Building the Airship Noir Ship

For Maker Faire KC 2018, I wanted to remake the ship that hangs over our table at Maker Faire

I started off with polystyrene boards -

Dow (Common: 2-in x 4-ft x 8-ft; Actual: 1.875-in x 3.937-ft x 7.785-ft) R10 Faced Polystyrene Foam Board Insulation

cut down to 4' x 2' and Gorilla Glued the layers together - keep the amount of glue to a minimum, the glue will seep out when you weight everything down to and it is helpful to clean that up when you see it.

Then I started sculpting.  I used an electric chainsaw.

To make sure every was symmetrical I made a paper pattern.  Besides the chainsaw, I also used an orbital sander  

It's messy - the Shop-Vac made many repeat appearances.

Starting the cut down 

Masking up is important - I used saran wrap to protect my eyes from all the super fine polystyrene dust

More cute down and sanding

Starting to add the planking -  I used Wood Grain Floor Mats Foam Interlocking Mats Tile 3/8-Inch Thick, cut into one piece for the bottom and top, and two inch wide for the sides 

I ended up using about 4 boxes of 1-lb-Gauge 1.25-in Bright Steel Underlayment Nails

I used a small amount of Gorilla Glue for each plank, and nailed the planking in.  The planking conforms to the shape of the ship that way and the nails won't pop later on.

I decided to "tar" the ship to fill in any gaps, to give it a proper blacked and weathered appearance.

I used a small amount of black oil paint, Tile Flooring Adhesive, and then after it set, I covered it with Mod-Podge

Because I wanted the ship to hang, I added Heavy Duty Picture Hangers with D-Rings - One, Two, and Three hole ones - and used 3 inch long smooth 16-gauge sinker nails so that they would hold weight.