Well thank you Longbow, Vermin_King and elliott for your appreciated reactions. They were unexpected and therefore even more welcome.
As I said, this is an experimental project for me, never having built a paper ship from scratch before. As a result of that I did a lot of unnecessary or even totally wrong things this time. The ship is almost finished now and it will not be possible to make a full report of the building process any more, because I forgot to take pictures. But I did some more tests with other models (I always do many things at the same time, so I won't have to wait for drying and setting of glue or paint) and I caught up a bit.
As an example: Here is a model I made last month after an 18th century draught by a man called Charles Bentam, an Englishman who was master shipbuilder at the Amsterdam admiralty shipyard from 1735 to 1756. He designed some new East Indian Company ships as well in 1742. The model took no more than 3 weeks to make. But don't get me wrong: a hull is a nice start, but the devil is in the details. I think it will take at least three month to finish and rig the thing (which will probably never happen). Scale 1 : 77, length 55 centimeters.
Another test was an early Dutch boyer. Just to see if the same proces with cardboard frames works as well on a smaller scale. It does.
Back to the pinas. The start was so traditional that it is useless to explain. Doris and our other Eastern-European friends did that far better than I ever can. This is how far I have progressed. The rigging is almost done. There remains a lot of work on lanterns, flags and anchors, but that is peanuts compared to the rigging. It will take me a week at last.
What I did wrong: I used a sort of plaster that is used in the painting conservation-business. It is water-based. Wrong. Better take polyester filler. It won't distort your work like it did mine.
I sprayed the model after it was closed with gesso. OK, but if you do, do it in very thin layers, because it is water-based as well.
It took me a long time to find a solution for the outer planking. Doris used strips of self-adhesive plastic foil and that is a good idea, but I could not find a type that satisfied me. It all looked too much like plastic to me. In the end I bought a white foil with wood-print (very cheap at a construction store), applied it and painted it yellow ochre (Humbrol 63). After at least three days of drying I covered the paint with a very dark paint called Van Dijks Bruin (Rembrandt Paints). You really have to brush it in, to reach all places. Immediately after that I removed most of the paint with a rag, so that the dark color remained in the wood-structure of the plastic foil. I liked the result.
Next time more. First finish this model.
I think I will do a report on a project I plan, building a fluit, a 17th century merchant vessel, if anyone is interested.
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