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Kevin-the-lubber

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Everything posted by Kevin-the-lubber

  1. Kevin-the-lubber
    There’s a very good thread here about painting to look like metal https://modelshipworld.com/topic/35788-painting-resin-printed-cannon-bronze-color/. I’ve used Vallejo metallic bronze and their Verdi Gris to reasonably good effect but I’m not in the same league as some of the stuff in that thread.
  2. Kevin-the-lubber
    The cannons look much better with the trunnions moved. Though the barrels look very long for the girth and carriages. Are they true to history, Hellers best guess or recycled moulds from another kit? The original trunnion positions are very odd. By coincidence, I’ve been plodding away on the Victory’s cannons and carriages for what feels like several decades now, though in reality it’s just since Christmas. As you infer, it’s strangely relaxing and absorbing, isn’t it. No major head scratching, just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
  3. Kevin-the-lubber
    Although I haven't been commenting I've been following with interest and this is a fantastic achievement Bill. Not only is it a great looking build, your work rate is incredible and you're making it look easy. On top of which, here we have another build log that I'm sure will become the go-to for many that follow.
  4. Kevin-the-lubber
    Daniel, assuming you're talking about the 'hull planking tests', that isn't warping, they were meant to be curved. I don't remember why I chose a concave rather than convex curve, probably for no reason at all as, at that stage, I just wanted to see if I could make a disguised joint. However I have PLENTY of experience of parts distorting as you mention. The stern base plate was very bad for this. I think it's probably because of more material on one side than another i.e. differences in surface area. I've found this doesn't matter if you glue parts together fairly soon after printing, however it's something I'll look at again when I resume work on the stern. When I was working on it previously I had all but abandoned filament printing but over the last couple of years have been learned that you can solve many problems by combining these technologies.
  5. Kevin-the-lubber
    That's another thing. There are a ton of parts that bulk it out, many of which most people are going to discard. Hundreds of blocks, deadeyes etc. Maybe 600 - 700 pieces for the cannons. It goes without saying that I'll make my own blocks, in fact I did those ages ago, and I've also done my own cannons and carriages, largely to minimise the repetition. Once you set aside all that lot, you're left with a beautiful, hugely interesting set of challenges or mini-kits. When I parked it a couple of years back I literally put it all in a big box and stuck it away in a cupboard (much as I've now done with my cutty sark) and when I re-opened the box three or four weeks back, I was once again struck by the quality.
  6. Kevin-the-lubber
    Oh, that's an interesting approach, I wouldn't have thought of using white, but I will now. I'm very deliberately not even looking at the stern right now as I know it will be another mammoth undertaking to finish that off. I'm currently on cannons (done) and carriages (half done). They take hours, don't they. No pics yet as this is a very ordinary thing with nothing of real interest to others.
  7. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'd agree with you both, it's a BIG kit in every sense, but all the same, I don't really subscribe to the sage's that say it's a bad place to start, as many do. Bearing in mind I just wanted something to do rather than sit in front of the TV one dark, boring winter, I think if I'd bought something smaller and easier I wouldn't have needed to get googling for advice, would have done a rudimentary OOTB build in 2 or 3 weeks, probably treated the itch as scratched and moved on. As it is, it's led me to explore and experiment with branches of making and modelling which has been largely enjoyable and, who knows, maybe one day I'll finish it.
  8. Kevin-the-lubber
    I’m not really sure. From what I can see, the kit on retail today is basically identical to both of mine except that they’ve added the new, apparently much better, instructions and three pots of paint. Maybe they’re reflecting that it’s very common for people to modify, reinterpret, add aftermarket parts and so on. I guess it’s self-fulfilling, by virtue of being here on this forum, that I’ve never seen a simple out-of-the-box build. The irony is that I only ended up on the forums, about 10 years ago, because I bought the kit on impulse having not touched a model for 40-odd years and I couldn’t make head or tail of the instructions. Anyway, the bottom line is that I don’t think you forego anything important by getting the starter kit.
  9. Kevin-the-lubber
    To tell the truth, I was happy enough just to get away with airbrushing the yellow ochre and parked the project as soon as that was done. I’ve been airbrushing gun carriages yellow recently which has served as a reminder that yellow ochre is definitely the devils spawn of model paints, dreadful for clogging. Anyway, sooner or later I’ll pick up on the stern again and will probably experiment with some shading. Not too much around the stern, it just needs knocking back a little.
  10. Kevin-the-lubber
    I think you probably just got unlucky, just about any side cutters should easily go through soft 28swg. Maybe you hit a bit with micro particles of slag or something. As I’m sure you know, not all steel / brass / copper is the same. Back in the day, I could sometimes be chasing my tail making long runs of something if we’d got a batch of low quality mild steel, with folds varying by a degree or two. That’s no good if the tolerance is 0.004”, which is pretty much what you’re working to if you measured. Personally, I have a pair of ‘best’ cutters that I am super careful with and only use on plastic, and a couple of well-used ones with the odd nick from cutting wire, as this always seem to damage the blades sooner or later.
  11. Kevin-the-lubber
    Looks like you’re very close to finishing a particularly fine build of this kit. It’s worth saying that, while the sails are simply extraordinary, the rest of the build is pretty special too.
  12. Kevin-the-lubber
    Thanks, like you I parked it for a while. In fact I just started looking at the Victory again about a week or two back, time will tell what comes of that.
  13. Kevin-the-lubber
    Beta version of a laser-cut oak veneer deck skin. It's taped on at present to keep it more or less in place. The true colour is closer to the photos underneath, the top photo was flashlit and my lighting this evening is shocking! I've used the same multi-part approach as I did when making a replacement deck. Personally I think the joins blend in quite well and are a sight less intrusive than those on the bare kit deck. I think I'll stick with this format. Next up will be a paper/card version of the same. While getting this right I used heavyweight art paper as it cuts and engraves very nicely and is a fraction of the cost of veneer. It occurred to me, along the way, that if it was nicely painted it would be a viable, lower cost alternative. So that's the task for some point over the next week or two.
  14. Kevin-the-lubber
    Jeff, it looks like a .svg is just as good. Regarding the red/black thing, the drawn lines don’t need to have colours, that happens when you programme the lasering and it’s just colour-coding of operations. Basically, for bulkheads you just want to make sure the outline is one continuous line I.e. no breaks, and no other lines touching the outline. Part numbers would be no trouble. N.b. drawings need to be full size (for the model). I’d have thought 3mm - 4mm might be more suitable for a POB as it gives you some meat to pin into but it can be any thickness you like. However the thickness affects cost and probably not in the way you’d expect. I can buy a 950mm x 600mm x 4.5mm sheet of hardwood ply for about £10 from my local timber yard, because this is a commonly stocked size. If I wanted 3mm or 1.5mm, these are “specialist” thicknesses. I’d have to get small, hobby-size sheets from a model or craft shop and the cost can be quite high. Have you thought of looking for a Men’s Shed in your area https://usmenssheds.org/ ? Lasering is easy to learn and a shed might have a laser machine.
  15. Kevin-the-lubber
    If you’re in no hurry, send me a dxf drawing and material spec and I’ll at least look at what I think I’d want to charge, as a maker who’s mostly just interested in offsetting the cost of all the kit I keep buying 🙄. As the parts are flat I don’t think postage would be nearly as bad as you might fear. But I’d have thought there’s a fair chance someone on here but more local will pop their head up too. There are probably a few reasons lasering is more expensive than 3D printing. I have the impression that people are sold lasers as an income generator whereas people buy 3d printers because it looks like fun. You’re right that laser cutting is easier and quicker than printing, but it’s very space hungry and the initial outlay is relatively high.
  16. Kevin-the-lubber
    "nice die ad navem iter" perhaps? I originally thought of something more salty, but discretion and all that.... Vic, never too old and it doesn't take brains. And as Ian is demonstrating, it doesn't even necessarily take money.
  17. Kevin-the-lubber
    Impressive. I wouldn’t be surprised if the kids were 10 or 11, my daughter was using laser cutting at school at age 11.
  18. Kevin-the-lubber
    As ever, amazing hand skills Marc, you are definitely king of the plastic carvers! You’re right about life getting in the way, sometimes there’s just to much else to do.
  19. Kevin-the-lubber
    Someone in your library or local government is enlightened, what a great way to get kids (of all ages!) into the library.
  20. Kevin-the-lubber
    I've often thought of the incredible changes a 100 year-old would have lived through and I guess those of us alive now are seeing something akin to the industrial revolution. Imagine what will happen when all of this becomes ubiquitous. Especially when you layer AI on top. You want a new car, or a house, designed to suit you - throw in a few parameters and the computers will do the rest. I'm not sure this is a good thing, in fact I'm sure it's about 50% bad, but it's interesting all the same.
  21. Kevin-the-lubber
    And to think, in a few years much of that will probably be readily available to you and I at an affordable price. I went to a local Hobbycraft store a week or two back, don’t know if you have these on your side of the pond but over here they are hobby superstores that cover everything from knitting to jewellery making to oil painting. They were selling plywood, leather and acrylic blanks for laser engraving. That’s how mainstream some of this stuff has become. I kind of wish I was 30 years younger with a bit of capital, I’d open a small 3D shop in our (dying) town centre, and make things to order. There’s gold there, folks. While here I may as well update; I’m having one of those spells where work is intense and I don’t have the ‘zing’ in the evenings to complete the slightly dreary next stages of the Cutty Sark. Plus I’m distracted by the arrival of the laser machine. I’ve already made enough bird boxes, room signs, key fobs and place mats to have Christmas and birthday presents covered for a few years, and have begun messing around with a CS wood veneer deck with an eye on recovering my outlay. So, a little dormant but still on the slips.
  22. Kevin-the-lubber
    Wow, that’s one great library. I think I need to relocate to Canada! I often find it’s better to split parts, especially in filament as I dislike the ‘scars’ from supports. These are more easily mitigated in resin. Regarding the galley itself, thumbs up on the modified steering platforms. Just a thought - I have absolutely no knowledge of what they would have looked like but might they have been a bit rounded, kind of chariot-ish? The eagle will look very good and should be fairly easy to bash.
  23. Kevin-the-lubber
    Ian, this is a fascinating way of incorporating various tech. That’s a really good idea re’ transparent filament for the rudder. Out of curiosity, how much does the library charge you to print or etch something?
  24. Kevin-the-lubber
    Early this year I switched from a Nikon D5100 to an Olympus OM-D ME5ii, and this has completely revived my interest in photography (somewhat at the expense of modelling!). Being micro four thirds (MFT), everything is incredibly light and comparatively small and I happily carry the camera around with me most of the time. I think part of the reason I didn’t carry the Nikon was bulk and weight. The relevance here is that I bought it because I specifically wanted built-in focus stacking but at an affordable price. Everything new was far too expensive but along the way I learned that Olympus have had this feature on their mft’s for quite a few years and there’s a ready supply of used bodies and lenses. Although some may get sniffy about the smaller sensor, I doubt any of my photos will ever get printed on billboards and the image quality is excellent. I’m also very happy with the focus stacking, in fact it probably exceeded my expectations.
  25. Kevin-the-lubber
    I just set one of the functions buttons on my little Olympus to focus stacking as I stack so frequently, meaning I can switch between stacking and single shot at the press of a button. The camera does a pretty good job of it, I just wish it didn’t keep the base images as it’s a pain deleting them. However, the posts about the stick & graph paper and bellows are food for thought. The former will see me carefully inspecting those areas when I’m attempting display quality shots (macro is my forte) and the latter has me thinking I could probably use a set of those.

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