Merchant ship building, Day 1

This is the start of a 1/72 scale merchant ship project with a hollow (and in some degree reachable) inner hull. I'm using 8mm and 3mm balsa, decor rubber and 180g cardstock for building these parts.

I have shaped and sanded the flat bottom of the hull from a piece of 8mm balsa. It is advised to also sand the flat deck as well. The ribs are also 8mm thick pieces shaped, sanded then glued to the bottom. The planking is constructed by then placing 15mm broad strips of decor rubber over the ribs. In hindsight I should have used more ribs so the rubber would not bend inward between them - with some creative work it should not be noticeable.

Around the forecastle I used smaller pieces and also shaped the prow.

The top layer of decor rubber is added, and when the glue had set it's time for placing the cardstock over it. The cardstock is marked in every 5mm with a blunt metal tool to simulate planking, and is also laid on top of the rubber in 15mm broad strips. I bent the strips inward along the marked lines to give them more strength, this also helps follow the lines of the tumblehome hull. The cardstock strips overlap the gaps between the bottom and top layer of decor rubber.

I also placed two dividers into the hull, the middle section will be accessible by removing a part of the top deck.

The prow is shaped by adding some 3mm thick balsa pieces.

Going back to the stern, the main piece is shaped out of 8mm balsa and placed on the hull.

A very important test follows, to see if a tall-ish 1/72 figure would fit comfortably between the decks.

 Starting to look ship-shape now.

Marking the first pieces of the top deck with this tool I use for greenstuff sculpting.

The raised quarterdeck is also laid down, I could always drill a hole later to fit the mast through.

I hope the tumblehome shape is visible, the top deck railings will hopefully accentuate it more.