Overworked724

On 12/31/2020 at 4:54 PM, Bill Gormley said:

1 - Should I address this or will it not really show up under a coat of paint?  If it should be fixed first ... wood shim or better to use filler?  Wood shim might be more supportive and you can sand it down.

2 - Are the sills supposed to be sanded to the same thickness as the frame?  What I'm showing here is my sills are a little bit wider. I think the practicum addresses this.  The lower part of the frames can be a bit wider.

3 - It's hard to see in the photo, but this is a shallow divot where I wasn't careful with my sanding stick.  Should I fill and restore this divot (and others like it)?  Not sure whether it will cause trouble later on when it comes time to plank the deck. Uniformity and symmetry are important.  If there is a gap in the deck the planks will not lay true.  I'd fill it with a shim or filler and ensure there is continuity between the frames...otherwise you will have a dip

4 - What do you use to get nice straight cuts?  I have been using a razor saw which cuts the wood easily enough ... but is there some basic technique or trick to get a straight cut? A chop saw or table saw...something automated rather than manual.

5 - I'm about ready to paint the gun ports red and I was planning to use either Tamiya or Life Color paint from my plastic modeling stash.  Do I need to prepare or seal the wood first?    I used Tamiya paints without issue.  But I am woefully horrible at painting.  I'd research this and come up with your best solution and ensure you are conformatble with it before throwing it on the ship...see my blog and the recent screw up I needed to address with regards to painting the bulkheads....

 

Thanks for reading this far ... all input and feedback welcome!

 

Bill

Hope this helps, Bill.  Happy New Year!!!

Well...to be honest, veneer, painting (after a bit of filler), or replacing are all going to give a nice result.  You could also just leave it...call it BATTLE DAMAGE!  😃.  Either way, it's a blemish but in the end is a small one, and will be visually outweighed by the number of additional details you have yet to add.  It sticks out now because there is less detail to distract you from it...but it is really not that bad.  (I understand though...if it were me, it would be driving me crazy!) 

Remember - it's not a hobby if you hurry!  LOL

Steve, I loved how you set up the pins for your fife.  The template idea was brilliant!  I'll use that! for future........awesome detail work.  

Took the plunge...glued in the bow margins. They look ok, but I’m concerned about how hard they are to cut. I made them in 3 sections from castello boxwood, but the joggling will be a challenge.  The wood is hard and does tend to fragment, so I will do my best to go slow and use extremely sharp blades. 
 

On a side note...I decided to use my super secret stash of recently acquired aged English boxwood for the deck. So I spent some time today cutting my deck planks. Although these haven’t been laid down...I can’t help but post a pic. They have this beautiful butterscotch hue which is really awesome.
 

There is some figuring, but I honestly don’t care...this stuff has been hanging around in a basement for years...I simply had to give the wood a home!  😎

Moving on...

Great Holiday progress!  Your treenails look great!  Moving right along at a good clip...!

3 hours ago, Justin P. said:

I don't love the results, but I don't hate them either...   

...I feel the same way about my recent paint job!  But your badges are looking pretty darned good.  How do you make the small white frames?

Here are the pics of the paint job such as it stands.  My cap rails are already made and painted but I decided to mount them after the deck is completed and trunneled.  

I'm kind of split on whether painting the transom cap and shear strakes on the ship was worth it...I think painting them off the ship has some advantages but also disadvantages.  In the end, it's how good you tape up your ship and how good you are at painting.  I am not good...and although airbrushing makes things a bit easier in one way - it is also quite difficult in others.  Again - just a skill you need to develop on your own - and this was a good learning experience which allow me to ask some good questions to develop a much better understanding of airbursh mechanics...but I still suck at it.

Ok...baby pics.  My painting is over for now...like I said, passable, but not perfect.  

Took the opportunity to add the name plate and transom trim piece.  

Moving on to the deck...

Made some progress today.  Took a side trip to finish up the wheel assemblies for the sleds.  Made a little jig to ensure the height of the wheels assemblies were all uniform.  The jig helped me hold the tiny wheel bracket in place while I set the wheels into the brackets without moving.  Pic below...pretty self explanatory, but it made working with the little bits MUCH easier and only took me about an hour to complete all 16.  I chose golden oak stain rather than black paint...I might change my mind later once I see how it all looks, but I figured that I spent so much time noodling over these things...why paint them?!

So...here are the wheel assembly pics.

I used another block of wood and a clothes pins to hold the bracket stationary.

Taa daa....Moving on...

Finally got the black trim painting done. A couple areas to touch up but generally a passable job. A few minor blemishes which I can live with...pics a bit later.  I’m not totally unhappy about the result, as I know this is one area which requires patience and skill...both of which I have in short supply at the moment. 😣  

Off to find a brew and a movie. 👍🏽
 

Hopefully getting to starting the the deck tomorrow...

I’m just amazed at how beautiful your paint job is...I’m simply awful at painting and it’s something I approach with sincere dread. But your finish (clean and polished without being glossy) is truly crisp. 
 

May I ask what paints you were using as well as your technique?

Great work!  Deck looks marvelous. Interested to see how you attack the badges. I’ve been fussing with that idea as well. (Told you you would pass me!!! 🤣)

Thanks, @Gahm!!!  Hoping my sleds turn out 1/2 as good as yours!

Got the carronades painted. I did a trial using 2:1 Tamiya thinner to flat black paint as I was getting some spitting at a lower ratio. Worked just fine. 
 

I tried with and without a primer using a scrap piece of the 3D material (scraps from when I removed the carronades from their original 3D sleds) but did not see any difference. So went ahead and painted them without primer and am pretty happy with the results. Still have to paint the inside of the barrels but will wait till tomorrow and use a simple detail brush. 
 

Moving on...to taping up the hull... 

Took another detour before jumping on painting the ship wales and trim. Realized the guns need painted, too. So why not do that at same time when I realized I had not addressed how to mount the 3D printed carronades to the sleds. 

Decided to go simple and mimic the Brittania pieces by putting in a mounting bracket on the underside. 
 

So cut 1.5mm cross sections off a 1/8” dowel, then simply chopped those in half with an exacto blade. (Wasn’t going for precision, just accuracy as these won’t be seen)

Used medium gel CA to lock these on the carronades. Then drilled a guide hole in each bracket which I can enlarge later after painting. 
 

Moving on....

Christmas progress!!  I got my cap rails painted.  I am getting a general feel for airbrushing. Useful skill...spent one entire day disassembling and reassembling the damned thing trying to figure out why air wasn’t going through it when I realized the valve at the air inlet of the brush was turned ‘off’...

Anyhow...my hood works great. The admiral made some draught snakes to jam in the window seams and it functions perfectly. Using that and an N95 mask just to be safe. 
 

On the taping up the ship for the next part...pics to follow a bit later. 
 

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Looking good!!!!  🎄☃️

Seriously...that is some sexy sh*t. 😎

Very well done!!!

2 hours ago, niwotwill said:

...I'm wondering how hard Sculpey gets when baked. Does it carve well or should you carve prior to baking? Thinking of using it to carve the stern ornamental carving but would Sculpey be too fragile. Thoughts? Wife said I could use oven but don't make it a mess.

Hi Will!  Here are some answers based on my experience. 
 

- Sculpy in the oven will not make a mess. It’s basically clay...so it just sits there and hardens. 
- Sculpy is a pretty hard and claylike material which holds its shape pretty well before baking...but it’s a clay, so it’s soft and open to distortion before baking. 
- After baking, it reminds me of hard rubber. It’s malleable/bendable but snaps back to its original shape

- After baking, the stuff cuts exactly like hard rubber. Easy to trim up and clean with an exacto. Holds the paint well. 
 

I’m not certain it’s the best stuff for relief carvings, but Chuck used it to good effect in this same regard on the Sultana Practicum. He made the figurehead from it. 
 

If I were you, I’d get some and experiment with it. It’s really neat stuff and really opens up options for novice modelers. 

Nice work, Will. I wish I had the guts to work with Metal the way you do. Those will look stellar on the sleds!  I chose a different tack but regardless, it definitely pays to replace those kit fittings!!

1 hour ago, WalrusGuy said:

So much better than the castings!! Really nice! I was speechless for a moment when I saw your post at first and had to gather my thoughts 😅

Thank you!!!  😃.  LOL. This was a fun work around...and I appreciate the kind words!  (Besides, I watch your and other builds like a hawk, and you guys really inspire me to think outside the box!!)

Decided to take a side trip into the carronades...again.  Like others, the metal fittings in the kit leave much to be desired (being kind here...they suck).  The carronade wheels and brackets are metal - and like all other metal bits in the kit look like they've been sandblasted.  I decided I'd try an idea I had when making my bulkhead blocks containing the sheaves made out of sculpy.  I thought I could use a similar technique for the wheels for the carronades.  The problem was how to make the wheel brackets.

I decided to try using 1/16" (1.588mm) scrap piece of boxwood.  I planned to cut grooves using my table saw into the edge of both sides of the boxwood  and keep the grain horizontal to keep the grain in the right direction for cutting the multiple brackets.  I would then have a stock piece to cut multiple wheel brackets reproducibly.

I knew my wheels would be exactly 0.95mm thick and 2.4mm in diameter (I'll explain later). I set up my table saw blade height to 2mm, and cut 1mm thick grooves in each side of the strip.  The strip itself was 9.9mm wide.

I then cut a bunch of 2.25mm wide sections from this stock strip (I think I cut about 20 or so).  These would make the wheel brackets.

I took off the corners with a 600 grit emery board. 

Now...the wheels!  This was fun.  The wheels I measured to be about 2.4mm in diameter...which is exactly the width of a 3/32" drill bit.  I had a piece of metal which was about 0.91mm thick, and cut the 3/32" hole in it...and polished up both sides.  I put wax paper underneath the metal 'mold'.

I took some black sculpy...warmed it up in my hand, and smashed it into the 3/32" hole with my thumb!  I was not gentle.  I shaved off the remainder with a straight razor (just running it along the surface to cleanly lift up the excess sculpy)...this left a 'plug' of black sculpy stuck in the hole.  I used a tooth pick (cut flush so it had a nice flat base and fit perfectly into the 3/32" hole) to push out the 'wheels'.

Like all sculpy - cook at 275 Degrees (F) for 30 minutes.  And....Voila....the proof is always in the pudding.  A bit of superglue (medium gel - slow set) and the wheel assembly is ready to paint (or stain....haven't made up my mind) and slap on the carronade sled.

I've made enough brackets and wheels to make the wheels assemblies at a later date when it's time.   Procrastination can be a wonderful thing when it's masked as something productive!   

Moving on...again...

That’s a good point @Jamie Coleman . I believe I should be ok on that score. The poly stops just a smidge below the waterline so I should be coppering over a bit of the black paint. At least that’s the plan. 😊

If you want a funny story of the pain I went through with the metal bands...here you go!!  😆

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/15107-sultana-by-overworked724-patrick-–-finished-model-shipways-–-scale-164-–-solid-hull-–-first-wooden-model-ship/?do=findComment&comment=567505

I laid down a piece on a piece of plastic file folder. Colored it with the Sharpie (Black magic marker). Then used a straight edge razor and metal ruler to cut the slices I needed. Tweezers to pull up the section and I typically trimmed the ends using scissors just to ensure none of the tape was crimped. Worked pretty good. Nice thing is it shapes well and you can overlap it. Just try to keep the end piece in a blind spot when applying. 
 

Loving your build, Robin!

On 12/5/2020 at 6:44 AM, NovaStorm said:

Question on mast rings?....Your thought would be appreciated!

 

 

Just offering my thoughts. I used Tamiya masking tape colored with a sharpie. The texture of the tape combined with the ink gave a pretty convincing look. Was easy to work with, too. That was how I did the Sultana.