OT Making a model ship with a 5 year old

How about a stitch-and-glue boat? It could be model sized or you could make it big enough that it could actually be used.

How big do you want to make it? He can get into this one

I want it to be approximately 1 foot.

I can ask a clarification question: where can I find heavy paper/cardboard (not corrugated) that is, say, 1 mm thick.

I think that I would be able to go a long way with that, esp. if I apply epoxy after the model is done.

Ignoramus8098 wrote in news:pN- dnT25qYOhMlHYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Craft supplier, or first rate art supply store, or a stationer. Lots of options available. Architects and designers model with such stuff pretty regularly. Avoid foamcore.

Patriarch

Ignoramus8098 posted in rec.crafts.metalworking on Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:32:34 -0600:

Foam core board. Get it at Micheals or any "crafty" shop or online.

Easy to work with. You can seal with expoxy it if you actually want to make your model float.

I suggest you weld it! Even better, your son welds it. Then you can claim how much better your welds got. When you are finished -don't forget to start at least 5 new new threads titled "finished"- and it sinks, you can tell that you wanted to build an U-boat from beginning on.

This way, you can have an on-topic post. Ain't that great? And I'll have even more to laugh.

Nick

You might try some "mat board" from an art supply store or a picture framing shop. It's a little thicker than 1 mm, maybe 2 mm or so. Pretty hard to cut it cleanly with scissors; best to use an x-acto knife or utility knife or a razor blade.

Dan in Wyoming

Is there any particular reason that you don't want to go to a big hobby shop and look around for kits or materials?

Pete Stanaitis

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Ignoramus8098 wrote:

I'd go for "bread and butter" construction, where you saw out boat- shaped waterline profiles (probably from 1/2" balsa, stack and glue them, then sand to remove anything that doesn't look like a boat.

It has the advantage that you can feed him a kit of parts that looks nothing like a boat, yet has most of the hard work done already. It's also an easy way to build "ocean liner" superstructures. Use dowel pegs in pre-drilled holes to align them during gluing. Make some sanding tools for him, out of sections of broomhandle or plywood offcuts with a layer of foam then a layer of very coarse sandpaper glued to them. These are easy to use and don't need the broad hand grip usually needed to hold sandpaper in place.

I usually provide a set of instructions as drawings like a plastic model kit, showing how it goes together. Then I "have to be busy" with something else (which just happens to be at the next bench) while he gets on with things on his own.

The "night shift" repairs any problems arising during the day's construction, up to and including the complete replacement of damaged components. Of course there mustn't be any _visible_ change overnight. This isn't about how it gets done, it's about him getting to make something and afterwards know that "He can make things".

A flat-bottomed hull by bread-and-butter can be thick enough to embed a set of carpet wheels into it, so he can play with it at home too. They also add a bit of low-down ballast for stability when afloat.

Incense cones work down the funnels to make smoke, if you use lightweight aluminium tube. Watch that it doesn't scratch the bathtub though. I wouldn't have a mast - it'll only get broken.

The history of WW1 "Q ships" gives you an excuse to have ocean liners that sprout gun turrets (He'll want them). A hinged flap to hide them behind is even more fun.

If you're feeling really brave, there's an Edwardian(?) toy battleship that contained a wooden mousetrap for realistic "magazine explosion" effects when torpedoed. The whole superstucture and turrets were fretsawn wooden blocks, piled loosely on top and kicked apart by the mousetrap spring. A piece of lead "cheese" acts as an inertia trigger for when it's hit by a torpedo (wheeled on inset steel balls) fired from a spring in the matching "torpedo boat". I modelled the replica I did of this on HMS Canopus (web pics a plenty).

How about sheet styrene? It's nice stuff for modelling, available in many thicknesses, strips, shapes, tube, you name it... It's easily joined with liquid plastic cement, cut and shaped with XActo blades and files, waterproof, and takes paint well.

Evergreen is a name sold by hobby and model shops.

On Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:28:28 -0600, Ignoramus8098 wrote: ...

Styrene or ABS plastic sheet would be a better material for model boat building - see

Styrene sheet for models is perhaps half-mm thick, and can be cut with scissors, razor knife, or nibbler. If you get to a hobby shop, also look for a "razor saw", a small thin backsaw that would be safe for a kid to use, as would be a little Dremel-like tool too. For thin cardboard or thick paper, look for a local paper goods store.

-jiw

Dan, that's interesting. Is is easy to glue?

I am fully open to that. My son is sick right now, but hopefully we can do it on the weekend.

No, no, NO. Little boys must not play with guns, it teaches hostility and violence. They musn't play tag because whoever is 'it' will develop an inferiority complex. They musn't play dodgeball because the smaller kids will feel smaller and develop a complex. They must be suspended from grade school for making terroristic threats if they dare play cops & robbers and say "I'm going to get you".

Little boys should be forced to play soccer in games where each team scores 5 goals and everyone gets a trophy, baseball and football are too violent and one team might actually lose. We need to teach our children that they are no smarter, taller, faster or better or worse than anyone else everyone is exactly the same.

This PSA brought to you by the committee to make America mediocre.

Ignoramus8098 wrote: > My 5.5 year old son wants to make a model ship.

In my youth, I built model boats, trains and airplanes.

Started when I was about 7-8.

By the time I was 16-17, had built some rather complex stuff.

My advise: KISS

The attention span of a 5.5 year old is limited at best when it comes to building things.

Find a decent hobby shop, buy a SIMPLE model ship kit, and assemble it.

Even though it will probably assemble quickly, don't rush it.

Patience is a tough lesson to learn. Might as well start early.

Have fun.

Lew

I do, actually, want this to be a little more DIY and a little more multisession.

I bought plastic models. They are very much NOT what I am looking for. Way too detailed and impossible for little fingers to assemble. What ends up happening is that I waste hours truing to glue pieces of plastic together, and my son can do nothing. I was livid by the time I finished a Titanic model (though I did not show it).

I want the opposite of that: to build something that resembles a ship, with maximum of hands on effort on his part and some real world engineering.

I kind of agree with TMT in that it should be kept in a spirit of junkyard wars. Build something nice (meaning that something that performs a useful function) from scrap.

He recently made a "rocket" from a Pringles can and paper. We launch it with my compressor. He is very happy about it. He even painted it gold.

Check out "Snap Tite" kits.

Best advice yet. "Kits" is what I did with both my daughters. We did a dinosaur and a dragonfly and they hung in their rooms for years.

Iggy, that wasn't the Titanic! But it sunk.

Nick