STS Leeuwin II by tallshiptragic - 1/56 as she is today 2015

[Sjors]

So, here you are.......

Welcome home stranger     

And what are you thinking ?

It's not the Duyfken but another one ??????

And when you are sailing with the leeuwin to Holland, let me know and I'll be waiting for you ! ( again)

I,ve seen the Duyfken coming in ( you have the pictures of that ) so I also want to see this one

 

Back to the build.

 

I don't know what you are doing but I like it !

Scratch is for me still far away 

I know a few people who wants me to do that but I prefer watching you guy's who are doing this !

I pick up a chair and i'll will be watching you closely !

 

Sjors

[Tallshiptragic]

G'day Sjors!

 

Yes it's been a few years. I was still building the Diana back then. She was finished and now has a new home with collector. Also what do you mean you don't know what I'm doing??? I'm building a model ship hahaha

 

It's not too difficult to scratch, just have to cut out the parts yourself. I prefer kits most of the time, though I always like ships that either aren't available in the scale I want or don't exist in a kit at all.

[Sjors]

That's what you are doing.....building 

 

Do you have pictures of the Diana ?????

I know I was jealous with what you are doing, so a picture of the finished project please !

 

Sjors

[Tallshiptragic]

I'll have to dig one out for you. Those photos are on an old hard drive unfortunately. I finished her a little over two years ago now and was sold not long after.

[Sjors]

Get start digging then !

 

Sjors

[Tallshiptragic]

So an update on Leeuwin. All the base planking has been complete. Now for the cleaning up and edging around the positions of vents, bollards and doghouses.

[mtaylor]

Anton!!!! 

 

Welcome back.   I thought this was you but wasn't sure.   You're doing a beautiful build of this ship and I'm looking forward to following it.

[Tallshiptragic]

G'day Mark!

 

Yeah, life took over as usual and then with the crash of MSW 1 I drifted away. Though recently started to come back and see what had been happening.

[Jim Lad]

Very nice looking planking!

 

John

[Tallshiptragic]

Thanks John, the Ramin planks are very easy to use. I usually prefer something thicker to work with but has turned out quick and looks ok I think.

[Tallshiptragic]

Before I start to go diving into deck details etc, I decided to give my 'blue canoe' as she's lovingly called by the crew a paint job. I've given the hull six light coats of 'Leeuwin blue' or Jotun marine royal blue as what the paint actually is. Again I've used the actual paint used on the ship which is a two part Jotun paint and hardener. Perfect for fiberglass and works easily in the airbrush. I can now mount the hull onto a base and continue with the building.

[Omega1234]

Well done, Anton.

 

I love ships with a clipper bow type design. Many ships have them, but not all can 'pull it off'. Leeuwin, luckily is one that does look good with it.

 

Nice paint job, too.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[Keith_W]

She's beautiful. I never knew what Leeuwin II looks like under the waterline, I did not realize she was so modern. Thank you so much for this build log. If anything, it shows me how little I know about a ship that I thought I was familiar with. 

[Tallshiptragic]

Thanks guys.

 

Yep I love her design, she does look beautiful on the water.

 

Yeah if you look at New Zealand's Spirit of New Zealand, her hull is almost identical to Leeuwin also. Even the Navy's Young Endeavour has a similar shaped hull. You have to remember unlike a real barquentine of the 19th century we don't carry any cargo so the hull was designed this way to allow for the keel and ballast arrangement.

[IgorSky]

Hi Tallshiptragic,

It is beautiful ship! It reminds me the STS Sir Winston Churchill and Malkolm Miller.

 

Best Regards!

Igor.

[Tallshiptragic]

Attempted my lioness figurehead tonight. With most of my period ships that have carving I've always turned to milliput. I love to sculpt rather than carve so anyway, while I think it looks more like an angry dog. Perhaps once painted it should look fine.

 

Please let me know your thoughts. Sorry no shots during the sculpting as my hands well fingers were covered in milliput. The last pic is our crazy bosun adding Christmas decorations last year the Santa hat is not normally there...

[Jim Lad]

Very nice, mate, but I think you have a wolf at the moment.  A lions face is more of a straight slope down from the top of the head to the nose.

 

John

[jud]

Looks good for such a small figure and tiny details. Might round off the top of the ears, before you paint, might look more catty.

jud

[Omega1234]

Hi Anton

 

Wolf, Tiger, Dog, Lioness, whatever...it still looks darn good to me. I tried to do a figurehead out of Milliput for my Lennox and it turned out looking like Kermit the Frog!

 

If I could only do half as well as what you and others have done, I'd be pretty chuffed.

 

All the best

 

Patrick

[Sjors]

I have to agree with Jim Anton......

It looks like our dog               

But it is brave that you try it 

Something I don't do.

So.....see what you can change at the dog to be a lion 

You have the skills so you can do it.

 

Sjors

[Keith_W]

Cute dog figurehead there! Are you planning to give it a Santa hat as well?  

 

But seriously, it's very nice work! 

[Tallshiptragic]

Haha thanks guys.

 

Ok so my reworked cat-dog figure head. Gave the original a quick coat of yellow so it was easier for me to see what was coming on and off.

 

Santa hat for Chrissy only! Haha

[Omega1234]

Now, that does look good.

[Piet]

Aaaaaaaaaaaand - - - it's a lioness!  Looks very scary   Great rework Anton.

 

Cheers,

[Tallshiptragic]

Thanks everyone. I'm much happier with the reworked lioness now have to paint the thing! At least it's just basic painting of the mouth, teeth, eyes and outline of jaw and nose. Before refit whishkers were painted on but one of our volunteers who painted it last year (bolts had rusted so needed replacing - so it came off on the slip) didn't paint them this time.. FYI the current figurehead is actually the third one on the ship. The first fell off in '96 sailing back from Indonesia, and the second about three years ago off Geraldton. Both times, it was there when leaving a port and not there when arriving at the new one. Unfortunately in the past the three bolts holding the lioness on where always 'missed' during routine inspections by previous bosuns. Needless to say now, the bolts are constantly checked and tested.

 

Leeuwin is now mounted on a base of Tasmanian oak plank. This is actually laminated planks rather than a single sheet, but I think it's a lovely looking base and its a nice hard Aussie wood. The keel isn't flat as it rises slightly by the bows so I've just used two machine bolts one towards the stern and one further foreword to give the rise. As its a modern ship, I wanted to keep the base and mount simple and clean. Let me know what you think.

[Jim Lad]

She looks good on the base, mate, and yep - that's certainly now a lion!

 

John

[Tallshiptragic]

Thanks John. Yep I'm also much happier with the lion now. Another small update, a little painting. I've added the buff yellow stripe down both sides of the hull under the rubbing strakes. This is the same colour as the lion, scroll work and masts will be also. I used tamiya masking tape- this stuff is awesome - sanded the blue lightly and hand brushed the stripe with four thin coats. She's starting to look more and more like Leeuwin.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Tallshiptragic

[Tallshiptragic]

As I had some of the buff yellow mixed up I started the scroll work. Port side and stern complete. Just need to do the starboard bow now.

[IgorSky]

Hi Tallshiptragic,

Your the scroll work looks very accurately!

What tool you used for drawing of the scroll work?

 

Best Regards!

Igor.

[Tallshiptragic]

Thanks very much igor. I just use a 1mm fine hair artist paint brush and paint straight on the model. I printed out an image as close to life size as the model and copy that.