A Micro V-32 by Scott Black
Last Saturday morning, I woke up and puttered
around my shop like I usually do with a fresh cup of coffee. We had just put
our Christmas tree up and I starting thinking about making some ornaments. They
are always better than the store bought kind.
I had a side view of the V-32 that I’d
printed off the AMYA website and I started to think what materials I could use to build a “little” V-32 to hang
on the tree. I figured out that the image I’d printed just happened to
be about 12% of a “full scale” V-32. So, the finished model is about
1/8th scale. It’s a scale model of a model!
I had a large chunk of balsa left over from
another project that was the right size for the hull. So, I took the image of
the hull and glued it lightly to the side of the block and started cutting carefully with my jigsaw. I didn’t have a top view, so I eyeballed the outline of the V-32 deck and used a French curve that
I had left over from my drafting days (I worked full time drafting for about 7 years) to make the right lines.
With about an hour’s work, I was able
to get the hull looking just like the full size V-32. I then used the paper templates
to get the side view of those pieces to the right outline and cut out a keel and rudder and shaped them accordingly.
I wanted to make the mast out of a thin piece
of spruce, but wasn’t able to find any the right size. So, I used a piece
of balsa strick that had straight grain and was relatively hard. I used the same
material for the booms.
You can see by the attached photos, that the
rest of it just kind of came together. I used 4 lb test fishing line for the
stays and shrouds and a tiny drop of CA glue to hold them in place. To attach
the ends, I used a needle to make a hole and then stuck the fishing line into the hole with a drop of super glue on the end. Worked just great! You can see that I
used cut off sewing pins to hold up the ends of the booms. I located them where
the lines would normally be so they didn’t detract. I should probably still
add a little vang bowsie to it too at some point.
My sails are just paper. There might be some fabric out there that works better but I didn’t have time to search for it at
this point. And, the paper looks just fine and was easy to attach to the fishing
line on the jib and the mast for the main using “Tacky Glue” from Wal-Mart.
It dries clear and holds well.
My finish was a combination of Bull’s
Eye amber shellac and standard spray enamel paint. I cut the shellac 50/50 with
denatured alcohol and used that for a sanding sealer. After three coats of that,
and light sanding in between, the hull was nice and smooth. Shellac smells great
I think, and it dries quickly. Good for a project like this. Finally, I used a little bit of Squadron Putty to fill a few pits that existed in the balsa. Squadron Putty dries quickly and didn’t react with the shellac or enamel. I did paint the hull with white primer before I applied the orange to be sure the color was bright and
uniform.
All in all, it was a really fun little project. I probably put about three hours into it total.
Once Christmas is over, I’ll make a little stand for it so that I can put it on the shelf in the study or in
my office at work. Time well spent.
