wefalck

I can almost hear the poff-poff from the ram ... Yes, pastels pull everything together and make models looking less clean and toy-like. I use a variety of old soft brushes and cotton-sticks to apply them and rubbing them in. Grime (unless oily) and rust are usually dead matt and that comes across very well with the pastels. Another thing one can do is to set highlights with a soft black pencil, say on the edges of the water reservoir, on pipes etc.

Lacquer is (at least in my understanding) a generic term, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacquer. Different materials and appropriate solvents can be used to prepare lacquers for application, such nitrocellulose in different types organic solvents or shellac in alcohol. Thus, shellac can be used to make sanding filler when 'filled' with some suitable powder or as lacquer, when applied neat. Depending what type of resinous substance (see above Wikipedia article) is used, the lacquer can be more brittle (e.g. shellac) or more elastic (e.g. acrylics, mastic). More brittle lacquer is more amenable to sanding obviously. Conversely, it can make rigging break, when used to soak thread in it (note: a drop of shellac on a knot or splicing doesn't do much harm).

Would you mind showing the whole painting? This may give more clues ...

Not sure why someone would say that shellac is not suitable for ship models. It has been used for centuries on all sorts of fine woodwork, including ship models. In carpentry, shellac was used to build up what is called 'French polish': the wood was rubbed down with a pumice stone, dedusted and then thin shellac applied with a brush. It was then rubbed down with the pumice stone again, dedusted and somewhat thicker shellac applied. This procedure was repeated several times, but the shellac was applied with a tampon, a lint-free rag-bag filled with wool, stroke by stroke and very quickly. It results in a very glossy, glass-like finish, when done properly. The effect of the pumice is double, it has a sanding effect and the abraded pumice fills the pores of the wood, which then is solidified with the shellac. To make things simpler and quicker, today sanding-sealer are sold, which are basically a suspension of pumice or other fine-grained filler in a lacquer, which could be shellac or the cheaper nitrocellulose lacquer. To your last question: after staining you probably need to rub down the wood lightly, but don't use steel-wool at this point, as the swarf would get locked into the wood pores. Light sanding. Then comes the same procedure as if you were preparing for painting, but of course the last application of varnish (e.g. shellac) is not rubbed down anymore. As shellac dries very fast, it cannot really applied with a brush as last coat, which is why a tampon is used.

Sorry, but what 'sitter' are you talking about? Is the ship part of a larger picture that you didn't show?

I think the sail already looks rather good! My first thought was that two layers of filter paper would make it too thick for furling and give it too much volume. Perhaps you could indeed use only one layer. I don't know what kind of filters you have down Mexico-way, but ours here tend to be quite thick. The wet ripping resistance that has been built into filter papers is definitely an advantage. In case you feel like experimenting further, you could watch out for some screen-printing silk, which is essentially the same as silk-span. There may be a print-shop in your area that may be willing to give/sell you some rests. Anyway, at your scale you seem to be on the right track with the filter-paper.

Polyurethane is a totally different animal ...

My nitrocellulose-based sanding-sealer dries in a couple of hours or so, but it also depends on how much of it soaked into the wood. It dries faster on hardwood, than on softwood. Normally, the sanding-sealer is the primer. A primer is used, when painting on certain metals or plastics, where some paints do not adhere to very well. Acrylics adhere well to sanding-sealers. So in your case no primer needed. The only preparation you can do on wood to be stained is to wet and sand it a couple of times before applying the stain. The stain may raise the grain again though. Staining softwood, such as basswood, is difficult, because the grain may keep rising. This then can lead to a mottled appearance after sanding it again. Hardwoods are easier to stain. BTW, I usually do not sand after the second application of sanding-sealer, but rub the surface down with fine (0000) steel-wool. This results in a satin and very smooth surface and reduces the risk of sanding through to the bare wood. Make sure to remove all swarf from the steel-wool or it may rust under your acrylic paint. I use an old clothes brush or a magnet for this.

Ad 4: Sanding acrylic paint is difficult and can only be done really successfully after several weeks of drying. When you apply the acrylic paint, the acrylic molecule begin to form an interlinked network that actually traps some water, this is the reason, why acrylics stay a bit rubbery for a long time, which makes sanding so difficult. When sanding painted surfaces, it is easy to sand right through the paint. Don't use paint as a filler, but rather prepare the surface carefully. And yes, the purpose of the wood-filler is to prevent other things from penetrating. Hence, wood has to be stained first. However, it is not so easy to sand stained three-dimensional surfaces without sanding through the stained part of the wood. As to wetting or not, it really depends on the wood. Some woods barely react to water, while others really swell. It also depends on the direction of how the wood is cut. The use of gesso (Italian for plaster of Paris) is a traditional method of preparing wood sculptures, picture frames and the likes for painting or gilding. It was used, however, mainly in order to add additional features, such als mouldings to picture frames or to save time in preparing complex wood surfaces, such as those on sculptures. Real gesso is quite brittle and breaks off easily. Today, acrylics-based 'gesso' is sold by arts and craft suppliers, which is more robust, being essentially 'filled' acryl gel. For a 'technical' project, such as a boat, where the shape is well defined, I would not use gesso.

Druxey is absolutely right! Another aspect to consider is, whether you want to replicate a period model or a period ship. On models, due to their representational value and often intended as expensive gifts, more expensive materials and pigments were used, which give us today a false impression of the ships of the time. So, when replicating a real ship, the duller earth pigments should be used. Ochre is an interesting pigment, as it can vary in hue from almost blue to quite bright yellow, depending on the chemical composition (which depends on the source) and impurities. For this reason, it is very difficult to determine with any certainty the actual colour for a given ship or period. Also, the ochre often was mixed with the even cheaper chalk, which brightens it and makes it lighter in colour. The lineseed oil as binder in turn makes the paint darker thant the original pigment. I gather any 'average' yellow ochre will be close to reality and no one can prove you wrong with a good justification ...

Water-based paints, such as acrylics, will raise the fibres of particularly soft woods like basswood. For this reason the wood must be 'sealed' before applying them. Wood-sealer is a functional term and various concoctions may go by it. Tradtionally, wood-sealers or sanding-sealers were either nitrocellulose-lacquer or shellac 'filled' with pumice. The pumice settled in the pores and the hard lacquer made for easy sanding. Today, also acrylic-based wood-sealers are sold in order to phase out organic solvent-based materials, but they don't penetrate as well. So look for some solvent-based sealer. The typical procedure is to sand the wood, wet it to raise the fibres and sand again, when dry. Then apply the sealer and when hard sand again. If needed, repeat the last step. Then you are ready for painting. There is absolutely no problem applying acrylic paint over nitrocellulose or shellac sealers, they don't react with each other. Depending on what surface (sheen) you want, there is no need to put any additional varnish or crystalline wax-solution ('Minwax') over the paint. In fact, I would not mix two paint systems. If you want to make the acrylic paint dull matt, use a matt acrylic varnish. Likewise for high gloss.

👍🏻👍🏻

Before you modify the guns: what ship and period are they supposed to belong to? Their shape is quite strange and look almost like early Paixhans-type guns. Some guns of the 1830s or so seems to have rings for the brook, rather and the ealier cascabels. It may be worthwhile to confirm the exact shape of the gun needed first. The carronade seems to be generally ok.

I gather two sources of information will be needed, something on generic rigging practices and the other on how this particular type of boat was rigged. I don't know from which period this boat actually is. This would determine the generic rigging practices, which quite significantly changed over the last quarter of the 19th century to the first quarter of the 20th century, which I believe brackets the period of this boat. In particular (galvanised) iron- and then steel wire-rope began to replace the tradtional hemp. With it the practice of what ropes would (need to) be served changed. At 1:24 scale you have to change to almost completely replicate full-scale practice. Having said that, unfortunately, I cannot point you to more specific sources.

There are a couple of old-time wisdom for wanting-to-be machinists: - Think about the maximum size (length/diameter) of piece you want to make and then buy a lathe with twice the capacity - you will most certainly underestimate the space you need for mounting etc. - Tooling and accessories you will need/want will double the price of the basic lathe. The good news is that you don't need everything immediately. You can buy tooling and accessories, when the need arises. You can turn wood and plastics on a metal lathe, but turning metal on a wood lathe is difficult to impossible (depending on what you try to do, of course). I would go for a metal lathe. Look for a lathe that can be equipped with collets and not only three- or four-jaw-chucks - much safer to operate, when working on small parts.

You may also want to consult relevant textbooks on the subject that are available digitally on the Internet: DELAUNEY, J.F., GUITTARD, A.C.A.J. (1889): Historique de l'artillerie de la marine 1692-1889.- 328 p., Paris (D. Dumoulin). LAFAY, J. (1850): Aide-memoire d'artillerie navale.- 721 p., 50 pl., Paris (J. Corréard). VERDIER, M. (1837): Nouveau manuel complet de la marine. Seconde Partie. Manoeuvres du Navire et de l’Artillerie.- 288 p., Paris (Librairie Enciclopédique de Roret).

There is a German film of the 1960s that emulates Jerome K. Jeromes novel and is much more like your own experience, Keith. The guys nearly went down the Fall of the river Rhine in Schaffhausen ... (actually one can't, as there is a very low bridge in the way, but being pushed under the bridge by the strong current isn't very healthy either).

Looking forward to the results of the roofing experiments and the weathering ... Talking about heating: we just came back from a business trip to Italy and found that the apartment had only just above 16°C - the heating in the condominium doesn't come on until mid-October, regardless of conditions 🤨 The funny thing is that southern Europeans seem to be much more tolerant to cold apartments because they are rarely home and outside day-time temperatures are quite tolerable. In Italy heating is not permitted until 1 November, regardless, whether you live in Sicily or around the Alps. My apartment in Bergamo in 1991 didn't have any heating, except for the kitchen 🥶. Likewise, when I was looking for an apartment in Nottingham in January 1987, one was advertised as having 'central heating' - it turned out it had 'central' gas heater in the living room ... The apartment in Germany, where I first grew up in the 1950s/early 1960s had stove heating and remember my mother firing up the stove first thing in the morning and I also remember pushing ice around the window pane in the childrens' room.

Some people use wet-n-dry sanding paper of an appropriate grade and paint it a dark grey to resemble tar-paper.

Home-made?

I have done a bit of colour adjustment in Photoshop to get rid of the yellow tint and the murkiness: I think the flag looks red-yellow-red ...

I would modify this summary a bit: if you can put the part under a (quality) drill-press and hold it safely, this may be a good option for even the smallest drills. Otherwise, use a pin-vise or similar.

I gather, if you live in central to northern Europe, you are less likely to annoy your neighbours, as in general, houses are more solidly build - unlike say in Spain, where walls are really paper thin and most houses are build with concrete pillars and beams, which are ideal for transmitting body-sound. Over the past fifteen years I have been living in a Parisian building made from concrete slabs and so far no one has complained. On the other hand, you are not going to work with your machine tools continuously for 12 hours a day. Just stick to the rules of the building/community and do maintain the quiet hours at mid day and evening and perhaps the weekends.

To me it appears like a Spanish commercial schooner from somewhere around the 1830s to the 1840s, Although the according to Norie & Hobbs (1848) the merchant flag at that time should have had several red and yellow stripes (see https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/J._W_Norie_and_J._S._Hobbs_-_Three_hundred_and_six_illustrations_of_the_maritime_flags_of_all_nations_(1848).pdf). I didn't check, whether any of the Spanish colonies of that time used the red-yellow-re ensign.

Perhaps you want to post some pictures of your luthier excursion in the 'Non-ship/categorised builds' section? Not that I intend to build any musical instruments (which I wouldn't be able to tune and play anyway), but the tools and materials of that trade are also of interest to us shipmodellers.