De Zeven Provinciën 1665 by Dražen - Scale 1:45

[Drazen]

When I put the letters on the double-sticky- tape, I have noticed, that I got the word: “dinner” (by coincidence). Than, I tried to make some sense with other letters. So, it came out: “epic dinner” ... whatever that means…

 

Painting procedure:

1. sealing wood with Golden GAC100 (against corrosion of wood with oil paint and to prevent wood absorbing oil from the paint)
2. priming with Talens Gesso 1001 (get good bond for the paint and brilliant colours)
3. painting with Schmincke Mussini Kobaltblauton / cobalt blue hue oil paint

The same procedure has been done for the ribbon. Just with the difference, that the ribbon got a "pre-shading" on the white paint with the blue and blue/grey shades.

Many know what "pre-shading" means, but I will explain shortly: You have a light or dark base layer and put on it excessive forms (lines, shades, letters, whatever you need) of the shades you want to get.  This looks awful than, but you go (after completely drying the previous layer) over it with several very thin layers of the basic paint. Airbrushing works very nice and is easily controllable. However, it works also when painting with oil paint. Do not overdo, since you will lose the effect! The key is to stop setting your layers in the right moment.

 

When removing the letters from the tape, 3 letters broke, so I needed to glue them again with epoxy. The letters are very thin and maybe some sort of less sticky tape would be a better choice. Epoxy is neutral. Cyanoacrylate glue may influence the sensitive oil paint.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

On the previous photo, you can see a jig holding my ribbon. This was important in order not to touch the part.

The photo shows ready painted parts – ribbon and the letters. The fine shades on the ribbon are difficult to be seen on the computer. Later photos will show it better.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… than, I took a pen refill 0.5mm, fixed it onto an injection needle and made it very sharp. With this, I was drawing contours around the letters.

Using it with any of my best pens was not possible since too big/chunky. Fixed on the needle, it was easy to move around the letters.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… than, milling away paint till the ground layer of wood – without going over (or even near to!) the edges of the letter contours. Getting away just the middle part is fine.

I am working with a dentist’s device. I am not sure if it is possible with a Proxxon or Dremel, but, maybe some can manage it with these bigger tools too…

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Of course, one needs to erase the letters contours with a clean high-quality rubber.

For me, it worked OK, but some excessive parts of the paint went away and were more light. Usually this would be a catastrophic for the lot of work behind, but, I have learned that mistakes are the greatest potentials for improvements and innovation. I am in my profession an innovation manager consultant and train my clients in seeing obstacles or failures as the greatest potential to learn something new. One gets the other perspective, seeing things different, getting “out of the box” with sometimes entirely new opportunities.

Well, for me, the erased excessive areas gave even more reality to the look. I was grateful for the “mistake” done by my rubber/eraser on the weak layers of the oil paint.

 

 

Dražen

Edited September 16, 2018 by Drazen

[Drazen]

… and this is the finished ribbon.

 

When mounted on the ship and oil paint completely dried, it will get a thin layer of mat varnish and will blend in beautifully.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

There was a lot of discussion on "blue or gold letters". Again, after consulting some experts and you in the forum and the historic paintings, the blue looked as the right solution.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

A complicated fixation when gluing…

 

The paint below has been removed carefully… than…

… despite the bent form, I needed to press the ribbon additionally to make it fit well. Gluing again with epoxy.

… than, as it looks on the ship. The small windows have not been glued yet since I want to give the coat of varnish to the wulf & ribbon first, before gluing the windows.

 

Dražen

[amateur]

That is a lot ofwork for a ribbon, but the result is fantastic!

 

Jan

[Drazen]

Let’s show the rudder...

 

Before I show the making of the rudder, I will show the making of the nails. The rudder and the fixation required more than 200 nails. The nails were small and not easy to buy in this size (for my scale, I needed the head with width of 0.6mm-0.7mm).

On YouTube there is a nice explanation by a Russian guy which shows the same procedure too.

This procedure gives not perfectly round head. As the nail heads were slightly square (definitely not nicely round), this procedure gives in my opinion nice results.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

I used a brass wire of 0.6mm, cut it into 8cm rods, and rolled with a piece of wood to get them straight.

As a base, I use the “self-healing” matte. This is important for the nice rolling of the wire when cutting.

Dražen

[Drazen]

Than I use a big knife to cut (actually - roll) the wire. The knife must be sharp, but THE CUTTING ANGLE must be large – something like 70°-80°… but you shall make tests. If the angle is to small/sharp, you will just cut the wire without any effect.

 

Than you roll the wire back and forth – taking care that the knife rolls on the same place. What happens is, that the cutting place deforms and builds a sort of “mushroom head” which simulates a head of a nail.

 

I am sure, many know this method, but maybe not everybody.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Cut the wire in halves to get the right length of the nail.

I needed also to grind the top of the nail (each) since the cutting with pliers made the tip wider – too wide for the holes

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Making the rudder itself…

I hope, the photos are explaining the procedure well.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Making the fittings…

 

I cut it out of the brass sheet with the Proxxon precise circular saw which is suited also for aluminium and brass.

 

Dražen

 

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Drazen

[Drazen]

Here is the procedure of getting nice, smooth and sharp cut-edges.

For this, I made a channel which will hold the brass stripe when grinding with a fine sandpaper.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… some of the tools I was using…

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… bending and forming the fitting…

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… a jig to hold the fittings when soldering. It is not the rudder, but a piece of wood having the same form (false rudder).

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… preparing the place where the wire will be soldered in…

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… soldering…

 

After this, I cut the wire, but left enough wire to hold the whole piece in my Proxxon drill machine. Than, I turned the whole piece in Proxxon slowly and sanded the top with another Proxxon in order to get a nice sharp tip (not shown on photos - sorry).

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

This is how it looks than ready – the part which comes on the rudder.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Patination …

 

Before patinating, I cleaned it in the bath of citric acid. It is not aggressive, is cheap, easy to buy in a supermarket and cleans well.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Making the other side – fittings on the sternpost.

 

Here, it was necessary to get the whole thing into one line. For this, I used again a false-sternpost of the same size as the real one.

1.  I fixed the fittings into the right position on the false sternpost with some nails,

2. … cut small cylinders which are going to be soldered

3. … flattened them slightly on one side to get the right shape after soldering.

4. When soldering, the rudder and the false sternpost have been fixed against each other in an exactly parallel position.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Fittings on the sternpost ready…

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… and making the reinforcements in the tiller area on the upper part…

The nails were slightly smaller.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

Making the wedge for fixing the tiller.

The hole for the wedge was square in form and, after drilling a small hole, I needed to nail a metal part in it to make it square before setting the wedge. It seems to be easy, bit was not.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

That is how looked like before painting....

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

After 6 thin layers of paint and longer drying periods in-between, the rudder was ready.

 

I am using the Royal Talens Rembrandt Titanium White with some Ochre to give it an off-white effect. Talens Rembrand Yellow Ochre Light showed to be not covering well, so I switched to Old Holland Ochre which is excellent.

 

Dražen

[Drazen]

… mounting the whole on the sternpost…

and the rudder is ready.

 

Dražen