Hubac's Historian

Siggi,

In my estimation, you can count yourself among the very best in the ship-modeling community.  There is, simultaneously, precision of craft and the hand of the maker.  Your tiller is a real treat!

Best,

M

Love it!  Looks awesome, Eric!

Stunning work, as always, Dan.  Portsmouth should build an annex to the  Victory museum, and call it “Daniel’s Quarter Gallery”.  You have done as much and more than the museum, itself, for understanding of the many iterations of Victory throughout her long life.

Your trophy looks truly fabulous, Eric!

Thank you very much, Kevin!

I think CAD design and printing are still craftsmanship because they require the same meticulous attention to detail that all good modeling requires.  Whether making it by hand or printing it, the part is only going to be as good as the drawing that precedes it.

Oh, I see what you mean now, Bill.  Honestly, I marvel at our modeling friends who are mastering CAD/resin printing.  I’m pretty far away from tackling anything like that, although I do want to eventually learn drafting software.

Your paint bottle experience is very relatable!

Hi Ian - yeah, all is okay here - apart from annoyingly and persistently high cholesterol (how much fiber and Omega3’s can a person reasonably consume?!), I’m doing okay.

Life just sped up for me, is all.  I was going to do some painting last night.  I opened a new (but very old) bottle of what I assumed was ModelMaster acrylic last night.  I was trying to thin the paint with water, but it was behaving strangely.  It took me far too long to realize that what I actually had was a bottle of enamel.  I am curious to see whether all of that water I added simply returns to the surface, overnight.

Anyway, I’m at a sort of critical juncture with my 13-year old son, who needs me now more than ever, and my daughter, who will be off to college in a year.  Nothing alarming, there, but guidance and support are really necessary, so that is where my energies go.

Hi Bill - I think maybe you intended to be in Daniel’s Victory log?  With a lot of windows open all the time, that’s an easy mistake to make. 🙂

Hi Bill - actually, I’m not sure what you mean with regard to designing parts in CAD.  I’m simply modifying what came with the kit.

..Alive and kicking - however, so softly.

In the time that I have available, and am ALERT, I make what little progress I can.

I’m working on deck furniture.  A considerable amount of time was spent, as always, on de-plasticizing the appearance of these parts; flash removal, in-filling of injection mould marks, softening of sharp edges, and general detailing.

I wish I were doing more, but life demands are limiting what’s possible.  As always, I so appreciate all and anyone that continues to check in, or take a look at the project.  Some day, I will finish this one! 

You can see these sun emblems worked into the frieze of fleurs, along with alternating harps, on the Monarque:

Hi Eric - it is helpful to double-stick a piece of 150-grit paper to a sanding block, and then use your finger pad to press down lightly while sanding the backs of the castings.  This will accomplish two things.  It will neatly remove any flash, and it will give you a good mechanical bonding surface for the CA.

I don’t think your upper bulwark frieze has to be terribly complicated.  You could, however, add a little extra visual interest and a call-out to the name if the vessel, if you made sun castings with the dauphin at center.

You can actually pull this detail from the stock quarter galleries, and make really nice moulds - perhaps extracting the sun emblem first, and reducing its perimeter a little, for the sake of scale.  Just a thought.

Tile is a great idea.

These dolphins are much more proportional, and I think the placement works much better.

You raise in interesting point about carving left/right masters.  It is definitely important to do the work side by side, in order to see it properly.

Definitely, you are going to want to glue the masters to a flat smooth surface, and after you do that you want to scrape away the glue “halo” (squeeze out), so that you get a sharp delineation between the carving and the ground.

As for removing the carvings from the existing ground, acetone is the most effective release agent, but that will obviously melt your part.

You could waste the wood away from behind with a Dremel sanding drum attachment.  Or, you may have to chalk that up to experience and make new masters.

What I mean is that the dolphins make more visual sense as a framing for the port if their orientation is the opposite of what you are showing - whereby the tails contact the top corners of the port and the heads fan away from the port.  Given the shape of your dolphins, you should still have clearance for the carriage tackle bolts.

Hi Eric - you might have an easier time of it, if you drill perforation holes all around your carvings, first.  After extracting the carving blank, I find needle files indispensable for cleaning up the outline shapes of even small parts like this.  Once you like the outline, you can mount the carving permanently to a wooden block and do the detail carving.  Finally, you’ll be left with a master for making rubber moulds.  It’s all very fiddly, but you’d be surprised what you can train your fingers to do.

I like the dolphins.  Will the tails abut the port openings?

As I say with all of this modification nitty gritty: Comme-ci, comme-ca.  A little like this, a little like that.  The important thing is to capture the essence of the thing in a fully coherent way, and you have more than achieved that.  And, you have the distinction, now, of being the first to radically transform the kit head!

Coming along really nicely, Eric.  As for the painting, my suggestion would be the following:  if you still have scrap hulls, I would use them to sort through your color schemes and practice your technique.  It will give you confidence, and it will help to demystify the process of getting a professional finish, free of brush-strokes.

That is very much appreciated, Mike!

Vellum is fantastic because you can erase on it over and over and it won’t disintegrate like regular paper.  Once I have a design I like, I clean up as much loose graphite as I can, and I spray the drawing with hairspray as a fixative.  I have a whole cache of these drawings that I have made for the model.

Accurate scale drawings are indispensable for this kind of scratch work.  Otherwise, you end up chasing your tail trying to approximate what’s needed in the available space.

Oh, I would love to see that!

I really think you have captured the essence of these early French headrails.

Good that you checked!

Henry - I’m sorry I missed your post, here.

I actually think that I remember this discussion of the main brace on your build-log.

Currently, and not very oftenly, I am still detailing the lin-stock tubs.  I have decided that I would go through the Heller rigging instructions, line for line, and make notes and sketch modifications that are more representative of the time, referencing Anderson, Lees and Marquardt.  Standing rigging first.  Running rigging second.  That will be my process.

I wish that I had more time to really focus on the project, but I find myself pulled in many different directions; finding a college for my daughter, a HS for my son (they are almost exactly 4 years apart), coaching hoop, and protesting what is happening in our country; all of this, among the ordinary and every day stuff.  So many of you have been there and beyond, yourselves, so I know you know.

Despite the fact that I am not very visibly active on this site, I am still following all of your excellent work.  As always, I appreciate all of you for looking-in, your likes, suggestions and comments.

All the best,

M