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General Ship Modeling
Discuss modeling techniques, experiences, and ship modeling in general.
Ship's boats
allycat
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England - North East, United Kingdom
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Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 05:57 AM UTC
Hi All,
I was thinking about putting some paint on a few of Trumpies 1/350 ship's boats (on davits) and suddenly thought. Wouldn't they have awnings covering them until just before lowering.
No point in putting the thing in the water if it's full of the stuff, and an awning could be removed while lowering proceedures where implemented so not a time issue in an emergency.
I await your thoughts on the matter
Tom
Grauwolf
#084
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Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 06:30 AM UTC
Hi tom,
Use photos as reference.
There are many photos that show awnings or covers on these
boats, just as there many photos showing them uncovered.
Check out photos of the particular ship you are building.
This is my though on the matter,
Cheers,
Joe
allycat
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Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 07:12 AM UTC
Hi Joe,
I'd already decided to show them uncovered.
The interiors (with some careful painting)will look quite good.
I was just curious.
Tom
TracyWhite
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Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 02:20 PM UTC
A lot depends on the class of ship and theater of operations. There was a lot less call for awnings in the south pacific, or on a battleship where they were stored further away from the water.

Here's a late 1941 US Cruiser buttoned up for you though:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/2dd21e4afcf88f7e.html
But Enterprise shot at the same time has no awnings:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/5364eabf13baa9c4.html
And Maryland
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/e3dbe170e7048537.html
Shanghaied
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Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
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Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 07:57 PM UTC
Hi all

Please excuse when I hijack this thread a bit. On my corvette I have two very small boats which need to be without canvas cover. The molding is not really nice.
Does anybody know a method to scratch tiny boats with look realistic? They are just abt 10mm

Greetings from Shanghai
JClapp
#259
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 12:51 AM UTC
Covers or no covers, there were boatswains mates whose job it was to make sure the scuppers of all the boats were kept dry,
and in every other way kept in readiness.
TimReynaga
Staff MemberAssociate Editor
MODEL SHIPWRIGHTS
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 01:12 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi all

Please excuse when I hijack this thread a bit. On my corvette I have two very small boats which need to be without canvas cover. The molding is not really nice.
Does anybody know a method to scratch tiny boats with look realistic? They are just abt 10mm

Greetings from Shanghai



Shanghaied;

Sometimes you can improve kit parts without having to scratchbuild the boats completely. Here is a longish answer from my USS Olympia build showing how I improved the boats:

The pulling boats supplied in the Revell Olympia kit consist of hulls and thwart/gunwale parts, plus separate stacked oars. The were ok but basic, so I decided to improve them.

The first upgrade was to add rudimentary interiors to the plain boats in the form of scribed plastic sheet floor “planking”. Using Evergreen (#2030) .030 inch spacing V-groove .020 inch thick sheet, I shaped pieces to fit the individual hull interiors, beveling the undersides to achieve a snug fit inside each of the different sized boats.

Seen beneath the thwarts (seats) and stacked oars on the completed boats, these simple floors add a little complexity to plain kit interiors. They also serve to cover the raised part numbers molded inside each of the kit hulls! After the floors, the kit thwart/gunwale parts were attached. These parts are generally accurate but the wide, plain gunwales are simplified. I added strips of Plastruct (#90709) .010 X .010 inch plastic strip along the gunwale tops to give them a little more finesse.

Another weak area of the boats was the keels, which were only rather vaguely depicted on the kit parts. After scraping away Revell’s molded representations with my X-acto, each boat received a new keel made from Evergreen .015 X .020 inch plastic.


The new keels, gunwale strips, and scribed plastic floors help give the boats a sharper appearance.

Making new oars was pretty simple. Using Detail Associates .022 inch brass wire (#2507), I trimmed each piece to length, making blades by crimping the ends with pliers. After sanding the blade tips to make rounded edges… instant oars!

Test fitted in the completed Olympia boats, the new oars definitely look more in-scale than the kit parts.

I’ve used this method before; here’s how similar oars look once painted and in place on my Revell 1/303 scale USCGC Taney model:

Shanghaied
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Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 03:17 AM UTC
Hi Tim

Thanks for your help. I am actually following your great blog. Built the Olympia as a kind many years ago.
My problem is that my boats are shallow 16' dinghies, one piece cast with quite thick planks in 1/350. I tried to hollow them out a bit more with a Dremel, but its quite difficult to do this very evenly.

Greetings from Shanghai
JClapp
#259
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 03:18 AM UTC
Tim, beautiful work! thanks for sharing.
allycat
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England - North East, United Kingdom
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 04:20 AM UTC
Tom,
Just thinking off the top of my head here because I've never tried it.
But could you pour some silicon sealant (maybe not this but something similar) into the boats and, as it sets, use a small flat instrument to sculpt the top to resemble a cover.
I would imagine you could use Shrink-wrap (thin polythene stuff used to wrap sandwiches etc.) on larger scales.
Tom
Grauwolf
#084
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 06:35 AM UTC
Hi Tom,

I would suggest finely textured tissue paper or
commercial hand towels lightly glued in place,
sculpt as necessary.
Once this is done, apply diluted white glue and
once this dries and has hardened....paint accordingly.

Not sure how well paint will take to sandwich wrap.

Cheers,
Joe
JClapp
#259
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Massachusetts, United States
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 07:52 AM UTC
If one doesnt like the kit provided boats, are there any aftermarket boats available?
Grauwolf
#084
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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 - 08:07 AM UTC
There are many boat set kits available in 1:700 & 1:350
for Japanese warships but I don't know for USA & others.

Maybe a quick Google can help.

Cheers,
Joe
Shanghaied
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Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
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Posted: Saturday, June 15, 2013 - 03:19 AM UTC
For a canvas cover of a boat not too big I would use white glue or Kristal Kleer (its a little bit stronger) I use this for canvas covered rails. Works quite well.

My problem is that the boats need to be open and are tiny

Checked my stash, but nothing equivalent to be found.

Greetings from Shanghai
allycat
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England - North East, United Kingdom
Joined: October 03, 2004
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Posted: Saturday, June 15, 2013 - 07:03 PM UTC
Tom,
What model and make are your boats from?
I know you said 1/350 scale.
Maybe go into the reviews section and see if another manufacturer does similar, but more detailed, boats (if your making a fairly old kit more modern molding methods would improve the boats considerably) and then see if the manufacturer sells the separate sprues with boats on.
Tom
Shanghaied
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Posted: Saturday, June 15, 2013 - 07:55 PM UTC
Its the Mirage HMS Anchusa and Zinnia. Very new, but a little old style molding

greetings from Shanghai
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