Dirty Dozen Abalone Fishing Boat by xken - Finished

[xken]

Surprise, surprise look what just showed up in the mail! The sitting Joe figure.

 

Even a blind pig gets lucky for they used the exact same head as the standing figure so the helmet and breastplate even fits Joe perfectly. I also tried my first hand at Sculpty and made a hat for Tim (standing figure) just to get a feel for using the material. 

 

Now I will have to put together my clay color list now to go purchase the colors of Sculpty that I will need to make the dive suit. 

 

I will have to break his ankles and re-glue them to match the deck surface.

 

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

Just amazing work, Ken.  The helmet and breastplate look full-size.

[Omega1234]

Just amazing work, Ken.  The helmet and breastplate look full-size.

My thoughts exactly!!!

[Jim Lad]

That diving gear really looks the goods on that figure, mate!

 

John

[CaptainSteve]

 

I will have to break his ankles and re-glue them to match the deck surface.

 

 

Here y' go, Ken ... this lady will be happy to help.

 

Edited February 12, 2017 by CaptainSteve

[skifflake]

Beautiful Ken.  Pat

[captainbob]

Wow, the diver is a full model on his own.  But why buy colored Sculpty instead of painting the white that you have?

 

Bob

[xken]

Bob, I am just learning about Sculpty myself, but I imagine it is to keep clean crisp color transitions as each color is bake on. Will keep you posted as I learn myself.   

[xken]

Here y' go, Ken ... this lady will be happy to help.

 

 

misery.jpg

 

So far had to only break one ankle. I think I can compensate now with the boot material. Thanks for lending her to me! 

[Mahuna]

Great work Ken.

 

Sculpy can be painted with acrylics.  Put a light coat of gesso on first (dilute lightly with water) as a base, and you can then paint it as you would anything else.

 

The figurehead on my Paragon was made from Sculpy and then painted with acrylics.

 

 

Hope this helps.

[xken]

Frank, thanks and enamel paints work as well. Bob here is the finished figure with only the boot tips being painted all other colors are Sculpty colors either straight or mixed together.

 

First after fitting the breastplate there was a good gap looking down around the neck so I used white to create the locator for the breastplate and baked it. I then added the black details and baked them with the breastplate in place to assure a tight fit once baked.

 

 

 

Here is a close-up of the boot with the sole cleat, however I had to break the pull loops off when adding the suit.

 

 

Here I have added the grey suit which required a bit of fussing to get the wrinkles right for rubber. The tools I ended up using were a wood blade cut with a taper shaping blade, a round tooth pick, a wet Q-tip and Xacto blade. I found that working and shaping require working with a small bowl of water to dip the tools in to keep a smooth blended surface. I baked the figure set in an aluminum pan in a sealed baking bag so as not to contaminate the admiral's oven with noxious fumes from the polyester baking off at a temperature 275 degrees for 15 minutes. This was done for each color or detail addition. 

 

 

 

Here is a following sequence showing the final bake with shoulder straps, chest weight, belt weights and gloves added with no paint to this point.

 

 

 

 

Here is the final with the boots painted with Gold Foil that will tarnish over time to look like brass. I touched up his face with pencil and pastels on a Q-tip to be more life like.

 

 

For my first attempt at Sculpty I am happy with the results and would encourage others to try there hand at it. Also keep in mind that they can be mixed together to make colors. The subject can be baked numerous times with no adverse effects as long as you stay within the suggested temperatures. I did by an oven thermometer to verify the temperatures.  

 

Next to work on the hoses that attach to the helmet and continue on writing.

 

 

[Omega1234]

Hi Ken

 

I think you know what I'm gonna say...."Absolutely brilliant.  Super lifelike and just plain darn, marvellous".

 

Top stuff.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[captainbob]

Fine job on the Sculpty, he looks great.

 

Bob

[Jack12477]

Ken, beautiful job on the dive suit. It sure looks real.  Question: What material is the figure made of? It looks like plastic, but I doubt it is since it would probably melt or deform under the temperatures required to bake the Sculpty.

[xken]

Pat, Bob, Jack Thank you!

 

Jack it is a polyester based cast part. The reason I suspect this is because back in college I use to take automotive body putty and thin it with Fiberglas resin and use the amount of the body putty hardener to set the cure rate based upon the mixed color. Also the viscosity can be adjusted by the amount of resin used to thin the body putty. One thing to also keep in mind is that the more resin the greater the shrink rate. Mold release is needed for mold material other than silicone. 

 

This was way before cast urethane materials. When sanding the fiquire it has the same polyester smell and feel as the parts I used to cast. The figures being cast in China this combination makes sense. With the numerous bakings at 275 degrees there was no perceivable impact on the cast figure.  

[xken]

I have added the air and communication lines using beading strips of two different sizes. They are linked together every 3 inches with a piece of heat shrink tube that was shrunk with heat from the soldering iron barrel.

I made the adjustment valve in the air line starting with hex bar and turning two parts that were soldered together and then added the knob on a locating pin. Lines were attached to the helmet and junction on fore deck. I talking with Chuck he stated that the main amount of work by the lineman was done on the fore deck when the diver was in the water. He said the boat was not anchored and that the diver at times would pull the boat to a new location.

 

I also added the window glass to both the boat and the helmet, so look for reflections in the pictures. I used 1 mm acrylic sheet and cut each to fit. I laid the the clear acrylic over the plans and made each score with a Xacto blade and broke on the cut lines. Then the edges and corners were sanded to fit. For the helmet I used a circle guide to scribe a circle and then cut and sanded to fit each window.

 

Here is a series of pictures, I am finished with the boat at this point unless I discover an additional detail that would further enhance the presentation. So far the only ones that comes to mind are a retrieval rope that attaches to the diver that is hanging on the cleat right now and a gathering net for the abalone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now back to writing and the Constitution and wait to find out the next step for the Dirty Dozen with the Museum folks. My wife suggested that if the diver is displayed sitting on the engine compartment near the ladder there is no need to build an engine.

 

This has been a fun build and I have learned a great deal about abalone fishing, boat building and added a new skill of working with Sculpty.

Edited February 17, 2017 by xken

[dvm27]

Congratulations on the completion of a simple looking but actually quite complex model and presentation, Ken. Look forward to your future builds here on MSW!

Edited February 17, 2017 by dvm27

[Jack12477]

Congrats, Ken. Absolutely beautiful model and the two figures are very realistic. Thanks for showing us how to do it.

[michael mott]

Beautiful work on the dive suit Ken.

 

Michael

[captainbob]

Fine job, Ken.  The museum should be happy.

 

Bob

[Roger Pellett]

Nice Work! I'm curious though. Do they still "fish" for abalone? If so, how does it differ from the scene that you portray? Doesn't the diver need some sort of tool to pry the abalone from a rock or does he just pick them up?

 

Again, a beautiful job.

 

Roger

[Tigersteve]

What, no engine? Looks great.

Steve

[xken]

Roger, no commercial fishing on the central coast, but there is an abalone farm north of us. What i can tell from pictures they were just pulled off and put into a gathering basket. Some divers carried a sheathed knife; but in pictures I have seen the divers did not have them. At our daughter`s house since our power has been off 5 hours now, big storm coming through with strong winds and trees down everywhere; roads closed all around us. I will post a picture when I can.

 

Steve, just a game change, diver might be more interesting to look at than an engine.

[Roger Pellett]

Ken, Thanks for the info. I hope you get your power back soon. Evening news showed California Coast, being hit hard.

 

Roger

[xken]

Still no power, projected restoration tonight at midnight. Just having fun with the granddaughters now. We are in one of the pockets in Morro Bay with no power. So far only 2.3 inches of rain but record winds, we may have to replace our roof about two dozen shingles scattered around the house. Our neighbor has a tile roof and lost several tiles as well. House across the street was a total mess with 25% of the roof gone. Locals are telling us this is the worst storm in decades and more to come. The ocean waves are 16 to 18 feet and real impressive; watched them while having breakfast this morning at the embarcadero.

[Omega1234]

Hi Ken

 

Ouch! Stay safe and dry!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[mtaylor]

You're taking the brunt of this storm, Ken. We'll see the outskirts of it up here.   Stay safe.

 

Dirty Dozen looks great and those two figures just bring her to life.  The diver might have had a knife just "because", but for abalone, they pop off the rocks, etc. pretty easily.  We used to snorkel off the coast in 20-30 foot deep water when I was stationed at Santa Ana and find abalone on the rocks on the bottom.

[xken]

Mark, thanks! Yes it looks like in pictures I have seen some have knives and some do not. Still without power for another day and not looking good for another few days. Thank goodness we have our daughter living close and she has power. Still sleeping at the house just like camping with 58 degrees. The pole is down at the bottom of the hill and roped off but not a PG&E guy in sight.

[mtaylor]

Ken,

I do hope the power guy shows up.  I imagine they're pretty stretched to the max with this storm.

[xken]

Mark and All, the power is back on at 8 pm Sunday life is good again. Roger here are a couple of images of abalone divers. Note the one gathering and putting them in his basket. That is the one item I need to figure out how to weave or make.

 

 

 

Second wave of storm to come through late tonight and early tomorrow; here we go again. My daughter saved our bacon, literally she has two refrigerators with freezers and we managed to save everything. Still need to transfer the frozen stuff tomorrow after the second wave goes through.