Need advice

[Whittled Thumb]

Okay I just finished my little 2" viking and i've started a ship for him. I say ship but its only 5" long, no its not to scale but its a characture. Viking is bigger, anyway...

How would I make a sail for this ship?

[mobjack68]

cut a piece of really green, really wet maple or something with a closed grain into a very thin slice the size of the sail....put it on the dashboard of the car in the sun with the windows rolled up. Let is shrink and twist and pull and curl...and then mount it on the mast!!

In the absence of green wood, consider taking a piece of dried wood, sliced thin....put the wood in boiling water for awhile (time unknown) pull it out and let it dry .....if it won't cup/twist/curl on it's own, block it to the shape you want with weights. Then dry......If you need a specific shape and don't want to trust the natural dry method, think about a male/female mold system, wet the wood, clamp the slice between the molds and wait for dry..

Experimentation will be a good thing
jerry

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Forget the wood. If you could make it thin enough to look like sail it would be so fragile it wouldn't last long. I'd do the masts then use a piece of white cloth. Shellac it and then cut it to shape and tie it on using thread. I've done this with model wagon covers and it looks great. The shellac gives it an antique look.

[Paul_Guraedy]

Unless a piece is being carved for competition, where rules might state otherwise, the addition of non-wood is a choice to be made by the artist. It is very personal. Some object to non-wood. This does not bother me; but, I do admit to my own "hang-up". I object to objects that have not been formed by the carver. For instance, the addition of rocks or gluing in grass are things that I do not like. I never say anything....because it is not my right to approve or disapprove.

I think you should use a cloth sail, or carve the sail furled along the yardarm. But, my advice would be to send a private message to Squarebriggs and ask him for help. His ability with ships is phenomenal and you will end up with good recommedations and a good carving.

[Tom-H]

Don't have any ideas of my own on this, but there's several great ones up already. This is just yet another good example of the excellent help and ideas one will get when asking....

Tom H

[aulddiy]

I'd give paper a chance. If you shape it then varnish it it keeps that full sail look.

[squbrigg]

There are lots of options for sails, furled or set. For a Viking ship it's a pretty simple sail, so try carving one from a piece of clear White Pine. A 5" ship is small, so you could also use a piece of Holly to carve them from, as the Holly will stay white longer, if you want a linen looking sail.

A small piece of cloth will make a good sail, canvas might be too heavy, but there are some canvas now thet are light. Pellon interfacing makes good sails on small scale and the plastic from a javex bottle will also do in a pinch. Cotton or linen will make excellent sails, if you spend the time on them and hem them with bolt ropes in them. If you insert thin copper wire in the hem you can shape the sails, or soak them in water/starch and iron them over a rolled towel, to give them a look of a billowed sail.

For a furled sail, you can use a rolled up piece of material or carve a furled sail from wood (Holly is my personal favorite).

You can also burn the detail of the sail in place: stitching, ropes, patches, etc.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good luck.

Bob

[Whittled Thumb]

Okay guys thanks for the advice, all of them were good ideas. My thoughts were to use a diaper rag and cut the peice i need out of it, soak it in coffee to antique it, use a peice of paper and make the sail out of it. I decided on the peice of paper, I took some brown paper wrap and colored over it with a pastel color thats also in the little vikings shield. I then painted the same pattern as the shield onto the sail, The mass I carved from some basswood and tomorrow I will tie the sail to the mass and glue the mass into the ship and the little viking victory ship will be done. Keep in mind guys this is not a scaled model so I really didn't want to go into a great deal of detail. The little viking will be standing in front with the sail behind him and two ores are poked out the side of the little boat. Its all very ficticous and I guess you can call it cute...ugh I will post pics tomorrow If I get done