One of my entries for the LPL was going to be pulp figures ships crew. I am struggling with photographs for the LPL but have found that I can get better pictures with a detailed back ground behind the figures. I thought, on their own, the five figures would be quite boring. So when the extra week appeared in the middle of the previous round I thought I would put the time to good use and build a boat for them to crew.
In hind sight I maybe should have put the extra time into round 5 as I really struggled finishing my horses in time.
Anyway building the boat I started with 2” thick pink foam and carved out the basic shape. I used emery paper to smooth off the hull.
I built the cabin and engine room out of heavy card. Scored to look like planks and panels.
I used balsa wood for the deck and cabin roof. I cut the balsa into 5 mm strips and then glued them in place. I then sanded the edges of the wood to match the shape of the hull.
The hold was made out of thin card with balsa wood at the corners for support. The cover for the hold was made out of bits of plastic glue together and then covered in a bit of cloth and soaked in watered down PVA.
Test shot for scale
I made the riveted strips out of plastic card for around the edge of the deck. Before super gluing these in place I coated all of the pink foam in watered down PVA glue to prevent the super glue melting it.
The portholes were made out of small washers with plastic rod rivets glued in place.
The rails were made out of plastic rod with small holes drilled to suit some brass rod for the straight bits and plastic rod for the curved railed around the back.
All the doors and windows were made out of more card.
I built a derrick crane out of more balsa wood mounted on a bit a plastic tube cut from an old pen. Other bits of the pen were used for the derrick fittings.
The rope bumpers were made of cord wrapped around more small washers.
Below are a couple of test shots of the loads I took trying to get a detail picture in focus.
23 June 2009, 04:43:58 PM
