HMS Sphinx 1775 by Hollowneck - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[hollowneck]

26 minutes ago, Blue Ensign said:

A fine crew indeed, nicely done Ron.

I am surprised that Captain W has arrived to take command wearing britches that look like he found them in the bilges, what is his servant thinking of.

The officer class must maintain standards.

 

B.E.

 

Thank you, B.E. You’re correct. I got a little carried away on adding schmutz to the crew’s trousers. This Captain does have higher standards and certainly doesn’t have to mess with gun carriages, gunpowder, ropes- unlike his minions. I’ll give his britches a good wash before the muster is called.   Wigglesworth’s man-servant has gone AWOL.

Edited November 7, 2022 by hollowneck

[mtaylor]

12 hours ago, druxey said:

Those front-hall photos make me cringe. Not because the models are not good - they are lovely  - but where are their protective cases???? Even if the cat doesn't play with them, the dust that will accumulate on the rigging.... Oh deary me!

Not to mention people coming and taking their coats off in that area.  One bad swipe and disaster.  A case is the only way to go.

[DelF]

16 hours ago, hollowneck said:

I don't know about you but I do a "walkabout" every few weeks (no set schedule) with a can of compressed air and a small handful of long medical swabs

I use a similar routine. I have a couple of ships in cases, but in a perverse way I quite enjoy getting reacquainted with my other models when I have to dust them. That, and the fact that I simply haven't got round to casing them yet 😁. 

 

Your Vanguard figures look great. I've got a set but have yet to paint them - not something I've done before, so I'll be resorting to Youtube to hopefully find some lessons. 

 

Derek

[glbarlow]

5 hours ago, DelF said:

but in a perverse way I quite enjoy getting reacquainted with my other models when I have to dust them.

Me too. I have a set of different sized re-imagined soft makeup brushes (new, never used for makeup). 

[HardeeHarHar]

On 10/30/2022 at 11:01 AM, hollowneck said:

 I transition from intricate rigging with surgeon's and dentist tools to chopping up large sections of plywood with power saws, sanders, jig saws and large cabinetry clamps.

 

Ron, I am all ears if you have some recommendations for surgeon's and dentist's tools that help you with rigging.  I am dreading using my fat fingers when I get to the Granado rigging, and my set of tweezers aren't much better.  I used to work in laboratories, so I know what a good pair of tweezers and forceps, etc. look like, but if you have other tools that are useful, or some tweezer or forcep recommendations/suppliers, you know I will attempt to arm myself in any way possible to make the job easier.

 

Also, I like the mixed emotions being batted around about your open atmosphere displays.  It is an interesting topic for discussion!

[captain_hook]

Those seamen look very realistic, they will surely add some realism to the beautiful model.

[hollowneck]

On 11/8/2022 at 10:35 AM, HardeeHarHar said:

Ron, I am all ears if you have some recommendations for surgeon's and dentist's tools that help you with rigging.  I am dreading using my fat fingers when I get to the Granado rigging, and my set of tweezers aren't much better.  I used to work in laboratories, so I know what a good pair of tweezers and forceps, etc. look like, but if you have other tools that are useful, or some tweezer or forcep recommendations/suppliers, you know I will attempt to arm myself in any way possible to make the job easier.

 

Also, I like the mixed emotions being batted around about your open atmosphere displays.  It is an interesting topic for discussion!

Brian,

Please look at the last photo of my post #349 in this thread. You’ll see the main tools I use for handling nearly all the rigging tasks. I’ve purchased most of these from Micromark. The scissors are from Germany, “Ginghher” brand, but acquired on Amazon. The original set of dental tools had several pointy things, but the wicked-looking one with the bent sharp point is the most effective for it’s main rigging purpose: hanging rope  hanks in difficult to reach spots. The blue handled tool comes from a set of rigging tools designated as such on MicroMark; I’m not certain they’re still available. Spend some time on their site. I wouldn’t bother to go to dental tool suppliers: from my experience that is a deep rabbit hole and completely unnecessary.

Edited November 10, 2022 by hollowneck

[hollowneck]

18 hours ago, captain_hook said:

Those seamen look very realistic, they will surely add some realism to the beautiful model.

Indeed. I’ve waited for years for these little gems to appear! As I’ve indicated earlier, the sculpts are superb and the 3D-resin printing (and high-quality) material allow one to finish paint them in a very realistic way. Note that over a “base” flesh color, I use darkening ‘tone” washes to bring out the minuscule details like facial features, even the space between little fingers! My paints are standard Vallejo brand acrylics. The washes are from a gaming company called Citadel (war gaming miniatures/U.K. But available in the U.S.).

BTW: thanks. This ship has svelte lines and lots of subtle, understated decorative elements - as long as one doesn’t paint every one of them in Bright GOLD, these help to emphasize the beauty. This is sort of like jewelry on a beautiful woman, not necessary - but it doesn’t hurt!

Edited November 10, 2022 by hollowneck
Added text, formatting

[hollowneck]

On 11/8/2022 at 9:52 AM, glbarlow said:

Me too. I have a set of different sized re-imagined soft makeup brushes (new, never used for makeup). 

One of my favorite hand tools is a velvety-soft sable brush.

[hollowneck]

Making Water- Phase One

Prior to cutting the large foam board that will be the base of the diorama's waves and model support, the bendable curve - shown in the previous post for gathered materials/tools - was placed along the hull of my model at the waterline level. HMS Camilla will heel at an approximate angle of 10-15 degrees, to starboard. This is important as the PORT waterline will thus, be slightly HIGHER and this must be taken into account for creating the waterline cutout template pieces shown here.

 

Utilizing two pieces of foam board from an earlier project (2" ref thickness), the bendable curve lines taken from the model's hull were traced onto two long pieces of foam board and then trimmed with a utility knife to create two hull curvature template pieces: this is required to arrive at a "template" to trace and mark a reasonably accurate "cut line" into the top layer of the 1" foam board that will be the surface that holds the "waves."

 

The two halves of the foam board template are marked so that stem and stern points aren't confused.

 

The next step is to measure, cut and place a 1" thick sheet of foam board ("Pink Panther" insulation) into the case. This 36" wide piece is one of three (3) of 1" thick foam boards that will be stacked and secured into the case: the internal dimension height after stacking the foam board sections is a little over 3" high. The top piece shown here will be on the majority of photos that follow as it is the one to which the "water" shaping components will be affixed.

 

The final step here is to use a black Sharpie to transfer the final cut line to the top layer foam board.

After determining the placement of the hull into the case, a keel line is drawn. In this diorama, the keel will be diagonally across the case from opposite corners as shown. Once the keel line is drawn, the template pieces in the previous photo are used to locate the exact position of the model's hull, which is centered along this reference line.

The next step is relatively straightforward; using a bread knife (important: it helps if it's a serrated edge because the thick foam board material's consistency makes it difficult to cut through with a utility blade, even a long one. My cutting action must take into account the 10-15 degree heeling angle of the model as I slice through the foam board. This is done by eye and is important so that the previous templating is followed as closely as possible, including replicating the different angles so the model's hull will sit securely in the resultant opening.

Here is the first test to see how the model fits into the foam board cutout. Having done this a few times now, my cutting resulted in a near perfect width, length and heeling angle cutout in the 1" foam board's TOP LAYER. Note the angle of the model to the foam board.

Zooming in close to the stem while the ship model is temporarily placed into the foam board, it's time to determine how the wave action will look relative to the ship's hull and wind direction. The diorama's wind is a following one, from aft. The wave action will not be strictly parallel to the ship purposefully so that the diorama's built-up waves will create some "visual tension" between the model and the sea. This purposeful "randomness" is a dynamic that is important and will be a recurring theme throughout this final phase of my Build Log. I'll do my best to note when this is a consideration in all the following steps.

Moving down alongside the starboard hull, a slight mismatch on the hull is evident, a gap. This isn't critical because it will be covered-up in subsequent water building steps. However, the tighter the better to the previous waterline cutout step. This precision will help make the wave top detail as well as creating the foam wake along the hull much easier.

This photo shows the two sides of the "wave material" I will use to shape all the wave action on the full diorama. The material is named "ShaperSheet" and from Woodland Scenics. It's a composited sheet of thin aluminum (a little heavier than regular kitchen foil) with a thin cotton backing adhered to it. It comes in 18" wide by six foot roll lengths. This material will be used to form multiple sections of waves that get placed onto the foam board surface and positioned tightly against the model's hull. The white cotton surface material will hold the plaster that gets applied after the wave sections have been formed and affixed to the foam board around the hull and to the edges of the diorama case.

Here, I've made a first wave section: a large "rolling wave" that the ship's bow is meeting. It tapers off as shown -toward the lens- and is held in place with pushpins temporarily. The large piece has been cut from the ShaperSheet and manipulated with my fingers to form a raised section, all by eye - and yep, by "feel." The random front edge shown where it is pinned is purposeful. The black parallel location marks are important as several pieces of the sheet will be required and will need to overlap. My next post will show the development of these wave foil/cloth sections that will comprise the principal wave surface of the diorama's seascape.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by hollowneck
typo

[hollowneck]

Now I get to Make More Waves, several of them...

The first wave piece is formed and up against Camilla's stem and bow. I increased the vertical profile of the cut sheet up by manipulating the aluminum foil. The cotton-clad surface is face up, obviously- not the shiny aluminium one (U.K. English spelling!). As surmised, this is a very subjective process, difficult to describe in precise terms. Basically, I try to avoid sharp lines as much as possible when manipulating the material: in my life experience, I've not seen lines and angles with Euclidian geometry represented in the sea! This said, if some straight lines crop-up during this stage, no problemo. There will be remedies a-plenty forthcoming.

A large section of "Wave" meets the case corner and underlays the first wave section that touches the model's port bow. T-pins are very handy to secure the aluminum/ cloth pieces. The section in the forefront is also shaped with raised areas, but less dramatic than the bow wave piece.

A different, lower viewing angle to the wave shape that touches the bow of the model. This wave creation phase cannot be rushed as it is quite critical to create a convincing "kinetic" seascape.

This view shows the layers of the foam board in the case. The foam board couldn't be cut into a precise, close-fitting case pieces because of the scored lines on the raw sheets so a separate sectional piece was cut and added to close this gap.

Both the foam board as well as all the ShaperSheet wave sections will be glued together with low-temp glue sticks, also from Woodland Scenics. Regular hot glue will MELT the foam board and that's not good! The aluminum/cloth sheet needs to securely adhere to the foam board, otherwise a white or yellow glue could suffice for this stage. Since the hot glue is handy I use it to glue the foam board into the case and to glue all three layers together too.

In making the wave sections there will be raised areas that need support; in this instance, right at Camilla's cutwater. A support made from the same foam board is placed beneath the ShaperSheet and hot-glued into place to give the wave pieces a firm footing before permanently gluing them into place.

Camilla's bow, wave sections hot-glued in place and completed. The edges of the overlapping pieces will virtually disappear in a subsequent "cladding/surfacing" step with hobby plaster.

Moving along the hull, another small foam block - in this case a tapered one. The support block is placed near the stern to support a wave section. Camilla's dangling rigging ropes have been left loose since the yard bracing and bow line runs may need to be adjusted to reflect her position in the sea setting.

On Camilla's starboard, a wave section is cut and finger-formed to align along her hull with sea "bumps", roughed-in as shown. It is very important to make the edges of all the wave pieces irregular to reduce or diminish as much as possible any linear lines in this sectional approach process. This will pay-off immensely in the subsequent steps I'll articulate later.

Camilla's starboard main hull wave piece is shaped. The fuzzy surface of the cotton does shed as you handle it but these extraneous bits can be easily removed; all black edge and position marks will be covered with the cladding shaping plaster when all the wave sections are secured with glue and completed.

 

More wave sections are coming in the next post.

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by hollowneck
added text

[hollowneck]

The Water Puzzle continues.

Rolling along Camilla's port side, another tapered foam wedge supports three raised wave sections. All the ShaperSheet pieces are cut with heavy-duty scissors; an X-acto knife won't cut the stuff.

A few wave sections remain. Working around my completed model while it's in the diorama's cutout isn't too difficult but I needed to be careful while handling the larger sections of the ShaperSheet material.

All of the wave sections have been cut and formed and are securely glued-in around the case's perimeter as well as all along Camilla's full hull. She can be easily lifted out of the setting and is not yet secured to her sea.

A detail of the tricky stern wave sections shown here. Smaller ShaperSheet pieces were cut and had to align precisely so subsequent "wake" making steps would be easier to execute. The locating marks help when executing the final glue process. All the black Sharpie marks will disappear in the next stage.

Time for a water making break: neat. No water, no rocks. Best enjoyed with a good friend or partner, but still acceptable as a solo toast to an involved, multistep process that's gotten to about the halfway mark for the water surface of the complete diorama.

A view from the port stern. Note the gap along her hull. This was subsequently filled with another wave piece.

The completed port bow wave action.

and ...the completed bow waves.

The blue masking tape has been affixed to the full perimeter of the wood case to protect its edges during the next step of cladding/surfacing the synthesized waves.

Edited November 11, 2022 by hollowneck
grammar, added text

[Blue Ensign]

A fascinating process Ron, I will follow with great interest.

 

B.E.

[druxey]

Well photographed and well described!

[bruce d]

15 minutes ago, druxey said:

Well photographed and well described!

Here here. 

[glbarlow]

Very interesting watching "water" come to life. Your thorough descriptions will definitely help the next guy do it and no doubt encourage more to try.  Well done!

[TomShipModel]

Amazing work Ron.  The step-by-step process is very well described and photographed.

[toms10]

Ron

your detailed description of the process is making me want to do a diorama for my next build. Excellent work and thank you for taking the time to photograph and describe the process. Your build log brings build logs to a new level. 
Thank you

Tom

[hollowneck]

Two more photos of HMS Camilla in her sea environment.

What's missing from Camilla's deck? That's correct: the ship's launch. The skids and little boat will be securely mounted post sea creation, since finger access is still required to set the final yard and sail rigging. The launch and her crew board last.

Tropical Storm Nicole has moved on from the mid-Atlantic and the sun is re-emerging. It's becoming a nice day...warming up.

Time for a dry dock. Warm is good, lower humidity is good too. Time to tackle the next step.

A mighty hole where a mighty frigate once sailed. Camilla's keel rests right on the foam board surface. Solid. Once the acrylics I use for making her wake are applied to the hull and onto the plastered cloth, the model will be safely secured into her opening.

It's time to give the diorama waves a thin plaster coat. Although I'll leave it o'night and possibly into next week for the next steps, the warm day will help the coating dry evenly.

 

The "cracks" between all the wave pieces get filled first. A kitchen spatula works great for smoothing and spreading the plaster, almost like putting the frosting on mom's cake - if you were lucky enough to have a mom that would let you do more than lick the spoon.

 

The entire surface gets covered in plaster, right up to the edges around the hull opening and up to the blue masking tape along the perimeter of the case. I try to make the coating consistent in thickness but there are spots that will be a little thicker. After smearing-on gobs of plaster, I will use my fingers to smooth out areas that need finessing; I just can't hold my old iPhone with goopy fingers so I didn't take a photo of this technique, but it's important to make all the subtle, undulating surfaces of the ShaperSheet waves reasonably smooth looking.

 

The plaster mix is also from Woodland Scenics. I purchased it at the same time as the ShaperSheet. Almost any good quality hobby brand will work. The consistency of the mixture (just water and the dry powder) is like a thin pancake batter - more watery than not; it gets thicker when spread on the cotton cloth of the ShaperSheet surfaces. The cloth surface holds the plaster well. When the surface has completely dried, it will be solid, hard as a...rock?

 

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by hollowneck
added text, typos

[hollowneck]

17 hours ago, TomShipModel said:

Amazing work Ron.  The step-by-step process is very well described and photographed.

Thank You, Tom - much appreciated.

16 hours ago, toms10 said:

Ron

your detailed description of the process is making me want to do a diorama for my next build. Excellent work and thank you for taking the time to photograph and describe the process. Your build log brings build logs to a new level. 
Thank you

Tom

Thanks Tom. I can easily imagine one of your excellent models in a diorama. Do It - I know you can, 100%  I've got a good source for scale-accurate whales!!

[hollowneck]

18 hours ago, glbarlow said:

Very interesting watching "water" come to life. Your thorough descriptions will definitely help the next guy do it and no doubt encourage more to try.  Well done!

Your comments are much appreciated, Glenn. I do hope someone on the forum will be inspired to present their larger model in a diorama.

[hollowneck]

21 hours ago, druxey said:

Well photographed and well described!

Thanks, druxey. I appreciate the high praise for my 76 y/o eyes and a 10 y/o iPhone!

[hollowneck]

22 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

A fascinating process Ron, I will follow with great interest.

 

B.E.

Great to know you're following along on the final stages of my build; your build of this same kit is the "gold standard" - as all of our followers here know! Thanks.

[hollowneck]

21 hours ago, bruce d said:

Here here. 

Thanks. Thanks.

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

Beautiful stuff Ron. She comes alive with sea. 

[BobG]

Like BE said, your whole process of making the diorama is wonderfully fascinating. How did you learn how to do it in the first place?

[hollowneck]

2 hours ago, BobG said:

Like BE said, your whole process of making the diorama is wonderfully fascinating. How did you learn how to do it in the first place?

I’ve learned a lot from my previous Connecticut ship modeling club members who are also superlative train layout hobbyists; award-winning stuff. They create terrain obviously but many also include water features. Woodland Scenics is a ‘go to’ staple for making train layouts. I’ve adapted some train terrain materials, like the use of insulation foam sheets and the plaster shaping materials. My use of the aluminum ShaperSheet is original, however. I figured that I could use this material to build-up a seascape to make it more dynamic. My first diorama was mostly a flat sea presentation where I principally learned how to combine paints and acrylic mediums to create translucency. I combined this knowledge and skill to adding “depth” in my following dioramas with the techniques I’ll continue to show here. YouTube is a tremendous resource for ‘borrowing’ techniques the trainheads use.

Most ship model dioramas are in smaller scales, like 1/96, 1/150, 1/350, and smaller. The water scenarios are typically in small footprints and the water surfaces require less detail to be realistic. These dioramas can be very impressive, especially for steel navy presentations. At the scale I build, 1/64 predominantly, it’s a different ballgame; considerably more water detail over a much larger surface area has to be re-created - especially the dynamics of making water “kinetic.” Also, I’ve sailed on the ocean and have a good knowledge how water looks and behaves.

Please continue to follow my Build and you’ll see some very detailed, additional techniques that when combined create some amazingly realistic settings.

[Thukydides]

This is fantastic Ron, you make me want to try a diorama some time. I do a lot of model painting and that pink foam stuff is fantastic, I use it all the time.

 

One question I have which isn't clear to me is how solid your water shape is. You seem to leave a lot of space under the foil material. Is the subsequent plaster layers enough to make this sturdy or do you reinforce it in some other way?

[Oldsalt1950]

Watching you build the diorama reminds me of fond days with my father working on HO railroad scenery. Back then it was crumpled newspaper, screening and Plaster of Paris. The Woodland Sceneic's material is great. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the diorama progress.

[hollowneck]

57 minutes ago, Thukydides said:

This is fantastic Ron, you make me want to try a diorama some time. I do a lot of model painting and that pink foam stuff is fantastic, I use it all the time.

 

One question I have which isn't clear to me is how solid your water shape is. You seem to leave a lot of space under the foil material. Is the subsequent plaster layers enough to make this sturdy or do you reinforce it in some other way?

Thanks, Mr. T - much appreciated. Pink insulation foam is the bomb. You can carve it, hot wire it, saw it, hell - in a pinch - I'd bet you could eat it. And, available in various thicknesses, it's relatively inexpensive and comes in inconvenient sizes and working it can be pretty messy at times.😂 Train layout people use pallet loads of the stuff for building massive mountains over tunnels with distant mountain shapes, steep canyon walls and bluffs. You can also attach just about anything to it (with the right adhesive).

 

These WIP pics of my "Takes A Village..." diorama project show how the foam (as a built-up base) and large plaster features on the ShaperSheet can be fashioned to create a realistic rocky coastline (post-painting and terrain "populating" here). For this diorama, I chose to not depict a dramatic sea and simply poured Woodland Scenics colored resin for my water feature(s) after I made a "dam" around the model ship's cutout in the pink foam base (layers of foam board below the "rock" clearly are seen on the left side).

 

Once the stiff aluminum ShaperSheet is coated with plaster its not going anywhere; as I mentioned previously, it dries hard as a rock. The elevated wave sections (mostly the large one at Camilla's bow) do need support as well as some smaller raised sections placed around the hull; these areas do benefit from the smaller shaped foam pieces I've mounted. Risking exaggeration - and I haven't tried this - I'd bet that I could practically stand most anywhere on the finished, plastered ShaperSheet water and it would not collapse.

 

Tuff stuff. 😳

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by hollowneck
spell-correcting craziness fixed