how do u skin a ship um going to be there soon. any how 2 or pictures would be nice (konig and vdt) its my first time so go esay ...lol ty steve
Find out how much balsa you can conform to the hull at a time. Fit the balsa to the hull and test how much you can handle and if it can handle the curves (1/8" balsa can be a real pain on sharp curves). Cut the balsa so the seams are on the middle of a rib. Apply glue (I like CA glue) to the ribs and subdeck (and below the penetrable if it hangs over instead of butting up like many wooden hulls) then apply the balsa. Start at one end of the section of balsa and work out any warping as you go to the other side. I have a slave... er... twin brother to help hold the balsa or spray kicker on the glue. Fill in the seams and ends with wood filler and sand smooth.
Alot of us use contact cement also to hold the balsa on. Apply to both sides, wait till its almost dry, and then press together, Just make sure its on straight, because you may not get it back off. You can thin it with MEK, for easier application, best to do outside due to fumes.
Isn't there a "How to" page on the site somewhere, that goes over this with photos? If not, there should be (not volunteering - I don't even own a camera). Here's how I do it - pretty much the same as others have described: Cut balsa sheets to size. Measure twice, cut once, dry-fit & trim as necessary until it's right. I try to use as few pieces as possible. The more curves to the hull, the harder it is to use fewer pieces. Big, slab-sided areas are the easiest, but you have to do what you have to do. Install 1 piece at a time, fit another piece to the space left unskinned, repeat until it's all covered. It's going to get painted over, not to mention shot all to heck, so it really doesn't have to look very good. I prepare sheets of balsa in advance, with a layer of silkspan doped onto what will be the inside. I've generally used CA, but I plan to give contact cement a try. With CA, after you've got a piece cut & test fitted dry, lay a bead of thick CA glue on the ribs & other frame, ONLY IN THE AREA THAT THE 1 SHEET WILL COVER. Spray the inside of the balsa with CA kicker, line it up carefully (not touching yet), & press firmly onto the CA-coated frame. Hold it firmly for about a minute, then let go. If there are any spots where the skin & frame aren't touching, too bad - there's not much you can do about it. Judgment call time: Is it bad enough to rip out & do-over, or is it OK as is? A few dabs of CA can "fix" many gaps. If I were using contact cement, I think I'd still apply a good bead to the frame where the skin piece is going, then press the skin on so that some of the cement gets onto the skin, but only where it's needed instead of all-over. Wait until it's tacky, as directed, then stick it back on again & hold until it's set. Repeat with more sections of the skin until the ship is covered. Trim away excess. I use Minwax wood filler to fill in gaps & fair in the areas where the edge of the skin goes under the hull. When the filler is dry, I sand with 60-grit to get everything fairly smooth & even. Again, I remind that this is not for show, & it's going to get shot up, so obsessing over smoothness, symmetry, etc. is a waste of time, in my opinion. If I need to build up a little in some area, I'll add a little more filler. Sand more, as needed (I never bother with finer than 60). When I'm satisfied, I paint over it with a couple of coats of airplane dope. Color doesn't matter - it's going to get painted over. With clear, it can be hard to tell where you've covered aftger the 1st coat. After the dope is dry, I spray the whole thing with gray primer. I use some different brands to get different colors. Krylon gives a good "Haze Gray" or "Ocean Gray" approximation; there's another brand (whose name I can't recall right now, but I get at the local Ace Hardware) that has a lighter gray primer, that I think looks good on German ships & also gives a reasonable USN "Pale Gray". Krylon, the other lighter gray, & flat black together give what I think is a decent USN MS-32 (I really don't notice the missing blue tint) that only a really anal model contest judge would turn his nose up at - & thankfully, there are none of those around a battle (not that I'd care if there were!). I mask off above the water line & paint the area below with Krylon Safety Red enamel. Then apply 1/4" black detaiiing tape (it's a lot cheaper at auto parts stores than at hobby shops) along the water line. The tape tends to want to come up, so I spray clear airplane dope over the top of everything else, to help it stay down. 1 evening (couple of hours, tops) to remove old skin, apply new, & apply filler. Allow to dry until next evening. 1 evening (again, a couple of hours is about all) to sand, add more filler (if necessary) & sand again, spray 1st color of primer. 1 evening (only about 1/2 hour) per additional color of spray primer to add
I use the Contact Cement it works great however I use Spray primer for the paint used other stuff but had trouble with it chunking and allowing the BB to blow big holes in my hull the primer works nice
I stressed on it for a while but when I sat down and did it ... it was one of the easier things I had done. One note I found is that my baden was previusly sheeted with CA and it leaves a lot of very hard bumps that take a lot of work to remove (at least to me). Removing the contact cement seemed eaiser but didnt leave the bumps on the hull and I was told in some cases other guys just left the residue on the ship and re-sheeted. I had a local captain show me how to the first side and the hardest part for me was to let go of rigid thinking in terms of trying to line up the top edge of the sheet to the top edge of the hull. I was shown it was okay to take a sheet and lay it at an upward angle to conform to the hull. Then I just take the exacto and trim off the excess. The first side I did what I had read and took a 3 inch piece and then cut several smaller pieces but with a ship that has no casemates I didnt really need to do that. On the second side I used a 4 inch piece and wow it took no time at all with only 1 or 2 seams and I think 2 pieces. I found that instead of trying to line up the edge of the sheet at the top that I tried to line it up with the bottom of the hull as it was easier to trim it at the top. This is a picture of the gap on the side with only two pieces. I just filled it with balsa filler and sanded. I found that holding the ship was tough, I cracked the sheet in the stern from holding it but I floated it with filler before I put on the silkspan. Good luck.
Nice job looks great congrats. The best part with the Glue is the fumes WEEE []. I leave the old glue as I have found when the new glue hits it the old glue activates again
Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!! that came out nice. The second time goes even better. I always trim the top also so you are spot on with that one. Don't sweat the crack too much. I usually silkspan over my cracks anyway. Did you use silkspan both sides to help it? If not, next time [8D]
Sorry I forgot a step. I took the pieces and added two sheets of silkspan in a crosshatch pattern to the backside of each piece before applying them to the ship. I thinned my dope with mek to make it go farther (mek is cheaper than dope) and it worked just fine. I also took a medium grit sandpaper and sanded down the edges of the sheets to make them blend into the hull. It looked great. I did what I could in stretching the silkspan as I applied it to the outside but I had wrinkles no matter what I tried. I wonder how some of those guys do that.......
I just slit the wrinkles. the beauty of it is if you have ever seen pictures of real ships , the sides are usually "lumpy" anyway.
You know if I was juvenile I could have some fun with this but I will leave it alone and just sit her and chuckle to my self []
And that is why they have ANTI MONKEY BUTT!... yeah, that actually is pretty funny, I probably should proof read a bit more! The silkspan on both sides may help [:0]
