The Ship Model Forum

Beautiful weathering Merijn. One of the few sailing ship modellers who weathers his ships (without battle damage though) is Ab Hoving. He can be found at the modelshipworld forum.

Wonderful job!

I love that you had a close look at the weathering, as it is completely different from the steel navy. No smoke from the steam engins yet, but pale colors - plenty of sun - and the salt, attacking the pigments and leaving a white fog on the surfaces, with vertical strikes. Too ofteen sailing ship models are seen with a wathering like after an early steam engin was supplied with fresh coal, style of furniture of a farmhouse parlour, covered with centuries of candle soot

New to the sbject is in your case the traces of the black powder. Curious how you do that

All the best, Daniel

Many thanks Pieter and Daniel!


Thanks Pieter! I only knew of Ab Hoving as a prolific book author on Dutch ships. I'll check his models out!


Thanks Daniel!
I hadn't considered traces of black powder yet; great tip! Do you have any examples of what it looks like in reality (because I have no idea, especially about the quantity...)? Photos from reconstructed situations? Paintings?

Wow is right, Marijn. Amazing weathering and battle damage. Yours is certainly a very unique display

I am using battle damage as one way to compensate.

Very smart.

Many thanks Dan!

Excellent progress Marijn; these colourful an dusty filters look scary even though I know the final tone of the model will end up nicely!

You asked if you should have put more damage on the bow?

So I thought it is too convinient looking that the exact center or keel at the bow is without any damage but to each side of it there are holes from the shot. May be Id have nicked the bow center bit too somewhere, a grazing damage perhaps.

But hey, who am I to say. This looks so good already, dont over think it and you do you.

Brilliant work! It's quite clear from your work with filters etc. where your "origins" are.

So I thought it is too convinient looking that the exact center or keel at the bow is without any damage but to each side of it there are holes from the shot. May be Id have nicked the bow center bit too somewhere, a grazing damage perhaps.

If you look at the side view, you can see some damage to the center part, while the exact keel is quite narrow and you'd be very "lucky" to hit that, certainly when looking at the overal concentration of damages around it, it doesn't look unnatural to me.
I'm already curious about the rigging

Thanks guys! Great ideas!
I'll think them over, and decide if I still feel like adding something at this stage...

Neptune wrote:I'm already curious about the rigging

Me too!
But still a lot of other stuff to be done before I can start on that...

@Marijn - Motivation!

Love this powerfull paint.

Good luck for the next step.

"On this day Oct 21, 1805 � The Battle of Trafalgar was fought between the Royal Navy and a combined Franco-Spanish fleet

Painting is by British artist Geoff Hunt, showing the leading ships of Nelson�s weather division, Victory, Temeraire and Neptune"

Thanks Pascal!

Great painting!

This is looking fantastic. Very inspiring

May thanks Martocticvs!


Meanwhile, I shaded and highlighted all of the details.

This is what the hull looked like in my last update, before shading:


I outlined every detail (except the battle damage) with very dark brown oil paint, thinned with White Spirit:


The idea is the same as pin washes: creating fake shadows to make the detail pop. But I thin the paint a little less than I would for pin washes, so it doesn�t flow but I have to actually paint every line. The application is usually far from perfect, so I do a lot of correcting with a clean brush moistened with White Spirit (but not wet!).
It is a time-consuming process, but it offers total control.
After this has dried, I highlighted the raised detail. I don�t use drybrushing for this, but I actually paint the upward facing sides of details with a lighter version of its base-colour:


Unfortunately, the highlighting effect is not very visible in the pic, as the lightest shades tend to get washed out in photography. When seen in the flesh, it cleans up the colour of the details (which might have gotten a bit dirty from the shading process), and makes the details �pop� extra, adding a certain �sparkle� to the model.

All of this was of course done to the entire model.
The bows before shading:


After shading the detail that is actually on the model:


In the same way I paint fake shadows to emphasize detail of the model, I often also paint fake shadows to ADD detail to a model that is not actually there.
On the bows, I added moulding detail on the headrails and beakhead bulkhead, and delineated the blue lines on the head-timbers, middle rail and catheads:


All of this was then emphasized with painted highlights (and the one moulding I forgot earlier was also shaded ):


On the beakhead bulkhead, the rectangular �depressions� in the columns are not actually there, they are only painted in �trompe l�oeil�:


Note that the outer surface of the middle headrail (the one with the blue line in it) is actually completely flat, as are the front surfaces of the catheads:


BTW, the battle damage is now looking rather �flat� in comparison. That will be dealt with later�

And finally, the stern before shading:


After shading:


I used Jim Baumann�s trick to shade the window frames too (=paint their sides dark), in order to make them appear thinner. Thanks Jim!

And after highlighting (and shading of the carvings):


In the last pic, you may have noticed that I also painted some details. These scrolls for example:


The two vertical grooves in the bottom �scroll� are there, but the rest of the detail is only painted on. That includes the �scroll-effect� on the sides.

And these details on the lower finishing were added too:


And I had some fun painting the arms, for a welcome splash of colour:


BTW, note how Dafi�s 3D-printed balusters pop beautifully now. Thank you so much again Daniel!

Maybe a little reminder of the scale is in order:


But of course, you don�t know the size of my thumb!
This is the actual size:


But I have to admit, it does appear a little larger when you see it in the flesh.

This ship, and the details are amazing! True masterpiece

What an update! Breathtaking!!!

What an honor to be included in this masterpiece

XXXDAn

I really like those small black lines running so very parallel...

Your boat is beautiful so far, and the many details...

Brilliant job and description of all the steps you have made Marijn!

Have I said "Brilliant"?
...just checking

Cheers
Rui