Drawings of ships from plywood: materials, preparation for work, cutting and assembling parts, final finishing. Buildable Spaceship Models: One Step Closer to the Future Plastic Spaceship Buildable Models
For lovers of modeling, sheets of pressed and glued wood veneer have always been one of the most sought-after materials. They are easy to cut, perfectly processed, drawings of ships made of plywood are easy to find on the net, and therefore many craftsmen begin their acquaintance with the modeling of various ships with plywood patterns.
Making models with your own hands is a very difficult task, requiring a significant amount of knowledge and a certain skill. In the article we will talk only about the most basic techniques, and you will hone your further skills yourself. 
Work materials
If you want to make small model ship, you will need the following materials:
- Wood - cedar, linden, walnut or other wood, preferably soft and not fibrous. Wood blanks should be smooth, without knots and damage. Wood can be used both as a material for the main elements of the model (hull, deck), and for fine detailing.
- Plywood is perhaps the most sought after material.. For ship modeling, either balsa or birch is used, since it is these types of wood that provide the minimum number of chips when sawing. Model ship plywood, as a rule, has a thickness of 0.8 to 2 mm.
Note! Sheets of beech veneer of small thickness are sometimes used as an alternative to birch veneer: although they are inferior in strength, they bend much easier.
- Veneer - thin plates natural wood expensive breeds. As a rule, it is used for veneering, i.e. pasting the surface of inexpensive material.
- Fasteners - thin chains, laces, threads, brass and copper studs.
In addition, we will definitely need wood glue, cardboard and tracing paper for transferring templates, etc. Fine detailing is made of metal casting. Painted can be used as an alternative to metal polymer clay.
Making a souvenir boat
Preparation for work
Any work begins with preparation, and modeling will by no means be an exception.
- First we need to decide what we will build. If you have not previously dealt with ship modeling art, then we recommend downloading ship drawings from plywood on the net: as a rule, they contain all the necessary information and are understandable even to a beginner.
Note! Kits are available for sale, allowing you to assemble a vessel from finished parts. For beginners, such kits will be interesting (although the price of most of them is very significant), but it’s better to master the technology from the basics.
- After analyzing the drawing, we check whether everything you need is available. In principle, if something is missing, then it will be possible to buy it a little later, because building a ship (albeit a miniature one) is not a quick job!
- After printing the drawing, we make templates for the main parts.
- Transferring templates to .
Cutting and assembling parts
You can cut blanks both with the help of a manual and with the help of an electric model jigsaw.
The latter is more expensive, but with it you are less tormented when cutting out small details:
- We make a starting hole in the plywood sheet, into which we insert a file or a jigsaw blade.
- We cut out the part, trying to move exactly along the marked contour.
- We process the sawn workpiece with a file, removing small chamfers along the edges and removing the inevitable chips and burrs.
Advice! Working on one element (deck, sides, keel, etc.), we immediately cut out all the parts necessary for assembly. So we will spend much less time, and the work will move faster.
When everything is ready, we start assembling our ship.
- First, on the longitudinal beam - the keel - we put on the transverse frames. In the lower part of each frame, a groove is usually provided for fastening to a plywood keel.
- For connection, you can use standard glue, or you can use special adhesive mixtures designed for ship modeling.
- We attach the upper parts of the frames to the deck. At simple models the deck is a single sheet of plywood, and for complex ones it can be multi-level.
- After the glue on the frames dries, we begin to sheathe the sides with thin strips of plywood. The thickness of the material should be no more than 1.5 mm, because only in this case we will be able to bend the skin without the risk of damaging it.
- For bending can be heated and humidified. After that, the material will bend without difficulty, and over time it will acquire a stable shape.
Note! The case for painting can be pasted over with a solid sheet. But to imitate plank sheathing, it is better to use strips up to 10 mm wide (depending on the scale).
- We fix the glued plywood with clamps and clamps and leave to dry.
Finishing
By by and large, On this carpentry ends and art begins.
When the case is assembled and dried, we need:
- Make from thin plywood and fix deck superstructures.
- Increase the sides so that they protrude above the deck plane.
- Paste the deck surface with wood veneer or draw it with an awl, imitating plank sheathing.
- Make and install all the small parts like the steering wheel and steering blade.
- Fix the masts with all additional devices (the so-called spars), set the sails and stretch this entire structure with the help of rigging threads.
In conclusion, all plywood parts must be stained and varnished. This will provide our souvenir with at least a couple of decades of preservation.
Conclusion
Almost everyone can make a simple plywood boat with their own hands - enough patience and minimal skills in working with a jigsaw (read also the article). But if you want to implement complex drawing with a lot of small details, then you will have to work hard. That's why we advise you to start with the simplest models, gradually increasing your skills!
In the presented video in this article you will find Additional information on this topic.
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Online store site offers to buy models spaceships with affordable delivery in Moscow and regions. By becoming the owner of one of the kits we have for sale, you will be able to assemble cruisers, helicopters and other vehicles on a scale of 1:72, 1:78, 1:144, 1:600, etc.
What prefabricated models are presented in the "Space" section?
Cruisers. Represented by the Galaxy model, the prototype of which has a length of 1.4 km. Its surface is well detailed. "Galaktika" is supplied complete with a stand, decals and sublight engines.
Ships. In this category special attention deserves an Imperial Star Destroyer. It is considered the most efficient ship in the fantasy series. In addition, the model of the destroyer from the iconic Star Wars is one of the largest made under the official license of Disney.
Rockets. Kits for the construction of such aircraft will be a wonderful gift for those who have a craving for unknown spaces and a look at the night sky causes genuine awe. On our website you will find a prefabricated model of the most powerful and heaviest American Saturn V, as well as Titan Rockets with launch pads.
Shuttles. These are reusable transport spaceships. They are launched using their own engines and solid rocket boosters. If you are interested in such scale models of spaceships, then we recommend that you pay attention to the Endeavor shuttle with a transporter - according to many reviews, this is not only affordable, but also an interesting set to assemble. Since its difficulty level is low, even children can build it.
In modeling, plywood is the most popular material. This is due to high quality indicators, as well as ease of operation. Plywood sheets are very easy to cut, quite simply processed. Using a suitable scheme (drawing), you can make ships out of plywood with your own hands.
Plywood is universal material which is easy to cut and process different ways, therefore, it is with plywood patterns that it is recommended to start your acquaintance with modeling.
Building a ship on your own is quite an interesting activity. But in order to start performing complex models, you need to practice on easier ones.
Materials and tools
To create stucco patterns on board the ship, you need to prepare your own composition from which reliefs can be formed. For the solution it is necessary to prepare the following tools and materials:
- wood dust;
- PVA glue (on average, one ship model can take about half a liter of glue);
- plasticine to create small irregularities and patterns;
Materials and tools that are used during ship modeling:
Birch plywood will ensure a minimum number of chips when sawing.
- plywood of the required thickness;
- Super glue;
- sandpaper for surface treatment;
- kapron thread;
- jigsaw for cutting parts;
- construction knife;
- mast wood. It is better to use pine, as it is much easier to process;
- dye;
- small brushes;
- Chinese sticks;
- fabric for sails;
- a thread;
- pencil ruler.
Modeling wood should be soft, not fibrous. The most popular option is cedar, linden, walnut. All wooden blanks must be perfectly smooth, without knots and damage. It can be used as additional element to create decorative pieces. Also, wood can be used to create the main elements of the model, such as the deck, hull.
Plywood in modeling is the most demanded material. In such a direction as modeling, birch or balsa plywood is most often used. This is due to the fact that these types of wood practically do not give chips during sawing. To make a boat out of plywood, you need to use sheets with a thickness of 0.8-2 mm.
A simple diagram of a plywood ship model.
Veneer - sheet material, very thin, made of precious wood. In most cases, veneer is used as facing material. They paste over products that are made of inexpensive material.
Fasteners will perform not only the main task of fastening parts, but also perform a decorative role. To create a boat model, you need to prepare thin chains (several sizes can be used), laces, threads, copper or brass studs. In order to transfer the drawing from sheet to plywood, it is best to use tracing paper and a pencil. So the drawing will turn out detailed. Glue must be used to fasten the plywood parts. Fine detailing can be made by metal casting, using polymer clay, or independently preparing a solution from wood dust and PVA glue. After complete drying, such a mass is very durable, and it can be painted in the desired color.
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Preparatory work
If you are modeling a plywood ship for the first time, it is recommended to purchase kits in which all the details are already cut and processed. But its cost can sometimes be quite high. Therefore, with great desire and diligence, experience can be gained in the process of assembling your ship. Modeling, like any other kind of work, necessarily begins with the preparatory stage. The first thing to start with is what kind of ship will be modeled. To begin with, it is worth looking at various drawings and finished work, this will greatly facilitate the choice of model.
Having studied the drawing completely, it is worth checking the availability of all the necessary materials and tools to complete the work. Modeling ships is a piece of jewelry. It takes a lot of time and perseverance.
At the preparatory stage, it is necessary to make paper or cardboard templates for all the details. After that, they are all transferred to plywood. On this preparatory stage work can be considered completed.
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Parts manufacturing
In order to make all the details, cut them out of a plywood sheet, you must use the appropriate tool. You can use a manual jigsaw for work, but if possible, it is better to use an electric model version. Using the second option will significantly reduce the time for the manufacture of all elements. This is especially true for the smallest details.
Sawn blanks are processed with a file, removing chips and burrs.
In order to cut the part, a hole is made in the plywood into which the jigsaw file is located. It is worth cutting out all the details very carefully, while observing all the contour boundaries, since inaccurately cut details can then ruin appearance the entire ship. Each sawn workpiece must be processed with a file from the ends. In the process of such cleaning, it is necessary to remove a small part of the chamfer where chips and burrs have formed. When cutting, this moment cannot be avoided.
It is necessary to assemble the ship when all the details are cut out and the ends are processed. This will allow you to do assembly work without being distracted by cutting out the missing parts.
The first flight into space was the greatest technical and technological breakthrough of mankind. The apparatus that went to near-planetary space proved that the boundaries of the human habitat can expand at its own will, and since the middle of the last century, millions of earthlings have literally “sick” spacecraft, ships and missiles.
Development of space modeling
An incredible rise in interest in aerospace and space modeling occurred in the Soviet Union - the country of the first satellite and cosmonaut. The exploration of distant planets seemed to be a matter of tomorrow, and thousands of boys from auxiliary materials with passion they built their own, far from the original, but made with soul, reduced copies of the Vostoks, Voskhods and Soyuz. In those years, modelers could not imagine that their children and grandchildren would have colorful boxes with kits for assembling spaceships, which exist in reality and were invented by writers or filmmakers.
Indeed, the situation has changed over the decades since the first rocket launch. Today, in order to make a model of Vostok or the first lunar rover, a modeler will not have to assemble plastic bit by bit, turn parts of their wood or metal, and information about prototypes is much more accessible than before. But the current builders of spaceships in miniature have to work hard so that their creation comes into being and becomes truly realistic.
Models of rockets and spaceships in A-model
The website of the A-model online store presents prefabricated models of spaceships, in different scales and released by various manufacturers. Manufacturing miniature copy such a serious structure as a rocket, a reusable shuttle or an orbital station requires remarkable patience and skill from the modeler. Here you can not do without tools, glue and paints, and without special equipment for airbrushing, decals and photo-etched elements.
All these and other accessories that help to turn even a large-scale, but still plastic model spacecraft in its authentic copy, is in the catalog of the A-model online store.
In addition to the opportunity to buy a cheap model of the Atlantis spacecraft or a suborbital complex developed in the USA, fans of science fiction films and computer sagas get a chance to replenish their collections with spacecraft from distant eras and galaxies.
Fans of the legendary Star Wars saga are incredibly lucky. REVELL has created a line of 1:144 scale buildable models that will be enough to equip a small rebel army. Another famous manufacturer scale models, Hasegawa invites the modeler to become the owner of a luxury interstellar pirate ship. Fantastic aircraft will captivate both adults and very young fans of space. And we will try to ensure that the modeller always has at hand necessary materials and additional details.
For those who like to look not only at the stars, but also at the clear sky and wide horizon, A-model has prepared an extensive section of models of aircraft and other aircraft. In our store you can buy a model for assembling a single-engine jet aircraft He 162, released by , as well as other models in 1:72 scale from this manufacturer. No less interesting is the collection of Amodel prefabricated models offered by the online store in a similar scale and thematic group.
