Philadelphia by BobCardone - Model Shipways - Scale 1:24 - Kit build with modifications

[rlb]

Bob,

I completely agree with Kurt on the display!   

Ron

[SardonicMeow]

I have only one experience with adding water to a diorama, but I'll share my experience with you.  I made this diorama of Kinkakuji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a few years ago.  The water is Woodland Scenics Realistic Water, tinted with acrylic paint.  Realistic Water can only be poured in 1/8" layers, but it looks like Woodland Scenics has some newer products that can do deeper pours.  I needed to do this one in several layers.

 

 

There were bubbles, but I was able to pop them with a pin while wet, so they weren't a big problem.

 

The biggest issue was how the water would creep up the terrain.  You can see it in the picture below, how the water creeps up the island and the blue color has soaked into some of the scenery.  It's also visible around all the edges in the picture above.  I had to backfill some dirt materal on top to try to mitigate it, but it covers over any nice land to water transition I wanted.  So, I encourage you to do some test pours with actual terrain like what you will use in your final display.  I just did test pours into a paper cup with some gravel, which wasn't an adequate test.

 

Anyway, for some great examples on making terrain and water features, I highly recommend Luke Towan's channel on Youtube, in particular the Realistic Scenery playlist.

 

Good luck with your display!

 

 

[Sea Hoss]

Hey Bob, the model came out great! I'm sure your display should be fantastic also. I chuckled to see the Smilodon stalking Slim, what for I wondered, he looks like a meager snack! also, I noticed that the Gun boat had oarlocks (tholes I think in modelling lingo), Did they supply the laser cutouts for them or did you decide to leave them out?

[kurtvd19]

11 hours ago, BobCardone said:

"What could possibly go wrong?".

Bob:

Air bubbles will appear in the resin "water" a heat gun carefully directed at the top surface will cause them to rise and pop.  I haven't done this myself but I know it's necessary from friend's experience.  Check to Woodland Scenics web site - I think they tell how to do it with their "water' product - but all resins are similar in this respect.

Kurt

 

[BobCardone]

1 hour ago, SardonicMeow said:

Anyway, for some great examples on making terrain and water features, I highly recommend Luke Towan's channel on Youtube, in particular the Realistic Scenery playlist.

Thanks, Peter!

   I'll check out the video. I've done some multi-layer pours before, but nothing this big. As far as "resin creep", it depends on what you're pouring around. I've found that a first coat of resin applied as a thin coat helps in sealing the base details as well as prevent bubbles from appearing in later pours. An old model RR trick for any objects that stick out of the water is to cut them exactly even with the top of the final pour. Then take the above water section of the object and glue it directly over the immersed cut off piece. I've done this with docks, trees, seawalls and other structures that protrude from the water surface. This doesn't work well with foliage, rocks and shoreline stuff, so for those I blend in the object with dirt, grass and plaster soaked in matte medium. That way you can hide the resin creep pretty effectively.

 

   

38 minutes ago, Sea Hoss said:

I chuckled to see the Smilodon stalking Slim, what for I wondered, he looks like a meager snack! also, I noticed that the Gun boat had oarlocks (tholes I think in modelling lingo), Did they supply the laser cutouts for them or did you decide to leave them out?

 Slim's a butthead. Everyone in the shop has a beef with him, it's no surprise he has issues with animal relations. All our cats are convinced he's stealing their food... Heck, they probably hired Ole Smiley to provide Slim with some "attitude adjustment". I have a dreadful feeling this is going to escalate...

 

   For the oarlocks, I just used toothpicks. if you look at pictures of the reconstructed Philly II, you'll see the oarlocks are tapered. The toothpicks worked perfectly for that.

 

I completed the mortar and carriage rails. I still don't know if I'll use it, luckily I don't have to finally decide until I start the awning battens. Here's the mortar... ( I know, not accurate, but looks cool and fills a "void").

   Here's some shots of the base sides attached and ready for finishing. I've got to square up the frame and make sure it won't leak resin (hot melt glue). This looks pretty rough, but everything on the base including the frame will have a finish treatment so won't be visible. The frame top edges will be cut to match the shore and waterline. I'll start this week on the lake bed, rocks and shore. Really messy work, but strangely satisfying to be "slingin' plaster" again.

 

 

[dzerbato]

Great work as usual! I love the idea of the diorama and the boat sitting lake side.

[BobCardone]

54 minutes ago, BobCardone said:

Slim's a butthead. Everyone in the shop has a beef with him, it's no surprise he has issues with animal relations. All our cats are convinced he's stealing their food... Heck, they probably hired Ole Smiley to provide Slim with some "attitude adjustment". I have a dreadful feeling this is going to escalate...

I knew it... The whole animal kingdom is involved. Looks like Slim needs a harpoon this time.

APRIL FOOLS! 

In these times everyone needs a laugh, go make someone's day (and yours) better by putting on a good gag. (I have a great one planned for the wife, It'll probably get me banished to the garage for a week at least).

BTW, no cephalopods or skeletons were harmed in this post.🐙

[dzerbato]

It certainly interesting to see our two builds side by side and see stylistically you can be done with the same kit.

[Sea Hoss]

So funny Bob! I saw your post of Slim being ambushed and I almost choked!  This is a t-shirt my girl bought for me when she was in Aruba!

[BobCardone]

7 hours ago, kurtvd19 said:

Air bubbles will appear in the resin "water" a heat gun carefully directed at the top surface will cause them to rise and pop.

Good advice, Woodland Scenics is an excellent resource for both materials and instructions. There's also a bunch of YouTube videos that are very helpful.

   Placing both bottles in hot water (about 120-140 F) for about an hour before you mix them helps. Heating the base up also helps (I'm going to leave mine in the sun for a few hours before I pour). When you mix the resin, do it slowly and gently, trying for a thorough mix without introducing any extra bubbles. Wait about 5 minutes before pouring, and pour slowly in one spot and let the resin self level keeping each pour thin (less than 1"). I'll be doing my pours in about 2-3 weeks, depending on how quick the materials and adhesives I'm using take to completely dry.

   

4 hours ago, dzerbato said:

It certainly interesting to see our two builds side by side and see stylistically you can be done with the same kit.

I think it's great. Maybe we can encourage some other Philly builds. Sure would be fun to see some other interpretations.

1 hour ago, Sea Hoss said:

So funny Bob! I saw your post of Slim being ambushed and I almost choked!  This is a t-shirt my girl bought for me when she was in Aruba!

Amazing coincidence! I'll have to get Slim an eye patch.  

Edited April 1, 2020 by BobCardone

[BobCardone]

Greetings All,

   I got a lot of work done on the base. It's time consuming, as I'm using water based stuff and things need to dry out good between steps. Luckily, the Florida sun is assisting nicely, not only for bake-out but also for some more outdoor pics. I love "real" lighting! 

 

Here's some of the ideas I use to improve dioramas.

 

   First, scenic compression. Most of the real world is pretty spread out and featureless, with interesting stuff scattered few and far between. This means "real scale" distances and dimensions are too great to model effectively. To overcome this, I try to "squish" my interesting sections together more so than they would be in the real world. This trick gets rid of "dead spots" and allows the viewer to focus on the interesting stuff. It also tightens up the display and saves on work and materials.

 

   Second, vertical exaggeration. Like scenic compression, this helps overcome nature's boring tendency to make gentle grades. Rapid changes in elevation seem to add more "space" and give more of a dynamic effect. My base (from the second picture onward) has an elevation change of three and a half inches from the lake bottom to the highest part of the frame in a span of only four inches. In scale, this would be about seven feet, much higher than what nature would usually do but effective. 

 

   Third, use the rule of thirds (bad pun intended). Painters, photographers and other artists divide the work into nine rectangles, and put the focus around the intersection of the four points in the center. Try not to orient either the model or scenery square, this can constrict the overall appearance and pull the user's eye off the display. I like to use a lot of diagonals, they seem to draw the viewer's eye into the display better.

   

   Fourth, KISS (not the band...). Keep it simple... reduce the overall size, eliminate anything that doesn't add to the model's presentation and try not to have abrupt transitions. Remember, THE MODEL is the primary focus. The base is just the stage.

 

I'll continue to describe my progress and methods as I go along.

 

Here's the base after the first glue-up.

   Here's the base after I decided to add a feeder stream and some more elevation. I also contoured the frame and and lowered the part around the water (I'll build a temporary resin dam when I pour the water).

Here's the base with some minor changes. I put some reference coats of different colored paint to both seal the work done so far and get an idea of the evolving appearance. The board in the center is to elevate the boat to it's proper distance above the bottom (approx. 1/2") and make the boat appear to be "floating". After all this stuff dries, I'm going to start on the riverbed grade, rock casting and terrain buildup.

Here's some outdoor shots with the boat oriented about where it's going to end up. I also scattered some deck ornaments that I've finished in random locations to start planning the deck build-out.

Gotta love the Florida sun!🌞

Edited April 3, 2020 by BobCardone
Correct grammatics

[Canute]

Ole' Slim is racking up rays. 😀

 

I like you layout for mooring the Philadelphia. Keep at it, Bob.

[BobG]

Great stuff, Bob! I'm really glad you are giving us the details about making the diorama.

[BobCardone]

17 hours ago, Canute said:

I like you layout for mooring the Philadelphia.

Thanks, Ken. I figured Philly needed a "picture frame" to provide context and concept. This is the messy (and fun... like a four old kid type of fun...) part of the build, and Slim and I are both slinging plaster outside. I'm getting tanner, but I think Slim is just bleaching out.

 I've been breaking rocks today, I kinda feel I'm in an old prison movie. I was going to cast all the rocks on the base, but I ran across some rocks that with a little "mechanical excitation" look like they'll work for most of the rock work. I'll still do some rock casting, but not near as many as I originally planned.

Here's the main materials I use to do the terrain work. As mentioned earlier, I used Styrofoam for the coarse elevations. It's cheap, easy to rough form and doesn't add a lot of weight. The next pass is FastMache, kind of a blend of plaster and paper flakes. It works great for forming out the terrain, is light, has a long working time and dries hard. After I did this pass, while the mache was still workable I embedded some rocks and blended them in. I'll be using the casting plaster for some more rocks and detail, and The Durham's for the final pass before adding dirt, gravel, foliage, trees and other stuff. The hot melt glue gun is indispensable!

Here's some shots with the mache and rocks...

[Sea Hoss]

Lookin good Bob...

[BobG]

Your log is extremely informative and fun to read, Bob. I'm really enjoying it.

[BobCardone]

I got some Woodland Scenics trees today (cool shade #TR3521) and couldn't resist test fitting them... and the Philly...

Pics:

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by BobCardone
delete dupe pic

[Kenneth Powell]

This is really looking great and growing before our eyes.

Issue Slim sun block before the FL sun bleaches his bones 😀

 

Kenneth

[BobCardone]

19 hours ago, Kenneth Powell said:

Issue Slim sun block before the FL sun bleaches his bones 😀

No problem today, it's been raining steadily since last night...🌧️

   Because the higher humidity is slowing the base work to dry out, and the base work is delaying further work on the Philly, I went to work on some of the resin deck additions. I still have some touch up to do, and after everything dries I'll shoot them with Krylon matte tomorrow. They'll be scattered about on the deck with the crates, barrels and other stuff I've already completed. I have about 20 more to do, it seems like a lot but all this stuff will also be used on my next build, the 1:24 USN Picket Boat #1 (same scale).

Here's the first batch:

Added pic of stuff on deck (demo only... won't end up this crowded).

 

Slim found another keg of grog... What could possibly go wrong?  ... 

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by BobCardone
added Krylon finish, extra pic

[Canute]

Well, he is your henchman, Bob.

 

The bedrolls and assorted other stuff are looking good. 👍

[BobCardone]

 

On 4/5/2020 at 8:34 PM, Canute said:

The bedrolls and assorted other stuff are looking good. 👍

Thanks, Ken. I'm just about done, I've got enough extra for at least two more similar scale projects.

On 4/5/2020 at 8:34 PM, Canute said:

Well, he is your henchman, Bob.

Yeah, the bones don't fall far from the tree, do they?

 

I made an EPIC SCREW-UP trying to use real rock on the base. Sure, it looks like rock (it is rock!) but "in scale" the rocks just don't cut it. Way too big and not fine enough detail. Also I had to "work around" the real rocks; compromising the overall layout of the base. My original idea was to cast the rocks using some Woodland Scenics silicone rock molds I have. I should have stuck with the original plan.

   So, out came the chisel and hammer. After about an hour of messy and curse filled pounding, I got the basic proportions back to my original concept. I cast up about four mold sheets (6 to 12 rocks per sheet) of layered rock that is typical of the area Philly sailed in. The rocks are universal scale, and the molds are really cut well with great detail. I used casting plaster for the rocks, and FastMache to attach them and blend everything together. I also decided to widen the feeder stream and provide a place for the gangway from the starboard bow to rest on the shore, and a path leading off the base. The above water part is now about done, it just needs to bake out a few days and then I can start adding color and detail. The riverbed is the last thing to finish. I still need to raise the elevation under the bow of the boat  some more and add shore rocks around the area where the riverbed meets the shore. I included a pic of the shore rock castings, it's pretty slick how they designed them to be run in various different courses.

 

   Here's some really ugly shots of the newly modified base, drying mache and plaster. I think this will look TONS better than before. Oh well, only wasted some mache, styrofoam and time so I consider myself lucky...

(BTW, I left one small real rock as a memento).

In process pics from a few hours later. I still have to raise the riverbed under the bow about 1/4" so the stem will appear to be run slightly aground. Added some shore and bottom rocks and did some more blending. The black rectangle in the center is the base of the boat, and the three 5/8" holes are to push the hull out after casting the resin water. More on that later. A couple of days in the sun,

and it'll be ready for finishing. Back to work on the boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by BobCardone
Add in progress pics, stuff

[EricWilliamMarshall]

On 4/1/2020 at 1:03 PM, BobCardone said:

BTW, no cephalopods or skeletons were harmed in this post.🐙

To my everlasting relief...

[BobCardone]

Hey all,

   Well, I finished all the casting and terrain forming, and did the first few passes of tint for the rocks, riverbed and ground. There will be more washes and drybrushing on the rocks and riverbed to make them "pop" and soil, rocks and gravel added to get the terrain ready for the water resin pours.

   The techniques I used for the rock staining are straight from this Woodland Scenics Video. I used raw sienna and burnt umber for my secondary colors, and concrete for my primary color. I'll let it dry overnight and then seal it with 3:1 water to ModPodge ratio scenery fixer. Then comes the black wash and drybrushing. For the terrain and riverbed I used a thicker wash of raw sienna, burnt umber and black with a lot of random variations to blend everything together. After the scenery fixer dries, I'll make my dams for the base edges and start the resin water pour. I'll do all the dirt, foliage, trees and detail stuff after the water is completed.

   I did get some work done on the boat, I started adding detail to the bow... bedrolls, crates etc. As soon as the resin water pour is done, I can start adding the delicate parts on the boat. I'm waiting until then because I'll be handling the boat A LOT and I don't want to break off the fiddly stuff.

 

Here's Mr. Snowball telling me to get to work...

Here's some shots of the base after first tints...

 

Here's some shots of the boat included (to see if the colors tie together so far) and the added bow detail.

[JpR62]

Nice job ! You do remarkable work on this diorama. I'm really enjoying your log !

[BobCardone]

On 4/8/2020 at 1:25 PM, EricWilliamMarshall said:

To my everlasting relief...

No worries, Eric. We welcome our cephalopod  overlords...

On 4/10/2020 at 5:14 AM, JpR62 said:

Nice job ! You do remarkable work on this diorama. I'm really enjoying your log !

Thanks, Jean-Paul! I can't wait to finish the base. Boat building is the main focus of this forum!

 

Again, I apologize for "going off the reservation" on the amount of time and posts I'm doing on the base. It became quite a bit larger project than I anticipated, but in the long run I think it will present the Philadelphia in a more effective way. As soon as the resin water pours are done I'll be back to finishing up the boat. The base should be dry enough to start pouring resin by Monday or Tuesday (depending on Florida sunshine).

 

Progress.. The base is completed enough to build the dams and start the resin water pour. I'll leave everything left to do on the base (grass, foliage, bushes, trees etc.) until that's done.

Here's some more pics, I know it doesn't seem like much progress, but there's about 10 or more tints, washes and paints applied since the last pics. Subtle, but necessary. Also, a lot more deck stuff has been attached. For those who have expressed concern about including the mortar, it's not permanent and can be removed if I decide not to use it. Still up in the air about that, tho...

 

Three pics of the base:

 

Some pics of the boat with added stuff.

 

 

[yvesvidal]

The rocks are so realistic. Excellent work.

 

Yves

[kurtvd19]

Take all the time you want with the base - I am enjoying this as much as the Philly itself.

Kurt

[BobG]

Wonderful detailing and a most interesting log!

[BobCardone]

9 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

The rocks are so realistic. Excellent work.

Thanks, Yves! Funny how "fake" rocks look more realistic in scale than real ones. Plus, making them is like being a 4 year old again... sloppy, messy and fun!

8 hours ago, kurtvd19 said:

Take all the time you want with the base - I am enjoying this as much as the Philly itself.

I appreciate that, and hopefully soon I'll be able to attack the main thing I'm dreading in this build. The rigging... I've never done any, and reading and studying about it is not the same as doing it. I know I'll have a lot of questions for the forum when I inevitably get lost in the wilderness.

2 hours ago, BobG said:

Wonderful detailing and a most interesting log!

Thanks, Bob. I believe that Slim and company will have some bone chilling schemes cooked up...

 

  2 pics of progress this evening. Increased upper right elevation about 1" to accommodate a large tree in the future, cleaned up the rock/soil boundaries and added an algae tint and a boat shadow to the river bed.

[mcpwilk]

Superb artistry as well as modelling,

 

Mike