Do-it-yourself model of a wooden sailboat. Master class with step by step photos

Sheets of pressed and glued wood veneer are the main material of all modeling enthusiasts. This material is easy to cut, well processed, and you can find drawings of plywood ships on the Internet, since it is from plywood patterns that many craftsmen begin to get acquainted with this art.

Self-creation of ship models is not the easiest task, but doable. You will need some knowledge and skill. In the article we will talk about the basic methods of work, and if you wish, you will hone your skills on your own.

Necessary materials

If you want to make a small ship model, you will need the following materials:

  1. Wood - linden, walnut, cedar or other species, preferably non-fibrous and soft. Wood blanks must be smooth, without damage and knots. Wood can be used as a material for the main parts of the model - the deck and hull, as well as for small elements.
  2. Plywood. This material is the most in demand. For ship modeling, balsa or birch plywood is used, as they are less prone to chipping during sawing. Model ship plywood usually has a thickness of 0.8-2 mm.
  3. Veneer - thin plates of natural wood of expensive species. As a rule, they are used for veneering, that is, pasting surfaces from inexpensive materials.
  4. Fasteners - laces, thin chains, brass and copper studs, threads, etc.

You will definitely need wood glue, tracing paper and cardboard to transfer templates. Small parts are made of metal. As an alternative to metal, you can use colored polymer clay.

Each work must begin with preparation, and modeling is no exception. First you need to decide what you are planning to build. If you have not come across ship modeling art before, we recommend that you first find the drawings of a plywood ship on the net: they usually contain the information you need and even a beginner will understand them.

On sale you can find ready-made kits that allow you to assemble a ship from finished parts. Beginners should be interested in such kits, although they are sometimes quite expensive. It is better to master the technology from the very beginning.

Print the drawing and make patterns of the main elements according to it. We transfer the templates to plywood, and then proceed to sawing.

Detail cutting

Blanks can be cut with a manual or electric model jigsaw. The latter is more expensive, but with it you will have less hassle when cutting out small elements:

  1. We make a starting hole in the plywood sheet and insert a canvas or a jigsaw file into it.
  2. We cut out the part, moving along the intended contour.
  3. We process the created workpiece with a file, removing small chamfers along the edges and removing burrs and chips.

When working on one part (sides, deck, keel, etc.), you immediately need to cut out everything you need. So you spend less time and the work will move faster.

When everything is ready, you can start assembling.

Assembly sequence

Work must be done in the following sequence:

  1. First, we put on transverse frames on the keel (longitudinal beam). At the bottom of each of them there is usually a groove for attaching to a plywood keel.
  2. For connection, you can use standard glue, but you can use special glue mixtures that are designed for ship modeling.
  3. We fix the upper parts of the frames on the deck. At simple models ships, the deck consists of a single sheet of plywood, and for complex ones it can be multi-level.
  4. After the glue has dried on the frames, you can proceed to sheathing the side with thin strips of plywood. The thickness of the material should not exceed 1.5 mm, since only in this case you can bend the skin without the risk of damaging it.
  5. To bend veneered plywood, it can be heated and moistened. After that, the material bends easily, and eventually takes on a stable shape.

You can paste over the body for painting with a solid sheet. To imitate plank sheathing, it is better to use strips up to a centimeter wide, depending on the scale.

Fix the glued plywood with clamps and clamps, and leave to dry.

Final finishing

When the hull is assembled and dried, you will need to do the following:

  1. Make deck superstructures from thin plywood and secure them.
  2. The sides must be increased so that they protrude above the plane of the deck.
  3. We paste over the surface of the deck with wood veneer or line it with an awl, imitating plank sheathing.
  4. Make and install all small elements such as the steering blade and steering wheel.
  5. Fasten the masts with additional devices (spar), set the sails and stretch the structure with the help of rigging threads.

In conclusion, plywood elements must be treated with stain and varnished. This will provide the souvenir with at least a couple of decades of complete preservation.

conclusions

The first thing you need before creating a wooden ship with your own hands is desire. Almost anyone can make a simple plywood boat with their own hands - you need patience and minimal skills with a jigsaw. If you decide to implement a complex drawing with many small details, you will need to work hard. That is why we recommend starting with the simplest models. Gradually improving skill.

Wooden toy sailboat - our homemade original, albeit toy, children's, but handmade bamboo boat with a sail, which you see in the picture below, is ideal for long-distance sailing.

Therefore, the mouse family happily travels around the lake on a sunny summer day, dipping their tails into the water for cooling.

The mice are swimming in the lake. But safety is above all! That is why they have such a wonderfully stable boat with a sail that cannot turn over in any way, even with a very strong wind.

How to make a children's toy sailboat with your own hands?

Of course, such a toy as a sailboat can be bought. I do not argue. There are interesting finished models. But do-it-yourself will be much more interesting! Do you agree? Especially if the child will make it together with adults.

Let's start in order. We will sequentially consider all the steps that we need to take. Each has a schematic picture with a serial number. If something remains unclear from the description, then look at the diagram - after that there will be no questions left!

If you decide to make such a floating tool for small mouse toys, then pay attention to the list necessary tools and materials. So, first, let's see what we need to make such a children's toy.

We make a simple boat with a sail. materials

  • 1 thick bamboo stick
  • 1 thin bamboo tube (this will need to be divided into longer and shorter pieces)
  • Pieces of wood (for the nose and other accessories)
  • bending twig
  • 1 wine cork
  • White cloth (approximately 20 x 30 centimeters)
  • Fabric dyes (silk)
  • Big eye needle
  • thin cord
  • Nails (screws)
  • Hammer
  • jigsaw
  • Scissors
  • Chisel and hammer for wood
  • Drill

Description and work order:

  1. Cut a piece from a thick bamboo stick with a hacksaw or a jigsaw so that partitions are preserved on both sides (remember, the bamboo trunk is hollow inside, knots are visible from above - these are the places where there is a solid partition inside). After that, the resulting tube-cylinder is divided along the middle.

  2. Attach a pair of branches of the same size with a string to the boat in two places - approximately in the middle of the front and back (if you mentally separate the "trough"). Then pieces of wood (planks, you can also use several interconnected twigs) to tie these rods.

  3. Prepare a triangular piece of wood. This will be the front of the sailboat - the bow. We fix it on one of the ends of the boat, which will become the bow. To do this, you need one screw, this will be the most reliable mounting option. You can, if desired, in principle, and glue. We install the mast (the long part of the thin bamboo branch we divided in two) - using a small rectangular plank and cork, see as shown in the detailed diagram.

  4. The fabric for the sail can be prepared different ways. For example, first fold as you see in the figure, and then dip different parts one by one into a vessel with paint. Or put on polyethylene (so as not to stain the table) and paint by hand. Then dry until completely dry. And finally, fix the paints by ironing with a hot iron.

  5. The sail on one side is attached (it can be glued or better sewn) on a thin bamboo stalk (the one that is short. Remember, we divided them into two parts unequal in length?). A cord is attached to the corners of the other side of the sail, as shown in the picture below.

  6. Fasten the mast with a needle with a large eye and fasten the cord in the middle in front of the sailboat. Glue the cork with glue. The mast for stability is fixed with ropes in the bow of the stern.

Our boat is ready. You can go on a long voyage.

I want to note that in the manufacture of a children's sailboat you are not limited by anything, except for your own imagination. If bamboo is not at hand, make the basis for ordinary wood varieties. I must say that of all the "watercraft" the catamaran has the most stable design.

Here's what can happen (there are a lot of options!). Without a sail, you get just a boat. Whichever one you have, I think that it will make your baby very happy. After all, all children love to mess around in the water in the summer. And here is such a beautiful, and even educational toy!

It will be especially great if the child also takes part in the work on the creation of the boat.

You may be interested in:

Simple wooden toys for children. Just a few examples. Without a diagram and description, but as you can see, everything is simple. Almost every man with arms growing from the right place can make such fun for his baby. By the way, this is also a sailboat - note that they are served by an ordinary (well, not quite, with a pirate flag!) inflatable rubber ball.

I would say that this is already a toy for adults. But of course the kids will love it too. I witnessed how such crafts sold out - pretty good. At least they were of interest to almost everyone. A person is only doing this, this is his business, he has his own shop, and he also travels to fairs, sells his own creations.

If you want to make such a boat, then read and study the instructions for its manufacture and rather make it.

You will need

wooden block

Thin wooden sticks

sail fabric

wooden toothpicks

Visual sketch of the ship

sharp knife

Hammer

Paint or varnish on wood

Super glue

Sandpaper

Making a boat

Plane the bar with a knife, giving it the shape of the ship's hull, forming the stern and bow according to the selected sketch.

To form the deck with a chisel, hollow out the bar inside, deepening by 5-7 mm and leaving a descending edge with a width of 3 to 10 mm.

Under the masts, drill 3 holes with a drill 1-1.5 cm deep. Plan the masts from thin sticks, sharpen one end at each and fix in the hole.

For fabric sails, cut out 3 pieces in the shape of a trapezoid, the height of each should be 5-6 cm more than the height of the mast. Divide each sail into 3 parts, glue toothpicks along the lines and fasten the sails to the masts.

Treat the hull of the ship with sandpaper and cover the toy with varnish or paint. Draw portholes, lifebuoy and anchor.

A handmade boat is a great gift that you can present to your friends for any occasion. In order for the craft to look like a real souvenir, you should decorate it with an original pattern - burn it out, cut it out or paint it, and then varnish it.

Not only men can make this wooden toy - older children may well join in the manufacture of such crafts and polish or paint it.

Probably, many looked at the magnificent wooden sailboats in shop windows or in the apartments of acquaintances. How good they are! Even in the most simple boats as if a breath of wind is felt, I want to look at it for a long, long time and delve into the details. And then the question arises of how to make a boat out of wood. But most people give up this thought only after imagining the complexity of this enterprise. Therefore, it is worth understanding in more detail the features of the construction of small ships.

What are the models

First of all, you need to decide on the purpose of creating a boat. If it is needed in order to launch it on a river or lake, strength and driving performance will become important, and some decoration details in this case are useless. If your goal is to learn how to make a boat out of wood, which will become an interior decoration, then think through it appearance should be taken more seriously. Often enthusiasts even restore in detail schooners that actually existed and have become almost legendary. But for starters, it’s worth making the boat simpler to try your hand.

What you need for a simple boat

Those who are seriously thinking about how to make a boat out of wood will need:

  • actually a wooden block, the size of which depends on the desired dimensions of the product;
  • several thin sticks for masts;
  • fabric or soft paper for sails;
  • tools: knife, chisel, drill, hammer;
  • good glue, best of all - superglue;
  • sandpaper;
  • varnish or paint for final decoration.

How to do

First of all, you need to trim the bar so that it takes the shape of the hull of the future vessel. Then, inside it, a deck is hollowed out with a depth of 5-7 mm and at the same time a side with a width of about 3-7 mm is left (you can leave 10 mm, depending on the conceived model). Masts should be planed from prepared sticks so that they turn out to be even and smooth. In the hull of the ship, it is necessary to drill holes according to the diameter of these sticks and install masts in them. Then proceed to the manufacture of sails.

How to make sails

When deciding from wood, you should imagine the future design of the sails. It can be a single sail, large and white. Or you can place several of these elements on each mast, which will create the impression of a large vessel. Try to cut out several long pieces of fabric (according to the number of masts) in the form of an isosceles trapezium, where the upper base will be slightly smaller than the lower one. The length of the blanks should be 6-7 centimeters longer than the length of the masts. Each part should be divided into three parts, glue toothpicks and fasten, shape the sails.

Decoration

And the last step in making a boat out of wood is its decoration. It is necessary to process the workpiece with sandpaper, draw portholes, paint and varnish. Here you can be creative, for example, how to make a boat out of candies by gluing them along the edges of the workpiece.

Such a fairly easy-to-make boat will be good original gift. It will bring a smile and add a good mood. If working with wood still causes too much difficulty, you can make a boat out of paper with your own hands. Only in order to get a really beautiful product, you should use thick cardboard from which the body is glued. Masts can be left wooden, and it will be much easier to paint such a creation.

For lovers of modeling, sheets of pressed and glued wood veneer have always been one of the most sought-after materials. They are easy to cut, perfectly processed, drawings of ships made of plywood are easy to find on the net, and therefore many craftsmen begin their acquaintance with the modeling of various ships with plywood patterns.


Making models with your own hands is a very difficult task, requiring a significant amount of knowledge and a certain skill. In the article we will talk only about the most basic techniques, and you will hone your further skills yourself.

Work materials

If you want to make a small ship model, you will need the following materials:

  • Wood - cedar, linden, walnut or other wood, preferably soft and not fibrous. Wood blanks should be smooth, without knots and damage. Wood can be used both as a material for the main elements of the model (hull, deck), and for fine detailing.
  • Plywood is perhaps the most sought after material.. For ship modeling, either balsa or birch is used, since it is these types of wood that provide the minimum number of chips when sawing. Model ship plywood, as a rule, has a thickness of 0.8 to 2 mm.

Note! Sheets of beech veneer of small thickness are sometimes used as an alternative to birch veneer: although they are inferior in strength, they bend much easier.

  • Veneer - thin plates natural wood expensive breeds. As a rule, it is used for veneering, i.e. pasting of a surface from inexpensive material.
  • Fasteners - thin chains, laces, threads, brass and copper studs.

In addition, we will definitely need wood glue, cardboard and tracing paper for transferring templates, etc. Fine detailing is made of metal casting. As an alternative to metal, colored polymer clay can be used.

Making a souvenir boat

Preparation for work

Any work begins with preparation, and modeling will by no means be an exception.

  • First we need to decide what we will build. If you have not previously dealt with ship modeling art, then we recommend downloading ship drawings from plywood on the net: as a rule, they contain all the necessary information and are understandable even to a beginner.

Note! Kits are available for sale that allow you to assemble a vessel from finished parts. For beginners, such kits will be interesting (although the price of most of them is very significant), but it’s better to master the technology from the basics.

  • After analyzing the drawing, we check whether everything you need is available. In principle, if something is missing, then it will be possible to buy it a little later, because building a ship (albeit a miniature one) is not a quick job!

  • After printing the drawing, we make templates for the main parts.
  • Transferring templates to .

Cutting and assembling parts

You can cut blanks both with the help of a manual and with the help of an electric model jigsaw.

The latter is more expensive, but with it you are less tormented when cutting out small details:

  • We make a starting hole in the plywood sheet, into which we insert a file or a jigsaw blade.
  • We cut out the part, trying to move exactly along the marked contour.
  • We process the sawn workpiece with a file, removing small chamfers along the edges and removing the inevitable chips and burrs.

Advice! Working on one element (deck, sides, keel, etc.), we immediately cut out all the parts necessary for assembly. So we will spend much less time, and the work will move faster.


When everything is ready, we start assembling our ship.


  • First on longitudinal beam- keel - we put on transverse frames. In the lower part of each frame, a groove is usually provided for fastening to a plywood keel.
  • For connection, you can use standard glue, or you can use special glue mixtures designed for ship modeling.
  • We attach the upper parts of the frames to the deck. For simple models, the deck is a single sheet of plywood, while for complex ones it can be multi-level.
  • After the glue on the frames dries, we begin to sheathe the sides with thin strips of plywood. The thickness of the material should be no more than 1.5 mm, because only in this case we will be able to bend the skin without the risk of damaging it.
  • For bending can be heated and humidified. After that, the material will bend without difficulty, and over time it will acquire a stable shape.

Note! The case for painting can be pasted over with a solid sheet. But to imitate plank sheathing, it is better to use strips up to 10 mm wide (depending on the scale).


  • We fix the glued plywood with clamps and clamps and leave to dry.

Finishing

By and large, this is where carpentry ends and art begins.

When the case is assembled and dried, we need:

  • Make from thin plywood and fix deck superstructures.

  • Increase the sides so that they protrude above the deck plane.
  • Paste the deck surface with wood veneer or draw it with an awl, imitating plank sheathing.
  • Make and install all the small parts like the steering wheel and steering blade.
  • Fix the masts with all additional devices (the so-called spars), set the sails and stretch this entire structure with the help of rigging threads.

In conclusion, all plywood parts must be stained and varnished. This will provide our souvenir with at least a couple of decades of safety.

Conclusion


Almost everyone can make a simple plywood boat with their own hands - enough patience and minimal skills in working with a jigsaw (read also the article). But if you want to implement a complex drawing with many small details, then you will have to work hard. That's why we advise you to start with the simplest models, gradually increasing your skills!

In the presented video in this article you will find Additional information on this topic.

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