Rudolf

Small update.
 
Decks are glued, bulwarks are faired (is that the expression?), area at the stern has been prepared to avoid becoming too thick as compared to the rudder ...
 
Right, let's start planking ;o)
 
I just saw that 6 people are following this log, thank you for your interest!
 
Cheers
 
Pieter

Rudder, Channels, etc...
 
Hi everyone!
 
Thanks @ Steven and Patrick! It is nice to hear when a card model does not look like card at all. That is, I believe, the goal of any card modeller, regardless of the model, whether it depicts a metal or a wooden one. Thank you for the compliments. I wish I could make better pictures.
 
The rudder was copied from the plans onto 2mm thick card board using either a sharp needle or my compass. I simply put the card underneath the plan and copy the part by piercing the outlines onto the underlying card.

After shaping it, white glue was applied to harden and smoothen the card.

Then I attached the self adhesive foil with wood pattern, which was later altered with black oil paint.

The pintle and gudgeon were made from ~0.3mm wire and 0.3mm paper respectively, painted with a black marker and the rivets imitated with a needle that has no sharp end (was a defect production in the box, turning out useful).


Attached to the ship it looks like this:

The visible part of the tiller was painted with oil paints burned umber and burned sienna.
 
The channels have been made from 2mm card and pierced with the circle.

Then...
a) self adhesive foil attached,
b) marked from the other side, where the holes are,
c) and d) holes pierced from the right side INTO the piece where the marks are to avoid a crater-like appearance on the surface.

So that the final result looks like this prior to altering with black paint:

 
Support beams were made from 1mm card with ready attached and altered foil on both sides.

Attached to the ship it looks like this:

 
The catheads were made from several pieces of 0.3mm card/paper and the pulley sheave was imitated with a 0.4mm wire painted black with a marker.

The self adhesive foil was used all around the cathead.

Later I decided to try out modelling a real cat head, but they look more like some dirty little 2-3mm sized bear heads...


 
The chains underneath the chain plates were made from a tiny chain and paper, painted black.


 
Right now I've finished the rigging on the stem, but had some problems with the top sail halliard. More on it in the next post as well as how I made the deadeyes...






 
Kind regards,
Radek
 
 
 

Deck Fittings and Details
 
Hi @ all!
 
For quite a time I was thinking about the gratings. Wooden ship modellers have a nice way to cut stripes and glue them perpendicularly together. However, this did not work for me with card although I have seen others doing it. Another way is to just paint the gratings on a sheet of paper. I came up with the 'hard way' to just take the scalpel and cut out the holes individually. It worked more or less... The self adhesive foil has been used for the frames and all was painted with oil paints.




 
The bell has been made from paper. The bell shoulder has been simulated with CA glue and the tongue with a piece of card. All painted gold with a marker and hanged with a thread that has been hardened with CA glue. I removed the cord from the bell's tongue later on as it was too long. The rails have been made from balsa wood painted white. The bell's roof was made from 1mm card and self adhesive foil with wood pattern.



 
Belaying pins have been made from card, a wire and a drop of glue on top. This is a typical way in card modelling to do them.

 
Cleats and knight heads were made from 1mm pizza card and painted with oil paints. I do not have pictures of the process, but later on I used the same method to do the blocks for the halliards. More on that in a later post.
 
Ladders were made from a 0.3mm thin card and the self adhesive foil taped on both sides then altered with black oil paint. The edges were painted with brown oil paints (burnt sienna and burned umber).



 
All black hinges were made from thin card painted black with a marker, bend over a carpet knife to simulate the hinge and using a compass to simulate the nails.


 
And this is the model in it's current state. Rigging is progressing slowly but steady. Since the rudder can be moved, I removed it for the rigging process because of moving the model back and forth all the time and the risk of damaging the fragile paper hinges.

 
More on the rudder, channels, etc. soon....
 
Rgds,
Radek

Frames and Underwater Hull
 
 
Hi everyone!
 
Here's a small description of how I started the build back in 2010, some insight into my way of hull shaping.
I start with a 1mm cardboard test-frame (from frozen pizza boxes) to see where the gun ports, decks and masts will be.

 
Then I cut the middle frame from balsa wood (two 1.5mm plates glued together) to give the model stability, because card tends to deform and bend the whole structure.

 
The other frame parts (bulkheads) were cut from a 2mm cardboard (old puzzle box) and painted black using a marker where the openings from the gun ports or the gratings will allow to see the frames. The lower tiny edges of the bulkheads were hardened and strengthened with CA glue. The main gun deck was done from a 1mm card.



 
Next were the gun ports. For that I used 1mm card stripes that were glued to the frames with the gun ports in between. The ports itself were taped with the self adhesive foil with wooden patterns and 'altered' with black oil paint.

 
Then followed the 'planking' of the hull. For that I use a different approach than most modellers:
 
Instead of using several layers of horizontal and vertical card stripes or fillers with lots of sanding I use a bit less messy approach due to the fact that I do not have a hobby room and have to keep my work space in the apartment clean.
 
The next pictures show how I do the individual stripes, or rather panels, for the space between each frame, or bulkhead.






 
A scratch build like this involves a lot of 'trial and error' where I need to adjust few parts when the result is not as good as hoped for or mistakes are made.



 
Once all the 'rounded' card panels are glued onto the frame, I did not entirely get around sanding and had to sand a few places around the bulkheads to make the card smooth. Of course, the 1mm card cannot get fully rounded and shows small folds or 'wrinkles' around the edges. 


 
This made the card feel 'furry' so I used a water based white glue to smoothen the surface. In addition to the smoothening, the glue also hardens the card, giving it more integrity.





No other hull planking is added to the model at this stage. The following step for the hull is applying the foil with wooden pattern. But first the upper side of the ship including upper hull and decks had to be done. 
 
So much for now. More will follow soon.
 
Right now I am making the sails and running rigging.
 
Rgds,
Radek
 
PS: Thanks Steven and Patrick for the encouragement!
PPS: I've corrected the year of the beginning in my first post. It was 2010 and not 2011.

Decks Planking and Capstan
 
Hi @ all!
 
The planking of deck and hull is made with the self adhesive foil with wood pattern (color: 'Pear Medium' and 'Medium Nut Tree').
 
For the decks I use the foil 'Pear Medium'. First the deck is transformed to a 1mm card by using a needle to outline the dimensions and the plank distances. Also, the plank pattern is drawn on the deck. I cut tiny stripes of 1.5mm, attach them on the card and alter with brown oil paint 'burnt sienna'. 




 
Today I would maybe use black paint for altering as it gives the deck a more greyish 'worn out' appearance. But at that time of the build I liked the more brownish color of the decks.


 
The darker wood parts such as the walls, doors, and the outer planking have been done with the 'Medium Nut Tree' foil and black oil paint for altering. Here are some pictures of some of the deck elements:










 
The irregularities in the process - which of course are the fault of the novice carpenter ;) - add a bit to the style of the early 17th century shipbuilding, which was not as precise and accurate as the later magnificent builds of the 18th century ships of the line. Gun carriages have been placed and a small box to imitate depth underneath the gratings.



 
The capstan has been made from balsa wood and card and painted with brown oil paints 'burned sienna' and 'burned umber'.





 
Next post about finishing the hull...
-Radek

Hull Planking and The Mayflower
 
Hi everybody!
 
The upper hull was made out of one single piece of 1mm card. It was first planked and prepared on the inside, then attached to the model.




 
The half deck was prepared and glued in place above the capstan. Also at this point I had to make sure the running rigging is attached to the cleat because later there will be no space to fiddle around the capstan.



I could have made more hanging knees underneath the half deck, but no one can look inside there anyway and I learn for the next time to do it better.
 
To imitate the stern windows I used the inner plastic part of a wound plaster painted slightly brownish.

 
While researching how to plank the ship I found this forum and some useful information regarding 'planking rules'. I also used stealer and drop planks. Now I am not sure if that was common in the early 17th century but it appeared to me as the best way to make the card model look more like a wooden one.







The plank butts are way out of proportion for this scale, but that way you can see them also from a distance when looking at the model and that is what I wanted to achieve. The hull was then altered/painted with black oil paint.


 
The wales have been made from 1mm thin card stripes and painted with Humbrol enamel paint for plastic models. The thicker wales were colored with the black waterproof marker.



 
At that point I considered a white underwater hull, but my wife convinced me that the wooden appearance of the model looks better, so I left it like it is.


 
The Mayflower has been done from a 2mm thick card by hardening it a bit with CA glue, then using an engraver tool, a pen, and a not so sharp knife I got once from a wooden sail ship modeler back when I was a kid. Once the flower was shaped, I hardened it again with CA glue and painted with white Humbrol enamel and oil paints (viridian, sap green, yellow ochre).






 
So much for now.
 
...to be continued...
 
Rgds,
Radek
 
 

Hello 
Just started building the Brigantine Schooner "Gigino", an Italian sailing Vessel from the Early 20th century. Actually I'm very fond of Schooners and Ocean Paddle Steamers as well, and I plan to  work on "Barquentine cote d'émeraude" in the near future, ((supposing that I find the Plan (I hope so)).
 
I'll follow the same technique, which is Double planking on Bulkheads. The first layer of planks will be 3 mm Balsa wood to get a tough body, while the second is 1.5 mm is to get a natural wood finish look. I guess it won't be easy to find a 1.5 mm Balsa wood with clear wood grain appearance and it would need some research to use coloring to get that look.
 
Thank you 
 
Models in Progress
L'Etoile
Vapor Rimac 1848 -  a side Wheel Paddle Steamer
 
Previous Models
Bluenose II
 
 

I agree they are so elegant - I'm looking forward to see how your build develops.

Well, the move to Brooklyn has kept me busy - consolidating and replacing old furniture that doesn’t work in the new (smaller) space.  Lately, though, I’ve been able to make some progress on the model.
 
The first order of business was to create a protective build-box for the model, for the next how-ever-many-years it takes to build her.  The model, itself, will be temporarily mounted to a removable platten (the unpainted plywood).  I was able to make pretty good use of an Albert Brenet print of Soleil Royal (Thank you, Neko 😀) in action at the Battle de Beveziers, in order to dress the box up a bit:




Here are a few shots of the lower hull with the distress washing complete on the port side, and base-coating underway on the starboard side:





I am also completing the modification/detailing of the gunport lids.  While I won’t paint them, install the lanyard rings or place them on the ship until much later, this is one of those good, small-work projects that I can carry around and work on in my downtime:






While I continue with the painting, at home, I will soon begin my next small-work project, which will be an attempt to scale-up the kit gun barrels, a bit, for the lower and middle batteries.

It has been my style to document every little step forward, and I will not change course now.
 
I primed the shells tonight, and it is quite gratifying to see all the detail and different color plastics coalesce into one thing.
 
The bow and stern extensions have blended-in smoothly.  The iron work is prominent enough to notice, but not so much that it’s distracting.  Painting is going to be FUN!
 

Test assembling.

Before starting to work on the rigging, I had to make some preparatives, for example temporary dust prtoction.

In the period of going from carpentry to rigging work  - I built  a stand, while it's still easy to manipulate the hull. 

I have installed the detent pins on the deck.

Covering the deck.
 

Finished nailing.
I haven’t finished refining them yet, because no matter how hard you try  - there would be left marks on them, so I will finish all the refiniments before coating them with oil.

Preparing for the nailing.
 

Rubbing strips.
They were bent using the black hornbeam. I had to work on refining them afterwards.

Hi,
she is built.










Best
Tomek

Thank you John - I appreciate it.  And thanks to those looking in and hitting the like button. 
 
Fish and Ice Hold Hatches
I intended to include the equipment storage and checkers in this post, but that will be the next one.
 

The fish hold hatch sits slightly forward of center on the aft deck. It measures 8 feet long by 4 feet wide and has three covers.  The hatch coamings are 11” high, but I’m building the box out of slightly wider material.  This will allow me to profile the bottom edges to conform to the crown and sheer of the deck without loosing the 11 inches in height.  The ice hold sits aft of the fish hatch and is 4.5 feet x 2.5 and stands 8” high.
 
I begin by drawing up the hatch coamings and covers for both fish and ice holds.
 


From 1/16” thick stock, I cut the coamings needed for both hatches.
 


 

I use a 1-2-3 block as an aid in producing a square corner.  CA is being used because I’ll be using alcohol to color them.  And as you know, PVA and alcohol don’t play well together.
 


 

I use a flat sanding surface to maintain flat square surfaces all around.  I find it easier to push pieces around on a stationary flat surface than to sand a stationary piece with a moving sanding surface.  I’ve made several of these surfaces - different grits of paper and emery that are glued down to both sides of a 4” x 7” piece of craft plywood.  Having grit on both sides keeps them from sliding around.
 


 

Before I begin the hatch covers, I confirm the frame size.
 


 

To make the covers, appropriate sized strips of wood are glued directly to the drawing extending across all three covers.
 


 

I then cut along the dashed location lines with a straight edge and blade.  They are left wide and will be adjusted later.
 


 

Coloring the frames starts with applying a mixture of India ink and 70% ethyl alcohol.  (Any alcohol works.)
 


 

Then the frames are painted with an off-white acrylic and allowed to dry for about ten minutes.  Applying regular cellophane tape to selected areas of the paint and then tearing it off like an old bandage leaves a peeled paint appearance.  More paint can be pulled off in areas where you burnish through the tape surface.  There is a window of time when this technique works most effectively – letting the paint dry too long or too little produces disappointing results.  Experimentation on scrap is essential.  Different species of wood and stain/paint combinations work with varying degrees of success.  But it always works.  (Batteries not included and your mileage may vary.)
 


 

The hatch covers are stained next.  They are placed on a sheet of paper with double-sided tape.  Chalk is scrapped off the side of soft pastel sticks (dry, not oil based) into three small piles – black, brown and white.  After applying a wash of ink/alcohol, I highlight areas with the chalk.  Black and brown for general coloration, and white to simulate sun and water bleaching.  The chalk is applied with a brush wet with straight alcohol.  Touching the chalk dust with the brush produces a puddle of wash as subtle or bold as you wish depending on the amount of alcohol applied.  It penetrates the wood and can be blended and re-worked with straight clean alcohol.  White is the most difficult to work because you can’t see it while wet.  You have to wait for the alcohol to evaporate off to see the results.
 

Where too much chalk was applied, I remove and/or blend it back with clean alcohol.
 

This photo shows the three-stage progression.
 


 

For lifting rings I found some guy wire eyes in my styrene junk yard that scale to 3” in diameter.  They were painted flat black enamel and glued into indents in the hatch covers.  Brown chalk was used to simulate traces of rust on and around the pulls.  This helped in visually setting the pulls into place.
 


 

Finally an insert is placed into the frame to hold the covers. 
 

The ice hatch was built in the same way.
 


 

I’m going to hold off placing these hatches on the deck for now, as they would interfere with upcoming work.
 

Next - equipment storage and checkers.
 

Thanks for taking a look.
 

Gary

Keith and John - Thank you for your comments and interest in my build.  And thanks to all who have stopped by and for hitting the like button.
 
Railcaps
Here is a short update showing the rail cap and stern area bitts installed.
 

To begin I needed a pattern for the rails.
 

I took a sheet of letter-sized paper and placed it on the deck/bulwarks of the model.  Running my finger over the paper and along the edge of the boat left a nice clearly defined crease in the paper.  I did this for both P/S rails.  Care was needed to keep from shifting the paper while tracing the edges.  I found this much easier than tracing with a pencil.
 

Using a French curve, I refined both creases into smooth arcs.  I then cut along these lines and held them to the model to check for accuracy.  Satisfied, I then transfer the arcs to cardboard and cut them out.  These were then glued to a cardboard base.  This would serve as my forms for the railcaps.
 

To make up the caps, I laminated two strips of basswood with PVA and pinned them to forms to dry.  Waxed paper was put down to keep them from sticking to the cardboard.
 

Once dry, they were sanded flat and smooth then trimmed and fitted.  They were attached to the model using CA.
 

 Extra material was added for a wider rail at the aft deck.  Inwales were installed and rail cap was added across the top of the transom.  All were base painted white.
 
Bitts were made up and installed through the railcap in each corner of the stern.  This turned out to be one of those tasks that you think will be simple and fast, but ends up taking a lot longer.  The bitts took no time to make – a square piece of wood cut to length with a piece of blackened brass stuck through it.  But cutting the square holes through the railcap took much longer.  They have to be positioned the same on each side. They have to stand parallel with the deck boards rather than the railcap.  And one errant stroke of the file and the hole would be out of square, crooked or worst of all - too big. 


 


 Some other views. 


 


 


 Next, I begin on the equipment storage area, ice and fish hold hatches and the checkers.
 

Thanks for taking a look.
 

Gary

Thank you Druxey and Keith for your words of encouragement.  And thanks to everyone for looking in and hitting the like button.
 
Decking
 
To begin, I make up the deck beams by cutting 1/8” square basswood stock into approximately 4” lengths.  Each beam is allowed to soak in ethyl alcohol for about 15 minutes before bending them to match the arc of the CAD printout.  For gentle sweeping bends like this, I prefer alcohol simply because it dries so quickly.
 


 

Only 9 beams total are needed.  As soon as the beams are dry, they are cut and sanded to fit, then glued into place.  The beams are installed beginning at the point where the hull is the widest and then installed toward the bow and stern.  If a beam is inadvertently cut too short, it could still used at the adjacent narrower hull position.
 

Additional stanchions are needed beyond those that are provided by the hull bulkheads; so intermediate stanchions are placed at the aft deck.  Acrylic gray is applied to the stanchions and bulwark as a base color.  Next, the covering boards are notched around the stanchions and checked for fit – then adjusted and re-checked over and over and …    Finally, they are painted off-white acrylic as a base and glued into place.
 


 

Before the decking can begin, a socket for the mast is made up and installed.  A short mast placeholder is inserted.
 


 

The deck planking used on this model scales to about 3.5” wide by 2” thick, which is in line with what I found to be typical for this boat. 
 

The deck boards are placed on a piece of waxed paper and pre-stained with a mixture of India ink and alcohol.  They are stained unevenly so the decking has a wide range of light to dark coloration.  This is a base only and is applied to accentuate the wood grain and provide depth and visual separation between individual planks.  When the decking is complete, it will be sanded and color washed.
 

At the beginning of every modeling project a decision about level of detail must be made.  This is often driven by scale.  The deck planks are .072” wide and a total of 62 planks make contact with the covering boards, so I decided not to nib them in.  This model is not being built to celebrate its beauty - it is a working boat built to depict gritty reality.  Or at least that is the goal.  If this sounds suspiciously like a justification of laziness posing as a reasonable explanation – you might be right.
 

The king plank is the first to go on and then the planking proceeds to the covering boards.
 


 

With the aft deck completely planked, it looks like this.
 


 

After the deck is sanded, a wash of gray gouache is applied.  It is thinned down considerably with water.  Unlike watercolor, gouache is opaque but can be made translucent.  It is also very flat, even dusty looking when applied in this way.  And it is very forgiving and can be re-worked. 
 

Here is a before and after of the same section of deck.
 


 


 

There will be more work done to the deck surface once equipment and hatches are installed and wear patterns established.
 


 

It’s hard not to look at the top of the stanchions and bulwark, but the weathering and wear to the covering board is the purpose of this photo.  The acrylic paint was picked at with a dental tool and ink/alcohol applied.  The alcohol bubbled up the paint and the ink stained the wood beneath.  Loose paint is then scraped off.  
 


 

Next, an area for the pilothouse is framed in the forward deck.
 


 

The planking and coloring is applied same as the aft deck.
 


 


Thanks for taking a look.
 
Gary

Thanks to all for the hitting the like button - I appreciate it.
 
Keel Correction
Whether it’s a scale model or a bathroom re-model, I expect to encounter problems in just about everything I do.  For me, finding solutions to the unexpected is part of the fun of model building.  But it’s not fun when I cause the problem.  
 

There should be a minimum of 6 inches of keel showing below the hull planking – there is only 2.  So I added on 5 scale inches to the keel.  I also added one scale inch to the stem.  This brought the keel back to the proper exposure.
 

Some sanding and some paint will cover the patched-on wood.
 

Here is a before and after: 



In the next photo, notice how the lowest hull plank swings upward away from the keel as it approaches the sternpost.  It should remain parallel with the keel.  Sometimes my desire to push ahead causes me to lose focus on the task at hand.  I should have either tapered those lowest planks wider as they ran toward the stern or added steelers. 

Rather than pull the lower 5 planks off each side for a re-do, I opted instead to mitigate the error with a cosmetic alteration.  Also, I sanded down the planks that are lying flat against the sternpost to a thinner profile so that they appear rabbeted in with a slight reveal.

 



Thanks,  Gary 

Transom
Here are a couple of photos of the transom backing taken after the hull was cut away from the base and before the top three courses of hull planking were put on.  The tab that secured it to the building base hasn’t been removed yet.  You can see the temporary jig holding the transom backing to the required curvature.  Now with the hull planking on but still running past the transom, I am able to remove the temporary jig and apply the three transom boards that will make up the outer surface of the transom.
 
 

First I cut the boards from the basswood sheet leaving extra material to sand and fit each board.  Unlike the transom backing where the wood grain is vertical, these boards are cut so the grain is horizontal.
 
 Test fitting these outer boards was rather tedious and fiddly because I couldn’t cut the hull planking flush until the outer transom boards were on.  They also had to be pre-bent against the grain to fit the curvature of the transom backing.  One at a time they were fitted, held in position with clamps and glued with very thin CA.  A few drops of the CA applied to the upper edge of each board were all that was needed to secure them.  The watery CA raced down between the two wood surfaces, effectively creating a two-layer plywood.
 

At this point the base tab was removed and the hull planking trimmed and sanded flush.
 
 

Marking the water line was simple by placing the model back onto the base.  The irregularity of the cuts when the boat was separated from the base allowed it to key back into place exactly and perfectly level.
 


  

 

There are several problems with the keel, stem and area around the sternpost that need to be corrected.  They will be addressed on the next post.
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Gary

Thanks Keith
 
Lining OFF
Beginning the sawdust phase, I cut the bulkheads out with my scroll saw leaving the piece large (cutting to the outside of the template line.)  I do this because I have no skill with the saw and cannot keep to a line.  I then use a bench top disc sander and work back to the template outline.  This works great with the convex edge and I use a Dremel sanding drum for the inside curves.
 
I glue these forms to the platform base and attach the keel/stem.  Before the keel went on, I cut a rabbet on the stem.
 

 
Using a batten to see how the bulkheads faired, I found a problem.  Station #8 was too small and #7 was ridiculously too large.  Looking back at the body plan it’s hard to see how I missed it.  But, that’s the point of going through the fairing up process.  So, I built up #8 and went after #7 with a file.
 

 
Based on photos and drawings, the planking widths for this vessel seem to vary in the 5” to 7” range.  I have a stash of stripwood that scales to approximately 6.5” wide x 1.75” thick so decided to use those.  Because station #7 has the longest edge length of any bulkhead, it will be the location where the planks are at there full width.  From here they taper to the stem and taper back to the stern.  It will require 23 courses of planks per side.
 
There will be 4 belts per side of 6 planks each.  Belt #1 beginning at the keel will have only 5.  From station #7 back to the stern, 4 planks are lost in belt #1.
 
I measure the length of each station edge and check it against what my CAD drawing says it should be.  Knowing how many planks will be required, I generate the following plank width tick mark strips for each bulkhead edge.
 
  
 
The width of the planks at the bow is just under 5.25” which satisfies the “not less than half” plank width guideline.  No steelers or drops are needed.
 
The strip marks are temporarily taped on the bulkheads and a batten strip is used to get a general sense of the curve following the tick marks.
 

 
Happy with the way it looked, I transferred the tick marks to the stations with pencil and temporarily attached thread at each belt as a final check to see how the plank courses run.  After a few minor modifications, I was ready to start planking. 
 

 
Planking
The coloring and weathering the model will receive will not only reveal but also accentuate the planking on the hull, so I won’t be using any filler or putty.  On a previous model, I planked the hull somewhat haphazardly, knowing that I was going to slather Bondo on it and sand it smooth.  I’m happy with the way the model came out, but it would have been more realistic with the planks showing through the paint.
 

 
I set up a little jig to hold the stripwood firmly in place as I slice the taper into it - then sand to fit

I begin planking at the keel with the garboard and lay on two belts of planks on one side.  Each course is tapered on the upper edge of the planks so that each successive course starts with a straight edge.
 
Each course of planks is made from a single strip of wood.  After it is tapered and test fit, it is then cut to simulate the butt ends of two individual boards.  The joints are reinforced on the reverse side. 
 
Two more belts are added to the other side.

 

 
Then the last 4 belts are added minus the top three courses.
 


 
At this point, I cut the hull from the platform.
 

 

 
The next course of planking requires the scuppers.
 

 
Finally, I sand the hull and finish it off with a soft brass wire brush.  The wire brush removes the sanding shine and any cross grain scratches and in general sort of unifies the look.  It will also help with the weathering later on.
 
These final photos were taken in full direct sunlight in hopes that the effect of the wire brush can be seen.  A few final licks with 800 grit paper will take the remaining wood fuzz off. 
 

 

 
This post brings me up to date in real time on this model.  
 
Thanks for taking a look.
 
Gary