Wear Ship Dave

Scratch Building HMS Leopard Part 5

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Initial Painting and The Cannon Foundry

Today, I gave the ship some color. I started with three coats of acrylic floor finish to seal the balsa a little. Then a couple coats of black on the hull, a light tan on the decks, and a medium brown on the inside of the rails. I cut some hatch covers/grates from card stock and glued them in place, giving them the medium brown color.

I still need to add the yellow bands on the hull, maybe tomorrow.

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Now a visit to the Cannon Foundry!

1:1000 scale cannons are really really small!

I started with a thin strip of card stock, about 1/16th of an inch wide.

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I coated one side of the strip with watered down PVA glue, and then folded it over on itself to make it double thick. I then used a brown sharpie to color it. With my sharp scissors, I snipped of lengths of the strip about 1/8th of an inch long.

I put a strip of masking tape down on a plastic container lid and stuck my gun carriages to it. This is important, they are so small and fiddly that the tape is needed to keep them in place.

For the cannons themselves, I stuck several basic sewing pins (which I had already clipped off the points) to a strip of tape, allowing about 1/8th of an inch to extend past the edge. This is a guide for how long to cut. Cup your free hand around your wire cutters as you are snipping, to keep the cannon from flying across the room.

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Next, I used a tooth pick to put a small blob of PVA glue on each gun carriage before adding a cannon.

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Once dry, use a sharp knife to trim the excess from the gun carriages. Use your brown sharpie to retouch the carriage and then a black sharpie to color the cannon. (I may go back and hit the cannons with black paint before final installation).

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Here's a finished gun, shown on a quarter for scale.

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And here, in place as a bow chaser.

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Or in place on the Upper Gun Deck.

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NEXT UP: More Painting and Detailing!
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Updated 09-17-2013 at 20:17 by Wear Ship Dave

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Comments

  1. Coog's Avatar
    I have to admit that I was a little skeptical when you started the project, intending to scratch build a 1:1000 scale ship. It is really coming along nicely. Keep up the great work! Can't wait to see the finished product.
  2. Wear Ship Dave's Avatar
    Thanks!

    Honestly, I had my own doubts when I started. Working in this scale is really problematic, but i'm pretty pleased with the results so far. I'm really left with the windows at the stern of the ship as the last big hurdle. (I hope)
  3. Volunteer's Avatar
    I bow to the Master Modeler! She is beautiful. I am really looking forward to this build Dave. Any particular reason for using the blog function for this site rather than thy Chippy Shop board? I started a blog here but had very few looks. Just wondering. You should submit this build as a Workbench article on TMP.
    Regards,
    Vol
  4. Cmmdre's Avatar
    Amazing David. A real fascinating build that looks excellent so far.
  5. Wear Ship Dave's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Volunteer
    I bow to the Master Modeler! She is beautiful. I am really looking forward to this build Dave. Any particular reason for using the blog function for this site rather than thy Chippy Shop board? I started a blog here but had very few looks. Just wondering. You should submit this build as a Workbench article on TMP.
    Regards,
    Vol
    Thanks!

    Well, I ran this as a blog because I wanted to include a lot of "How To" tips, and thought that the blog format would be better for that... Plus, since I planned to include a lot of pictures, I thought that the blog format would mitigate the long thread load times. Imagine opening a thread with 50 images per page of posts. At least this way, the page loads are in smaller pieces and once past a particular entry, you no longer have to load every image every time you want to see the last comment.

    You're right that the blog gets very few views. I suspect that few folks really know that it is even here.

    I think, a little later today, I will start a thread in the Chippy Shop with just a few sample photos and links to the blog pages for folks who want to see more.

    On another note, what is TMP? I've been out of the modeling hobby for quite a number of years until just recently. I'm not certain what TMP is.
  6. 7eat51's Avatar
    The cannons are something else. Very impressive.

    I wouldn't worry too much about traffic right now. There doesn't seem to be but 10 or so folks actively on the site these days. Once the game is in our hands, more will see. It's good that you started a thread pointing to the blog. If you desire, let me know and I will help you convert this to a How To article. I am confident there will be members who would download it and give it a try. Thank you for your offer on sending files.

    I am looking forward to your next entry.
  7. Wear Ship Dave's Avatar
    But man those cannons are fiddly! I just finished installing them, spent a lot of time holding my breath while trying to maneuver them into position!

    I'll post a new update later this evening.