Battlefleet Models Tramp Steamer in 1/700

[Ray S]

Excellent masterclass! This is the first time I have seen one of your projects, and the way you show and give heaps of tips is great, thanks for that. I did not realise etch railings could be so useful! I also reckon the sea looks brill too, and can't wait to see this with the sails on. Billowing?
Cheers, Ray

[aleccap]

Ditto as The Rayer wrote everything has come together wonderfully to give a well balanced model with both crispness and accuracy, full speed ahead for the completed ship, looking forward to it.

[aleccap]

No pressure Jim, but its now been 10 days since the last thread on this build, so what's happened ? I understand in taking your time, something I still require to master, so when you get a moment, what's the chnces of an up-date of pix and the like

[JIM BAUMANN]

OK.. here is some new progress!

Since my last posting the most obvious addition is that of her steadying sails...

A few words how they were made:

Paper patterns were created, using the ship plan as a guide and the templates were offered up to to the model.

The panel layout of the sails was drawn lightly using a sharp pencil on both sides of some thin but crisp paper-I used a paper bag from the corner shop(!)

The templates were laid on to the panel blanks, and outlined.
Note the mite seam on the staysails and flying jib; this was to permit the laying of the thread lines of the cloth to resist stretching in both planes, leech and foot!

The sails were then formed using a styrene tube on a pad of soft paper to create the correct twist; thereafter they were painted using repeat coats of thinned enamel paint until the panel lines just started to disappear.

The flying jib and staysails were attached to stretched copper wire using thinned matt varnish- Humbro Matt cote--very high tack and instant grab. This was backed up later with a thin line of CA spread with a piece of soft stretched sprue

Other detailing that required a lot of time was the making of the awning frames on fore, midships and and poop decks.

Uprights of fine brass PE ( cut from railing longitudinals of 1/350 fine railing) were joined using copper wire along the spines with crossmembers and circumferential framing being made of stretched sprue.
Winches had rods and brakes added, even more cowl vents were made and installed and the kit supplied bollards used after sanding down the mounting bases.

Lifeboats were installed, covers made of white glue with liferopes drawn in pencil. Davits of brass wire were made for these afterwards.

Oval hawseholes were made of squashed copperwire circles cut off a spiral after winding round a drill shank

Much subtle painting and weathering took place until I was happy that she looked like a hardworking tramp.

I did not want to overdo it it--as I portrayed her,... the ship is only 18 months old!!

The sea was now painted using wet-on-wet as I have described here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37406

The watercrests, bow wave and wakes were added and enhanced using white matt acrylic texture paste.

This plucky bluffbowed little steamer pushes some water ahead of her as well; ... " carrying a bone in her teeth"
She is shown sliding down a long swell breaking through a crest...

The ship still needs a few crew-members, perhaps a few off-duty stokers enjoying the air and a smoke midships on the high side. grateful to the 'old man...( captain) for the use of the sails to relieve some of the strain of the backbreaking work of shoveling coal into hungry boilers... alas auxiliary sails were quickly to become a thing of the past...

The model's current status is shown in this photo( flash as always bleaches colours...!)

Final 'serious' photos will appear in the gallery here at MW.com

I will show you a few more snaps once she has been flatcoated and rigged.

Cheers

JIM B

[vladimir yakubov]

Jim, That is beautiful. I love your work and will use your techniques for making sails when I build my Vladimir Monomakh in the original fit...

Vladimir

[Miguel]

Fantastic job Jim,all this incredible work is stunning and with all respect...thanks for share your work with us

[aleccap]

Jim -although I could never build anything even close to that model, you've once again pulled it off, first class work that undoubtedly will have quite a few people watching in astonisment - I try as I do to follow the builders on this site, and there are some very good expert builders, and I was just wondering, have you built a bad model, got completely stuck and simply given up ?

[DAVID BILEK]

Well done Jim! I noticed big progress in your work - everything is more sharp, more clean . Together with your fantastic feeling for atmosphere, it makes my crazy!

David

[Pieter]

Very nice. Sail production techniques saved for future reference....

[ofrezca]

Jim,

what a stunning model. Harry�s kit is beautiful and already a masterpiece out of box. What you build is not only a masterpiece, but a piece of art. Your models more and more become oilpaintings in 3D.
I love the sails! Your next logical step into that direction should be a Clipper. Maybe we will see one in the near future? Any chance that Harry will make one for us?

Cheers,
Torben

[Stefano Salesi]

ok, as ever Mr. Baumann setted the standard for modelmaking.

Nice, clean and incredible build....but the question is...how do you recruit your battalion of 1/700 workers??? who clone them? how much food they eat per day? and the salary??

[Harry @ BFM]

Jim,

what a stunning model. Harry�s kit is beautiful and already a masterpiece out of box. What you build is not only a masterpiece, but a piece of art. Your models more and more become oilpaintings in 3D.
I love the sails! Your next logical step into that direction should be a Clipper. Maybe we will see one in the near future? Any chance that Harry will make one for us?

Cheers,
Torben

Hi Torben

Thank you for the extremely nice compliment.
It is very gratifying when your work is so welcomed by fellow ship modelers.
Sorry, no plans yet on a Clipper ship model. But you never know.

[Kym Knight]

Excellent job as usual Jim! You prove that 'the devil is really in the detail'

Yes Harry, your kits look great and the subject matter interesting, just wish that some of them were available in a proper scale of 1:350.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Ok chaps!

My quickest model for many a year!! a mere 22 days.....
--including a fulltime job running my business, family,

and for the UK.. unusually hot weather ==> beach and classic cars!

Granted--at first sight it may appear 'just' a simple cargo ship-and in fairness...it is.!

BUT-- I spent virtually no time removing stuff I did not like,flash or lumps- nor repairs and filling holes etc.

The kit was well cast and executed--detail I added because I wanted it better still!

BMK's Brass tapered masts were a nice bonus and saved me from having them made;
....parallel rod masts will never do again!

My thanks go to BFM for producing such an esoteric little ship- and Bob Wilson for helpful photos and advice.

Full photo coverage with cruel close-ups (!) will appear in the MW.com gallery in the nearish future.

Meanwhile..

here are a couple of pics!

cheerio

JIM B

The sun in this photo...is the real thing!!

[Avery Boyer]

It is not up to me to say which is your "best" work, as indeed it would be hard to make a comparison as they are all unique, but I do believe that this is my favorite thus far. Just stunning! Really well done, very atmospheric and just lovely all around and certainly not something you see every day! Bravo, sir and keep up the good work!

[M�LDERS]

Congratulations Jim! Worth to join the "Hall of Fame" at marinewerft.de.
I hope it�s ok i used the picture. I linked to the wip-thread inside here as well.
Great Job!

http://marinewerft.jimdo.com/modeling-highlights/

[reigels]

Outstanding as always, Jim.

Quick question: do you wash the resin before building, and if so what with?

Thanks -
Scott

[Harry @ BFM]

Here is my favorite photo.
I will be using this for the kits box art.



It reminds me of the oil painting that started this whole project.

[M�LDERS]

@Harry
you mean one of those? :

[aleccap]

Okay I have the blindfold on and standing against the wall, the sea effect 1st class, the bow and stern especially is of intrest to me, although I have seen the how to do section on sea effect and wave etc etc how have you actually built these 2 waves ? there are 2 waves that cross in front of the ship, high and sharp half starboard half port (only imagine the port side) the same for the stern wave, also that's a very nice close up of the front bit of the ship that sharp pointy bit.