Landrotten Highlander

Try a rotary brush on a Dremel???  I remember (again.. senior moment) someone doing that and it cleaned things up. But you will have to have a light touch.

might work if you use a plastic brush.  The steel or copper brushes would imho be prone to create undesirable lines.

I do not know if this system would work with this kind of carving, but I would like to share my experience with carving used in Bonsai trees.

Sometimes you want to show a branch that has died back a long time ago in your design.  The Japanese name is called 'jin' (pronounce like the drink gin).  To do this you need to remove the old bark - which can be particularly troublesome if the branch is a real dead on, not a living one you kill of to make it look dead.

I use very sharp knives to remove this - similar to what Chuck has been showing with his #11 blade.  Obviously you do not wish to see the cut-marks (otherwise it looks artificial, not natural as is desired).

To remove the obvious signs, I use the same knife, hold the blade perpendicular to the surface so that only a very narrow point of the cutting edge is actually touching the branch (in this case carved piece).  Moving this sideways - under very gentle pressure - will even off the edges of the cut marks, thus giving the look of a smooth surface.

Will take some time, but I think it will give a very smooth surface - after all, is this not a technique used for scraping deck and hull?

Just my two cents, now I will have my wee dram.

Slainte

Peter

Re; the nuts.... the are very manly. 

(in French accent) ... Bighead

picking up me jaw from the floor & wiping the drool from me keyboard.

Damn that's nice.

Two photos of the Serce Limani vessel (Glass Wreck) 11th  Century Byzantine Merchant vessel.  Possible preview for future Build log.

Yes please

Slainte

p.s. really enjoying  this build - lots and varied inteesting information

Hi Rob,

I started a Billings Boats Bluenose.  Happy with this as first kit. Instructions are restricted to plans only (it is an old kit, not sure if that has changed recenty).  I have made some changes to it as I felt that I could improve the model that way - changed dack layout to something closer to the real thing, altered some parts such as wheel and blocks from plastic to wood).

I am still plodding along at a very leasurely pace.

As far as your model is concerned, I think it is best to go for something that tickles your fancy and falls within ur tastes.  That way you will stay motivated (even if the mode is meant to be a learning piece).

Also, start a building log on this site, and ask questions as they come up.  Lots of folks will give advice.

Slainte

Peter

Nice work so far, and a briliant solution to the length problem.

Re focussing the camera - I have found that if I am too close to my subject the camera struggles to focus.  Taking the picture from a bit further away, then cropping it on the computer solves this.

Slainte

Thanks for this last post, Karl, very educational

Slainte,

Peter

Hi Kuya,

judging by your post I am assuming Enlish is not your first language?

As I read it you are asking our opinion on staining wood?

If you want to have the wood resemble (= look like) the woods used in the construction at the time, you need to think about what each wood looks like when freshly cut, but also what it looks like after so many months at sea.  There will be a marked (= important) difference.  Freshly cut wood is lighter in colour, while wood that has been exposed to salty sea are will look darker and more grey in colour.

If you want to stain your wood for visual appearance, than artistic sensitivity (or feel) is more important than attempting to get the correct hue (= shade of colour).

For each option, trying different stains out on bits of spare wood will allow you to see how the stain reacts to the wood (= what is the exact colour). 

You may have to mix stains to get the exact colour you are wanting.  Leave the stain to dry for a few days - my experience is that some stains have a slightly different look after a few days (expecially if they get exposed to sunlight).

The same with using things like Miniwax.  Try it out on scrap wood. then you can make up your mind as to what you like most.

Hope this helps.

Peter

From what I understand, the better wood to use in model ship building is of the fruit-tree type (pear, cherry).  There are those that swear by expensive wood used for museum quality models, but I have worked with beech as I was able to obtain a fair amount of 6mm boards for a cheap price.

The grain is a bit coarse, but at 1/48 I feel it does not bother me as much as the grain in say pine would do.

Having said that, I am in regular contact with an experienced builder who has used pine, and now prefers to use lime wood for all his ships.  I have worked with it, feels softer than beech but works really easy and can be stained to look like any wood you choose.  As I understand it, it is also one of the cheaper options available.

Try to avoid anything too soft, cush as e.g. balsa.  It tends to splinter too much - or so I am led to believe.

Hope this helps

Peter

It has been a while since I used an airbrush.  One thing I still do - even if using burshes only - is the following:

I first paint a 'basic coat' - usually a matt gray - to highlight any imperfections.  Repair, then repaint.

Once I no longer have any imperfections I paint a 'base colour' in an easily found and not too expensive brand (can be the regular DIY paint, as long as it does not attack the model material (particularly important when dealing with plastics)).  This 'base colour' is of a shade as close as I can get to the eventually desired colour, and heavily diluted so I can apply very thin layers at the time while allowing each layer to dry completely.  I do this until I have an even coverage across the specified area.

Only then will I use the (relatively expensive) model paint it in the exact shade.

So for your red I would chose a DIY paint in a medium red shade (not too dark, but not too bright either) so you have an even coverage.  Then - usually in one or two diluted layers - I would use the model paint to obtain the exact shade.

It is a technique I picked up from figure painting (i.e. model 'tin soldiers' aka Pegaso or Andrea Models).  1st base coat, then the medium tones, then improve the 3D experience by painting shadows and highligths.

Hopes this is of use to you

Slainte

Peter

Ahoy Mates

 

To start with I am a now retired tool and diemaker who has been using mills of all types for the last 50+ years. What advice I would give all about milling is that,since you are not having to do it for a job with time being a large factor- Take your time milling. Small cuts do two things: 1- it saves wear on your cutters which are costly to replace and 2 nd  it reduces any deflection of either the cutting tool and reduces the over cutting of the mill cutter in your work piece.

 

The small milling machines are not built to handle deep cuts by the milling cutters. In size a standard Bridgeport milling machine handles cutters up to 1" dia. but even then they have a hard time with full cutter depth cutting.

If you kept the same size and capibility ratio of milling machine to cutter,the small mills would have only a cutter of 1/4" dia. with a cutting flute depth of only 1/8".

So take it easy.

 

And if you are burning wood,either your speed is too high,feed too fast clogging up the flutes of the cutters,or you have a cutter that doesn't have enough room for the chips created by you cutting speed and feed.

 

Mini mills  EQUAL MINI CHIPS!!!

 

Keith

Great advice Keith, will keep this in mind for when I start using a mill

Slainte

Peter

Yes, Landrotten, that's one of many techniques that will be included. Slainte!

in thatcase, put medown as a customer

looking forward to the book.

Will the technique of painting the base board be discribed as well?

Slainte

I have 6 words for this.

A. Ma. Zing.

True. Eye. Candy.

Nice job.

One thing though - is it me, or is the scroll on one side different than on the other side of ths ship (pictures aftscrolla and aftscroll2a?

Japanese house carpenters use a sharpened cut from a bamboo pole which has been charcoaled in fire.  Apparently it leaves a very crisp mark without creating a groove as our pencils might do.

True eye candy.  Thanks for sharing - your log gave me both inspiration and knowledge.

Slainte

Peter

I too have purchased the series with a view to (one day) build the Fleuron (amongst others).  Having only had a quick look, I believe that it has been worth spending the money on these books.  The combined knowledge will definitely aid me to build an accurate version of the ship(s).

Good luck, and Slainte

Peter

who is copying who around here?

I am sure I read somewhere here on MSW about someone using some type of artists 'wipe-on' gold on a figure to great effect.

Might have been Janos on one of his figureheads?  need to look through the many build logs I follow to find it again

Found it again

This is a link to the blog:

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/501-carved-figure-heads-and-decorations/page-12

The guilding part starts at post 222, and the final solution is given on post 254 on page 13.

Hi All,

I learned today that two ship-wrecks from the 'golden age of sail' have been found

The first link relates to the portugese vessel 'Esmeralda', which sank of the coast of Oman in a storm in the year 1503.  Most of the ship has disappeared due to its location in shallow water, but plenty of unique artefacts (including what they think is an astrolabe) have been found.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/15/marine-archaeologists-discover-rare-artefacts-at-1503-shipwreck-site

The other thing I read  this mornng (it is in Dutch/Flemish) is about a Dutch Fregat built in Medemblik, West Friesland around 1708.  The archeologists are 95% certain it is the 'Huis te Warmelo' and sank apparently by stricking a rock.  The remarkable thing about this wreck is that the ship is in excellent condition - the cold water has preserved the wooden construction so that even the guns are still standing on the deck.

http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20160314_02182297

Would love to hear from anybody that can shed some further light on both vessels.

Slainte

Peter

Looks like a pretty good match.  Are you goingto use these colours in your model?

A. MA. ZING.

Looking at these pictures made me forget time.  I woke up again two days later

Peter

     I'm not sure what you mean when you say you want to show both building methods and life on board on the same model.

 

Tom

I mean that I want to see (on the finished model) how a ship was built, as well as understand what living conditions were while at sea.  This means that one side will be showing the frames (with strategically placed openings to show the inside of the ship, while the other side will be fully planked.  I am sure it will become clearer once I start posting pictures when I get to this stage (still building the 'shell' - another 3-5 months should do, I think)