san felipe (yuanqing)+pear carvings

[yancovitch]

sorry but this is not a build log but rather an occasional update on my progress in kit bashing.....i'm not doing what's right but what pleases me..and i couldn't post the build due to my tearing apart putting together....patching here and there, till i got it right...like sculpting with clay.....being built in my tiny bedroom with the extreme tolerance of my wife....heavy stuff outside....started it around sept 20
i seem to be to lazy to get the correct terminology in these things, so bear with me....or is it bare?
1-i raised the stern and made a bit more sheer on the gun decks opposed to a straight line.....
2- i raised the waterline a bit so it didn't look so top heavy like the heller soleil royal....
3- i created a bit more angle on the transom to accommodate the pear carvings
4- i really wanted to go oh natural with the pear carvings, but the color variation on them was too extreme....the figurehead looked like black walnut.....so gold it is.....i have to check on judea bitumen, which was recommended to me to treat the sculptures....
5-trying to darken the hull with polyshade stain....much work to do there.....couldn't afford pearwood strips....was already too costly for me....
6- the stern galleries were compacted and shaped differently...the main decorative panel was too fat, so i broke it up with a simple gold decoration at the bottom........
that's it for now.....

 

[Maarten]

Hi Vic,

Good start on this project.
The pear carvings look very detailed and the gold suits them well.

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Agreed on the carvings - the kit does a nice job of those. The whole thing pleases me very much as well! Really nice alterations, Vic!

 

[Y.T.]

All changes you did to original kit designers intent seems to be looking good on the model.

 

[yancovitch]

merci guys.....the wood in the kit wasn't bad but came out blotchy...will probably take a week of fiddling around to make the hull planking acceptable.....it was too light and the decking was dark...just the opposite of what i wanted...so i ordered some maple planking.......and am using polyshades urethane to somehow darken the hull...i don't like stains, but i'm stuck here, and wish to avoid buying pearwood to re-cover the siding......
gads, this is a long ship.....reminds me of the uss convederacy........