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

-----------------------------------

Ignoramus8098 wrote:

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.

Thanks for this post and your longer post with your thoughts re: age appropriate aspects of model ship building.

My ideas are crystallizing around the following.

1. Make a wooden member that would be placed in the middle of the ship, whose purpose is mainly to provide rigidity to the ship as it is being built. It would be placed lengthwise.

1. Make plywood bulkheads with holes that match the wooden member, soi that they would slide along the member, spaced about equally and provide ribbing for the hull. My son can participate in this, by using my scroll saw under my supervision.

2. Glue bulkheads in position.

1. Use whatever material is available from hobby store to make the hull. Make a heavy keel so that the ship can possibly float.

2. Let him paint the hull.

1. Provide some top side details, but not too many. I think that I would prefer a sailing ship model since masts, etc are easy conceptually to make.

The above plan in scalable to pretty much any model size.

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.

LOL! That's a better idea! He can even use the welding-helmet. :-))

OTOH, afterwards he thinks that he can weld. Guess the same happend to Iggy.

Nick

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

Nick