Having touched up the Starboard side of the barge, I was ready to put together the final details. These included the five pairs of rowing oars which, in the original ship now on display in Giza, are tied to the trellis-like structure forward of the main cabin.
Attachment:
CB219 - 14.jpg [ 145.12 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
Penny for scale. Note the slightly different colors of the various oars. I _like_ that. My favorite thing in painting is to create (hopefully) subtle variations of tone throughout the build, reflecting the effects of sun, wind and weather on the model. This, to me, is the real fun of painting.
Attachment:
CB219 - 15.jpg [ 121.03 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
First oar in place!
Actually, this turned out to be the most difficult part of the whole build. These oars did not want to go into neat little 'x's in the trellis. The end result is that several of the oar blades are somewhat out of alignment with the others. This may cost me in competition.
Attachment:
CB219 - 16.jpg [ 106.69 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
Having glued the first two oars in place, I suddenly realized I'd made a dreadful error. The foremost oars in fact, only extend to the second frame of the trellis from the bow. So, these had to be moved later.
That's where my troubles began and the whole effort got really really fiddly. On top of that, the bond of the ship with the stand loosened, so she was wriggling around the whole time I was applying these oars. I'd try to glue her back, but she kept moving. Pulling her off the stand and trying again was a perilous option because the hull is so fragile. (Remember, it's hollow, not solid) I had this terrible fear of trying to wrench it off the base and having the whole thing crack up in my hands. She didn't want to leave, but she didn't want to stand still. Kinda got tricky at the end. Discretion is the better part of valor.
Attachment:
CB219 - 17.jpg [ 88.92 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
Do you know what a 'baldachin' is? I'd never heard the word before I started reading about the Sun Ship. Apparently it's an awning or pavilion for an altar or other religious item. There was a baldachin installed on the Khufu Sun Ship half way between the bow stem and the trellis. (Modeling Egyptian ships will definitely increase your vocabulary.
)
I debated for a long time whether to add it. You know how it is when you get to the end of the build and that voice in your head says: "Those other bits are optional! You're tired! You've been at this a long time! You're done! You can stop now!" But then you go, "Nah!" and do it anyway. That's how I felt about the Baldachin. (By the way, I don't know how to pronounce that word, since I've only read it. Is it Bahl-dah-cheen? Bahl-dah-kin?" Feel free to chime in if you know.) So, what we're talking about is basically a wooden-roofed awning with ten support pillars or uprights in two rows. The roof of the baldachin must be level, that means the pillars must be progressively shorter as they progress towards the bow. In the above pic, you can see that I put two styrene rods down on the weather deck. These are there to help ensure the alignment of the baldachin uprights.
Attachment:
CB219 - 18.jpg [ 108.42 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
Even though I hadn't decided whether or not to do the Baldachin, I did stretch some sprue from brown plastic in the hopes that I could have some very fine elements that were the appropriate color and wouldn't need painting. In the event the stretched sprue wound up being a bit too light and had to be painted. Since I had to match the color to an enamel paint, I was worried that too thin stretched sprue would melt under the chemicals of the enamel. The end result was, I chose some bits that were a good deal thicker than the original. This is a flaw in the model, but I'm not sure I could have done any better. Next time we'll try something thinner and see how it goes.
Attachment:
CB219 - 19.jpg [ 101.38 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
Attachment:
CB219 - 20.jpg [ 96.23 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
Attachment:
CB219 - 21.jpg [ 120.92 KiB | Viewed 1445 times ]
Baldachin complete! As I said, the uprights are a bit too thick. On the actual ship they are paper-thin, but here you can see they're only marginally thinner than the trellis uprights. But, well... I just decided to leave it. You can't imagine how fragile a two-inch hollow hull is.
Login
Register
FAQ
