Kingfisher 1770 1:48 POF

[Hoss6262]

Paul, you're such a tease. When I saw the first post with white plastic I thought, is Paul drinking while he is building? With the white plastic the stove reminded me of one of those "Black and White" cookies, UGH. Of course on the next post seeing the prime unit I was, ok now we're talking. Paul isn't drinking. Then the next post with single black coat, I was, oh all the detail is lost in the black color. Maybe he is drinking. Then on the next post the dry brush/wash brings out all of the detail you worked so hard to achieve. This is the quality we all have come to expect and look forward to seeing from your talents.

Really well done! I expect your results will inspire others who lack the metal skills to build stove and other elements the same way.

I will go on the record and say, I will NEVER doubt your skills again. Also, I'm very happy you don't have a drinking problem.

 

[WojtasS]

Borrowing a page from my friend @Maarten 's playbook - I took a little project along with me on our recent holiday.

The Kingfisher had an early version of what would eventually be known as a Brodie Stove on board. Now, while more skilled builders would make this stove out of brass, I doubted my ability to fabricate and solder all of the necessary elements. I think I could have made a stove at 1:48 out of wood - but I decided to first try my hand at plastic.

To that end I reached out to Marc (@Hubac’s Historian) and asked about best practices when it came to working with plastics. He was very kind to offer me some advice along with material and glue recommendations. Naturally I would not be able to work at his level, but I have long been inspired by his excellent results.

In preparation I ordered the necessary supplies and packed everything up in a small box and off we went.

Cutting out parts:

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Adding angled corner braces and edging:

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Next...doors (oven, firebox, ashes, etc.), hinges door handles and latches, and some square bolts...

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Here you can see the beginning of the chimney, the boiler with round and oval covers, and a pipe for a still:

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Now accessorizing with grates, irons for pot hanging, and boiler discharge valves:

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A rotisserie with drip tray, towel bars (?), lifting rings, part of the smokestack...and now sitting on an iron base...

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Monster truck event (grandson number 2 having his best day ever):

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More to come in the next post...

Super precise work. Good job Paul

 

[Tobias]

I can only agree with the previous speakers, first class work.

 

[dockattner]

Your work on the stove is proof of your expanding skills, if you had shown only the primed and finished photos, nobody would believe it was from plastic stock.

Keep up the great work Doc.

Super precise work. Good job Paul

I can only agree with the previous speakers, first class work.

Thanks guys! As usual the macro photos don't do any favors - but at normal size it looks pretty convincing.

Paul, you're such a tease. When I saw the first post with white plastic I thought, is Paul drinking while he is building? With the white plastic the stove reminded me of one of those "Black and White" cookies, UGH. Of course on the next post seeing the prime unit I was, ok now we're talking. Paul isn't drinking. Then the next post with single black coat, I was, oh all the detail is lost in the black color. Maybe he is drinking. Then on the next post the dry brush/wash brings out all of the detail you worked so hard to achieve. This is the quality we all have come to expect and look forward to seeing from your talents.

Really well done! I expect your results will inspire others who lack the metal skills to build stove and other elements the same way.

I will go on the record and say, I will NEVER doubt your skills again. Also, I'm very happy you don't have a drinking problem.

A lovely post my friend. The black and white thing was nothing more than what I had on hand material wise. I purchased 'assortment' packs and you get what you get...

And if you panicked when you saw the 'all black' you'll have to stand in line behind me in that regard. I was horrified (note: I didn't notice the camera was using the flash so that makes the pictures look worse than it looked in real life - but it still looked unacceptably bad). It took 5 or 6 passes of detailing to recover from the 'all black' - but I enjoyed the challenge and the learning.

And none of this proves I don't have a drinking problem (which I don't ).

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Well, you caught the hang of that pretty quickly, Paul. The stove really looks incredible, and I certainly couldn't better it, myself. There's just a tremendous amount of detail in a very small thing! Plastic is kind of addicting, isn't it? My favorite part is the primer coat, when everything homogenizes into a thing. Nice work on the dry-brushing, as well.

 

[dockattner]

Well, you caught the hang of that pretty quickly, Paul. The stove really looks incredible, and I certainly couldn't better it, myself. There's just a tremendous amount of detail in a very small thing! Plastic is kind of addicting, isn't it? My favorite part is the primer coat, when everything homogenizes into a thing. Nice work on the dry-brushing, as well.

Well, that's a nice review coming from someone of your accomplishment with this medium. My thanks. As I mentioned above - the macro images don't really tell the story (I guess they do precisely, but not helpfully) - at normal viewing size the flaws fade into the background and I'm happy to use this on my ship.

 

[RogerD]

Wow! Paul that stove is terrific. You have just proven that wooden ship models can really be enhanced with other construction materials like plastic. The detail is amazing.

 

[Dean62]

Paul, let me start by saying the miniature oven is awesome! And I agree with using plastic to simulate metal, verses wood.
However I am confused with the dry brushing, as normally that highlights the higher surfaces and the base color is darker in the lower surfaces and crevices. Your oven looks to be all the same color? Perhaps when you added the graphite it blended it all together and you lost the highlights? You can however do a wash to get the darker areas back. And if you wanted more depth, add highlights by dry brushing after the wash. But if this will be in an area where it will not be seen, then you’ve probably done enough already!

 

[Peter Voogt]

Now back home...

Primed:

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Painted metallic black:

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Now detailed (primarily dry-brushing and graphite powder), and sealed with a matte/flat finish...

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As far as I'm concerned this is a keeper - no need to start all over in wood (especially since this stove will be hardly visible). Indeed, this whole mini-build was primarily for my enjoyment and for your voyeuristic entertainment .

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Thanks for visiting my blog...

Hi, ‘colleague stove-maker’. I know what kind of energy it takes to make a model stove from scratch. What you have achieved is fantastic! And working with Evergreen you can apply beautiful sharp details. Chapeaux!
Regards, Peter

 

[dockattner]

Wow! Paul that stove is terrific. You have just proven that wooden ship models can really be enhanced with other construction materials like plastic. The detail is amazing.

Hi, ‘colleague stove-maker’. I know what kind of energy it takes to make a model stove from scratch. What you have achieved is fantastic! And working with Evergreen you can apply beautiful sharp details. Chapeaux!
Regards, Peter

Thank you kindly, gentlemen! I rather enjoyed this diversion into plastics. Perhaps one day I'll see what I can do with brass and a soldering torch, but this will suffice for now.

 

[dockattner]

Paul, let me start by saying the miniature oven is awesome! And I agree with using plastic to simulate metal, verses wood.
However I am confused with the dry brushing, as normally that highlights the higher surfaces and the base color is darker in the lower surfaces and crevices. Your oven looks to be all the same color? Perhaps when you added the graphite it blended it all together and you lost the highlights? You can however do a wash to get the darker areas back. And if you wanted more depth, add highlights by dry brushing after the wash. But if this will be in an area where it will not be seen, then you’ve probably done enough already!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Dean! I did often think to myself: now, what would Dean do here? While I lack your skill as an artist, I WAS working with a vision of an actual real-life cast-iron (monochromatic) stove in my mind.

Just to add to the discussion, I'll confess that I had more robust highs and lows in an early iteration, but it looked cartoonish at 1:48. The problem is (as you know) light and shadow do not work at the miniature scale the way they work on full size items. And neither do our materials. For example, a dark wash on a flat surface pools leaving a 'sharp' edge (almost like a bath ring) that I found to be unconvincing (shadow washes on the 'curvy' castings for the Vasa turned out much better).

And there are still some low-lights (shadows) left, but based on your gentle review, they must be too subtle. Of course, this means the same must be true of the highlights as they have been balanced one to the other.

For the sake of future builders, I'll point out that (in the image below) what appear to be light reflections are not really light reflections - they are painted-on light simulations on a monochromatic all-iron stove. The same is true for most of what appear to be shadows (for example, notice the omni-directional shadows on each side of the forward-facing hinges).



Dean, I am fully confident that in your hands the stove would have turned out much better! But your hands weren't here !

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Paul, I am sure the stove is safe and the best quality it can be in your hands, as they have proven in your ships and job to be great at what they do.

If you didn't have great hands to work, you wouldn't still be a dentist.

 

[Dean62]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Dean! I did often think to myself: now, what would Dean do here? While I lack your skill as an artist, I WAS working with a vision of an actual real-life cast-iron (monochromatic) stove in my mind.

Just to add to the discussion, I'll confess that I had more robust highs and lows in an early iteration, but it looked cartoonish at 1:48. The problem is (as you know) light and shadow do not work at the miniature scale the way they work on full size items. And neither do our materials. For example, a dark wash on a flat surface pools leaving a 'sharp' edge (almost like a bath ring) that I found to be unconvincing (shadow washes on the 'curvy' castings for the Vasa turned out much better).

And there are still some low-lights (shadows) left, but based on your gentle review, they must be too subtle. Of course, this means the same must be true of the highlights as they have been balanced one to the other.

For the sake of future builders, I'll point out that (in the image below) what appear to be light reflections are not really light reflections - they are painted-on light simulations on a monochromatic all-iron stove. The same is true for most of what appear to be shadows (for example, notice the omni-directional shadows on each side of the forward-facing hinges).

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Dean, I am fully confident that in your hands the stove would have turned out much better! But your hands weren't here !

Hey Paul, sorry to be critical…however I overlooked what you pointed out with the hinges (however the left side has more shadow than the right, due to natural lighting and angle). So it seems what I mistakenly assumed was natural lighting, was actually the result of your subtle dry brushing, or so it seems. Kudos on pulling that off!
I guess it goes back to what I said before. When learning to dry brush, my teacher told me it is not perfection…because we know I tried! And the point was that objects refract light differently on their geometry depending on light source, direction and texture, and this also changes the color tones to a degree. Sometimes dry brushing tends to exaggerate that for effect.
It seems you did a such a subtle dry brushing, that I missed it entirely! My apologies! It’s may be too subtle!
And this is mostly why I opt for the more exaggerated approach.
In addition, I like to mix colors.
For example... I once dry brushed jeans on a vinyl figure, and I started with a very dark blue, then mixed white with it and made a medium blue to dry brush on, and then mixed more white and dry brushed that on, and finally mixed more white to do the highlights and worn areas like the knees. They looked very realistic, as using a base color and bright highlights would be too much contrast, and unrealistic. So the dark to light areas were gradually developed with a series of dry brushing, while lightening the color a little each time by adding white. So the point is, just one dry brush is usually not enough to get good depth and realism. So don't be afraid to mix colors.

Ps - you have proven you are perfectly capable of being artistic, so don’t assume I could do better. I just would have done it differently. But that doesn’t necessarily mean better!

 

[RDN1954]

Now back home...

Primed:

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Painted metallic black:

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Now detailed (primarily dry-brushing and graphite powder), and sealed with a matte/flat finish...

View attachment 381468

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View attachment 381470

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As far as I'm concerned this is a keeper - no need to start all over in wood (especially since this stove will be hardly visible). Indeed, this whole mini-build was primarily for my enjoyment and for your voyeuristic entertainment .

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Thanks for visiting my blog...

, this does it, this is way out of my league...
Brilliant modeling, beautiful result.

 

[dockattner]

sorry to be critical…

Never thought you were being critical Dean. If we don't push each other we'll never achieve much beyond what we think our limits are. I took your post in the helpful way you intended.

It may be too subtle!

I'm starting to feel that way. In the same way that macro photos emphasize our mistakes - they also magnify the details on the stove (and its colorization). In looking at the stove again just now I wonder if I need to make the effects more pronounced for 'everyday' viewing.

As I mentioned, washes don't behave particularly well on flat surfaces. But I have a Tamiya powder kit - if I can add some dark tones along the borders/edges of some of the components and then re-highlight I might be able to add some depth/contrast.

I also like the idea of gradation you mentioned above. I accidentally did that on a few of the Vasa castings. Of course, scale becomes an issue.

 

[Dean62]

Never thought you were being critical Dean. If we don't push each other we'll never achieve much beyond what we think our limits are. I took your post in the helpful way you intended.

I'm starting to feel that way. In the same way that macro photos emphasize our mistakes - they also magnify the details on the stove (and its colorization). In looking at the stove again just now I wonder if I need to make the effects more pronounced for 'everyday' viewing.

As I mentioned, washes don't behave particularly well on flat surfaces. But I have a Tamiya powder kit - if I can add some dark tones along the borders/edges of some of the components and then re-highlight I might be able to add some depth/contrast.

I also like the idea of gradation you mentioned above. I accidentally did that on a few of the Vasa castings. Of course, scale becomes an issue.

I love the Tamiya powder kits! You can achieve results like an airbrush with them. Like the exhaust I did on the Lotus 72.
If anything you can experiment with adding some white with your base color, and just highlight some of the edges. But once again, there is really nothing wrong with what you have achieved. So it’s up to you whether you are happy with it. I know most everyone would be!
But there are some of us picky folks who make life hard on ourselves! I wonder if that’s why I like the Chris Stapleton song Starting Over?

 

[Dean62]

One more thing, since we are discussing techniques. On the transmission of the Lotus 72, it started as black. Then I dry brushed it with grey on the edges. Then I used the Tamiya powder dry brush to add the metal color to whole thing. So because the edges started as a lighter color, they stood out even more after dry brushing the metal color on. And that’s why your primer being black or grey will affect the final color you put on top. The black base will be darker and the grey lighter. I hope I am not being rhetorical, but just covering the bases, so to speak.
So in conclusion, sometimes you want to highlight your edges before you dry brush the whole piece. That way the enhanced edges are not overpowering and thus look more natural.

 

[Nomad]

One more thing, since we are discussing techniques. On the transmission of the Lotus 72, it started as black. Then I dry brushed it with grey on the edges. Then I used the Tamiya powder dry brush to add the metal color to whole thing. So because the edges started as a lighter color, they stood out even more after dry brushing the metal color on. And that’s why your primer being black or grey will affect the final color you put on top. The black base will be darker and the grey lighter. I hope I am not being rhetorical, but just covering the bases, so to speak.
So in conclusion, sometimes you want to highlight your edges before you dry brush the whole piece. That way the enhanced edges are not overpowering and thus look more natural.

Yup, this is next-level artist stuff

 

[Daniel20]

What a fascinating discussion on painting techniques you two.

I wonder if I need to make the effects more pronounced for 'everyday' viewing.

One more thing, since we are discussing techniques.

It is certainly one area of modeling that I am woefully lacking in but will always try and pay attention to and even try to emulate occasionally. Thanks to both of you for sharing all this information.

 

[Bill Hime]

Paul, I don't think I've seen a better outcome as your stove anywhere. Authentically sized, looks like we could fire her up. So many turn out looking like a toy. Nice touch with the dry brush as well! You are mastering your craft!