Found me a nice little toy boat hull antiquing with the Mrs. for $2USD. When I got home I grabbed my cutting block, perm marker, and hobby knife.

I first removed the upper portion and cleared off any projecting pieces of plastic that offended my plan. Then I flipped the boat upside down and spun
it around past my high tech water-line-marking-device seen at lower right. I then *carefully* cut along the line by hand - in this case the plastic was very soft and willing to cooperate. The gap seen at the stern of the boat was covered with material from the inside to make it solid.

I then took an old paper tablet card stock and placed the newly waterlined hull onto it. Enough glue to ensure a good hold along the joint but not too
high as it will pull the sides of the hull inward as the glue dries. Look Ma! No hands!

To keep my boat hull in place and to keep the card from buckling I found a new use for that history book my wife keeps trying to toss! Make sure glue
is dry all the way through (more clear than white) before proceeding (over night for me).

Once the glue is dry simply trace cut the card stock around the boat hull and then flip it right side up - so far so good.

Then taking wooden coffee stirs glue them along the surface of your new hull. Use minimal glue as it will deccrease buckling of the
boards and have a tendancy to push up between the wood.

Allow the glue to set sufficiently so as not to seep out between the boards before you flip the hull over on wax paper and allow it to dry over night
(notice the extra weight I placed to make sure boards remained flat as they dried or else they would buckle).

Then cut a wooden coffee stir to the width you want for your paddles (on ruler below). I guessed about 18 paddles would do for
our project. I then bent open 18 paper clips uniformly as seen below.

Then glue your paper clips to your paddle surfaces. I like this way because I can do them all at once.

Once dry, bend the ends and clip off your excess paper clip material. I hooked mine so they would stick into this pillar of foam. I then applied a hub
of glue to this end to dry and then the other side once I saw that the glue would not run.

Below you can see the lower hull after the boards have dried and been clipped. I then flipped the hull over again onto more card stock to trace the
upper deck, and cut some foam core blocks to assemble as part of the super structure using masking tape. I then glued to the upper hull but you
way not want to do that as it means the upper hull is now stuck to the current boat buildings eliminating flexibility of boat part combinations.

New super structure on top of the hull (you get the idea).

Everyone wants to have protection for their guys. Place a piece of paper (newspaper is best) on the lower hull and trace the outline of the boat. Make
sure the paper does not shift by placing some tape on the backside of it sticking to the hull temporarily.

As seen below take beans for meelie of flour bags, foam core or wooden blocks for boxes, and wooden stirs for boards and glue an initial line to the
surface of the newspaper and build it up sufficiently to act as a defensive wall. Below you can see the end result after it has dried over night and the
paper pulled from under the piles of stuff. Now you have defenses that perfectly fit the perimeter of your boat! Notice also the I have repeated the
planking technique for the upper deck (this card stock will really warp so it is critical to make sure you brace it to dry as before - in the end I still had to
bend it a little with my hands to make it stay flat after it had dried fully). Our paddle wheel has been glue on both ends and allowed to dry. Once that
was done the worst two paddle pieces were clipped to waterline them by stretching a piece of thread across the outer two paddles and marking the
line with a perm marker and clipping with the wire cutters.

Markers from my daughter that died become my favorite smoke stacks! Shelter for the pilot house made from cardboard held with masking
tape and a roof of wooden stirs. A simple line of glue between the marker and the shelter are allowed to dry on newspaper (which allow the glue to
run to the bottom and help form a solid bond) and peeled off after drying.

Use old split rail fences from railroad kits. Mine are trimmed down as needed and glued using a type of plastic welding adhesive. Paddle wheel is
run through with a length of coat hanger wire and some bass wood beams are stuck on each end to rest and "connect" to the boat body.

The boat is now ready for a base coat of glue on the walls and then the black spray paint priming followed by 3 shade dry brushing. The wooden
blocks below can be painted to look like crates for cargo or cover. The key to these boats is to NOT glue everything together which allows you to
create many differnt ships based on one hull. My pilot house, railings, superstructure/upper deck, hasty defense of bags/crates/boards, and the
paddle wheel are all seperate pieces. Hope you have enjoyed and let me know of other projects you'd like to see!