American Scout C-2 Cargo Ship by Sterling Models

[Roger Pellett]

Master model maker Eric Ronnberg built a pair of steam trawler models 25-30 years ago. Construction was detailed in a multipart NRJ article. Although the actual trawlers were built from steel he used wood entirely.

Before painting he treated all wood surfaces with artist’s gesso, a brush on filler used to treat canvas before painting. I have seen the models now at Mystic Seaport. They look like they were built from steel.

Trying to make balsa look like steel is doing things the hard way. Since this model is model railroad scenery, I would buy some styrene plastic for the doors. They can be glued to the balsa with either Duco Cement or CA glue.

Roger

 

[xanthar]

Balsa is like a sponge. Basswood is a close second. It’s not the paint, it’s the wood.

Actually that stuff worked great on unsealed plywood for me the week before. It was probably the epoxy coating. I'm my case it was another plastic : 3D printed PLA. It was still not cured 2 weeks later. I sanded most of that off and used their 2-in-1 Filler primer and that cured just fine and made a nice hard coating.

 

[Vfordyce]

The door is now hidden in the balsa wood jungle—never to be seen again.