HMS Royal Caroline kit ZHL 1/30

During the busy Christmas days and New Year I had some time to work on the stern and finishing some of the carvings. The carvings need a lot of work to finish them nicely and some of the carvings I will sand to reduce the thickness, this I do with a band sander fixed in a vise. Especially the carvings which will be fitted in the curved area of the stern need to be sanded to fit the curved area. First I need to plank the stern, these are not provided in the kit and is an addition of myself.
Planking stern.JPGPlanking stern 3.JPG
In the stern I opened a space for fitting the carving of Caroline, this carving should be recessed as the the carving of the window frames is fitting over it, you also get more depth in the carvings this way. The difference in color between the carvings is caused by wax on the Caroline figure, the other still have to be finished and waxed.
Planking stern 4.JPG
The carvings on the curved part of the stern still needs to be finished, you notice the edges that need to be removed.
The lower carving is one part in the kit, I splitted these in 4 individual parts.
Stern carving saw.JPGBand sander.JPGStern carving splitted and sanded.JPGStern carving sanded.JPGstern transom.JPG
The transome is separated from the carvings, sanded and waxed and finally fitted.
Finally also the lower stern carvings are finished waxed and fitted.
Stern with lower carvings.JPG
 
Nice job, Maarten!
Keep in mind that those gingerbread decorations used to have a maximum thickness of 2" on the real ship so the thickness of the model decoration should follow this rule. Having said this I also tend to make the thickness of the carvings bigger than the scale equivalent of the 2"...
It is also very important, as you are already doing it, to take those rear edges of the carvings off (CNC does not do this). A 1/32" or 0.8mm filleting of those edges also help creating the 3D effect of the carvings.
Those close pictures of the CNC carvings really show that they need some finishing job all the way around.
Janos
 
Hi Janos, Brian.

Thx for your comments, the 2" is 1.7 mm in scale. In some of the decorations the difference in thickbes between the higher and lower parts is more then this so some will be thicker then this. I will sand them till they give the proper look and feel. It's all about the finall results. For the lower stern I preferred to have them slightly thinner but due to the curve this was not possible as otherwise the decorations on the edges would be damaged.
In the coming days I hope to upload more pictures.

Regs Maarten
 
Hi gents,

At the moment I am working on finishing some of the carvings. In the meantime I have worked out the proces which works best for me. First I am sanding the carvings on the b ass nd sander to make them thinner. This also helps to remove a major part of the scaling on the edges. Secondly I am steaming them above a waterboiler, this helps to swell the gathered dust from the milling process. After steaming the enclosed dust can then be removed much more easy by means of a tooth brush. Then the carvings needs to be finished with a knive to open up some of the areas between the figurenes and to smoothen all the edges. After this when al the finishing work is done they can be steamed again to shape them for a proper curved fit when necessary. Then I apply the first layer of clear bee wax. I do this with a tooth brush and a hairdryer. Heat up the wax with the hairdryer and then brush it into the surface untill the surface is completely covered. Then leave the beewax to cool down and harden. After this I polish the surface with my proxxon tool with a cotton disk at medium revs to high gloss. When I am not satisfied about the gloss I repeat the beewax process. This all takes a lot of time but the carvings are the jewel of this model and deserve the attention to get them right. Next time I will post the pictures about the progress.

Regs Maarten
 
Maarten,
I have my reservations against using bees wax - but this might just be me. The waxed surface will collect dust in time and it is very difficult to keep it clean. These days I prefer wipe-on satin poly.
For cleaning up the carvings I am using radial bristles. Available on eBay they come in different grits and they are colour coded. I prefer using the 120-150 and then the 400 ranges. Then for the final clean-up I use goat hair radial brushes (eBay again). The black plastic Dremel-type brushes blacken the surface so they can not be used.
Enjoying your build, keep the pictures coming!
Janos
 
Having just seen Greg's RC recently I've got a feeling now how the CNC carvings (which are awesome actually) can be made even better. There are some remnants alongside the rear edges (very few on the Boxwood, but judging from the pictures more on the Pearwood) which should be removed - for this I would use the flame shape diamond bits. Then there are some remnant areas between the figures which have to be removed. This can be taken care of by decreasing the thickness of the carvings, which in most cases has to be done anyhow. Then some work with the diamond bits, or even fretsaw if necessay. But be careful, background between figures are in most cases part of the composition so don't have to be removed in any case. And the rear edges have to be filleted of course to a slight radius.
Having seen the details of the CNC decorations in Greg's kit I am green with envy. Small and repetitive details are unbeatable in the CNC, I am just unable to do the same manually. You have to be Ivan Trtanj to do that!
Janos
 
Hi Janos,

Many thanks for your comments really usefull. I will have a look for the brushes on ebay, can you share a link on these. I also tried to polish the carvings with a rubber tool from Porxxon, this is blue in color and leaves a blue sheen on the carving so I am not using it any more, if you have a sugestion on these please let me know. In respect to the Bee wax I am very happy with the results sofar as shown in the pictures below, the issue you mention should be considered over time but I can image that using bee wax in a hot and moisty environment like Austrialia that it will react different then here in cold and rainy Holland, it is also widely used by furniture makers.

Back to the build, I am working on finishing carvings via the proces as discribed in the previous post. As I am opening up the captain cabin I have to fully open the side galeries, this is a tricky job as especially the windows are very delicate. First I drilled out some of the window material as also shown in John log, then I set our the lines at the rear for the edges to where the material needs to be removed and used a small proxxon circle saw to create a small cut at these edges. After that the dangerous job of milling starts, milling out all material to open up the galery.
Galery milling.JPGGalery milled.JPGGalery.JPG
As I have painted the clouds on the side of the hull I am removing the clouds in the rear of the carving around the rear dragon, this is the only part in the kit where the clouds are shown whereas on the drawings the ae visible at 25% of the lenght of the hull. Below the result of removing these wooden clouds.
galeries.JPG
On the left carving I hit a window frame during milling, this will be fitted with a box wood window frame. On the right carving I have coloured the the roof and bottom part with a regular pencil, this gives a perfect simulation of a lead covered roof which was often used to watertighten these galery roofs. I couldn't find out if it was the case with this perticular ship but I like the contrast it brings in the carvings of the galeries.
 
As mentioned to clean the carvings from compacted dust I steam then first in the water boiler.
Water boiler.JPG
This helps to soften and swell up the dust then they easily can be brushed.
Carving steamed.JPGCarving brushed.JPG
After this the I do the final finishing with a different knives.
Some of the carvings needs to be shaped to fit their position like the curved stern or bow. For this I again steam them and fit them to the surface with some clamps to dry them in shape.
Stern carving shaping.JPGStern carving shaping 2.JPGStern carving shaping 3.JPG
Carving shaping.JPG
After the carving is finished I apply a layer of bee wax, I use a turpentine softened bee wax which I apply with a tooth brush then heat up with a hairdryer followed by re brushing them with the toothbrush. After this I leave them to dry to harden the wax followed by polishing and polishing and polishing, you get the idea.
The finall result below.
Carvings polished.JPG
To fit the galery carving a part of the whale needs to be removed, I did this with a smal drill to folow the shape of the carving to exactly fit it in. Also the side of the hull needs to be opened up.
Hull side galery.JPG
Hull side galery 2.JPGHull side galery 3.JPG
This is just a prefitting on top of the temporary top whale, finall fitting will be done in a later stage.
Lots of succes with your projects.
regards Maarten
 
G'day Maarten, I am GREEN with envy, what a beautiful job you are doing on not only the carvings but the whole ship, the wax has given them a lovely sheen, my wax has been on for a few months now and they are still shiny and not sticky at all.
It looks like to have the three planks at the stern you have lifted the transom carvings up a little bit, and I guess that you will be raising the top of the transom piece before putting the rail on, she should look great.
I was thinking of milling out the gallery windows, but thought better of it, the way you have done yours would have been risky but it looks like you have done it.
What I would have done would have been the cowards way, I would have milled everything including the frames, and then made new frames to go in, I think I am just going to leave them the way they are, :D:D:D, or maybe not,

best regards John.
 
Hi gents, many thx for your comments, almost getting shy....

Milling the galery was was quite a nervous task but it is possible with some gentle love and care. The problem is you have to do it by hand because you can't fix it and then sometimes mill "bytes".

Hopefully this weekend I have some time to progress further.

Regs Maarten
 
G'day Maarten
What a job! WELL DONE MATE
If I could do half as good as that cleaning out the inside, I'll be so pleased with myself.
I'm thinking of using ONLY the carvings on the quarter windows and I'll make the whole section myself. For my reasons click HERE.
I havta agree with everyone's else comments.Your ship should be n a musium!
Hvagooday day mate.
Greg
 
Herewith a brief update on the progress, still working on the carvings and progressing slowly. See below of the items which are now finished and still more to follow.
Carvings finished.JPG
On board of the ship there is some minor progress in cutting another hole in the side for the cabin gallery. Doing my best on the clouds that I am now ruthlessly cutting away.
opening gallery.JPG
Inside we now have openings on all the sides of the cabin.
Inside the cabin.JPG
The next step here will now be removing all the inside frames, thicken the hull and start building the inside of the cabin. There wil be a new deck beam construction of pear inside. But that will be in a later stage of the project.
First I started with one of the cannons which I will use to determine the exact vertical position of the gun ports.
The cannon are one of the best I have ever seen in a model (maybe except for the ones in the kit of the Salemandre) they are beautifully detailed to the smallest slots ssecuring the cannon to the carriage. The metall parts are in brass which I am burnishing to blacken them. The cannons are also in brass and I ma still in doubt what to do, leave them brass or burnish them. personally I think briefly burnishing them to get a matt brownish look instead of a gold and shiny cannon.
Cannon DIY kit.JPG
Above you see one of the wheels fitted with a brass hoop and pins before burnishing, I have varnished the wood to avoid discoloration after burnishing it, I can't burnish before fitting it into the wooden wheel because after fitting the brass needs to be sanded to get the correct finish and fit.
Burnishing wheel.JPGWheel in vice.JPG
To fit the wooden wheel into the brass hoop I use my vice to press them in.
And then this is the outcome after pressing.
Pressed wheels.JPG
Followed by drilling 0,8 mm holes and fit them with a brass pin which is afterwards sanded flat to the surface.
Wheels with pins.JPG
Finally after burnishing showing them off on the carriage on the deck of the Friesland, still not finished but just to finish the end of a happy modelling day. The wheel needs to be re burnished, a process under study.
Cannon.JPG
 
As we are talking about the Friesland, I am also working on a new boat for her deck as the standard Mamoli boat was to ugly to show. For this I ordered to kits from Master Korabel in Russia which are stunning in detail. They are very delicate to build but are a jewel on deck of your ship.
See below the pictures of the finished but still unvarnished boat. This is a full plank on frame kit of 9 cm in lenght.
Boat.JPGBoat 1.JPGBoat 2.JPGBoat 3.JPG

And to give you an idea about the size of this in 1:75
Boat size.JPG
See you next time.
 
G'day Maarten
What other words can I say except for amazingly fantastic.
:D
My fingers are itching to be up to your stage of the build. I reckon I'm very fortunate, to have 2 great builds to follow (yours and John's) as I progress along.
I know, we are all eager to see your next entry.
What was the colour of bees was you used on the carvings. Are they golden in colour, or is that a camera trick?
;)
I was going to paint my carvings with gold leaf paint to represent gold foiling. But I don't know now. There will pieces of CARVING on the starboard side which I'm not going to use, I think I'll play around and see what's best.
Again brilliant work.
Happymodeling
Greg
 
Maarten said:
As we are talking about the Friesland, I am also working on a new boat for her deck as the standard Mamoli boat was to ugly to show. For this I ordered to kits from Master Korabel in Russia which are stunning in detail. They are very delicate to build but are a jewel on deck of your ship.
See below the pictures of the finished but still unvarnished boat. This is a full plank on frame kit of 9 cm in lenght.
View attachment 33958View attachment 33959View attachment 33960View attachment 33961

And to give you an idea about the size of this in 1:75
View attachment 33962
See you next time.
Click to expand...

Be careful mate! This size of build will effect your eyesight.....LOL.
You will need a very steady hand to DO THIS KIT. What I've seen of your work, you will ACE it mate.
Havefundoingit
Greg
 
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