Heading to Mexico shortly

[HughLo]

Hey there everyone. My long term goal of ship building is to be able to do it while I’m in Mexico in addition to while I’m at home in Colorado. My original idea was to purchase OcCre’s Buccaneer to do while I’m in Mexico (and continue to work on the Bluenose while in Colorado), but given I only have one more trip to PV until late in the year, I’m thinking differently.

Now for my questions.

1) What would be the best way to pack and transport a model under construction between the 2 locations without paying a fortune or would it be best to basically work on one ship there and the other here in Colorado?

2) What should I know about working on a ship in a humid climate (Puerto Vallarta Mexico) vs the dry climate of Colorado?

Thanks in advance

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Packing of the ship varies with what stage of construction you are in.

Packing a hull under construction is simple depending on how its being shipped.

Once you get to adding the masts and yards it becomes a whole new game and cost go up.

To pack a ships hull get a box about 1/3 larger then model and use good foam for base and add paper or foam peanut packing around it to reduce movement.

Wrap the ship in paper or clear wrap to help keep parts inside if one gets broken and to keep the packing outside the hull.

If your sending by commercial shipper, mark it FRAIGLE and DO NOT STACK to help it from getting crushed in a truck.

 

[HughLo]

Thanks. Still not sure if I’ll take the Bluenose (I’m currently planking the hill so the packing is probably doable) or the Buccaneer which is still in the box.

 

[fourseas]

I agree with Kurt Konrath, "depends on what stage of construction you are in." Personally I would recommend building and transporting all smaller components with you such as cabins and even mast parts (not attached to the ship). As a commercial model ship builder I used to ship some models by way of the big name carriers. Invariably, they always arrived with damages regardless of how well they were packed in wooden shipping crates. In my opinion instead of putting fragile and this side up labels on the case you might as well post "please destroy me first" stickers on. I must admit that the commercial carriers were good for my business as I always carried lots of insurance for damages.

 

[CO Jaybird]

HughLo: Ahoy there from Monument CO! Glad to see other ship builders in our land-locked state. I’m a few years away from part-timing it in PV but that’s our goal too. I was thinking of building my hulls down there and going vertical in CO. My thought is that the shipping would be easier with less breakage. If you purchase kits, maybe the box is a carry-on with only the hull pieces in the box. The wood will swell in PV and then shrink in CO.

Jay

 

[HughLo]

HughLo: Ahoy there from Monument CO! Glad to see other ship builders in our land-locked state. I’m a few years away from part-timing it in PV but that’s our goal too. I was thinking of building my hulls down there and going vertical in CO. My thought is that the shipping would be easier with less breakage. If you purchase kits, maybe the box is a carry-on with only the hull pieces in the box. The wood will swell in PV and then shrink in CO.

Jay

Thanks for confirming my “fears”. I like the idea of building the hulls down there as the transporting would be easier. My hope is that they would become part of the decorations once they are completed. Although my wife told me yesterday that a couple/few around the house would be great, she didn’t want the place to get full of my ships. I don’t think she realizes how long it takes a part time builder to make one, let alone many. Or more likely she knows how my inner hoarder operates.

As I’m getting closer to the trip, I’m leaning to my original idea of bringing my pirate ship (The Buccaneer) down, and leaving it there when we come back. I have enough todo on the Bluenose to keep me busy here in Colorado until we return to PV in October/November.

If I were to do that, can someone tell me what to expect I’d find when I return after the summer/rainy season? I’m thinking I may get the keel and bulkheads together before putting it away and returning to the states.

 

[Thomas]

Thanks for confirming my “fears”. I like the idea of building the hulls down there as the transporting would be easier. My hope is that they would become part of the decorations once they are completed. Although my wife told me yesterday that a couple/few around the house would be great, she didn’t want the place to get full of my ships. I don’t think she realizes how long it takes a part time builder to make one, let alone many. Or more likely she knows how my inner hoarder operates.

As I’m getting closer to the trip, I’m leaning to my original idea of bringing my pirate ship (The Buccaneer) down, and leaving it there when we come back. I have enough todo on the Bluenose to keep me busy here in Colorado until we return to PV in October/November.

If I were to do that, can someone tell me what to expect I’d find when I return after the summer/rainy season? I’m thinking I may get the keel and bulkheads together before putting it away and returning to the states.

I'm not sure what shipping costs are these days but a few years ago I had a ship sent from the US to Japan once and it survived perfectly. What they did was put it in a box big enough with lots of soft cushioning on the bottom. Then they ran strings attached to the sides of the box to the hull and rigging so it wouldn't wobble and filled the box with styrofoam popcorn. The key maybe was that as professionals they handled the box marked fragile as if there was something fragile in it. Also check this out: https://howtoship.com/shipping-model-ships/

As far as the difference in humidity, I'm not sure how much the timber would be affected, but I've heard that rigging rope will expand and contract with changes in humidity, but that's a bigger risk with cotton lines.

 

[3L120]

We live in Utah during the summer and hump months and in the Tucson area in Winter. As long as you have your property by yourselves, consider taking at least one kit and leaving it there. What I do. Makes it easier than transporting fragile materials. I have learned that having two residences means you should have duplicate materials in each place. Beats going from A to B and finding what you need is still in A, no matter the hobby.

 

[Van]

If you're going to a humid part of Mexico likely any model you build from wood will shrink somewhat when you bring it back to the high desert of Colorado. Most furniture, built from wood rather than processed wood material, is designed to accommodate wood movement. That would be almost impossible for a ship model. Why not do a test build of something modest in Mexico and see what happens when you bring it back

 

[HughLo]

If you're going to a humid part of Mexico likely any model you build from wood will shrink somewhat when you bring it back to the high desert of Colorado. Most furniture, built from wood rather than processed wood material, is designed to accommodate wood movement. That would be almost impossible for a ship model. Why not do a test build of something modest in Mexico and see what happens when you bring it back

If you're going to a humid part of Mexico likely any model you build from wood will shrink somewhat when you bring it back to the high desert of Colorado. Most furniture, built from wood rather than processed wood material, is designed to accommodate wood movement. That would be almost impossible for a ship model. Why not do a test build of something modest in Mexico and see what happens when you bring it back

Thanks for the reply.
The original idea was to have one in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta so it will be humid) to work on while I’m down there and keep one here in Colorado to work on.

Since I’m at a point with my Colorado ship (the Bluenose) that makes it somewhat transportable (wrapping up planking the hull before moving onto the deck), my mind wandered to bringing it since we’ll only be there for about 3 weeks.

The plan never really was to bring one back and forth (other than maybe the Bluenose this one time). And anything I finish down there would become decorations for the home. With home decorations in mind, I picked the Buccaneer for my Mexico build as Vallarta has a somewhat rich pirate history.

At this point, I believe I’ll sticking with the original idea and bring the Buccaneer to PV and begin work on it. It will stay there when we return to Colorado and be waiting for me when we return in October/November.

So my 2nd question remains… Given the difference in humidity between my two homes, are there any big differences to ship building in a high humidity location that I should be aware of? Different glue maybe?

 

[HughLo]

Thought I’d follow up with my big take away about working in a very humid environment as opposed to the very dry climate of my home base of Denver Colorado…

The (white/wood) glue dries a lot different down here, slower and seems to dry to a different consistency. Maybe most people are more familiar with humid climates instead of the mountain desert of Denver.

In Denver the glue dries extremely fast (which is both good and bad).

I was expecting it to dry slower down here but I wasn’t expecting the rubbery consistency when it dried. Just my 2 cents.