Thx Akira & Ballastanksian
well, I haven't made much progress after a week on vacation without (scaled) ships.
I had started planking the hulls of all 7 largest skiffs. Being quite impatient, and furthermore nearing the completion of this build, I thought that instead of planking everything, I might as well (considering the number of skiffs), mould them using imprint in a silicon mould technique. Also, this will allow me to make some for friends making Jean-Bart & Richelieu. I know nothing about moulding techniques, but it's something I got to learn for my next project, Yamato.
So, instead of planking everything, I just need to make a print for each type of skiff used on Richelieu, and I experimented with the technique consisting of gluing blocs of balsa between members and then filling everything down to the proper shape (and I'm no artist nor scupltor!). Then I just applied some époxy mastic (SR5550 + Mixfill 10) .and voilà!
Besides being impatient, I am also an hopeless optimist, so I used my 4 year old époxy resin to make mastic which I applied:
Only that, after 4 years on my shelves, the époxy is not good anymore and never cured properly, with a rubber like consistency which I cannot sand down...
So, I had to start again, with freshly ordered époxy (SR5550+SR5505 & mixfill 10) which worked this time. After sanding the hulls down, I'm quite happy with the shapes which are nice and smooth.
Then, I just "varnished" the sanded down hulls with a brush and straight époxy, to give it a nice glassy finish.
Next step is the making of the moulds (my first ever).
cheers
Serge