Norwegian Sailing Pram by DocTom - Model Shipways - 1:12

[DocTom]

Post 9 - Painting the Hull, Part 2.

 

I spent this snowy Massachusetts weekend finishing the painting of the hull, rudder and center board. I experimented and thinned the paint about 50/50. I liked the reuslts with the thinner paint. It took 5 coats to get a nice result, but no significant brush marks.

 

                                                                                       

 

My attempts to follow the instructions' method for avoiding taping where the interior and exterior paints meet was an utter failure. Not sure if it was my lack of skill (probably), not good enough brush (possibly), or just bad advice. I therefore taped a short section of the top of the rub rail and repainted the white on the side, but had a lot of bleed through. I then belatedly realized I shoud utilize the collected wisdom of this community, and did some digging through the paint forum. I found the trick of using a clear matte paint to seal the tape. Brilliant! I would never have thought of that myself. I taped the top of the rub rail along the edge, sealed it with the clear satin paint provided in the kit, and repainted the outside of the hull, thinning about 3:1. The sides looked great, but I didn't do a great job keeping the edge of the tape straight, and it showed on the top of the rub rail. I then taped along the outside of the hull, leaving some tape extending above the rub rail, and sealed that.

 

                                                                     

 

I then repainted the outer edge of the rub rails using a very small brush. After 4 coats and removing the tape, any little build up disappeared with a few swipes of 400 grit sandpaper. The results were, I think, pretty amazing.

 

                   

 

I still can't believe I was able to do that, and I'm flabbergasted by how good it looks. After that I cleaned up and installed the floorboards. I tried my best to keep the edges in line, but didn't quite get there. Not too bad, though.

 

                                                                

 

My plan was to stain the thwatrs and stern sheets a darker color for contrast to the floor boards, using Minwax Antique Oak, but something went wrong, and the thwarts were a blotchy mess. Maybe i didn't stir the stain enough? I'm painting them warm white, but I may contact Model Expo about getting a new set, or perhaps try and recreate them from the frets. I'm not sure my cutting skills are good enough for the indents. In the meanwhile, here are more pictures of the painted hull, because I'm really proud of it.

 

                 

 

I learned a really great technique with these steps, about how to use tape topaint a straight line. I also learned a valuable lesson: test staing something before going full stream ahead!

 

 

 

[Kenchington]

Looks very nice!

 

Trevor

[Admiral Rick]

Painting looks great Tom. I find painting can sometimes be the most difficult part of the build. I use Liquitex Basic Acrylic Fluid and Liquitex Gesso for primer which leaves almost no brush strokes when it dries. Liquitex is professional artists paint and available at Michaels. I also like to paint the hulls with an  airbrush which leaves no brush strokes and is great when painting water lines because it almost goes on dry so there is very little bleeding. Also 3M automotive masking tape works a hell of a lot better than  regular masking tape and doesn’t leave residue on the surface.

Best Rick

Edited Monday at 12:31 AM by Admiral Rick

[druxey]

Some basswood does not take stain evenly. I suspect that this happened here - it's not your technique.

[DocTom]

14 hours ago, Admiral Rick said:

I use Liquitex Basic Acrylic Fluid and Liquitex Gesso for primer which leaves almost no brush strokes when it dries. Liquitex is professional artists paint and available at Michaels.

 

Rick,

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out next time I'm over on Hubbard Ave. I'm interested in an airbrush, but haven't bought one yet. My plan is to use one when I build the lobster smack. I don't really have a good spot for spraying indoors, so I may have to wait for warmer weather. Now off to clear the driveway!

[Admiral Rick]

Look at an Iwata hp-cs airbrush you won’t be disappointed. They are a little pricey( around $175) but if you keep looking you can find a new one for about $100. Also if you see a nice used one since we live close I can rebuild it with you. Probably the only part you may have to get is a new needle. 
You can spray acrylic paints inside safely and you can get a small spray booth with lights, and air exhaust for around $60. To me it is the only way to paint. Just takes 3or4 practices to develop your skills.  
Stay away from airbrushes in the $30 range a complete waste of money. You will also need a small compressor. When you get to this point let me know. 
I just bought this airbrush for my son who is just getting into the hobby. 
Rick

 

Edited Monday at 07:12 PM by Admiral Rick

[DocTom]

Rick,

Thanks again for the info. I assume the spraybooth has to vent outside somehow?

[DocTom]

Post 10 - The Seat Frames Strike Back!

 

I thought this would be a quick post of a picture of my thwarts and stern sheets in place, so I could begin to attack the tiller, but my plans were thwarted (so to speak). Here's the picture:

 

                                                                        

 

You'll immediately notice, as I did, that the forward thwart is cattywampus. Not sure how that happened. I thought I had measured everything correctly.  My first thought was to ignore it, but I knew it would annoy me. I then thought maybe I could move the groove on the starboard side of the thwart. Finally, my 12 years of Catholic School education came to the fore, and I knew I had to do the right thing. I decided it would be better to move the starboard frame forward, so the area where it was would be hidden under the thwart. After making sure that the adjusted thwart wouldn't block the mast I grabbed my bottle of isopropyl alcohol and went to work. I didn't know if it would work through the paint, but it did. The frame even came off without breaking (I was worried about the small bit that sits inside the inwale). The results - 

 

                                                                               

 

My poor paint job! After calming my nerves by working on my latest Lego project while the solvent evaporated, I sanded as best I could in the tight space and repainted. I resisted the temptaion to slap on a thick coat of unthinned paint, and did the 5 coats I used on the rest of the interior. The result:

 

                                                                              

 

Good as new! After letting it dry, I reglued the thwart.

 

                                                                                          

Everybody's much happier now. The whole process was much easier than I had imagined. It took me about 10 minutes to remove and reglue the frame, and an hours worth of short bursts of painting to finish it.

 

Another lesson learned, although it is an old one: If you're gonna do it, do it right (thank you Sr. Robert Ann). Now on to the tiller!

[Admiral Rick]

55 minutes ago, DocTom said:

Rick,

Thanks again for the info. I assume the spraybooth has to vent outside somehow?

Tom the spray booth comes with the duct and flared end that goes in a window. My isn’t ducked to the out side because I only spray acrylic paints and not oil based. I use the booth with the exhaust. Fan on to draw any mist into the filter in the back of the unit. Acrylic paints have almost no smell and are considered quite safe. If you are worried you could wear a mask like used when you spray a car. Artists and tee Shirt artists use acrylic paint and spray it indoors without a spray booth. I hoped I answered you question   I did auto restoration for years  and Urethane car paints are highly toxic and require positive pressure masks 

Admiral Rick

[druxey]

Great save! Well done.

[Admiral Rick]

1 hour ago, DocTom said:

Rick,

Thanks again for the info. I assume the spraybooth has to vent outside somehow?

Tom the spray booth comes with the duct and flared end that goes in a window. My isn’t ducked to the out side because I only spray acrylic paints and not oil based. I use the booth with the exhaust. Fan on to draw any mist into the filter in the back of the unit. Acrylic paints have almost no smell and are considered quite safe. If you are worried you could wear a mask like used when you spray a car. Artists and tee Shirt artists use acrylic paint and spray it indoors without a spray booth. I hoped I answered you question   I did auto restoration for years  and Urethane car paints are highly toxic and require positive pressure masks 

Admiral Rick

[DocTom]

Post 11 - The Tiller from Hell

 

After reading lots of build logs and watching my go-to You Tube modeler, I started on the tiller assembly. I knew lots of people had trouble with this, so I was a little anxious. I test fitted the side pieces, and ended up gluing them 1 mm forward  of the mark to get a tighter fit against the rudder. Here's the finished version. Sorry for the focus issues. I am going to try using my real camera for the close up shots:

 

                                                            

 

I managed to drill the holes without difficulty, using a 0.7 mm bit. So far, so good. I stained the wood Zar Premium Teak) and gave it 2 coats of the Clear Satin. I plan to use the same stain on the mast and spars. My You Tube modeler annealed the two rods, but had trouble with them bending when he tried to make the rivets. I wondered if that was why the instructions told you to work the rods cold, so I tried it. Worked great with the larger rod between the side pieces.

 

                                                                                    

 

Not so good with the slenderer rod. It still bent and almost split the tiller extension - saved by some glue. After 3 attempts

                                                   

 

and a fourth piece shooting off into the ether despite cutting it in  a baggie, I decided to use one of the copper brads included in the kit, an idea I got from one of the build logs. I dropped it in from the top, snipped it flush with the bottom and put some CA glue on the bottom. Worked well! I'd recommend the same fix to anyone else building the kit.

 

                                                                

 

 

In the end, it looks good.

 

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After that I relaxed by attaching the eye bolt to the bow.

 

                                                                

 

 

I now need to study more build logs and do some You Tube research before tackling the chain plates.

[palmerit]

On the question of venting an airbrush booth, you can vent outside or you can vent to a large pail inside (with some water in it, cutting holes in the top, with some filters - see the video below).

 

Here's the video I followed. Ironically, my modeling area is right near a window, but we live in 100 year old house and lots of the windows don't open.

 

 

[Kenchington]

Lovely job with the rudder and tiller! I still don't understand how anyone gets a bit of brass rod through the extension but you have succeeded.

 

The chainplates are another of those challenges, with the pram kit, that turn out to be satisfying experiences when they go much more smoothly than you expect. At least, they were for me.

 

Trevor

Edited Thursday at 03:45 AM by Kenchington

[DocTom]

Post 12 - The Stay Plates (or are they Chainplates?).

 

I would call these chainplates, but the instructions call them stay plates. Whichever, I found these fairly easy to install after dealing with with the tiller. From reading build logs, it seems like different brads come with different iterations of the kit. Mine had well-formed copper brads. I drilled some test holes in spare wood to test the diameter, as the #71 (0.66 mm) bit indicated by the instructions seemed too small. I ended up using 0.8 mm holes in the inwales. After cleaning up with a broach, the nails fit snugly. I left them in place while I touched up the paint around the holes.

 

                                                              

 

                                                                   

 

I then widened the holes in the brass pieces to 1 mm, to give me some wiggle room. I used a smooth broach to clean them up. I used a protractor for the first time since High School geometry to draw the appropriate angles on a piece of paper, and bent the stays as reccomended in the instructions. After test fitting eveything, I cut the nails, filed the ends to make sure everything still fit in the holes, and then installed the plates. It was remarkabley easy to get the nails throught the plates and into the wood on the other side. I think they came out pretty well

 

          

 

    

 

I then slightly widened the lower hole in the remaining plate to fit the eyebolt, bent the palte to 45%, and glued it in place with CA glue. I cut a "short piece" of the brass tube with my razor saw and miter box with no difficulty despite not annealing it. Cleaned up the edges with a file, cleared the hole with a smooth broach, and glued it in place.

 

                                                                

 

I then started on prepping the gudgeons and pintles. I read Trevor's bad experience with annealing the brass tube, and because I had no trouble cutting and filing the tube cold, I decided not to anneal it. I started by figuring out which etched brass part was which. The 4 oarlock plates were obvious. My initial thought was that the two pieces along the top of the fret were the lower and upper gudgeons.

 

                                                           

 

                                                    

 

A fairly natural assumption. However, the pictures of the pintles show two equal sized pieces of brass plate, and if I used those two for gudgeons, there weren't two equal pieces left. I then noticed the difference in width between the two top pieces, and the fact that the left-most top piece and the far left piece on the lower row were identical, and therefore must be the 2 pintle pieces. The second from the left is therefore the lower gudgeon. It also fitted well on the gudgeon pad. I initially tried the recommended method of cutting a slightly longer piece of tube, putting it in a hole in a 3/32 piece of wood, and filing it down, and replicated Trevor's misadventure with malleable wood. The gudgeon plates are slightly less than 4/32nds in width, and the pintle plates about 5/64ths. I cut pieces of tube about those sizes, and filed them to fit while holding them in needle nosed pliers. I used a smooth broach to clear the holes and made sure the 1/32 rod slipped in easily.

 

 

                                                                   

 

I dropped three of them at various points, but managed to find them all (thank you iphone light!). After that, I decided I needed afresh start in the morning to tackle the assembly of the gudgeons and pintles, so retired to a glass of Jack Daniels and some Ella Fitzgerald on the stereo.

 

 

[Admiral Rick]

Great job Tom

[DocTom]

Post 13 - The Gudgeons

 

After a good night's rest I felt ready to attack the gudgeons. I've been following a You Tube channel of an experienced plastic modeler building his first wooden ship models with these kits. It's been very helpful. He goes by HillBilly Modeler. He devised a jig for gluing the tubes to the gudgeon plates that I adapted. I taped a piece of blue painters tape downside up on a piece of wood, drew a straight line down it, and then two lines at 90 degree angles, using a small square to get everything correct.

 

                                                                    

 

After cutting out and deburring the two plates, I marked the center of each with a small pencil mark. I then stuck them to the tape, measuring to make sure each side was equal. I then cleaned them with isoprpyl alcohol. I threaded the two tubes onto a smooth broach, cleaned them with isopropyl alcohol, and lined the broach up with the center line. I used more Temiya masking tape to fix the broach in place. Needle nose tweezers got the tubes over the plates.

                                                       

 

I then applied the CA glue and prayed to St. Rosalie (an elderly Episcopalian priest friend of mine always said she never let's you down). After waiting ten minutes, the broach slid out! I gently removed the gudgeons from the tape, drilled out the holes to 1 mm to fit the nails,  and cleaned up the excess glue with a file. The result: 

 

                                                   

 

Feeling very pleased with myself, I moved on to attaching them to the hull. I threaded the gudgeons back on the rod, and centered it over the notch in the transom. I found it easier to find the center from inside.

 

                                                      

 

I taped it over the upper gudgeon, slid the lower gudgeon down a bit, spun it around, cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol, applied some CA glue, spun it around again, and slid it into place, trying desperately to line up the rod with the center of the keg. I forgot to take a picture of this, so this is a staged recreation. Although it lookd off, the rod is actually centered:

 

                                                    

 

After the glue dried I used the rudder to mark the height of the upper gudgeon, slid it in place and marked the holes with a pencil. Slid it up, cleaned it with isoprpyl alcohol, applied glue and lined it up either the pencil marks. Again, an amazing simulation, not the real thing!

 

                        

 

On to the nails. I tried to drill the pilot holes on the lower gudgeon, as recommended by the instructions, and it came off. After recleaning and regluing, I used one of the nails to press small pilot holes. I decided the nails were going to be so short, I wouldn't need much. I measured the width of the transom, and then cut the nails to 2 mm below the heads. I got them started with a pair of needle nosed pliers and pushed them in with the back end of my tweezers. I only lost one of them in the process. All of this took me about 3 hours. I've been keeping track, and so far I've spent 71 hours on the pram.

 

The final result was quite pleasing

 

                                                 

 

During all this, I realized the kit does not have enough nails for the job. You need 20, and I only got 16, plus I lost one and used one for the tiller extension.  My otherwise excellent local hardware store had nothing that small, so I've emaild Model Expo about getting more. I think I want brass, not copper on the oarlocks. We'll see what happens.

 

The pintles are next, but will need to wait for another day.

 

 

[Kenchington]

You made a lovely job of those gudgeons! Wish mine had gone so well.

 

Trevor

[druxey]

Ship models worth making are not a race against time. The hours you've spent so far shows in the results.

[DocTom]

I agree. Time well spent!

[DocTom]

1 hour ago, Kenchington said:

You made a lovely job of those gudgeons! Wish mine had gone so well.

 

Trevor,

Thanks for the complement. I would have screwed them up, if not for help from here and You Tube. I had an idea on how to do them, but the jig I saw made all the difference, along with realizing I could clean the parts with solvent, and not sand  them. How did we survive before online how to videos?

[Admiral Rick]

Tom you did a wonderful job and they really look great 👍 

[Admiral Rick]

Tom I was just wondering if you can use cut to length straight pins for nails. You can always with a grinder reduce the size of the head. It’s hard for me to judge the size from the pictures. One thing you will learn as you progress substitution is a tremendous aid. I routinely go to Michael’s and look through the jewelry making section and find out how many things used for jewelry can be used for something else on a ship model. An example is tiny jewelry rings can be substituted for mast hoops.  When you buy them from a hobby dealer they are exorbitantly expensive but for hobby jewelry making dirt cheap. Always think about what can be substituted, you will be amazed. And if you buy 1000 you will be set for eternity. If you buy your tiny nails  from a hobby shop very expensive  straight pins extremely cheap. 
As you acquire things go to Walmart and for $7 get a hobby bead box and slowly fill it as you find things.