Kevin Kenny

Finial piece for November.

You are going along at a rate . Well done

Hi Mark

I have been using the Foredom and the turbo carver  to clean up the carved pieces and to make them look more acceptable. However the advice i am getting is to try to do the carvings with the gouges only. Once i have mastered carving using the gouges then i have permission to use anything i want. Artistic license. 

Hi Greg

i am using coffee wood, Juniper and Mahogany experimenting to see how they react to the gouges. And you are right the mahogany which is quite soft is not a good carving wood. I have not tried the coffee wood, it is next on the agenda. The first fully carved piece was using Juniper. Photo below. The real challenge remains keeping the gouges sharp. I am also having great difficulty thinking in three dimensions. I feel that the more i carve the better i will get at understanding the different layers.  In any case i am seeing an improvement already in how to approach certain shapes and which gouges are best suited to get the desired results. The good news is that i have been in touch with a friend who carves the most incredible birds and he has agreed to let me visit his shop next week. Finally i have someone here in Trinidad that i can discus my challenges.  Its going to be a long learning curve but i am optimistic that i will eventually arrive at the summit.

My ship modeling is taking some time off as i start learning how to carve following the course in Annapolis put on by Greg Herbert and David Antscherl.

You have produced a master class for the Swan practium that will long become a key reference to those who will build a model of this wonderful class of ship. 

I just love this hobby. Keep at it Henry

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I just realized i did not post the video on painting the scrolls.

Bending the drift rail on the jig

just used the heat gun

Hi Alan

I put it the coffee pot and boiled it. It still broke, so i put the heat gun one it after the coffee pot and got it to bend with out it breaking.  hopefully ill get the  starboard side to do the same as its a very sharp bend. 

Took two tries before i got it to bend without breaking.

Coming along slow but correct.

Had some guest over so had to put on some of the cloths. 

I just finished putting on the scrolls with the acrylic ink.  Once that dries i will apply another layer this time with some of the tube acrylic to thicken up the paint. This will be followed by the addition of the burnt sienna, then the highlights,  And finally touching up with the Prussian blue and cleaning up all the lines.

Adding the pencil lines to the starboard side of the model.

Greg

at this point was planning to leave them natural