Friesland by ChrisLinden - Mamoli - 1:75

[ChrisLinden]

Hello MSW,

 

I started building the Friesland one year ago, and maintained a build log at Dutch forum www.modelbouwforum.nl

Because I relied heavily on the build log by GreatGalleons, I decided to post my progress here as well. I hope it is fun for you to read. Mind I am new to the hobby, so expect a lot of (beginner) mistakes and troubles  

 

Let me begin to recap what has been done so far.

 

Building plank: 

 

 

Keel and Bulwarks, dryfit

 

Note if you also want to build this Mamoli kit: The keel does not match the drawings/plans at all. Either make a new one from scratch or accept the deficiency. Also the bulwarks are what looks to be sawn by hand. The shape is really bad at times, with poor symmetry and alignment. I had a lot of problems getting the hull shape and the deck to all line up evenly. Take your time with this phase, certainly with this particular kit. 

 

 

Marked the rabbet line and bulwarks alignments on the keel:

 

 

I removed the back part of the keel to allow for shaping the rabbet line. Because my underwatership will be painted white, I did not worry about it look ugly at this stage. Will be filled, sanded and painted later.

 

[ChrisLinden]

Hull structure

 

 

Adding hull structure supports. This required a lot of modifications to the bulwarks, to allow for the support beams to fit snugly.

 

 

Dryfitting the main deck part. This required widening all openings, as the deck does not match the bullwarks at all. Another one of many curious Mamoli prefab parts that does not match the plans/drawings.

 

 

 

Added some scrap wood blocks to sturdy up the hull structure. Make sure they are positioned backwards enough to allow for the metal gunports to fit in front of them.

 

 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Stern Gallery side structure

 

Glued the structural parts in place for the stern gallery sides. They should form a curve upwards. This requires some trimming of the bullwark openings.
 

 

Added the stern curved pieces. Don't know what they are called. The sides need to be trimed to follow the shape of the hull. The wood provided by Mamoli is really hard, so a belt sander will speed things up. I used a sharp scalpel ... or two... or three....  

 

 

Added more deck parts, dryfit. They all needed a lot of work to fit:

 

[ChrisLinden]

Because of the poor shape and symmetry of the bullwarks I had to modify them to get good alignment and hull shape. This was a real pain in the ahh. The hull ended up being not really symmetrical. Oh well....

 

 

Painted the wood behind the gunports black, just in case. Started adding first planking: 

 

 

Placing the metal gunport parts. I decided not to use the pen/socket system of Mamoli, where the metal ports are hung in premade sockets in the bulwarks. They did not line up at all, with as much as 1 cm difference in height. I clipped the metal ports clean and glued them to the bullwarks at the correct height. 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Stern Gallery windows

 

Inspired by GreatGalleon's work to improve the look of the windows on this section. I did the same, although not nearly as neatly as he did. But overal an improvement to what Mamoli suggests for the kit.

 

 

Because I will place LEDs throughout the ship I opened up the gallery sides and stern, to allow full "looking through" potential. Looks rough now, but will be cleaned up later. Basically I removed as much as I could without compromising the hull integrity too much

 

 

not sure what Mamoli intended with these "parts" in my box  

 

 

First hull planking progress shot: 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Finished opening up the stern section to allow for the windows and LEDs. Painted it in a brown color as a base to work from:

 

 

 

Finished window piece for the stern gallery. Used some clear plastic as a finishing touch. Will look good with LEDs behind it.

 

 

Putting it in place: 

 

 

LEDs circuitry

 

A friend of mine who is good with electronica helped put my LED stuff together. A small chip with a dimmer and on off switch. Powered by a 9V battery, all hidden below the (in my case removable) grating on the main deck. It can light for several hours, so its intended for occasional showing, not having it permanently on plugged into the wall socket.

 

 

 

Gallery Window roofs structure

 

The parts provided by Mamoli need quite some work to fit. The bottom needs to be curved and then the whole piece needs some filling/shaping. This took the better part of an afternoon, also because this wood is hard as nails. Thanks again GreatGalleons for giving me helpful pointers through your build.

 

 

Added the wood strip detailing: 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Main deck planking

 

Started planking the main deck. Pretty straightforward. Painted the inner bullwarks brown, instead of planking it all because it will be barely visible in the end. 

 

 

Added top ornament to stern, dry fitted the back window part ornament. As with all the provided ornaments, none really fit well so a bit of fudging is required. 

 

 

More work on the backside. Note I completely re-paint all metal ornaments, my process and used paints described below if you like to try this aged "look" instead of the all out bling.

 

 

Painting ornaments - My Way

 

Undercoat / prime your metal parts with Citadel paint (Warhammer paint). I used Scorched Brown as a base.
This is waterbased acrylic paint, and as opposed to common belief this does hold perfectly on metal parts. The Cital paints are specifically designed for (metal) miniature painting and they work very well for these kinds of things.

I then drybrushed a 50/50 mix of gold color and brown over the ornaments. This leaves some brown in the recesses, a subdued metal on the raised edges. Finally I washed it with a brown ink called Agrax Earthshade. This is a fluid pigment ink that dries dark in the recesses, giving a beautiful contrast. Finally overbrush with pure gold to taste. I kept things very "dull" for starters. 

 

 

 

After wash/ink has dried: 

 

 

Finished base look of ornaments, before adding additional color variations: 

 

 

 

Main deck planking and deck supports

 

Progress on the main deck and deck supports. 

 

 

Placing LED wires

 

Together with my friend we spent 2 evenings wiring the LEDs. They run through the bullwarks from back to front. That's why I kept the first planking open towards the bottom all this time, to allow more freedom of working on the LED wires. 

 

 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Finishing hull first planking

 

Now that the LED wires and lights are placed and checked they work (for now haha) I can finish the first planking, closing the hull

 

 

 

Because I want to make wooden gunports for this section, I replaced the planking with a custom part. Also more sturdy so saved me quite some troubles. Only forgot to add one more port to the right... haha 

 

 

Started placing the cannon ports and cannon carriages. Barrels will be glued on from the outside lateron in the build. Painted some more brown to cover up led wires and save on planking duties.

 

 

 

To easily batch paint small stuff, stick a piece of double sided tape on a block of wood or cardboard box. Now you can easily move around a dozen of things without touching the models themselves:

 

 

Now that the carriages are in place I can add the other decks and start planking those. Because of the LED wiring I constantly had to think twice before "closing" a section off before moving on...

 

 

Where as some inner sections were painted brown, the visible sections were planked normally: 

 

 

Finishing front deck planking:

 

[ChrisLinden]

Stern Gallery Interior

 

To maximize my see through windows and LEDs I decided to scratch build a small interior for the stern section. I had to remove more of the hull / keel / bullwarks to allow for this. After I created enough room for the interior I made a "floor" section with an interior on top of it. I assembled and painted it outside of this ship, when finished a placed it inside the ship and glued in place: 

 

 

 

Peeking through one of the windows:

 

 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Outer Hull Planking

 

Started on the outer hull planking. As I am new to this hobby I found it quite challenging. All the more because Mamoli's drawings are not entirely accurate when it comes to the wales, gunport placements and so on... 

 

 

 

 

 

Aging of the wood

 

I wanted to achieve an "old" look for this ship, so I used a non-orthodox method of staining, again using Citadel paints (Warhammer paint). Their inks are great for staining your wood, but make sure to do testers as the results are really different from ink to ink.

 

This is my tester, using Nuln Oil (black ink) and Agrax Earthshade (brown ink) 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Stern backside ornaments

 

I continued work on the backside details of the ship. First I painted the ornaments:

 

 

I then fitted the parts to the ship. I am not sure how Mamoli intended these to "fit" but the word "Fit" was the least "fitting" when working on this... lol  I kinda added some supports below the angled ornaments and filled up some parts. I have no idea if this is correct but it *works*.

 

 

 

 

Everything put together: 

 

 

Gallery Top Windows (redo) 

 

To maximize my LEDs and see through windows I decided to make these from scratch. The solid parts of Mamoli I removed. I had some plastic window parts from a medieval model Warhammer kit, happened to have 2 identical ones. Yay.
I cut a whole through the not-funny-hard wood, but finaly managed. Then built up a new window.

 

 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Hull planking sort of finished

 

Finished the hull planking sort off, some gunports still need to be cut out etc. Painted the underwatership in a off white color. Used a slightly more yellowed tone to match the "old" painting look

 

 

 

Green planking

 

Adding the green planking to the top part of the hull. Decided to repaint these parts because the colored wood provided in the kit were already "off" and losing more color during building. 

 

 

Fun shot for atmosphere, guns dryfit for pleasure haha

 

 

Started adding the details "railings" dont know the correct terminology:

 

 

Good picture of my aged wood and re-painted green planks:

 

 

Bow Galleon

 

Started working on the galleon at the front of the ship. People at the Dutch forum kindly pointed out that the part provided by Mamoli is too long, resulting in the lion head being WAY above the deck railing. This should not be the cause. I ended up taking off 2 cm, and it is still too long but I did not dare take of more. If you build this kit, look at this from the beginning so it is easier to fix.  My front mast would have run into the lion head if I had not discovered this. 

 

 

Made a wedge to bend the wood for the galleon area. I decided to add more detail than what the kit suggets. Using some thin strips to create a profiled strip

 

 

 

Also I deviated from the Mamoli plans because the way they suggest the galleon is not how these ships were built (or so I have been told). I opted for a more realistic approach, within what is possible on my own build. This also meant the metal flowery detail ornaments did not fit anymore. So I cut off large sections and then flattened them to fit, using a hammer  
After painting this should look nice again... 

 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Allright this is how far I am now, one year into building. From this point on this will be a "live" build log. 

[GuntherMT]

Nicely done so far.  I really like your painting method on the decorations, and thanks for explaining it.

[ChrisLinden]

Nicely done so far.  I really like your painting method on the decorations, and thanks for explaining it.

 

Hi Gunther, my pleasure.

I've written a more in depth explanation on my experience with painting ornaments/miniatures.

Its in Dutch, but this is a Google Translated link: 

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=nl&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.modelbouwforum.nl%2Fforums%2Fhistorische-zeilschepen%2F203149-how-schilderen-van-miniaturen-ornamenten.html

 

The translation is pretty poor (ornaments becomes thumbnails etc) if there is interest I can re-write the tutorial in English and post it here on MSW. Although I do not know the correct place to put such a topic/thread, tips are welcome.

Edited October 7, 2014 by ChrisLinden

[ChrisLinden]

Continued work on the galleon section. I decided not to use the prefab parts of the Mamoli kit, instead create my own custom pieces. 

 

I created the curved wooden pieces with a profile by glueing 2 wide strips and one 1x1 mm strip together. 

This took the better part of a day to finish, wow I underestimated that. Once in place I aged the wood for a first base look with Nuln Oil from Citadel paints.  I will go back later to add more ornamental details and highlight effects. 

 

 

 

The parts for the anchor lifting provided with the kit are pretty ugly and simplistic. I put some extra work on them so they can actually hold some rigging ropes later. I am not an expert on how this works so I just used some reference photo's as a guide. 

 

 

 

The aging of the wood and general "finish" of everything is pretty patchy right now. I will need to go back later on and clean up a lot of rough looking things. For now I am happy to make some progress, It is quite a challenging build to begin with, given my low experience.

 

 

[schnu]

Amazing paint job. The ageing gives it a special "spirit". I have never heard of these inks.

[ChrisLinden]

The inks / paints are from Citadel, a brand known from the Warhammer miniatures

[7 Provinces]

Nice job Chris!

Interesting part on the staining and ornament painting.

If you would like to share more of this, you can do so in the

 

Shop Notes, Ship Modeling Tips, Techniques and Research

section of the Forum.

I know this will be appreciated by lots of us!

 

Thanks for sharing your interesting build log.

[ChrisLinden]

Nice job Chris!

Interesting part on the staining and ornament painting.

If you would like to share more of this, you can do so in the

 

Shop Notes, Ship Modeling Tips, Techniques and Research

section of the Forum.

I know this will be appreciated by lots of us!

 

Thanks for sharing your interesting build log.

 

 

 

Ok I will post the guide in English there for everyone to enjoy.

[Landlubber Mike]

This is really great work Chris.  I especially love your technique for the cast metal parts - I'm planning on using the exact same approach on my Pegasus, and love the Warhammer colors and inks that you used.  I'll have to check them out .  For the wood sections, I was planning on using stains to get a more aged look, which seem to give a similar effect to the inks you are using.  I was wondering how all these techniques would look on a model ship, as I used them to relatively good effect when I painted miniatures as a kid

 

Sorry about your issues with the parts and the plans.  I ran into the exact same issue with my Corel Unicorn kit where even the plan sheets disagreed with each other.  Interestingly, from the colors and shapes and plans, it looks like Mamoli and Corel are using very similar woods and parts for the skeleton of the build (keel and bulkheads).  I've pretty much had to scrap the Corel plans and just go figure things out on my own.

 

I'm subscribed to your log - looking forward to future updates, and thank you very much for sharing your techniques! 

Edited October 16, 2014 by Landlubber Mike

[ChrisLinden]

Hi Mike,

 

Well I am really new to this hobby. I painted miniatures to a professional standard for years, but working with wood is only a year now.
At first I just could not believe how bad certain aspects of ship model "kits" are. Running a company of 15 staff myself with big customers, I just can't believe these manufactures can "get away" with these kinds of things.

that said, yeah its a lot of troubleshooting and a lot also has to do with my relative in-experience with this hobby. I learn as I go and the Friesland is a too ambitious project for me maybe in hindsight.

 

Glad you like my approach to the ornament painting. I will post a guide later this week for everyone to enjoy.
The aging of the wood is experimental. I have no clue how it holds up over time, so use at your own discretion. I was never a fan of the super clean transparent laquer finish of most model ships, so I am really trying to go for old and beaten.  

[Landlubber Mike]

 I was never a fan of the super clean transparent laquer finish of most model ships, so I am really trying to go for old and beaten.

 

That's my preference as well.  On my first build, I loved where I used stains and oils, but was less satisfied where I used paints - to me, it seems to impart a more "plastic-y" look to a build, and you lose the wood quality.  Not saying that the painted/clean look isn't nice, but I just like models that have more of an aged, patina look.

 

I look forward to your guide, thank you for sharing!

[Nightquest1000]

Hi Chris,

 

impressive Job for a beginner. I also like your paintwork.

 

best regards

Tom

[ChrisLinden]

Hello, its been too long, i was kept busy with starting a new company, decorating our 3 story office and now re-decorating our own home to try and sell it.

Long story short, little time and headspace ro focus on the hobby.

 

This week I had a few evenings to relax and build. Here's what ive done:

 

First I completely finished the galleon section. I scratch made these parts from putting thin 1mm strips together to give a profiled look, then bent them using a jig.

once in place I used Nuln Oil black ink from Citadel paints to stain the wood. I created the grating to go inside the galleon. While not perfect I am happy, it is better than the parts provided by Mamoli. The paint job on the lion figurehead is still basic, iplan to develop this further when i have some daylight to work in.

 

 

 

 

Next I scratch made the crane bars, that hold the anchors. One turned out better than thether but overall I am satisfied. I plan to add lion head carvings on the top ends of them later. Finally I added the first anchors.

 

Now I am working on adding the deadeyes around the hull to take the standing rigging. This is not as difficult as I had feared, and I am making good progress. After this I have a ton of small ljobs to do around the hull, that I left unattended in favor of making progress on a big picture.

 

 

Will return soon with more progress!

[Shipyard sid]

Greetings Chris

This is one ship I would love to build, and I was on the verge of buying it, but thought it was out of my league. This is a must watch for me. Lovely work, well done. Just keep enjoying it. DAVID

[ChrisLinden]

Made a rudder from scratch. Did not love the prefab mamoli piece. Will put on the hinges and attach it to the hull soon.

 

 

[ChrisLinden]

Greetings Chris

This is one ship I would love to build, and I was on the verge of buying it, but thought it was out of my league. This is a must watch for me. Lovely work, well done. Just keep enjoying it. DAVID

Hi David, its certainly a challenge but i am not really experienced, so for me its always challenging

keep in mind that Mamoli company burned down recently and they quit business. My kit has various shortages (deckplanks, gratings, metal pins etc) that you will not be able to order from them. Just a note of caution

[7 Provinces]

Nice progress Chris, I like the grating and the rudder. Your methods of painting the ornaments and staining the wood really seems to work very well to make things look realistic.

[cristikc]

Excellent painting and i like the details you make.

A Happy new year to you

Cristi

Edited December 30, 2014 by cristikc