Fearless posted:

I've made more progress on my longboat. I have discovered that I do not enjoy rigging nearly as much as I do planking, but if I pace myself and set small, realistic goals it isn't so bad.

Ensign Expendable posted:

Thanks! I got quite a bit of painting done today, and these guys are just popping to life.

The Locator posted:

Rigging is a lot more fun when you are using quality line and blocks, not the garbage that kit makers supply.

Sucks that the kit makers put crappy line and blocks into the kits, but that's the way it is. I throw out all the kit blocks and line and use aftermarket stuff from Syren - https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/about-us.php

Doesn't cost too terribly much, and it's a huge improvement on the finished model, as well as my enjoyment working with it.

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Excellent work so far! Really digging your work on this build.

Chillyrabbit posted:

So this has been a technically 1.5 year long project. I first did the hull/wheels in July 2016, then moved which made me pack away the model and then work kept me so busy I never had time to pull out the model and set up a workstation.

I finally moved into a nice place in November which gave me enough room to set up a mostly permanent workstation instead of having to clear off my work desk every time I wanted to do something. Especially painting.

Finally at the end after trying to personalize the tank with its markings I just gave up, hopefully you goons can give me some tips/tricks on the last portion. Now without any further ado the model!

Brush painted with mostly Tamiya but used my last bits of Testor enamel paint.

1/48 Tamiya IS-2 Tank

















Complete album with manual.

Things I know I did wrong,

• hatch broke off so you only have a half hatch
  
• decal applied crookedly
  
• white turret paint not straight, tried tape but it just got messy that's why its green white (any hints on painting it straight with a brush? especially when the top had those ridgelines)
  
• the tow cables I feel like I did them wrong but I didn't want to muck with it too much.
  

Things I need to really buy/do next time

• bigger brush for large paint overcoats, Since I was too poor to buy the recommended Tamiya spray can I used my brush to paint Testors enamel olive drab.
  
• Blutack? A putty thing to hold a model in place so I can use my other 2 hands for something else (saw it in this video)
  
• More patience.....
  
• Probably want to standardize on acrylic or enamel based paints, probably acrylic since I hate having to wait practically a full day for things to dry before I go to the next step and I'm running low on thinner.
  

Next project is going to be a ship or a plane, anyone want to suggest something?

Fearless posted:

Thanks for the advice. It's not quite the quality of the materials that is presenting the biggest hurdle, it's my decidedly not-dainty sausage fingers and gorilla hands. I've been waxing all of my lines and it has made them far easier to handle than the really slippery condition it's in as-issued.

Also, I just checked out that site and holy cats those lines are nice. When I move on to my next kit I know where I am headed.

Ensign Expendable posted:

Also Tamiya, they came with the SU-76 set.

The Locator posted:

FYI, if you didn't make the connection, Syren is Chuck Passaro's business - he's the guy who designed the kit you are making! His line and blocks are awesome to work with, no waxing needed.

Note that a potential long-term downside of waxing the lines is that they may collect dust much worse. I've never actually done this so I only know what I've read from others. YMMV, etc.

COOL CORN posted:

What's the best "baby's first wooden ship" model to start with? I saw something a while back that was basically like a little rowboat and that seemed good to start with, but I can't remember what it was.

That longboat looks good, but I'm just wondering if it'll satisfy my need for "here's what you do with this wood, you idiot" handholding.

I'm too used to plastic I'm assuming I can reuse basically all the same tools as I use with plastic modeling, except with wood glue instead of cement?

The Locator posted:

words

Greyhawk posted:

In a sailing vessel, yes. Luckily this is a modern ship and we're not going to see any of the planking when we're done. So what we're going to do is just lay down as many full width strips as possible and then shape some cutoff to fill in the remaining gaps. It helps that both the first and second planking are 1,5 mm thick. This gives plenty of material to sand the hell out of the whole thing.

Fearless posted:

In related news, I have all the rigging done on my kit and now I'm left to prepare some oars and the base to call it done. This has been a radically different experience from what I am used to and I am glad for the learning experience-- when I started the rigging, in particular, I found that I continually refined the processes I followed to make the chainplates and so on, so by the end of it the product was far better than the start. It's by no means perfect, but I really like the end result and I regard the imperfections as reminders of what to do better next time.

Fearless posted:

My wife has been prodding me to consider a new kit in the near future. Bluenose, probably the Artesania Latina version, is something I intend to start eventually but I am open to suggestions if anyone has any for something a little more advanced than this was.

Fearless posted:

I noticed that in my long boat kit that sanding with wild abandon made the hull frighteningly thin in certain places. I did not expect basswood to be as soft as it is.

Greyhawk posted:

Something incredibly great is coming for the wood modeling enthusiasts from Amati. I saw the prototype at the toy fare in Nuremberg earlier this year and was completely floored.

Greyhawk posted:

The Locator posted:

Great job, and you blew through that quickly! What was your approximate start date on this?

On the 'next kit', I would take the time to review build logs on Modelshipworld.com of whatever kits you might be interested in. You can learn a lot about the quality of a kit and the instructions by reading what others went through while building them.

Fearless posted:

That drive to improve is a motivator, not a hindrance I think.


It arrived on 12 April and I got started that same day so it's been two weeks and probably a total of about 50 hours. It's mounted on a base now and it's time to clean up my writing desk so I can formalize my log entries and record some of the processes I figured out for seizing lines and making subcomponents. I believe I shall have to check out modelshipworld and see what catches my eye.

The Locator posted:

Really great result for a very quick time for that model. Makes me wonder if I should do that kit (except I already know I'm replacing the wood) and try to finish it in time for IPMS Nationals since it's in town here this August. Plan to enter the AVS but it would be cool to have a little longboat to enter too.

Fearless posted:

Full disclosure: I am unemployed and currently in a lull between the end of school for the semester and the start of my final field placement to finish a BSW so I have the time to really plow into a model at the moment.

Ensign Expendable posted:

The SU-76M is complete! This guy sat on my bench for about 4 months, so it's probably about time. I tried out a few new techniques to mixed results. But first, the photos!

Album link

















The first new thing I tried was oil dots. For those of you not familiar with the technique, you splatter on a bunch of oil paints in the primary colours, let them dry a little, and then work away at the surface with a damp brush to create streaking and subtle change in shades, imitating how real paint would fade and discolour over time. This had okay results. The bright "salad green" parts of the modulation faded into the gradients a little better (you can compare the colour of the upper front plate to the air intake fins under the mufflers, which is the only place I didn't apply the oils to). On the other hand, parts that were supposed to pop out like the tools blended in too. I do, however, like the effect that ended up happening around the driver's hatch. This is definitely something I will experiment with in the future, but maybe more carefully, since my first reaction after applying it was that I ruined the model.

The second new thing was pigments. I tried pigments before, but this time instead of just working them into the model with a finger or a brush I put down a bit of liquid to get them to stay. The first was my oil paint thinner, Taltine, an odourless synthetic turpentoid. It was easy to work with, since it dries slowly, and the pigments clumped together in it, forming fairly realistic looking mud. The downside was that it took ages to dry, and touching the pigments even a little during this process would dissolve them into a paint-like substance that was impossible to remove while wet and very difficult while dry. The dry version did have interesting properties that would make it look like rust or heavily weathered paint, which I will probably work into a wreck diorama at some point. Another unpredictable occurrence was that the Taltine didn't just flow downwards, but also upwards. This made the dirty areas less controllable, and explains why my pre-fender photos look like they do.

The other pigment fixer I tried was alcohol. You can see it on the front mudflaps. Its effects were much more predictable, but it dried almost instantly. The resulting layer was much easier to scrub off, however, so this is probably the way to go in the future.

Ensign Expendable posted:

The crew is in position!