kees de mol

I bought myselve some new tools

Here's the propellor. It's a new one so I had to make it old. For this I used electrolyse. Take a powersource from arround 9 volts DC, salt water and a nut or somthing else wich is galvanized. Attach the + to the propellor and the - to the nut (or vice versa) and hang them separated in the salted water. (do not let them touch eachother) after a while you will see a lot of bubbles and green stuff and the propellor is being weathered. After the process I dryed the propellor and applyed en coat of clear varnish.

After the salt methode I added highlights to al the chips
 

Now the painting and weathering of the hull. I used the salt method to weather the hull. First I applied a few rust tones on the hull with a sponge and Vallejo paint and than a coat of clear paint. Then I made the hull wet and sprinkles salt on it. Then I let the salt dry a few hours and after this I painted the hull in its final colour. When this coat is dry I brushed the hull with a wet brush so the salt dissovles and the rustcolour appears. I hope the pictures will say enough.
 

And this is how it was before I started painting and weathering the hull
 

The thruster is made out of an aluminium cup I bought for 20 cents.
 

I will follow this build!

I really like this build. Good to see that you dicided to make as much of the parts yourself. In a month or 3 I will start the build of a classic sidetrawler. It will look like your ship.
 
Regards, Kees

thank you Carl......I'm getting close to the end of my progress....I really need to get back to this one soon.
 
6 - 5 - 2012
 
with quite a bit of the structual work done,  I was dying to get some paint on her.  after prepping the hull up,  I did just that.
 


I didn't end up using those window frames....but I still might

5 _ 18 - 2012
 
the hull and deck work is progressing.
 



 
added in the fore deck beams and where I am on the stern.
 
5 - 22 - 2012
 
now that the anchor boxes are in place,  the hull is shaped to show the recessed cavities for the anchors
 


the deck platform is cemented in place



the aft section of the upperdeck is cemented in at this point as well.  I will do the rest of it when the lower deck structure is in place.




I plan to do windows along the walls at the stern.   they are cut out at this point.





the shape of the stern cabin  came out really well.  it wraps around without any lumpy imperfections.


to make the walls a bit stronger,  an upper framework was added.


I'm embarrased now.......can't think what I was trying to do here.....Hee...Hee




 
 

Welcome.
 
Spent several hours on the computer redrawing the sails based on my card stock templates made to verify size and curvature then detailing the drawings with seam edges, stitching, patches, reef bands and brass colored grommets. I then mirrored those sails and detailed the opposite sides to match.
 

Sail printing computer master. I used four shades of light grey and two shades of light tan to simulate
differing ages, thicknesses and production lots of the canvas. This image was printed on both sides of
a sheet of paper to print two sets of sails. The red crosses and the blue centerline and border served
as register marks to check that the images on both sides align to each other. I stopped counting at
about twenty tries and estimate that it was at least thirty print-outs before I got one sheet with two sets
of sails where the variables in paper feed starts, slight angular shifts of the paper during printing, etc.
resulted in one "perfect" set of sails. I used the best grade of 20 lb. printer paper with the smoothest
surface finish I could find.
 
After cutting out the sails I drilled the holes at attachment points rather than poking holes with a needle point which promotes tears in the paper near edges. I also drilled the holes for the reef point ties.
 

Fore topsail bent to the yard with the reef point ties in place and the buntlines finally rigged.
Notice the stitch line below the reef band across three clothes for the wear patch on the other side.
The sail is 2.015 in X 1.140 in (51 mm X 29 mm) since I forgot a size reference again.
 

Aft side of the topsail. Here you can see the wear patch in a slightly darker shade of gray,
a buntline and a clew line with an appropriate caternary to the corner of the sail.
 
I made up some blocks at .032 in (0.8 mm) diameter for some of the sail control lines on the staysail and jib and bent the sails to the stays.
 

Jib with a block and rope for the downhaul. I still need to rig the sheets at the corner. The block
and rope for the uphaul is visible just below the stay in the first photo of the topsail.
 
 

 
Dave

Welcome back.
 
Worked mostly on foremast rigging. Since most of this work is repetitious of the mainmast rigging I won't go into the details of how it was done.
 

Foremast with most of the rigging - and looking like a birds nest. It's
easier - and safer - to rig as much as possible of the mast off the model.
I took this photo right after stropping all the blocks while waiting for the
glue to cure so I can trim all the loose ends.
 

Foremast in place with the standing rigging and ratlines rigged. Also in place
are the gaff with throat and bridle halliards and vangs. The bird's nest is slowly
being un-tangled with lines going down to the deck and tied off to the pinrails.
 

Close-up of fore topmast, gaff, crossjack and topsail yard. You might notice that the
topsail yard and crossjack halliards pass through the tips of the yards to become
the respective braces. The lines are not glued at the tips, only at the mast. This
arrangement allows the yards to rotate to a position more parallel to the mast
after the mast is hinged down to the deck for fitting through the bottle's neck.
 

Another view of the crossjack and top. Note that the running rigging is in four shades
of tan to simulate varying states of wear and weathering. I still have the topsail yard
halliards and the topsail clew and buntlines to route to the deck and tie off. That will
leave the other ends of the clew and buntlines left hanging until I bend the topsail.
 

Overall view of the progress so far. I didn't forget the ratlines on the main topmast shrouds, I left them off
because they were frequently omitted on schooners like this. I also have the fore braces and vangs to rig.
 
 

 
Dave

I've been building ships in bottles for more than 35 years and every one of them has been a waterline model, most under full sail, with the wind direction and strength appropriate for the sails and correctly depicted (more or less, as my experience and knowledge grew) in the sea state and swell direction. However, there was always something that bothered me about my models, increasing as time went by, because I had no confidence that I could succeed in modeling something that everyone is extremely familiar with. I have finally gotten to the point where I can no longer leave out these details. In case you haven't guessed, I'm talking about putting people on my models. There's nothing like human figures to give a strong sense of the scale of a model and bring it to life - or ruin the project if they are poorly done.
 
I'm no artist, just a modeler, and I was always lousy at drawing people. Just the thought of sculpting human figures had me extremely intimidated so a couple months ago I started research and study of the human body from an artist's point of view and on ways to make very small figures. Ogallala seemed to me a perfect project to introduce people into my work since it is a rather large scale and has become an experimental test bed. It's basically a 2X scale Conestaga wagon mated to a 1/2 scale topsail schooner rig, then reduced to a scale appropriate to the bottle I initially selected. The result is roughly 1/96 scale, about 10% smaller than HO. I rejected using HO figures (which would be large anyway) because I couldn't learn anything by buying figures and adapting them.
 
Most methods I researched begin with wire armatures, so that's were I started.
 

My first armature with the arms not yet bent at the shoulder joint and arms and legs not trimmed to length.
 
I dropped - and thought had lost - that first armature, made a couple more, threw them away and finally got one that might work as a first try. I rejected using any kind of clay and settled on building up the armature with an acrylic gesso, mostly because Lloyd McCaffery uses gesso. [bTW, I found that first armature today while doing a bit of work area clean-up and photographed it. I'm convinced that a smooth, bare concrete floor is the best thing under a modeler's work bench/table, I hardly ever lose dropped objects on that floor except for the semi-microscopic bits I don't even bother to look for.]
 
So, here's my first try after three coats, applied at about 30-45 minute intervals, between drilling holes in groups of dead-eyes.
 

Front view. He's posed for steering, weight on left foot, left hip against the wheel stanchion, both hands on the wheel.
 

Left quarter view. I think I have the head and shoulders pretty close but he's still a bit thin elsewhere. The long left leg will be cut below the foot to glue into a hole in the deck.
 

Right quarter view. He's 5'-9"/1.75m tall to scale - 11/16 in./17.5mm. One or two more coats of gesso should have him ready for detailing.
 
I'm very surprised at how easy this method is, at least this far into it. If I was doing a larger crew, say 20 figures, at this scale (I'm only going to do three or four for Ogallala), I would be able to apply a coat of gesso to all, go back through them with successive coats and have them all ready for final detailing in one day, perhaps four hours or much less with practice or for a smaller scale. Making the 20 armatures and posing them in a wide variety of activities would take longer. The gesso, being a little thicker than Model Expo paint, builds up easily with a paint brush and sets quickly. Used as a base for painting, it's a brilliant white, so it's a bit difficult to see the shape of the growing figure - and very hard to photograph; my first photos were just white silhouettes with no shadows to give a discernible 3rd dimension. I'll add a bit of black paint to the gesso for the final coat to make it easier to see as I finalize the fleshing out and the drape of the clothing. I'll continue working on this figure to learn about the rest of the process before starting the two or three more needed. Don't be surprised if he winds up being a less cartoonish version of Windwagon Smith.
 
Looking back on my agonizing over doing people, I feel really stupid (a frequent feeling) and timid (very rare) for not trying this 20 years ago - it's not at all like drawing, it's really just modeling after all. I guess it took Lloyd McCaffery's work to make me see that I might be able to do it combined with the realization that I had no choice but to at least attempt it. As you can probably tell, I'm very pleased with what I have so far. He's off to a much better beginning than I expected and my confidence now is high, which is probably the most important result of this experiment.
 
I will greatly appreciate any comments, positive and negative. I need to learn quickly how to do these figures, and other eyes - and the intellects that go with them - may notice what I have missed.
 

Dave
 
 

Thank you all for your comments and likes. 
 
The wheels were outside my experience in ship modelling but easier than expected and fun to make.  I'm glad I reduced the number and increased the size of the spokes from my initial drawing (24 spoke rear and 18 spoke front).
 
I almost forgot to verify that the rear wheel and axle assembly will pass through the bottle neck. I measured and calculated and measured again but hadn't physically tried it -- until now.
 

 
 

 

Thank you, Bob and Michael (and the lurkers who don't comment or even hit "like" from time to time  ), for your continued interest and support.
 
 

 
Where I am; moving ahead with spars, hull, carriage and wheels.
 
 

 
Photo montage of assembling an eighteen spoke wheel. Clockwise from upper left:  fixture and pattern, and the spoke cut-off station; calculating, cutting and fitting the first three spokes to the same length is important as it makes fitting the rest much easier; fitting some of the intermediate spokes allows the builder to visually check spoke spacing and make adjustments as work progresses; fitting more spokes in the spaces - half way done with this wheel; hurrah, one spoke left; two eighteen spoke rear wheels (1.060 in. / 27mm dia.) and two fourteen spoke front wheels (.860  in. / 22mm dia.) fabricated and ready for a little paint touch-up, further detailing and mounting on the axles.
 
 

 
Close-up of the two piece hull posed for a photo with axles and other carriage components. Strips of black construction paper were glued around the rims to replicate the shrink-fit iron tires. Carbon fiber pins (.020 in. / 0.5mm dia.) were glued into holes drilled through each wheel hub into the ends of the axle to reinforce the glued connection. The black strakes at the sheer line are glued in place; three more (on each side) to go. They seem to take more time to prepare than the wheels did.
 
 

 
Macro of Fore (to right) and Main masts, tops and topmasts. The tops were fabricated from .015 in. x .030 in. (0.4mm x 0.8mm) plywood strips.
 
 

Dave
 

The thruster is made out of an aluminium cup I bought for 20 cents.
 

After a lot of sanding and measuring