WIP HMS Renown (1942) White Ensign Models

[Bill Livingston]

Thanks for your comments guys. We are still talking... we are really good friends first and foremost... But she is really sexy and I really dont want to be relegated to the 'friend zone'... especially as the attraction we had was so strongly physical in the first place. Anyway... we will see... Just have to be cool about it and give each other a little bit of space for the moment. We do this all the time... but it has to stop one way or another...

Anyway, tried the Structure Gel for the first time... Damn its good...! You can get 1/2" waves really easily and it doesnt settle at all... even the most extreme peaks hold... Trouble is, 1/2" waves translate to 30 feet in 700 scale, so that wont do!!! I spent ages toning it all down, so although it is more in scale, it is far less dramatic. I noticed from photo's in Renown that travelling fast in heavy seas meant a lot of the hull was exposed and lots of water over the forecastle deck... and as I have no hull and no waterline painted on I had to reduce the speed somewhat yet still have her in reasonably heavy seas to hide the fact. I will add a couple of heavy swells once this layer has dried which will tone it down further and give some movement to the whole thing. I wish I was better at painting seascapes though... and could deal with water over the ship in the way Kostas does... this stuff seems just the thing for a really dramatic seascape.

Anyway, here is the first layer... toned down a lot. Any comments are welcome and please be as critical as you like. I am reasonably confident with my building even though close ups on big monitors expose every little weakness, I am getting used to it and am accepting that I will get better. But seascapes... Not great all all... So if you think the wave pattern isnt right, or its too tame or not dramatic enough let me know. The more detailed the better... 'cos thats how you learn...

Anyway... Here you go. Not finished, this is just the first layer... But with this stuff I could have done it in one I think!

[Bill Livingston]

Just did the second layer... The first had partially dried which is why you can see the blue undercoat through the thinner dried sections. Once this has all thoroughly dried I will start painting and only then will I probably get an idea of how much white I should add. I dont want to do too much... Remember the white you see in these pictures is freshly applied gel... NOT paint! Can see a few holes on the pictures which isnt apparent until you view them on a screen... Either my eyes are awful or close ups in 700 scale are very unforgiving!

Anyway... comments please while it is still fixable. I'm talking about gel application... not colour obviously!

[Bill Livingston]

Suddenly realised that the gel would harden leaving all my masking under it with no way of getting it out... at least with straight edges... So a razor blade, a straight edge and a lot of swearing later I amanged to remove it. I will remask once everything is dry prior to any further gel and then remask again during the painting phase. God... that was close... A lot of the thick layers of gel had surface dried and it torn as I was taking it all off. Its not too bad. A minor repair here and there and it will be fine. Have to think of a smarter way in the future. Anyway, put it back together and stuck it in the case for it to dry... Probably take a day or two!



Not a great picture... but its late and I used my iPhone in artificial light

EDIT: Thats not wet gel up the side near Y turret... thats part of the camouflage... when I first saw the photo I panicked... what a sigh of relief when I realised what an idiot I was!

[roy allen]

Hi Bill
iv'e had probs seeing your build, but have now overcome the problem.
Great work, keep it up she's coming on really well

Roy

[Bill Livingston]

Hi All,

Thank you very much for your comments and encouragement... most appreciated

OK... After two days the Heavy Structure Gel has finally dried and I started the basic painting. I first did a grey/green (mostly grey) coat and then when that had dried painted over a blue/black colour... making sure the darker colour went on to the outside of all the waves coming away from the ship. I also made sure that the water near the hull sides was lighter and bluer than the rest. The calm sea forward of the bow is very much darker and blue. By using a wide brush and mixing the paints as I was going, I was able to get a very uneven colour, but at the same time, the variations made sense of the waves, and just painting them that way has made them appear deeper and more formed. Nowhere near as good as most of you, but I am pretty happy with it. Just painting the waves on the outside of the crests darker made a huge difference.

I am now going to have to buy some Gloss Acrylic Gel Medium to go over the basic painting now that is done and see what it looks like. It should add a lot of depth to the colours and bring out the waves even more as I can build up in areas where I need to, fill a few small holes and flatten some areas a bit more and get rid of some of the ridges that dont really fit in with the sense of the wave pattern. Because it will dry clear and glossy I may well get away with not having to paint any more of the blue/grey/green. There will be quite a lot of white to go onto the crests, I will just have to be careful to make sure there is no solid white patches and use a very small brush to make sure I dont overdo it.

Anyway, here are some pictures. Remember I am only halfway through this, but any comments or tips are very welcome right now. I may have built an awful lot of models over the years, but this is the first time I have tried to model a ship underway at anything other than a crawl... and only the third seascape ever...!







Hopefully, tomorrow I will have the Gloss Gel done... maybe even start painting the white around the hull sides, turbulence and the wave crests. Looking forward to that!

(EDIT: Just noticed that the deck colour in the last picture is what it looks like in real life under normal lighting... I've been trying to get that colour in a picture for ages!)

[Bill Livingston]

Hi All,

I THINK I have finished the seascape. Comments please... and be as critical as you like. I am unhappy with the bow wave but have an idea what to do with it... I am reasonably happy with the overall colour... the long distance shot isnt a good balance colour wise, much too blue compared to real life ... the closer shots are much more like the colour when viewed normally. But any other comments are welcome as I want to get better at this...

I want it to look as realistic as possible, but understated so it doesnt detract from the model once completed...







Dont forget... dont hold back on this one!

God... that bow wave looks awful at this magnification... at 1:1 700 scale I'm not happy, but photos at this size... damn... I nearly took them off!

[Skiper]

Water seems convincing to me, even the bow wave you're not thrill about (maybe a little too stip?). BUT what is with the deck. I could swear it's made from individual wooden planks. One of the best wooden deck I have seen so far!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hi Bill

too much white fwd - to high up.

The stem will cleave the water, creating a bow-wave that is 'shearing' away further aft.

I would endeavour to lower the gel wave--peel it back and created the spray at the cutwater using something like torn paper or similar

much as I did on Scylla in the water section
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37223

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37406





Also--a sthe bow wave breaks as it clears the ship it produces patches of white 'foam '....

That said-- different ships produce differing amount of white water...

Repulse and Scylla are broadly similar in being long and thin

have a look at this photo--and you will see how wakes can be different in apperance!

Colour looks good.

[Bill Livingston]

BUT what is with the deck. I could swear it's made from individual wooden planks. One of the best wooden deck I have seen so far!

Thanks Skiper, the deck is the standard WEM deck as cast. I think it was the first time anyone had produced a 700 scale kit in resin with individual planks in the pattern. The master must have been created with a PE deck. I was really impressed with it when i first saw it. I airbrushed the whole thing with WEM Teak and then every now and then I had slight bits of overspray when I was painting the various greys of the camouflage. It was very, very faint, you could hardly see it, the paint was airbrushed on the hull sides so it wasn't sprayed directly onto the deck at all... Just tiny amounts settling through the turbulence over the deck edge... but it gave a very slight variation in the deck colour which I was happy about... even though it was entirely fortuitous! I was going to try and paint individual planks in a slightly different colour to break it up even more... but at 700 scale, those planks are much less than half a millimetre wide and about 2.5 to 3mm long, so I didnt bother (had a 0000 paint brush ready... and an Optivisor... and then just grinned and shook my head when I went to put the first bit of paint on... ) In the end I mixed a very thin wash of burnt umber (watercolour this time, Winsor and Newton, from a tube and VERY fine pigment) and made sure it was fairly unevenly applied. It looks really good in 'real life' and I only hope I can repeat this on other models... Trouble is, it is more a mixture of good luck and an excellent bit of casting from WEM than my skills as a painter.

Thanks for the comments Jim. I agree. I am reasonably happy with the colour... but the photo you posted and the ones you sent directly to my email show me just how wrong I have managed to get the thing! I will need to redo some of acrylic gel to produce more foam down the hull sides and a fair bit more painting I think, much more white needed. I will try to carve away a bit of the bow wave too... Damn.... But its kind of what I thought, so I am not at all surprised. Thanks...

Right, I'll be looking at those pictures you emailed me again VERY carefully this evening... Thanks Jim...

[Blackbrazen]

Well I think it's looking really nice so far, Bill! You've got a good base there and with a little work using the pics on Jim's water topic, I think you'll nail it. I agree with you about the bow wave...little too high and rounded. I think it needs to be more jagged and fluffy like with Jim's tumble drier fluff. That deck is making me very jealous. The Pit Road kit doesn't have nearly such good detail, so I'm going to struggle to get it half as good as that!

[Bill Livingston]

Well, I have had another go at it

I think it looks a lot better. I was much easier than I thought to cut away the bow wave and I used Jim's suggestion to use some tiny bits of torn paper for the bow wave... It looks fine normally, although under magnification it looks nowhere near as good as Jims example... but then he's not bad at modelling!!! I think I'll leave it as is.

As far as the wake is concerned, I looked at the photo's Jim sent me and did the best I could. I think if I was doing it again I would be more careful at the earlier stage and get the wakes formed neater and more accurately, but its not bad. I had to put a bit more Heavy Structure Gel on there in order to build it up a bit, let it dry (thankfully, the warm weather helps!) and then painted it again... which took a while, but I am relatively pleased with the final result. At least I am learning... so thanks for your comments... Particularly Jim... amazing support and sharing of knowledge... Thanks again...

Anyway, here you go... any comments welcome, although I am not sure my skills could improve much on this... I think from now on it is going to be more experience than anything else... (I'll be glad to be getting back to modelling the ship... hopefully the paints and extra fret of PE I have ordered from WEM will be here soon).











Damn... I am so glad I found this section in MW... nothing I have done before has taught me as much or has improved my modelling as much... So thanks everyone...

Bill

[Bill Livingston]

Right... still waiting for the extra PE fret and some paints from WEM... but in the meantime I have airbrushed the boot topping (not easy given that the model was mounted and the seascape painted!!!). Obviously I needed to touch up the white again afterwards, but that was easy enough.

Got it all done and reshaped some of the camouflage that I noticed I had got wrong when comparing my model with a photo when I was doing the seascape... Pretty happy with it now. If the things I need arrive tomorrow I will be able to get on a bit faster...







Bill

[MartinJQuinn]

She looks really great, Bill!

[simon b]

Looking sweet Bill. I especially love the seascape (An area where i fall flat on my face). Incidently my WEM Renown turned up today, gotta hold off though. Too many other things to finish.

[JIM BAUMANN]

so....

Is it finished yet...?

Intrigued ...--long radio silence,,,,


JIM B

[Bill Livingston]

Hi Jim... sorry...

Waiting for some paints from WEM and an extra fret of PE... Ordered them a couple of weeks ago and have been expecting them every day since!!! I got the first part of the order within a day or two but had been told the rest was out of stock... Wasn't expecting this much delay though. Think I mentioned them to you on the phone the other day... I should probably call them tomorrow but I always seem to remember after 3....!!!

If they don't come tomorrow I will make a start on the Trumpeter Hood I think...

[Christian Bruer]

Hi Bill,

I couldn't be here for a while, but back to the community it was a pleasure to see the progress on your very fine model!

You have kept her very well and I can feel a bit what all the old shipmates meant in Peter C. Smith book, when they talked that she was a fine ship!

[Bill Livingston]

Hi All,

Many thanks for the encouragement... got a bit distracted and haven't done anything for a couple of weeks. Now the forum seems to be fixed and the posts are displaying properly again it will be a lot less hassle reading and posting again. I must admit, I found it all a bit frustrating...

Anyway, just a quick thanks to Jim for sending me a couple of tins of 507C so I can continue with all the detail assembly, WEM had no stock and it looked like it would have been another few weeks before I got them.. the extra PE I ordered should be here on monday so I can re-do the missing cradles for the small boats and replace the couple I broke... (had a bit of an accident, thankfully nothing serious, but broke off part of the boat deck and some of the moulded on resin cradles... You will see what I mean on the bottom picture.

Have finished the seascape now, and airbrushed the boot topping which I had to do after the seascape was done and the model fixed in place as I mentioned earlier. No idea why I didnt do that before... idiotic!!!

Anyway, this is my new starting point for my next 'full on' phase...


Seascape and base finished


I painted out a lot of the white on the bow wave... looking at pictures it seemed a bit OTT before. Much happier with this


In this picture you can see where I broke the boat deck and lost a couple of the cradles... and then damaged the moulded on cradles on the lower deck although it should be easy to repair... bit of a pain though


This is the stern wave... not entirely happy and dont really know why... If anyone cares to comment I would appreciate it... Something isnt quite right and I cant see what it is. Overall I am happy enough though... It looks like its moving when you look at the whole model which I suppose it the aim...

Bill

[angeleyes]

Hi Bill.
Technically speaking the sea effect looks very nice.
As for the formations and the stern area my guess is this:There is a lot more froth for the speed of the ship judging from the front wave area.Maybe you could tone it down a bit norrowing the froth trail at the back and covering more white area with the dark blue?

[Bill Livingston]

Thanks... thats along the lines of what I was thinking too... Now I have toned down the front bow wave the stern one DOES look a little too much... Thanks... that is exactly the sort of criticism I was looking for... I'll get onto that right away...