SOLFERINO 1861: French Ironclad in 350th and 700th

[callen]

I kept bumping my nice sharp ram bow as I handled and worked the ship. Each time I sighed with relief to see I had not damaged it, but I finally decided it was better to be safe than sorry, so I super glued a bit of styrene sheet to the bottom of the waterline plate to protect the ram from breakage. The waterline plate was steel, so I knew I would be able to pull it off later. Sometimes CA causes all kinds of problems, and sometimes it just works great... In this case, it worked as I intended.

Starboard quarter window ports completed. Time to finish off the hull...

Planking the stern undercut and laying in the stern-post (0.01x0.01in. strip)

You may notice in some of these photos that the last large window in the upper deck are not aligned. (stbd is higher than port) I didn't actually notice this until I began laying in the upper wale strips...

laying in the upper wale strip. This was to be a base for two very thin brass wires to run almost like a de-gaussing cable right round the hull as per Bruno's plans.

[callen]

Lower wale-base completed.

The plan called for a very thin 'lip' or rounded wale on the upper edge of the bulwarks all the way round. I attempted this with my thinnest brass wire, hoping I could glue it symmetrically to the bulwarks with CA. Very tricky...

Bending wire to shape for the bow.

Bow arc in place... it worked!

Amidships...

Like a lot of my efforts on the Solferino this was a real challenge. Some of these wires had to be pulled off and re set before I could get them matching on both sides, the quick set up of the CA didn't help things...

Trying to capture the brass rod running along the top edge of the bulwarks... camera focus field not very effective in these shots, unfortunately.

[wefalck]

Actually, I was wondering, whether it would have not been possible to make the non-ironclad portions of the hull also from an etched part: taking first the shape off the hull using a paper template and then to draw the windows and plank lines on it for converting into an etching mask; then to etch the part in very thin foil. After annealing it could be coerced onto the hull.

wefalck

[callen]

Detailing the lower wales. The actual ship had two rounded wales here. The only way I could think to reproduce them was again with brass wire.

Very difficult to fit two brass wires close together with CA and make them uniform as well.

Not uniform.

I decided to remove the brass wire and leave the styrene strip in place. This particular detail defeated me.

Building the two flanking deck houses at the bow. I think they might actually have been bathrooms. These would be covered later by a forecastle deck, but each had a doorway facing inward. I felt if I could create and cast them them open topped, the doorway could be hollowed out later and an actual space revealed behind it. The question is, would it cast?

Hammock storage PE detail mounted to the top of the bulwark.

[callen]

There's the doorway I was referring to earlier. This will be a raised detail once cast which the modeler can use as a guide to hollow out and open up the interior space.

The aft deck house dilemma. After reviewing the plans, I realized I had sighted this little box of a deck house in the wrong place on the stern. There was no avoiding this, not only because the site was wrong, but because I had mounted it where a companion way should be. Prying the part off and re siting it would be no great difficulty, but how to create the companion way box inside the hull where the PE stairs would go later? The inside of the hull is partially filled with putty. Casting the hull with a gaping hole leading to the interior was not an option, nor at this stage could I rip up the deck. I would somehow have to create the box from above and hope for the best.

The tricky part was mounting the floor.

Deckhouse re sited.

Not an ideal solution, but it would keep the mold rubber from seeping into the interior of the master. I still have the option to enlarge this area in the resin copy after casting. Once that's done it will have the same shape and depth of the other companion way spaces. The important thing is that the deck house was now in the right place. All of this happened literally the day before I was scheduled to make the first master cast at Rusty White's studio. Last minute drama!

[callen]

If you look closely at the last pictures in the previous post, you can see that the deck plate around the last hastily fitted companion way took a beating in the process of pulling up and re siting the aft deck house. In thinking about this I realized that the situation could be improved if I were to scratch raised coamings around it to hide the roughened steel at the edge. And that made me realize that coamings for all the deck openings was probably a good idea.

Coamings completed for all aft deck openings.

Coamings completed for all forward deck openings. Now, finally she was ready for casting... this was the day of delivery to Rusty's studio. I was out of time, but thank God, finally done.

In the rush I neglected to take my camera to the studio, so there are no images of the actual casting process. If you want to see what it looks like though, I have pics of Rusty's studio in my Portuguese Carrack thread here:
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/v ... se+carrack

somewhere around page 4 or 5.

These next shots show what sometimes happens to a casting master once it has been used to create a mold. Damage!!!

Gunwales on the port side are ripped up. Most of my nice coamings were destroyed as well. Fine wire wales round the top edge of the bulwarks partially or completely destroyed.

Funnel base and aft deckhouse torn off of the deck plate.

Also we had bits of the rubber mold material adhering to the hull in many of the tiny nooks and crannies... it really looked a mess, not at all like my little carrack masters which went through the molding process almost without damage.

Interestingly enough, the funnel, which was quite delicate and had the ring of styrene and wire round the top edge survived unscathed... Rusty had often warned me that this kind of thing would happen with casting. He even went so far as to say 'Sometimes you lose your master in getting a mold.' My Solferino Master is not completely destroyed. Actually it's a pretty solid little thing, but it would definitely take some time to repair.

The big question now was, what would the first cast look like?

[callen]

Cast #1. Now on it's way to France. This was my first look at the payoff for two months of work.

Bulwark detail did not cast well. The thin brass wire detail did not survive casting intact.

Deck looks good.

Funnel a bit rough but with nice delicate sides. Could be cleaned up with a little sanding.

Armor detail came out nicely.

Armor plates very difficult to photograph, and can only be seen in the bare resin by creating a sheen on them.

Planking detail.

Closeup shot of deck.

[callen]

More shots of the 1st master.

Port quarter bulwark damage. The reason for this is that the brass wire, although secured to the bulwark was not completely sealed to it, and came away in bits after casting as a result... another lesson learned.

Bits of mold material sticking out of different nooks and crannies...

Deck came out nicely.

[callen]

One of the 2nd batch of casts.

The funnels did not cast well after the 2nd cast. We had to cast additional funnels separately.

The hammock stowage detail on the top of the bulwarks cast well on some casts, and poorly on others. Not sure why this is the case.

What about the 2% shrinkage?

I compared the master to the casts and was not able to discern any difference in size. I had my wife help me photograph them just to be sure. I also checked different dimensions. As far as my eye can tell, they are exactly the same size. Or to put that another way, my 1/700th scale Solferino is very slightly over scale.

Who knows? maybe we can start a new trend in 1/699th scale. I think it's a much superior scale to 1/700th and will quickly take over the hobby as the new definitive waterline ship model scale! It's possible they are still shrinking, and will eventually be smaller than the master, I haven't yet remeasured them, so I'm not sure. It could be (on the other hand) that the 2% shrinkage only affects larger models, and has to do with the heat created during the resin casting process, but to be honest I don't really know.

[callen]

Family portrait...

Numbered. Two casts to France, two for myself to model, and one as a secondary casting master.

That brings us up to date on the Solferino situation. As you can see I am not completely happy with the results. I'm learning though that nothing ever quite comes out perfect in modeling. In this case I think that the flaws in this master fall into two categories:

1. issues that can be corrected or replaced easily.

2. issues that will not be apparent on the finished model.

So I've decided I'm going to press ahead with these casts and build the Solferino and Magenta on this basis.

I hope you all are enjoying the hobby. I'll have more to post soon. Thanks for stopping by!

[JIM BAUMANN]

That looks very promising!

I have built some fine models from a much inferior starting point and much rougher casting...

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... eview.html
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... index.html


so take heart== it all looks buildable!

Best wishes

JB

[callen]

That looks very promising!

I have built some fine models from a much inferior starting point and much rougher casting...

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... eview.html
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... index.html


so take heart== it all looks buildable!

Best wishes

JB

Thanks Jim! Much appreciated. I am going to press forward. As I was telling Bruno, having built it I know there are a thousand tiny errors, but it actually doesn't look that bad. I think there's something to be said for perseverance in modeling.

[Dave Wooley]

Callen Wow I am just bowled over . You sir are a master scratch builder . Now I am viewing this from a perspective of much larger scales so at 1:700 the results look amazing.
Dave Wooley

[callen]

Callen Wow I am just bowled over . You sir are a master scratch builder . Now I am viewing this from a perspective of much larger scales so at 1:700 the results look amazing.
Dave Wooley

Wow. High praise indeed! Thank you sir. Your comments give me hope that I might someday be able to tackle the sort of large scale subjects you and Ron knock out, though they look daunting to me. Someone recently made a post about a warped hull... goodness. I can only imagine that much work (and materials) going down the tubes. Thanks for stopping by.

[russclark]

hello callen,i just read your post from front to the end,my goodness what a lovely job of scratch building.i cannot imagine building in 1/700 my eyes do not see that small .every thing on the master is suberb.the casting look great,the decking came out great also.i do some mould building and castings also,but nothing as detailed or small as you .i take my hat of to you a job well done and nicly documented.

[callen]

hello callen,i just read your post from front to the end,my goodness what a lovely job of scratch building.i cannot imagine building in 1/700 my eyes do not see that small .every thing on the master is suberb.the casting look great,the decking came out great also.i do some mould building and castings also,but nothing as detailed or small as you .i take my hat of to you a job well done and nicly documented.

Hey Russ! Thanks for stopping by! Man, I really appreciate your comments and encouragement. I've struggled in working with these new media to do the same kinds of things I was doing on my other all styrene builds. It's been a big challenge, but also a great learning experience. I'm hoping from this point to have 'smooth sailing' (no pun intended.) The next step will be painting up the hull and then it will be time for Bruno's fabulous PE. Thanks again for stopping by. Hope to have some new posts soon. Cheers!

[bgire]

Now her hulls are cast and ready for built, Neal will have to cope with my PE detail set

Here's a scan of the etched sheet:



The whole masting has been specially done after plans I supplied to Master Model (Poland). Piotr did a stunning work, as ever...
Here are the masters he turned for the 1:350 scale guns:



Good luck!
_Bruno

[JIM BAUMANN]

delicious looking PE !!

what a great co-operative project!

JB

[wefalck]

1/700 is not really my scale, but I have to agree with Jim that the fret is impressive.

The guns look a bit strange to me actually. Comparing the muzzles with the models in Paris, they appear to be rather 'baroque'.

I am currently on the other side of the globe, but once back home, I can also check against my contemporary sources on french artillery.

[bgire]

The guns look a bit strange to me actually. Comparing the muzzles with the models in Paris, they appear to be rather 'baroque'.

I designed the guns directly from those on the Gloire plans published by the Mus�e de la Marine.
The muzzles appear oversize mainly because the bigger part of the gun is missing: I only kept the protruding part.
Both Gloire and Solferino/ Magenta were designed at about the same period by the same engineer (Dupuy de L�me) and share many equipment and fittings.

This greatly helped me in designing small parts, ship boats and keeping the same period style.
_Bruno