Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Beginners start here...! => Topic started by: MikeTMechanic on November 28, 2024, 11:54:59 am
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I suspect this has been asked many times before and i apologise if that is the case.
What do you all use as your keel or base board for building your boats please.
Do you use a particular bought item or more of a home made affair.
Any guidance and help would be very muchly appreciated
Many thanks in advance
Michael
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Hi
I build mine.
I have tried to use a universal model boat stand off ebay, just could not get on with it.
Fred
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I use a home-made build board consisting of a thick piece of MDF. This had been used several times with no problem.
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The base board in last post is good. Next fit and glue stringers.
Do not use wood like the cheap hardwoods for this as they will bend where they want to bend. I suggest the woods available on-line for model making. Planking is the same, steam the planks to retain their new shape before gluing in place.
Start at the deck level and work down for 3 or 4 planks alternate sides to keep tensions even. Then continue from the keel and round the bilge. If you have a well thought out design of the hull the planks will fit easily but avoid twisting them to fit. Steaming should relax the polymer in the wood allowing the wood to form a new shape.
However, most gaps in the planking will be long triangular shapes, just leave the spaces and come back to them with shaped planks later. You can use pins to hold the planks in place on the bulkheads. You are not making a hole with a pin just moving the wood grain to allow the pin to go through. When the pin is removed a drop of water on the pin hole will reduce its size.
I use an alifatic glue but just use a glue that grabs in about 10 minutes, I do not worry about it being waterproof as it will be painted both sides afterwards.
When the planked hull is removed from the baseboard it should come away easily and not suddenly come free with a 'ping' or the like. If it does this then this is tensions being relieved in the structure and you should check the deck from stem to stern to see if the hull has hogged.
It can happen and has happened to me! I planked a 40 inch long hull and found that the straightening effect of the planks which I did not steam, distorted the hull at deck level so that I had to make up 3/8ths of an inch to get the deck back to where it should have been.
I have never confessed to this before but it was 20 years ago!
Best of luck
Roy :P
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I tend to use melamine shelving as it is very flat and it's easy to clean. I also really like the MDF approach as it's very similar as it is a very stable base.
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hi there
I tend to make my building boards from chip board 18mm thick and on the back of the chip board I screw 2 battons which are perfectly square and straight, roughly 50 x 25 mm obviously the full length of the building board, and, these are set in roughly about 25 mm in from the outer edge of the building board, on the long edge. This prevents the chip board from twisting.
Then, I have a selection of 25 mm square timber; pre-drilled so that it can be screwed to the building board to support the frames.
If you have a look in Masterclass, on the Cervia tug build, this shows an example of the building board I made for the Cervia tug. Also, a couple of examples of the large ones which I built for HMS Exeter.
John