Andy's Modelmaking Misadventures

[Gwylan]

It was raining yesterday

You say that. It was sunny where I am.
Do I have to check everything?

 

[Andy in Germany]

I may have got a little carried away buying parts for this project.

 

[Andy in Germany]

After the last burst of progress, I decided I wanted a few changes on the ship. The Poop deck, at the back of the ship, (& apparently the origin is exactly what you were thinking) was a bit too small, so I extended it by making the “cargo hatch” a bit smaller. This will allow me to extend the cabin a small amount, giving my characters more space for the purpose of engaging in fisticuffs or similar.

Of course, the deck now had a dirty great join right across it and I’d also forgotten to score in the planking, which is why it now sports this rather fetching green addition with cosmetic planks duly applied. The “snooker table” look is because, like a lot of my materials, the card was “strategically acquired” so it comes in all colours. At least this time it isn't covered in stars. Or unicorns.

To my surprise, fitting the decks wasn’t the endless trial and multitude of errors I’d expected, but it made up for that with the battle to cut straight slits in the bow and the stern for the mooring lines. It turns out that 2 1/2 mm of shellac-soaked card is pretty solid, and making consistent holes is difficult without a straight edge to cut against. Fortunately I was able to tidy the holes up to my usual standard of “I can hide it with weathering”, and I’m sure you won’t tell anyone about it, will you?

 

[Punkawallah]

View attachment 767881

After the last burst of progress, I decided I wanted a few changes on the ship. The Poop deck, at the back of the ship, (& apparently the origin is exactly what you were thinking) was a bit too small, so I extended it by making the “cargo hatch” a bit smaller. This will allow me to extend the cabin a small amount, giving my characters more space for the purpose of engaging in fisticuffs or similar.

View attachment 767882

Of course, the deck now had a dirty great join right across it and I’d also forgotten to score in the planking, which is why it now sports this rather fetching green addition with cosmetic planks duly applied. The “snooker table” look is because, like a lot of my materials, the card was “strategically acquired” so it comes in all colours. At least this time it isn't covered in stars. Or unicorns.

View attachment 767883

To my surprise, fitting the decks wasn’t the endless trial and multitude of errors I’d expected, but it made up for that with the battle to cut straight slits in the bow and the stern for the mooring lines. It turns out that 2 1/2 mm of shellac-soaked card is pretty solid, and making consistent holes is difficult without a straight edge to cut against. Fortunately I was able to tidy the holes up to my usual standard of “I can hide it with weathering”, and I’m sure you won’t tell anyone about it, will you?

Don’t worry about the ragged holes - you can always cover them with ‘reinforcing plates’ ;-)

 

[simongt]

I've been an enthusiastic model maker for years, revived after a long break form childhood memories of Airfix kits.
But oddly, despite having about twenty kits awaiting assembly, I've gone off the boil and haven't done one in some time.
Daresay the bug will bite again - !

 

[Andy in Germany]

I said I’d probably go wandering off from my prototype at some point in the project, and here we are already. The ship I used as a starting point was built with an open bridge, but I’d read that at some time during her service life it had been enclosed. I imagine this was a relief for all concerned, so I decided to include this luxury feature.

Then I realised that as I’d designed the model, the steps up to the bridge would be too close to the top of the hull, meaning that anyone climbing them would be in danger of falling overboard. Given the choice of redesigning the hull and moving the steps back, I of course chose the more difficult option which after some swearing resulted in some rather complicated and almost identical steps, recessed into the hull.

Moving the steps back meant that the bridge now changed shape, making it more complex, not least because I wanted the front to be curved and because the roof had to be removable in case a future story involves stealing something from the bridge, or indeed stealing the ship.

I got there in the end after emptying another bottle of superglue, but proper model makers of a sensitive nature probably shouldn’t look closely at some of the construction details or mention things like “right angles”.

I’ll just add clutter and weathering; it’ll be fine.

 

[Punkawallah]

‘Right angles? Pah! There’s no right angles on the seas, Matey!’

 

[Andy in Germany]

Arrr........

 

[Reynard]

Arrr........

Is that arr good or arr bad? Or arr you swearing in Klingonaase?

 

[Andy in Germany]

I spent more time than is strictly healthy dithering about what the cabin should and could look like, not helped by my complete lack of knowledge about how Big Floaty Boxes work.

In the end, I decided to aim for a balance between what I think looks right and the needs of telling stories, although as usual I had my thumb on the scales in favour of the latter. I expect the ship breaks a dozen maritime laws already, and I doubt it will get any better. If anyone complains, I’ll just keep saying “alternative history” until they go away.

With such a tiny space available, I decided this section would only contain the crew mess and the captain’s tiny cabin, so I added the door under the steps to hopefully give the impression there were more below decks; (note to self: add portholes in the hull below the cabin).

After moving the chimney back and forth so often it was becoming a pendulum, I eventually decided it took up the least space at the front of the cabin, so this luxurious piece of real estate was allocated to the captain, with a bed and desk wrapped around the base. Due to a typical lack of planning, this also meant blocking two of the portholes I’d cut; never mind…

I’m aware that every character has to move around with a big circle of plastic on their feet, but that making every walkway and door wide enough for this would look terrible. I’m hoping that there are enough strategically placed spaces inside and out that characters can move around, although the captain’s cabin will get very crowded, very quickly.

Next is the roof, with some basic detail, then back to the rest of the ship which still needs a fair bit of detailing, masts, and anchor windlass, and some hatches over the hold access holes to stop characters falling in; or at least stop me dumping bits of card in them while I’m taking photographs…

 

[Punkawallah]

Is that arr good or arr bad? Or arr you swearing in Klingonaase?

‘Arrrr’ as in ‘me hearties!’.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Is that arr good or arr bad? Or arr you swearing in Klingonaase?

‘Arrrr’ as in ‘me hearties!’.

Exactly, general "Arrrr"