HMS Unicorn by ZyXuz - Corel - Scale 1:75

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi ZyXuz,

 

I'm wondering about a thick black wale also - i think it would look nice, but I like the look of the wale broken up as in the Corel model.

 

I don't know what to say on the planking.  These models take a long time to complete, and you'll be looking at it each build session.  If the planking bothers you that much now, then maybe the best thing to do is to remove it and try again?  A lot of work has gone in already, but maybe that will spare you a lot of aggravation and disappointment down the road if you're not happy with it now?  Then again, the beakhead bow on the Unicorn has those headrails, rigging, etc. that might end up covering up a lot of that area too?

 

Good luck whatever you decide!

[ianmajor]

ZyXuz,

 

Whilst you are waiting for the extra timber give the planks that you have already fitted a good sanding. You will probably find that it will come up quite nicely. Keep the sawdust that you produce - you could then mix it with some diluted white wood glue to use as filler for any gaps between the planks. The filler produced this way will be the same colour as the surrounding wood (it should be it is the same wood after all!).

 

For me I did small amounts of planking then moved on to other activities such as assembling the fighting tops - so it took me quite a long time to do the planking -  but I didn't get fed up with it!

 

Keep your chin up and smile at adversity.

Edited October 26, 2013 by ianmajor

[ZyXuz]

Thanks Mike and Ian for your advises..
I almost placed an order of timbers which cost around £30, and then I read your replies...  really appreciate the quick respond.

 

My problem was that I've forced the strips to bend too much and cause it impossible to put the next strip on in whole piece. Well, I don't know why I didn't come up with this simple solution which is to cut the rest into shorter length.. It seems very workable now, but need more patient than doing 'normal' planking. A lot of tapering works needed.. will start working over when I have a good mood.

 
Mike,
Thanks for reminding me on the beakhead area It really helps covering a lot, and the wales too! 

for the area below the waterline, I think a thick white painting is unavoidable now. It has to be so thick that the strip borders couldn't be seen. I remember Dubz did the same for his Syren on the wale area  (well, of course he didn't do that to cover his superb planking job ):

 

I really like how he finished his painting, just brilliant!

 

I've also just noticed that most of the Victory models have the upper stem painted to black, which is quite a good idea to cover the plywood structure. I'm not quite sure whether my color theme fits the black upper stem, but I think it's good to find a way to cover it, either painting or wood strip

 

 

Ian,

Thanks for the idea on the sawdust! I'll try work it out this few days. Anyway, I'll need to fix the planking first

and 'switching tasks' sounds good too! so I won't easily get bored doing same work for a long time

I might now consider switching my annoying job too! haha

 

[ianmajor]

ZyXuz,

 

It is indeed a good idea to fit the hull planks in shorter lengths. Another useful model to look at is Chuck's Winchelsea which is a close descendant of the Unicorn. Look closely at page 2 and you will see the hull planks don't go the full length.

 

We will get there in the end.      

[ZyXuz]

Hull Planking and Gun Port Making

Well, after days and hours fixing the terrible planking.. I've finally done them... phew~~ 

(Thanks again Ian and Mike for your advises! If not, I might now still sitting at home waiting for the timbers.. or worse gave up)

And thank God that the curve can still go correctly.  This is how she looks like now.
 

Still looking good from a distance, but if you watch it closer you can see a lot of flaws between planks. For smaller flaws, I used the method suggested by Ian, which is to fill them with saw dust and it works well!! (Thanks Ian!) Anyway, for larger ones (around 1mm) I think I might need to fix them by wood putty.

 

I then continued to cutting off the gun ports.
 

The gun port size is 10mm * 11mm, and I made a 'mold' out of plywood so that I can marked all of them in equal size on the hull.
 

I done them in some hours, but the edges of the gun ports don't look smooth, even after sanding.. so, I decided to make gun port frames to cover them. 
 

I made a rectangular block which is 1mm  smaller in both dimension than the gun port to help me produce the frames quicker. For the frames, I used 0.5mm * 3mm walnut strips.
 

 

Since they are thin enough, I did not cut them into four pieces and glue them on, instead I just bend them.
 

 

 
Gun ports in place and glued. And then I painted them to red with tape below to prevent unwanted paint to the hull.
 

And then, finished them with 2nd planking. 
Those 'clouds' on the bow are caused by CA glue... I used it because it dries faster than wood glue, but the marks really screw up the ship's exterior.
 
Another shot on starboard.
 

 
Thanks for viewing!

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Nice work, and nice save on the planking  Did you decide on the color scheme yet?

[ZyXuz]

Thanks Mike  

ah... this is what still pondering in my head..

Looking at those fine texture of the woods really make me to change my mind. But I haven't decided yet.. 

However, the white waterline I think is no matter how needed to cover the messy planking

For models with white waterline which I can find in CMB, HMS Fly looks the best for me..

[src]

What about coppering instead of a white hull?

sam

[ZyXuz]

Hey Sam, 

Coppering was my first thought before the white hull, and then I gave it up due to the difficulty and long hour working of coppering..

Anyway, now it seems like a better idea than the white hull  since the planking is not perfect now, I can treat coppering on this ship as a practice for my future build

Really thank you for bringing this up.. I'll seriously put that into consideration 

 

Thanks!

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi Zyxuz,

 

I'm fairly certain that copper plates were not in use for the Unicorn you are building.  The Unicorn was launched in 1748, and from my Gardiner book on Frigates, it looks like coppering started in 1761 and was more commonplace in the late 1770s.  Just wanted to throw that out there.  If you want to paint it white below the water line, a good Unicorn can be seen on the thread I posted this summer that became a compendium of ideas about the Unicorn kit (there are other ships posted that could serve as other possible samples of color schemes that might work for you):

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2444-quality-of-corel-kits/?p=66398

 

 

I'm thinking about going with a color scheme similar to the Pandora build here - with a thick black wale, more black on the ship, like on the rails, spars, and stern, and red for the bulwarks and some of the deck fittings (no coppering of course). 

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2444-quality-of-corel-kits/?p=66523

 

 

I'm not really a fan of how Corel has the area around the gunports without a thick wale.  I think if you look at the plans for the Unicorn in the Chapman book, they seem to contemplate a thick wale.  Click here, and then click the picture to zoom in and you can maybe see what I'm talking about:

 

http://www.sjohistoriska.se/ImageVaultFiles/id_3085/cf_1803/55.JPG

 

 

Let us know what you decide

 

 

Aside from that, I think I'll explore adding small boats and lanterns to my build as another modification.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi again Zyxuz,

 

Since I've been thinking about color schemes too, I took a look through my Gardiner book which uses pictures of models at the RMG, and have been picking out some color schemes that I think can work well with the Unicorn.  Since you're thinking about this too, I thought I would pass them along - hope they are helpful.

 

1.  Sloop c. 1710:  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66358.html

 

2.  Sloop c. 1710 (very similar to Corel's scheme for Unicorn):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66359.html

 

3.  Gualaloupe (very similar to Unicorn):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66470.html

 

4.  Thames (white painted under thick black wale):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66457.html

 

5.  Lowestoft (gorgeous ship with white under black wale):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66300.html

 

6.  Mermaid:  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66279.html

 

7.  Minerva (uses blue and red accents like you were thinking):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66278.html

 

8.  Diana (also uses blue and red accents):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66533.html

 

 

Just for fun, this Samarang is incredible - one of my favorite models in the Gardiner book:

 

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66666.html

Edited November 7, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[ianmajor]

ZyXuz,

 

Just back from my travels and am catching up with your log. You are making rapid progress. At this rate you will overtake me in a couple of weeks!

 

I am interested in the port surrounds that you have fitted - they look good. I was debating whilst I was away whether to use stained card or thin walnut on mine but I think I will do the same as you.

 

Your Unicorn is looking great.  

[src]

Mike, good call, I didnt realize coppering started so late.

Sam

[ZyXuz]

Mike,

Thanks for the good call.. again

Really feeling great to have you working on this ship together, and Ian

 

I opened up MSW in the morning, and then read your replies... OMG those links!!!

They are all superb models! I can stare on 1 ship for like 10-15 minutes!! and I watched them all using my office hours! (yea.. I'm a bad employee )

Really thank you for sharing us the links, and they are certainly good references for my colour scheme

 

Anyway, I think you posted the same link on some different ship models...

I think they should be

4. Thames: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66457.html

7. Minerva: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66278.html

8. Diana: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66303.html

 

Ya, I can see the thick black wales in the plans wonder y Corel skip that part 

I actually bought a boat from CMB, but I'm not gonna just paint it and put on my ship.. instead I'll treat it as a 'mould', and build one from scratch

 

Ian,

haha.. modelling is now part of my life, I really have no idea what else to do besides that

oh ya, maybe it's also because i'm still single so, I'm always free 

Anyway, I'm now pondering on the color scheme.. progress might go slow

 

Thanks for the compliment I think many ships have their port surrounds painted to red

Hope to see yours soon!

[Landlubber Mike]

No problem at all - sorry for the bad links, I fixed them in my post

 

*** Sorry again - for some reason, I needed to use the full editor to fix the links.  They should be fixed now.***

Edited November 7, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[ZyXuz]

Hull Painting

The whole painting process has been uncertain, and it ends up to a result not even close to my previous planning.

After a real lot of times of painting and sanding and painting and sanding and painting and sanding, this is what I end up to.. An 1824 HMS Unicorn colour scheme.

 

 

 

 

Comparing to the real ship.. which is quite close to USS Constitution and HMS Trincomalee also
 

I always think that showing the natural wood colour will be best for this ship, but due to my hull planking mistakes I'll really need to use dark colour to cover those errors.

Here shows the progress:

Hull is painted to white as previously planned. Around 6-7 layers are applied.
 

A thick black wale is added by using 4 x 4mm black wood strips, and the 'nose' is painted to black too. Anyway, when I wanted to paint the gun port area, the yellow paint that I bought couldn't paste on the wood equally, and caused all the clouds and prints all over the area. I sanded and repainted, but still return the same result. So, I thought of changing a colour scheme...  
 

 
I found that the 1846 HMS Unicorn would be nice to follow too, so I started to work it out on port side. I started by extending the wale area, so that it's touching the waterline; and narrowed the gun port area down to the height of gun port.

 

 
Here's how it turned out. At this point, I still couldn't get a good mix of red ocher.
 

 

Two-face
 

 

I searched through my store room, and thank God there is still a unopened of red ocher paint in it I applied 2 layers on it.
 

 
When I was think about what modification should I do to the bow, I found another inaccurate plan about this kit. The bow that showing on the box is different from the instruction plan. As you can see, there are actually 2 gun port lids instead of the ladders. I'm currently planning to follow this one.  
 

 

Anyway, after long hours and days of working on the colour scheme... I've finally done it. Although it's not the scheme that I want the most, but this is the best result I can get.
 

 

I will continue on the beakhead and stern modification next.
 
Thanks for viewing. ^^

[Anja]

Hello ZyXuz,

 

She's looking good. Very nice paintjob.

 

Anja

[mtaylor]

Nicely painted Zyxuz.   Just curious... on the blotchy paint you were unhappy with, did you use a sanding sealer first? 

[ZyXuz]

Thanks Anja and Mark

 

Mark,

No, I didn't... in fact, I just googled what a sanding sealer is.. LOL

Learned a new thing today

 

Anyway, the other colours worked well.. only the yellow bother me

[ianmajor]

ZyXuz,

 

Nice paint work. The ship is progressing very well.

 

As you noted the picture of the Unicorn on the box lid has quite a few differences to the actual model. The first I noted when I got the kit was that on the illustration the ship has hammock cranes but the kit does not.

 

Some thoughts I have had (for what they are worth ) on the bits you are going to modify. 

 

On the stern - have you considered cutting holes to represent the doorways from the main cabin in to the galleries? If these are modeled without doors fitted or with doors in an open position it would give more light/an extra viewing way for your internal cabin detail.

 

When I did the bow of my Unicorn I used the 3mm square beech supplied in the kit for the rails. I really struggled to get them in to a reasonable shape and the resulting set of rails look heavy. I think some of the rails should have been 1.5mm square instead. It would have looked much better.

 

Only a suggestion.  

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great ZyXuz, paint job came out very well.  I'm sure you're glad to get that step behind you   

[ZyXuz]

Thanks Ian.

 

Regarding the bits... yea, I've taken some ships as reference like Pandora, Diana, and Pegasus on those bits at the belfry area.. Corel one looks a bit rash on that part.. I'd most probably make them align to the belfry

 

For the stern, I still haven't made a decision on what to fill in there, but my first thought was to add 2 more cannons. Anyway, if I do it so, that might affect the design of my stern galleries to fit in that 2 port holes.

 

Is it the doorway u mean?

 

it sounds like a good idea too, but that might need a lot of works

 

Thanks for the tips on the beakhead. I think u done it well, Ian.. and I love the 'jaw-ed' rail at the top most. 

I really prefer the way u did compared to the Corel's plan which looks bit 'curly' for me.

 

Thanks Mike! 

Edited November 20, 2013 by ZyXuz

[petervisser]

Hello ZyXuz,

 

I really like your paint scheme. It's nice to see someone do it a little differenty. Variety is the spice of life after all...

 

You have completed one of the most difficult tasks in building a model ship, the hull. Good luck with the rest of the build!

 

Peter

[ollyweb]

Hi again Zyxuz,

 

Since I've been thinking about color schemes too, I took a look through my Gardiner book which uses pictures of models at the RMG, and have been picking out some color schemes that I think can work well with the Unicorn.  Since you're thinking about this too, I thought I would pass them along - hope they are helpful.

 

1.  Sloop c. 1710:  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66358.html

 

2.  Sloop c. 1710 (very similar to Corel's scheme for Unicorn):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66359.html

 

3.  Gualaloupe (very similar to Unicorn):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66470.html

 

4.  Thames (white painted under thick black wale):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66457.html

 

5.  Lowestoft (gorgeous ship with white under black wale):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66300.html

 

6.  Mermaid:  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66279.html

 

7.  Minerva (uses blue and red accents like you were thinking):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66278.html

 

8.  Diana (also uses blue and red accents):  http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66533.html

 

 

Just for fun, this Samarang is incredible - one of my favorite models in the Gardiner book:

 

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66666.html

 

What a nice picture ...I'd like a lot "Minerva " and "Diana"....but it's possible to buy a plan?

By by Gianni

[ZyXuz]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your compliment  

Yea, the Unicorn is really a good model to add on a lot of modification And I got some lucks on the colour

 

Hi Ollyweb,

I've tried search through CMB, but I can't find any Diana's plan... anyway, I think Pegasus is quite similar to Diana. You can check out some plans here:

http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/victory-models-plans.html

[TheDutchShipBuilder]

Hi ZyXuz

 

Nice job you have done there on your Unicorn! 

The paint job is just excelent. What sort of paint do you use?

I will follow your built!

 

Cheers

Nick

[src]

ZyXuz,

Been quiet lately but following along as work allows. Paint looks good. Whats next?

Sam

[Craigie65]

Good paint job -airbrush or hairy stick?

[ZyXuz]

Hi Craig,

It's done by hand brush

[ZyXuz]

Just noticed that I missed out Nick and Sam's reply... sorry about that

Thanks all of you

 

I used acrylic paint which is used for mural painting.. they are some leftovers from the school of my parents

I applied at least 3 layers on each color except black.

 

Cheers