bhermann

Hi
I'm a bit surprised by the very positive comments on my painting work on my Fly model. It is a quite easy process from my point of view so I thought I'd share my technique. Forgive me to all of you who know this already or do it better. My painting technique dates back to house painting in my student years, the principles are the same.
 
Brushes:
- Do not scrimp by buying cheap brushes. Get the best quality, sable hair, that you can afford.
- For painting a large area of your model use a square headed brush about 3 mm - 4mm wide with a tapered head and medium stiffness. Same as house painting but at a much smaller scale.
- Look after your brushes. Clean them in lacquer thinners, turpentine or water according to the paint you use. Do not let them soak in any of these solutions. After the first clean wash them in hot water and concentrated dish wishing liquid. The idea is to get rid of any paint residue in the brush and especially in its barrel. Always clean straight after you finished the area painted. Good brushes treated well will last for years.
- For clear finishes I use a larger, soft, round or oval head brush - these give a softer application and allow quicker application than a square head. I find clear finishes work best if they go on quickly. I use Testors Dullcote but that is just my choice.
 
Application
- Several or many thin coats are better than a few thick coats. If the wood behind is showing behind your first coat you are on the right track.
- Do not overload the brush with paint. I take the paint from the pot or bottle and lay it with the brush on to a piece of fresh paper. I then brush out the loaded brush on the paper until it is only lightly loaded with paint.
- Work in one direction from one end to the other of the ship - aft to stern or the other way round. Never start in the middle and then head aft followed by forward.
- Never go back to a perceived mistake behind you in a single application. The paint will have tacked and, especially with enamels, you will get pulling which will turn a minor mistake into a major mess. You can fix that perceived mistake on the next coat.
- Always allow the paint to fully dry. Enamels need at least six hours. Partly dried paint if processed will make a major mess. When you sand the paint should turn to dust. If it rolls into little slivers it isn't dry.
- After each coat lightly sand with 1200 grit paper. If this takes the paint back to wood it doesn't matter there is another coat to come.
 
Finish
- After your last coat of paint, leave it to fully dry and the rub it down with tissue paper. This will even out any brush strokes and colour differences.
- Apply a lacquer (or your favourite clear finish). I use Testors Dullcote. When dry, Testors can again be rubbed back with tissue paper to a dull sheen. I also do a second coat of clear and rub it back again. If you have any shiny spots 1200 grit plus a further tissue rub will get rid of them.
 
The above only applies to easily accessed surfaces. Strakes, fenders and other things in the way will make the rub off impossible. My theory is to get the base painting about right before those bits are added. I could be proved wrong...
 
Here is a picture of the upper works paint plus the wales paint. the upper works are a Humbrol enamel, the wale a Polly Scale acrylic. A little bit of grain shows through which suits me. This is more paint grain than wood grain. A too perfect finish would make the model too plastic looking (I'm not meaning to deride plastic models).
 
If any of you have better ideas I'd be keen to hear them - this works for me.
 
Cheers
Alistair

I have a little bit of an update today. I believe these parts are called quarter badges...correct me if I'm wrong.
The first pictures show them underway, and then installed on the ship and painted.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Anchor Hawses
 
The first topside job is to fit the anchor hawse pipes. The hawses consist of 2 pieces pf Britannia cast metal; the hawse lips, which are the portion on the outside of the hull, and the hawse pipes, which are on the main deck. Don’t get too aggressive when filing off flash from the hawse pipes – the upright pin on them should remain, it’s called the bolster or bitt.
 
The hawse lips are oblong and one end is thicker than the other. The thicker end is placed on the bottom and, although the plans don’t show it very clearly, the lips are glued on at a 45-degree angle, which matches the angle that the anchor will rest on them when it is housed. This picture shows what I mean, in addition to showing a disillusioned young man in the process of discovering that the Navy’s recruiting slogan “Navy: It’s not just a job it’s and adventure!” isn’t always true – sometimes it’s just a job. Note also the holes in the anchor flukes – I’ll be adding those to the kit anchors, not in some OCD lust for detail (that will come later) but because they will be used to tie off the anchor bouy for each anchor.


The hawse pipe locations are marked on the deck (using a copy of the deck plan and some pinpricks into the deck) and a 1/16” hole is drilled down and angled toward the hawse lips (don’t go too far).


Then the drill bit is placed in the hawse lips and drilled up toward the deck until in intersects the 1st hole drilled. A rat tail file is used to enlarge this hole to correspond with the size of the lips.

The anchors come with long stocks.

It is really hard to fit them so that they poke up thru the hawse pipe – I’m not going to do that since on a real ship they are barely visible in the hawse and I don’t want to have to attach a shackle on the end. I’ll just put the end of the anchor chain down the hawse pipe and trim off some of the anchor stock. Here are my modified anchors with the stocks trimmed and bent to fit (the stocks on real anchors of this type pivot at their base) and the holes drilled.

And the anchors dry fitted. I’ll leave them off until later because it is too easy to damage them while handling the hull. 

Thanks so much Hamilton.
 
I've now completed the framing of the forecastle deck. This is a total departure from the kit construction which calls for only the beams to be installed. I went with beams, carlings, ledges and knees. All of the parts were made from boxwood, except the lodging knees which were cut from a sheet of cherry of the appropriate thickness, which I happened to have on hand (I had no boxwood sheet of that size). 
 
Owing to the small size of the parts and the cuts needed to be made, I decided to build up the deck framing in sections off the model and then install the completed sections and connect them in place on the model. This was a method that I had tried successfully on my Triton cross-section and I am pleased with the results here, as well. I'm hoping that similar results can be obtained on the larger sections of deck framing for the quarter deck and midship areas. Wipe-on Poly was used to finish the framing.
 
Prior to installing the deck framing, I mounted the stove on its previously mounted base.
 
I still haven't decided how much deck planking will be used, although i'm sure that it will not totally cover the framing. Right now , I'm thinking of using very little planking, at least in this area. I can defer that choice until the rest of the gun deck fittings are done and the remaining upper deck framing is in place. The remainder of the gun carriages have arrived from the Lumberyard and I'm now working on the next batch of guns to be installed.
 
The last photo is a current full profile shot , since Nigel has pointed out that I haven't posted one in quite a while.
 
Bob

PROPS AND STRUTS
 
The prop blades are made up of PE brass, the hubs, collars struts and shaft bosses are cast Britannia.

The instructions call for making the props quite a ways further down the road but I’m doing them now to prevent a potential problem that I will explain in a bit. The prop parts fit together well. Twisting the blades to provide a right and left hand prop is easy enough but giving the blades the proper pitch (curl) is a little more tricky. Fortunately I have a set of four metal forming pliers that I got from Micro-Mark, one of which made this step easy.

After marking the axis’ of the shafts, checking them against the rudder post locations, and marking the locations for the struts slots are cut for each strut.

The shaft bosses (the shaft tube where it penetrates the hull) now have to be fitted so that they mate with the shafts, keep the shafts at the right angle, and most importantly – maintain their axis parallel with the axis of the struts so there are no “bends” in the shafts. By a combination of filing on the boss bases and getting them lower to the hull by removing some wood below them everything finally lines up.

When planning this section I had to stop and think “How can I possibly screw this up?” The worst scenario would be to get ready to add the props right at the end of the whole build and find they didn’t fit – that’s why I made them up now. The final check before everything is glued in place is to dry fit everything to make sure that the screws have adequate clearance longitudinally to the rudders and vertically to the hull.
 
After gluing the bosses and shafts in place strip plastic is cut to size to make up the inner shaft struts. I gave everything a preliminary coat of red so that when I get around to spraying the hull underbody I won’t have to try to reach the back sides of this stuff.


 
The props will be removed and stored in a safe place until they are added just prior to casing the model. They are very fragile and would be easy to damage during the build if left on the model.
 
Next up will be building the sonar dome.

Continuation of  #197
 
 
The blanks now filed
 
 
   
 
 
 
Now the self-made holding tool is used http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5248-holding-tool-for-holding-small-parts/
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
The result looks like this
 
 
 
 
and so in wood
 
 
 

 
 
 
have fun

Tell me ....... have I already shown, how I've made the blocks ? ..................
Not ?
well then
 
 
 
At this point should be said....... exactly the same method applies to wooden blocks
 
 
 
First, as always choose the material
 
 
 
The length of the blocks and the length of disk apertures are marked on the raw material and cut out on the table saw. The bar is sawn on both sides for two-disc Blocks, so it is guaranteed that both discs openings are parallel
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
Now the parts are joined together. So that nothing can slip secured with guide pins
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
Next step is to make the axle holes. The holes are the same diameter as the discs
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bring the pieces together with bone glue.
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 

 
 
 
Now mounting the rotated axes / turn washers ..... if you will, that the discs are portable, leaves  the glue away at this point
 
 
 

 
 
 
will be continued
 
 

I installed most of the cannon eyelets today. There are four (two on each side) that get installed on the fore side of the stanchions. I'm not sure how I'm going to drill for them. I may just drill a little crooked and push them into proper position. The basswood is pretty forgiving in that regard.
 

 
I also put a coat of primer on the trucks for the cannon. These things are tiny but still seem too large to my eye but I am not changing them. They seem to fit in the gun ports with a bit of sanding on the wheels to make everything flat.
 

Thanks for the nice words, everyone.  Popeye and Marc;  I did indeed purchase these eyelets in various sizes just for my portholes on the deckhouses.  They only became my mooring pipes because I could not find a solution for making the ovals...
 
A little progress with the pinrails;  they are made in 5 sections each side, and I'll be progressing from aft forward.  Filling the seams between each section is going to be an interesting challenge, as these rails are stained natural wood.  (BTW, I'm not too happy with my stain choice (red mahogany, too dark) but the poop deckhouse, hatches, heads, and companionway are finished this way, and I'm not about to remake them!!)  I can live with this....
 
Photos show the first section in place, with test fit of belaying pins in last photo.  When all pinrails are installed, I will then install the white paneling above.  I was originally going to pin the rails in place from the outside for additional strength, but these first sections seem pretty solid, due in part to the "stanchion rail" immediately underneath.  We'll see....

Added a bed and a closet for one of the cabins. The palliasse, a straw filled matras, was made from sculpey. I found a picture on the internet and made one like it.
 

 

 

 

 
The pantry was made using the same technique as the sail room
 

 
Remco

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 51 – Port side ceiling continued
 
It has been about a week since the last post.  Seems longer.  Work has been progressing, but most of it is similar to work covered in earlier posts, so there has not been much of interest to add.  The first picture shows the bilge ceiling being installed under the lower deck clamp aft on the port side.
 

 
At this stage all of the iron strapping is in place on both sides, so now it’s a matter of keeping it undamaged until it is covered by the various internal planking and clamps.  The next picture shows some of the lower strakes of the thick bilge ceiling being installed.
 

 
A fair amount of clamping is required to pull these 8” x 8” timbers into place and hold them there while the glue dries.  The deck clamps have been extended concurrently with work on the ceiling.  This can be seen in the next picture, which shows the current state of the model.
 

 
Below is another view showing the open areas in the bilge ceiling.  Later, nine frames in each of these sections and an aft section will be removed up to the height of the middle deck clamps.
 

 
The entire bilge ceiling is complete in this picture.  The thinner floor ceiling planking has not yet begun on the port side.  The next picture shows a closer view of the central view port area.
 

 
All of the bilge ceiling has been leveled out and given a preliminary sanding to allow the remaining iron (copper wire)  bolts to be installed.  All of the bolts have been installed in the completed deck clamps.
 
The last picture shows the starboard lower hull. 
 

 
In this picture the protruding bolts installed thus far have been filed and sanded off.  There are many more to install as the inside work continues.  The bolts are relatively invisible at this stage but will be much more prominent when etched black. 
 
The next step is to plank the floor area on the port side.
 
Ed
 

Hi, She's finished. Last bits to do were the anchors which were silver and soft soldered together from bits of copper.

 

 

 

 
here she is.

 
Thanks for looking!

Thank you Patrick and Marc.
 
I seem to have finally made a bit of progress attaching string this weekend!
 
First up, here's the Mizzen Pinrail with lines attached.  
 

 
The mast cleats that I removed from here have been relocated to the Belfry, because reading ahead, I realised that I was going to need these and as usual the kit hadn't provided for them.
 
This weekend I have managed to fit:
Topsail Sheet and Clue Lines to both Fore and Main lower yards. Leech Lines and Bunt Lines (Fore Lower Yard) Spritsail Yard Brace Spritsail Topsail Yard Brace Topsail Yard Reef Tackle (Fore) Topsail Yard Buntlines (Fore) Topgallant Sheet and Clue Lines (Fore) Topgallant Bunt Lines (Fore) The kit plans aren't too bad, once you figure out which line you are looking at. The only real issue is the belaying points - because the kit omits both shroud and mast cleats, it takes a while to figure out where the lines really need to go. Longridge has been indispensable for this.  I also have to acknowledge Gil Middleton's excellent log.  On one occasion, he was able to save me when even Longridge let me down!  Thanks Gil.
 
Pics - starting with Topsail Sheets and Clue Lines
 
Edit: I put a number of labels on these pics, but when I resized the pics, I lost most of the annotations.     
 

 

 
Topsail Buntlines:
 

 
Topgallant Sheet and Clue Lines:
 

 
Topgallant Buntlines:
 

 
A close up showing the underside of the Fore Top - it's getting quite busy under there!
 

 
And finally, a couple of overview shots:
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Thank you Keelhauled,
 
This has been a work in the making for some time and I intend to finish it soon. But right now I am busy with a few other things.

As you can see there are two more sails (and all those lines and blocks) to be added. After that I need to 'blow them to smitherines' to get them filled so they will look like a real ship sailing on a starboard tack, etc.
 
All it means is to get rid of wrinkles, and that is tough . . . . .

Some more updates. Finished the cabin and closed it. As I study the AL plans, I wish they could be more acurate on their model - There are some issues with bullwarks stanchions, for there are none and I have to ask what holds the bullwarks in place? There are 2 platforms and nothing to hold them from below - even when they seem part of the deck, my instincts and knowledge say to me there should be some beams.
 
Have found some problems with wood, too, since some of the them aren´t the same color they´r suposed to be - for that matter, I´m using my scrapbox.
 

Cabin closed and planked. Still don´t know if I´ll let the wood be or if I paint it in the process - All indicates I should paint the wood, but my heart loves the wood alone. I´ll frame the windows on the outside, yet.
 

 

 

Oh, yes, I remade the bed. It was a little rough.
 

 

A night view from the deck. I´m still thinking if the rest of my lanterns should be functional. Maybe one or two.

I'm running into some problems with this one.  The paper is just not holding the masts as well as I would like.  I'm leaning towards restarting.  The problem with this scale is glue builds up fast and it's becoming a mess.  I've learned a lot though and I have a few ideas I'd like to implement with it.  I'll redo the hull in paper because I like the detail.  I'll paint it with Testors paint instead of the heavy acrylic so the paint will be thinner and more uniform.  I will leave a piece of wood inside below the deck to glue the masts into.  I will still use the wire masts as that worked out great during a test fit despite the weakness of the paper.  I still think a decent ship at this scale is possible.  I just have to get over the learning curve.  

Onwards with the build, and onto the side rails and embellishments 
 
first off the list was the troublesome stern part of the kick board, the angle needed was tricky to get with the provided sapelli, the grain of almost all strips were to an angle rather than ripped straight, meaning any attempt at bending ended up with it flaking out at the bend.
Finaly, after about 5 attempts i had one i could work with

from then on it was fairly easy sailing

here it is blended in


now for the uprights, these were spaced at 14mm




the 'embelishments' took a fair chunk of time to make, and i wasn't too keen on them protruding from the sides, but this was just a case of what the kit called for, also i am awear that they dont continue around the stern on the actual ship but the kit instructions pictured them to



 

Well, Francis seems to be slightly stalled at the moment.  I got hardly anything done last Wednesday due to there being hardly any visitors in the museum.  No, that isn't an oxymoron, because there were no visitors the volunteer guides were all bored out of their minds so kept coming to have a chat to the friendly model maker.
 
At lest I got a couple more square frames on.  Here she is at the moment.
 
John
 

 

 

Hi all,
 
Back home after a week away with work, and just enough time in the shipyard to address the Mizzen Mast pinrail question.
 
I mentioned I'd come up with a cunning plan, and Danny picked it - that's exactly what I did....
 
First up, here is the starting point, showing the Mizzen mast with NO pinrail and with my scratch built mast cleats doing an admirable (if incorrect) job of securing the Truss Pendant tackle falls.
 

 
First job then was to create a pattern for the pinrail. A relatively easy job using TurboCad, although I did do a little bit of fiddling to get the size/proportions to my liking.
 

 
As I needed to construct this in four pieces (a la Danny's previous picture), I printed two patterns, cut them in half and glued them to a scrap piece of 1/32" boxwood:
 

 
Then it was simply a case of cutting out and gluing together..........or was it? 
 
On my first attempt, I cut out the basic pattern with a scroll saw, glued it all up and then tried to drill the large centre hole (about 6mm diam) ................. and watched the entire piece disintegrate. 
 
On the second (and final) version, I used a cylindrical stone in my Dremel to first cut the half-circle in each of the four pieces (stone was just the right diameter), then cut the four pieces off on the Byrnes saw, then got them close to final shape with the Byrnes disc sander, before temporarily gluing up and finishing the final shape by hand with a sanding board.  This proved much easier (and quicker) than using the scroll saw.  After that I drilled the holes for the belaying pins and did a test fit:
 

 
Then I soaked the entire assembly in isopropyl alcohol to separate the four pieces before carefully installing them around the mast.  Here's the final product:
 

 
Just waiting for the glue to set before re-attaching lines various.  In the meantime, I managed to fit the Mizzen Topgallant Yard with Tye, Parral and Lifts.  Once the lower yard lines are re-attached, I will have finished this stage of the rigging and will return to the Foremast to begin the process of attaching Clue Lines, Sheets and Braces etc.  And of course the Driver Boom and Gaff will need to be fitted soon as well...............
 

I got a call from a relative who wants me to make them a ship in a bottle, they were not specific on what they wanted they just said a pirate ship. I thought abought it and realized that real pirate ships are not that recognizable as "pirate ships" so I decided on the Black Pearl from Disney's Pirates Of The Caribbean.
   I found some plans on the web and immediately started on the model. The hull is made in three pieces from balsa, the upper works are made in four pieces also balsa, the decks are made from thin plywood and the mast are bamboo skewers. 



 
 
Lextin.
 

More on the boat... This is one of those jobs you start knowing that there's a fair chance you won't get it right first crack...Making sure the gouges are really razor sharp  - less likely to slip and get buried in your thumb...and using a very light touch help.The two halves were gouged out till they were thin enough to be translucent.


 
Carved out and in... then a really thin bit of Degame  was cut to be the keel/deadwood/cutwater...2 attempts.

 
Then the interior was detailed.....

 
The hull planking is paper, think i might have used slightly thicker paper to make the 'clinker' more apparent. Now it just needs oarlocks cut, a rudder and oars, and paint and it can then be put onto the ship.

 

Oars, 6 of them for the ship's boat. Printed out the blade shape, doubled which is then cut out, folded and glued to the shaft. Then painted and put into the boat

Kim
 
Nice job on finishing up another build.  Masts and rigging seem to be the main issue for many builders here, but with experience you will improve.
 
If I could make one suggestion, it would be that you stop more often to post progress pictures and ask detailed questions about things that are driving you crazy.  There really are a lot of people here who have been through what you are going through and who are more than willing to share their expertise.  Model ship building is not a race and the result is rarely improved by rushing through steps or attempting things blindly on your own.  Posting on your log more often will do two things.  It will slow you down a bit, and give you the chance to get things clear in your mind before getting to a point where you are not completely happy with the result.
 
I look forward to seeing your Conny get underway - stay warm - Winter is almost over!
 
Bob

Ah, right, sorry about that, thought I had...duh...OK, here tis.
OK, Sailmaking for Dummies actually more like by a Dummy... Ain't rocket science, but um, ain't easy either... I've been doing a lot of experimenting...(read 'cocking up') I've tried various papers. Philip Reed uses tissue, but then he's working at a smaller scale. I kept ripping them. Daler Layout Paper, is strong, acid free and weighs in at 45g -thin- without being too fragile is what I'm using at the moment.
So watcha do is stain the paper a nice warm off-white with some yellow ochre water colour applied to both sides with an airbrush. I taped the paper to an old canvas stretcher so I could do both sides at once... Then, draw lines (both sides, and make sure they line up) to represent the panels that make up a sail, back then they were generally about 2ft. wide. It helps, a lot, to have patterns printed out to trace from. Layout paper is thin enough to see through to do this.

 
I tried printing the lines out, but couldn't get an accurate enough line up to do both sides... Right. Cut out yer sail/s
The usual thing is to then put the sail onto the 'mould' a ceiling light glass cover, in this case, but a a plastic bowl giving a reasonable curve would be best.

Then stretch a chunk of old tee-shirt over it and dry. A hair drier or fan heater is good at this point as blowing on it would probably be exhausting and take a long time...

Then you'd start gluing on the relevent doubled bits, like the edging and banding where the reef points go through..

In fact, I found that it worked OK to put all those bits on while it was still flat and then set in the curve. Here's a tops'l I made today. It's not quite right as it stuck slightly to the glass and shows a bit of damage so I'll be making yet another, but you get the idea: a translucent sail with the shadows of the tablings etc.

 

 
The sails are then laced to the relevant yard or boom and given another splash with matt medium and tdried with a hair drier, which adds to the curve.

 
After this there was a lot more block making...


 
and rigging...

 

 
Needless to say, much has been done since the last entry, Things have been a bit busy around here and I've gotten rather behind with postings.

 
A boat had to be made. Here's the first hull half, roughly carved.

 
more shortly...

For the hatch coamings, I chose some strip wood that was high enough to fit above the deck base and deck planking height. For each hatch, I cut four pieces which all fit to the corners, then used a razor saw to cut lap joints into the corners. I made sure the lengths on the opposite sides were the same so they would be square, then glued them up using magnets and Legos to hold them square.
 

 

 

 
Tonight I will add the center pieces.

Jim - it's good to hear you are getting back to it.  Sounds like you've had a bit of a rough road - hopefully all is turning to the good now.
 
So no one will think I am slacking completely, I attached the block for the staysail throat halliard to the spring stay bail.  I must remember to keep it on the port side when I get around to attaching the stay, as it belays to a pin on the port side of the foremast saddle.
 

 
Bob