Model Boat Mayhem
Technical, Techniques, Hints, and Tips => Detail Work, Rigging, Fittings, Figures Etc. => Topic started by: Colin Bishop on June 23, 2010, 05:08:28 pm
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Having dug out a rather ancient liner hull that I built many years ago to 1:150 scale I am looking at methods of planking the deck. The scale is far too small for individual planks and I have previously had success with rulling thin pencil lines on ivory coloured thin card which, when varnished over looks OK at that scale.
Being lazy I was wondering if there is an easy method of printing lots of parallell lines using my inkjet printer and then cutting off suitably shaped pieces to stick on the decks.
Anyone tried this?
Colin
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Hi Colin,
I've just tried and can print thin lines at 1mm intervals (about 6" at 1:150). To do this I used a vector graphics program and locked the drawing to a 1mm separation grid. If you can do this fine, if not I can send you a PDF file if you want.
Cheers
Doug
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Just beat me to it Doug. <*<
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Colin, You can also print off grids and lines with Excel and get the spacing down to a very fine gap. I've actually made graph paper in the past with the program and it worked very well. I'm sure other spreadsheet programs would give you the same results.
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I have Excel so I have just tried that. I can get the line spacing down to 1mm or so but the actual line itself is too thick which makes the whole effect much too dark. It's possible that the printer won't print any thinner anyway on paper due to ink absorption of nothing else. Might just have to bite the bullet and use a 0.5 drawing pencil as previously.
Colin
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E'mail on way Colin.
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Mrs Dicky has very kindly provided me with an Excel file displaying just parallel lines - not quite sure how she did it. The 'planks' are slightly too wide for true scale but the overall effect is still pretty good when printed on to ivory paper as I hope the photos will show. This is just a rough test piece at the moment (the grommet is there to give the camera something to focus on). When the job is done properly there will be deckhouses and fittings everywhere and no very large open runs of planking so I reckon it might fit the bill very well.
So thank you very much Mrs Dicky.
Colin
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i am glad it has worked Colin, it is very simple to do, but not easy to explain. all the best with the build.
Mrs Dicky, also known as Gill
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Certainly looks nice, Colin. How much do you want for the grommet. It makes lovely pictures. :-))
Ken
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Ken, the Grommet is part of a set - it comes with a Wallace.... :D
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:}
When I saw the result, I was reminded of the planking provided by 'Mountfleet Models'.
There's are similar, in that it's close together like yours. Usualy other manufacturers have wider spacing.
Ken
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Thanks again Gill. I have been experimenting with my 'all in one' printer and it has reduction capability which means that I can scale down the planking further. I just need to find a happy medium which will give me a printed area as wide as the deck on the model. 75% should do it but I will test it out tomorrow. 60% looked a bit small.
This is very handy since, with the Excel file as a template you can scale up and down over quite a range. Very useful indeed!
Colin
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I have Excel so I have just tried that. I can get the line spacing down to 1mm or so but the actual line itself is too thick which makes the whole effect much too dark. It's possible that the printer won't print any thinner anyway on paper due to ink absorption of nothing else. Might just have to bite the bullet and use a 0.5 drawing pencil as previously.
Colin
Change the colour of the line to a light grey. This may help to offset the darkness
Declan
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The template Gill provided when reduced down to 80% on my scanner/copier actually looks fine.
Colin