De Zeven Provinciën 1665 by Dražen - Scale 1:45

[Drazen]

Final protection by varnish (also by Royal Talens)

 

After several months drying, I apply

- Talens picture varnish matt 003 for all surfaces

and

- mixture of 1:1 picture varnish matt 003 with picture varnish glossy 002 on all decorations. In the reality, the decorations have been painted glossy in order to simulate gold, but on the model, the 100% glossy does not look real. So, a semi-matt shade looks much better and more realistic.

 

I apply final coat by airbrush. This removes partly the brush strokes or imperfections, by at the same time keeping the surface real (because of previous hand-brush application).

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... and this is the final result on the ship.

 

The ribbon and small windows have been assembled too.

 

I will need to correct the paint on some small areas. This has been peeled due to the pressure when glueing, but this is no problem.

 

Finally, I want to mention, that the benefit of beautiful colour of oil paint has to be taken relative in comparison with a very difficult procedure, very long drying time and low resistance to mechanical stress. Still, I will proceed with oil paints.

 

Drazen

[AON]

simply masterful!

[Hubac's Historian]

Stunning carved work, Drazen!  Also an excellent tutorial on prep and paint for wood surfaces.

 

Is another purpose of the gesso to sort of smooth any irregularities in the carved surface?

[paulsutcliffe]

Beautiful work, although you missed out how you actually carved the scroll and acanthus leaves, the nail router is a great idea also

Regards

Paul 

[Drazen]

8 hours ago, Hubac's Historian said:

Stunning carved work, Drazen!  Also an excellent tutorial on prep and paint for wood surfaces.

 

Is another purpose of the gesso to sort of smooth any irregularities in the carved surface?

Well, the gesso did actually add some imperfection in the already smooth surfaces of the carving. It is also very hard to grind gesso. So, once you get a surface, that is it. More "smoothing" has been done by GAC100. Still, this medium did close some very fine details, but not a big problem as you see on the photos. That is also the reason why I will try to go on with shellac.

 

With this said, no positive effect of these layers, but you need to apply them with oil paint. Otherwise you get other severe problems. The "only" extremely positive effect of gesso is the brilliance you get out of the oil paint. It is so shining, so alive, that I was very surprised of the difference between the direct painting on the wood and on the white primed surface.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

7 hours ago, paulsutcliffe said:

Beautiful work, although you missed out how you actually carved the scroll and acanthus leaves, the nail router is a great idea also

Regards

Paul 

 

Paul,

 

please, scroll back to the 13. April 2018. You will find there and after this date many hints and photos on how I did the ribbon and the single letters.

I was using mostly the dentist's drill and only seldom the manual self-made carving knives. Here, with this decoration, I think, I did not use manual tools at all.

Painting of the ribbon and letters after 16. September 2018.

 

Drazen

[Piet]

Stunning work Drazen, bravo!

 

Cheers,

[Drazen]

The wales are now installed on the ship.

 

I needed to make a slope on the upper side of the wale, so water does not collect there. You see the masking tape against damaging the planks and the small grinding blocks I had been using.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... and the gunport lids have been made in the same step too. When closed, they fit now nicely to the outer surface. The gunports on the lower deck will be mostly closed (port) or just slightly opened (starboard). The upper decks will have most of the gunports opened.

 

Drazen

[druxey]

Beautifully done, Dražen!

[Louie da fly]

Wonderfully precise work, and a beautiful model.

 

Steven

[Drazen]

No, no! Not CNC here. Please, go to the date March 6th 2013. You will find the whole process of making gunports.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... actually, the gunports have been made not so different as on the real ship. I think also the 1:10 model in Lelystad was using the templates to get the same size of the gunports.

You may study my photos from 2013 to understand how I got the same angle, parallelism, etc.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

Hi Y.T.,

 

I am sorry. I'm afraid I do not understand. Please, try to go to the date February 11th 2015 and after it. There, I explain how I did the outer planking on the gunport frames. It is hand made - every single plank, not cut out of the frame/planking. Actually, the frame shall make a labyrinth-like closing with the gunport lid. Therefore, the outer planking has a slightly wider frame than the massive inner frame of the gunport. You see it also on the gunport lids when they will be ready. Inside of the ship, the gunport frame is flush with the inner planking (the deck-side).

I hope, this is what you meant.

 

But, if I am wrong, please come back to me. I did post all essential steps and technologies. It has to be here listed somewhere.

 

Drazen

[schiffebastler]

Hello Drazen,

 

now I have been following the construction of your model for a while and I really have to congratulate you for this fantastic work! It's always nice to see more progress and I'll stick with it. 

 

Cheers, Joachim

[Kopape]

Perfect work and look!

[Drazen]

Thank ypu.

Drazen

[Piet]

Very nice work Drazen.

 

Cheers,

[Drazen]

Small step forward in the project - small steps on the side of the ship

 

Drazen

 

[Drazen]

Doing the base for the side galleries...

I did a small observation mistake resulting in a 5-6mm error in the heigh of the joint at the "slingerlijst". The plan observes the side galleries from the side and parallel with the waterline. I transferred the drawing onto the base directly which was few degrees more than the 0° - due to the slightly tilted base of the side galleries (it is something like 8° on my model). This i did only on the side galleries, but the tower has ben done right. Due to my cross section from the stern, the form of the side gallery was right and I needed to compensate only the heigh of the gallery-plank which is joining the slinger plank. Now, it is OK, but in spite of all brain work, such things happen. The big problem is that the plans I use have no cross sections and no top view of the side galleries, so I needed to combine the Otte Blom's drawings (which, frankly, differ from each other) and my observation of the van de Velde paintings.

 

Let's go...

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

gluing the wood pieces together and cutting/defining the outer shape...

The small bolts position the piece always on the same place on the hull - this I need for frequent checking the shape.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... coarse and fine removing of the material to get the right shape.

I used three templates of cross sections and the side plank to check the form.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

The tower...

It is an octagon. I calculate 360°/8 = 45°. So, I cut the wood pieces under 45 degrees and grind them so the outer width fits to the drawing by Otte Blom.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... than glue together with epoxy and grind till they fit nicely...

 

Drazen

Edited June 16, 2019 by Drazen

[Drazen]

... giving it the approx. 8° angle towards the ship hull... (The galleries are standing vertically to the earth, not parallel to the ship's sides. - most probably.)

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

Adjusting the shape to the side gallery where they touch - done with a Proxxon grinding tool.

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... trim the top... align both to be the same (with this the mistakes are also minimised)...

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

Do the curvature/outer shape first from the side view...

 

Drazen

[Drazen]

... than the curvature from front/stern view... and than the shapes in between (under 45°). One can easily control the shape by following the joint-/gluing-line of the original pieces of wood.

 

Drazen

Edited June 16, 2019 by Drazen