Scratch Building the Portuguese Carrack in 1/700th Scale

[callen]

The Mold Max 30 compound bubbling in the vacuum chamber. This removes all the air trapped inside the mold material and (hopefully) creates a suitable medium for casting... But will it reproduce all my tediously made little planks?

Mold compound inside the vacuum chamber...

The prepared mold material is poured into the master parts flask... six months of ship modeling disappears under a deluge of sticky pink goop....

Pouring over the brass bits. This had to be done very carefully. Casting is a skill unto itself quite apart from modeling. I was very grateful for Rusty's help with this.

Nothing to do now but wait, and hope for the best...

[MichelB]

How much?

[Guido]

Great to this happening!
Thanks for posting!
Guido

[callen]

Great to this happening!
Thanks for posting!
Guido

Hey Guido! Thanks for dropping by!

How much?

Michel do you mean what I think you mean?

Ok, to finish the update...

Willie's attention span is not up to the task of ship modeling...

...and he eventually falls asleep with his stuffed cat toy. This was where things left off on Saturday night. I had to go help a friend move furniture and wasn't able to get back to Rusty's studio until the next day.

This was what met me when I got there... I need to look closer... did it work?????

It WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[callen]

Another batch coming out of the pressure pot...

Skill and dexterity don't end with making the mold. How the cast is removed from the mold is the difference between a good resin model and broken pieces. This is Rusty showing me once again how it's done.

A perfect batch!!!!

The amazing mold Rusty created in his studio, which as I will show later caught the tiniest details in the master, right down to the spaces between the hull planks.

[Rui Matos]

Shame on me, shame on me Callen!!!

I have just "discovered" your scratchbuild project, and after an hour reading and enjoying the photos I had to praise you
for your:
- Research
- Workmanship
- Endurance

I think that it is one of the most stunning small scale (read 1/700) scratchbuilding projects I have seen and no, it's not (only)
because it's a Portuguese subject!

Please keep us posted and updated on this wonderful project
Cheers
Rui

[callen]

The masters have taken a bit of a beating, but are still serviceable.

What amazed me most of all is that the chain plates did not break off.

Unfortunately the casting of the fine brass did not come out so well...

The first batch of brass bits was a complete wash. However, Rusty tried it again.

The cannons might have worked after all, although they were so small it was difficult to inspect them closely in the lighting at Rusty's studio. Only the bombard from my friend Kevin Holtan seemed to have been a complete success, and there is very little evidence for this type of firearm on board the ships of this period.

The breech loading gun stock might work... but the very thin yards did not cast, and the masts seem to have been too thin to work properly.

[callen]

Shame on me, shame on me Callen!!!

I have just "discovered" your scratchbuild project, and after an hour reading and enjoying the photos I had to praise you
for your:
- Research
- Workmanship
- Endurance

I think that it is one of the most stunning small scale (read 1/700) scratchbuilding projects I have seen and no, it's not (only)
because it's a Portuguese subject!

Please keep us posted and updated on this wonderful project
Cheers
Rui

Hello Rui! Good to hear from the Portuguese branch of the Hobby! I am glad that you and Filipe have found my little thread. Since we bumped into each other on FB I have been itching to tell you about it, but didn't want to 'toot my own horn' too much. Anyway, very pleased indeed that my efforts have met the approval of some genuine Portuguese modelers! Thanks again for the kind comments. I intend to endure a bit longer yet!

[callen]

I thought I would go ahead and finish the documentation of the resin casting process for those of you who are interested.

2 part resin compound from Reynolds Advanced Materials...

Leveling the mold prior to pouring. A crucial step.

To cast the carracks and decks we need about two ounces of resin, so one ounce from each bottle.

Mixing the resin. The resin compound comes out of the bottle a dark coffee brown, has the look and viscosity of thin motor oil and smells like a dead smurf.

Pouring the mold. The pot time is about 15 minutes. The clock is ticking!

Poured resin in the vacuum chamber. This removes the bubbles and ensures a good cast. Rusty is an old hand at this.

[Rui Matos]

Since we bumped into each other on FB I have been itching to tell you about it, but didn't want to 'toot my own horn' too much.

Well, you should have!!! That's one of the good things of FB
Keep up
Cheers
Rui

[callen]

Tiny Bubbles! This is the point where the vacuum must be released and the filled mold quickly placed into the pressure pot for casting.

In the pot. After 'cooking' for the appropriate amount of time the mold is removed. The rest of the process consists of removing the cast from the mold as seen above.

Ok. Some shots of the carracks after I got them home...

A slightly creepy image. The Stepford Carracks! I'm going to need to work at bringing some individuality to each ship.

Incredibly even the spaces between the 'bumpers' cast with perfect precision. You have to understand, this is all new to me. It's quite a thrill to see a cast of something you made yourself.

Most amazing of all, the holes in the 'Flemish Fighting Deck' cast from the original IJN girder piece, although not perfectly. These parts will probably need to be drilled a bit for the sake of uniformity.

Slight damage...

[callen]

Light peeking through the stem. Is that a hole?

As it turns out, it is only thin resin.

The decks too are somewhat translucent.

All of the detail of the masters were fully realized.

Tiny tiny spacing between the planks on the San Bruno hull.

A variety of configurations 'dry fitted' and posed. These parts have not been trimmed or sanded, as they are still curing. I just couldn't wait to get started working with them!

[callen]

Light showing through the hawse pipe of the San Bruno.

A small herd of elephants. Ok, I have to explain about the elephants. A month or so back I read this passage from an account of Pedro Alvares Cabral's voyage to India.

'One day when a rival city's ship with a cargo of half a dozen elephants came into (the port of Calicut), Cabral sent one of his small caravels against it. The Zamorin "marveled greatly," wrote an anonymous member of Cabral's officers, "that so small a caravel could take so large a ship in which were 300 men at arms." Cabral made the Zamorin a present of his prize: and the writer added that the Zamorin "received the ship and the elephans with great pleasure and solace."'

Here is another account from Wikipedia connecting Portuguese adventures in the East and Elephants aboard Arab vessels.

"In his most famous exploit in India, P�ro de Ata�de was assigned by Cabral to intercept an Arab smuggling ship with a cargo of war elephants, on behalf of the Zamorin of Calicut. The Zamorin himself came to the beach to watch the spectacle, only to leave in disgust when the smuggler deftly slipped past Ata�de's ship. Ata�de gave chase and eventually caught up with it near Cannanore. Ataide personally led his little crew in boarding and defeating the much larger smugglers' crew, and brought back the seized ship with its cargo nearly intact (one pachyderm died in the fighting). Cabral handed the ship and the elephants over to the Zamorin as a gift."

This seems to be relating to the same episode. Now here's my question: What kind of an Arab trading ship carries three hundred fighting men PLUS six war elephants!!??? That is a sizeable vessel, it seems to me. So, in the interests of being able to model something of this sort in a diorama, I decided after reading these passages to create a caravel hull, a dhow hull and several elephants. However the schedule for the carracks necessitated that I complete them first. What I'm thinking is that I will include the caravels and Arabian ships in this thread, rather than posting a separate thread for each ship type on the scratch building forum. I don't want to bombard the forum with too many separate threads.

So that brings the effort to create a Portuguese Flotilla from the Age of Sail in 700th scale up to date. I will (hopefully) have more to post soon. The major problems remaining are how to make the masts and armament. Although I think we may eventually have workable resin cannons, I haven't been able to determine yet if these cannons cast properly. As far as casting yards and mast tops in resin, the formula that Rusty has at his studio is not suitable for it. I will attempt to find another 'recipe' for resin masts. I'd be grateful to anyone with knowledge of resin if they know of a way to cast thin tapering parts in resin of sufficient stiffness and integrity.

That's all for now. Thanks for watching

[MichelB]

Callen: yes. Please. Those carracks look absolutely stunning.

Hey, I'm in the garage kit business myself: http://www.finewaterline.com/pages/kitr ... sgkits.htm

[Filipe Ramires]

Like Michel said....stunning detail!!! Regarding the masts why not go for brass rod instead given that resin 90% of times doesn't exactly turns out to be good in terms of masts? Also some ratlines would be nice though those can be acquired in photo-etch for merchants. About the cannons well...if we are talking of wheeled mounts plus the barrel it would be better to do two different parts (mount plus the barrel which can be done also with brass rod). We did (me, Rui and Pedro) a Portuguese galleon in 1/350 a couple of years ago for a diorama for the Navy Museum and we used such technique with fairly good results (Rui did the guns I believe). In terms of moulds I guess you would only have to do the mould of the wheeled mount.

[callen]

Michel, thank you for your comments. I will be in touch!

Like Michel said....stunning detail!!! Regarding the masts why not go for brass rod instead given that resin 90% of times doesn't exactly turns out to be good in terms of masts? Also some ratlines would be nice though those can be acquired in photo-etch for merchants. About the cannons well...if we are talking of wheeled mounts plus the barrel it would be better to do two different parts (mount plus the barrel which can be done also with brass rod). We did (me, Rui and Pedro) a Portuguese galleon in 1/350 a couple of years ago for a diorama for the Navy Museum and we used such technique with fairly good results (Rui did the guns I believe). In terms of moulds I guess you would only have to do the mould of the wheeled mount.

Filipe please post pics of your galleon! I would very much like to see it!
If you'll look towards the beginning of the thread at the 'Beja' build, you will see that I am actually using brass rod for mast elements on that build. Of course brass rod is the perfect solution for the masts, apart from the issue of having to taper the yards and mast tops. For that we decided to go with turned brass from BMK, which is perfect for the job, but pricey if you're looking to build a whole slew of ships as I am. Bruno suggested I try casting the mast parts. Rusty was extremely skeptical, but willing. The result was better than Rusty had feared, but not as good as I had hoped. Bruno will be designing a PE suite that will include superstructure paneling, ratlines, crow's nests, bulkhead faces, railings and gun carriage wheels among other things. This is very much a work in progress and experimentation. The real fruition will come when the resin and the PE come together, then, hopefully between my efforts and Bruno's we'll really have something special.

[Filipe Ramires]

Not exactly a masterpiece but given the little time and information we had available this was the final product of a diorama of the departure of the Portuguese Royal Family to Brazil during the Napoleonic Invasions of Portugal. The ship is the Rainha de Portugal...a n�u. Plus to transport the Royal Family to the ship it was used the Royal Galleas (the proper word in English is missing to classify the ship).

[callen]

Excellent work Rui and Filipe!

I did a search for the Rainha de Portugal, but didn't come up with much information. I understand what you mean about needing documentation...

Do you have any more pictures of the Galleass? It looks like a really interesting dio. Thanks for posting!

[Filipe Ramires]

The Galleas or Galeota Real as we call it still exists actually and it's one of the main attractions of the Navy Museum here in Lisbon. Look how big she is:

[callen]

Filipe that is a beautiful ship. I wish we had something of that vintage over here in the States. Very cool! Thanks for posting!