ENGLISH MAN O'WAR by Robert Taylor - FINISHED - Revell - 1:96 - PLASTIC

[Robert Taylor]

Yes these are the rigging instructions from revell, and I think a lot of them are OTT. Sadly I do not have access to accurate rigging instructions(if anyone has accurate details at all of any ships from this period) I will just have to go with the flow and try and adapt the more OTT instructions.

 

I would also say this kit is not based on any whole English ship, only in parts. 

The kit is probably more based towards the "Spanish Galleon" kit from Revell as this came out first, this is essentially the same kit apart from a number of altered parts, so I would assume they have not changed the rigging instructions either.

 

[Thunder]

Hi,

 

I would purchase the Noel CL Hackney book for the Airfix kit Mayflower and use the rigging instructions from that. Best step by step with modifications by far. I used for the Airfix Golden Hind and Revel kits.

[Robert Taylor]

 Progress update on my English Man O'war 1:96 Revell. Slight change in plan, rather than doing all the ratlines first, I decided to do the standing rigging as per mast, then the ratlines for that appropriate mast, a lot easier to work inside to outside of the ship albeit it is still a long process.

I have also painted and rigged the rest of the Bowsprit as well as the Figurehead so that is more or less finished now, just rigging up the ratlines for the foremast.

 

Next stage is the main mast.

[Bill97]

Good morning Robert. I just received this Ravell kit as a very pleasant surprise. Will be starting it in the Fall. Currently working on the Revell 1/96 Cutty Sark. I guarantee I will be referring to your build log as I tackle the project. Excellent job!  I am curious about your sails. What technique did you use? Are they cloth or paper?  Very realistic. Paint color scheme is fantastic as well. 

[Robert Taylor]

19 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Good morning Robert. I just received this Ravell kit as a very pleasant surprise. Will be starting it in the Fall. Currently working on the Revell 1/96 Cutty Sark. I guarantee I will be referring to your build log as I tackle the project. Excellent job!  I am curious about your sails. What technique did you use? Are they cloth or paper?  Very realistic. Paint color scheme is fantastic as well. 

Hi Bill 

 

I made my own sails using a cream coloured pillow case, just a mix betwee cotton and linen, using the plastic sails with the kit  as templates, then hand sowed everything.

Also the paint colour scheme I thought long and hard about as I definitely thought it needed changing from the kit instructions,  took me a lot longer than I thought. I knew what I wanted to do with the hull, and a little of the galleries but most decisions were done stage by stage per the instructions. Sometimes you can have a vision in your head but it's not till it's in front of you that you can decide for definite sometimes. I also done a little rengraving of the architecture on the galleries too.

Like any model though you can paint it whatever way you think suits.

[Bill97]

Robert I just keep looking back at your build log. I am so impressed with your work. It is making me want to get to my Man O War build. I still have a ways to go on my Cutty Sark and need to be patient. I have so many questions and I hope you won’t mind me asking. If you do, please say. In the first part of the log you show all the hand made cloth sails. Are those the same ones you show later on the ship?  Also was the ship painting a combination of airbrush and hand painting?  I saw you holding a brush in one photo and I expect some areas are so detailed it has to be hand painted. Other areas look so smooth and even it looks like airbrush. 

[Robert Taylor]

3 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Robert I just keep looking back at your build log. I am so impressed with your work. It is making me want to get to my Man O War build. I still have a ways to go on my Cutty Sark and need to be patient. I have so many questions and I hope you won’t mind me asking. If you do, please say. In the first part of the log you show all the hand made cloth sails. Are those the same ones you show later on the ship?  Also was the ship painting a combination of airbrush and hand painting?  I saw you holding a brush in one photo and I expect some areas are so detailed it has to be hand painted. Other areas look so smooth and even it looks like airbrush. 

Hi Bill, 

 

That's ok, i don't mind you asking questions.

 

Yes the sails in my first log is the same ones I will be rigging up for this kit.

I also inserted 3mm modelling/jewelry wire in the sides only before sewing them up, so I can bend/mould them so that it makes the sails billow out. A lot less time consuming and less messier that pva glue on cloth etc..

The Kit is all hand painted, it's all I have ever done, as usually Galleons is all i ever build and with these kits you can't really airbrush much, the time you do take to set up paint &airbrush then mask pieces off, you could have painted by hand. I also don't own an airbrush, which is kinda weird as I was a spray painter for 10yrs. 

Everyone has their own opinion on airbrushing regard finish etc.. but for me i think its lazy. I guess it just depends on what Kit and size your making too.

 

Hope this helps Bill 👍

 

[Bill97]

Absolutely beautiful work on the painting. I was wondering how you got the billow n the sails. Modeling wire is the secret. Great idea. 

[Bill97]

Robert do use acrylics or enamels, or a combination of both?

 

Bill

[Robert Taylor]

3 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Robert do use acrylics or enamels, or a combination of both?

 

Bill

Enamels all the time, while Acrylics are to a certain extent easier to work with, they are brittle and easily scratched unless you want to double or triple your work by putting a clear gloss or lacquer finish o  top.

To me Enamels incorporate all of this in one go, ok slightly longer drying time, but long term made to last.

I try and use Matt enamels all the time as gloss ones are the worst for drying and mixing sometimes, so where I can, i try and substitute one for the other as long as it doesn't take away that original look.

 

Hope this helps Bill 👍

[Bill97]

Thanks again Robert. Again looking at your Man O War it is obvious that large portions would have to be hand painted. Impossible to airbrush unless you did a crazy amount of masking and unmasking. I really appreciate your thoughts and advice. It is fascinating reading the building blogs of different highly talented builders and seeing how each feel very strongly about their preferred way of doing things.  As I am honing my skills my mind is fully open to all techniques and methods. I will be making my own sails for my Cutty Sark. This will be my first attempt. I like your cloth sails and I like Ron’s (Great Republic) paper sails. Going to experiment with both methods to see which, if either, I can pull off convincingly. 

[Robert Taylor]

13 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Thanks again Robert. Again looking at your Man O War it is obvious that large portions would have to be hand painted. Impossible to airbrush unless you did a crazy amount of masking and unmasking. I really appreciate your thoughts and advice. It is fascinating reading the building blogs of different highly talented builders and seeing how each feel very strongly about their preferred way of doing things.  As I am honing my skills my mind is fully open to all techniques and methods. I will be making my own sails for my Cutty Sark. This will be my first attempt. I like your cloth sails and I like Ron’s (Great Republic) paper sails. Going to experiment with both methods to see which, if either, I can pull off convincingly. 

Nice one Bill, key is just to take your time, no rush mate.

Any more questions don't hesitate to ask.

Btw The Cutty Sark and I think the Victory are two kits I haven't built.

I kinda prefer more period Elizabethan galleons, even Carracks and some of the Heller kits are cracking.

[Bill97]

Appreciate it Robert. Believe it or not I also have the Heller 1/100 HMS Victory to assemble some day. Family surprises me with model kits for birthday and Christmas celebrations. Will have to toss a coin to see if next is Victory or Man O War. Will probably be around November-December time frame I think unless sail making for Cutty takes longer. 

[Robert Taylor]

That looks Fantastic Bill, what make and scale is it? Don't  fancy doing all those sails lol..

I've heard a lot of good things about the Heller Victory and Soleil Royal 1/100 kits, I would love to have one of those preferably the Soleil Royal  but my budget just now doesnt reach that far and I do have a lot of Galleons in my stash waiting to get built. Also heard that both of those kits usually take between 1-3yrs to complete, obviously depending on how much time you can spend on them, but with both having over 2000 parts it's not surprising I guess.

[Bill97]

Robert it is the Revell 1/96 scale. Yes the Cutty does have a lot of sails to hand make!  We will see how I do. 

[Robert Taylor]

Enjoy Bill, that's the main thing.

Just wondered have you ever made your own  sails before?

[Bill97]

No I have not. Many years ago (over 50) I built the he USS Constitution and Cutty Sark. I put the molded plastic sails on it that came with the he kits. Now that I am retired and have more free time I recently decided to get back into it. I finished the Constitution a few months ago and decided to leave the sails off so as to fully appreciate the rigging. I think the molded plastic sails don’t really look that good. So when I started the Cutty Sark I was doing some research and stumbled on this web site. Through it I have read of quite a few builders making their own sails. I think all I have seen look really good so I thought would try it. Watched YouTube videos and read instructions from builders like yourself. Anxious to try my hand at it. 

[Bill97]

This is my Constitution without sails. 

[Old Collingwood]

Great work,    also  nice to see so amny new faces  on here.

 

OC.

[Bill97]

Hello OC. Thanks for he compliment. I am definitely a new face on MSW. Just a few months. Have found it to be extremely helpful and enjoyable. 

[dvm27]

Very nice job on that Constitution, Bill. I hope you encase it so your grandkids can continue to enjoy it.  Agree with you regarding those clunky plastic sails. I like the idea of furled sails on your Cutty Sark model but they can be hard to do convincingly.

[Bill97]

Thanks dmv27. I wish I had the space to incase it and the others I will eventually complete. I now have 4 in the 1/96-1/100 scale. One done, one in progress, and two yet to be opened. I have  limited space to display them but may try to figure out a way. I am thinking of furled sails at the bottom yards and unfurled on the upper yards. 

[Robert Taylor]

8 hours ago, Bill97 said:

No I have not. Many years ago (over 50) I built the he USS Constitution and Cutty Sark. I put the molded plastic sails on it that came with the he kits. Now that I am retired and have more free time I recently decided to get back into it. I finished the Constitution a few months ago and decided to leave the sails off so as to fully appreciate the rigging. I think the molded plastic sails don’t really look that good. So when I started the Cutty Sark I was doing some research and stumbled on this web site. Through it I have read of quite a few builders making their own sails. I think all I have seen look really good so I thought would try it. Watched YouTube videos and read instructions from builders like yourself. Anxious to try my hand at it. 

Hi Bill 

Another cracker in that USS Consitution.

 

On the Sails part I would suggest also when you use the plastic ones as templates, add an extra 1cm or so all round, this will act as the flaps which you fold over and sew thus keeping the Sails to scale size, also it gives you the space to insert the 3mm modelling wire to billow the sails before sewing up and finishing them off.

[Bill97]

Thanks again Robert. The wire idea does seem less messy than the white glue “paint” on the sail to form it to the molded matching one. 
 

[Robert Taylor]

34 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Thanks again Robert. The wire idea does seem less messy than the white glue “paint” on the sail to form it to the molded matching one. 
 

Yes it definitely is. Although I have never tried the Pva glue way, I have watched at least half a dozen videos on YouTube, and i thought to myself that there had to be a less messy time consuming way to billow sails. I've known how to measure and sew since I was 7years old and that's why I decided to do it that way with modelling wire.

[Bill97]

Good morning Robert, or morning where I am. By the way, where on this beautiful planet might you be? I think your wire and cloth method is the first way I am going to try. I also learned how to sew from my mother many many years ago. Of course machine sewing would be faster and more uniform in stitch spacing. But what the heck. I am sure the original sails were hand sewn back in the day. 

[Robert Taylor]

3 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Good morning Robert, or morning where I am. By the way, where on this beautiful planet might you be? I think your wire and cloth method is the first way I am going to try. I also learned how to sew from my mother many many years ago. Of course machine sewing would be faster and more uniform in stitch spacing. But what the heck. I am sure the original sails were hand sewn back in the day. 

I stay in Scotland,  Bill, yourself ? 

[Bill97]

I am in Kentuck, USA. May have heard of Kentucky Derby. Track close by my home. Love Scotland. Spent some time in the north. An area called Dornoch, I believe. And of course looked for Nessie!

[Robert Taylor]

13 hours ago, Bill97 said:

I am in Kentuck, USA. May have heard of Kentucky Derby. Track close by my home. Love Scotland. Spent some time in the north. An area called Dornoch, I believe. And of course looked for Nessie!

Nice on Bill, yes I have heard of the Kentucky Derby albeit I am not a horse racing fan. Haven't been to Dornoch myself but have been  to John o'groats and wick many years ago.

Did you spot Nessie at all 😉 and have ever been looking for "The Haggis" 😉

[Bill97]

Yes I was tempted to try the haggis! Once was often enough. Luckily it was after, and then followed up by some fantastic Scotch Whiskey and beautiful golf!