Prairie Schooner OGALLALA by DFellingham - BOTTLE - Complete, 1/96 scale

[molasses]

Thank you, Bob and Piet, but I'm not sure "magic" is the right word - unless you're using it as a euphemism for "product of insanity". Much of this project is trying to do something I thought was crazy to attempt but did anyway - and, to my surprise, they worked. I'm glad you're aboard.

[michael mott]

Amazing!!!  And  20 tries on the printing the sails, now that is dedication to the cause.

 

Michael

[molasses]

 

Closer to 40 tries than 20, Michael. Shows you how extreme my obsessive/compulsive disorder has become.

 

Finished the rigging that I can tie off before bottling the model.

 

Larboard view with a pencil for size reference.

 

Starboard view.

 

Gaff foresail extended away from the model to tie the sail to the gaff. This sail will get in

the way when the mast hinges for going into the sphere so will need to extend similarly.

It has nine lines that will need to be adjusted and glued when inside, perhaps less - I'll

know for sure when I drop the masts to bottle Ogallala.

 

I needed two blocks for the peak halliard and the gaff topsail up haul and decided to

combine them into a violin block just to keep things neat and tidy.

 

I needed a pair of cleats, smaller than the first batch, on the bowsprit for the stay

sail and jib down hauls. They were made from 36 gauge wire (.008 in./0.20 mm)

bent in an "L" about .040 in./1.0 mm both legs. I glued one "L" into a hole then

drilled a second hole next to it and glued a second "L" into it.

 

I decided I needed tackle to pull the foot of that big mainsail taught along the boom

and a pair of cleats to tie off to. These cleats were made the same way but smaller

with the "L" pieces at .030 in./0.75 mm each leg. They are about two-thirds the size

of the wooden ones I made earlier (two visible on the bulwark) and easier to make.

 

I hadn't planned to be as complete with the rigging as I've been since I started on it. I haven't done the topping lifts and reef tackle for the fore topsail and the leach lines for the two gaff sails (and a couple other minor lines) simply because I don't have enough places on the pin rails to tie them off. I have coils of rope to prepare for each belaying pin (matching the color tied to it), paint touch up and some other minor detail work on the upper hull to complete. I'll do much of this to fill in bench time while focusing most of my attention on other aspects of the project.

 

My "fill in" work while rigging Ogallala was my test figure, the first of three or four to make. I got him finished and I think he turned out okay.

 

My helmsman wearing a green jacket, gray pants, red shirt, black shoes and a straw

skimmer. He's .685 in./17.4 mm tall - smaller than an HO railroad figure - 5 ft. 9 in./1.75 m

to scale. The hem of his jacket is a narrow strip of paper wrapped around him to make it

look more realistic than just building up with gesso. It also conceals my mistake in making

his torso a bit too long. I found that the front lap and lapels can be simulated with brush

strokes of gesso carefully applied.

 

Larboard quarter view. If you look carefully you can see where I didn't quite blend in the

gesso to the paper hem. I changed the background color to light blue for contrast with

his green jacket. He looked too much like a head floating above gray pants with the

green background.

 

Starboard quarter view. I can't figure out why his jacket and pants have highlights as if the

paint was gloss rather than flat. Perhaps the color correction I applied enhanced them. The

straw hat was made from discs of ca treated paper glued together and glued to his head after

I cut the top of his head off flat. I painted the edge of one disc black for a hat band before

gluing them together. I think I need to add one disc to the top of the hat.

 

I'm not entirely pleased with my first human figure - he's no better than "good enough" - but I am encouraged by the result and what I learned to try three more.

 

I have some detail work on the lower hull and wheeled components to do.

 

I need to get to work on a second try with the sea of prairie grass which will be my primary focus. Not really applicable to ship modeling so I won't go into a lot of detail when I report on it.

 

Then I'll be ready for the part I find most stressful - bottling it.

 

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

Dave,

In spite of what you're telling us, I think the helmsman looks super as does the Ogallala.

[Chasseur]

Dave,

as an X military figure miniaturist, and scale modeler, you're way too hard on yourself. The figure looks great at this scale. Well done and to be honest the shiny look is what a lot of miniaturists aspire to these days... especially in Britain, so you're spot on Mate! P.S. still researching and gearing up for my Preussen Clipper build.

Jeff

[michael mott]

And I thought I was doing well with my rigging on the pilot cutter. Dave your rigging just blows me out of the water.

 

Superb work.

 

Michael

[molasses]

Thank you all for your kind and generous comments. I can't help but focus on the flaws and defects in my work, it's apparently in my nature and always has been. It's only when I've been away from the bench for a while and return to work on this project that I get a brief "Wow" moment before the deficiencies start jumping out at me.

 

Jeff, the shininess is entirely a camera/lighting effect; the finish is matte by eyeball. I've started the next three figures and I'm sure they'll be better. I need to figure out a quicker way to make armatures before even considering doing a minimal crew (say, 20) on deck for a "real" vessel. Perhaps photo-etch stick figures for a model at 1/300 to 1/500 scale.

 

Speaking of 1/500 scale, Michael, I admire very much the start you made on the miniature pilot cutter. I hope you get back to it.

 

Dave

[DSiemens]

Looking great David.  It's great to see all the sails in place.  

[molasses]

 

Here's my fourth try with my "sea of grass".

 

To review, I selected an HO scale scenery kit for a field of barley and bought two of them - and a good thing, too. Each contained ten trees of eight strips. The strips are 4 in./100 mm long and .056 in./1.4 mm wide and assemble just like deck planks. The stalks are about .40 in./10 mm tall - about 40 inches/1 meter to scale and a close approximation of the short grass prairie of Kansas and Nebraska.

 

A tree of "planks" of prairie grass.

 

Being plastic, I tried gluing them to sheets of styrene but that didn't work; for some reason I couldn't discern these sheets of grass warped kind of like potato chips. I tried thicker plastic and it helped. For the fourth try I used contact cement to glue styrene sheet to 1/16th in./1.5 mm plywood. I detailed the strips and stalks - dark brown for the soil and darker green and pale green-yellow at random on parts of the stalks of grass. As I assembled the strips I bent and twisted most of the stalks to give them a more 3 dimensional appearance - about 5000 stalks!. The plywood and styrene base for the sea of grass is in four strips to fit through the opening of the sphere. I epoxied sections of brass tube to the underside of the strips for alignment with brass rods in three places. Here's the result.

 

This disc of prairie grass is 4.5 inches/114 mm in diameter.

 

I worked out exactly where the prairie schooner needed to be and flattened the grass in the wheel tracks and set the lower hull and wheel assemblies in place to see how it all looked.

 

Lower hull and wheel assemblies (with a yellow rubber band to hold them together) posed on the prairie

for a picture. The wheel tracks would show better if I photographed this at a higher angle - too late now.

 

I still got a little bit of the potato chip effect but I think it's more a result of having one side of the plywood sealed and the other side not sealed and subject to abnormally high humidity. I live in a desert and three thunderstorms have passed through in the last week. Didn't get any measurable rain - it all evaporated before it hit the ground - but the storms did drive up the humidity from the usual 10 to 15% to over 40% and I'm sure it's temporarily warping the wood a bit.

 

The "sea of grass" turned out to be more labor intensive than anticipated - especially with three false starts that used up most of one kit - but I think the result is worth it. 

 

Still working on figures and have detail work on the lower hull and wheel assemblies to finish before I can fit it all together inside the sphere.

 

 

Dave

[DSiemens]

That grass looks great.  A nice match for a great model.  

Edited July 31, 2014 by DSiemens

[dgbot]

I have been watching for quie awhile and I saying this log has been a pleasure.  I love they way you are doing things and admire the do overs, too many to count.  Keep up the good work.
David B

[augie]

Incredible handiwork on the 'sea of grass'.  The perfect platform for the subject.

 

WELL DONE, MATE!!!!

[molasses]

Thank you, Daniel, David and Augie. The kindness and support I've received during this project have kept me going when I was discouraged by setbacks and problems. In fact you've inspired me to do my best work instead of what I considered as good enough in a couple places.

 

Thanks again,

Dave

[mtaylor]

Great looking grass, even if all of our admirals would insist it needs mowing.   Looks even better with the Ogallala sitting in it.

[augie]

Mowing the prairie grass......now there's a job!  I think Dave has it pretty well nailed.

[Piet]

AWESOME Dave.

 

Cheers,

[Chasseur]

Turned out excellent indeed! Looking forward to her in the bottle and on to the Esmeralda.

Jeff

[molasses]

Welcome back!

 

Fortunately, my fourth attempt at the Sea of Grass was a failure. I say "fortunately" because I had used up all the plastic grass and I was forced to re-think what I wanted. Some suggestions from a friend and his links to some wargamer sites and videos eventually led me to model railroader foliage techniques and products. Instead of the idealized uniform grass I initially had in mind, I went for realistic.

 

I'll go back to the fortunate failure.

 

The "potato chip" effect caused the plastic to curl and peel away from the plywood disc.

 

I researched tallgrass prairie and ordered several Woodland Scenics products to model the most common grasses and wildflowers. All the products, except for one tree, were basic pre-colored materials. When the products arrived I set to work making exemplars and settled on three species of grasses and four species of wildflowers.

 

The start of work with two grasses, two wildflowers and the surviving portion of a small burned

tree. The bare rectangles locate Ogallala's wheels so the wheels will glue directly to wood.

 

About three-fourths complete. I laid out the wheel tracks in black and the

concealed area under the wagon where I wouldn't need to plant any grass.

 

 

Two views of the lower hull and carriage in my new Sea of Grass. One species of

grass grows to over 12 feet / 3.5 meters as does one wildflower. The rest are 3 to

8 feet / 1 to 2.5 meters. Three of the wildflowers were made one flower at a time.

 

The fourth try re-posted for comparison. Now you see why I say its failure was fortunate.

 

One last photo showing the segments of the Sea of Grass to go in the bottle and their method of assembly.

 

As it turns out making this greatly improved version took considerably less time than the failed fourth try and was a lot less tedious and boring. In fact, this was fun! Clearly, I'm delighted with the results.

 

Work progresses on the other four figures (I added one), finishing up some minor rigging details, and making a base to hold the sphere. I ordered the photo-etch kit from Micro-Mark to make name plates and to experiment with making small parts and figure armatures for other projects. I still need to make up a bunch of rope coils to hang on the belaying pins and cleats. Bottling this project isn't far off.

 

 

Dave

 

[themadchemist]

and I though the other looked great.

 

Wow, sadly the grass covers the wheels a bit, but in reality most prairie grass is taller then a mans head. The wild flowers also add MUCH realism.

I saw in I think it was a Nat Geo one time that the root system of prairie grass is longer then its above ground height That's how it survives drought and why the tilling of the prairies caused the dust bowl.

 

Excellent problem/solution, which lead to a MUCH nicer and realistic ground cover. It now looks like a prairie and not a golf course fairway.

[captainbob]

Very realistic.  I like it.

 

Bob

[molasses]

and I though the other looked great.

 

Wow, sadly the grass covers the wheels a bit, but in reality most prairie grass is taller then a mans head. The wild flowers also add MUCH realism.

I saw in I think it was a Nat Geo one time that the root system of prairie grass is longer then its above ground height That's how it survives drought and why the tilling of the prairies caused the dust bowl.

 

Excellent problem/solution, which lead to a MUCH nicer and realistic ground cover. It now looks like a prairie and not a golf course fairway.

 

I thought the other looked pretty good and that it fit in with the idealistic, cartoon-inspired first concept, but while re-thinking the sea of grass I decided the highly detailed Ogallala would look better in an equally realistic setting. The earlier version does suffer very badly in a side by side comparison.

 

I don't mind covering much of the wheels - at first glance from a bit of distance Ogallala will look like a vessel on a mostly greenish sea until details like the exposed portions of wheels and colorful wildflowers are noticed. I think it will be fun to watch as a viewer's initial impression changes radically as they get drawn in and see more. I even arranged the tallest grass in a sort of bow wave pattern, mostly by accident, which will reinforce that first impression.

 

You're essentially correct about the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, most of the grasses had root systems that went at least as deep as the grasses were tall. The ecosystem depended heavily on the great migratory bison herds and frequent fires to recycle the over growth. The prairies were doomed as soon as the bison were killed off. Without their browsing the over growth was heavier and denser which allowed the prairie fires to burn longer and hotter killing the grasses. The plow only delivered the death blow. It saddens me that all of that is gone forever.

[Piet]

Beautifully done Dave.  LOVE the new look, very realistic.  I think that when a viewer looks down from the top of the vessel they may see enough detail of the wheels.  As I understand it, they are preserving a section of prairie with bison.  

 

Cheers,

[molasses]

Yes, Piet, there are several prairie preserves scattered among the plains states including those that serve as bison preserves as well. Those are short grass prairies in the western plains states where the scant rainfall limits the grass growth to 3 feet / 1 meter or less in parts of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and a little of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico where those three states meet.

 

I chose the tallgrass prairie that extended through much of Illinois, Missouri, Iowa (my home state), Minnesota, the Dakotas and the eastern parts of Nebraska and Kansas where annual rainfall exceeds 20 inches per year, the prime farm land states. The prairie in the area between is called mixed grass. There are three National Tallgrass Prairie Preserves, all on land that has proven marginal for farming for one reason or another. The best they've been able to do so far is give a faint impression of the tallgrass prairies - they more closely resemble farms than a completely wild tallgrass prairie.

 

The tallgrass prairies were comprised of about 50 species of grasses and 200 to 300 species of wildflowers. Their were numerous insects that evolved an almost symbiotic relationship with the plants they exploited for food and pollinated in the process and the plants evolved to exploit those insects - now both the insects and the plants are extinct. There were species of grass that sprouted within days of a prairie fire, grew very quickly and provided cover and erosion control while the other species recovered from the fire. They went to seed very quickly before being overwhelmed by the re-growth. The seeds would remain dormant in the soil until the heat from another prairie fire triggered them to sprout and repeat the cycle.

 

The most amazing part of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem is that it evolved in only 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age.

 

I enjoy doing research and learning from it - and I'm pretty good at it.   I did a lot of research while re-thinking my approach and waiting for my raw materials to arrive. I also found the subject very fascinating which surprised me.

[themadchemist]

I always like the extra details, Thanks Dave.

and I did notice the way the bow was plowing through the grass, that first picture even looks as though the grass is being pushed forward which gives it great life.

I showed the admiral your art and she was very impressed.

[Chasseur]

I like either one to be honest, however beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Well done Dave $ She is money.

Jeff

[molasses]

Thank you, Keith, and thank the Admiral for me, I'm very flattered.

 

Jeff, I was never anything but pleased with the earlier version. It would have worked just fine - and showed off my wheels better - but as I re-thunk my options I realized I could do better.

[themadchemist]

Plus as you added earlier, the grass forces the viewer to step in and look closer,

 

Then is when the "WOW" factor will happen, as they might think you just were trying to cover the wheels, but the rear wheels show enough of the amazing spoke-work to make one want to look closer. Like luring prey

Of course they may never notice the spokes, due to the amazingly detailed rig.

 

There is great and then there is that do-over that makes what was once great, humdrum. The diorama is now befitting the rig detail.

I've always found builders that push beyond their momentary skill set, to be the ones that constantly achieve great, Greater and GREATEST works of artistic beauty and detail. Its all in the details that adds that "REAL" sense and learning the ropes to perfection takes much practice, this is true with anything.

 

On this upgrade, I think you jumped from great to GREATEST in one step, bypassing the in-betweens. It only makes one wonder....what else is next.

 

One question to clarify, you initially show a 1 gallon cider jug and later a glass bulb. Seeing the diorama is round I assume the circular bulb it the bottle being used? That will give ever a more distortion free view.

 

Looking back and seeing the #11 blade laying across deck is just so startling, as one forgets just how small she is without reference.

 

Sometimes a build just really takes you and this one does me. It's such an interesting topic and done so well. Thanks so much for sharing her with us. 

[molasses]

Keith, it's very gratifying - and humbling - to know that one's work is held in such high regard. Thank you.

 

Yes, I'm going to use the 8 inch diameter glass sphere displayed with the opening down and hidden. This will give the viewer a 360 degree, from ground level up to directly overhead, un-obstructed and minimally distorted view. This presents some new challenges for me but I have seven more of the spheres and I'd better find the solution if I'm going to use them. I think I have but I won't know for sure until I bottle this project.

 

It just isn't in me to sit back on my current skill set and, in a way, build the same thing over and over even if the details are different. That would be boring. I can't help but try for perfection even though I know I can never attain it. At least I know it's the best I can do at that particular moment.

 

I understand about a build that grabs the viewer for any number of reasons. This one grabbed the builder and won't let go. It didn't start out this way, it started as a Fantasy Build to commemorate the First Annual National Ships in Bottles Day with a chance to try a couple techniques that had been bouncing around in my empty head and was intended to be a fairly quick build. It's now a year later and just a few days before the Second Annual National Ships in Bottles Day (October 5) and it isn't finished.

 

As soon as I saw what was happening with this attempt to model a tallgrass prairie (when I stepped back from the work to photograph it) I knew it wasn't just an incremental improvement over the "fairway", it was an order of magnitude improvement if I continued the way I started. Although a very focused 4 1/2 inch disc diorama places different demands on the builder than a 4 foot by 8 foot, or larger, model train lay-out, I owe a lot of my success to the products from Woodland Scenics and their series of excellent instructional videos.

 

Dave

[molasses]

 Welcome!

 

I finished my figures. Let me introduce my crew, plus one.

 

From left: the black man, the red head, the dandy, the scout and the previously completed Captain/helmsman.

The scout will be standing in chest high grass (his legs won't be seen anyway) using his bow to move taller

grass aside so he can see better the passing wonder. The black man and the red head will be hauling on a

rope to adjust sail trim. The dandy is new and at the wrong rope. The Captain will be at the helm, speechless

- he's run out of profanities to hurl at the dandy.

 

The figures average about 5/8 inch/16 mm tall. Don't be deceived by the clothes pins. They're about 1/2 scale clothespins I found and are very useful for handling small parts like these. The four figures together took less time to make than the helmsman alone - a good example of a learning curve. I may add a detail or two like suspenders on black man and red head, and the very fair red head could use a hat - he's getting fried out in the sun all day.

 

 

Dave

 

[Omega1234]

Hi Dave  I'm totally gobsmacked by your figures!  Is there any chance of some more detailed photos explaining how you did them and the materials. techniques, etc?

 

If so, it'd be brilliant!

 

Many thanks