herask

Hi the ships under construction are two frigates Hms Naiad and Egyptienne two 64 guns ship Hms Anson and Artesien and two firts rate Hms Victory 1765 and Commerce de Marseille.

Druxey, that's also on my to-do list, along with furled sails, so one will be able to mix and match them as-needed. still debating on studding sails, though... 

continuing while I have enough steam in my system. fore topsail done. and, I have switched rope lay direction. now it should be OK, except where the rope is mirrored to conserve memory...
 

Druxey, that's also on my to-do list, along with furled sails, so one will be able to mix and match them as-needed. still debating on studding sails, though... 

continuing while I have enough steam in my system. fore topsail done. and, I have switched rope lay direction. now it should be OK, except where the rope is mirrored to conserve memory...
 

continuing while I have enough steam in my system. fore topsail done. and, I have switched rope lay direction. now it should be OK, except where the rope is mirrored to conserve memory...
 

Lovely! Just remember that the ensign (or any other flag) goes in the same direction as the wind filling the sails!

Pete, thank you for your kind words! indeed, before I started this endeavour I knew almost nothing about how these beauties were built, nor about their inner workings and all the nuances of their construction. so yeah, I'm really enjoying modeling one from scratch (bad pun, I know) and watching it grow. now that the ship's shape really shows, I guess I'm a little sad I won't be able to pick it up and hold it in my hands. that's one of the things I envy you real ship modelers. those ships were beautiful!!
 
then again, here's the next best thing...

I just looove fooling around with compositing renders onto photos as accurately as possible. done right and your neighbour will run out to take a photo by the Batmobile "parked" in front of our apartment building. yeah, I almost got my lights knocked out....

continuing while I have enough steam in my system. fore topsail done. and, I have switched rope lay direction. now it should be OK, except where the rope is mirrored to conserve memory...
 

continuing while I have enough steam in my system. fore topsail done. and, I have switched rope lay direction. now it should be OK, except where the rope is mirrored to conserve memory...
 

hi all!
 
well, it's been a long time since I posted anything related to this beautiful ship. I am repeating myself now but I do hate digital ropes. finding motivation to continue with the sails was near impossible for me. but now... something clicked in my head, apparently. I don’t know if the sky’s gonna fall on our heads or what, but it seems I’ve managed to find some motivation to continue with the sails. main topsail done…
 
and I even feel like continuing, lol…
 

 

hey Greg!
 
well, you're completely right about OCD! would you believe I haven't paid an ounce of attention about how the ropes are laid? so, naturally, now I'll have to devote an entire pass just to organizing them properly. and, also naturally, I'll credit you for contributing to my ever increasing hatred toward 3D ropes 🤣

hey Greg!
 
well, you're completely right about OCD! would you believe I haven't paid an ounce of attention about how the ropes are laid? so, naturally, now I'll have to devote an entire pass just to organizing them properly. and, also naturally, I'll credit you for contributing to my ever increasing hatred toward 3D ropes 🤣

hi all!
 
well, it's been a long time since I posted anything related to this beautiful ship. I am repeating myself now but I do hate digital ropes. finding motivation to continue with the sails was near impossible for me. but now... something clicked in my head, apparently. I don’t know if the sky’s gonna fall on our heads or what, but it seems I’ve managed to find some motivation to continue with the sails. main topsail done…
 
and I even feel like continuing, lol…
 

 

hey Greg!
 
well, you're completely right about OCD! would you believe I haven't paid an ounce of attention about how the ropes are laid? so, naturally, now I'll have to devote an entire pass just to organizing them properly. and, also naturally, I'll credit you for contributing to my ever increasing hatred toward 3D ropes 🤣

hi all!
 
well, it's been a long time since I posted anything related to this beautiful ship. I am repeating myself now but I do hate digital ropes. finding motivation to continue with the sails was near impossible for me. but now... something clicked in my head, apparently. I don’t know if the sky’s gonna fall on our heads or what, but it seems I’ve managed to find some motivation to continue with the sails. main topsail done…
 
and I even feel like continuing, lol…
 

 

hey Greg!
 
well, you're completely right about OCD! would you believe I haven't paid an ounce of attention about how the ropes are laid? so, naturally, now I'll have to devote an entire pass just to organizing them properly. and, also naturally, I'll credit you for contributing to my ever increasing hatred toward 3D ropes 🤣

hi all!
 
well, it's been a long time since I posted anything related to this beautiful ship. I am repeating myself now but I do hate digital ropes. finding motivation to continue with the sails was near impossible for me. but now... something clicked in my head, apparently. I don’t know if the sky’s gonna fall on our heads or what, but it seems I’ve managed to find some motivation to continue with the sails. main topsail done…
 
and I even feel like continuing, lol…
 

 

hey Greg!
 
well, you're completely right about OCD! would you believe I haven't paid an ounce of attention about how the ropes are laid? so, naturally, now I'll have to devote an entire pass just to organizing them properly. and, also naturally, I'll credit you for contributing to my ever increasing hatred toward 3D ropes 🤣

hi all!
 
well, it's been a long time since I posted anything related to this beautiful ship. I am repeating myself now but I do hate digital ropes. finding motivation to continue with the sails was near impossible for me. but now... something clicked in my head, apparently. I don’t know if the sky’s gonna fall on our heads or what, but it seems I’ve managed to find some motivation to continue with the sails. main topsail done…
 
and I even feel like continuing, lol…
 

 

hi all!
 
well, it's been a long time since I posted anything related to this beautiful ship. I am repeating myself now but I do hate digital ropes. finding motivation to continue with the sails was near impossible for me. but now... something clicked in my head, apparently. I don’t know if the sky’s gonna fall on our heads or what, but it seems I’ve managed to find some motivation to continue with the sails. main topsail done…
 
and I even feel like continuing, lol…
 

 

hi all!
 
well, it's been a long time since I posted anything related to this beautiful ship. I am repeating myself now but I do hate digital ropes. finding motivation to continue with the sails was near impossible for me. but now... something clicked in my head, apparently. I don’t know if the sky’s gonna fall on our heads or what, but it seems I’ve managed to find some motivation to continue with the sails. main topsail done…
 
and I even feel like continuing, lol…
 

 

If you have been following my Constitution build log, thank you for taking a detour over to this one.  If you are just tuning in to this one, thank you for being a part of it.

My short attention span and ever-dwindling brain cells do not usually allow for simultaneous projects.  But I had to put Connie on a brief hold while I wait for delivery of some parts that I ordered.  So I figured I’d get started on another bottle project I’ve been mulling over for the past couple of months.  

When I was working on my Kraken SIB, @O.B.one made a reference to one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  So I did some digging on the movie series and came a cross an image that caught my eye and has been sitting in the back of my mind ever since.  It’s a scene from the third installment of the franchise, At World’s End.  Calypso summons a maelstrom and the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman do battle on opposites sides of the whirlpool.  Here’s the pic:

 
 
 
Last month, I was wandering through the woods of my ranch, trying to find an ornery steer, and I spotted an interesting branch sticking out of the base of a cedar tree.  The branch had a sharp curve and grain that swirled around.  It reminded me of a whirlpool.  Then the lightbulb flickered in my head and I thought the branch might make the perfect backdrop for a project – recreate the scene from At World’s End with the Black Pearl, Flying Dutchman, and a whirlpool inside the bottle.   Here’s the piece of wood.  It was dead but had weirdly grown upward from the base, made a u-turn, and dove back into the ground.  Never seen anything quite like it.

 
 
 

To have room for all the action going on inside the bottle, I needed a bottle that was more wide than long.  A Paul Masson bottle of brandy had the perfect shape and it fit almost naturally into the piece of wood. 

 
 

The last bit of planning was finding good images of each ship to fashion my build after.  I decided to take on the Flying Dutchman first and use this pic as a basic guide.  I certainly won’t be able to match all the wonderful imagery and eerie ornamentation at my scale, but will do my best to give a good impression of it.

 
 
The biggest challenge I think will be figuring out how to make a realistic looking whirlpool inside the bottle.  Not sure how I'm gonna do that, but I'll build the ships first and give myself time to figure that out.
     
I will likely be bouncing back and forth between this project and the Constitution.  Hopefully I don’t get confused and try to put some of those humongous Connie parts inside the bottle here!
 

I have started making guns:

a few steps forward: