HMS GREYHOUND by Jackson7 - Corel - Collaboration With My Past Self

[Jackson7]

This next step took forever because it involved my nemesis: oil paint. And even worse, yellow oil paint. 

 

To get the next two planks to approximately the right shade, I had to blast them with several layers of thinned oil paint. Of course, each layer took a day to dry.

 

Of course, after the painting, they went on fairly easily.

 

 

And in the meantime, I realized that my glass for the transom window wasn't quite blue enough, so I've put on another layer of staining goo.

Hopefully, the next step won't involve loads of drying for stuff under my control.

 

 

[Jackson7]

Here is as good a place as any to say a few words about the art of shipbuilding.

 

In an idea world, building a model ship goes perfectly. Pieces glue in at the right angle, parts line up and everything looks great by the end. But that is not the world we live in.

 

Instead, we live somewhere where after six tries, something looks like a solid seven out of ten, and you're sure the seventh try will bungle it worse. Sometimes that's the best you can do. 

 

That's where you should learn to cheat. In these situations, the best way forward is to find ways to build little optical illusions into your ship. By the time you're done, you and others who look at it won't notice, and it makes the model look far better.

 

Here's an example or two from my Greyhound.

 

The side gallery windows have tiny wooden window bars. In an ideal world, they would connect percectly with the pillars that frame the windows. But the back pillar is too low to connect perfectly against its bars.

 

Rather than leave the bars bumping up, I sublty cut the bars into a wedge shape so it looks like they are flush with the pillar.

 

On the stern, one piece of yellow-dyed wood is too short. To make it fit, I cut and glued two other pieces so they looked like a single solid piece. The result is hardly noticeable. 

 

There's another similar piece of woodworking on the bow where I did the same thing.

 

These are far from the only things I've used to make the Greyhound look good despite setbacks. Little moves like these greatly improve the look of a model, even when you're not able to get things perfect. Sometimes attempting to make something perfect after a mistake only makes it worse.

 

 

[Jackson7]

Tonight I put everything onto the transom planking except the last two planks. The only difficult part was the plank directly above the transom window. I had to cut a divot in the middle so the window could fit smoothly. It all has gone very well though, apart from some remedial sanding where surfaces haven't been perfectly flat or straight.

 

The last two planks will have to wait until I finish the transom window supports, as the pieces underneath them show where everything fits together.

 

To my disappointment, I learned the lions I had my friend print are actually too big to fit on the transom. Not only was the metal badly cast, it was also somewhat too large.

 

That said, I still like my planks more than Corel's metal transom piece.

 

Also, I accidentally dropped the metal transom at the beginning of this step, and it broke. So I'm fully committed.

 

 

[Srenner]

Shame... im happy to help print another version for you if your not happy with the planking your going to do.

 

How are you going to bend the small window timber around... the back curves slightly in two directions?

[Jackson7]

7 hours ago, Srenner said:

Shame... im happy to help print another version for you if your not happy with the planking your going to do.

 

How are you going to bend the small window timber around... the back curves slightly in two directions?

Thanks @Srenner! That's a very kind offer, and I will definitely consider it if things don't go well. 

 

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean about the small window timber. On mine, the back is fairly flat, so I plan to just glue it on the same way I did with the side windows.