Banshee II by Glen McGuire - FINISHED - 1/700 - BOTTLE

[Paul Le Wol]

Glen,congratulations on the successful completion of Banshee II. Beautifully stressful videos. I think I need to go lay down now! 

[Javelin]

Great job Glen. 

 

That funnel was soooooo recognizable. Twisting stuff in tweezers by very slightly releasing your grip until it's just enough, or it just drops out 

Those side wheels were a nice example of my earlier statement, working out of the centerline with tweezers isn't easy. You can't align pieces with the ship when your tweezers are under an angle from the centerline. You did handle that nicely though. 

Second funnel really went smooth. 

Awesome job overall !!!

 

[gjdale]

Another fantastic result Glen - congratulations and well done!

[Glen McGuire]

2 hours ago, Javelin said:

That funnel was soooooo recognizable. Twisting stuff in tweezers by very slightly releasing your grip until it's just enough, or it just drops out 

Those side wheels were a nice example of my earlier statement, working out of the centerline with tweezers isn't easy. You can't align pieces with the ship when your tweezers are under an angle from the centerline. You did handle that nicely though. 

Second funnel really went smooth. 

Dang, Roel!  Your comments make it sound like you were right there with me!  You describe EXACTLY the things I struggled with. 

 

Yes, on the first funnel, I was trying to change the angle of the funnel by slightly releasing pressure on the tweezers handle without dropping the funnel.  The third time was the charm on that mess.   

 

Yes, you make a great observation about working out of centerline with tweezers (especially the foot-long ones I was using).  The further they reached inside the bottle, the more off centerline they were.  This made it hard, even with the locating pin, to drop the wheel assembly in the hole in the deck because the wheel cowlings needed to line up and rest on top of the gunwale.  

 

Yes, the second funnel install was smooth because of what I learned dropping the little pilot house in between the two wheel houses.  While doing the pilot house, I realized that the fore mast and sails would actually fit between the prongs of the tweezers while they were holding something.  So I figured if I could get the funnel over and just beyond the fore mast, I could drop it straight down into place.  The challenge was that there was not enough room between the top of the mast and the inside ceiling of the bottle.  So I had to push the mast far enough down towards the stern to get the funnel past.  But not too far or it would be in the way.   

[Glen McGuire]

5 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

This is 'proof of concept' for stropping bead or wooden blocks with your line-of-choice, without the need of any holding jig, although It does take some dexterity and patience. 

Nice work on those tiny blocks, Johnny.

[Glen McGuire]

@gjdale, @Javelin, @Paul Le Wol, @Rick310, @Knocklouder, @Ian_Grant, @Keith Black, @Desertanimal - Thank you for the comments and for suffering thru those videos!  Forget the tot, I needed a barrel of Bundy rum after that experience!

[FriedClams]

Congratulations on setting her in the bottle, Glen.  Interesting process and your videos make it understandable.  Terrific work!

 

Smoke, eh?

 

Gary

[mtaylor]

It was a bit nerve racking to watch those videos....  but great to see it all worked out.   

[Glen McGuire]

When I see comments from folks like @BANYAN, @gjdale, @PvG Aussie, I try to imagine the Australian accent as I read them.  I saw this meme the other day and it's helping me with the accent. 

 

 

 

Now, on to stage 2 of the project which is the display base.  As a reminder, here's the original idea suggesting the civil war era Galveston, Texas water front where the Banshee II made it's one and only blockade run.

 

 

For the backdrop, I've got several walnut cutouts of Texas.  The finish was a little dark and had some wear, so I sanded it off and refinished it.  Then I made a horizontal cut about halfway between San Antonio and Corpus Christi to make it the proper height that I needed.  Finally, I added some dowels that will secure it to the base.

 

 

 

For the actual base, I put down a layer of acrylic paint for the basic water color that I wanted.  

 

 

Here's the backdrop added.

 

 

 

The next step is adding about a 1/8" layer of epoxy resin for the actual water.  Then I have to decide whether I should add ripples/small waves to the water then build the wharf or vice-versa.. 

 

 

 

Edited July 20 by Glen McGuire

[gjdale]

14 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

When I see comments from folks like @BANYAN, @gjdale, @PvG Aussie, I try to imagine the Australian accent as I read them.  I saw this meme the other day and it's helping me with the accent. 

 

 

What you really need Glen, is the book “Let Stalk Strine”, by Afferbeck Lauder. It will help you to understand the accent in a whole new way - you might even get to know what an “egg nishner” is! As a further clue, the author’s name is a pseudonym which itself is a “strine-ised” version of “Alphabetical Order”.

 

"Let Stalk Strine" is the first and only clear, straighforward exposition of the Strine language. "Let Stalk Strine" has been compiled for stewnce, overseas vistas and New Strines, and also for the jell public. This book is as Strine as Ned Kelly and Waltzing Matilda.”

 

Then of course there is the sequel, “Nose Tone Unturned”……..

 

By the way, your base is is looking great mate - can’t wait to see the overall finished project.

[Glen McGuire]

On 7/20/2024 at 4:41 PM, gjdale said:

What you really need Glen, is the book “Let Stalk Strine”

I thought you were pulling my leg, Grant, but I checked on Amazon and there really is a book by that name!  I may have to get that one.

 

Here's a question for you - Here in the US, someone from Texas like me talks a lot different than someone from the the northeast (like Boston) or the west coast (like California).  Do folks in different parts of Australia have significantly different accents and/or ways of talking? 

[PvG Aussie]

2 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Do folks in different parts of Australia have significantly different accents and/or ways of talking? 

Bloody oath we do! Specially in Queensland ... hey?

Peter         🍍

[gjdale]

Peter is right Glen. In far north Queensland, it seems to be obligatory to end every sentence with “hey?” or “eh?” (without the “h”).  In South Australia and some parts of Western Australia, the accent will be more to the English side of things - especially noticeable with words like “castle” or “dance” (or even my name) where the “a” vowel is pronounced with a long “ah” sound, while in most of the eastern states, the default is a the shorter, harsher sound (as in “at”).

 

Anyway, if all this is making you a bit hot under the collar, then I suggest you go and stand under the egg nishner for a while. 

[Glen McGuire]

Egg nishner, nose tone unturned, let stalk strine.  Y’all have me as confused as my cows were when I put them on astroturf.  I’m pretty sure when they were mooing, they were saying “bloody oath, eh?”  😃

 

Now that I’ve flunked my Aussie language lesson for the week it’s time to get back to the project.  First up is the wooden wharf to represent the Galveston, Texas waterfront of the mid 1800s.  I built a small mock-up of the support structure to see if what I had in mind would look ok.

 

 

 

The next step was weathering/texturing/coloring the planks and pilings for the support structure (I'll do the deck boards later).   I used @gjdale's method of chalk and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) that he described so well in his Foss Landing diorama build log.  I used a rasp to roughen the flat wood surfaces.  The pic below shows one plank before I hit it with the rasp and one afterwards.

 

 

 

For the chalk dust, rather than scrape it directly onto the planks as I believe Grant did, I scraped the different shades into little cups and dabbed them on the planks from there.

 

 

 

Then, as Grant described, I brushed over the chalk dust with a liberal amount of IPA.  I had to go back over different spots a few times with additional dust and IPA to get the color variation I was looking for.  They are actually a little more gray than they appear in the pic below.  I wanted gray with a bit of the natural wood color showing thru as if the boards were in the middle of the ageing process.

 

 

 

For the wharf’s pilings, the back 2 rows will be mostly hidden, so I just used regular dowel rods and smeared them with some different shades of gray paint.  I’ll have something better for the front (more visible) row.  

 

Since I don’t have a steam donkey pile driver like @Keith Black is working on, I had to enlist some alternative help to get mine in place.

Edited July 26 by Glen McGuire

[gjdale]

3 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Egg nishner, nose tone unturned, let stalk strine

 

Allow me to translate the above for you Glen: “Air conditioner, No stone unturned, Let’s talk Australian”

 

Glad to see that your board weathering is working out well for you. I can’t take any credit for the process - just followed the bouncing ball on that one.

 

Your diorama is shaping up to be another excellent one - glad to see that the penguins got involved!

 

[JEFFRAV]

On 7/10/2024 at 4:51 PM, Ian_Grant said:

Yes we have one nearby, called "McBead Creations".  I first found them when I needed to make parrals for my Heller Victory. Worryingly, they recently went from two units to one unit in their building.

Ian what size beads did you use on your Victory build. I tried to scale down from Longridge's book and came up with 10/0 I looked in the local craft store and they seem very small.

[Knocklouder]

"Since I don’t have a steam donkey pile driver like @Keith Black is working on, I had to enlist some alternative help to get mine in place."     

          Glen it is looking fantastic, how does that alternative help work. Is it like Wack a Mole, when you see a Penguin you wack it  🤔.   Let's not get any red(paint) on those grey post, they look terrific. 

And you thought you couldn't top your last build , but you did. Great job my friend. 

Bob M.

Edited July 26 by Knocklouder

[BANYAN]

Just back from my holiday in Norfolk Island Glen and happy to see the excellent work you have done in progressing your latest SIB.  Glad to see you could also find some useful work for those dastardly penguins - about time they earned their keep  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

On 7/27/2024 at 8:45 PM, BANYAN said:

Just back from my holiday in Norfolk Island Glen and happy to see the excellent work you have done in progressing your latest SIB. 

Thanks and welcome back, Pat.  I've never heard of Norfolk Island so I had to look it up.  And wow!  Just wow!  Ever picture I saw was a stunning landscape like the one below.  Hope you had a wonderful time there.

[Charles Roseberry]

Amazing build, really. I've often been intrigued by these. You did not fail to continue that intrigue Well done Sir.

[PvG Aussie]

Norfolk Island is intriguing. It has history, nature and beauty all rolled up in one place. No penguins though. 🐧🐧🐧

Cheers,

[Glen McGuire]

2 hours ago, PvG Aussie said:

No penguins though. 🐧🐧🐧

Dang.  I just cancelled my trip.  ☹️☹️☹️

[BANYAN]

10 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

And wow!  Just wow!  Ever picture I saw was a stunning landscape like the one below.  Hope you had a wonderful time there.

Thanks Glen, a great relaxing holiday and just what I needed.  I hope you don't mind but ...  Snap!  I think the first photo following is of the same point of land (that you show in your posted piccy) taken from a slightly different shooting point, and a sunset to boot.  Nothing special, just taken from my phone camera.

 

cheers

 

Pat

 

 

[Glen McGuire]

Whoa!!  Those pictures are breathtaking, @BANYAN!!  OK, penguins or no penguins I may have to put that place on my bucket list.

 

Now that I’m totally distracted, I’m having a hard time remembering where I was with the Banshee…Oh wait, I was working on my own waterscape, although Galveston is so far from the beauty of Norfolk Island I shouldn’t even mention them in the same post!  Nevertheless, I got the epoxy resin water poured onto the base (after I installed the Texas backdrop.  Then I added the wharf’s support structure to the back 2 rows of pilings.  I did not do weathering to these pieces as they will not really be visible.

Also, I poured the epoxy resin before installing the front pilings because they will be quite visible and I did not want the resin creeping up the pilings where they contact the resin as @Javelin and I have discussed previously.  I will give the resin 3 days for a hard cure before drilling holes for the front pilings.

 

 

Speaking of the front pilings, I decided to go for a more realistic look than dowel rods.  So I scrounged around my pile of small kindling and found several sticks that were the right diameter and straight enough.  I put them on the drill lathe to get them to a uniform diameter while trying to leave as much of their natural variation as possible.  Afterwards, I gave them a light gray wash to get them to the aged wood color (second pic below, although for some reason the pic makes them look more greenish than grayish).  

 

 

While the epoxy resin continues it drying process, I started work on the deck planks for the wharf.  It’s going to take about 50 planks that are 8” x ¼”.  Since they are on top and likely would have been cared for a bit more than the support structure, I wanted to show a mix of ageing and weathering – a color in between the gray of the supports and a natural brown.    

To try and achieve this, it took a 3-step process.  First was texturing (grooving) the planks as I did with the supports using a rasp.  Second, I mixed a couple of shades of brown chalk dust and worked it in with IPA using the same process described in an earlier post.  This gave the planks a reasonable base color of brown.  Finally, I went back over it with a light dusting of gray chalk and IPA.  The pic below shows the 3 stages.  The first set of planks have been textured. The second set has the brown base color applied.  The third set has the gray applied for the finished color.

Edited July 30 by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

 Have pile driver, will travel. 

 

[Knocklouder]

This will be very helpful,  thanks for posting this.  I trying to weather some planks for my corrals and weather the brown plastic  parts as well. I get so many great ideas from you my man thanks. ..

Bob M.

[Glen McGuire]

8 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

This will be very helpful,  thanks for posting this.

Glad it will be helpful, Bob.  The artist chalk dust process is a lot more trouble than just painting, but I believe it's worth it.  As @gjdale said in his Foss Landing diorama, good weathering involves color and texture, which the chalk dust helps provide.    

[KeithAug]

The diorama work is all very educational Glen. Thanks for the lesson.

[Javelin]

Those front pilings are a great solution to the creeping epoxy, but how did you fix them? 

Drill a larger hole and then used some epoxy glue? Or is it simply a tight fit and did you only glue the bottom of the piles?

And does the epoxy glue you normally use also have a tendency to creep up?

 

Great job overall. Looks very sharp.

[Glen McGuire]

On 7/31/2024 at 1:37 AM, Javelin said:

Those front pilings are a great solution to the creeping epoxy, but how did you fix them? 

Drill a larger hole and then used some epoxy glue? Or is it simply a tight fit and did you only glue the bottom of the piles?

And does the epoxy glue you normally use also have a tendency to creep up?

Thanks, Roel.  For the front row of pilings, I drilled holes into the epoxy resin and into the base at the same depth as the holes on the back 2 rows.  That was really a nerve wracking experience as I was petrified of making a mistake with the drill and royally screwing up the whole base with all the hours of work it had eaten up.  But I managed to get clean holes drilled with uniform depths and good alignment.

 

Yes, I drilled the holes for a tight fit.  To affix the pilings, I used a very thin layer of CA glue (instead of epoxy) on the sides and a more liberal amount at the bottom.  I think I only had 1 where I used a bit too much glue and it oozed out the top of the hole.  But it was an easy cleanup.  

 

Here's a couple of closeups that show the difference in how the sets of pilings look.  The first pic focuses on the front row where I poured the epoxy resin first, drilled holes after it cured, then inserted the pilings.  The second pic focuses on the back rows where I put the pilings into the base and then poured the epoxy resin epoxy around the pilings.  The back rows show the significant resin creep-up that I wanted to avoid on the front row.

 

 

The next step is to add ripples and mild waves to the entire base of water.  That might hide the creep-up, but I was not sure so didn't want to take the chance on the front row.

 

 

Edited August 2 by Glen McGuire