Hi guys,
For those who missed my thread over what i've been planning,have a nosey HERE.
Well after a good two weeks since mentioning that i acquired a boat in around 1/40 scale,it finaly arrived!!
It was a real bargain on ebay for 26€(inc. postage).This kit usually retails much higher,around 50+/-€.
The kit is from "Authentic Models" in The Netherlands.I have virtually no experience in building with fine wood (give me plastic anyday!),so it's going to be alot of trial by error .
As promised, a few pics of the kit itself and some of the dio elements ready for priming.












And dio elements:


Close up:


Does anyone have any tips or tricks that could help me out a little with the building of the boat?
Thanks in advance,
Shay

Great looking kit, Shay!

Tip #1, Take your time, as building in wood can take you many times longer than plastic, mate. . .you have very different types of medium, my friend, and the process time is very different.

Have you any simple woodworking experience? Primarily, the same principles used in basic cabinetmaking can apply to ship modeling, ie. sanding, fittting, filling, gluing, etc. . .and you really have to think about what your doing, as fixing mistakes in wood is not as easy (at least for me! ) as in plastic.

Make a good, solid, building plan and stick to it. . .don't rush the steps, and you'll do fine, mate! And remember, you have quite a support staff here at MSW anytime that you have questions!

Good Luck, Keep us posted, mate!
~Gunny

I don’t hold myself as an expert but here is my general advice on wood.
Carving:
Pay attention to the grain, if you don’t you may cut off much more than you intended.
Even if you think a cut is small enough to make in one pass do it in three and sand it to size.
It is much easier and neater to cut a little more off than glue some back on.
If the piece is going to be stained be careful with the glue, where there is glue it won’t accept the stain.
Drilling
It is always better to drill a hole for a nail or bolt than to just drive it in.
I often coat the back side of were I am drilling with wood glue to reinforce it, and place it on top of a piece of scrap so that the bit does not tear out the hole when it goes through.
Sanding
When sanding something that you want to have a square edge, place it against a flat surface that extends above the side that you want to sand. Use that surface as a guide by holding your sanding block against it. Sand with the grain, not across.
Sawing cross cuts
Use a miter box, make a test cut to see if / how much the grain rips on crosscuts (cross grain cuts) and make your cut that far beyond your mark then sand down to your mark.
Sawing rip cuts (cutting with the grain)
Allow 1/3 of the thickness of the piece that you are cutting beyond your mark then sand or plane to size.
I hope this helps, I wish I could direct you so a web site or a book but I learned the hard way.

Hi guys,
Thankyou very much for your tips, all of them will come in handy when i start with the construction of the boat.
As promised a small update of the dio .So far i have made a basic construction from fibre wood,the sides of the base will eventually get finished with a fine sheet of decorative wood.
Recently i won a big collection of old resin street and footpath sections so i have put them to good use on the base.
The house and side wall are plaster products from MK35 which i picked up for a good price at a show here, the canal wall made from an old waterfront scene kit from Custom Dioramics.
The area at the bottom of the stairs will be filled up with foam and eventually be finished with a layer of groundwork.I have left an area around 8cm deep to the right of the wall to add the larger boat and smaller boat.This area will then be finished off with canal water.
After seeing Guy's seagulls over on HF, i've decided to try my hand at sculpting a couple myself and add to the scene somewhere!
The base




The canal wall:




Cheers,
Shay

Ahoy Shay!
I was wondering how you were doing on your new endeavor, mate!
I dunno if it's my connection or what, but your recent photos are coming up as dandy little red x's, ma friend...
~Gunny

Hi Gunny,
I'm not sure about the red dot's mate, i'm using Photobucket like i usually do and i've posted in the same manner over on Benelux Armorama without any problems.
Cheers,
Shay