Constellation, the sloop of war c.1856 in 1:36 scale for R/C sailing

[JerryTodd]

Don't have paint for hair and stuff yet, but I did have more figures to paint, as much as I could, so...
Dark blue and light blue, next is white pants


Here's about as far as I can get. Let 'em dry and do a little touch-up. The new colors are due tomorrow and they'll all get haircuts and their beards trimmed.


For now they join the other fellas on board


Back to "real work;" I've been thinking about those metal braces for the pin-rails.


I intend to make them from sheet brass strips, (blacken them, because painting will be a nightmare if I try to paint more than the front faces), and CA them in place. There's a lot of them 8 on each side for the mizzen rails alone, and look to be space about 5 pin-holes apart. They're very simple, but dry-fitting one was impossible to hold on to. I don't think I will get that level of dexterity back Having one pop off with CA on it would be crap. So I'm trying to think of options short of not doing them at all, well, there will be a bunch of rope coils hiding most of them anyway.
-Some foam-tape padding on the needle-nose pliers so they're less apt to turn in the jaws
-PVA gluing them to toothpick "handles."
-bupkis
It just occurred to me this moment that I should have attached them to the pin-rails when I was installing them, then I'd only have to CA the bottoms to the bulwarks after. I think that bit of brain must have died in the stroke and only this instant, finally reconnected. At any rate, I'm not removing the pin-rails to stick brass tabs on them. I only add that thought for the sake of readers that may be approaching a similar item in their model.

 

[JerryTodd]

All the crew are paint, at least till I print more
I think I found a good shade of brown for my Black crewman; all these fellas should look like they've been out in the sun for a while, even him.
There's some little thing to touch-up, but they're pretty much done.
Ivan got a new shirt/jumper; does it make him look fat?

 

[JerryTodd]

A few thunderstorms have blown through, knocking out power for a few minutes several times, but in between I managed to modify three of the sailors.
Two of the walking fellas I put straw hats on, and the rammer guy got a sponge and a different head, so he's a match for the rammer guy.


While working on that I had a batch of the existing figures printing. I had 11 of them on the plate, but only 7 came out.
They're primed and painting them will get started if the primer dries in this humidity. The three modded guys are just about done printing now.


I watched a few Blender videos and think I get how to repose a figure. I have one that looks like he's pushing a capstan bar that I hope to be able to repose in several positions like climbing, sitting, and so on.

 

[JerryTodd]

After priming the Magnificent Seven, the next batch consisting of the figures I modified, came off the printer. I apparently made the straw hat brims too thin and they didn't survive the printing process, but everyone came out otherwise.


I thickened the hat brims in the file, and set about repairing these fellas.
I cut out hat brims from used 20lb paper, made a hole for the crown with a hole-punch, painted it with resin from the printer, and zapped it quick with UV light. I brushed on more resin to fill any holes, zapping it between applications, and being careful not to zap for too long or the heat generated might burn the part.

 

[JerryTodd]

Painting commences on the second batch of crew, who will all have white jumpers....


I fiddled with the poorly printed davit and some chipboard to figure out a brace to the bulwark. I figure there had to be something, and that it would bolt to the hammock irons inside the bulwark. I reworked the 3D model to add the brace, finalize the double block at the top, and add watch I think was most likely a ring rather than a ball or acorn. A pair is on the printer and has 3 hours to go.

It took longer than 4 hours because the printer spent 2 hours doing nothing until I checked on it and restarted it.
So here they are stuck on to check the fit, and it looks pretty good to me, even with a boat hanging in it. When they get installed for keeps, I put a brass pin in the base and through the channel.