Dutch Fluit Schwarzer Rabe, 1627 - Shipyard 1/96 by catopower

[Seahorse]

Really good start. Go on, she looks pretty.

Tomek

PS. Regarding her name, Maurice is right. The ships of the Polish-Lithuanian fleet in the Battle of Oliwa had German names.

[scon10]

the toilet is called "the head"!

Ah, I didn't know that. I know the expression, and it makes sense now.

[Erik Zwaan]

Thanks guys, I learned a new bit of history, wasn't aware of it. Excellent modeling on the planking - hope you won't leave the model aside too long....

Erik

[catopower]

Thanks Erik. In fact, I have yet to set the model aside, as I'm making progress on the hull planking, and it seems a strange time to stop.

Below the waterline, when the planking is done, I think i'm going to have to soak it with CA, to harden the paper. Then, I'll be sanding lightly to get rid of ridges formed along the edges from cutting, etc.

I will probably apply a little paint below the waterline as well. For one thing, it's too bright white. And, for another, I want to subdue those black print lines a bit, as well as any slight gaps between the planking strips.

I'm just starting to prep the stem/beakhead and sternpost/skeg parts now.

It would be nice to get the lower hull done, so that I can start planning on the eventual mounting of the model. On my HMS Alert model, I mounted the hull using a pair of brass rods. They make a nice minimalist mounting, which I tend to like. But, more on that later.

[birder]

Very nice hull looks true and with the early ship lines Clare. Looking forward to following your progress

[Bob Hunt]

Quick question, are the decks laser cut and laser etched on thick cardstock like the bulkheads? I assume that you had to just paint them if they were. What kind of paint did you use to paint the decks?

[catopower]

Thanks for the nice comments Glen!

Hi Bob, the decks are made of two layers. The base layer is thin card stock that's nicely laser-cut. On top of that is a printed deck which is not laser cut. There's not scoring or anything, but the planking details are very nicely done and the planks have a slight color variation, so it looks very realistic.

There is a slight sheen to the printed parts. So, at some point, I'll spray the whole model with dull coat. But, I also tend to give a very light wash of acrylic paint to make the "wood" look more natural. The printed parts look a little too crisp otherwise. I did this with my paper model of HMS Alert and displayed it as a ship model conference. People kept asking me what kind of wood I used!

[Erik Zwaan]

Maybe you can apply a bit of weathering to the white planking and other parts of the hull to tone down the colors? I can imagine that the white underwater planking turned greenish (algae) and greyish (general dirt) after a relatively short period. And you may wonder what white paint consisted of in these old days. Certainly not RAL 9010 equivalent .

Cheers,
Erik

[Bob Hunt]

Thanks Clare. I think I'm going to order this kit along with the supplement on the Poland website.


Bob

[mdesaxe]

"White stuff" basically was tallow and white lead, so it definitely had a yellowish tint.

Maurice