Kevin-the-lubber
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Everything posted by Kevin-the-lubber
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Lovely stuff. I made the Wasa a few years back, while helping my daughter make the Revell Viking ship for homework (i.e. I made it, she stuck the decals on the shields 🙂 ). Made a dreadful job of the Wasa but it whetted my appetite for modelling proper, and here I am. All of yours look fantastic, the Mayflower in particular looks very elegant with the white hull. Fully succumbed today, bought the Cutty Sark cheap on ebay, which I'll probably do as a hybrid of CS and Thermopylae. And it was the Beagle rather than Bounty I bought earlier this week, though apparently it's just the Bounty in disguise. As that only cost £20 that'll probably be the 'for fun' project, something to experiment and learn on without worrying too much about the end result. -
Compliments to Mrs Bill, that's some very fine needlework. And I meant 'furled' of course, not 'curled'. Blasted spell-checkers.
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Looks entirely logical, with my engineering hat on my head. Both of those models look very nicely done. The sails on the CS look great, are they self made or from the kit? I’m planned on mine being curled, but that’s way down the line. I have a tutorial somewhere by Maurice Wilcox (AKA Blue Ensign), which I think he included in his log for his very beautiful HMS Pegasus, using tissue for that look. I half-succumbed and bought a Revell 1/96 Bounty yesterday - it was going ridiculously cheap and even comes with a laser cut deck.
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Somewhere on this site, in the last 2 or 3 months, there was a thread (no pun intended) on rigging and the use of various media to glue coils, end etc. (I really must start bookmarking these things). Anyway, I think one of the advantages of using a matt nail varnish sealer/topcoat (rather than for instance CA) to hold a rope shape was that it looked more natural, was more or less invisible. So, if it was me, I'd try printing up a little former to get the shape I want, see if a wet rope will dry to shape wrapped around this and then try the nail varnish thing. Something like this below. Your ship looks stunning. I'm resisting for now, I know I'd get just as sidetracked doing a Thermopylae (love that green hull), but it's something to look forward to.
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The constitution is on my list, along with the cutty sark/Thermopylae, in fact I came close to buying the latter this week as something easier and quicker to do when I need a break from victory. The constitution seems very hard to get hold of here in the UK and ridiculously expensive for a plastic kit. However, what you’re suggesting sounds like a decent plan. Personally I’ll probably take liberties when I come to this stage, as I’m going for appearance over accuracy. It’s weird, isn’t it, that Heller took the trouble to make what is generally seen as the finest plastic large scale age of sail model, but did such a shocker of a job on the instructions. And no-one would bother writing a step by step guide for re-sale now, as they’d be pirated within days.
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Sorry Bill, I'm confusing the issue, I was looking at the wrong area of the hull and in any case was wrong. I'm pretty sure all of those rectangular slots are for the chain plates. I was thinking of the angled, oval shaped slots as I've seen ropes running through these in build logs but having just gone to the workshop see there is only one of those in each side whereas I thought there were more. I think this is why everyone seems to say ignore the instructions for rigging and use e.g. longridge to figure it out. Myself, I think when I get to this stage I'll dry fit everything to the hull that has to go on, see what holes remain unused, and just try to logic out the rope lines.
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Those Heller instructions are baffling. Logically, both of those lower ends (entry points) would have to be tied off for the pulley system to work, then the upper loose end goes through the rectangular hole to a cleat on the main deck (I assume).
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Bill, I'll leave it to other, more qualified people to advise properly as I'm nowhere near even looking at bits of string, but there are some good photos on Paul Bishops build log https://modelshipworld.com/topic/14614-hms-victory-by-bishophobbies-heller-1100-finished/?tab=comments#comment-676378 that may help. Plus an observation, though I may be misunderstanding what you've described and shown: I'd read Longridge to be saying the rope only passes through the hull once, through the 'leaded hole' which in this instance looks likely to be the oblong hole above the main deck. The remainder are attached to the outside of the hull via eyebolts, which is logical as you wouldn't have it running inside under the quarter deck.. Does the kit have that 'main sheet block bracket' he mentions, Fig 55, that keeps the block clear of the hull? I don't see it in the instructions. (Like I said, at this rate you'll be rigging by Christmas!)
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So an older kit is probably better than a new one. I may just do a saved searched on eBay and wait for an old kit to come up. I don’t really want to feel I must re-make a lot of parts via 3D printing, at least not at the moment, because that would just be more of the same as I’m doing with the Heller Victory. After a while that becomes quite boring. I’ve never tried a real wood model, not sure I have the skills for that!
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Yes, them’s the chaps. I’ve played with the free version of zbrushcoremini previously and, as it is just sculpting I want to do, for resin printing, I’ll have another look at it. And thanks, I may well come back to you with some really basic questions if you don’t mind. I was the same with fusion, once I understood a few fundamentals it all came easy.
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Are you familiar with the Victory? Actually, this is common to many ships, but on Victory there are two figurines forming part of the figurehead at the bow, and two more in relief on the stern. While the overall sizes need to be fairly accurate, certainly to within 0.5mm, that’s the only important dimensional parameter. Right now I’m looking to do the stern figurines using the Forms function in F360 as I at least know how to begin with that, but even there I suspect i’ll spend many, many hours of being frustrated and fed up! I won’t even try to do those for the bow until and unless I can get my head around a proper sculpting package like Blender. BTW, I’m not at all hinting at ‘could you do them for me’, I could buy them easily and cheaply enough, but would much rather learn how to do it myself so that, at the end of the day, I have the satisfaction of knowing ‘I made that’.
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Ditto the weathered decks, I really like what you’ve done there. Bill, your log is going to be absolutely invaluable for me and probably many others, as it’s shaping into a true step-by-step walk through. Back at the beginning, before I got side-tracked by 3D, I was positively worried that I’d get the assembly sequence wrong and be unable to rig properly, etc, and I don’t think I found any other log that did what you’re doing. Especially one that raises and resolves the many head-scratchers along the way. So, keep it up! (I also eventually remembered the wrap-around gubbins (technical term) that hide the gap between the heads and hull, and, when I last dry fitted the bow, thinking I’d need to take a lot of care there to ensure good alignment).
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Alternate Views
Kevin-the-lubber replied to Patrick Matthews's topic in CAD and 3D Modelling/Drafting Plans with Software
Now that I’m maybe 9 months into F360 I’m finding it pretty good on the whole. There are some terrible ‘traps’ you can fall into, that will have you turning the air blue, like patterning in sketches (it hates that and will freeze at will) and cack-handed copy and paste functionality, but other features, such as sheet metal, that are godsends. I still haven’t got a grasp on forms, but know it’ll come. On reflection, I’d say it has a short steep initial learning curve, after which you’ll be able to do a lot of stuff, and then a long, long, steady incline as you learn how to do things more effectively. Patrick, why do you say it’s poor for hull lofting? I’ve seen your work, which is fantastic, and you seem to have successfully lofted your hulls. I don’t have anything that I can compare against so maybe there are better platforms out there, but the lofting, sweeps, spiralling etc functionality seems pretty good to me. -
I may be wrong but I don’t think it would be that difficult to model that propellor blade in F360. Provided you know the angle of twist and dimensions, it should be fairly straightforward via lofting through a series of profiles on offset planes, using splined rails to maintain the constant curve along the blade length. How true it would be to the genuine thing would be down to how accurately it’s dimensioned in the modelling, but I’ve done comparable shapes recently without too much trouble. I hadn’t heard of delftship until now, one to look at when I’m back on a pc.
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Hi Kurtis, I’m intrigued - you’re doing all this in Blender? Even after several attempts at learning the absolute basics, I cannot figure out that programme. Any suggestions on good beginners tutorials? I’d like to be able to model figures that are dimensionally accurate. I use F360 a lot but it can be heavy going on stuff that, I’m sure, is a breeze in blender.
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Hi, interested to see you progress this. I’ve thought about doing a whole hull and, presently, will play around with small boats as I think I’ve probably learned F360 well enough for that now.
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I too stumbled across your log just this morning - I saw a part-built kit going cheap on eBay, hadn’t realised it’s available as a 1:96 (the smallest scale I’ll ever use!). Very nice work there. How do you rate the kit in terms of quality, fit accuracy etc? Like you I don’t mind doing a bit of resin printed part replacement.
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Do you mean the gap in the bows? If so, mine was like that OOTB, but these days, for dry-fitting, I have a couple of strong elastic bands running across the bow, hooked through the first set of gunports. This made it pull in and meet, and the decks now look fairly snug. I’m pretty sure this plastic moves with time as I remember going through all sorts of daft hoops to try to get them to meet when I first started the kit. These days they come together quite easily and I’m sure will be fine once everything is glued up. if you mean the piece you’re offering up, mines’ the same so it must be by design. I’ve noted to self, previously, that it doesn’t seem to ‘snap’ into place in any way.
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I'm sure you've read them, Bill, everyone on here seems to have done so, but in case not, Patrick O'Brians Aubrey/Maturin series should get you into the mood and the Bolitho series is pretty good too. Come to think of it, it must be a good two years since I finished re-reading O'Brian, feels like time to do it again!
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Yes, that's the plan. I think there's a fair chance I won't use that much of the kit (2 kits actually), just use the parts for reference and sell them off on ebay when I don't need them anymore. I'm sure plenty of people have 'oh no!' moments where a spare part would save the day. It's proven to be a bit expensive while learning but that's just one of those things - if I'd foreseen the end cost I'd probably never have even started the ship and definitely not gone into 3D, but in the event it's given me a new interest so I don't really mind. What's bringing you to Scotland? Vacation, relatives? Been before?
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Currently I’m trying to stick to an old discipline I learned as a tradesman - do the most difficult things first, leave the easy stuff until last. So, I’m working on the scrolls, figurine and trophy (the hardest parts) before going back to the side windows, balustrades and decor, which I already have a proven methodology for. It’s a long, steady learning curve but I’m sure it’ll all pay off down the line and stuff like a new side entrance should be relatively easy when I come to it.
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That’ll be worth a go. And if it doesn’t work out I’ll have a plentiful supply of slug barriers for the garden!
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I like the look of the taped bottom a lot but I've always had it in mind to have the green-ish/blue-ish patina effect, which I think looks beautiful on models. I guess I'll buy some tape and ageing solution and play around.
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Sat in a very dull online meeting - my workshop is also my office these days - so here you go. Most of them are through holes so I expect are visible from the inside. Photos (12).zip
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No problem, I’ll do that this evening. On a scale of 1 - 10, how difficult was it to do the coppering?
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