Roberto,
I have to second John’s comments about your transom. It looks great to me.
Bill
Thanks a lot, gentlemen. I guess I ask too much of myself, this being my second ship model and the subject being so small. It certainly looks decent from a distance and that’s the way it’s going to be seen most of the time, so… [:)]
I’m not sure what to do with the lantern bosses. I was looking at reference pictures for the transom as I was painting it and noticed they are huge indeed! I was going to leave them like that, but now that you mention it, maybe I should just cut them off…
Oh and I don’t really want to start a new thread about this - I checked the blocks on the Heller 1/100 kit and I’m curious as to what makes them unusable? Deadeyes are hopeless, but blocks look quite nice, and look much more like real blocks than the wood ones I can find (from HECEPOB companies).
The problem with Heller’s blocks is that they don’t have grooves around them. A two-piece rigid mold can’t produce a block with both a hole through it and a groove around it. The same problem applies to deadeyes. (The geniuses at Imai figured out how to do the trick with slide molding, but to my knowledge nobody else has ever produced truly realistic blocks and deadeyes in styrene.)
If, gawd forbid, I were tackling a Heller Victory (or a Revell Constitution, for that matter) my first choice would be to buy the blocks and deadeyes from Syren Ship Model Company. Here’s a link: http://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/boxwood-rigging-blocks.php .
Bluejacket cast metal blocks would be an excellent second choice; they look great, but cleaning them up and painting them in the necessary numbers would be a big project.
Syren Ship Model’s prices aren’t really bad as such things go - and the products are great. But please, please don’t feel like you have to order a whole complement of blocks and deadeyes for the whole ship at once. Buy them as you need them.
I see. The blocks do have plastic “pins” to fix the rigging thread, but I guess it’s not practical.
Syren’s blocks look really, really nice. Quite expensive but might be worth it, if they ship outside the US. Bluejacket is interesting because they carry really small hearts, which I will need for the 1/147 Constitution. I haven’t been able to find hearts smaller than 7 mm in the European market - those would be HUGE for a 1/147 frigate… unfortunately, BJ doesn’t seem to produce open hearts or stay collars to match the small sizes.
Thanks a lot for the info!
Blue Jackets sailing ship models are all in the range of ~1/8" to 1/4" in scale, meaning they wont have fittings for smaller scales. You might be able to adapt some of their smaller fittings to represent larger fittings on your scale.
I can’t recommend Syren’s blocks enough. They are a indeed bit spendy, but, IMHO, well worth it. I have yet to toss a bad block or have to re-drill any holes other than the ones I accidently got glue in. I am pretty sure that Chuck ships outside the US, but have no idea what the shipping costs would be. Stateside delivery is usually just a matter of a few days (not weeks), so I imagine that you would still get pretty quick delivery even so. If you drop him a PM through his site, he is really good about getting back to you. His cordage is also far better than any I have found to date.
As has been recommended many times on this site, just buy what you need for the time being and it will spread out the overall cost.
I will sure follow your advice - and it will be a while until I need blocks anyways!
Syren will most likely be my choice…
For now, and posting off topic in my own thread, I did a preliminary test fitting on the Heller kit. Quite good I must say, once I figured things out. Unfortunately some parts are warped (almost all of the bow structure parts, for example), but thank God hull halves and decks seem to go together pretty well. Heller did really screw up with the instructions - the deck supporting beams, for example, are drawn in a completely wrong order. Some people have trouble with them being too long, but I think the real problem is that they’re not being fit in the right place. The camber is built into the beams - they shouldn’t bend. After rearranging them everything went together nicely, or so it seems. Transom and quarter galleries also fit with the decks in place. I hope it stays that way when I actually start building!
BTW , anyone have a copy of the Imai instructions for that kit? That would be really, really helpful! [:)]
Been working on the Constitution lately (I think I will start a thread about it soon, as the 05600 kit is quite uncommon and it might be interesting). Rigged a few more sails on the Revell Victory but not as much progress on that one… in the meantime, here’s a cell phone pic of the cannons I’m making for the 1/100 Heller kit during lunch time, left is weathered, right is unweathered. Any suggestions are most welcome!
pete-coleman.com/…/viewforum.php
If you haven’t found it already, you’ll really like this site.
Mine is down at the bottom “Bills Victory” last post April 2011
For your guns, the real ones are painted with black paint.
There’s a cap over each trunnion, the ends of it are molded as part of the top of the carriage. The caps are black as well.
The ends of the axles of the trucks are black. The trucks themselves look wood colored today, I think I painted mine brown.
All of the hardware on the carriage like eyebolts and straps is blackened or black.
Thanks a lot. I painted the barrels black with gunmetal dry brushing (not sure if I should really leave it like that), trucks are wood colored and the end of the axles is black (I had not painted them yet on the unweathered one). What I did not realize at all is that the cap of the trunnions was there, thanks for pointing that out!
Good looking. The actual barrels are painted black, that is paint not metallic. Just be aware that they look like, well, big model barrels painted black!
What a pity, I really liked the metal effect! [:p] But I want them to look authentic, so I’ll dry brush some black until the metallic sheen is gone…
Thanks!
Will register at the Pete Coleman forum, I haven’t done it yet and can’t read anything… well worth it, or so it seems!
I could go either way on those barrels. The weathering is nicely done but they both look pretty good to me.
Amazing build rdiaz! I stumbled upon this thread while looking up references for my own build of this very kit. I’m coming very close to the end and, having spent much time on details, would very much like to avoid sullying the look with the molded ratlines if I can help it.
I’m keen on using technique, but need some clarification. Did you use the molded shrouds, but just cut the ratlines out of it and replace them with thread, or did you actually rig the shrouds with real thread? If so, how did you attach the shrouds? Do you have any detailed pictures focusing on the shrouds?
Thanks for any help!
I think it’s a little too late for a reply, but things have been a little too busy for the past months - had a house fire that “luckily” destroyed my kitchen only, and ran out of time and money for anything model related until now… hope to retake it soon. Anyways, just in case it’s still useful: I didn’t use the pre moulded shrouds at all, it’s all thread. The shrouds are attached to the plastic parts representing dead eyes and chainplates, and looped around the masts just like real shrouds are, in the same order.
Cheers!
Glad to see you back Roberto. I am sorry to hear about the fire but glad that you are safe. Hopefully we will see some more modeling pictures coming our way.
Steve
Roberto,
I hope that nobody was hurt! Is there anything that you need?
Bill Morrison
Thankfully no one was hurt, the doors were closed and the fire didn’t spread that much. Kitchen was ruined, but we’re all OK. One of my cats was trapped in the kitchen but it survived too. Thanks for worrying! [:D]
I’ve been preparing the models for working on them again, they caught a bit of dust!
I’m quite sad right now. An accident involving cats and the model falling from a quite considerable height wrecked it beyond repair. All three masts snapped and cannons came off - they cannot be put back in and of course the rigging is completely messed up. At least I learned a lot while making it, and I have another unstarted kit. That’s an opportunity to make it better next time…
Sorry to here this Roberto. I had the same thing happen to a model of the British Frigate Undine that I was very proud of. It took the full broadside from a 12lb Norwegian Longhair and was a total loss. Cases don’t always protect the model either, for I had my Cutty Sark dismasted when my Labrador snuck a baseball into the house and then threw it right into the case destroying it.
My hobby is “Building” models, and my wife’s is collecting cats and dogs. So I will never run out of excuses to stop building. Hee Hee.