Ray1981

Hello all,
 
I was able to makea little bit of progress yesterday. And one thing was a dissaster. I started withthe lower gundeck because this deck will not be vissible this deck doesnt show any planking so I thought lets try to do this for myself hmmmm that was a bad idea. I used a exacto knife and started to make planks it doesnt came out as I wished to be. Further Iused some light wood color paints and when this was dry I painted over it with dark brown oil paint. 
 

The lower gun deck
 
Further I started with priming the second deck and the hull.
 

 

 
Soon more guys.
 
Grtz Ray
 

I agree it would be very helpfull if there were more video tutorial on how to do any rigging. Very helpfull together with the standard books that are recommended here on the forum.
 
Grtz Ray

Thanks Ray!

Thanks for the likes guys!

Thanks Mark thats a good idea too! I will let it dry good and will try what you explained. 
 
Thanks guys!!!!

Thanks Mark thats a good idea too! I will let it dry good and will try what you explained. 
 
Thanks guys!!!!

well it is too shiny but maybe after drying that dissapear and i was hoping for a more warn out effect. Maybe a wash over this will create that effect.
 
I started like this
 

 
After the aint dried I painted it with oil paint a mix of dark brown and raw sienna. What I saw on youtube I looked much better as I have now. Probably I need a littl emore patience and see the result tomorrow if it is dry by then.
 
 
 
 

Thanks Mark thats a good idea too! I will let it dry good and will try what you explained. 
 
Thanks guys!!!!

I was thinking about that too but Im not sure if a acrylic vernish will hold on this oil paint?

Ray,
 
What Lukas said...  a matte finish.   Or... some very fine steel wool or Scotch pad (those green pads).  Be sure to wash off the deck if you use the steel wool as it leaves a very fine powdery dust.  Do just enough with wool or pad to remove the shine and not the paint.

it looks good! Maybe you can seal it with a coat of matt varnish to get rid of the glossy look?

well it is too shiny but maybe after drying that dissapear and i was hoping for a more warn out effect. Maybe a wash over this will create that effect.
 
I started like this
 

 
After the aint dried I painted it with oil paint a mix of dark brown and raw sienna. What I saw on youtube I looked much better as I have now. Probably I need a littl emore patience and see the result tomorrow if it is dry by then.
 
 
 
 

Today I painted the upper deck but im not sure yet how im going to call it.....a dissastre or failure. It was hard working but at the end im not really pleased (yet). Here are some results.
 

 

 

 
I hope im able to clean this up. 
 
 
Grtz Ray

Nice job looks really cool specially with the figures

Just look at this little guy, he's so proud of his 36pd cannon!
 

 

 
another one is proud of his nice little 8 pounder but his mother never thought him any real manners, been at sea too much you know
 

 

 
see! here he is sitting on the balcony of the stern galleries! Enjoying the view and the fresh air
 

 

 

 
that little rascal
 
as you can see I closed up the ceiling above the balcony with some plastic sheet. Otherwise there would be an ugly gap left when everthing is closed up. I believe it looks much better this way!
 

 

 

 
I also added the wheel, and the quarters for the officers (or is it calles something else?)
 

 

Acrylics for the airbrush and enamels for brushing. Acrylics tend to set too fast, particularly when you have to paint around 'obstacles' etc. Everything has to be fine after the first few brush-strokes, otherwise the acrylics start to set and you get streaks.
 
wefalck

I have been doing models for years (not wood mind you , very new to that) but plastics etc.  In my opinion, acrylics are the best bang for the buck.
 
Enamels have the  benefit of drying quite hard.  However, drying time tends to be longer, just by their nature they tend to have a powerful odor, and clean up can be a pain and cost money as you need special cleaning agents to properly clean your brushes - which in turn has a pretty strong odor.   They do thin well, and do airbrush well however...
 
Acrylics are much more user friendly.   They have a much quicker drying/curing time,  they higher quality paints tend to self level quite well (Model Master Acryls,  Polly-S, Humbrol to name a few) and they can clean up with soap and water.   They also airbursh equally well and can be thinned with water (although not the best) or alcohol, windex etc.  They also tend to be more resistant to orange peeling.   A drawback however is that because they do dry fast you want to be careful about working the paint to much;  a few strokes is usuall all you need, too much and it will begin drying and clumping.   You will in most cases want to seal acryclis when done with some kind of finish,  but in most cases that is good practice regardless of enamel, stain or acrylics.
 
Cost wise I think they tend to be comperable so no real benefit there.   Back in the day you had much more selection in enamels over acrylics, especially with metallics;  however advancements over the years in acrylics really have produced some very nice metallic formulas.
 
Blending paints,  acrylics blend very well even across brands.   Enamels sometimes can have some issues mixing brands depending on the carrier/base they use.    Also if you mix types,  make sure you don't put enamels over acrylics unless the acrylic is completely dry and even then don't work it to much - you run the risk of lifting the acrylic with the enamel. 
 
Hope that helps a bit;  again just my opinion but over the years I have really moved towards acrylics and really havn't looked back    They just are much more versatile and friendly and don't smell anywhere near as bad
 
 
Enjoy!!!
-Adam

Count me in on being interested in a education for this subject. I used Testors and Model Master enamel for my first build. I disliked having to use solvents to clean up so I'm trying water based acrylics for my current build.

Here are some gratuitous shots of the model, as she is at the moment. 
 

 
The second planking has been carried through to the top. Above this level will be painted black ... and I still have plenty of pear strips left. I think I will save them and revert back to kit supplied second planking material, since it will be hidden under the paint. 
  Other RW builders might notice that ALL the cannon ports (except for the first ones at the bow) are open and can receive cannons! This involved a little bit of engineering to hack away at the bulkheads blocking the cannon openings and finding other ways to reinforce the bulkheads. Because I needed more cannon to fill these open ports, I ordered more from Euromodel. They arrived from Italy in less than a week.   
 
Don't worry, that smiley face will be hidden by a gun port. Yet to clean up the bow area. Will leave final sanding till after I install the treenails. Waiting for my laser marker to arrive before doing so. 
 

 
Rear bulkhead and stairwell dry fitted, and illumination tested. 
 

 

 
View from the front, showing off her lines. 

I thought that MSW'ers might be interested in how I fabricated the replacements for metal pieces 11241 etc from scratch. These metal pieces are meant to be decorative strips on the edges of transom pieces 54 and 55. 
 
I decided to engrave a profile on a 3mm x 2mm styrene strip, using my Proxxon MF70 milling machine. But, how do you hold down a thin, long piece like that on a milling machine? 
 

 
The answer is to fabricate your own hold-down piece.
 
On the right is a piece of acrylic. Two holes were drilled on either end. It does not matter that they are not square to the piece. The acrylic piece was then mounted on the machine, using screws in the two holes to mount the piece to the table. Now a 3mm wide and 1mm deep slot was machined into the acrylic piece. A thin piece of acrylic was glued into this slot to act as a fence. Given that the machine itself milled the slot, the fence was guaranteed to be square. 
 

 
The piece on the left had a thin strip of styrene glued on it. You can see from the first picture that there is a slight gap in the styrene. This is where the milling head goes through. This acts as something like a "fingerboard". 
 

 
This is the complete setup, complete with hold down step clamp to keep the fingerboard in place. A completed styrene strip with a channel milled in it is also shown. 
 

 
The setup at work. 
 

 
And finally, the completed transom piece 55 mounted on the ship, with the decorative pieces attached. Note that I have also fitted the lower mahogany piece 56 as well. I didn't do quite a good job as I would have liked shaping it, but a tiny bit of filler and paint takes care of it. Not that anybody is going to look under the ship and up at the transom piece, but at least I know that it has been neatly closed over! 
 
I have also painted a little decorative motif on the rudder, and follow the black line through from the wales, to the transom, and on to the rudder. I saw it on the USNA RW. 
 
The gunports have been simulated by carving a square outline and painting it red. 

Thanks Greg, to be honest I am not very happy with it. I can see the brush marks on the front bulkhead, and IMO that's not good enough. I have been thinking of doing it again, but I have been practicing my painting and I can't seem to get good enough such that brush marks are not visible. I may have to live with it. 
 
A few more words about those infernal transom pieces, 54 and 55. I have FINALLY completed them and mounted the lower transom piece on the ship. 
 

 
If you recall, this was what it last looked like when I showed the piece on MSW. I was pretty happy with it, until I realized a few things. 
 

 
Firstly, the plans called for the pieces to be bent with a 2mm deflection from the center to the sides. I soaked the pieces in ammonia for 12 hours, then boiled it. No luck. I soaked it again for 48 hours, then boiled it, then mounted it on my vise. Still no luck! I mounted it on an appropriately curved piece, then drove my car over it*. Still nothing! 
 
(* The reason I am so brave with my abuse of this piece is because I know that it is relatively easy to fabricate a new piece from scratch)
 

 
In the end, I decided to shim it and then shape it on the disc sanderso that it attained the correct cross section when viewed from the rear. The holes that you can see are mounting holes for dowels, to hold both pieces together to check for alignment and shape. I FINALLY managed to get the correct profile.
 
The next thing I noticed was this: 
 

 

 

 
(From top to bottom: John Clevely's painting of the Royal George in the NMM; Royal William model in the USNA; Victor Yankovitch's model of the Royal William) 
 
The arrows indicate that the lower transom piece has a distinct concave profile. Note that this is not indicated in Euromodel's plans, nor does Pete's I-I take note of it. 
 

 
Glad that I realized this before mounting it on the ship, I gave the lower transom piece a distinct concave profile. It looks more graceful now, I think. 

Time for an update, as well as a few other notes on building this magnificent ship.
 

 
The bow filler blocks were a real pain to fabricate. To help get the correct contour, I photocopied the plans and cut out guides to check the shape at different levels. It really helps that Euromodel's plans are so detailed - by far the best I have ever seen. It more than makes up for the scanty instructions.
 

 
Completed bow filler block (left). The one on the right was roughly shaped with a belt sander.
 

 
I used my Proxxon MF70 mill to shape the keel so that they fit together.
 

 
Start of planking! I decided to start at the lower gun deck and go both upwards and downwards. As you can see I managed to get a really tight bend at the stern.
 

 
The bow, with the bow filler blocks installed. The plans are rather sketchy regarding how they should be placed, but it made sense to bring them up to the level of the main deck. If you do so, there will be a gap in the middle because the false keel does not rise high enough. I installed a block (arrowed) to help support the main deck which will be installed later.
 

 
I then started tracing the gunport pattern out onto some tracing paper.
 

 
Note that there are FOUR different sizes of gunports. Interestingly, none of the other build logs mention this. Pete's Interpretive Info on the Euromodel website suggests that only TWO different gunport sizes are present (14mm x 14mm, and 13mm x 13mm). The gunport sizes I measured out were:
 
14mm x 13mm <-- lower gun deck
13mm x 12mm <-- middle gun deck
11mm x 10mm <-- main deck
9mm x 9mm <-- hindcastle
 
Perhaps Pete would like to check his plans (I used Plan sheet #7) and amend his I-I accordingly?
 

 
I have now installed five planks on the lower gun deck, all without tapering. This weekend I will cut out the gunports.
 

 
I also took some measurements of the bulkheads below the lower gun deck - these will all have to be tapered.I used these measurements to calculate how wide each plank should be at each bulkhead. Disappointingly, the lower graph (a graphical representation of the shape of the plank) suggests that shaping these planks won't be so easy!

Here are a couple more minor kit issues. 
 
 
 
The middle gun deck is supplied pre-cut with a rounded bow section. However, as you can see, the rounded bow section will clash with the front bow filler block. The solution is to simply cut the deck and discard the piece. 
 
  
 
The keel describes a sloppy fit with the false keel. After checking with the plans, and confirming that the top of the keel is supposed to rise to the level of the main deck (if the bowsprit wasn't in the way), I shaved away the area painted in red. I now have a perfectly fitting keel. 
 
 
 
The kit doesn't include a mizzenmast support, so I fabricated one and installed it. 
 

 
My wife returned from a day of shopping to find that I had turned nearly every spare inch of floor space into reading space for Royal William plans! She was not very impressed, especially since I had not kept the modelling door closed and the dust was in the main living area. I had to put a stop to my modelling and vacuum the house.

Yes Brian, it would appear that there are some differences between your kit and mine. 
 
By the way, I joined a local woodworker's club (here's a shout out to Waverley Woodworkers Club) so that I can have access to their tools ... and what a collection they have! The WWC is more set up for people who work with larger scale projects, so all their equipment is full size. Their lathe is large enough to turn bowls, for example. Otherwise, they have every piece of equipment that we would need - drill press, disc sander, drum sander, belt sander, router, lathes, mills, grinders, polishers, jig saws, band saws, etc. They will save me a fortune on tools, but I would still benefit from miniaturized versions of the above for our hobby. 
  Anyway, I did more work on the boat today. 
 

 
The first thing I did was to lay out all the frames against the plans. In particular, I was looking for the incorrectly labelled bulkheads E and F as noted by VinceP in his build log. Sure enough, as he described, on Plan Sheet 4 the drawing shows correct placement of the bulkheads, but the labels for E and F are the wrong way round. Importantly, the bulkheads themselves are correctly labelled. 
 
As noted elsewhere, the RW bulkheads are named according to ship builders convention, as follows: 

(STERN) 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0 - A - B - C - D - E - F (BOW)
 
 
 
The next thing is to drill the holes in the false keel for future attachment of a stand. The drill press at the WWC came in handy. I drilled a 6mm diameter hole in the 10mm width false keel - only 2mm of clearance either side! The precision of the drill press ensured that my hole was perfectly centered. The above pictures show me milling a hole to accept the nut. Not pictured are the cheeks that I made to strengthen the weakened keel and to hold the nut in. 
 
 
 
Start of bulkhead attachment. The bulkheads were attached with the aid of a square to ensure ... squareness. As noted elsewhere, the bulkheads are a rather sloppy fit and need to be shimmed. 
 

 
All the bulkheads have now been fitted. Alignment was checked visually and with the aid of a stringer (not shown). 
 
  
 
Additional reinforcements were made to ensure hull rigidity. These were made from scrap wood - there is more than enough left over to make these parts! 
 
At this point, I chose to install the lower gun deck. This deck has notches for the bulkheads pre-cut, so it made sense to install it to help check alignment. Note that the deck is supplied in left and right halves, but installation is impossible unless it is also cut across the beam (into quarters). 
 

My kit room has been tidied and prepared for the new build. It won't look as neat as this for another three years. Let's go!!! 
 

 
The room has been re-arranged with the power tool bench behind me, and the main modelling table in front of me. All I need to do is turn around to have access to power tools. The desk by the window is where I will do all the Dremelling. Not pictured is my new shelving unit where all my tools, paints, and glues are neatly stowed away. Also not pictured is the clipboard where the plans will be displayed. 
 

 
The main modelling table with the modelling lamp. You can also see my handheld vacuum which is vital for keeping the peace in the household. 
 

 
The tool bench, from (L-R): Sherline 4410 Lathe, Byrnes Disc Sander, Proxxon MF70 mill.