Artistic and historical wooden ship kits are amazing to showcase your artistic skills and love for such art pieces. These kits are available in various sizes and shapes to meet interest of the modelers. Building a beautiful wood ship kit is great, but one should also know how to preserve and maintain the creation and keep it from decaying. Hopefully, some very basic general knowledge about maintaining the ship models can help you avoid costly repairs and minimize the maintenance efforts.
While much has been shared online on making wooden ships from scratch very little has been shared on how to take proper care and perform preventative maintenance. A well-built wooden ship should last for years, or sometimes lifetime with some common care. Here are three major care tips that can increase the lifespan of your wood ship kit- Keep Your Ship Dry The primary deterioration that happen to a wood ship model is dry rot, which is a type of fungus that grows in wood when it has more than 20 percent moisture content, is exposure to air and temperature is 45 degrees or more. It is worth mentioning that rot spores are present in all kinds of woos, and trick to avoid dry rotting is to make sure it doesn’t get favorable conditions to grow, which means no moisture in the wooden ship, no exposure to oxygen and keep it inside if temperature is high. You should put your ship where ventilation is good to avoid development of any fungus. Many ships rot from the inside due to the improper interior ventilation. Make sure you put it in place where it can have proper ventilation, and you should also clean it frequently to make sure there is no moisture content left inside the ship model. Keep Your Ship Clean As said before, you need to make sure that your wooden ship is cleaned from inside and outside to prevent it from rotting. Therefore, apart from putting efforts to keep it clean manually, you should also invest in good cover to avoid any deposition of dirt and dust. While buying cover, you make sure that it must offer tight fitting and doesn’t blow off in case you place it in airy space. Find out some good breathable canvas that allows moisture to evaporate when it is dry and tightens up when wet. Keep the Ship Painted Bare wood is known for absorbing moisture which ultimately develops rot. So, it is highly advisable to paint your ship as it covers the bare wood with a film that prevents moisture or water from penetrating the wood. Perform a thorough analysis of the surface and fix all cracks and chips by sanding before you start painting your wooden ship kits. Cracks in the wood joints can trap the water inside, which will cause huge damage with time. You need to glue the wood joints to prevent it from trapping any water molecules.
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Are you willing to explore your love for ships and wood ship kits? Before you embark on this journey of exploration, we advise you to consider the following factors that would help you decide on the right wood ship kit that you should start with. We don’t want you to feel defeated with a complex model in the very beginning. Let’s give a look to the main factors that would help you gain more confidence with your first project.
How is the appeal of the wood ship kit that you have chosen? Every piece of wood ship kit that you chose must have some significance for you. It could be a type of ship that you like or a historic depiction of something that inspired you in the past. If the model chosen by you does not appeal to you in one way or another, you might not be able to find passion or interest in constructing it. Finishing a model needs a high amount of passion and that would definitely help you completing a project if it is inspiring in nature. What is your Aim? Ask yourself on the aim of the project or the wood ship building hobby. Do you want to display it on your office desk, house mantel or is it a project that you would like to do with your children? Once the aim is set you can picturize what would happen when the ship is completed. You can also see how the model would look at the location that you set it and that further helps you pick the right kit in the early stages. Understand your Ability It is very important for a wooden ship builder to know his/her capabilities with the building process. If you think that you are a beginner then you should not start with a complex model or ship. There are several ships that you can build with ease. If beginners pick up a complex project, they often feel disheartened and leave the project in between. So,pick the right model based on your capabilities. Know the Scale of the Ship and the Size Before you start working on that ship, check the amount of area that the finished product would consume and ask yourself whether you have that kind of space or not. Every working project needs you to allocate a specific amount of space for the construction or the building. Check the dimensions of your work station and make sure that you pick the right model as per the space you have and the dimensions that the final product would have. Quality of the Materials There are several providers of wood ship kits in the market today. Make sure you acquire the kit from the right seller. The quality of the pieces, timber and even the accessories makes a huge difference in the final product that you have. The decorations would actually make your ship look professional. So, make sure that the quality of the materials that you get is up to the mark otherwise it might not hold for a long duration of time. |
AuthorWooden Model Ship Kits of Ages of Sail include everything you need to build each kit including tools, books and accessories. Archives
January 2023
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