What's on your Workbench for September 2022

[Volunteer]

The current heat wave has forced me inside so I have spent some time in the dungeon shipyard. I started printing some 1/450 scale hulls to go with my Pyro plastic Constitution model.


From bottom up: the hermaphrodite schooner Prince de Neufchatel, brig Niagra, HMS Guerrier, HMS Indefatigable, Constellation, and the Pyro Constitution.

This is my progress so far on the Guerriere




And I just printed Simon's resin STL file for Arrogant on my FDM Creality in 1/450 scale and it came out awesome! It even has the cannon bores.

[Bligh]

Mighty fine ships and paintwork, both Vol. The details are exquisite.
Rob.

[Volunteer]

Well yesterday did not go so well. I had planned on working on the ship some more after doing some dusting maintenance on my Gualic army. While doing so I knocked the entire tray violently to the floor with the back of my office chair. What a mess! Bases,shelds and spears everywhere! And the poor chariots! It took me late into the night to make repairs. I am still missing one shield, lol.

My newly repaired Celts

[Bligh]

That sounds tragic Vol.

It reminded me of the time years ago that I was going to overspray a completed Regiment of Prussians with Matte Varnish. I inadvertently picked up a can of white primer instead and did the first quick pass before realizing that the slight bloom on the varnish was in fact turning all the troops a light greyish white. I keep my varnish on a separate shelf from my other aerosol paints these days.

Rob.

[Volunteer]

I was able to mount a few spars and a couple of sails yesterday.



And I printed two of Henry's 74s, Ganges and Elizabeth the day before. They took nearly 7 hours apiece to print.

[Bligh]

Starting to look very fine Vol.
Rob.

[Volunteer]

This evening I concentrated on making the furled courses and royals using Super Sculpy. There was time after they were finished to get the mizzen roral and main course mounted.

[Bligh]

The furled sails also look excellent Vol. What exactly is Super Sculpy?
Rob.

[Volunteer]

The furled sails also look excellent Vol. What exactly is Super Sculpy?
Rob.

Rob it is a heat cured sculpting clay. I don't use an oven, I use my heat gun to cure it. That gives me more control of the temperature and cure time.

[Bligh]

Thanks Vol. I will try and run some of that to earth over here.
Rob.

[Bligh]

Found it , ordered it on Amazon, and added the adhesive pack too.
Thanks again Vol.

Rob.

[DeRuyter]

Wow! great work. I wonder if I can print in resin without cutting the models in half!

Vol - I have a scenario suggestion for your Constitution model - print the HMS Levant and Cyane! Actually both that battle and the one you are working on will work well with Dobbs mash up of SoG and Post Captain.

[Volunteer]

Wow! great work. I wonder if I can print in resin without cutting the models in half!

Vol - I have a scenario suggestion for your Constitution model - print the HMS Levant and Cyane! Actually both that battle and the one you are working on will work well with Dobbs mash up of SoG and Post Captain.

Thanks Eric. Sounds like a good idea but I'm not sure what ships of Henry's or Simon's would be usable for the Cyane and Levant. Maybe the Pandora for Cyane, but Levant is a bit harder. Henry has a 20 gun Ontario snow with a raised quarter deck that would be wrong. Simon has the Enterprise which is a a bit small. I suppose I could fudge the 156% to increase the size a bit more and add a couple of guns. What do you think?

[DeRuyter]

Thanks Eric. Sounds like a good idea but I'm not sure what ships of Henry's or Simon's would be usable for the Cyane and Levant. Maybe the Pandora for Cyane, but Levant is a bit harder. Henry has a 20 gun Ontario snow with a raised quarter deck that would be wrong. Simon has the Enterprise which is a a bit small. I suppose I could fudge the 156% to increase the size a bit more and add a couple of guns. What do you think?

The benefits of 3d printing, you can change the scale! But good question, I am not sure which model to use. A number of years ago I played that battle in 15mm scale using Sea Eagles ships and the 1/96 scale Connie. The sloop we used was a model based on the HMS Detroit but it was a bit generic.

[ShadowDragon]

Some completed Spanish militia to repel my Dutch privateers.

[Volunteer]

Wow Paul! They are beautiful!

[ShadowDragon]

Wow Paul! They are beautiful!

Thanks, Vol...and also for the rep.

[Volunteer]

Moving on with the sails today, too smokey to work outside



And printing 1/450 boats

[Bligh]

Coming on very well with those sails Vol. Your militiamen look superb. Is the smoke caused by fires in the State? We usually get the news about these things but at the moment our media are concentrating on the late Queen.
Rob.

[Volunteer]

Not so bad as last year Rob but there are fires all around us. None too close but the smoke is bad just about any direction the wind blows from.




We are in the SE corner of Stevens County

[SkeenaH]

We are watching the fires up here in British Columbia and sending best wishes to our neighbours to the south.

[Volunteer]

Ready for ratlines

[Bligh]

I hope that the fires in your countries die down soon. The temprature here has now dropped to the low 20s and we are getting showers of rain again so the few fires we had are now gone.
Rob.

[Volunteer]

It appears there are more than a few up there Howard

[ShadowDragon]

Progress on the painting queue....

Technically only half the French on the right are September workbench product. The rest were done earlier this year. It's enough to get my first Franco-Prussian War skirmish game done but it will need to wait until next week. This week I head to Alberta for my sister's much delayed memorial service - delayed 2 years due to the pandemic.

[Volunteer]

They look fantastic Paul!
So sorry to hear you lost your sister Paul. And sad your family hasn't been able to have closure for so long.

[Bligh]

Those troops are looking good Paul. Although not my strongest historical suit, I do have a passing knowledge of the weapons used in the conflict.
I would like to echo Vol's comment about your sister. One can only imagine the distress of waiting that this has caused the family.

Rob.

[ShadowDragon]

Thanks, chaps.

[Volunteer]

Progress on Guerriere last night. Ratlines, some of the standing rigging and the rest of the sails on.




While working on the ship I am printing a batch of ACW ironclads for a friend in Bournemouth

One of the batch CSS Selma

[Nightmoss]

I haven't had much time to work on ships, or any hobby, for some months, but I did manage to repaint some ships from the Steampunk miniatures game "Leviathans" recently. This is HML Medusa (His Majesty's Leviathan) in dazzle paint scheme. The new 'edition' of the game is going to tackle World War One so painting a British ship this way seemed appropriate.

[Volunteer]

Wow Jim that is a very intereresting ship. Is it a flyer? And what scale?
Oh I guess it is, I just noticed the "cloud" it's resting on.

[Nightmoss]

Wow Jim that is a very intereresting ship. Is it a flyer? And what scale?
Oh I guess it is, I just noticed the "cloud" it's resting on.

Yes, Vol. It's the British battleship from the hex based miniature game. The original game had French vs British, but the next game with feature five nations fighting WW1 aerial battles; France, England, Germany, Russia and Italy. If all goes well they eventually add Japan, USA and Austria-Hungary.

btw, I'm still working on the Rayo you were kind enough to print for me. Just haven't had time or inclination to move forward.

[Volunteer]

I finished Guerriere today. Here are the "beauty" shots

[Bligh]

A veritable work of art Vol, and fighting under her French colours.

Rob.

[Volunteer]

A veritable work of art Vol, and fighting under her French colours.

Rob.

Haha, you caught me Rob! I was so anxious to finish the ship that I mounted the French colors instead of the intended British ensign, without even a thought.

[Nightmoss]

I finished Guerriere today. Here are the "beauty" shots

The ship looks incredible, Vol. I wish Rory could see how well it looks! He'd amazed.

[Volunteer]

The ship looks incredible, Vol. I wish Rory could see how well it looks! He'd amazed.

Thanks Jim.
Yes, I really miss him

[Dubourdieu]

I finished Guerriere today. Here are the "beauty" shots

Ready for ratlines

Wow ! The sails are looking so good ! Great job Volunteer. A real French warrior that you've made !

[Volunteer]

Thank you Roméo, but I intended to flag the ship as British to fight my USS Constitution.

[Dubourdieu]

Thank you Roméo, but I intended to flag the ship as British to fight my USS Constitution.

Oh, fair enough ! It still remains beautiful !

[Volunteer]

Here is HMS Guerriere

[Bligh]

Blue suits her Vol.

Rob.

[SkeenaH]

Here is HMS Guerriere

Just amazing work, congratulations and thanks for sharing.
How did you create the blocks on the running lines?
Thanks

[Volunteer]

Just amazing work, congratulations and thanks for sharing.
How did you create the blocks on the running lines?
Thanks

Just a blob of PVA painted brown after drying gives the visual efect at these small scales. Though on the Pyro model I used beads.

[Volunteer]

Now on the bench is Henry Turner's Bonhomme Richard. Painted her tonight.






Note there are no channel at all on this sculpt. I will have to add them in order to attach the ratlines.

[Volunteer]

Paul, Jim and Rob,
Thank you for the rep points gentlemen!

[Volunteer]

Ok I am trying to determine the proper RN ensign for the Guerriere. The paintings show the Red, the Blue and the White so no help there. Any suggestion on where else to look?

[Bligh]

I have had a quick look and annoyingly found only the Admirals in charge of the Halifax station until Jan 1812, and post August 1812 when Sir John Borlase Warren was appointed so have no idea under whose flag Guerriere sailed at the time.
I will carry on looking when I get a few more moments free.
Rob.

[Volunteer]

I have had a quick look and annoyingly found only the Admirals in charge of the Halifax station until Jan 1812, and post August 1812 when Sir John Borlase Warren was appointed so have no idea under whose flag Guerriere sailed at the time.
I will carry on looking when I get a few more moments free.
Rob.

I found the same Rob, very frustrating! There is a painting done in 1814 by a prison hulk French POW that shows the blue ensign. I am leaning that direction.

Dobbs, that is a good suggestion. Nightmoss sent me a contact at the museum to try.

[Dobbs]

Vol, you could always contact someone at the USS Constitution, and explain your project. I'm sure their history folks would love to answer that one.