Glen McGuire

Glad it will be helpful, Bob. The artist chalk dust process is a lot more trouble than just painting, but I believe it's worth it. As @gjdale said in his Foss Landing diorama, good weathering involves color and texture, which the chalk dust helps provide.

Whoa!! Those pictures are breathtaking, @BANYAN!! OK, penguins or no penguins I may have to put that place on my bucket list. Now that I’m totally distracted, I’m having a hard time remembering where I was with the Banshee…Oh wait, I was working on my own waterscape, although Galveston is so far from the beauty of Norfolk Island I shouldn’t even mention them in the same post! Nevertheless, I got the epoxy resin water poured onto the base (after I installed the Texas backdrop. Then I added the wharf’s support structure to the back 2 rows of pilings. I did not do weathering to these pieces as they will not really be visible. Also, I poured the epoxy resin before installing the front pilings because they will be quite visible and I did not want the resin creeping up the pilings where they contact the resin as @Javelin and I have discussed previously. I will give the resin 3 days for a hard cure before drilling holes for the front pilings. Speaking of the front pilings, I decided to go for a more realistic look than dowel rods. So I scrounged around my pile of small kindling and found several sticks that were the right diameter and straight enough. I put them on the drill lathe to get them to a uniform diameter while trying to leave as much of their natural variation as possible. Afterwards, I gave them a light gray wash to get them to the aged wood color (second pic below, although for some reason the pic makes them look more greenish than grayish). While the epoxy resin continues it drying process, I started work on the deck planks for the wharf. It’s going to take about 50 planks that are 8” x ¼”. Since they are on top and likely would have been cared for a bit more than the support structure, I wanted to show a mix of ageing and weathering – a color in between the gray of the supports and a natural brown. To try and achieve this, it took a 3-step process. First was texturing (grooving) the planks as I did with the supports using a rasp. Second, I mixed a couple of shades of brown chalk dust and worked it in with IPA using the same process described in an earlier post. This gave the planks a reasonable base color of brown. Finally, I went back over it with a light dusting of gray chalk and IPA. The pic below shows the 3 stages. The first set of planks have been textured. The second set has the brown base color applied. The third set has the gray applied for the finished color.

Dang. I just cancelled my trip. ☹️☹️☹️

Thanks and welcome back, Pat. I've never heard of Norfolk Island so I had to look it up. And wow! Just wow! Ever picture I saw was a stunning landscape like the one below. Hope you had a wonderful time there.

Looking good, Keith! How did you make the cleats and the boiler?

Absolutely incredible work!!!

Glad to have you join the MSW family, Charles!

Egg nishner, nose tone unturned, let stalk strine. Y’all have me as confused as my cows were when I put them on astroturf. I’m pretty sure when they were mooing, they were saying “bloody oath, eh?” 😃 Now that I’ve flunked my Aussie language lesson for the week it’s time to get back to the project. First up is the wooden wharf to represent the Galveston, Texas waterfront of the mid 1800s. I built a small mock-up of the support structure to see if what I had in mind would look ok. The next step was weathering/texturing/coloring the planks and pilings for the support structure (I'll do the deck boards later). I used @gjdale's method of chalk and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) that he described so well in his Foss Landing diorama build log. I used a rasp to roughen the flat wood surfaces. The pic below shows one plank before I hit it with the rasp and one afterwards. For the chalk dust, rather than scrape it directly onto the planks as I believe Grant did, I scraped the different shades into little cups and dabbed them on the planks from there. Then, as Grant described, I brushed over the chalk dust with a liberal amount of IPA. I had to go back over different spots a few times with additional dust and IPA to get the color variation I was looking for. They are actually a little more gray than they appear in the pic below. I wanted gray with a bit of the natural wood color showing thru as if the boards were in the middle of the ageing process. For the wharf’s pilings, the back 2 rows will be mostly hidden, so I just used regular dowel rods and smeared them with some different shades of gray paint. I’ll have something better for the front (more visible) row. Since I don’t have a steam donkey pile driver like @Keith Black is working on, I had to enlist some alternative help to get mine in place.

Simply brilliant work!

Such clean and crisp craftsmanship. The ensign and the pennant really accentuate the look. Well done, Thukydides!

I'd start here with the superb weathering job @gjdale did on the wood strips for his diorama. It's on the first page of the log. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/32778-the-shipyard-at-foss-landing-diorama-by-gjdale-grant-finished-sierrawest-scale-187-ho/

I thought you were pulling my leg, Grant, but I checked on Amazon and there really is a book by that name! I may have to get that one. Here's a question for you - Here in the US, someone from Texas like me talks a lot different than someone from the the northeast (like Boston) or the west coast (like California). Do folks in different parts of Australia have significantly different accents and/or ways of talking?

When I see comments from folks like @BANYAN, @gjdale, @PvG Aussie, I try to imagine the Australian accent as I read them. I saw this meme the other day and it's helping me with the accent. Now, on to stage 2 of the project which is the display base. As a reminder, here's the original idea suggesting the civil war era Galveston, Texas water front where the Banshee II made it's one and only blockade run. For the backdrop, I've got several walnut cutouts of Texas. The finish was a little dark and had some wear, so I sanded it off and refinished it. Then I made a horizontal cut about halfway between San Antonio and Corpus Christi to make it the proper height that I needed. Finally, I added some dowels that will secure it to the base. For the actual base, I put down a layer of acrylic paint for the basic water color that I wanted. Here's the backdrop added. The next step is adding about a 1/8" layer of epoxy resin for the actual water. Then I have to decide whether I should add ripples/small waves to the water then build the wharf or vice-versa..

nice job on a very tricky little piece!

Just discovered this build log, Rob. I will follow along with interest. What a majestic subject you've chosen!

@gjdale, @Javelin, @Paul Le Wol, @Rick310, @Knocklouder, @Ian_Grant, @Keith Black, @Desertanimal - Thank you for the comments and for suffering thru those videos! Forget the tot, I needed a barrel of Bundy rum after that experience!

Nice work on those tiny blocks, Johnny.

Dang, Roel! Your comments make it sound like you were right there with me! You describe EXACTLY the things I struggled with. Yes, on the first funnel, I was trying to change the angle of the funnel by slightly releasing pressure on the tweezers handle without dropping the funnel. The third time was the charm on that mess. Yes, you make a great observation about working out of centerline with tweezers (especially the foot-long ones I was using). The further they reached inside the bottle, the more off centerline they were. This made it hard, even with the locating pin, to drop the wheel assembly in the hole in the deck because the wheel cowlings needed to line up and rest on top of the gunwale. Yes, the second funnel install was smooth because of what I learned dropping the little pilot house in between the two wheel houses. While doing the pilot house, I realized that the fore mast and sails would actually fit between the prongs of the tweezers while they were holding something. So I figured if I could get the funnel over and just beyond the fore mast, I could drop it straight down into place. The challenge was that there was not enough room between the top of the mast and the inside ceiling of the bottle. So I had to push the mast far enough down towards the stern to get the funnel past. But not too far or it would be in the way.

It was Man vs Model again last night. But this bout wasn't even close. Man emerged victorious while suffering a minimum of mental wounds. The insertion and assembly process went surprisingly well. Maybe it's because I actually put a lot of thought and planning into the process this time, instead of just charging in guns a blazing. Regardless, I am relieved and very happy with the results. For those that want to see all the steps in how the sausage was made, here's 3 videos. Part 1 (9 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I10HQDJBoXI Part 2 (9 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76UNcu8hvCo Part 3 (4 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KX4MUFjlps Here's 2 pics of the Banshee II after getting her secured inside ol' Sailor Jerry's long neck bottle. As a final touch, I added some froth from the paddle wheel and also along the hull's edge where it hits the water. Wait, "final touch"? Did I hear someone say "what about the smoke coming from the funnels???"

Great to have you here, Scott!

That is interesting, Johnny. I had not heard of demi-round Czech beads before. I agree with you that having a bead that was a bit flattened would look better for our application than round. Just getting the thread thru the hole in my 1mm beads is maddening enough. I cannot imagine trying to strop it! Nor would I want to try to rig 2mm deadeyes like Keith mentioned.

You gave us a whole new meaning to the term "build log"! 🤣

The last step before trying to assemble the ship in the bottle is texturing the water with some mild waves and a few whitecaps. First, I built a fake ship that matched the real ship's footprint and inserted it into the bottle. That would make it easy to texture the water around where the ship will rest. I first tried dabbing around some Woodland Scenics Water Waves to give me some wave and ripple action. The Woodland Scenics product is supposed to hold it's shape while drying. Unfortunately, it did not do that for me. After I applied it, it self-settled into droopy puddles. Not what I was looking for. So I went back to the acrylic medium gel gloss that I'd used with success on several previous SIBs. I know it will hold its shape. The gel gloss goes on rather whitish as you can see below, but it dries clear (unless you put it on too thick). After the gel gloss dried, I hit the wave edges with some diluted white paint to highlight the waves. Now it's time to get that ship inside the bottle! Let's

I gotta be honest, Keith. When I first glanced at the title of this project I thought it read "Steaming Donkey Pile". It really got me anxious to see what you were stepping in here. I figured you might need to borrow @Knocklouder's character with the shovel.

You are absolutely right, Roel. And the extra long neck of Ol Sailor Jerry's bottle is not gonna help! Thank you for the kind words, Gary. As I suspect many of us do, every time I look at my work I see so many things I wish I'd done better. But that makes me look forward to the next project even more!