Indian Girl Canoe by GuntherMT - FINISHED - Midwest Products - Scale 1:12 - SMALL

[rshousha]

Gunther,

 

What an excellent model. I built this a couple of years ago and painted the hull to look like red, stretched, canvas. I do agree that making those gunnels was a challenge. 

 

Do you know where I could find these canoe kits? They seem so hard to find, I am contemplating making some new kits myself. 

 

Cheers, 

 

Rick 

Edited March 22, 2015 by rshousha

[Jack12477]

Rick, look at Tower Hobbies website - I found a few of the Midwest kits listed there. Prices are pretty reasonable.

 

Tower Hobbies - The World's Premier Supplier of Radio Control Models

Edited March 22, 2015 by Jack12477

[GuntherMT]

Thanks for the likes everyone.

 

Gunther,

 

What an excellent model. I built this a couple of years ago and painted the hull to look like red, stretched, canvas. I do agree that making those gunnels was a challenge. 

 

Do you know where I could find these canoe kits? They seem so hard to find, I am contemplating making some new kits myself. 

 

Cheers, 

 

Rick 

 

Hi Rick, I answered previously in post #8, with links to three different sources.  See all the links there.

[cwboland]

Do you know where I could find these canoe kits? They seem so hard to find, I am contemplating making some new kits myself.

Rick,

Have a look at Great Hobbies. They're based in PEI.I've had a few dealings with them fire both static and RC models. Very nice and helpful staff.

www.greathobbies.com

[rshousha]

Gentlemen, 

 

I'm surprised to see all the places where these models are available, and in stock. For some reason, my supplier is not carrying those items and I think they are excellent items all around. 

 

I'll have to find a way to get some on my website. 

 

Cheers, 

 

Rick 

 

www.modellers-workshop.com

[AndrewNaylor]

Very nice work

Its important to remember that the original builders of these beautiful canoes had a very very hard time finding SAND PAPER so the hull would have had the odd imperfection in it.

Great job enjoying the build

Andy

[DRW-FJ40]

I found this interesting about the Indian Girl, that it was supposed to be canvas. If I'm not mistaken, the canvas coating was an inexpensive way to make mass produced wood strip canoes watertight. I made mine a regular wood strip canoe and finished it clear.

 

Nice job! Your planking isn't going to require too much sanding... mine was much sloppier which is easily fixed with sanding... lots of sanding. But these are excellent boat kits to learn from.... on my next, I paid a lot more attention to precise planking.

[Corey]

Beautiful!

[GuntherMT]

Surprised to see this old log brought up from the dead, and in looking at it I never did say why it got put on hold.

 

So, for a short explanation - I was trying to do a smooth resin finish like the 40's era Chris Craft boats are often seen with, which requires a lot of coats of resin with sanding between each coat.  I had probably 12 coats of resin on, and then began the final sanding, and when I got down to the 12,000 grit pads, I found out the hard way that I had some thin spots in my resin, as I went through it to the wood, which removed the stain as well, making light spots.

 

At the time I had a lot of other things going on, so I just shelved the canoe and went back to working full time on the AVS.  At some point I will return to the canoe, as it's safely tucked away in it's box on my shelf, and see how it looks by applying stain through the open spots, and then going back to adding resin coats to eventually finish it, but for now, it remains on hold, awaiting my eventual return.

[vann]

Gunther - I'm trying to construct this kit and fear that my novice skills may not be up to your level.  I seem to be particularly challenged to rise to your levels of creativity with clamping.  

 

Things have been going reasonably well up to the point where the planks start making the mid-ships bend after departing the stems.  I don't have a lot of confidence that I'm going to be able to keep this bend in by just using beveling, edge glue, and clamps.  On a normal model you would be gluing to each frame which would provide plenty of strength to hold the bend into the plank.  But in this case it seems that the plank will naturally tend to align itself with the fore and aft points (vertical).  Did you do any pre-shaping to the planks?  I could imagine soaking them and getting it close to form before putting in place, but that seems like a lot of work - and isn't in the instructions (although the instructions are pretty terse in this area!).

 

It seems clear by the smoothness of your hull that you did a proper planking job, beveling the length such that the planks fit the curve of the hull - This isn't covered in the instructions either, but seems very necessary.

 

Thanks for your insights - This is a fun, small project.  And, for someone as inexperienced as me, still provides some challenges!   

[GuntherMT]

Vann, I pre-shape all my planks using heat.  For very difficult bends I will add some water and heat.  There is a video in the planking subforum by Chuck that shows how heat bending works.  I would link it but I am on my phone right now.

 

Basically you use a heat gun or blow dryer to heat the wood while holding the bend or twist, then keep the wood bent or twisted until it cools.  There will be some spring back depending on the wood and severety of the bend.

 

Good luck.

[Worldway]

Hi Gunther, I read this build log for the first time today and you have given me the inspiration to build something similar as a side project.  I would like to build something that I can put on display in my office and this looks like the ideal thing. However, I think I may build the canoe Peterborough as it was developed close to home.

 

So you need to finish this so I can see how you ended up applying finish to the canoe.

 

No pressure. 

[vann]

Thanks Gunther - Exactly the pointer I needed.  I believe these are the videos mentioned...  Good news is that a hair dryer should be easy to acquire.
 

 

[GuntherMT]

4 hours ago, Worldway said:

Hi Gunther, I read this build log for the first time today and you have given me the inspiration to build something similar as a side project.  I would like to build something that I can put on display in my office and this looks like the ideal thing. However, I think I may build the canoe Peterborough as it was developed close to home.

 

So you need to finish this so I can see how you ended up applying finish to the canoe.

 

No pressure. 

 

Don't hold your breath for that!   For how I was going to finish it, look for the build logs on those Chris Craft kits, that is what I was going for with multiple coats of resin sanded down to a mirror finish with progressively finer material.

 

4 hours ago, vann said:

Thanks Gunther - Exactly the pointer I needed.  I believe these are the videos mentioned...  Good news is that a hair dryer should be easy to acquire.
 

 

 

That is the correct thread Vann.  The video is on edge bending, but the same principle works perfectly for hand-holding twists and bends and curves.  If you need a bend real close to the end of a plank, hold that end with a pair of flat-nose pliers with smooth jaws.