I have a large model of Calypso by Billings Boats. It has a plastic (thick vacuum-formed) hull and wooden decks and superstructures, and lots of neato brass parts. Unfortunately the hull has no detail, and Calypso is a wooden vessel. How do I make it look like a wooden hull?
I’ve been told not to use an X-Acto knife to score lines in it, and to use a “scribing tool”. Has anyone used a scribing tool? How does it work? Would I sand and prime the hull first; or scribe first? On a 1/45 model (a little under a meter long), how wide should the lines be? Any other advice you can give for building this model? Should I even bother with scribing planks in the hull? Or, what about using thin strips of paper or Monocoat? (Note: I am building it for display, not r/c.)
The kit is well beyond my skill level. I’ve only built plastic kits. The wooden kits I’ve built are meant to fly.
I built the Revell kit when I was a kid, and it came out quite well. Unfortunately, I put it onthe mantel and a large painting fell on it and smashed it. I have another Revell kit that I had only just started in storage. Those kits are goting for like $50 on eBay! :eek:
Of course, the title of this thread should have been “How do I detail…” I don’t know how to report the thread to a moderator on this new system to request a change.
And also, “These kits are going for…”
Usually I don’t bother correcting my typos, but I just felt like it today.
Scribing tools are nice, but I personally have had good luck with a plain X-Acto knife. The scribing tools usually carve a narrow channel in the plastic and you get a little curl of plastic. Ideally, they will remove all the plastic rather than just relocating it, so you don’t have those slight raised edges along the scribed line.
But I just use the back edge of an X-Acto followed by a very light, quick pass with a sanding stick. Make sure you use something as a guide for the blade. On a curved surface you can use a strip of thick tape if you are careful, so a flexible straightedge. I think you can get a finer scribed line with the back of an X-Acto blade than with most scribing tools. In any event, you would want to scribe first, then do any other sanding, then prime and paint.
I’m not a boat modeler, so my advice on this particular point may be taken with a grain of salt. . . I think the scribed lines should be pretty fine in most cases, especially a boat hull (which does have to be watertight after all!). Even with the relatively large scale you’re working in, I think heavy lines would look out of place. I would be tempted to skip the scribing on the hull myself. You might be able to get the wooden hull look with some very subtle paint shading techniques as well. Either way is likely to be a fair amount of work though, so you might want to try to hunt up some good up-close reference photos to determine whether you really need to do anything at all. That model looks pretty nice, and I bet it will build into a nice display piece whichever route you take.
Avast! Tell me you don’t plan to blow it up or something in your next film!
You can make a scribing tool with an old X-acto blade. Take a pair of pliers and snap off the tip. The back of the blade can now be used for scribing panel lines. I’ve had effective results in 1/30 through 1/48 scale modeling. I think since the hull was vaccu-formed it explains the absence of planking. You could get away with not adding the planking but it would really look sharp with them in that scale.
Can’t say right off what size the planks should be. Check around for pics as a guide.
If you do add the detail, do it before sanding and priming.
When you work on this model, do you have that John Denver running through your head all the time?
I’ve got to get back into modeling. I was really into it from about age 10 through 16. I had some pretty good model. Of course most of them were Revell or Monogram. (AMT Star Trek models) I wonder if I can find a work space in my Brooklyn Apartment?
No. Check that. Hell no! I’d never blow up Calypso. I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau. When I was younger I thought that if I ever won an amazing amount of money in the lottery, I’d try to find a WWII minesweeper so I could make my own!
I found this site, which is a diary of one man’s project. This photo and this photo show some of the scribing the builder did. It’s a big site that looks very informative. I’ll have to find some time to read it through.
I do now! :mad: Actually, I have the theme from the teevee show in my head: “Dahhh dahhh, dah-dah-dah, dah-dahhh…!”
I haven’t started construction yet. I’m still building my skateboard dolly for the camera. Also, there’s not enough room here yet. The guy I bought the house from is moving out by the end of the month, so I can turn his bedroom into my workshop.
I’ve read through the site I found (and linked, above). Whew! Looks like this project is going to be a lot of work! I didn’t fully understand all of what he wrote. For example, the author mentions 14 supports that he added after he glues down the deck. (There’s a photo that shows four of them.) I’m wondering how he got the rest under the deck, and wouldn’t it have been easier to put in the extra supports first?
I’ve bought Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso, an out-of-print book written by Cousteau for reference, as did the author of the page. I think I’ll dig out my Revell kit and build it first, as another reference. (Fortunately, it’s in a footlocker marked “models” in the storage unit. Unfortunately, the footlockers were the first things to go in; so they’re inaccessable at the moment.)
jimpatro and Enigma42: Did you get a chance to look at the scribing the author did? Looks pretty sharp.
Have you considered planking over the (plastic) hull? I know some bread-and-butter hulls are planked–seems like the only difference (aside from building it out to a slightly smaller dimension, if your scale is such that the thickness of the planking is significant) would be bonding the planks to plastic vs. wood.
Yes, I thought of using strips of paper or Monokote to keep the thickness down, or using very thin strips of wood. The more I think about it, it seems that scribing is the easier route.
Sadly, The Sydney Morning Herald (.pdf, .html) reports that Calypso lies languishing in La Rochelle:
A member of the Guinness family (of Guinness Stoute Ale fame) owns Calypso and a foundation to save her was set up. Unfortunately, Guinness backed out. So this great ship’s metal is rusting, and her wood is rotting.
