US Brig Syren by Argaen Lok (aka Scott Larkins) - Model Shipways - Scale 1:64

[Argaen Lok]

Been waiting for some nails to create the press for the copper plating.  Nope, brass nails were too big.  Had a thought.  Looked behind my ship holder and saw the pins I use for my cosplay sewing.  Yep, simple straight pins were the fix. I drilled appropriate holes in a thin piece of wood and inserted the pins.  Then cut them down, used a 2-part epoxy to glue it to the jig as described in the instructions.  Let that sit overnight and then used a drummel with a sanding piece to remove the sharp cut edges from when I used snips to cut the pins down.  Once I was satisfied, I gave it a try.  Not too bad if you look at the pics below.

 

 

 

 

While I was waiting for the sanding sealer and brass nails to come in via the mail, I started work on the next chapter.  Got the back stern work done and the sweep port hinges done as per my previous post of frustration.

 

 

 

Not sure on the paint of that decorative stern piece.  Incredibly bad molding I must say.  I may end up repainting it.  Also not happy with the metal mold of those two side stern pieces.  

 

[Overworked724]

Looks great!  I like the paint job on the stern piece decoration.  Nice job!

[Argaen Lok]

Okay, tried that new copper jig last night.  I did come across a new issue for anyone following along.  The copper strip is having some unwanted kinks as I'm unrolling it to put through the jig.  I didn't think the copper tape was so thin, that this would happen. See below.  Not sure what I can do other than maybe unroll more of the strip before I cut off the suggested 12-inch sections.  We'll see.

 

 

Below is my first pressed and cut plates from my first strip.  Not too bad actually.  I think I can get away with just pressing the pins down by hand instead of using a hammer as per the instruction's suggestion.  I found, obviously, if I got too heavy handed, I was punching through the thin copper foil.  I also used a scrap piece of wood strip to smooth out the copper side of the strip.  I didn't exactly "burnish" to copper as per instructed, but I think this worked.  I'm trying to keep my fingers off of the copper.  I need to get some thin gloves.  Otherwise, all of this work will be done using two tweezers.  Oops.  Hope people following along can learn from my booboos.

 

Edited Monday at 11:52 PM by Argaen Lok

[Overworked724]

Yeah.  The tape is thin and does occasionally kink.  Not much you can do about that, other then work around the kinks when you are cutting out your plates.  But your jig seems to be doing a decent job of giving reproducible plates but I can't see too much detail. 

 

One thing to consider that I found out early on...if you use a wood base for when you are 'whacking' out your panels, you may find the wood will bruise and you'll start seeing your plate stamp a bit deeper, potentially tearing the copper foil.  I found that using a cutting mat as a base was resilient enough to keep it's shape and keep the stamp pattern consistent.  

 

Great job so far!  

 

(Putting on the plates was monotonous, but really satisfying once you get the technique and a good rythm!  Don NOT touch any of the plates with your fingers or you will get finger print patterns later on as the copper oxidizes)