Home|Projects| Miniatures | Tips & Tricks | The Hirst Art Studies | Work in Progress | Events | Links 

I thought; Lets start with a rather impressive frontal shot of the largest vessel of the vleet. A big one she is and I think she will be the biggest of the fleet for quite some time

The start:

Mid april 2006 I started the preperations of this vessel and close to 4 month later this monster is finished. It is fair to tell you that I did not work for about a month on this model, during this period, but there are still hundreds of hours in to this project.

It always starts with a lot of sketches and then the first hesitating cuts in a big chunk of green foam. As from the first picture on you can see that I was about to make something big. At this point the largest and most daring vessel is the "Merchant Vessel" 26 cm long, 10.5 cm wide and 7 cm high at its highest point. A truley magnificent vessel and a growing number of people around the world are most happy with this original vessel surely. But now as I hold it in my hands, with all its nice details and original form, it now looks so.....small.

The foam model was slowly getting its shape with lots of help of my foam cutter and my sharp cutting knifes, steel ruler and sandingpaper. The most difficult part of making the hul are the nice and elegant lines. When you have it just right on one side then you have to work on another side still. So lots of looking cutting and sanding finally gave met a nice and elegant hull.

The first series of pictures are from the foam block showing you how the rough form of the hull is build up. I guess the pictures explain so much more then trying to write this all out in detail.




The idea of making a detailed vessel is to try to add as much as detail on the foam version. It actually does not mater what you use as long as it helps you to make this version as detailed as possible. I used clay, wood, metal foam and rope to get this first version done.
With the bow mast atached I got a good idea of the size of this ship compared to the merchant vessel as you can see in the picture.



Making the first mold:

What a waste of time this could be. Imagine working all these hours on your foam model and then there comes the enevatable..... You have to make a mold out of it. The fact that the work at this point could feel like its useless is the fact that you end up with a totally ruined foam model and a big chunk of sillicone rubber. But then you get your first plaster model out of the mold and what a joy! An extremely heavy plaster boat is now filling up your workplace. Full with airbubbles and irregularities you did not notice on the foam model.



This first mold making stage cost me close to 5 kilo's of sillicone. THis quite a lot of material just for getting a plaster sample. But then again I am always looking for a challenge so no time to complain about this investment.

Now the real work begins:

Yes the real work starts now. First of all the entire ship has to be redone when it comes to making the hull and decks smooth. Also the curves has to be checked and adjusted. Once all this is done then the firts lines will be drawn upon the ship with pencil. Along these lines the first carvings will be made.



Choosing the right plaster and dentist tools ables me to texture the ship inside out with not too many difficulties. However the danger is always there when working with plaster. One wrong cut can ruin a lot and repairing plaster isn't one of my favourite things to to. Working from the inside out I start with the decks and bother about the outside hull later. I design the texture during the cutting process. I actually often have no idea how the next area will look like until I finished it. A good example is the somewhat elevated area on the main deck. I carved a strange pattern of hatches with angled planks in the corners. When I finished this I took a picture and scraped the entire texture out. It looked horrible. I added a true roster pattern as there should be in the first place. An example picture is added of the VOC Ship "Prins Willem" This is a replica of the Dutch war/merchant vessel of the golden age.



I was most fond (and I still am) about the windows. The glass effect is a angled scraped texture that lies a bit lower then the wooden framework around it. I just tried a bit and I liked it from right at the start during the first test run.



Some plaster hazards:

Yes plaster can brake and plaster can chip off. Plaster can also obtain air bubbles just below surface so there you are cutting a line and oeps there in an air bubble. Sometimes there are parts where there are lots of air bubbles on the surface that are spoiling your sculpting fun. No worries. As long as the bubbles are small I can simply hide them by cutting grains through them and you will not see them anymore. Sometimes the bubbles do ask for repairing and calls for wet plaster and a brush.
The next 2 pictures of the 2 wooden bands that lies upon the hull gives you a nice example of the before and after treatment of wet plaster and brush. The entire plaster cast of this ship was fine but the rear bottom of this version was hopeless. I added a picture of the un-repaired area. Fortunately all turned out ok.



Making the second mold:

This is for real. After hours of delicate cutting work the next mold has to be made. If this one works then I am virtually there. Learning from the first mold I could set up this mold using less sillicone. Still 4 kilo's went in to this one and I used another brand of which I am certain that is lasts longer. I could argue about the colour of the mold but as long as the mold itself works I do not care what colour the mold is. Alas the plaster version did not make it in one piece but I keep the remains for sentimental reasons.



The big moment is there and the first cast is prepared. Writing everything down from amounts of resin and foam, support elements and all kind of other stuff that might come in handy when casting more of this ship in the future. Imagine the first cast getting out of the mold.......
It is always a crazy moment. There you sit with a resin block in your hands and for a while you just sit, look, feel, stare and turn it round and round and round. It sounds silly it is silly but if you are in to this hobby you must know the feeling when you have achieved something.



The first three casts are to find out how the mold works and helps me to get a good description of steps to follow in the casting process. These ships will finally be the ones I will be needing for my own fleet. Three sounds like a good number so I guess I will leave it to that for now.

Painting the hull:

Now the hull is done I can start figuring out how to make the masts and what else there has to be made. While doing that I start painting the hull using the next acryllic paints; After a basic layer of black I paint the vesel again with a second layer using raw umber. With a brush of gold brown, red leather and yellow ochre I finally get a hull that looks satisfying. The finishing touch will be the 2 to 3 layers of dirt wash I will finally add to bring out more the texture and to blend all the colours in so they match better.



Making mast parts and other additional items:

The fighting tops in the mast are the next pieces to work on. I need 3 different ones for all 3 masts and here is a series of pictures of one of them. It all started with a plaster cast I made in a lid of some spray paint can. This gave me a perfect round plaster dic to work with. In this case I Studied the picture I took of the replica of the "Prins Willem" and worked with that as a guide line.




The capstan was also made in between the making of these fighting tops as well as the lanterns as the canons. Since there is room for 10 canons on deck I simply had to make one of my own. There are lots of canons available but I also saw this as a fun element so I gave it a try. It might not be the best canon around but I hope you give me a break since this is my first canon ever. I even carved my initials in them. With the finishing of the canons all the items are there. In all the ship now has 39 resin parts. I guess you can actually see this as a building kit now.



Assembling the parts: All three mast are build up out of 4 pieces. There is the main mast part, the fighting top, the short double mast piece and the top piece. From the fighting top up all can easily be glued. To get the fighting top on to the main mast part however requires some drilling skill. With a whole in the mast and in the top part I connect both parts using a round wooden pin.



The mast themselves can be easily assembled on to the decks using a drill and cut a whole in the decks. The front mast fits right on the bow and need no drilling at all. The canons each consist out of 2 parts so the upper and lower half need to be glued. The lanterns where attached to the stern using steel wire. I used 2 steel wires and twisted them into each other using a drill. I made small holes in the railing and in the lanterns themselves.

Finally: I will not take you to the entire list of used paints. I do suggest using colours that are already matching quite well and do not use too many dominant colours. A dirt wash is always helping to age the look and blending in colours. Do also varnish the model at least once but 2 or 3 times might be better.

Some final statistics that might be interesting:
Ships length from stern to bow 38.7 cm and from bow to tip of bow mast 45.1 cm
Highest point of hull is 12.0 cm and lowest point is 4.7 cm
Widest point of the hull is 14.0 cm outside and 12.2 cm inside
Fighting top rear 18.5 cm above sea level, 4.4 cm diameter and tip of mast 27.0 cm high
Fighting top main 20.8 cm above sea level, 5.5 cm diameter and tip of mast 30.8 cm high
Fighting top front 10.0 cm above sea level, 3.3 cm diameter and tip of mast 17.6 cm high

Main deck estimated 12.0 cm wide and 16.5 cm long
front deck estimated 8.0 cm wide and 3.0 cm long
kaptains deck estimated 10.0 cm wide and 5.0 cm long
Rear deck estimated 6.5 cm wide and 3 cm long


Some nice overall shots of the Buccaneer ship:




This next picture gives you a nice idea of the size of this ship compared to the Merchant vessel and the the tiny row boat.



The lanterns at the stern are placed using thin metal wires. I got these out of the plastic strips that comes with the garbage bags and are for binding up your garbage bag. 2 of these wires in a drill at one end and holding the other gives me a fine twisted thread that looks nice as a support for the lanterns.
One thing I did not do is to name the ship. You can actually add its name at the rear of the ship since I added some kind of nameplate.



A nice rear few over the main deck showing you the capstan and details like the 2 hatches in the front near the stairs. Another thing is the roof section at the rear. This was quite a lot of work and lots of fun. (it most is lots of fun when things work out fine though) The roof is cut in a way that it represent tiny wooden planks forming this roof. Like most carved structures it is important to always count. How many planks on one side, how many rows of windows or how many wooden tiles on the roof at one side. It would be a shame ending up with planks or tiles at a diffrent number/size/scale at one side.



The final pictures show some nice details of the rear of the main deck and the captains deck above. The stairs down from the main deck is leading to these 2 doors. This could be the entrance to the officers quarters I guess.
The railing on the captains deck is where you could situate a rudder of some sort and the door and window belong to the captains quarter.
All the railings have the same colour. I did this to keep the model uniform. The darker woods are mostly edges of frames or stairways. Keep the model uniform when it comes to painting it and the result will look much better.

Back to the Projects page

Back to previous page.

Back to SHIFTINGLANDS

Back to the top