The Red Dragon -Artesania Latina-

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Ok... I couldn't wait till my retirement and moving to Florida, as I wrote yesterday in my introductory thread. And here we are. Today I took all my tools out of the box. And settle a space in the basement.

As you saw, I have a long list of kits waiting. Very easy ones and others difficults.

My last ship was done 35 years ago. It was a Red Dragon from Art.Lat.. I won a price in an expo. But soon after we all moved to Belgium. And with us all my basic tools and a couple of kits. The only 3 and a half ships I was able to built, stayed in Argentina.

Years later we landed in USA. tried some builts. But I have to much work and adolescentes at home. All to boxes again.

A few years backs, my parents decided to bring from Argentina those 3 and a half ship's (1 unfinish). As I though that I would never see the Red Dragon again, in 2004 I got a new one from eBay ( bill was still inside the box).

Well, today I decided to start with that one. An easy one that will help me to train myself again on ship modeling.

The Red Dragon is in our house in Florida with my parents and today my mom sent me some pictures.

I will try to attach some of the pictures.

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Not bad. My mom (84 YO) took them with the phone.

Ok... so here is my new Red Dragon built.

It is a simple but very pretty Chinese junk. With all the elements to start to learn model ship building from a Kit. This particular box only have color pictures and the text in a booklet. But the construction guide is poor. Pictures are excellent. That encourage me when it will be time to build the ZHL kits from China in a few years.

I am not sure how long it will take to build this Red Dragon and I hope it has the same quality as the one I did 35 years ago.

So stop Bla Bla and ..... here we go. All starts here :

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Next will be the first planking. Let's see if I can do it like when I was younger.

Cheers
DanielIMG-20200515-WA0023.jpg
 
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Hi

What do you use to enhance and protect the hull wood ?

Yesterday night I finished the second planking. Sanded it, cleaned with a humid cloth and when dried I cleaned it again with one of my wife cleaners she use for wood furniture. Then I took the below pictures. But I can't remember what I used to use to protect the wood for years to come. It was flat, as I do not like shine finished wood in a model ship.

What do you use ?

Thanks
Daniel


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Hello Daniel,

There are many choices to protect the wood and it just a matter of personal choice. Personally, I prefer natural Oils (Flaxseeds or Linseed), also you can use all other blends like Danish or Tung, All of them can give different results i.e. darken the wood. Also, it required a lot of time as the surface must fully dry between the next coat.
Another method is using shellack. This doesn't require much time as shellack dries reasonably fast. It is available in the hardware\paint stores in variety of brands. One of the most useful methods - is Wipe and Poly. This doesn't require too much work. Just rub the surface with clothe and let it dry.
Last but not least - is paint! You can always paint it with your favorite color.:)
 
Glued the false deck and checking how the deck planking will look.
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I am planning to provide the deck a "used aspect". I found this product and tested in a piece of deck planking wood. I think it will provide what I am looking for.

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For the deck Tar look I plan to use a pencil used in construction that the point is like a pasta...(don't know its technical name) just saw it at the hardware store and I am testing how will it look.

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Pieces of wood are damp, to test if the "pencil pasta" will diffuse with wet wood.
Applied the weathering product I pictured before.

That "pencil treatment" stayed on place. No diffusion. Looks fine.
 
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I used black water based paint for edges, I used Natural Danish Oil, wipe on and wipe off excess and let dry, with a buffing a day later it looks good without big shine. I have tried wiping over the top of oil with isopropyl alcohol to wipe a bit away for worn looks.

I suggest practice on some scraps and see what you like.
 
Also on finished deck sanding might smear the black, what others have shown me was to scrape the deck with sharp metal blade, like single edge razor blade, it cleans and smooths the deck like no other way I have seen.

To clean dust and fuzz off wood when sanding I use rag damp with more alcohol as it dries very quick and clean, no damping of wood.
 
Kkonrath ....Thank you for your suggestions !!.

They will all go to my model ship notebook.

I have now started what I posted. Lets see how it finish. If it looks bad, the deck can always be done again. I keep my fingers crossed. :)
 
Yesterday night i finished planking the deck. I has the used/old aspect I wanted to get. But the funny part is how I get it. Not using the Minwax treatment I posted a picture. When I did the tart effect with the "pasta" pencil it left an excess of that "black kind of pasta" at the strip borders. When I tried to clean it, it was worst. Some of that stuff stuck to the strip. Now the strip has that black stuff from the pencil. When I tried to clean it from the strip, but that stuff spreaded and provided to the wood what I was looking for. So then I did the same to all the strips. For that reason the planking took time.

Bottom line, from the mess I did, I got what I wanted.

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aye nice looking boat - I've never paid much attention to Chinese boats but there are some interesting details
 
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