Talking on Painting Paper Models

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from Paul Fontenoy, the editor of the Nautical Research Journal, and big fan of paper models. Because of my work on Shipyard’s Bremen cog model (Hanse Kogge Bremen), which required painting it to look like wood, he had asked me to join in a video presentation/workshop on the paper modeling of ships.

I’m no expert on the subject, having only completed the cog model, the HMS Alert paper model, and a laser-cut lighthouse card model, all from Shipyard kits. But, the panel needed something on painting. And while I’m not a very confident speaker, I agreed to do it. Anyway, it was only a 10-minute time slot, and the cog model did turn out rather nicely, so why not?

There was a preliminary online meeting I had with Ian McLaughlin, who was organizing the workshop, John Garnish who would handle the technical aspects of running all of our slides for us, and Jim Baumann, a miniature modeler of incredible talent that works mostly in resin/multimedia models, but would be talking about making water dioramas. All of these are incredibly nice fellows, all located in England, and they made me feel quite at home working with them. So, after thinking about it for a few days, I outlined my ideas and put together a slide presentation and a script.

Most paper model kits use printed paper for parts. For a 10-minute talk, I decided it best to just focus on my more recent work, which is with Shipyard laser-cut ship model kits. These kits are laser-cut from plain white card stock, so they need to be painted, and actually include all the necessary paints. There was stuff to say about using paint on printed paper kits, but I didn’t have enough time to say much about it, and I put the presentation together as best I could.

Luckily, the South Bay Model Shipwrights club had their meeting a week before the NRG workshop and they let me do a run through there, from which I learned a lot.

Finally, I cleaned up my slides, edited my text, did many timed run throughs, and submitted my presentation to John Garnish, the gentleman who would be stepping through the slideshows for us.

The workshop was this past Saturday and everything went really well, better than I’d expected. So, I’m grateful to everyone who helped out. The workshop was recorded and will be edited and available for viewing on the NRG website, but you have to be an NRG member to access it.

No more talks are on the horizon, but Paul Fontenoy did say he was interested in a couple ideas for articles, including one on modeling Japanese watercraft and one on the building of my Bremen cog card model. Since the card model was one of the subjects of my talk, I think that will be the subject of the first article. But, the couple weeks leading up to this workshop were really hectic, and I’m still recovering from all of it, so it’ll be a few weeks before I consider starting on that. Ω

 

Building HMS Wolf – Shipyard’s 1/72 Scale Laser-Cut Card Kit – Part 8

After taking something of a pause on this project while deciding on the color scheme on deck, I did manage to do a bit of work on some various sub-assemblies. But, as far as the color scheme goes, I’ve decided on red gun carriages and wheels, as well as red hatch coamings. The kit instructions call for just about everything else on deck to be painted red, including the ship’s wheel, but I’ll make a final decision on that and on the binnacle when I get to their construction.

Riding bitts and hatches temporarily fit into place, but showing my final paint scheme.

Building HMS Wolf – Shipyard’s 1/72 Scale Laser-Cut Card Kit – Part 7

As I mentioned before, apparent progress on the HMS Wolf model has slowed significantly, due to the fact that everything I’m doing now is essentially off the model. I’m now working on various sub-assemblies, and some of these I’m starting to do out of order.

The next parts that actually need to go on the ship are the sweep port covers and the four deck hatches. I painted and then assembled the sweep port cover, which simply requires adding some very thin black paper parts for the hinges. This was rather slow going, as the hinges are very tiny and very delicate. One has to be extremely careful not to lose parts, as there are no spares provided in the kit. I apply Aleene’s Tacky Glue to the sweep port cover with a thin brush, then use the tip of the brush to grab the hinge and to set it in place on the  it on the port cover.

Building HMS Wolf – Shipyard’s 1/72 Scale Laser-Cut Card Kit – Part 6

Shipyard’s HMS Wolf laser-cut card kit is moving along, but progress seems slower. The details take time to add and they’re not as obvious from photo to photo. However, I’ve completed the rudder and just need to add it to the model. Also, if you look closely at the photo here, you can see the most obvious addition are all the timberheads at the forecastle rail as well as the posts for the swivel guns. Lastly, did you spot the channels at the sides of the hulls?

Building HMS Wolf – Shipyard’s 1/72 Scale Laser-Cut Card Kit – Part 5

The Shipyard 1/72-scale laser-cut card HMS Wolf build continues with details and lots and lots of little parts and a couple issues trying to follow instructions. Apparent progress has slowed somewhat, since hull construction is complete and I entered a phase of hull detailing. Still things are really flying along in comparison to wooden model ship building, and I managed to add the stern gallery with it’s decorative columns and windows.

Building HMS Wolf – Shipyard’s 1/72 Scale Laser-Cut Card Kit – Part 4

This HMS Wolf kit is moving along so quickly that I’ve hardly had a chance to stop and get caught up with the build log. I’m so far beyond what you’re seeing here, so I’m going to minimize my writing and try to close the gap between build log and current model a bit.

The third layer of the hull is pretty much actual, individual hull planks. There are two sheets of thin, laser-cut card stock, one for each side of the hull.

Wowed by Shipyard’s Laser-Cut Card Models

At this point in my build of Shipyard’s 1/72-scale laser-cut card model of the 10-gun snow-rigged sloop of war HMS Wolf, I’m behind on keeping my build log up to date. But, I can’t let that get in the way here. Here’s the thing, I am so in awe of how incredible this kit is, that I have to state, categorically, that I’m absolutely building not only the Papegojan kit I have, but the HMS Alert kit, and the Le Coureur kit, and that I’m absolutely going to find the money to buy and build the HMS Mercury kit.

Shipyard’s 1/72-scale HMS Mercury, laser-cut kit.

Building HMS Wolf – Shipyard’s 1/72 Scale Laser-Cut Card Kit – Part 3

In addition to my work on the paper Armed Virginia Sloop model from Seahorse. The build of Shipyard’s 1/72 HMS Wolf kit continues with the adding of the second hull layer. As a reminder, this kit is almost 100% laser-cut parts. There are some dowels to shape for the masts and yard later on, plus rigging. Also, cannon barrels and belaying pins are turned brass, and there are some other non-paper parts, such as the figurehead, which is cast resin. But, there are no paper parts that aren’t already pre-cut by laser, except for a small sheet of color printed decorative friezes and flags.

In my previous post, I had the hull skeleton covered by the first layer. This primarily stiffens the bulkheads and provides some support to the outer hull layers. This covering is done the same way on all ship model kits from Shipyard, whether they are printed paper models or laser-cut cardboard kits like this one.

Building HMS Wolf – Shipyard’s 1/72 Scale Laser-Cut Card Kit – Part 2

Building the hull of this Shipyard kit is really a lot like building the hull of any of their kits in that the skeletal structure of the model is very well engineered. As with just about all Shipyard ship model kits, there is a main keel piece and a series of bulkheads, much like with any wooden ship model kit. But, Shipyard kits often then have a longitudinal piece that crossed the frames, horizontally, and often another piece that crosses most of the frames vertically as well. This kit is no different.

Shipyard’s Santa Leocadia paper model Re-Release

\Recently, Shipyard, the line of ship model kits from Poland, announced the re-release of their 1/96-scale paper model kit of the Spanish frigate Santa Leocadia, 1777. The ship is a fifth-rate 34-gun warship that was built at the Ferrol shipyards.

Image from Shipyard’s website.

The completed model is 27.5″ long and 21.2″ high, and the re-release almost coincides with the release of their new detail sets that includes one for the Santa Leocadia kit (See my earlier post).

Image from Shipyard’s website.

The kit is not yet available through their US distributor Ages of Sail, but it can still be purchased directly from their online shop, along with the detail set, and various other accessory sets, which include a sails set, masting set, and blocks set (blocks, hearts, and deadeyes).