Prudenzio - Going Ape

[larry2]

Or the shoemaker's elves working at night while the rest of us are in bed.

[Darwin]

It helps to be retired.

[Darwin]

Some more progress...since the most obvious part of a ship model is the hull, I have been going at half throttle, trying to get it right. My first attempt at doing the hull skins, I cut the parts on the inside edge of the outlines. A definite mistake, as proper fit depends on the cuts being on the outside of the lines. Once that was done, the fit was ok, but glaringly obvious seam lines. My preferred option for this problem (having to include the part outlines) is to spend a couple days photoshopping the images to cover over the outlines with the appropriate image color. This close to deadline, I took the second option....paint over the worst offenders. Fortunately, I have a fairly good selection of ceramic paints built up due to some of my other hobbys. It took some doing, but I did come up with a close match to the light gray. (If anyone is interested, the matching color was FolkArt 708 Dove Gray; I still haven't found the best match for the dark gray....I am guessing Delft Blue might be the best starting point.)

Since I'm still recovering from my Daughter's visit, I haven't had much opportunity to remessify my work room, which she went through like a tornado cleaning and organizing (neat freak). As this is likely as good as it is ever going to get so far as being presentable, I included a shot of my print paper kit stash...or most of it, anyway....there are still a few nooks and crannies of the room that she missed during the cleaning....it's going to take me months now to find where everything is.....

[Don Boose]

I have a fascination for other people's work spaces. Enjoyed these images.

The Ape class were fine-looking small combatants and I like the way yours is coming together.

Don

[Dabeer]

This is making me want to build a ship model. Maybe not a Zio, and maybe not for this contest, but still...

[Darwin]

A fair day of progress. The sponsons under the fantail fit much better than I thought they would....trust in Zio. The Railings/splinter shields remind me somewhat of Wilhelmshaven construction. The main difference is that they sandwitch over tabs. Not quite what I'm used to, but it works well. On one of the other threads, someone asked what all we use tweezers for....in the series of photos is one of my favorite tweezer (reverse-acting, curved tip) in use as a clamp. The conning tower is kind of a puzzle to put together, but I hope the photo series will help show how I managed to get it together. That thing that looks like a refugee from Babylon 5 is the front of the conning tower. So, on to the photos....

[Darwin]

Dabeer, I hope you do try a ship sometime in the near future. They are FUN....after you get over the trauma of beating your head against a hard surface for all those "I really should have done that differently" moments.

Don, just for you, a couple more shots of my (unfinished) dungeon. Yes, that shiny aluminum thing is a fridge. Yes, it is filled with beverages. Yes, it is a total shambles...my new philosophy is life is short...spend it building rather than cleaning up.

[Dabeer]

Originally Posted by Darwin

Dabeer, I hope you do try a ship sometime in the near future. They are FUN....after you get over the trauma of beating your head against a hard surface for all those "I really should have done that differently" moments.

While my stack of "to do" models isn't nearly as developed as yours, I still have quite a few I'd like to get to one of these days - but we'll see, maybe one will jump out at me as being worthy of being added to that stack.

In the mean time, a question about technique... scoring folds, specifically. I was taught to use the back of a sharp x-acto blade. Problem is, this usually cuts the top layer of the paper, specifically cutting through the ink-jet printed toner layer, and thus requiring coloring, which usually doesn't look very good. On this build, at least, I don't seem to see any such scoring cuts - in fact, it almost looks like you haven't scored your folds at all, for some of them. What is your technique? Do others maybe have better advice that would lead to clean folds without damaging the printed surface?

[Darwin]

Dabeer, I really can't recommend using the back of the xacto blade for scoring, for just the reason you describe. I use a fine embossing stylus for scoring. Next time I post, I'll include a photo of it. Fact is....just ran across this. Another hit to the bank account coming up.
Widget Supply Fiskars 5603 2pc Embossing Stylus Tool Set
In the interim, if you have a dried-up ballpoint pen, try that for scoring. In some instances, I just lay the part over the edge of my metal ruler (at the score location, of course) and use my finger to press the paper down over the ruler, so that it folds down over the ruler. If you are familiar with fabrication processes, this is essentially the principle a metal break uses for making sharp bends in sheet metal. Also, develop a "light touch" with the scoring...a few stylus passes with light pressure does a much cleaner job than a single pass with heavy pressure.

[peter taft]

Coming along very nicely. If you tidy things up in your work space, you wont find anything - it is well ordered chaos