In the last post I talked about having completed the Wills Corrugated Iron Chapel kit which had distracted me from other things on the work bench. I said that the distraction was over and I was getting back to those other tasks but I also mentioned a canal barge kit was on my workbench. Well just like Britney Spears but looking nothing like here I hasten to add, Oooops!....I did it again! Yes another distraction in that I started the canal barge kit produced by Craftline Models who produce a number of 00 gauge canal type vessels to populate your canal scene. As the finished model is for the canal wharf on the 009 narrow gauge layout I felt that the distraction of making this model had at least some justification.
The kits are based upon semi precut balsa shapes with some other parts you have to cut from an already marked out sheet of balsa wood. There are also parts for the tiller, stove chimney and similar barge type things as well as some pre printed paper decorations to give that traditional canal boat paint job to your model which you can see in the picture above.
I have never made on of these kits before so it was a bit new to me. It has been getting on for several decades since I last made a balsa model aircraft, which if I recall followed the fate of its predecessors in self destructing on a crash landing! I am no Biggles when it comes to flying that is for sure! Anyway this kit is simple enough and so with some balsa wood glue a few parts were fitted. Some shaping of the bow and stern, or if you want to annoy boating enthusiasts just refer to them as the sharp and blunt ends, was carried out and it soon began to look barge shaped.
You will notice the bottle of Shellac Sanding Sealer in the background. Balsa Wood is fantastically workable in that it is light in weight, sands and shapes easily and is comparatively strong. What it is not very good at doing is being painted. It can swell and distort with certain types of paint so the sanding sealer seals and fills the wood grain so that you can sand it to a super smooth finish and then apply paint safe in the knowledge that nothing untoward should happen.
As I had progressed with the kit so quickly it seemed a shame not to make the other kit I had which is also for the canal wharf and so this is the situation on my workbench.
Oooops!... I did it again!
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