Instant Boats Message Boards

Hi,

In the first post, I decided what model I was going to build... But to what size and how to really get started?

Well, I liked the length of the Gypsy (my first model) in the Payson book "Build the New Instant Boats" on pg 36, and decided to make all my models fit that scale for the purpose of comparison. Here's what I did...
i.) I measured the drawing in the book of the Gypsy, and found the length of the Gypsy image to be 6 3/4" weak or close to 6.6875".
ii.) Next, I noted the actual length of the boat is 14' 11.5" or 179.5"
iii.) So, the question became, "For every inch of my model, how many inches of the real thing would it have to represent?" No prob... I just had to divide both my model length and the real length by the same number -> 6.6875. (6.6875 inches divided by 6.6875 equals 1 inch.)
iv.) And 179.5"/6.6875=26.84" or ballpark 27"... That is, every inch on my model(s) equaled 27 inches in real life. Conversely, every inch of the real boat was 1/27 that of my model, or .037"
v.) But how to transfer that scale to another drawing in another book? (Payson's "How to Build the Gloucester Light Dory")... Well, it turned out that the boats and the diagrams were of roughly the same size, and I could have used the same type of math to get exactly the same scale, but instead, I cheated... I used the same math above and figured out that the drawing of the 15' 6" Gull needed to be 6.882", and then scanned the drawing in and used software to re-size that drawing to fit the 1" model=27" real scale.
vi.) That done... I printed out the result and started cutting strips from "12 pack" cardboard to the appropriate appropriate size to make up the rails for the ladder back frame. (See below.) I figured that about 3 strips glued together would make up a good rail thickness.



Next time, the molds and frame comes together!

Alan