An Experiment with card - "La Niña" (The Little Girl)

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Jan 13, 2018
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Lisboa, Portugal
A friend of mine who gave up the hobby gave me some card models from the Shipyard brand, (Polland or Czech Republic, I am not sure), including some very sophisticated ones, the Victory, the Bellona and a lot more.

I have no interest in card models, it is not my type of hobby, although I have seen some wonderful models made from card and paper with an unbelievable quality, matching what best one can make with wood. But I reckon it is far from my capabilities or patience and I was never tempted to try my hand on that material.

Long ago I had the idea of using those models as patterns for making some planes from plasticard. Plasticard is very similar to card and it seemed possible to transfer the patterns from card to the plastic. Somehow I never tried it, so the idea died.

But now, in the intervals of my "Prince of Neuchâtel" I began looking at the paper models with another eyes and I had the crazy idea that it could be used as patterns or jigs to a wood model. Why not?

I know that I have these crazy ideas only to discover that someone(s) had had the same ideas first but it only shows that modelling imagination is universal.

So I decided to give it a try, but instead of the large ang glamorous ships that I had, I choose the humble "Niña", since one of the books was exactly the "Santa Maria" and the "Ninã"


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The model has a false keel, bulkheads and a lot of slits to make the assembly strong and align all the components. The Niña was at a scale of 1/96 and most of the parts should be glued to 1mm card, so multiplying the dimentions by 1,5 I could end with a 1/64 model and could use 1,5mm ply, that I have in quantity.

And why that ship? Well, it is small, simple (well...) and it appeared easier than the big guys.


Just to show what is all about, here are two pictures of the book.

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All of this, of course is supposed to be paper, or better, card.

So, time for cutting patterns, scrall saw, 1,5mm ply, glue the patterns and let's see what comes out of that.


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Tha band saw was very useful for all those slits necessary not only to join keel and bulkheads, but also the central centering pieces that give more rigidity and beat alignment to the whole.

Maybe I could have passes without those pieces, but working with so thin ply I opted for cutting and using them. My only concern was the alignment of all those pieces.

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The first trials of joining the pieces was promising, it all fitted correctly.


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Time for the aligning pieces, but that is a story to be told tomorrow.

Regards

JL
 
Hello JL ,very interesting concept ,I know there are Shipyard kits and Shipyard plans what can be used to build wooden models tooI guess,my only problem with them is the scale ,too small for me,but I follow yours with interest.
 
Well, back to my wood-card ship.

Next thing to be made was a central piece that, I suppose, is meant to keep the whole structure together and aligned. Being a piece with a lot of slits, my great concern was if the distances were correct and the pieces aligned perfectly. No need to worry, though.

Consisting of two symetric pieces, I tacked glue two pieces of 1,5mm ply together and shaped the thing. All withour any problems, except that shaping all those slits is a somewhat repetitive task.


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And after separation:


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So now I have a kit of pieces and it is the moment of truth, does the pieces align perfectly or did I get un impossible puzzle?

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Well it fits. And perfectly, so the supplied drawings were correct.


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The structure was stiff and strong but needed to be fixed, so time for a bath of thin cyano.

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Next step, the deck. The wonder of the thing is that all the patterns are already made, suffice to cut them and glue them to some old card. Then You can use it to cut the ply.


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Then, time to "foam" the thing.


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Hope you enjoy.

JL
 
The original was 1/96 a small scale, really. Enlarged by 1,5 gave me a 1/64 scale ship, almost what you find in Columbus ships kits on sale. Had I wanted a larger boat I could have enlarged it by a factor of, say, 2 and get a 1/48 ship.

JL

Even at 1/64 is small :),but Nina is a small ship so its ok.
 
Time for the deck. The printed deck fits perfectly and it is a simple matter to copy it to 2mm lightply.

Since the deck has an accentuated double curvature I sanded the ply in order to make it more flexible. The position of the masts was marked in the deck.

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Time to sand the foam to the deck level, an relatively easy task. The foam does not make much of a mess, since it is more air than material, but it tens to stick to the sandpaper and files. It is abrasive and the sandpaper needs to be replaced frequently because it gets soaked.

Just take your time and be careful and all goes well.

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Checking the fit of the ply deck. Fits perfectly, the drawins are really acurate.


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There is a lower deck, or a small part of it, just visible through the opening of the deck. The idea is fo leave the cover of the deck removable and a ladder will connect the two decks.

A pattern is supplied, so it was transfered to lightply.

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It is not shown in the plans but I decided to build a space around the lower deck in order to avoid the foam and the structure to be seen. Painted in black is is virtually invisible.

The lower deck was planked with some scrap wood from the "Prince" and I simulated some treenails.


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The it was time for the black glue (PVA plus black acrylic) and it was spread over the lower deck with a spatula to force the mixture into the spaces, as I had already tried on the Prince of Newchâtel.
After some sanding I was pleased with the result.

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Just to see if it fits:

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And permanently in place and with the sides painted in black acrylic.

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Regards

JL
 
Looks good. Nice idea to mix glue with paint. Gonna try it tomorrow. Need to plank 2 small decks. Keep up the good work. Gonna follow this one.
 
Oh how I wish I had a scroll saw when I started Bellona! I would have gladly traded cutting all those formers by hand and used ply! Shipyard makes some of the most accurate card models in existence. I don't think any of their kits would have any problems being enlarged. Beautiful job! I'll be following this one :)
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Well. after I got the ship in the shape of a mummy, I had to take care of the bow. For this I choose Obechi (smaba or ayous), since the planks tends to exerce more pressure here due to the curve and I'd rather have a strong bond. It was a hell of a job to sand it, if it weren't for an help from the disk sander it would have take much more time.

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Time to get the deck in place

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and sand the whole thing to get a nice ship shape.

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Next step it to plank the deck, but with 3mm planks this is going to take some time...

Regards

JL
 
Back after a short holidays abroad.

Work goes on, I am planking the deck with 3mm tile planks. Being 3mm it means a slow, tedious work.

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The stern castle is going to cover a large part of the stern, so no bother planking there.

It is exciting to see a "paper" ship take form in wood.

Regards

JL
 
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