HMS Winchelsea 1764 by MLDixon

[Mldixon]

20 hours ago, glbarlow said:

Very clever idea and execution. Well done. 

Thanks, I'm actually entertaining the idea of removing the moldings and replacing them, but I'm a little hesitant to potentially wreck the ship ...

[Mldixon]

So today I finally finished Chapter 4 with the deck planking, It wasn't as hard as the hull planking, but it's sure not a stroll in the garden...put on the WOP to keep it somewhat clean. Now onto chapter 5

Work in progress photo, braces to keep it down while glue sets

After WOP coat

I've been playing around with the captains and am trying out an all black shadow figure

 Nothing permanent, just kind of looking it all over for effect. 

 

I've decided to remove the grating and try again, not happy with the way they look, thinking about chapter six and the guns.

 

 

[PRS]

Looks nice. I like the painter figure myself.

[Mldixon]

12 minutes ago, PRS said:

Looks nice. I like the painter figure myself.

I agree, I also like the painted one. Architectural models use shadow figures so as not to compete with the primary design, just thought I'd try one. Oh, and all black figures are much easier to paint.

[Mldixon]

So i finished the rudder and the rudder box and seats

 

 

 

Then I moved on to the lids for the gun ports....

 

 

I laser cut the hinges from black laser board about the same thickness as the brass version. I did not let the laser drill the holes. I did that manually

 

i turned the end of the laser board tab with jewelers pliers and hardened with a touch of CA water thin...

 

They are not very big as you can see from the photo, I made the edges a little wavy so as to make it appear to be hand wrought by the 
smithy...left side the drop from the laser board, right side turned thimble for the hinge pins...

 

 

This was an experiment with a jewelers fitting for a necklace in bronze 1mm hole, glued on with CA and painted. I wasn't too hot on this so I passed on it and went with the laser board turned end. 

 

 

And here is what they looked like installed.  I guess I'm going to go ahead with this as it looks great to the eye without magnification .

 

And I inserted a pin into the foot of the Captain, so I could get him off the plank and more mobile. This has worked out great as I can now put him down anywhere on the deck with no damage. 

 

The above hatch cover was cut with a laser as an experiment just to see if I could do it. The one behind the captain was the first try and the one in front was the second try, I like these better than the other ones , so I'm going to proceed to cut all of these and sand and finish them for the final model. 

 

That's it for me now. Just got to decide how many gun ports I'm going to open and close, and if I'm going to do them all or just the ones Chuck has shown on his model. 

[Mldixon]

So I have arrived at placing the ladders, and it dawned on me that I would probably need to add the figures to the ladder before installing it in the final position. I printed out the figure and painted it quickly as a test to see if this was true...and it was. So I decided to make a figure carrying out a powder keg for the guns from the hold. Anyone who knows the appropriate ladder to place this figure, please speak up. 

 

I have not printed the actual figure with the Powder Barrell, but will do that soon. I have included some images of what it most likely will look like. All of these are being scaled for the Winnie so  I had to build scale models of the ladder and the Powder Keg so that I could Rig the figure in the appropriate stance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by Mldixon
add text , deleted some images

[Mldixon]

This is a follow up to the Powder Monkey, he is now carrying a cask of Powder, 

I also am giving some thought to another area that is going to be hard to access later. The sitting first mate. 

I think I am going to add more figures and have them standing and looking at maps on the Rudder box.
His feet do not touch the floor as an average chair seat is at 18" and this bench is about 28" off the deck. 

Anyway for those interested the pics follow....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PRS]

Your figures are great!

 

How do you make them?

[Mldixon]

41 minutes ago, PRS said:

Your figures are great!

 

How do you make them?

Well I'd like to say it's a simple process, but it's not. 

I am using 4 different software programs, and an Anycubic Photon Mono X printer. 

You have to create the various poses to fit the scene you want the figures in. So you have to 3d model the ships parts. I use Sketchup Pro to do this. 

Then you have to export that as a 3d Model and import that into your poser program. Then you get into the whole scale problem, all of these programs have to be adjusted so that the scale is accurate across the transfer of the files. So that is all well and good, but now you need to have the actual models of the figures along with the clothing. Then you use the imported ship scenes and pose the characters. Now you export the figures after you are happy with them to yet another program, this one repairs and make the models solid so you can print them. Then you export that as an STL file to a slicer program that cuts the model into .02mm slices and prepares it for printing. Then you add supports so that the character will print correctly, wait about 2 hrs for the printer to finish, remove it from the printer, wash with alcohol, rinse with water. Prime white with an airbrush and them put on Magnifiers and paint the little guys, if you have the shakes, you'll never get them painted. I sometimes have to strip and repaint as many as three times to get it right. 

 

I have been doing this for awhile so it's not so bad for me. You need to be well grounded in the digital world, I have a lot of the software from other ventures and I purchased the 3d printers for fun. As you might guess the learning curve is steep and if you had to purchase all the programs, etc. etc. you would most likely throw in the towel. I am self taught on this. I use the crash bang method of learning which results in a lot of failures before you finally get it right. 

 

 

 

this is the deck hand with barrel on the ladder. The ladder was molded in Sketchup 2021 Pro and imported in. Same with the barrel. Ladder makes sure you are posing the Deck hand to the model correctly, this is why scale is so important. 

                              

Here is the  figure ready to be sliced and printed, the vertical white poles are the supports, without those the print would not work.   

 

 

 

and the figure printed and primed, but not yet finished. they are so small that it is maddening to work with them                                                        

[Mldixon]

So this is a follow up to the seated first mate in the captains quarter. I painted him and placed some of the beams to see what it looks like. 

I think this is Ok.

I need to get on with these areas so I can button them up and move on with catching up to Chuck and the build. 

Photos were shot at deck level and the captain walking was not set firmly into the deck yet. I will most likely CA these into place when I have them all settled into place. 

 

 

 

Cotton swab hair hanging off the beam in this overhead shot, those were cut by the cnc and have not yet been finished. 

[Chuck]

Very nice

[glbarlow]

You should make a replacement for Chuck’s lost mini-me with all that skill and hardware.

[Mldixon]

39 minutes ago, Chuck said:

Very nice

Thanks, looking forward to moving forward

[Mldixon]

17 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

You should make a replacement for Chuck’s lost mini-me with all that skill and hardware.

When did mini me go missing? I thought I saw him in recent posts.

[glbarlow]

At the last show he attended

[Mldixon]

 

Sorry to hear about mini me, but if it was made for Chuck there exists a 3d file that can be reprinted. I've never seen Chuck so I don't know if that was a full body scan or was done through photos, either way making a model from scratch is a tall order. But I appreciate the confidence you have in my ability  

[Mldixon]

Port side Hair brackets finished. Truly a time consuming and hair pulling exercise in Modeling.

I am most likely going to take off the frieze and reapply new ones as I am not happy with the overlap areas.  

The Bow wash still needs to be painted black, and the figure head is not glued on yet. 

Lids for the cannon's are on hold for now. In the interest of not having to make repairs to them. 

Looking forward to finishing this area as I have many loose ends to tie up. 

I have about 12 hours into this side over 3 days. 

[Chuck]

Dont glue the figurehead on yet at all.  That wont be until much later after the headrails are all done.  Otherwise you will wish you hadnt.

 

Chuck

[Mldixon]

Thanks for that heads-up Chuck. Figure head on hold...

[SteveL]

6 hours ago, Mldixon said:

Port side Hair brackets finished. Truly a time consuming and hair pulling exercise in Modeling.

I am most likely going to take off the frieze and reapply new ones as I am not happy with the overlap areas.  

The Bow wash still needs to be painted black, and the figure head is not glued on yet. 

Lids for the cannon's are on hold for now. In the interest of not having to make repairs to them. 

Looking forward to finishing this area as I have many loose ends to tie up. 

I have about 12 hours into this side over 3 days. 

Looking for long nose clamps which I see on your bench. Do you know where I might find them ?

[bdgiantman2]

Your friezes look great to me on your model. Keep up the great work.

 

Brian D

[Mldixon]

1 hour ago, bdgiantman2 said:

Your friezes look great to me on your model. Keep up the great work.

 

Brian D

Thanks.

[Mldixon]

1 hour ago, SteveL said:

Looking for long nose clamps which I see on your bench. Do you know where I might find them ?

I found them at Zorro for about $5.99 each sold in sets of two. They fluctuate in price. I've passed on adding more due to high cost. They're made by Bessey xcl2.

[SteveL]

Thanks! And by the way, your Winnie looks awesome.

[Mldixon]

Working out deck cannons for the moment, a lot of repeating elements.

Thought about rigging the lines on the Cannons, but soon changed my mind on that for the moment....kind of in limbo for the moment as I think about the carriages and if I am going to be sorry if I take the wrong turn here.

 

Anyway a shot down the deck with a bunch of not quite completed guns. Also added some pics of the officers looking at the maps and cooling their heels, so to speak, These guys are complete and in place for better or worse. I am going to add haircaps to the two bald ones on the map table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

It looks very good.  But the breech lines should absolutely be tan and not dark brown to simulate being tarred.

 

Chuck

[Mldixon]

37 minutes ago, Chuck said:

It looks very good.  But the breech lines should absolutely be tan and not dark brown to simulate being tarred.

 

Chuck

Yes, I was testing out how hard it would be to make 28 of these, and unfortunately did not have the proper size ropes on hand in the color I needed. Which brings me to the next question. What size is appropriate and when do you think the store will open again?

[Chuck]

.045 if you prefer a slimmer look and .055 for a more Robust look.  The store will open on Jan 1st.

 

this is a carriage with .055 tan rope.

 

[Mldixon]

Thanks for the Info , I'm sure about all the rigging of the gun, but the breeching lines might be the a nice compromise. I'm probably going to do one gun in action with some figures as I have now committed to a diorama theme of sorts. Looking forward to the reopening of the store. 

[Mldixon]

 

 

I've been working my way forward, I used 123 blocks to weigh down the beam over the aft bulkhead section as the glue set...

 

 

I had to make a reference sheet to keep track of all those lodging knee, and hanging knee locations, this was a big help.

 

Those Stanchions and railing around the companionway, were a bit of a trick... pinning them with wire was a lifesaver, as I bent them out of position twice. Just had to nudge them back straight thanks to the wire pinning...paying attention to the details in Chuck's descriptions.  

 

 

I went ahead and did the breeching ropes on the cannons at Chuck's suggestion. I'm very happy with the look.

Going to have to blow out all the debris with airbrush after I complete these areas, still no lids on the cannon opening, a wise decision as I have been breaking a lot of the smaller items by not paying attention. But I'm getting better about it. 

On the lower right is a balsa laser cut template I made to check the fits against the bulwarks...

 

The jeer bits and Gallows are just positioned waiting on the next step which will be the chain Pumps

 

 

I made a Elmer's white glue and crimson red paint mix solution to make a caulk, I then painted the gaps in the hanging knees with this mix, It dried and did a pretty good job of making my hanging knees fit the Bulwarks.

 

Far from perfect, but I'm having fun. I am fine tuning the figures in Zbrush before printing again...