$30 Burlap bags
             $30 Fabric for Viking uniforms
             $60 Pro-880 & 550 paste
________________________________
Total as of 9/11/23     $870

If you are interested, Billing Boats makes a small Viking trading ship model.  Not a cool long ship or warship or anything, but still a really nice model.  

https://www.billingboats.com/index.php/modelboats-footer/56/120/boats/advanced-beginner/P-bb703-roar-ege

It is a model of one of the ships from the Viking ship museum (that I think I linked to earlier in the thread):
https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/visit-the-museum/exhibitions/the-five-reconstructions/roar-ege-skuldelev-3





When I retire, I am tempted to buy the Danish warship from 1765 and try to build it - but I KNOW I would completely fuck it up.  

https://www.billingboats.com/index.php/modelboats-footer/2/120/boats/the-expert/P-bb437-norske-love

When you know you'll screw it up.. Get 2 kits.   The first one to learn how the heck all that stuff goes together and then the second one to do it Right with all the lessons learned by breaking the first one.  If you aren't making errors, you're not pushing yourself.  Nobody learns anything by always doing something  perfectly the first time.  Being able to find/fix mistakes is what they call "Experience".

This art class is a good example, look at how much neater the displays are going to be by doing them over!  Never give u because you can't do it, not many are master model builders on the firs try, so just account for that when doing something new and different and you'll be fine.    Biggest thing is having the right tools/clamps/jigs for holding stuff in place until it is fully fastened/glued and that amount to some forceps and some carved/cut/band-sawed pieces so basswood or even balsa to help things remain consistent by putting pins in different spots to keep equidistant parts the same length and stuff like that.

The photographic dioramas and image perfect  models of battle tanks weren't their first go at modeling when you see them on the net in photos.  But it will always have negative results if you never dare to try.

Update 9/12

Mural base coat going well.  We discussed moving to more gray on the right and left.   We will work on that later this week.


Tower windows and arrow slits being cut out.  We had to move a few blocks that were used to secure the panels, so they don't show in the arrow slits.




The dragon carving is going well.  I think we are getting close to the next phase; more refined details.


More hull ribs going on, forming the contour of our ship.


Festus_McGee sent us a fantastic photo of one of our sweatshirts from 2022, same pose as 2021's shirt.    I printed it and hung it next to the others for the kids to see.

             + $150 2x4s, screws, & FRP paste
____________________________________

Total as of 9/12/23     $1020.00

I think you guys do this on purpose.

Where were you when I posted this pic?  Little too late now.  I think we are going to have to live with them.  

We might be able to incorporate that into the project.   Thanks for posting it.

Very cool!    I'll save that link tomorrow for future reference.

Update 9/13

We are getting close to moving to the second stages on several of our projects.   Students are excited to be moving on to the next phases.   It's also brought up a few questions that we will need to solve.

The dragon's head is mostly carved to give us the base.  From here we will add more details and start figuring out what kind of skin to put on.   We haven't addressed this yet, and I'm not sure what we are going to do.   We may have to texture it by hand.   Not the end of the world, but it will be labor intensive.    Adding a "skin" from something like fake gator skin has been floated, but I think that would end up being cheesy.



The next phase for the dragon is legs.  We pulled the front legs off to begin there.










The tower.....
We now have all the windows and arrow slits cut out.   We can discuss adding more, but I'm not sure we can still get a spiral look from where we are at.  We need to add the top details and have started talking about stones.  This was discussed at length today.   To make them individually, we would need about 4,320 individual 1x2" stones.  Roughly 60 square feet.   That is a lot of work to create, dry, fire, paint, glue, and grout around.  

They are fairly expensive, but kitchen tile grids worked for our Washington Monument.   I think we will use this.   It will be much faster, give a bit more quality look, and not take too many students to create.  The ones I found on amazon are $9.99 a square foot.   I couldn't find them anywhere else..   We discussed the plastic peel and stick, but they all seem to be glossy.  That won't work.   If anyone can find something cheaper, send me the link.

This is what we are looking for.  Maybe this is too clean/even; looking back at the reference photo on post #1 of this thread?    Rough looking, flat/satin....and at least not $20 or $30 a square foot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HU426LO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3JMQJ2TZNJ5J9&psc=1






We added lights yesterday, and they look pretty cool.  


The top battlements



The land scape tiers are getting a good coat of burlap and will soon be ready for texture.




We are almost done with the hull ribs, but we are dealing with trying to attach  the ribs next to the steel brackets we created to hold the keel together.   That has been a bit of a problem, and we've struggled to get the blocks attached.  We have a plan and think we will get close today.


It's pretty cool seeing the form come together, and create a hull shape we can live with.


CAD is working to get us a 3D printable carving to put on the sides of the keel.


We got our Balloon Rally photo up with the others!

That's what I'm afraid of.

Other options for tile that might work?

Peel and stick.   Bigger individual look....much cheaper.   Pack of 10ft is $40.  Just worried it will look cheesy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VF4DC11?tag=arfcom00-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BB6B1BTP?tag=arfcom00-20

That looks good!

Or, hit me with a link to that product.    I showed it to the kids and they think that looks better than the one from Amazon.

Not surprised the least with the price.   I think we were close to $1000 for the Washington Monument sculpture when it was all said and done.

I like that this is peel and stick.   Is this what your wife has also?   Did it go on pretty easily; clean?

Update 9/14

Cutting out the 8 battlement pieces is time consuming.




The Woodshop working on our Dragon bow.


Continued burlap and glue work.


These will be stringers along the neck ribs of the dragon.  We will attach our scales and skin to this.


My dragon head sculptor putting finishing contours on the foam.   We began looking at texture today.   We think we have a plan for the head.   Not sure it will work for the rest of the dragon, but it should be a good starting point.


Running the power cord out to the castle tower.


Dragon eyes!   We started messing around with the dragon eyes.   I've got 4 young ladies who are experimenting with the techniques we watched on Youtube.   They also want to do a bit of exploring of their own, so we will make many sets and see what works.   We poured epoxy resin into the plastic globes we've used on other projects.
To get the bubbles out, we had to use a heat gun, and carbon dioxide.   They had to blow through straws.   This of course led to extreme episodes of giggling, and some weird looking pictures.  Too much heat gun, and we would start to melt the plastic globes.  

You guys don't need to do that.   We can cover it.   You can hold off till we hit the fundraiser.

Does it cut with a utility knife, or is a saw needed?

Cool.   Sounds perfect for us.    I appreciate you finding the link.

I appreciate that EBR.   You are always so generous to us.  

Update 9/15

Frantic Friday Edition:

Getting the hull ribs the same angle, length the same, and level with each other.  This took a lot of time and constant measuring.  We also had to get the keel to sit level, and in the same place.  Each time we moved the tables, we had to relevel.  





Adding the crossmembers.   This was challenging, as if too much pressure was added, it would upset the angle of the rib.  




We are working on our texture on the dragon here.  We think with a base of glue, the rock mix will be a bit easier to apply.


Working on our dragon eyes.   Students scribed in an pupil first, then applied paint.   The process seems to work, but our application needs a bit of refinement.  






We will add a layer of colored epoxy next, then do more scribing with paint to produce an iris.