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Kevin-the-lubber

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  1. Kevin-the-lubber
    Reminds me of a pearl of wisdom shared by one of my senior co-workers years ago, when I worked in precision sheetmetal. I remarked that he always got things right first time, never seemed to have to remake anything. He smiled and said 'the only difference between you and me is I hide my mistakes better'.
  2. Kevin-the-lubber
    Me too. I'm fascinated to see where 3D takes modelling. I kind of wish I was about 30 or 40 years younger, young enough to seek my fortune in this field, because there will be young guns who can do in a day what I can only do in a month. Go on Yves, give us a clue 😁
  3. Kevin-the-lubber
    I really don’t mind being confused with Marc either, I’ll happily take all the credit for his painting, but the mistakes (are there any?) are all his 😀. For what its’ worth, switching to the Cutty is the best thing I’ve done recently. I’m enjoying it a lot, largely I think because it’s a good balance between designing (all 3D for me of course), making and painting, so although all the bits are still in the factory, so to speak, I’m seeing it steadily grow without it ever feeling like doing the same thing day after day. I think if I’d slogged on with the Victory stern for much longer, the frustrations might have seen me call it a day. I’ll go back to it eventually, but just a bit at a time. I suspect I might find the same is true when I reach the rigging stage for the Cutty. I have no experience of this at all, half-dread it, but if so I’ll just start something new and rig bit by bit, as and when. I guess most of us are seeing dementia at close quarters now. My hope is that it’s not a torment for those afflicted, that somehow there is still pleasure in life.
  4. Kevin-the-lubber
    Thanks Rob, it looks like right here is the knowledge base and the build logs are invaluable as well as inspirational. And although I’m sure this was understood anyway, I meant no criticism of Michaels drawings, not least because I haven’t even seen them yet (but have now sourced the book). 3D is a funny old fish. It’s quite enjoyable to see something come to life on the screen but most of the challenge is in finding ways to make that printable and at the quality / detail you want. Which like everything in life becomes a little easier with practice and experience. Anyway, I have some reading to do, and a ship or two to progress before I get carried away on this.
  5. Kevin-the-lubber
    Thanks both. I’ve read about half of this log so far, so have picked up on the interesting discussion about the true profiles. If I was to attempt this as a largely 3D project it would be both long and a labour of love so it would be as well to try to make it as true to the real thing as possible. Is Michael Mjelde‘s drawing a ‘good enough’ representation of the basic hull or a bit of a blind alley? Noting the discussion earlier that the entrance was much more angled? Are there better plans out there? I suppose not, otherwise half this log wouldn’t exist. I doubt I’d start this any time soon by the way.
  6. Kevin-the-lubber
    A use for those 0.5mm wires that come with the Victory. I sense that getting this 'just so' will be fun.
  7. Kevin-the-lubber
    Couldn't agree more. I couldn't find walnut at the art shop so got some windsor & newton peat brown and nut brown, think peat is the darker of the two, which is what I've used so far. I especially like the way it 'spots' and settles into the slightest surface blemish, creating an illusion of texture. I'll try the lighter colour when I paint the roofs white, see if that picks out the plank lines without making the rest muddy.
  8. Kevin-the-lubber
    Rob, is that a Glory plan in the background and, if so, where could I get that? Since starting the Cutty I'm taken by the beauty of clippers and the Glory in particular, and fancy this being the one where I perhaps try to model it entirely for 3D printing. I love those masts, such an interesting profile.
  9. Kevin-the-lubber
    Having got the deck sorted out I've started working my way through the furniture. Originally I only intended to remake those parts which weren't so good in the kit but so far I've only used the hull! This is in part because Revell use a lot of half rounds for location pins, to stop us putting things on back to front, whereas printed parts usually need holes reamed out to size and it's as easy to remake the part as mess around filing. I'm sure I'll still use some of the fiddly bits though. In the end I went for printing the deck flat on the FDM printer in the background as this gave the most satisfactory plank lines. All the pink stuff is resin printed, anything brown is filament. Horses for courses, and I've regained an appreciation of FDM. It certainly has it's place. I think there are probably enough shaped objects on the deck to pull it to the slight curved shape (it goes quite easily) but if not, I'll put some FDM printed curved beams underneath. The final photo is my first practice at weathering on a test print. I like this colouring, I know it's not at all true to life but it floats my boat. I silently thanked Marc many times for the inking tip, such a good medium for giving light and shade and so forgiving. Neither am I being too religious about accuracy or fidelity regarding the parts. I've made the aft cabin portholes a little larger, likewise the skylight panes, just 'cos it's my model and I'll jolly well do whatever I like 🙂. Once all the deck work is done I may think about some furnishings for the cabins, since I've opened the doors, and a false lower deck with something interesting down there, for depth and interest, leaving the hatch covers off.
  10. Kevin-the-lubber
    Meshmixer... you're doing better than me, that programme is still a dark art to me. But apparently very very good when you know how to use it. These were a very simple and quick job in F360, it honestly only took about 10 or 15 minutes, so if Meshmixer doesn't give you what you want I'll happily modify at this end. Just post a sketch or message me.
  11. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'm easily distracted.... and a bit bored with what I'm doing today 🙂. You should be able to print these in FDM, probably want to put some supports for the side holes. I have no idea what these look like in the flesh so did one with a bottom, one without, and the F360 file is there too in case you have someone to tweak it. smoke float.zip
  12. Kevin-the-lubber
    Yes Bill, it works well. I've fiddled around with it over the last week or two, to see what works best i.e. line width, built in curve or flat and curve it with beams underneath afterwards, and settled on the latter the other day.
  13. Kevin-the-lubber
    Now I know what you mean. Nicely spotted.
  14. Kevin-the-lubber
    That's mighty impressive metalwork to do by hand, and this is coming from a former precision metalworker. If I saw that in the flesh I would believe it to have been bought, and expensively so. I'm still struggling to figure out what a metal folder tab is though. I can't think of anything from a filing cabinet etc that fits the bill.
  15. Kevin-the-lubber
    That would make sense. Good luck with the next attempt. It seems ironic that these fantastic tech developments land in our lap but we are immediately pushing at their limits. I hardly ever seem to have something that is just 'mouse click, mouse click, mouse click', done.
  16. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'm equally lazy about leaving resin in the tank in between printing sessions though not for months! I just give it a good stir and hope for the best. I rarely have sticking failures these days except where it is entirely my own fault i.e. over-optimistic supporting or object orientation, and I put this down to the resin being good and just using the recommended settings rather than messing around with these. I've only done one print with the anycubic resin and found the result horrible, very similar to my one experiment with the elegoo water washable; poor surface finish compared to the elegoo ABS and sirayatech. But that may be that I didn't change my settings so I will give it a better test presently, otherwise I'll have to slowly use it up by adding a tiny bit of it to other resins over the next few months, bit by bit. Far too expensive to just throw away! For your parts I would probably happily use elegoo ABS as the curling only really becomes an issue on bigger parts - all of my victory stern parts were printed using the elegoo abs, though when I go back to it I'll also try the transom and quarter gallery bodies in siraya, as curling remains a bit of a problem and non abs is too brittle. For what it's worth, the window bars on my stern are 0.3 and I use medium supports around the frame and thin on the bars, but I do have the advantage that they cross over in the middle so have a bit more support. But, if I remember rightly, the wispy decor on the lower counter is only 0.2 and I also supported this. getting the supports off without breaking the part is the hard bit. I make the supports quite long, about 10 mm, and snip them at the bottom, then tease them off the part. Oh yes, I've also learned that with very delicate parts it can be better to leave them to dry out for a day or two after washing, and then cure. That seems to result in less curling. And clearance is essential, as you know - the slightest interference will make small bits bow. One possible thought; if they warp after printing this would only be that the frame is shrinking very slightly; maybe you could either restrain it during drying, or pull it back when glue-ing in place?
  17. Kevin-the-lubber
    Daniel, how thin are the bars? I've been experimenting a bit with resins last month as I've only ever used Elegoo ABS over the last year and, good as it is, it does tend to warp post-printing. Recently I've been using SirayaTech Fast, which is more or less the same price, and I like it a lot. Much less warping and not as brittle as Elegoo Standard. And much, much nicer than Anycubic standard. May be worth a try if you haven't already.
  18. Kevin-the-lubber
    That's the thing. Give me a drawing, even a bad one, and I can see the end object. Give me a piece of wood and I see... a log for the fire? Astro photography... been wondering whether to go in that direction. The eyes alone just aren't good enough now, even with one each of a fairly decent 6" refractor and 6" reflector. Though I don't like the cold that much anymore, nor staying awake until the small hours. Hence modelling 🙂
  19. Kevin-the-lubber
    For the likes of me, who lack the patience, skills and confidence to do what you do, 3D is a godsend. But I can tell you with absolute certainty that I got far more pleasure and satisfaction when I used to make bigger things, like garden furniture, cabinets etc, the traditional way, especially if it involved a bit of creative recycling. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the 3D side at all, far from it, but it’s not the same.
  20. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'm always hugely impressed by you craftspeople who do this by hand, I certainly couldn't and I suspect that, well done, it gives a better end result than other methods. But, I'm not so sure that statement is true any more, with 3D printing becoming so popular. Small example below, which is at 1/96; this took me around 20 minutes on the computer. It probably takes about an hour to print, but I can print a whole load of other things simultaneously; and if I get it a little wrong or just don't like it, I can tweak the design or re-print in a few minutes. Is it as rewarding, satisfying? I don't really know as I haven't yet built a wood model, let alone a scratch build ship. I suspect not. (The strange top bit is the printing support, like a sprue, left on while painting) I absolutely love this model, by the way. Elegant, statuesque are words that spring to mind. When I read that you'd previously used the revell cutty sark as a base for an earlier one, for a nanosecond I thought oooh, as I'm still early enough in mine of the same to look at that, but quickly reined that daft thought in. So I'll just pull up a chair, join the audience and enjoy reading the remaining 79 pages.
  21. Kevin-the-lubber
    What an interesting and fun project. It was mainly the O’Brien books that inspired me to start modelling again, some sort of late middle-age crisis/homage. I can’t offer a shred of knowledge here, even about the book series, which I’ve read twice, as I have the memory of a goldfish. But I’ll enjoy seeing it develop and the lively discourse around details that mostly go straight over my head!
  22. Kevin-the-lubber
    Things of beauty nonetheless. Those deck plates in the second photo - that was what I was talking about many posts back.
  23. Kevin-the-lubber
    Wow, I don't think I've ever seen any structure with that much welding distortion! I think you're right to knock that back a bit.
  24. Kevin-the-lubber
    Very impressive model Yves. A bit late now, but I’ve had good results FDM printing a planked deck for my Cutty Sark by designing in the lines with a 0.2 width x 0.3 depth. That is also quite tedious but probably less so than laying a floor, though I think yours may ultimately look better.
  25. Kevin-the-lubber
    I probably should have made it my first to begin with, it's a little easier than the Victory, so long as I don't go too mad with remakes. The range of ships in this scale is a bit limited, isn't it, and whatever you go for first you're likely to end up with a few challenges.

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