Decorating A Ship Model. Part 3
Tinted shellac of the type used to finish lamp shades also can be used for striping and decorating flags and sails. First, however, it should be exposed to the air until it has thickened to the consistency of paint. It will not run on the cloth and it will not make the cloth thick or heavy as it penetrates well. The important thing to remember about pennants and flags is to rig them properly. Flags on sailing ships will follow the direction of the wind and not the direction in which the boat is sailing. If you wish the flags to stand out, stiffen them along their upper edges with a short piece of piano wire. A relatively new type of indelible pencil also comes in handy for applying delicate decorations on the model, for coloring flags and pennants, and for marking out small panels. The pencils, which are made in twelve colors including black, have thin leads so that they can be sharpened to fine points and used like an ordinary drawing pencil. They make possible the drawing of the finest lines and the most elaborate ornaments.
When the decorations have been applied and shaded as desired, a fine camel's-hair brush
can be dipped in water and used to blend the individual strokes together wherever
necessary (Fig. 8). On woodwork and metal parts it will be necessary, of course, to apply
a ground coat of flat white, light gray, or light brown paint to serve as a foundation. On
cloth flags, the pencils can be used without any preparation and no further treatment with
water will be necessary as the strokes will blend together very well. On paper flags and
pennants, however, the brush and water treatment will give a better effect. Any surfaces
decorated in this way can be given a protective coating by spraying on a coat of thin
shellac or artist's fixative. In fact, you will find it possible to brush on a coat of
thin shellac without disturbing the colors if a very soft brush is used and the work is
done quickly.
In the case of a model of a known ship, its name should appear on both sides of the bow. The stern also should bear the name as well as the port of registry. If you are a neat letterer with a brush, paint these on in white. If not, make outline drawings of the three names on a piece of paper. Then paint around the letters with the desired color, leaving the printing white. Finally cut as close as possible to the letters and glue the paper "nameplate" in position. Still another way of overcoming the nameplate problem is to letter the name neatly with a fine pen on a piece of tracing cloth. By using tracing cloth, it is possible to trace the separate letters from some piece of printing having the size and style of letters desired. From this a regular blueprint can be made by placing the tracing over a sensitized piece of paper, exposing it to the sun for the required number of minutes, and fixing the print in a fixing bath. Finally, with a fine brush, fill in the background with the desired color.
When your model is completely painted and rigged, go over it carefully to make sure that
everything is neat and shipshape. Touch up marred spots on the hull and clip off loose
ends of rigging. Arrange the spars and lines to give a realistic but not too rigid
appearance. The rigging should be taut but not strained, and the general effect of the
model should be one of action and life.
View the model as a whole. You may find that one fitting in particular, or one line or stay in the rigging, is noticeably out of scale. Check its size carefully with the drawings and, if necessary, replace it with another of the right size. One place where the amateur model maker has a tendency to go astray is in making spars and rigging lines too large. This is one of the characteristic shortcomings of most store models and should be avoided at any cost on a handmade product. If your model has sails, make sure that they are rigged properly. They can be set in either one of two ways - trimmed across the ship as if the wind were aft, or braced a bit for a wind slightly on the quarter (Fig. 9). The final pruning of a model takes both care and perseverance. You will have to be both a craftsman and an artist, but the final result will be worth it.