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I plan to build a fleet of long light dories, 1/8th scale, as gifts for friends kid's, out of waterproof marine plywood and titebond III, so they'll last. They'll be almost 30" long and 6" wide.

I'm planning to use twice scale thickness for sides and bottom, which, now in hand, still seems thin. I'm still working out the gunwale wood. I've seen 1/4 inch quarter round oak moulding, which would be four time scale, but add to the toys strength, yet be hard to bend the required three inches over the 2 &1/2 feet length. I could steam them - I've steam-bent wood before. I hope to find thinner oak, or use pine/basswood.

I wondered about whether I should add chine logs, until I read that Alan Speakman used S&G for his gloucester gull model. The long light dory is set up to be built without chine logs. Advice and opinions on all this I welcome.

I have Dynamite's _How to build the Gloucester Gull_, _Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson_, which has the stretched dory, and _Boat Modeling the Easy Way_.

I'm going shopping for more tools today.

I wonder if splintering is worse in modeling - if wood grain is a scale-dependent thing. Maybe that why for modeling people use basswood and pine so much. Hmmm.

I guess it'd help to use finer-toothed saws for modelling. I might use hacksaw blades. I plan to buy a coping saw today - I'll check out the fineness of the available blades' teeth.

Hi,

To avoid splintering, you might try scoring the line with a sharp knife before making the cut...

Alan

Thanks, Alan,

I've made the patterns and cut the first side panel using a pattern. I used tin snips for cutting the pattern from galvanized sheet steel and used a hacksaw blade to cut the 1/16" plywood, but I'm experimenting with using the tin snips to cut the plywood - this actually leaves a cleaner edge. Here's a photo:

Hmm, posting a photo isn't as easy as cutting and pasting. Hmm. I'll try to get the photo up later.

http://hopefulvision.blogspot.com/2012/01/stretched-dory-model-progress-1.html There we go. Now I'll try tin snips to finish cutting the bottom of the first side.

(Later) Hmm. Not as good. Maybe they cut counterclockwise turns better than clockwise turns.

Looking good!!!

Alan

A little more progress is visible at: http://hopefulvision.blogspot.com/2012/ ... ess-2.html

A little bit here and there gets the job done...

Alan