Looking at these pieces for the Balcony, I’ve to come to realize that this is going to be a bit more complicated than I expected.
First thing that I did was to manage to break the Balcony outside piece. These guys are incredibly delicate! So much so that I’m pre-hardening them with Superglue even before I begin!
After a couple of failed attempts, I decided to form a shape out of some Balsa Wood as the form and gluing the wood to it on the outside. I had to use some Putty to disguise the cracks.
I’m going to be using some Primer and then Paint it.
I didn’t mention that I had to make a whole different one of these Balconys because I wasn’t satisfied with the above.
This one, I used a piece of Poplar Wood I had in my Backyard.
I didn’t like how the Balsa was too soft above.
Then, I took and used the Cutout as a Pattern and made the outside Bulkhead put of some Mahogany that I had.
I then cut the Windows out with a Xacto Blade.
That Top Decorative Strip… I had to soak it for 2 hours with Ammonia and Water. Good thing I did too… Else it would have cracked for sure going around that bend.
Then, after it was dry, I simply dribbled some Superglue around the Edges to hold it.
So, while I was Sanding the Starboard side one, I ended up sanding the end of my finger off!!!
The solution I came up with is to use some Double sides Tape and attach a Dowel or something to hold it while pressing it up against the Sander.
I think Contact Cement is the way to go for the Windows.
I thought I had lost these pieces so I started creating some Decorative Columns with some 1x3mm Walnut with my Micro-Shapers.
I messed up on this part so I need to sand it off and start over again.
While looking for a way to hold the part so I don’t sand off the end of my finger again, I came upon my Bees Wax.
I said… Hmmm… 🤔 . . Bees Wax. By jove, it might just work, what???
Right now I’m trying to create a mirror image for the Starboard side…
I’m going to stop here and make the outer Bulkhead before proceeding…
Been making the Rail Posts for the forward part of the Hatch.
I discovered something quite by accident but which I like.
What happened was that I made the Rails using some Basswood 1.5×3 mm Stock instead of the Walnut. This was because the former didn’t split all the time like the latter does.
But, because I used the light colored Basswood, I had to stain it. Well, I used some Dark Walnut Stain first… I didn’t really like that dark of a tone so I went over it with some Colonial Maple… Viola! I got this weathered look which I really like.
I found that a great way to do this is to clip the Baseboards in with these Clips, then to just dab a touch of SuperGlue on either end and the middle to hold it. That way, you can adjust to your heart’s content before you commit to to glue.
I ordered some Birch wood from Modelers Central in Australia. Anyway, it turned out that this was the wrong sort of Beech wood!!!… I needed Flexible Beech.
Anyway, now I found some use for it!
I made these Posts out of the Beech wood and I really love it because they DON’T Split!!!