HMS Surprise by Navis Factorem - FINISHED - 1:75

[popeye the sailor]

very nice progress David.........very clean and well done.

[Navis Factorem]

Upper part of planking done and cutwater, keel and sternpost fitted.

 

Cheers.

 

 

                                           

 

                                           

Edited May 17, 2015 by Navis Factorem

[Navis Factorem]

Planking progress.

 

20 done, 16 to go.

 

Getting to the tricky bit now, so far I have been tapering the bow planks by 1mm at varying lengths to keep a consistent tapering difference between midships and the bow. With any luck I will be able to keep this up and not need any drop planks.

 

The stern is a bit more complex. There is a narrowing between midships and part of the way to the sternpost than the hull flairs toward the rudder. This will need some stealers to make up the difference.

 

Previous models have been planked using contact adhesive and the process has been a bit panicky and hurried as well as messy. This time I am using PVA, a product called Titebond which I find pretty as it has good initial grab but still allows some adjustment. This is much slower but more relaxing. I do one or maybe 2 pairs of planks at a session.

 

Cheers,

 

David. 

 

                                 

 

                                 

[marktime]

With your skill level it seems a pity to paint the hull. The finishes are outstanding.

 

I wonder if you realise quite how many people you are inspiring with this build.

 

Thank you.

[gjdale]

Very nice progress David.

[Mirabell61]

Very nice build David,

 

Nils

[myeye!]

Looking great David!

 

Brian

[popeye the sailor]

nice progress!   it's slow {I use white glue,  and CA for the tight spots},  but when your finished,  you'll be glad you took the time!    love the color! 

[Navis Factorem]

More planking progress.

 

Now down to the last 8 planks, so far so good with the "eye ball" approach. I may yet come to grief!

 

I have been curving the planks mainly at the bow and  now more toward the stern with a soldering iron to get a shaping across the width of the planks that allows them to lie flat on the 3 dimensional hull curves. I haven't tried this before but it seems to be working. 

 

As a bit of a distraction I have been working on the stern windows. The mullion sections work out at about 0.75mm square to scale. I initially tried slicing timber but the very small section was unstable and the first attempts fell apart! I acquired some 1 mm square polystyrene rod and tried that and am encouraged by the results. So far I have made up 3 of the 7 stern windows and i think they will be OK once painted.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

8 planks to go

 

8 on one side, 9 on the other

 

Stealers to be infilled

 

plank curved to fit on 3 dimensional hull curves

 

stern window shaped with plastic rod on the piece cut out from the stern

 

stern windows so far

[popeye the sailor]

super progress David 

[S.Coleman]

I really like your hull planking. It looks great. Your stern windows are coming along nice. What method are you goin to use for the glass? I see some of the other Modelers here use a product that is liquid and you simply pour it into the windows. I Remember "Brian the Extrodinare" was telling us about this product.

[Navis Factorem]

Hull planking complete! The "doing it by eye" approach seems to have worked out OK. 

 

There are 35 planks each side with 2 small stealers either side at the stern. The bow worked out with plank tapering to a minimum of 50% plank width and heat shaping to fit the 3 dimensional curved areas.

 

Now to tidy up, a light sand, excess glue removal and some minor repairs. Cleaning up the PVA glue should be a lot easier than removing the contact adhesive of previous builds.

 

Next some paint to above the water line. My original thought was to leave below the water line clear finish natural timber rather than attempting some sort of coppering finish and I think I will stick to this.

 

At times the planking process got pretty strenuous, removing glue, smoothing out lumps and bumps and firmly holding down parts of planks that were reluctant to stay put, done with the hull on its side or upside down resting on the bulwarks. All this was managed without collateral damage. I'm sure this was due to the early decision to make the basic hull structure from 6mm marine ply and to build up the hull thickness so that the area above the main deck was solid and strong. As a precaution I screw fixed the keel and the cut water to ensure they wouldn't move during the planking and future build processes.

 

The 2 holes that can be seen in the keel are for threaded rods to screw into internal captive nuts for final display. I didn't do this on my Bounty build and had no end of trouble fixing her keel to the brass display supports. No such problems this time.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

                                             

 

                                             

 

                                             

 

                                             

 

 

[Navis Factorem]

In answer to the window glazing question I haven't decided yet.

 

I may try Janos method of puddling PVA glue onto a smooth plastic surface, placing the window frame on the spread out PVA then peeling off the plastic when set. In the past I have glued thin rigid packaging plastic to the back of the frame but I think the PVA approach may work better. To achieve a decent finish I think I would need to finish paint the window frames first.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

[Mayohoo]

Microscope cover slips work ok. They are hard to cut perfectly though. They have a nice glassy glint when light hits them right.

[captain71]

Very helpful. Thankyou

[Navis Factorem]

Hull planking tidied up and sanded.

 

A few of the plank joints are a little wider than I would have liked and I have the option of some filling. However, I don't think I will fill as this may decrease the plank edge definition which I think is important to maintain so that the planked character of the hull is visible.

 

The planking colour looks a bit patchy as the pics were taken just after wiping down with a damp cloth to remove dust and excess glue. When I took the bow shot some bits had dried. The hull below the water line will be clear finished so this is the colour I will get. I have definitely decided against coppering below the water line.

 

After painting down to the waterline I can now start on more detailed work around the bow and stern.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

                                 

 

                                 

 

                                 

 

 

[Navis Factorem]

Transformation time!

 

Some serious painting has been done and the hull is now the finished colours.

 

The black was easy enough, Chaos Black from the Games Workshop range. I thought the yellowish colour was going to be more difficult, the more pics of replicas and other models I looked at the more options there seemed to be for this colour, ranging from almost lemon yellow to quite dark ochres.

 

I couldn't find anything close to the colour I was looking for at any of the usual model shops so I thought I would be in for a lengthy mixing trial and error process but before starting on this I decided to give the Games Workshop another visit and found a standard colour which is exactly what I was after.

 

Painting the black and ochre bands was relatively easy as I was working to steps in the hull planking but the waterline was a bit more of a challenge.

 

I am quite happy with the finished look.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

                                       

 

                                       

 

                                       

[usedtosail]

Nice job on the painting. Your waterline looks great.

[samaka]

It's cool to see how it turns "real" when the painting is done! Looks great!

 

 

...a...

[marktime]

That's so exciting to see how the colouring has brought the model to life. Fantastic.

[popeye the sailor]

paint work looks super David 

[Navis Factorem]

Greetings all, 

 

Back from holiday and into some stern detailing.

 

First dry fit of windows and some of the rails and stern arch fitted.

 

Next will be fine tuning the fit and glazing the sashes. I have done a trial on a spare sash using PVA glue spread on a piece of acrylic then window placed onto the glue and carefully peeled off and trimmed when dry. Works pretty well. Will do a few more trials on spare windows, I have a few that weren't quite the right shape, they were even worse than the latest attempts.

 

There is still plenty of details to go on the stern. Unfortunately the drawings in Lavery and Hunt don't show much detail so I need to find other sources. Some of Geoff Hunt's paintings show details and I will be working from these. There is also the "Master & Commander" replica and pictures of various other models to refer to so some creative interpretation will be required.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

                                   

 

      

 

                                      

[Navis Factorem]

Stern windows take 2.

 

After looking at the windows for a while I decided that I wasn't happy with the size of the inside mullions in relation to the outside frames so I cut out the mullions and replaced them with material about two thirds the thickness.

 

I also decided to try the PVA glazing method and it worked out OK. I spread out a film of PVA on a perspex sheet and placed the window frames onto it. After the glue had set I peeled off the windows and trimmed the edges. I tried the process on a sheet of glass but the PVA stuck to the glass better than to the window frames so that did not work!

 

Now I have glazed windows installed at the stern and can start on the rest of the stern detail.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

                         

                         Stern windows now installed

 

                         

                         Revised frames with smaller mullions

 

                         

                         Frames on wet PVA  

 

                         

                         PVA dry before removing and trimming

 

 

Edited October 10, 2015 by Navis Factorem

[usedtosail]

Very nice looking windows, David.

[Navis Factorem]

More stern details.

 

The design of decorative elements above the quarter gallery windows took a bit of research but at the end of the day there seemed to be several different versions so I thought I might get a bit creative and create my own take on them. This bit of one of the paintings in the L & H book looked to be the most interesting so I used this as a start.

 

                               

 

This is my version:

 

                               

 

     

 

                                 

 

                               

 

Now I can start on the bow details, all those curved elements should be interesting to create.

 

Cheers,

 

David.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

The galleries came out very well, David.  I like the colors and treatment.

[Mayohoo]

Nice work. I like the idea of using the glue for the windows in the stern. I used microscope coverslips and they were hard to get to cut perfectly. The glue seems to be a better way. How clear is it? Does it look like a window or is it cloudy?

[Waitoa]

Really like this, may pluck up the coverage and attempt a poor copy if what you have done.

 

Waitoa

[Navis Factorem]

The PVA dries clear, what you can see on the close up is the white paint on the inside of the quarter gallery. Get up close and you can see through the windows.

[popeye the sailor]

I've heard of it,  but never tried it.........I use Testor's window maker.   it dries crystal clear.......sometimes too clear for my taste          what is perspex?  is it what we {here in the states} call plexiglass?    super job on the windows........they really look great!