18th Century Longboat by Desertanimal - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:48 build using boxwood

[KennyH78]

Chris, the ensign looks great!  It is a nice little detail that adds a little more realism to the model.  Well done!  I may have to try this technique at some point.   

[Desertanimal]

OK it is done. Started the project August 2. So about 2 1/2 months. Wrapping up the details took quite a while but I’m quite happy with the results.

 

I got a piece of cherry from a friend whose husband passed away so I thought this would be a great place to use it. 

 

I did some garage rearranging and pulled out the planer. It’s been mothballed for the last few years. I used to have a big shop but sold the building after covid. 

 

 

I miss my dust collector….

 

 

Here it is planed down to 3/4”

 

 

I can’t get to the table saw but an old friend who bought a small table saw from me 25 years ago decided he didn’t have room for it and dropped it off. I put a new blade on it and made the frame.

The amount of board feet I put through this saw would be staggering. Funny that it’s back in my life. 

 

 

Oiled it with “walrus oil”, not from real walruses. It’s sold as a danish oil finish but it’s basically tung oil with some polymerized oil. 

I don’t recommend. 

 

 

Now the interesting part. First I found an old time map of Britain. I glued it to a piece of 1/4” mdf with mat medium, then sparingly used water to remove the paper while occasionally stopping to dry it with a heat gun. If you’re careful and don’t rub too hard, the ink stays on the wood. Then I sealed it with mat varnish.  Here are some practice pieces.

 

 

Here’s the final version.

 

 

I’ve got brass pins with smaller piano wire inside that the boat will sit on. They are glued into a thicker piece of wood under the insert. 

 

 

Here she is in place.

 

 

I mounted the oar racks to the base.

 

 

 

I put some pins in the ends of the frame from underneath. They go through the acrylic cover. They sit proud about 1/4” so they will be glued in with a small amount of white glue but they can be levered out easily if I ever need inside. 

 

 

 

So here she is. Officially complete. It was a great journey. Working with boxwood proved to have its issues but it sure looks nice and finishes beautifully. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all who have followed along and provided encouragement with your kind words and likes!

 

Chris

 

Edited Thursday at 02:16 AM by Desertanimal

[JacquesCousteau]

Great job! The base is really inventive and turned out well, not to mention the quality of the model. It turned out really sharp. You may have mentioned earlier, but did you apply any finish to the hull exterior? The walrus oiled base may not have turned out to your liking, but I think it contrasts nicely with the lighter hull and map segments.

[Desertanimal]

Thank you very much JC!

 

The hull is all coated in home mix wipe on poly.

 

C

[Ronald-V]

Really beautiful display and model! Love the cherry wood color

 

Well done sir!

[Nick 843]

8 hours ago, Desertanimal said:

First I found an old time map of Britain. I glued it to a piece of 1/4” mdf with mat medium, then sparingly used water to remove the paper while occasionally stopping to dry it with a heat gun. If you’re careful and don’t rub too hard, the ink stays on the wood. Then I sealed it with mat varnish.

Model and base look just stunning.  If I understand correctly, you transferred the map/ink onto the mdf; really interesting.  Did the map have to be on any particular kind of paper, ie an actual old map, or a reproduction in a book?  And what is the rubbing part?  Is that when you're removing the paper?  What do you rub it with?

 

Nick

[yvesvidal]

Superb model and exquisite presentation of the Longboat. A true museum piece.

 

Yves

[Desertanimal]

6 hours ago, Ronald-V said:

Really beautiful display and model! Love the cherry wood color

 

Well done sir!

 

Thank you Ron! Cherry is one of my favorites.

 

2 hours ago, Nick 843 said:

Model and base look just stunning.  If I understand correctly, you transferred the map/ink onto the mdf; really interesting.  Did the map have to be on any particular kind of paper, ie an actual old map, or a reproduction in a book?  And what is the rubbing part?  Is that when you're removing the paper?  What do you rub it with?

 

Nick

 

Thanks Nick! I got the map from the David Rumsey historical map collection. Printed it on regular printer paper, reversed, don’t forget that! I glued that to the mdf with mat medium, you can also use modge podge and probably white glue also. The rubbing was done with small amounts of distilled water and rubbed 90% with my fingers, 10% with a pencil eraser, that is how you remove the paper. Give it a try on some scrap. It was surprisingly easy and I am really happy with it.

 

7 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

Superb model and exquisite presentation of the Longboat. A true museum piece.

 

Yves

 

Thank you very much Yves.

[Knocklouder]

Nicely done, Congratulations 

Bob  m.