Balclutha75
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Greetings! After putting this aside for some time, I finally returned to it last week, did a small amount of work, and have deemed it FINISHED! I had optimistic thoughts of adding a bunch of benches, deck furniture and other items, but soon realized that since I had already rigged the sail, the odds of breaking something while working with tweezers through the rigging was very high. In fact it became 100% when I broke one of the oar racks and a trestle. I decided that continuing down this road was a a bad idea, and there is another kit in the queue that it's time to start on. Some time ago I had purchased a few resin barrels and bales from Artitec. This item is no longer offered by them, and I don't have a picture of it. But I painted the pieces in an attempt to make them look weathered, scattered a few on deck, added the crew members (a gift from my wife) and the ship has set sail! The crew has been patiently waiting for this day and are excited to see some action. Lindisfarne or bust. Captain Aegir at the helm. This is where the ship is displayed at home on my bookshelf. This explains why I only put the oars out on one side as it just fits nicely on the shelf, part of the original plan, going back to why this particular size kit was purchased. I'm pleased with how it looks. I'd like to thank all the folks here on MSW who have encouraged and inspired me along the way. It's been a real pleasure. I plan to be spending more time here this year and will start a new kit - Master Korabel St. Gabriel - in the next few months. Thank you!
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Pin Vise vs. Hand Vise?
Balclutha75 replied to Balclutha75's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
Thanks for all this detailed information, really appreciated! Overnight in thinking about how I was using this, I realized I was often going back and forth between 2 or 3 different sized bits and having to constantly change. Therefore, the set if four vises actually makes good sense. So for the price, I'll probably just order both of the items Ryland linked in post #2. This is still around 6x cheaper than the Starrett 4-piece set, which I'm sure is fabulous, but I don't think my skill level and usage warrants it. Thanks again. -
Thanks Steven. Yes it is addictive, kind of fun to see things take shape. I remember your fantastic crewmen. Getting decent wood as you guys suggested above made a huge difference. Also, I might have crossed a right of passage and sliced my thumb once when the blade slipped. Fortunately it was minor and healed in a couple of days. Lesson learned we hope.
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Pin Vise vs. Hand Vise?
Balclutha75 replied to Balclutha75's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
True enough. I looked at the four set and decided I didn't need it at this stage. I'm going to order the one Ryland posted, I think that will be ideal. Thanks. -
Pin Vise vs. Hand Vise?
Balclutha75 replied to Balclutha75's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
Thanks Ryland. The first one you linked looks perfect, somehow I had missed it on their site. -
Greetings experts, I have one of these basic pin vises, that I have been using on a first little carving project: It has two issues: 1) I can't always tighten it completely, so the bit slides. (I don't necessarily fault the tool, my hands are getting extremely weak with age. I have trouble flipping open a beer can, for example. 😝) 2) It only accepts shafts up to 2.5mm, so it does not accommodate a 3.1 mm dremel bit. Looking on the Otto Frei website, it split vises into "Pin" and "Hand" categories. For example: https://www.ottofrei.com/products/square-chuck-pin-vise-with-2-collets vs. https://www.ottofrei.com/products/whaley-hand-vise I see the hole going through the latter, which I don't necessarily see a need for at this point, but opinions on which I should perhaps order are welcome. Or something else? Planning to get some Vallorbe files, so I could add one to the order. Thanks!
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Evolution of a dragon head. These were all done with the pictures #11 blade, some files and drills in a pin vise. Note the oops on the second from right. From L to R: Basswood, basswood, pear, pear, boxwood, pear. The two in the middle have been turned into practice pieces. I'm kind of thinking the one on the far right in is a keeper. I might do a bit more carving, and of course some sanding, but getting satisfied with where I'm at. I'll need to figure out a stain or finish and also decide what to do, if anything, about the scales. Might just leave them penciled in? Also, will probably put a dab of red paint on the eye. Progress!
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I’ll silently follow along if you don’t mind. We were in Missouri last month and spent 3 days in Rocheport, 4 in St. Charles, a week in St. Louis and a too short visit to Hermann. While there it’s easy to get an interest in steamboats, something I know nothing about. I read a Sultana book during the trip. Your build will be interesting!
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Hah, yes I can imagine that. I have a new pack of #11 blades and will give that a go, on scrap pieces as you suggest. Thanks!
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Thanks very much! Here is where it is so far, in between working on a big patio project. I drew a pattern on to a piece of the pear, and have hacked away at it with a jewelers saw. Next I wonder if I should go at it with a dremel, which I already have, or spring for a decent carving tool like a Flexcut 1.5 mm blade? Maybe both?! Thanks again.
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Following the appreciated above advice from Chuck and Steven, I contacted Joe at Modeler's Sawmill and ordered one each 4 x 4 x 3/16" pieces of pear, boxwood, Alaskan yellow cedar and aspen. He sent those promptly and at an extremely reasonable cost. He also threw in a few freebee blocks. Wow! Great recommendation. Very exciting to have some real wood in hand. Now the ball is back in my court.
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Truly beautiful model, and such an exciting race to the finish line! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your road trip.
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- Sea of Galilee Boat
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He is their mythological inspiration. But the guy on the left is their Captain Aegir, who is "associated with brewing ale" in old Norse records, according to Wikipedia. Thanks Chuck and Steven for your guidance on the wood. I will take it to heart and look at MSW sponsors and see what I can come up with, and now plan to place a small order. I see at least a couple there. I'll dive into that tomorrow. And for the tip about scarphing. I would have omitted that, but now will do. I've seen pictures of that astounding Academician head in reading about the Oseberg ship. It is a thing of complex beauty. In looking online, and here at MSW build logs, I read about Viking styles, such as Ringerike and Jelling. To be honest it was hard for me to pin down differences. I chose the head I did because the shape resonated, and I thought there is a remote possibility that I could carve it. Thanks again.
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Greetings all, I have been quite inactive for some time, for a variety of reasons, but have started to make some more progress in the last week or so. I am calling the shields complete and have mounted them along the gunwale The oars on the starboard side are also glued in place. My intent has always been to have the oars extended on one side and in their racks on the other. This is dictated by the size of the shelf where the ship will be displayed, not wide enough to have the oars in use on both sides, but I wanted to show them . Next I'll move on to the dragon figurehead, and have this in mind now. The wood is cut from a basswood block I bought at the local Michael's hobby store. I will start chipping away (pun intended) and hopefully it turns out as intended. We shall see. The crew is now getting excited as they see some progress at last! Thanks for having a look.
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Thanks man. Really appreciate it. I'm pleased with them too. Happy New Year!
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Slowly (as ever) moving forward on the shields. I posted a question in the tips forum, and followed a suggestion there to use graphite paper to transfer the patterns from a printed template to the shields. Here are the printed patterns, scaled to 18mm diameter size. These were gleamed from various online sources including Steven's shield side posted above: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html I cut one of these out, poked a hole using a center punch, stuck a piece of graphite paper under it, then tried to transfer the pattern to the shield. It kind of works! You can get an idea here. Work in progress: Since the ship will be displayed with the starboard side facing the viewer, I can choose the nicer looking ones to face outward and regulate the flops to the port side facing the wall. 😆 The chance exists that I can put the coveted "finished" label on this log later this winter, we shall see. No rush in any case, but I do have another kit in the sitting wings for quite some time now (Master Korabel St. Gabriel). Thanks for having a look.
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Thanks much Keith, nice job on your ship and the dragon head. I like your display. I confess I had to look up "dry brush" and now have learned something. I may wind up doing something similar with the kit dragon, but I think I'll try my hand at carving at least once more. Thanks for the encouragement Steven. I can also report the second attempt was a disaster, though not as bad. A passable angry duck, at least. I have see that shield page you linked to in the past, but thanks for pointing it out again. I'll try to incorporate some of the patterns in figures 11 & 12 into my shields. I have a question about all this that I think I'll post in the paint forum later today. I actually had thought of making my own shields by carefully using a mitre box to cut slivers off a dowel as a start. But then what would I do for the boss, the rim and boards?? I quickly realized I don't have the required combination of skill/tools/patience to make that effort a success. As you say, no one in my audience will know the difference!
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Thanks much Knocklouder. It's a great thought to think this log can be useful to someone someday. Much appreciated.
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On another front I've been pondering what to do about the dragon figurehead. The kit comes with a cast metal dragon head. I'm not really crazy about that, so I decided to try my hand at carving something out of plank of wood. I glued an image found online to a 5/8" plank. I worked at it with a dremel, drill bit, files and sandpaper. The result looks more akin to an angry duck than a dragon. You'll have to take my word on that. So it will be back to the carving board, but painting the kit figure remains a possibility.
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Greetings! It's been a while. I have taken most of the summer off from modeling, but now am back. I've been slowly painting the shields. The ones that come with the kit look like stamped copper, and don't take to paint all that easily. But here is the idea I'm working towards. These are not done yet but just positioned to see where I might be headed. To get here I first painted the face of the shields black, planning to keep the boss and rim black as if they were iron. Then I painted the wooden planks with various colors. Here is the black paint assembly line, with some of the unpainted copper ones for reference. The rear of the shields I'm attempting to make look like weathered wood, with marginal success. Here is work the in progress. In the above picture you can see one unpainted shield in the foreground. The bunch above that are in the early stages of adding weathering layer. To the left there are two farther along in the weathering process, just in front of the painted shields. These are acceptable to me, though I may do some more work. Also, in front of these are two experiments with possibly gluing a thin strip of wood to simulate handle. Of course I'd paint the wood beforehand if I actually decided to do it, brown to simulate leather. On the right are some printouts found online of possible patterns I could try to paint. Although there is no way I can do the detail work, perhaps I can give an impression of what it might be. The jury is still on that. Thanks for looking.
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Thanks much GrandpaPhil. I found the intro to carving group posts, I will look into it for sure, appreciate the heads up. https://modelshipworld.com/forum/84-build-logs-for-the-carving-group-project/ I found some food for thought here: https://ucrazy.ru/interesting/1569258277-drakkary-i-dreki-vikingov-istoricheskie-fakty.html
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Snug Harbor, thanks much for your comment really appreciate it! Everything you say about the Syren rope is true. I tried a few brands of rope out of curiosity, they all had fuzzies. I tried applying beeswax, which I read about, but that didn’t work. Also, I appreciated that they are in small coils instead of wound tightly, so they don’t kink like the kit rope. I do plan to attempt at least a few chests and perhaps some other assorted flotsam and jetsam, maybe bales, buckets. I’ll try to strike a balance between having some stuff on deck, but not overly cluttered. We’ll see how it goes! Thanks again.
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Hello and greetings from the shipyard! It's been some time since I posted. We were out of town for over a month and now I have been s.l.o.w.l.y back at it. It's good to be here. The yard and sail are now rigged. In fact they were rigged twice. First I used the Amati rope. Then after I ordered more Syren rope I decided to tear it all apart and redo with much nicer Syren. The workmanship didn't improve, but the end result was better looking. The rope hangs more naturally for one thing, and of course the strands look so much nicer. I added wind to the sail by hanging it horizontally from my Quad Hands tool, sprayed it with dilute white glue and put a plastic bag filled with baking flour on the sail. When it dried it had a nice looking curve. (This trick learned here on MSW, but I can't find the log now. Thanks, whoever you are!) Sorry, I didn't take a photo of this step. The rope coils were made using a piece of Styrofoam with parchment paper taped to it. I could then make circles with pins, wrap the coils around the pins dab them with glue. Admiral Helga keeping any eye on the procedure. When the glue dries the pins are removed and the coils can be glued to the deck. I think that trick, or something similar, was from a Tom Lauria video, but I'm not sure. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out. Next up will be the shields. I'm not sure what I'll do with them. Should I try to do various patterns, designs, curves, or just stick with solid colors? Some experimentation will answer that. Here are some shield links for thought, the first one, at least, from Steven: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html http://www.vikingage.org/wiki/index.php?title=Round_Shield_Designs#/media/File:Shields Also thinking about the dragon head. I'm not happy with the cast metal one that comes with the kit, so I'm thinking of trying to carve something simple. But I've never carved anything before. I guess this will be a good time to start! Thanks for having a look.
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