attach:

 

[king derelict]

Exquisite work. I am very impressed with the aged screws. Beautiful detail.

alan

[halvoric]

16 hours ago, king derelict said:

Exquisite work. I am very impressed with the aged screws. Beautiful detail.

alan

Thanks Alan!  It’s the upside of obsessiveness I suppose.  

[halvoric]

Added the first of the two coamings made from 1/32” cherry strip:

 

CA, then added six screw holes:

 

Making screws from 22 ga copper wire.  Clamped in the old vise grips, I planish the head with brass hammer, then add a screw slot with #11 blade and a tap from the hammer.  Then snip at an angle with Xuron 440 photo-etch shears.

 

Edited March 5 by halvoric

[halvoric]

All the screws & nails are in place and now starting the first shellac stages of finishing.  A few coats on the decks/outwales/king planks/coamings and interior.  I will be smoothing some of the finish on the surfaces with a French Polish technique using old-school linen “rubber” and 4F pumice powder, followed by additional french polish coats (if you’ve done french polish you know how long this can take. 

 

For the hull I am just doing an initial fill coat of shellac which will be knocked down with pumice/alcohol and repeated shellac steps to fill seams and grain.  When that first smoothing phase is done, I will decide how to do simulations of the 800+ copper nails that hold the strips to the ribs.  It seems like a crazy amount of holes to drill, but let’s see how much patience I have.

 

 

Installation of the floorboards, seats, thwarts and brass keel strip will follow that nail project, then final french polish finish for the hull.  (And making a couple of paddles)

Edited Friday at 07:55 PM by halvoric

[halvoric]

First pass at smoothing/grain filling with shellac and pumice polishing.  It’s nice to get something into the pores of the wood and get a sense for what the grain profiles and seams will look like once there is a full finish. 

 

 

[halvoric]

Pores/grain and scratches are getting filled in the decks area: 

 

[halvoric]

For the nail effect, I want to simulate this:

 

 

Assuming I will need to start with several hundred tiny (and shallow) holes.  I think I can lay out the rows with a stylus, using the spacing guide I originally made for rib spacing, and my trusty Weems & Plath triangle:

[Bryan Woods]

That’s going to add a lot of detail to your build. I plan on doing a similar thing to a Sea of Galilee boat I built out of basswood.

[halvoric]

The layout methodology gets more complicated (as usual 😂).

[kgstakes]

Your canoe looks great !!  I've always wanted to build one of the those kits.  Mine is a Peterborough Model 44-based model.  I believe it is anyway, been so long ago since I built it.

 

Great job!!

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 12:23 AM by kgstakes

[halvoric]

1 hour ago, kgstakes said:

Your canoe looks great !!  I've always wanted to build one of the those kits.  Mine is a Peterborough Model 44-based model.  I believe it is anyway, been so long ago since I built it.

 

Great job!!

 

 

 

Thanks!  Your canoe looks exactly like the kit I am bashing, if built to the plans.  I’ve made a lot of changes to mine for scale realism, but the basic plank hull is identical.  I think Midwest had a predecessor kit to my 1:8 scale (Canadien Canoe, based on the Peterborough Model 44) that was a bit smaller but very similar.  The kit features no seats, just three thwarts, like yours.

 

[kgstakes]

 

Halvoric,

 

Have you seen this website https://canoemodelkits.com/ or https://woodenboatusa.com/products/ ??  I would like to some day build one of these canoes.  They look like excellent kits but have never seen them either.  

 

Some day (hopefully) I would like to build a 12' solo strip wood canoe.  Don't know if that will ever happen, they are expensive kits so maybe.  Always loved wooden canoes or small wooden boats for fishing or exploring.

 

Your build as I've said before looks great!!  Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

Edited Monday at 02:44 PM by kgstakes

[halvoric]

Kurt— Yes, I’ve definitely checked out that first link for BIG model canoes (I think they may even offer a 1:1 scale kit, not sure).  Seems they like to make pool table/bar lamps out of them.  Was tempted to get one of their kits—maybe after this model is done (girlfriend would be THRILLED).

[halvoric]

The first hull nails test:  I am planning to make them mostly filler, with a few showing darkening/waterstaining and a few copper nailheads showing through.

 

Ignore the “ghost” holes; I impatiently launched into making my starter holes (with an awl/stylus) without recalling from my source materials that the nails need to be at the (upper) EDGE of each plank (toenailed I think that is) to look like the original.  Hopefully this one set of ghost holes won’t stand out when it’s all done (and if they do that side will face the wall 😂).

 

Making tiny nails from 24ga wire.  Production is slow.