Sovereign of The Seas by SawdustDave - FINISHED

[SawdustDave]

Progress on the port side. Added gilded moldings and trim pieces on each side of the upper gun ports.

 

The panels below the gun ports are hand painted with metallic gold.

[GLakie]

She's taking shape and looking splendid Dave! 

 

Cheers

[Omega1234]

Very nice work, Dave...especially those sea horses!

 

Well done.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[SawdustDave]

For anyone interested, here's a link to the little feature story aired yesterday out of the Raleigh TV station...WRAL. And yes, that is the SOS I am seen working on....

WRAL.com: http://www.wral.com/14597248

Edited April 22, 2015 by SawdustDave

[GLakie]

That's a nice "fleet" you've built up Dave. However---I don't think you're insane. 

[Omega1234]

Well done, Dave!  It's great to get that sort of national and now, international exposure....good for you, as well as for the hobby.

Edited April 22, 2015 by Omega1234

[JesseLee]

Wow Dave, you got featured on the Tarheel Traveler! Good to see our hobby get some recognition.

[mtaylor]

Just amazing....  and you're moving quickly on this.   I don't know how you're doing it along with everything else you had going on. 

[Piet]

Great show Dave.  I was really disappointed not being able to visit you and your bride and admire all your models.  Love the carving you are doing - - - hmmmm, that'll keep you busy for a while 

 

Cheers,

[SawdustDave]

Thanks guys.... It really was a surprise to me, since I was expecting the story to be completely about the show on Saturday. They didn't air this piece until Tuesday evening following the event. Not much help' huh?

George.... I am disappointed that they selected my joking response using the term "Because I'm insane".... That interview lasted almost an hour and a half. The more serious explanation following that comment was about how I was inspired to build the SOS by all the great artists around the world who have built this magnificent historic ship, and that I considered it to be the ultimate challenge as a ship modeler because of all the beautiful gilded ornamentation from stem to stern.

BTW....The friend with the model cars is Ken Johnson. He was invited to join me in the interview as a fellow member representing the Lafayette Scale Modelers club in Fayetteville. They are primarily a IPMSUSA group, and I wanted to make sure we extended a clear invitation to all plastic Modelers to join us at the show. Ken is quite a character and it showed. I think he did a swell job.

OK.... The fun's over....back to work.

No.... It's almost 11:00 pm!

Nite all.

Edited April 23, 2015 by SawdustDave

[GLakie]

It's funny why the media does that.  Pick and choose what they want to convey, without even consulting or including you during the editing process. 

[SawdustDave]

Surprising, the number of emails I'm receiving from modelers with questions about carving. I think it appears much tougher than it really is. For those who have not tried basic carving, I took a few sequence shots this morning as I continue to work on the little sea horse figures. There will be 40 of these little creatures, and I considered creating a mold and casting them. Not at all happy with the detail results, so I decided to carve them all with the Bradford Pear I picked up at the show.

 

Beginning with slicing a piece of material to the thickness needed. The 1/4th" board is too thick, so the rip fence of the mini-table saw is set at 1/16th". As seen here, I get three pieces from one block.

 

Before showing the carving, I should note, for carving, the use of a cable drive Dremel tool is much better than holding any of the cumbersome, heavy, battery powered units. Also, the most valuable tool of all is some sort of powerful magnification. The finer details should be done with a new X-acto blade with a perfect tip.

Whenever possible, a cardstock template should be used to keep the outer shape of each piece uniform and in scale.

In this case, I am able to get 4 layouts onto each of the planks created above....

Using the Dremel with a fine bur tip, made a rough cut of the outer edges of all four carvings. Note....Very careful not to attempt too much removal around areas like the curled tail and the "beak". Those delicate areas have to be worked down with a blade.

The finished edges and finer details are done with a sharp blade and needle pick tool, and light sanding.

And there you are.... net carving time, about 30 minutes per piece.

 

Point is....This "carving thing" just isn't all that tough mates.... give it a try.

I think most modelers will be surprised at how well they will do.

Edited April 24, 2015 by SawdustDave

[GLakie]

I think having sequence shots would be of interest to a lot of us Dave. Among other skills,  carving is one of those things I'd like to learn and become proficient at. Been shopping around for carving tools, and found not only are some sets expensive, but there are many different types used by guys that do a lot of carving. I did find decent sets in the mid-range pricing category though.

 

Cheers

[SawdustDave]

You're right about carving tools available George.... and they are quite expensive. Personally, I do not think you need a lot of expensive specialty tools, unless you intend to do a lot of carving far beyond the type of figures used for modeling.

Other than the basic tools shown above, here is my personal favorite two tools.

Note the tip of this curved pick has been filed to a sharp cutting edge. The needle tool is handy for creating really fine lines.

 

I just don't recommend you go out and invest a lot of money in a bunch of carving tools you will never use.

[SawdustDave]

I hope not to give any impression that I consider myself any level of "expert" as a carver. In fact, my point here is to the contrary. That is, you don't have to be an expert. For really good tips on carving, I highly recommend going to Bill Short's SOS right here on MSW. Now THERE'S a true carving artist.

You can also simply Google "sovereign of the seas by Bill Short" and find his amazing work.

[GLakie]

Thanks Dave! I'll probably keep it down to just a couple small sets, then expand on that after my skills improve. 

[GLakie]

Doesn't he have a book in PDF for sale?

[SawdustDave]

Yep.... $30.00 U.S. if interested.

 

Edited April 24, 2015 by SawdustDave

[GLakie]

Thanks again Dave! I actually put that on my "sizable" list a while back.  But these are things to get after I start my own build. Getting anxious to start.   I think Carl is too.   Ref. my last "What Have You Received" posts.   

 

Cheers

[GLakie]

Those carvings look great on her Dave! Very nice!

 

Cheers

[mtaylor]

George,

 

That book is well worth the price.  You might want to hold off buying tools until after you read it as Bill has a lot of excellent ideas.

[GLakie]

Thanks for the info Mark. I've heard good things about the book and am definitely going to get it first. 

 

Cheers

[GLakie]

Thanks Janos. I have a Dremel with the flex-shaft, but still need some bits.

[SawdustDave]

Still developing the port side sculptures.....

A lot of experimenting going on right now with shaping the gilded figures decorating the panels between the upper gun ports.  I must admit, the scale is very difficult to work with.  So far, I have removed more of the pieces I have attempted to add than I have kept.  But I am beginning to get a little more feel for the scale than when I started.

Also, decided that it only makes sense to create silicone rubber molds of each figure I create for the port side since the same figures will be required for the starboard side.  I just may be a "mold master" by the time I'm done with this build.

I guess I faced the reality that carving each and every single figure that will go into decorating this ship would likely, in my case, require more time than I might be around. 

Also discovered that the plastic parts, once removed from the mold, are very receptive to adding fine details that do not show up well.  With that, I will primarily cast the fairly rough shapes of the figures and then add fine details after I remove the castings from the molds.

Here's a mold I created for the very tiny pieces directly below each gun port....

 

Here's a little shield I just finished and guilded....

 

A few sketches cut from the plan sheet that I will begin laying out for carvings.... they will keep me busy for a while I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GLakie]

It's going to be a beautifully ornate ship when she's done Dave, and you're doing a bang-up job on her. I do think however, that this is the very part of the build that puts a lot of modelers off from buying the kit, and building her themselves. Probably fear of not getting the carvings right.

 

Cheers

[mtaylor]

Indeed.. what George said. Dave, you are better man than I for that.  Looking good,

[CaptainSteve]

Fantastic job, Dave ... I (and everyone else) are looking forward to seeing the final product.

[SawdustDave]

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments. We all need encouragement from friends.

When you consider, from what I see, there are no two versions of this ship that have ever been built the same.

Unlike the Victory, Confederacy, Syren, etc., (all being ships that I have built that are well defined in their detail)), the SOS leaves an awful lot of leeway for artist interpretation. And since I have never been a pure technician of historical accuracy, I guess I can just have fun coming up with whatever satisfies my own personal fancy.

"Final product".... Might take a while Cap Steve

Edited April 28, 2015 by SawdustDave

[Omega1234]

Hi Dave

 

I love those carvings and mouldings! This is definitely going to be one hell of an achievement once you've finished. Afterall, it's not everyone that's brave enough to tackle the SOS, especially as a scratch build.

 

All the best and I'll keep hanging out for your updates!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[SawdustDave]

The fish carving.... ready for gilding....

 

 

Two more panels completed.... Note the use of the plastic tooth picks with the tiny bristles on one end.  

 

This is one of those experiments that turned out pretty neat....