USS Constitution by ERS Rich - Model Shipways

[Der Alte Rentner]

18 hours ago, ERS Rich said:

 Can’t believe I didn’t notice this while masking.

Especially when it came to masking over the eyebrow..

 

How you got such a fine straight line over the eyebrow is amazing - in and of itself.

 

Part of the reason I don't want to paint Connie, is that I don't think I can manage a paintbrush well enough to do a decent job - not just the straight lines, but on the intricate work on the scroll work. 

 

Your build is looking good, looking forward to your coming back to it. No rush though, wait for me to catch up 😁

Edited June 1 by Der Alte Rentner
Typo

[ERS Rich]

On 6/1/2024 at 10:31 AM, Der Alte Rentner said:

How you got such a fine straight line over the eyebrow is amazing - in and of itself.

My masking tape preference is Tamiya, place it, then run a finger along the edge for a seal.  Inevitable there is some bleed under the edge, so expect some touchup.

 

About applying the paint, airbrushes, like my preferred Paasche Talon, excel at applying a fine lines of paint or covering small areas, not so well covering large areas.  When using the Talon, I try to move the brush in parallel passes, easier when painting small parts or areas, to maintain a wet edge, the next pass can overlap..  As the area gets larger there is a tendency to move the air brush in circles - or wave the airbrush.  This leads to applying inconsistent amounts of paint, leading to blotchiness, or paint drying on the surface forming a powder.  

 

The solution is a larger airbrush - a paint gun, or sprayer designer to apply paint to large areas - like the hull of our Constitution.  My preference is the Iwata RG-3l mini gun.  I just love the way it lays down Tamiya acrylics.

 

Before the spray gun I’d brush out large areas, using Model Shipways paints - a nice brush and properly thinned paint are important.  Try it out on a piece of scrap wood…..

 

Cheers

[ERS Rich]

This fellow does a much better job of explaining what I said above…..thanks

 

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

Thanks for the notes on the airbrush and techniques.  I've been perusing your build intently today in my research preparatory to planking the spar deck any further.  On the matter of tapering the planks, I think I can safely conclude that you were not in that camp.  However, how did you manage your butt joint plan?  Did you go the Hunt route and scribe these in after the fact?  Also, it's hard to tell from this picture,

but did you put support pieces under the areas where the planks butted up against one another?

Thanks again,

Best

Peter

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

On 6/2/2024 at 3:01 PM, ERS Rich said:

Before the spray gun I’d brush out large areas, using Model Shipways paints - a nice brush and properly thinned paint are important.  Try it out on a piece of scrap wood…..

I have tried this, but if I'm going to thin the paint and apply multiple coats, especially at the waterway and bulwarks (assuming I'm going to paint at all - the decision point rapidly drawing near 🙁), I'd rather mask and spray.  So, I'll be checking into that Iwata RG-3L mini gun.

Thanks again

Peter

[ERS Rich]

2 hours ago, Der Alte Rentner said:

However, how did you manage your butt joint plan?

Hi Peter,

 

I love the spray gun, hope it works out for you.

 

Regarding the deck planking.  The butt locations are over frames.  At the fore and aft end of a run, used tabs under the waterway.  

 

Convenience rather than historical accuracy governed.  Given the scale and the relatively small width of a plank found it would be too tedious to taper.  And probably not noticed.

 

I’m in the “building a ship model” camp, rather than “building a miniature ship camp”.

 

Thanks for looking at my work, hope it helps with yours…..

[Geoff Matson]

I like it. It looks great. Thanks for the airbrush info.