The Stand, Stern Emblem and Capstan

From this point on, it looks like there is only 1 thing where I'll need to access the ship from below (a few minor details on the beakhead), so with the painting all done and touched up, I decided to finish up the base and attach the model; this will make it much sturdier for working on it.

 

As you can tell, some of these pictures are from earlier stages of the build.

 

First test fitting on the stand: 

Drilling the holes for the screws which will hold it to the base. 

 

I decided to stain the base using a Natural coloured stain rather than a darker colour.  It did darken the wood slightly and bring out the grain, and gave it a nice look:

 

 

One last step before attaching the model to the stand - giving the hull a few coats of Polycrylic to protect it (it's the same idea as Polyurethane, but better for paint):

 

The model attached to the stand: 

 

 

 

 

Next up is painting the emblem which will be attached to the stern of the ship; the kit came with a Britannia Casting (a type of metal) of the flower emblem.  As with the other painting, the first step was to prime the metal and then proceed with the painting.  For colours, I followed what was used in the pictures of the kit.

 

 

 

 

 

The emblem attached to the stern:

 

 

While waiting for the paint to dry on the emblem, I began to make the capstan (used by sailors to tighten the rigging, I believe).  This will sit on the base on the main deck which I added way back.  As with the emblem, there was a Britannia Casting included with the kit, but there were also instructions for making one out of scratch, which I decided to go with using some scrap wood I had sitting around.

 

First was cutting a short length from a wooden dowel to form the capstan drum.

Filing the bottom part of the capstan drum into a six-sided shape: 

 

Drilling holes at the top (bars would be inserted by sailors to act as handles for turning the capstan):

 

About halfway up the capstan drum there is supposed to be a washer-shaped piece of wood, but after numerous unsuccessful attempts, I gave up (the wood was so thin, it kept breaking...).

 

 

The six pieces of wood (whelps?) that will be attached to the bottom of the capstan drum.  If I had succeeded with the washer, these would have been basically cut in half with one piece below and one above the washer.

 

Glued to the base (which will sit on the other base):

 

The whelps added:

 

Test fitting on the deck - in the final model, this will be mostly hidden, as I will shortly be building the deck out over it:

 

Initial painting (I should have gone with a lighter brown for the centre and then used the dark brown for the whelps, instead of the other way around):

 

Attached to the deck:

 

 

Hull Staining, Painting and Trim Work - Part 2

So I've gone ahead and painted the bottom of the hull white, like I mentioned in the last post.  I'm not going to attach it to the stand yet, tho - I want to seal the paint first, so I'll give it a couple of days to dry first.

With the bottom done, I went ahead and finished painting the upper part of the hull.  The yellow in the pictures below looks almost greenish... it looks better in person.  Also, I tweaked some of it later on while adding the trim work (e.g., raised the top of the red band a bit).

 

Before I started to add the trim work, I detailed the two gun ports at the stern, using the same method as I used for the various bulkhead doors (e.g., used an index card to cut the hinge strips, added some white paint to simulate the bolts and cut a couple of eyebolts).

 

Unlike the doors, these are going to be painted white, so there was no need to paint the hinges black.

 

 

While I was at it - and had the Dremel out - I finally drilled the 2 holes on the beakhead doors and attached the handles (I'll touch the paint up later).

The stern gun ports painted: 

 The fully painted ship, ready to have the trim work attached.

 

 

The first trim I added was at the stern; some of the trim work on the port and starboard sides will (hopefully!) match up with these.  For most of the trim work, I used CA glue.

The lower wales:

The lower and upper wales in place:

Looks good from the bow:

At the stern:

 

The next 3 pieces of trim (the stained strip seems to blend into the rest of the hull...):

 

The forecastle:

 

Shot from the bow, with some of the trim work in place on both sides.  The wales actually lined up pretty good!

 

 

 
Starting to add the trim to the rear of the ship:

 

I mostly lined up with the first strips I added to the stern.  Once it's all in place and trimmed to length, I'll need to go back and do some touch-ups, so I'll see what I can do to fix this.

 

More of the forecastle:

 

All of the trim work added, and sitting on the stand (it's not screwed down yet, which is why it tilts in some of the pictures):

 

 

 

As with everything else, it's not perfect, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Next up will be doing some touch-up on the trim work (e.g., painting the ends where I cut them to length), followed by sealing the entire hull.  Once that is done, I will attach it to the stand (maybe... I still need to determine whether or not to stain the wooden base).  Then it's time to make the 4 gun port covers to each side before moving on to building the actual beakhead (the part that sticks out at the bow).