hollowneck

HMS Camilla is slowly getting her wings. Now that I've created all the paper layouts ( 9 sails) and painted the silkspan, it's time to start some lamination, as follows: After spraying a fine mist of 3M adhesive to the paper layout, a cut piece of the painted silkspan is applied gingerly to only one side. You want to make sure you handle the paper layout carefully, and minimally. One reason is that the pencil line graphite will easily smear and rub-off. At this stage I try to only handle the sail layout by its corners, especially after spraying the adhesive for the silkspan "skin." I've purposefully shown the wrinkles here (a tight close-up, it's not as bad as it appears). The air pockets between the silkspan and the paper need to be carefully worked out so they disappear. The best tool to get out the wrinklies. Because silkspan is somewhat porous, you'll feel some stickiness as you smooth out the small wrinkles and air bubbles; have a paper towel and some water handy to clean your fingertip. It's not good to have sticky sails. The spray adhesive eventually settles in and dries out. Silkspan is also very elastic (malleable?)- whether dry or wetted - and can be smoothed out nicely with some adroit, and light finger work... ...and then there's this simple tool too. After rubbing-out some larger wrinkle spots by finger, I use a piece of dowel to roller across the entire sail. You'll see this tool pop-up later when I finish the sail's edge tablings. Here's the adhesive I use to attach the silkspan. It is sticky stuff, from the Masters Of The Sticky Universe: 3M. There are different sprays available. This one, #77, or another, #45 General Purpose, work well. This spray has an extremely fine mist. Unlike the Liquitex spray can colors, how 3M accomplishes this without clogging the nozzle is very ZEN. I've tried other adhesives. Trust me, this is the best and most efficient way to get this done. I show this photo now since the little acrylic bottles were at-hand. You can easily see the difference between the pure white of the bond paper, the colored silkspan (in Unbleached Titanium) and a Devon Clotted Creme-looking Parchment color acrylic (foreground) ..Mmmmmm....that I'll use later on some of the sail linings as well as other areas of the finished sail. Voilá! Eight (8) silkspan laminated sail layout sheets with nine (9) sails (both upper and lower spritsails are on a single sheet-foreground). One side's lamination is done. These will dry o'night. Prepared pieces of silkspan for the opposite sides are beneath and will be added next (tomorrow?). I've got a number of scrap pieces of painted silkspan for each of the sail's linings and tablings; these need to be precisely cut into their final sizes and glued onto the sails. I'll use a different adhesive for this task since the giant can of immensely sticky 3M spray isn't the right tool for that job. Yes, Not my workshop. I'm spraying sticky, icky glue in my garage - not in my basement workshop. Like the smelly toxic paint process, glue spraying is best done outside. My large dining room table is closest to my garage and has a large, smooth, flat surface and - oh yeah! - the Admiral is one of the most understanding ones in our hobby, certainly in this household's admin. I am a lucky sailor. She keeps telling me that. Must be true. This is the evidence...

Absolutely, Allan. I have David's excellent SeaWatch Swan Series Supplement and he goes into great detail for working with silkspan; his is also a good, basic technique, including tips on furling silkspan. I've watched Tom Lauria's YouTube(s) and he approaches the task with similar processes.

A couple quick pics from my Gallery Album for my HMS Swan. I'm posting these here to show those who are following this thread; I'm aiming for similar results with my current HMS Camilla build. I confess, my multi-stepped sailmaking process is quite complicated.

Bruce, thanks for the shout-out. Yes, ModelSpan is essentially the same as Silkspan. I've used both with prior models. In the U.S. I purchase it directly from a manufacturer, SIG, in different weights (3). As B.E. has suggested there are sources for ModelSpan in the U.K. I have also purchased ModelSpan here in the U.S. from reseller, Bluejacket Shipcrafters. Blue Ensign, thanks for your additional information. Indeed, at 1:64 more substance to the sail material is required, hence my solution to use my sail "sandwich" combo of bond paper and silkspan. When I add a couple more finishing "tricks" to their fabrication, the sails can be easily shaped and, most importantly, are more substantial and realistic-looking once they're mounted.

Thanks, Allan. I agree that cloth sails - cleverly fashioned and made from a myriad of different materials - have never made me swoon at a model that has them, especially at smaller scales, like my favorite 1:64. There are excellent examples by other ship builders of paper sails, an approach that yields more realistic portrayals. Thanks for sharing your solution to drawing on silkspan with a shaved nib of a Liquitex marker; clever! I find that the carefully drawn pencil lines on the bond paper suffice, particularly after they've been slightly muted with the application of the layered silkspan "sandwich." As I'll explain soon, I like that my sail sandwich has some "heft" when complete and ready to mount. The heft is a direct result of the layering (still not thicker than .005/6) and a couple additional tricks I employ to have them appear to billow away from their yards and masts. Using only silkspan - even multi-layered - presents nicely, but these sails typically hang rather limply from their yards; fine for a static model but not so convincing for one presented in a diorama. I'm really happy my build thread has produced some lively interaction with my colleagues on this subject (and others!). So many beautiful ships to build, so little time!

Thank You, druxey! Trivia makes the world go round...thanks for the background on titanium oxide ( TiO2 ). I'm pleased the manufacturer punted on the batch, otherwise the closest color to it would be "parchment"- which as I'll show in the next steps I also use on my sails for color contrast and...wait for it...a "weathering" touch. The parchment acrylic I use (available also in spray cans), is from a paint pot. I drybrush it on the sails...more on this later.

You're welcome, Tom. The cap cleaner is a life (and pocketbook) saver. I forgot to mention that one can also purchase a package of various Liquitex nozzles that produce different spray patterns. I have a set but thus far I haven't had a need to replace any and the basic nozzle on the colored paint - if kept clean - does a fine job. I've tried to handle this painting task with an airbrush but it produced way too many headaches; it just wasn't very efficient time-wise and when the paint consistency was right for creating a consistent application on the silkspan, the airbrush nozzle would clog. Airbrushes are great for certain modeling tasks, coloring silkspan isn't one of them. On color uniformity - indeed, I suspect that most sails were pretty "raggedy" as well as dingy-looking, this estimation by judging from paintings of the era. Typical sails also had a patch work of random fixes. A typical Royal Navy warship provisioned many rolls of sailcloth for repairs. If a sailing ship lost it's means of propulsion, the crew were in deep doo-doo. It should be pretty evident to most forum reader's of my log that I'm creating a diorama that will attempt to portray realism. I've purposefully created my Camilla model with this in-mind. It's a fine line as I've mentioned previously. For example, one can easily overdo the "weathering" of various elements. I try to put the "realism" mostly into sails as well as the portrayal of the sea; a little lower in artistic priority in this regard, is the model itself.

That's some crazy small stuff, Eric. Good job getting those stairs to look even. The companionways look good too.

🤣🤣🤣 ...James' purgatory will be documented in The Poor James' Almanac.

Onward on sailmaking, and more granularity. Today's task: coloring the silkspan. Sheets of "naked" silkspan. Clipped to a temporary clothesline in my garage. This material is highly translucent but it is also somewhat POROUS. I learned the hard way that coloring silkspan by placing it on a flat surface is NOT a good idea - and contrary to my earlier descriptions of this coloring step. Even using the lightest finger touch to the spray nozzle, sticky paint would randomly pool and cause the painted silkspan to stick to any underlayment if you didn't immediately lift the painted silkspan up and away from the surface: not good. In fact, this often results in a real hassle and there had to be a better way to color the material. Yes, one COULD hand color (paint brush or airbrush) the acrylic color but the result would likely be the same with the paint causing the silkspan to randomly stick to whatever surface was beneath it. Also, it shouldn't take more than a hot minute to fully paint the two large sheets (on one side only) as I've shown here... The paint for coloring the silkspan is Liquitex Unbleached Titanium; this acrylic paint is available in bottles and tubes but for prepping the large sheets of silkspan as previously described, the spray can is the way to go. I like the color: the only sails that appear snowy white are 21st century, contemporary synthetic ones you can purchase for your sailboat at Marine Outfitters. Another lesson learned in my experimentation: after tossing away a nearly full can of the expensive paint ($11.00/can at Michael's and other artist supply vendors), I learned about the Liquitex spray can Cap Cleaner. The thick paint will clog the plastic nozzle unless you clear it immediately after using it. The solution: simply remove the spray can's nozzle and swap it over to the separate Cap Cleaner can, turn upside down and squirt a couple squirts. Bingo! the paint nozzle is now clear and ready to spritz again, another day. One sheet of painted silkspan (enough for nearly all my Camilla's sails (fore and aft sides). In 92 degree heat, and after spray painting, the material was dry after about 3 milliseconds ( I exaggerate: it actually took about 30 seconds.) The small clamps at the bottom of the sheets are important: the silkspan will move around wildly with the slightest air movement. Unfortunately, this paint is also very odiferous (nasty smelling chemicals) and you don't want to spray it anywhere inside your shop unless you have an industrial grade paint booth. And No, this isn't my bedroom's temporarily moved mattress - however, the whiteness of the mattress does show a decent contrast to the unbleached Titanium color of the silkspan - kind of looks like "dirty laundry," and a near perfect color (IMHO) for depicting slightly weathered 18th-century canvas sails. I try to coat the silkspan with an even amount of spray, however there will inevitably be spots where the spray painting will overlap to create a lightly mottled look; to my eye this doesn’t matter. The effect of this can be seen in this photo. The slight tonal variations are acceptable to me and whenI hold a portion of the painted silkspan over my sail template and it doesn’t look as consistent as I’d like, I’ll just select a different portion of the material to mount to the paper. The long sheet of painted silkspan hanging in my garage has been brought into my shop and placed on top of a sail template on my drafting light table. The painted silkspan is fully dried after a couple minutes. I’ve placed it on only half of the sail layout to show how dramatic the color change is with a very subtle “crème” hued coloration. The colored material will now be cut into appropriately-sized smaller sheets and mounted to both sides of each sail's layout paper. I'll indicate what adhesives in my next step in the next update where the sails get trimmed to size and various sail reinforcements are also affixed. The calipers?...I was double-checking some rope diameters that I'll use for the sail's bolt ropes and cringles. Evidence that it really was 91 degrees (in the shade) in my garage when I did this sailmaking silkspan painting. Luckily, I had a glass of icy cold lemonade at the ready. And, my neighbors are likely wondering what this is all about...

Yep, that's me demonstrating my sailmaking technique at a Northeast Ship Modeler's Conference workshop in 2019 ( I displayed my HMS Swan diorama at the same event). Thanks to AZZOUN, a colleague of mine from the PSMS Club for posting this video that's on my club's PSMS site; I'd forgotten about it! Here's the direct link to the video made by Azzoun: https://www.philadelphiashipmodelsociety.com/presentations/ Unfortunately, more recent archived NRG Journal articles aren't available on the NRG's site at this time; the issue archives stop at Volume #60 (2015). Earlier issues are available to purchase on both CD's and USB flashdrives. Also, on the NRG site, under the "Resources" Menu Tab, the sub-menu "Articles & How-To's" has various helpful references for ship modelers but nothing specific on sailmaking. My NRG Journal articles for both sailmaking (as well as making diorama water) could be posted in this section, but at the moment they are in suspended animation. Perhaps this NRG section will be updated in the future.

You are welcome. I intend to cover all the same steps I outlined in my NRJ article here. In fact, I’ll have some other additional details to share since the entire process is quite involved and I couldn’t cover everything in an article that’s limited to “X” words (and “N” pics). As I explain the steps I’ll show the materials so others that want realistic sails on their model can make them too. Nothing too exotic involved, nothing costly. Thanks for looking-in.

B.E., your Herculean (and sometimes Sisyphean) efforts with these... little boats ...are to be applauded. 👏 As you may recall, I checked-out on attempting to make any of these small boats and went for scratching a "custom," Chris' 3D-printed, clinker boat. You, my MSW friend, are also a master of understatement.

Thank you, much appreciated. When I first attempted to make silkspan sails I ran into problems trying to only use silkspan. Firstly, silkspan's .0015 thickness is very fragile and trying to draw reference and cloth lines easily ripped holes in the material. The lines are mandatory to indicate the cloth panels. Secondly, if I managed to get the cloth lines drawn on TWO layers (two required to give the sail some "heft" so that it would convincingly hang from its spar) it still wasn't enough to do the job and the silkspan just appeared "limp", unconvincing. Experimenting with various mediums to stiffen the material only caused more fabrication problems. I was over-thinking the silkspan problem when a good solution was readily at-hand. You are partially correct: yes, simple white bond copier paper solved all of the handling issues and is inexpensive - and if only one piece is used (.003 thk), it's semi-transparent - important to portraying a sail, particularly large ones. I will state that my sails are principally made of cheap paper. Silkspan adds critical TEXTURE as well as convincing COLOR. The base bond paper is really a drafted template for fabricating the complete sail. All these factors are crucial to my particular approach. The paper is quite tough, particularly after it's been laminated with the silkspan; holes can be punched (robands) without tear-out. Leech and foot lines (which hide .28 gauge annealed wire in a tabling edge paper fold-over) become substantial and permit an erzatz bolt rope to be positioned on the edges. Even clue cringles can be better created with a base material that won't easily rip apart owing to the laminated paper. This was long-winded, I know. However, your question really required a quite detailed answer because it isn't immediately obvious why one needs to have three layers with my approach to sailmaking. As an NRG member you may have ready reference to an article I authored in the NRJ 63-4 issue (2018)* about this technique I'm describing here. There are some step-by-step graphics in the article. Please stay tuned. The next stage will be prepping the silkspan and applying it over the base paper layouts and then applying the liners and tablings with the same material, but in a slightly different "canvas" color.. .After this step comes "wiring" and sealing up the sail's edges and then adding reef points. *HMS Swan; Part 2: Making realistic "Set" sails for the HMS Swan Diorama.

Thanks, B.E. When talking to members of the public about the model-in-process it helped to point to the Swan. It was a good day, but tré HOT. A steady, cooling breeze wafted across the wide Delaware and kept things manageable aboard the steel monster. Next year I'm lobbying for the event to move to September for our club. We had more modellers than public attendees (another reason to shift the event), but that was fine since it still drew many builders who were present with a myriad of well-crafted vessels.

Sailmaking for HMS Camilla begins. The balance of her rigging (clues, tacks,braces) is purposefully in abeyance until her sails are ready to be mounted. Camilla will carry nine (9) "set" sails. By "set" I mean they will be shown as working sails, shaped to show the effect of the ship's movement across the water. My sailmaking process begins with pencil layouts for each sail drawn on #20 lb. white photocopy paper - bog standard - at .003 thick. To the bond paper layout shown here I'll affix two (2) "skins" (layers) of .0015 silkspan later in the process. Using this technique, the combined thickness of the sail layers is approximately .005-006. This resulting thickness permits a good approximation of a sail's scale thickness (at 1:64) and makes for a manageable component that can be readily affixed to the ship's spars. Other detail elements are marked on this layout for tabling/linings, bolt ropes, cringles, etc. The sail will be shaped on both leeches and at the foot later in the process after bolt ropes, reef points and cringles have been created/attached. I've layed out the full outline of the Main Topsail (in it's familiar trapezoidal shape); an additional 4mm outer reference line has been added to the outline at both leeches and at the foot (more on this later too). Sundry reference pencil marks for the addition of linings, reef point reinforcements, cringles and bunt positions, etc. have also been added. The layout paper is lying on a thin LED light tablet that is large enough to accommodate the layout for the majority of my model's sails. The light on the table is dimmable which is a nice feature. The diagonal, parchment-toned piece is a leftover scrap of colored silkspan from a previous model to check its transparency against the pencil lines that make up the sail (fabric "cloths"); these lines need to be consistent and visible on both sides of the sail. The cloths indicated here are roughly 8mm and this equates to about 24" wide (at full size). NOTE: the cloth lines are drawn on BOTH SIDES of the bond paper since the bond paper will be "sandwiched" between two layers of colored silkspan. I continue with using metric measurements in this stage of my build. I use an HB lead pencil (mechanical as shown) and attempt to draw the cloth lines as evenly and consistently as possible. In this close-up, the cloth lines are visible through a layer of colored silkspan and reasonably consistent. It's easy to get these lines either too dark - or too faint. The placement of the mast cloth liner is indicated at the top of the layout as is the upper reef point tabling (on the side). This sail will have eleven (11) robands. These are the lines that will "bend" (mount) the sail to the yard when it's completed; the spar mounting points are shown with dots along the top of the sail layout. When the sail is completed, the last thing I do to prep it for mounting is to use a pointed (and very sharp) awl to poke tiny holes through the finished sail edge and then thread precut ropes into the roband holes. In practice there would be roughly twice the number but I feel my reduced count works fine. After all the sails have been drafted on this white bond paper, I proceed with prepping and coloring large sheets of silkspan that will be subsequently cut to adequate sizes for lamination to the bond paper layouts. Drafting all the sails will take a couple days of work and is quite exacting, and thus- some eye fatigue results. My mostly-rigged, in-progress HMS Camilla on display this past weekend at an event hosted by my model ship club, the Philadelphia Ship Model Society. The one day model ship display event (ModelCon 2022) was held on the fantail of the Battleship New Jersey (BB 62), a historic heritage venue on the Delaware River at Camden, New Jersey. To demonstrate how I'll present HMS Camilla when she's completed, I brought an earlier model of HMS Swan, a model I built in 2018. Syren Ship Model's Chuck Passaro's superb Admiralty-styled Navy Board model of HMS Winchelsea -1764 was also on board the Battleship for the event. The Ship Model Society of New Jersey also participated in the one day show for the public as did the Hampton Roads, VA and Washington, D.C. clubs. Many MSW members are building this excellent scratch project and build logs abound! The view from dockside at the Battleship New Jersey. It's HUGE. The club sign is 8' long. There were over 100 models of all types on display, everything from many excellent steel navy models, a handful of period sailing vessels as well as a bunch of R/C models - including an R/C submarine. One of my favorite models at the August 6 Saturday Show, the party boat "AQUAHOLIC." In addition to the fisherman at the stern (and the bathing beauties), Miami Vice's two 80's stars can be seen hanging out on the upper deck. These two dudes are keeping a sharp eye out for the Bad Guys who want to party on this boat too.

Thanks,Glenn, you’re too kind! Yep, those shiny, plastics thinggies from the turn of the last century…I LOVE them. When in my shop I load five of ‘em into my 5-disc player from a huge library and I’m set for 5 + hours with my rapidly accessed, hand-selected “playlist.” The bigger reason for CD’s is that Most streaming sources are mediocre quality, including Spotify. I avoid all streaming if possible since the audio quality from CD’s is considerably better ( I am a musician and retired from a pro audio career and am fortunate to have a recording studio playback system in my shop). That’s my CD story and I’m sticking to it -🎸🎶 💿 = 🥰

Thanks B.E. Pennypincher does look a lot like Jack Aubrey. My CD of the Master & Commander soundtrack was in the background when I was painting this tiny gentleman. Subliminal? Probably not.🥴 Thanks, Ben. Capt. P. IS impressed. He especially likes the first-rate rigging rope...

HMS Camilla's Captain Pennypincher finally showed up at quayside to see if everything is shipshape. He's getting anxious to go prize hunting... A few photos of rigging progress. The clews & tacks (and a couple braces) will be rigged after sails have been mounted to her yards. Otherwise, all standing and most of her running rigging has been completed. I like to place figures on many of my models: Camilla will have only one, seen here. Captain Pennypincher is anxious to get into the Channel to see some action: "I can't wait to see what her new-fangled 12-pounder carronades will do." Pennypincher will walk his fancy shoes on the deck after I remove the superb little figure's 3D printed base. I'm hoping to add silver paint to his shoe buckles after the base is removed. However, I'm a little nervous that my 0000 brush isn't small enough to do this job. Soiled stockings...clean cravat, impeccable waistcoat. This 3D printed resin figure from Chris is approximately 28mm tall and very accurately scaled for 1:64. Pennypincher is from a hyphenated surname, aristocratic family and stands quite tall at about 6'1"... "Where'd my crew go?" "Did they mutiny?!" "That's not fair play!...however, I alone will now get to keep all the prize money for myself!" "My disloyal crew? I say, 'bugger-off you sodden tars, you should have trusted your Captain.'" Sails await. A good 2-3 weeks lie ahead to accomplish this final part of my ship build. My rigging still allows reasonable access for bending her sails. Running the sail management lines is always a challenge since these are literally the last ropes and there just isn't any other way to run these lines earlier in the build. Many of the sail lines will be belayed to spots that will require a special set of long rigging tools that can reach into the tight spots.

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Here, here. A shout out for James. Bravo! B.E.

Yep. I, for one, would not like higher latency; "tech talk" for the "go slows." No, Thanks. One of the reasons (IMHO) that MSW is so popular is that it is extremely fast - partly owing to a minimum of ads (and rollover nonsense). The small banner ads from our sponsors take only a miniscule amount of data. The ability of members to post large graphics files (build logs, gallery, etc.) is key; the email server on the forum is nice icing on our tasty cake. Going without our FREE forum for such a short period of time is a good reminder of its value.

A Warm Welcome from a MSW modeler in Pennsylvania. You've found the best place on the internet for support and expertise on ship model making.

I suggest keeping the cranes but adding the safety ropes will be necessary, otherwise they may look peculiar and draw attention away from other impressive aspects of your model. You may want to consider mounting only one boat (Pinnace) should you retain the cranes. My entirely unsolicited recommendation. Whatever the final decision, I'm certain you'll decide on a complementary outcome. I'll be interested to see how you choose to present your beautiful model.

The NRG (our forum’s parent) notified their members when MSW went down.