Tuesday, May 30, 2006

A pet hate.


Planking
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
I hate printed plywood. Every model boat I’ve seen at a show with it has always looked terrible. Am I the only person who can see what it is and that it doesn’t look anything like what it is supposed to be ?

So, the boat box is nearly empty except for a piece of printed ply. The instructions tell me that I cut the parts out, stain them and then glue the result to the boat. No chance.

My version – trace the parts onto tracing paper. Tape this to a cutting board and replace every plank with a version cut from some bass wood I bought at a model railway show years ago. The sides of each plank are gently sanded to emphasis the gaps between each board. The wood is stuck to the paper with PVA of Bostick solvent free glue.

Once this is done the face is sanded and the piece cut out from the sheet leaving the tracing paper as a backing. A coat of Ronseal satin varnish, another sand and a final coat, finishes the job.

This looks sooooo much better than the ply. Proper grain going in the right direction on each piece. A nice 3D effect as well. Not too lumpy, just enough.

It’s not that time consuming – the largest part for the rear deck took about an hour and half to plank which I did while watching Sean Connery save the Earth from a meteor in a particularly duff film.

Two different colour of stain were employed. Light oak for outside wood. Mahogany in the bridge. The quick dry varnish worked a treat. Not oo glossy a finish and ready for recoating in ten minutes. Just the think for impatient modellers like me. I think the top rail will get a coat as well as the finish is better than that currently sported.

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