Working up Joel's Excellent 1/72 PERMIT

[crazygary]

That's a pretty medieval looking blade ya got there, M!!
Does really nice things, tho'!!

CG

[Slats]

I'm on it, John

M

Thanks David

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Boats built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard don't employ a 'red' anti-foul paint. The boat is black from top to bottom. Such was the case with the THREASHER, the boat I'm representing with this model. However, once the black hull is in the water, marine growth soon attaches and the process of 'discolorization' gets underway. I'm representing the THRESHER in her acceptance-post commissioning condition -- hull numbers and name still prominent, escape buoy fairings painted 'international orange' and the deck and sail evidencing only the first signs of running-water staining and foot-traffic. So, here is the look I was after: slightly bleached below waterline, with slight streaking above waterline.

Here's how I did the below waterline weathering:

Once I had painted the model sub-assemblies (hull, sail, control surfaces) the basic very, very dark gray .... never a true black, this accounting for 'scale-effect' ... I broke out the pencil loaded surface gauge (waterline marking tool) and penciled onto the hull and upper rudder the water line. I then put a piece of low-tack masking tape at the forward and after transition points, marking them with the pencil -- later using the tape pieces as templates from which plastic masking stencils were formed.

Using the forward and after waterline transition stencils I cut out masking tape masks and applied them to the hull -- this is the only way to lay masking tape down on such tight radius areas. You just can't negotiate such tight bends with thin strips of tape or Chart-Pack, I don't care whatever anyone else says! Then it was a simple matter to lay down narrow strips of masking tape on the rest of the waterline areas, then fill in the deck area with more tape, straight from the roll. The above waterline areas of the hull and upper rudder protected, I could then proceed with the 'weathering' of the lower hull.

In the real world the discoloration is not even, it appears in patches. To achieve this I first lay down a water-soluble masking made of thinned tooth-paste. This goo is stippled onto all below waterline structures and left to dry. I then spray on a water-thin misting of water-soluble acrylic paint (bought from Walmart, of all places!). Once the paint dries -- now no longer water-soluble, I must point out -- I soak the parts in water, which melts away the forever water-soluble tooth-paste masks revealing the base color (dark, dark gray) splotches under each dab of tooth-paste mask. All this renders a credible looking patchy below waterline structure.

Just below waterline there is typically a greenish colored band, what we call, 'grass'. That was represented by some green paint sprayed along the edge of the waterline masking ... not forgetting to give the upper rudder the same treatment as the hull. At that point all masking was pulled and the below waterline structures given a protective coating of clear to protect them as I moved on to the second phase of weathering.

M

[greenman407]

Prep-sol. Now thats a name I havent heard of for a while. Is that good for cleaning hulls in prep for paint?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I bust my ass composing a text and laying out photos and all you can fixate on is the one shot I put aside!!!!....

... You people!

Oh, yeah, the perfect degreaser for surfaces ready for primer, paint or clear-coat. It's a not terribly volatile hydrocarbon meant to clean off the oils, dirt and crud that would otherwise inhibit a liquid coatings ability to bond effectively with the substrate. If you don't, you risk the dreaded 'fish-eye'.

M

[greenman407]

I might try to get some. Remember the fiasco I had on the Skipjack. Whatever was on it the Denatured Alcohol didnt touch it, and im thinking that the Lacquer thinner might be too strong. Im still fooling with it. Wet Sanded it way down and the new coats that I put on top of it did the same thing. I wet sanded that down and I think im going to put some clear on top of it and maybe Ill be good. It might just be the paint as its supposed to be primer and paint in one.
As far as your weathering techniques are concerned, its quite easy to see that you are one of the best, If not THE best, in the business. You never cease to amaze.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

With a clear-coat down over the yet-to-be-completed weathering job I shifted gears and set out to trim the boat for proper submerged trim.

But, at the get-go, I found I needed to cast up more lead blanks. So, I broke out some of my high-temp. rubber tools used to form generic fixed ballast lead weights. Had to wait till Ellie left the house ... she see's me melting lead on her precious kitchen range and I'm a dead man! Anyway, mission accomplished.

As a rule of thumb I position a model submarines longitudinal center of gravity at the center of the SubDriver's ballast tank. That point I indicated on the outside of the hull with a little piece of blue masking tape. I stuck a few pounds of lead into the hull well forward, and checked the balance. Not enough, so I kept moving them forward till I could get the boat to balance at the tape -- at the center of the SD's ballast tank.

Of course this balancing act is all done with everything installed, so I get the 'ready to sail' weight distribution. Yeah .... I have not bothered with the sail. As that thing is so closely coupled to the c.g. I figured why bother at this point. Final trim, performed after all work is done, will account for the displacement and weight of that structure once installed to the hull. No sweat.

The very malleable lead blanks were easily bent and pounded to conform to the radius at the hull locations they would go. Once banged to shape, each was RTV'ed into the lower hull. The RTV is strong enough to hold the fixed ballast weight in place during normal use and handeling, but weak enough to part without damaging the hull should I have to re-distribute the fixed ballast weights.

I've trimmed so many boats I can almost get the amount of displacing foam right the first guess. Such was the case here. With a free-flooding hull you first trim for proper submerged trim. Once that's established, you then work on setting up the vertical position of the foam (above or below the waterline) to get the boat to sit at designed waterline in surface trim.

I simply set the vent-valve open so the ballast tank would flood with the model in the water -- no need to turn the system on at this point. The objective is to get the hull as close to neutrally buoyant as you can, and to move the foam longitudinally till the boat sits on an even keel (zero bubble-angle). Once the amount and position of the foam is established the next move is to place it within the hull.

An equivalent amount of foam is cut out and installed into the boat, and back into the water it goes to fine-tune submerged trim.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Back when the Earth was warm Dremel sold this neat, very low torque, low speed battery driven rotary tool -- damn thing is no longer available. Mine **** the bed a few years ago. However, the need for a low speed, low torque drill motor remained. So, I bought a few of these cheap-ass Harbor Freight 'engraving' tools (actually, a rotary tool) and converted one of 'em to spin selected drill bits. Suck 'em up, they're only ten-bucks or so!

The job at hand was to punch little .020" diameter holes through the deck of the THRESHER models hatch seating surfaces. Those holes to accept brass wire hold-down padeyes. The little drill motor is easy to handle and control -- the on/off button near the shank of the machine makes working the tool all that much easier.

The hold-down padeyes are bent to shape and run through the holes. Also needed was smaller gauge flexible wire to represent the escape buoy down-haul cable -- this running between the below deck cable reel and buoy, and through the escape trunk bail. My two down-haul cables (one set for the after trunk hatch, one for the forward trunk hatch) were each represented by two short lengths of wire pulled out of a conductors braid.

The hold-down padeyes and cable lengths are removable. These were formed and test fit, then taken out and put aside and won't go back till all the painting and weathering is completed.

I'm working to have this model ready for this weekends Nauticus run.

[HvyCGN9]

really sweet work there mate...

wish I could find a small drill like that here in Oz! I have a little manual drill for really small drill bits................grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

really sweet work there mate...

wish I could find a small drill like that here in Oz! I have a little manual drill for really small drill bits................grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Yeah, I love this little thing. The low torque and small size make it perfect for getting in there to drill or grind plastics that would otherwise melt when over-feeding the bit. You over-feed the bit into the work and the motor stalls. Perfect governor; won't let you melt the work or over-cut. I use this little machine for drilling and sculpting work.

Modification is easy. The chuck is simply an 3/32" diameter bore with a set-screw to hold the shank of the bit. To convert it to a drill I simply take some 3/32" plastic rod, cut a piece to the appropriate length, insert it into the bore, tighten the set-screw and start the motor. I then hand-hold the drill I want to eventually mount into the rods shank as I run it into the shank, stop the motor, flip the bit, and glue its shank into the plastic shank. Done! Repeat for as many drill sizes wanted to be run by this drill motor.

Got to be a Harbor Freight catalog outlet over there. Worth looking for -- they have so many fun and useful man-toys! Hell .... China's on your side of the world! Look 'em up.

M

[redboat219]

You could try looking for nail polishers similar to this; http://www.fancypocket.sg/electric-nail-polish.html at your local beauty shops

[Slats]

Nice work David.

J

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27888[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27889[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27890[/ATTACH] I turned a new anchor (I lost the kit part) from RenShape and attached a length of 4-40 all-thread to it as a means of making a removable item out of it. Here I'm punching a hole in the THRESHER's after starboard stern to accept the all-thread stud. And here you see how the anchor is made fast to the hull -- just run a nut and the anchor is there for the duration.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27891[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27892[/ATTACH] Four rows of cathodic protection 'zinc's are arrayed around the stern. These form anodes that permit the passage of ions that flow from the Farris hull through the salt water and into the non-Farris propeller -- without them both the hull and propeller would oxidize. The Zinc anodes are 'sacrificial', that is to say, they crumble away, not the ships structure. Periodically a boats zincs are replaced.

I scribed some styrene sheet and cut four long strips, each representing a row of zincs. Careful study of the documentation showed the correct number and spacing of the zincs. It was then a simple mater to loft the position of the zinc rows onto the model -- that marking done on radialy wound strips of masking take put down at the stern. To insure a mess-free gluing of the zinc strips to the hull I used a longitudinal strip of masking tape to hold the outward face of the zinc piece as I smeared CA on the face going up against the hull. Then it was an easy matter of pulling the tape strip down till it hit the pen mark on the after radial piece of masking tape and waiting for the glue between zinc piece and hull to cure.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27893[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27894[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27895[/ATTACH] Time to weather the sail, upper rudder, and above waterline portion of hull. I broke out an unused hull and practiced on that till I got the technic worked out -- I get rusty if too much time passes between weathering jobs. I then set about brushing on well thinned portions of water soluble acrylic paint atop the hull, and the sides of the upper rudder and sail. This represents rain-water streaking on all above waterline surfaces subject to the force of gravity. It's this sort of crap that breaths life into the display.

WHAT A GOD AWFUL MESS!!!!

That's what she said! Ellie hates to see me weathering a model. She's a purist. OK, she's out of the shop. Back to work!

... at this point it did look like ****!

So, with an abrasive pad, used wet, I radialy scrubbed the streaking to remove most of it. This done till the appropriate amount of streaking was left on the hull. Why this works is that the automotive two-part polyurethane clear-coat is much tougher than the acrylic water based paint, which fails easily over the very tough clear-coat.

[trout]

David,
I do not want to gush over your work so I will just say "Nice work", but dang. Really learning a lot here. I notice you have the white and is that the cream color? Do you use them separately or mix it to tone down the white?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

David,
I do not want to gush over your work so I will just say "Nice work", but dang. Really learning a lot here. I notice you have the white and is that the cream color? Do you use them separately or mix it to tone down the white?

I used un thinned 'cream' neat from the bottle. Just dabbed the brush (which is stiff and the bristle ends cut in a ragged pattern) into the paint and vigorously wiped off most of the paint in a dish-towel (sorry, Ellie) and streaked the work. Color is not important at this point as long as I keep to the non-primaries -- in other words, at this point, I'm going with white, black, and gray. The only 'color' comes later in the weathering: some burnt umber, and white. The white will be used for the final dry-brushing to pick out light-catching edges and other pointed projections, and the ever present bird-**** atop the upper rudder.

Notice I don't counter-shade -- a weathering technique which is all the fashion these days in IPMS circles. You EVER see an aircraft on the flight line with counter-shaded panel and access hatch outlines!!!?????......

I'm no frig'n Picasso. I'm a photo-real sort of painter when it comes to the model work!

'Modern Art' is a fraud, perpetrated by no talent bums and promoted by cocktail-party Art Critics who don't know the first thing about Craft and wouldn't know a real job if it bit them on the ass! Real Art is representing real life as accurately as you can. Rockwell, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt were true Artists. The 'Impressionists' are frauds.

Counter-shading is in the same league as Impressionism.

If you don't see it on the real thing, it don't belong on the frig'n model!

M