Thukydides

This To be honest I am not sure you need much more if you are sticking with kits. When it comes to kit bashing it is hard to recommend a tool as they will be specific to the modifications you need to make. Based on that list you have more tools than me :).

Thanks Ian, you should try one sometime. They are fun to make and if you do it with a small simple kit there is not a lot of pressure to get it perfect.

Thanks Mike, I have a snow powder, but it is really fine (which looks great as snow) but it didn't play nice as foam. At some point I want to try getting a more course shiny snow powder and I will try it again the next time I do a seascape.

Congrats, she looks fantastic.

I would like to do Dreadnought some day. However I want to build myself up to it as I am not confident I could do her justice at the moment. Good luck, I am looking forward to seeing how you progress with her.

I am calling this one complete. All in all it was a fun little project and I learned lots about what not to do for next time I feel like doing another side project. I feel like water is one of those things you really need to try a few times before you really get it right so I am not discouraged by all the shortcomings. And here are the final beauty shots.

I was going to try snow, but the stuff I had didn't look right so I pivoted to the cotton. The gesso can work, I have seen examples that use it and they are stunning, the problem is I lack the skill to do it right. Maybe next time. Like everything the first time is always fraught as you don't know what you don't know. I already have a bunch of ideas for things I need to change the next time I decide to do a seascape.

Yes those lines are the majority of what I meant by some touchups. I was attempting to make foam lines, but it didn't work out as well as I wanted. However, I plan to go back in with very small bits of cotton wool to cover over the lines. I tried it in one or two places and it seemed to work Painting them over won't work unless I go in with the airbrush and at this point that is not really an option. I did try glazing over with some blue ink to tone them down, but it didn't really have the effect I wanted so I suspect all of them are going to have to be covered by little thin lines of cotton. Then just some minor use of gloss varnish to make certain parts of the sub look more "wet".

So I lied when I said I would stick it on the shelf for a few days. Tonight I decided to give the foam another go and this time used cotton balls and mod podge. This worked better, though as you will see the effect was not perfect. I wanted to try and depict water flowing out of the holes in the uboat as if it had just surfaced and so I stretched out some cotton on some parchment paper and coated it in mod podge. I then blasted it with the hair dryer (because I don’t like waiting for things to dry). Once dry I peeled it off the paper. The thinner parts ended up looking better so I cut them off in the shapes I needed. I then carefully glued them in place. You can see here the look on the stern. And then larger ones for the bow. With that the model is pretty much done though I may add a few more touch ups to the foam before I take the final pictures. Overall I am relatively pleased with it for a first attempt at water. If you look to close the illusion falls apart, but from normal viewing distances it sells the illusion.

Welcome, I also came from miniature wargaming painting. Take your time and do lots of reading. Even though it is a huge learning curve, you may find that more skills from miniature painting transfer over than you might have originally thought.

Minor update. I have started working in the foam lines with gesso. I am unsure how much of this to do and my plan for the thick foam didn't work out like I planned so I think I will put it on the shelf for a few days and think about what needs to be done.

Painting is now pretty much complete with only a few minor touchup still necessary. However, these will be made after I have secured the model to the base so that was the next step. After test fitting things I added some epoxy putty to the stern area as I needed to make sure it stayed at the correct angle. This will also help to hold the model in place. Then I placed the model in the base positioning it so that the the stern is pretty much level with the water. I want the waves to just be washing over the very end, but not to obscure too much of the model. Then with a toothpick I carefully applied gesso around the edges to fill in the gaps. This doubles as both the means of securing the model, but also is what I will be using for the foam. At this point I was just trying to carefully fill in the gap between the water and the model. Once everything is dried then I will move on to deciding where the foam will extend to.

I love the miniature lobster trap. On the lobster itself have you ever tried drybrushing. That is a really easy way to pick out detail and generate contrast. Then you could coat it with a few washes of various shades of black and brown to darken the recesses.

The top of the sub deck should show you the faring line for that part of the hull, but the angle that the fairing occurs at will change depending where on the bulkhead you are sanding. The best way to do it is to have a test batten ready to hold against the bulkheads at various angles. When it is bent over the bulkheads there should be no space between the batten and the bulkheads. If there is then the hull is not faired enough. In general the process for me is take a sanding stick and fair over multiple bulkheads at once. That helps to get the correct curve. The amount of char visible can also serve as an indicator. However the best check is the batten test.

Great job, I like the black background. It makes the excellent planking job really stand out.

Out of curiosity, I can see from your picture the hooks seem to be cast. Do you cast them yourself?

Great job, the boat looks lovely.

Minor update. I got some more time to paint this evening and made a lot of progress on the weathering. Still some minor adjustments to go, but she is starting to look more like what I was aiming for.

Painting and weathering of the submarine has now begun. The first step was to spray on the colour of the lower hull and also block in some highlights. I used VMC french mirage blue for this. Then I masked off the lower part of the hull and sprayed in a lighter grey (VMC light grey). I was reminded of how much I hate masking off and spraying so I decided to keep it to the bare minimum and rely on brush work for most of the painting. The above picture was taken after I had already applied some black wash to the deck and used a darker colour on a few details., but this is essentially what she looked like after spraying the light grey. Next up is the fun part, weathering and highlighting. My personal workflow tends to see me going back and forth over areas, adding in shadows and weathering and then going back with highlights to correct the lack of contrast and mistakes. I am currently only going back and forth with light grey and black wash trying to get the balance of light and dark streaks right while also lining the panels and picking out the edge highlights. You can see the current state of affairs below. I am not as please with the stern as I am with the bow, but on the bright side most of that will be under water. Also some of the wash has gotten in places it shouldn’t so there is some work remaining to clean up those areas. Once all the highlighting and shading is done I will need to repeat it on the other side and then move on to rust.

Not sure what specifically you are referring to, but the gripe does look a bit odd. It is a strange shape, there is no scarph joining it to the knee of the head and the joint is in the same location as the stem joint when they really should be shifted. Also I would imagine that in reality the knee of the head would have been made of at least a few different pieces. That being said most contemporary models just used one piece as they didn’t bother to show this detail. In many cases the joints would be covered up by the cheeks. Thanks, that is totally the reason. One of the issues was most shipwrights were illiterate and even if they could write, describing this would be revealing trade secrets and might put you out of a job.

Welcome Nick You should still do one. It is the best way to get help as you go along. I also personally found the practice of documenting my build kept me motivated when I got bogged down in the middle. The help and feedback I got on my log made my first model way better than it ever could have been had I just done it on my own. As others have said you have picked a lot of ship for your first build and I would still advise you to pick something smaller to try first (Vanguard has some really nice cutters). But at the end of the day you need to be interested in your subject or you will never finish it. Good luck.

Log #9: Researching the Knee of the Head Part I My design work is getting to the point where I need to start making some decisions regarding how I am going to model the ship. One of the more consequential of these things that need to be decided on is the knee of the head. I am still doing a bunch of reading, but I thought I would share some of what I have found in case anyone has any ideas of other places to look. My goal with this model has been to trace everything back to primary sources wherever possible. I found myself dissatisfied by the information I found in the many modern sources, mostly because they so rarely pointed to any primary documents. This is not to say these works are wrong and I don’t want anyone to take this a a criticism of them. Shipbuilding practices varied considerably from yard to yard. Blaise Ollivier, in his 1737 remarks on english shipbuilding practices (otherwise known as his spying expedition) notes that Depford, Woolwich and Chatham all used different building methods. This means that historical examples of the knee of the head should be viewed not as proscriptive, but as examples. One could probably make a case for just about any reasonable arrangement. That being said, my desire is to stay as close to documented historical practice as I can so that will guide my design decisions. Information on Perseus’ Construction There is limited detail in the contract regarding the construction of the knee of the head for Perseus. The stem is clearly laid out on the draft and the contract specifies that it should be in two pieces with a 3 ½ foot scarf. However, apart from the overall shape of the knee of the head laid out in the draft, the only details given are directions for the gripe to be covered in lead on the leading edge up to the waterline and for the end of the head to extend 8 ft 5 in from the stem. Draught of Camilla, National Maritime Museum Four draughts for Perseus’ sister ships, Sphinx, Camilla, Daphne and Vestal showing the carvings and decorations also show the location of the gammoning hole. It is reasonable to assume that the location would be similar on Perseus. However there is no info provided for any of the Sphinx class regarding the specific makeup of the knee of the head. Knee of the Head Examples 1737-1760 Contemporary depictions of the knee of the head are few and far between. Much of this relates to the lack of publications from the period on shipbuilding practices. Modern secondary sources when depicting the knee of the head tend to show similar patterns typified by the below example from Goodwin. However, contemporary records are far more varied and it is unclear what the original source for this arrangement is. The Knee of the Head, 18th Century, Goodwin, The Construction and Fitting, Redrawn Ollivier’s 1737 observations on English shipbuilding practices includes one diagram of the knee of the head as part of his observations of the Deptford dockyard. He describes how English shipwrights made a mould of the various parts (lacing, face piece, etc…) and then filled these moulds with what timbers all with a common curve. These timbers were fastened together with hooked scarphs. Ollivier was clearly impressed by this method of construction which he said was “more simple, no less solid, and beyond compare less costly than that which we employ.” Ollivier also notes the use of an iron dovetail plate used to fasten the gripe to the stem. This contrasts with later examples which show a horseshoe plate. Knee of the Head for a Ship of 80 Guns, 1737 Ollivier, 18th Century Shipbuilding, redrawn The next example shows up sometime after 1745 in a sectional drawing held by Sjöhistoriska Museet. The drawing is reproduced by Lavery in his book Ship of the Line and shows a 60 gun ship built according to the 1745 establishment. The knee of the head is made up of a large number of roughly parallel strakes though, unlike the Olliver example, they are not scarfed into one another. The drawing features a much longer cutwater than generally is depicted on modern reproductions, and like the Ollivier example, the lacing buts against the stem instead of running down to the gripe. Curiously, it appears that it has two false keels, though as the picture is at low resolution it is hard to tell for sure. Knee of the Head for a Ship of 60 Guns, 1745 Establishment, Sjöhistoriska Museet, redrawn This practice appears to have continued on into 1760 as can be seen on a model of Bellona (74). The Bellona model is unique in that it is the only contemporary model I have been able to identify which shows the components of the knee of the head. Though the pieces that make up the knee of the head are larger than both Ollivier’s diagram and the example reproduced in Lavery, they do follow the principle of the common curve. There are no scarfs locking the pieces together and this could indicate either they were not used by this particular shipwright or possibly that the model maker simply neglected to include those details. One particular detail on the model which stands out is the long cutwater which extends from the main piece all the way to the gripe. This is even longer than the cutwater on the Lavery example and contrasts with the relatively short cutwater that can be seen on many modern examples. There is no plate fastening the gripe to the stem shown on the model. Model of HMS Bellona, Circa 1760, National Maritime Museum I am still working on documenting and researching early 1800s examples though it is questionable how applicable they are to Perseus given that around 1800 there was a number of changes to how the knee of the head was constructed. They and also a french example from around the time of Perseus’ construction will be discussed in Part II. If anyone knows of any other examples, particularly any dating to the late 1700s I would love to hear about them.

As always your research and execution on the rigging is second to none.

If money is no object then yes I think the Vanguard one is a better choice. That being said if you take your time you should be able to do a fine job of the Caldercraft one. Another option I would throw my two cents in for is Vanguard's Alert. A slightly bigger cutter I feel it has more scope for kitbashing if that is your thing.

Yes I know the feeling. Trying to puzzle out technical french with a combination of google translate and my limited high school French is a difficult process. Looking forward to seeing what you find.