Hi guys, as some of my friends know I currently have a big French ironclad under my belt since one full year now, so why do I start again another projects while that biggie is not finished?

Hey that's because I need TRAINING.

This new small one aim is to provide me some training on one specific point that I will need later.
Like Galilée, I hope to have finished it in one month time, unlike Galilée I will have very few time on my hand, and it's going to be a very small diorama.

Now Can anyone guess whose boat those lines belong to?


Uh well anyway, here I glue the underside of the paper and let it stick on some 1mm thick plasticard

And then I cut it out.

Amazing, a 3 years old could have done that.

so let's call it "Back to the roots"

Salut Jean Bernard,
Well, if you need training, we are ready for a new tutorial!

Cheers

You have me subscribed!

(Galilée looks great in the background!)


Chas

Ahh, another adventure ahead!

Another masterpiece! Is it about the movie Jaws?

Lars

Thanks guys
No, Lars, not about the movie but certainly about big mouths

Anyway here we keep on with the 3 years old work..
All the pieces are cut up

then i glue the 3 first this way -in fact the horizontal crosse section is very important as it's not level with the bridge of the boat (come on guys, no idea which boat it is?!!)

Aaalmost finished


I feel almost sorry to make you click for so few (and so rudely done) , but that's the pace I move

Jean _Bernard ,

Is it going to be the orca shark fishing vessal ?

I really love your work will be watching this ,

Regards,

Jerry

Well If it not from a movie then from a book
Is it the Pequod from the book Moby dick????

Cheers
Seb

Thank you Jerry, that's appreciated
That's not the Orca, the lines of the boat I am designing are much more agressive, but jaws there will be, even if the idea is as far as I could get from Domi "Sharks" diorama

Wow Seb; you are somehwat close as the Pequod and the boat I model share one feature in common!!
But then nothing from a movie nor a book, but straight from a those temporary lack of consciousness during which my diorama ideas spawn

okay, one clue, the name of the boat rhymes with "how lame can I go"

Sooo here is the skeleton of the boat, yeuch, it's SO ugly, it's not trimmed or sanded or anything.
Well i am going to sand it then!




let's fill it with some plaster from Paris.
You've got to be a bit wise if you want to succeed this on the first try as the plster runs. So the trick is not to put fingers in it and to play with drying times.


Finally when the plaster began to set I smoothed the whole with an oiled long cutter blade

On that pic the work is almost finished -and now can you guess which boat it is?!

Hello, I´m sure that yo will construct some unique scene:-)
may be some related to"apocalyse Now " film?
best regards
Carlos

PT 109? Looks like a PT boat bow...

HURRAY FOR RICHARD!! yu got it!! That's one Elco of the 103 series!!!
hey that's right, I think that's the same Italeri put out, i got my plans out of Conway's "Allied Coastal Forces of World War II, Elco and Vospers".
I didn't see myself spending 150$ to use just 10 cm of the boat -especially when i will be featuring small inner details that are NOT included in the kit

Thank you Carlos No that won't be something out of Apocalypse Now though the scene will be certainly set in the Pacific (it's 4°C in my garden shed these days, i need heating!)

How do you call that on a boat? That wood thing that goes from front to end? the keel maybe?
Anyway, as you may have noticed on my last pic, I didn't built any keel. It will be for later.
Actually I have to place it on a rather smooth and regular surface. So I put a plasticard sheet from beginning to end.



then I use a last plaster coat to ensure that the joints are well done -additionnaly i assure that both sides will be identical.

So here is my bit of boat -it's full of course, but then I won't be using it this way.. Actually, the Elco's size is only 95% of what it should be!

Hi there Jean

Are you going to vac-form a hull section from your plug that you have made and then suuuuuuuuuuper detail the inside?

Nige

Sure, but some of us 30-somethings aren't as talented as 3 year olds

Nice one, Monsieur André. Could I ask a favour though - I have no idea how big a PT109 boat is, so could you maybe put a 1/35 scale figure next to it in a future shot for context?

Looking forward to following this - is it on your blog yet?

Rudi

And I was goin g to say the Nautalus

Interesting project. Looks like it's taking shape.

Nige, hey no, not vacuform. first i would have to build a machine and I am quite bad at doing that, and then what I truly need is all the individual planks of the boats to be seen at the place where the hull will be destroyed.
So What i will do is actually PLANKING ABOVE the plaster master -and then adding all the details on the internal side.
It shouldn't be a problem except that i read that there was 2 coats of planking on Elcos, and really, as I don't have any reference pics for this, i will leave it at one..
On the other hand the book I mentioned earlier has got fantastic pics of PT Boats while in construction which shows all the inner planking!

Thanks Rudi You know it's all in *focusing* in a diorama job when you start it No, I didn't put it on my own blog for programming reasons, as I didn't find a convenient way to show the both that are running right now -that one and the Masséna.
And then Jaws will be a small diorama, more a scenette with one fig actually. But there will be water etc, all my usual antics.
To be honest the work I display right now is already one week old so I will definitely show a 1/35 fig near it -as soon as I can that is! For the moment the boat is less than 10 cms high, and the part I will be using will be sort of 7cm high and 4 cm long.

Matthew! yes It could have been the Nautilus! Somebody pointed that to me already that when upturned; an Elco's hull looked like the Nautilus.. hmmh, food for thought

Thank you Kosprueone as always -- But you know I perfectly know the SBS is not that glamour these days, but i promise it will soon be more colourful!

My wife thinks that peanut oil is really too bad for health, so that one got straight to my diorama shed.
So i do a Magic Sculp lump that I take in sandwich between 2 sheets of oiled (with the peanut oil, that is) glass.

Then I waited for one good hour -if you prefer, the mastic must be cutable and bendable but not too sensible to finger pressing/prints.

I used a steel plaque to create triangular shape that I use as a keel..

planking is for tomorrow!

JBa
Excuse my ignorance but what is a PT boat ?
And which time frame will take place your dio ???
Any outline to understand
Cheers
Seb

Hello Sebastien, a PT Boat is a Patrol Torpedo boat of the US Navy, or as it was also known a Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB). The Elco (Electric Boat Company) types were WW 2 vintage. AL

Thanks Al
For the info, It is not my field of expertise.
cheers
Seb

Hey Seb, I couldn't have put it up better than Al (thanks Al). The most famous of this boat series is PT 109 which got shock slammed by a Japanese destroyer -thus getting JF Kennedy a war hero status because he was on it.
Here's a picture of the old Revell model


Well here we are, planking the plaster form with some semi hardened Magic-Sculp lumps, roughly of the same thickness that could ensure that I will get the size of the boat okay.
At this stage the MS is still bendable and cutable, but will hold its shape..



Next there will be much sanding, trimming, Tamiya mastic etc..

Gotta be honest - when I saw you doing blanking I thought you were a bit crazy
I know PT boats were wooden, but I didn't think the planking would show through that much but a quick wikipedia search and sure enough - you are dead on right.

Nice job - as usual.

Sounds like another interesting project you have undertaken my friend,i really admire how you go the extra mile to achieve your goals.

Steve

hey Scott thanks -indeed you can see the planking on *some* PT boat pics I have been seeing.
It might be a trick of the light, or maybe newer PTs that didn't got so much paint on them that you could still see the planks.
But really, the reason why I wanted those planks is twofold:
1/ the hull will be ripped apart, better start showing some of the planking at this place.
2/ there will be paint chipping etc, it is most likely that those troubles are going to happen first where each plank join.

Thank you Steve my friend. of course I take the extra mile (and so do you ). I don't do dioramas to earn Gold medals nor am I in a hurry. For I know that in the end the stuff I do is more rewarding for the viewer as well as for me.

Time to sand the planks big way!

and to cut the hull to its definitive shape

Looks easy it wasn't. In fact all the individual planks began to fall apart and I had to glue them with fast running superglue that got between the planks while the form kept the global shape.
After that all the trimming, i had to sand each side of the hull

So here's what the hull looks like after all these operations


Time to put a bit of filler..