Small Boat
by Donald Cecil

1/48 Small Boat (Scratchbuilt)

This model was built from one of a series of drawings illustrating a short story. I never finished the story but the drawings were too much fun to let go. The idea to build the model came from the fun of building vehicles for my kids Warhammer armies. I started with the boat because the great work on this site is a daily inspiration. This is my first attempt at scratch building and figure sculpting.

1. This is the drawing the model is based on. It is one of 7 or so different vehicles.
2. I drew the boat parts in my Mac with Adobe Illustrator and kept messing with the drawing, printing and cutting paper until it looked right.
3. This page was printed and with Spray Mount was attached to cardboard. After beginning to build, I made corrections to the bow and the stern and filled gaps with Model Master Red Putty.
4. The water form was made with Insulation Foam, cut and glued with White Glue, then sanded to create the right look. This stuff sands very easily and I look forward to using it on other projects.
5. Once the water was finished I covered the entire surface with Gesso. I planned to use Winton Oil Colours for the water and gesso would stop the oils from eating the foam. The boat was spray painted with Testors Gloss White and sanded many times to create a very smooth, un-cardboard looking surface. I originally was going to paint the boat flat white to contrast the shiny water but my wife said that was a bad idea. She was right.
6. All parts were painted and assembled.
7. The figure was made from Green Stuff. This was tough but I learned to really enjoy this part. I tried to build the figure all in one piece with a wire ( paper clip) armature but when it was done the figure in scale stood about 10 feet tall. So I built another figure keeping a better eye on scale and adding parts, arms, hands then pockets gear etc. I think it looks OK and I'm excited about doing more figure sculpting.

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