I'm a veteran of over 60 of these and am currently collecting both sides of Trafalgar. One tip I can give re: yellow hulls. Spray with Army Painter Desert Yellow then drybrush with Citadel Averland Sunset (decent pigment). Wash with Army Painter Soft Tone and then drybrush with a lightened shade of Averland Sunset (add some light cream or white to it) to finish. Enjoy.
Hi, Jacques. Great video. Rather than taking the superglue/CA directly from the bottle, pour some into a beer bottle cap (or similar) and then you can take controlled amounts using your cocktail stick. As a bo us, you can leave your glue bottle closed and also less clogged at the tip. You can also make a simple glue cup using foil, or if you have dodgy eyesight, like me, daily contact lens cases are pefect for the job. Cheers, Steve
That's a wonderful idea, thank you very much! I definitely feel like my super glue bottles always clog up before I'm quite finished with them, so I appreciate the inspired way to work around that, I'll try it on my next project!
When using light colours that don’t cover well, like yellow, it is best to pre paint the area white and then lay the yellow over too once the white has dried.
Definitely! I unfortunately lost the footage of me priming Indy before getting to the editing, but I had primed it using Vallejo white using my airbrush and then laid some yellow overtop - you can see the end result of that step at about 4:15. The big problems for me started after that, since I had decided that the flat yellow lacked definition and looked very artificial... then I messed with it. You're right that I probably should've just gone back to the basics after my disaster with the wash and reprimed everything white and started from a flat yellow again!
Thanks very much! I'm glad it helped! I have several more of these ships to paint, so I'm sure I can make another video - is there any part of the process that you would like to make sure I highlight?
@@WysteriaGuitar Sounds good! I'll try to get a bit more specific when painting things like the transom or deck fittings next time around, which should be easy now that I have my colours all sorted out!
She's sea worthy alright! Very informative. These ships are a bit of a departure from standard figures and can be a bit scary if you've never done anything like that before. Oh, and yellow seems to suck pretty much no matter what, and that's a bummer because it's one of my favorite colors. That said, a light primer or base coat like white or light greys can help.
It was definitely a steep learning curve, but the big advantage (on my end) of making these videos is that I get to document these lessons, as much for other viewers as for myself! For the next ones, I'm aiming to forgo the zenithal highlight (since I'm not sure it did much with all the coats of yellow and black) and just prime in white, then work the yellow areas up through a beige or cork brown - hopefully that will warm them up and make them look fuller!
During high school I built the two foot model of the Constitution. I pulled the rigging string through a wax stick first. Lines are still pretty tight after 60 years.
Looks good. My only suggestion for the flags is to use watered down pva to soak the back sides of the flags and then when they are more pliable apply superglue them to rigging. You can then shape them as the pva dries and it will harden quite nicely.
That makes a lot of sense - does using watered down PVA not soak the paper? I was worried that getting the long, thin pennants wet that way would lead to them just turning to pulp and shredding as I tried to massage them into place.
I'm actually doing that with some Hail Caesar Epic Battles figures at the moment! For larger constructions I like to build it to get an idea how everything will look before I put any paint on, just as a personal preference.
Lack of sheets on staysails really triggers me :P But this would be a huge pain to do, I know. Now, for painting yellow, I have this tip: use white, ivory or grey undercoat, then a heavy body yellow, like averland sunset. For wash do not use acrylic, use oil or enamel instead. First, use a gloss acrylic varnish, apply enamel wash, wipe excess with turpentine (turpentine does not dissolve acrylics), cover with matt varnish afterwards. It will give very precise and intense panel lines without the filter effect. Gloss varnish additionally helps the wash flow into recesses and wipe any unwanted residue
Yeah I'll definitely go with that next time! I'll also aim to apply the yellow overtop of it through the airbrush for a smoooooth coat haha! The problem of painting black next to yellow and making mistakes remains, but I suppose that's just life.
Regards for the triangular sails, working from tip to the mainmast: Flying Jib, Outer Jib, Inner Jib, and Fore topmast staysail. The fore topmast staysail would have been #4, and the model only shows three. Nothing keeps you from crafting your own sails if needed. :) What I'm tempted to do when I finally settle down to start on my own Black Seas models, is to craft those jib sails much the same way the flags included in the model are crafted: Make them of tissue soaked in diluted glue, such that when they fold - they include the line in their fold, so they hang properly. Problem is - will they be TOO heavy or not? Someone suggested the use of Jewelry wire for rigging, and I thought "Hmm, interesting idea". Makes me want to experiment even further! As it is, I'm not willing to use the ratlines as supplied by the model, and want to try to experiment with that process. Experiments I intend to try now are: Tissue based diluted elmer's glue sails, Teabag Sails, creating my own ratlines using string, and now possibly using Jewelry wire for the stays.
Thanks very much for the sail nomenclature! There is so much to know about the age of sail haha. I've strongly considered making my own sails but the little experiments I've done have not quite panned out. I've tried toilet roll papier mâché but the shape was too difficult to hold (perhaps a thin wire frame could be hidden within the edges of the sail but I've not tried that yet). Doing the rigging out of wire sounds like it would look much better *and* be more durable, so I will have to try that! I am with you on the ratlines as well, I wonder if I can twist some fine jewelry wire together for those too.
Although yellow is a difficult color to paint, with a little practice you can manage it. In the past, as a challenge, I painted yellow starting from a black base (for example for the power armor of the Imperial Fists Space Marines): the secret is to use a flesh-colored base (at the time I used Bronzed Flesh, now there are Bugman's Glow or Ratkin's Flesh). Then you'll use yellow only to highlight. In this case, however, you should start with a white base and don't use yellow (Averland Sunset) alone, but always mixed up with a very light gray, which has a better grip and more pigments. Administratum Gray or even lighter colors (bone colors) are fine. I try to apply several very fine coats of this mixed color, in order to avoid the unsightly brushstrokes. Once satisfied with the result I can give a wash using Seraphim Sepia diluted with Lahmiam Medium; but try to apply it only in targeted areas (not on the whole model, as you did). If by mistake you wash the whole model or you accidentally cover a part that was not in a recess, you have to apply again the yellow (mixed with light gray) that you gave for the base and correct the mistake. Now you can highlight with a lighter yellow layer for a better finish. For the French, who have an even lighter yellow hull color, I use Dorn Yellow directly mixed with light gray (I think that's the name of GW's "edge" yellow). All in all I liked your video, but in my opinion your ship is not yet finished. The sails, which you don't like, are for me the thing that came out best for you. The rigges are a little loose, pull them a little with the pliers and fix them in position with a little cyanoacrylate glue to tighten them better, and you will see that they will be fine. The lack of ratlines is worse than using the acrylic ratlines included in the set, which are not evil. I have not yet tried to put them on the third rank ships, but on the fifth rank frigates it is enough, before putting the glue, to test to see where to put them, and I glue them only when I have decided where to put them and in any case after cutting with a X-acto knife some small rectangles from the ratlines to allow the cannons to fit. The worst thing about your ship though are the paint job inaccuracies of the horizontal black lines on the masts. Actually, mix a little yellow with a light gray and correct those, then counter-correct with black until you are happy with the result, because in my opinion this ship is not yet over. Then I'd like a metal color around the guns. To make the sails (but I repeat, I like them how you put them, it is the thing that you did best, and it is not easy) is to use the green stuff, well pressed with a sort of rolling pin between two sheets of baking parchment.
Very detailed, thank you! The problem with the rigging on this ship that I encountered here is that the plastic masts are so flexible - when I tighten one line, the mast shifts and loosens another line. It's quite fiddly, and unfortunately I just had to walk away at some point in order to get on with other projects. As for the ratlines, I suppose our opinions differ on that one, because I simply hate the shiny acrylic! Maybe some stretched cheesecloth dyed black or something could fill in for them on future ships.
on the topic of sails, i dont understand why they made the shading green, maybe it was a printing mistake, maybe in the digital version its yellow but it comes out green when printing. makes the sails look like theyve been growing algae cultures :D
For my Hulls i use Vallejo Model Color 70.913 Yellow Ochre. To light it up i use 70.976 Buff. Works well for me. Try to seal the model befor u wash ist. With a glossy varnish. Than use a watered down wash. the smoother surface let it flow better. BEcause washes darken everythin down i use Quickshade strong tone, the bottled stuff not the dip in the can.
How do you apply your Quickshade? I bought some bottles to give them a go but found the thickness very offputting - I'm more used to doing pin washes on small details, so this overall washing business is new to me haha!
I tried that, but when the tissues were drying out they wrinkled as wet paper does, and got quite a lot of aberrations that I didn't love, even when I pressed them between silicone sheets at the tail end of the process (they wouldn't dry if they were pressed from the start...). Have you managed to get smooth sheets this way? Interested to hear your methods if so!
@@JacquesofallGames I have not try it for sails I use the method on covered wagons for my 15mm ACW and have like the results. replacing the tissue paper with a thin white cloth might solve that problem or litter thicker paper but it might a case of testing until find the out you like.
@@matttaylor4003 Good idea on the covered wagons! I just fear the little wrinkles will look weird on a sail that is meant to be ballooning in the wind. Some thin white cloth might be the ticket for me. Of all things, I've had some luck cutting up particularly thin t-shirts or the tags from clothing and stiffening them with white glue to make flags, so I may have to try that next.
I too came across a reference for using teabags in which you cut the tops open and dump the tea, but then use the tea filter material as sails. Watching your video with respect to sails, pennants, and flags - got me to thinking. What if you created your jib sails from tea bags or paper or what have you such that, like the pennants, FOLD together to form the triangular shape of the sail? This way, when you fold it over onto the Stays - the sail if firmly anchored to the stay (thread). You can even create another line that anchor's the final point of the sail directly to the bowspirit or to the ship (have to check a book on rigging to be sure). One experiment that I want to try is to heat the plastic masts to where I can gently twist the mast. Why? As crafted, the masts when placed onto the decks, will have the masts so that they form a 90 degree angle to the centerline of the ship as seen from the top (where the line goes through all three masts and onto the bow spirit). By creating a slight angle, the ship's spars would be angled as they would be when the wind is coming from say, the 5 or 7 O'clock angle from the aft (Quarter Reaching). I'm also wondering if I can carefully modify the spars with the furled sails attached to where they look as if they do not have the sails furled (ie sand it down, cut it etc), and then craft a new set of sails so that it looks like it is at full sail. That will come well after I've tried my first few models however. By watching videos like this, I can at least learn ahead of time, some of the issues I will be facing. Now if only I could find out how the French and Spanish rigged their jibs. The phrase "Cut of their jib" seems to have originated in the fact that sailors could tell what crew was manning the ship by how they rigged their sails...
While it’s a cool model, unfortunately it doesn’t look like Indefatigable, which would have had a raised cabin as she was built as a ship of the line before being razeed. However your building is amazing regardless
Very true, and good eye! I just built her out of the box using the bits Warlord provides, which is a very generic frigate hull and the metal fittings. Converting the Warlord models to make a razee would probably be an interesting project for another day, now that you mention it, haha. Glad you enjoyed the video in any case!
On these Warlord Games plastic models, the Mainsail and Foresail are actually sculpted as being furled onto the lower yards - if you look closely at those lower yards, you should see the sailcloth gathered up and tied! I painted those furled sails very quickly with just an off white and a darker colour for the recesses, trying to kindof mirror the greenish off-white we can see at the bottom of the printed sails that come with the kit. At around 13:19 you can see the Foresail quite clearly below the Fore Topsail, which I am gluing on at the time!
I'm a veteran of over 60 of these and am currently collecting both sides of Trafalgar. One tip I can give re: yellow hulls. Spray with Army Painter Desert Yellow then drybrush with Citadel Averland Sunset (decent pigment). Wash with Army Painter Soft Tone and then drybrush with a lightened shade of Averland Sunset (add some light cream or white to it) to finish. Enjoy.
Hi, Jacques. Great video.
Rather than taking the superglue/CA directly from the bottle, pour some into a beer bottle cap (or similar) and then you can take controlled amounts using your cocktail stick. As a bo us, you can leave your glue bottle closed and also less clogged at the tip.
You can also make a simple glue cup using foil, or if you have dodgy eyesight, like me, daily contact lens cases are pefect for the job.
Cheers,
Steve
That's a wonderful idea, thank you very much! I definitely feel like my super glue bottles always clog up before I'm quite finished with them, so I appreciate the inspired way to work around that, I'll try it on my next project!
When using light colours that don’t cover well, like yellow, it is best to pre paint the area white and then lay the yellow over too once the white has dried.
Definitely! I unfortunately lost the footage of me priming Indy before getting to the editing, but I had primed it using Vallejo white using my airbrush and then laid some yellow overtop - you can see the end result of that step at about 4:15. The big problems for me started after that, since I had decided that the flat yellow lacked definition and looked very artificial... then I messed with it. You're right that I probably should've just gone back to the basics after my disaster with the wash and reprimed everything white and started from a flat yellow again!
Turned out nice in the end, thanks for the lesson, please do another if you can I am still learning...
Thanks very much! I'm glad it helped! I have several more of these ships to paint, so I'm sure I can make another video - is there any part of the process that you would like to make sure I highlight?
@@JacquesofallGames Thank you. I guess how to paint the details would be cool to go over.
@@WysteriaGuitar Sounds good! I'll try to get a bit more specific when painting things like the transom or deck fittings next time around, which should be easy now that I have my colours all sorted out!
She's sea worthy alright! Very informative. These ships are a bit of a departure from standard figures and can be a bit scary if you've never done anything like that before. Oh, and yellow seems to suck pretty much no matter what, and that's a bummer because it's one of my favorite colors. That said, a light primer or base coat like white or light greys can help.
It was definitely a steep learning curve, but the big advantage (on my end) of making these videos is that I get to document these lessons, as much for other viewers as for myself! For the next ones, I'm aiming to forgo the zenithal highlight (since I'm not sure it did much with all the coats of yellow and black) and just prime in white, then work the yellow areas up through a beige or cork brown - hopefully that will warm them up and make them look fuller!
During high school I built the two foot model of the Constitution. I pulled the rigging string through a wax stick first. Lines are still pretty tight after 60 years.
Oh what a cool project! And a great tip, thank you!
Looks good. My only suggestion for the flags is to use watered down pva to soak the back sides of the flags and then when they are more pliable apply superglue them to rigging. You can then shape them as the pva dries and it will harden quite nicely.
That makes a lot of sense - does using watered down PVA not soak the paper? I was worried that getting the long, thin pennants wet that way would lead to them just turning to pulp and shredding as I tried to massage them into place.
A little heat can tighten up the rigging. I run the tip of a soldering iron half an inch from the string and it works nicely.
That's a really cool tip, thank you! The slight droopiness was definitely getting on my nerves.
Paint it all on the carrier, then clip, touch up and assemble. Thats how i am doing it.
I'm actually doing that with some Hail Caesar Epic Battles figures at the moment! For larger constructions I like to build it to get an idea how everything will look before I put any paint on, just as a personal preference.
Lack of sheets on staysails really triggers me :P But this would be a huge pain to do, I know.
Now, for painting yellow, I have this tip: use white, ivory or grey undercoat, then a heavy body yellow, like averland sunset. For wash do not use acrylic, use oil or enamel instead. First, use a gloss acrylic varnish, apply enamel wash, wipe excess with turpentine (turpentine does not dissolve acrylics), cover with matt varnish afterwards. It will give very precise and intense panel lines without the filter effect. Gloss varnish additionally helps the wash flow into recesses and wipe any unwanted residue
Interesting, I'd never thought about using gloss varnish as a flow improver! That sounds like a much better wash recipe.
I always paint on white first before painting yellow, I know how frustrating it can be!
Yeah I'll definitely go with that next time! I'll also aim to apply the yellow overtop of it through the airbrush for a smoooooth coat haha! The problem of painting black next to yellow and making mistakes remains, but I suppose that's just life.
Regards for the triangular sails, working from tip to the mainmast: Flying Jib, Outer Jib, Inner Jib, and Fore topmast staysail. The fore topmast staysail would have been #4, and the model only shows three. Nothing keeps you from crafting your own sails if needed. :)
What I'm tempted to do when I finally settle down to start on my own Black Seas models, is to craft those jib sails much the same way the flags included in the model are crafted: Make them of tissue soaked in diluted glue, such that when they fold - they include the line in their fold, so they hang properly. Problem is - will they be TOO heavy or not?
Someone suggested the use of Jewelry wire for rigging, and I thought "Hmm, interesting idea". Makes me want to experiment even further! As it is, I'm not willing to use the ratlines as supplied by the model, and want to try to experiment with that process.
Experiments I intend to try now are: Tissue based diluted elmer's glue sails, Teabag Sails, creating my own ratlines using string, and now possibly using Jewelry wire for the stays.
Thanks very much for the sail nomenclature! There is so much to know about the age of sail haha.
I've strongly considered making my own sails but the little experiments I've done have not quite panned out. I've tried toilet roll papier mâché but the shape was too difficult to hold (perhaps a thin wire frame could be hidden within the edges of the sail but I've not tried that yet). Doing the rigging out of wire sounds like it would look much better *and* be more durable, so I will have to try that! I am with you on the ratlines as well, I wonder if I can twist some fine jewelry wire together for those too.
Very good tips, thanks.
Glad they were helpful!
Although yellow is a difficult color to paint, with a little practice you can manage it. In the past, as a challenge, I painted yellow starting from a black base (for example for the power armor of the Imperial Fists Space Marines): the secret is to use a flesh-colored base (at the time I used Bronzed Flesh, now there are Bugman's Glow or Ratkin's Flesh). Then you'll use yellow only to highlight. In this case, however, you should start with a white base and don't use yellow (Averland Sunset) alone, but always mixed up with a very light gray, which has a better grip and more pigments. Administratum Gray or even lighter colors (bone colors) are fine. I try to apply several very fine coats of this mixed color, in order to avoid the unsightly brushstrokes. Once satisfied with the result I can give a wash using Seraphim Sepia diluted with Lahmiam Medium; but try to apply it only in targeted areas (not on the whole model, as you did). If by mistake you wash the whole model or you accidentally cover a part that was not in a recess, you have to apply again the yellow (mixed with light gray) that you gave for the base and correct the mistake. Now you can highlight with a lighter yellow layer for a better finish. For the French, who have an even lighter yellow hull color, I use Dorn Yellow directly mixed with light gray (I think that's the name of GW's "edge" yellow). All in all I liked your video, but in my opinion your ship is not yet finished. The sails, which you don't like, are for me the thing that came out best for you. The rigges are a little loose, pull them a little with the pliers and fix them in position with a little cyanoacrylate glue to tighten them better, and you will see that they will be fine. The lack of ratlines is worse than using the acrylic ratlines included in the set, which are not evil. I have not yet tried to put them on the third rank ships, but on the fifth rank frigates it is enough, before putting the glue, to test to see where to put them, and I glue them only when I have decided where to put them and in any case after cutting with a X-acto knife some small rectangles from the ratlines to allow the cannons to fit. The worst thing about your ship though are the paint job inaccuracies of the horizontal black lines on the masts. Actually, mix a little yellow with a light gray and correct those, then counter-correct with black until you are happy with the result, because in my opinion this ship is not yet over.
Then I'd like a metal color around the guns.
To make the sails (but I repeat, I like them how you put them, it is the thing that you did best, and it is not easy) is to use the green stuff, well pressed with a sort of rolling pin between two sheets of baking parchment.
Very detailed, thank you! The problem with the rigging on this ship that I encountered here is that the plastic masts are so flexible - when I tighten one line, the mast shifts and loosens another line. It's quite fiddly, and unfortunately I just had to walk away at some point in order to get on with other projects. As for the ratlines, I suppose our opinions differ on that one, because I simply hate the shiny acrylic! Maybe some stretched cheesecloth dyed black or something could fill in for them on future ships.
on the topic of sails, i dont understand why they made the shading green, maybe it was a printing mistake, maybe in the digital version its yellow but it comes out green when printing. makes the sails look like theyve been growing algae cultures :D
Hahaha very good point! I'm not sure Lord Nelson et al. would approve of a ship's company that lets moss grow on their sails...
According to the historians restoring HMS Victory the Royal Navy yellow of 1805 was a yellow with a slight pinkish tone.
That's interesting! What does pinkish yellow look like, though? Salmon-adjacent I suppose?
For my Hulls i use Vallejo Model Color 70.913 Yellow Ochre. To light it up i use 70.976 Buff. Works well for me. Try to seal the model befor u wash ist. With a glossy varnish. Than use a watered down wash. the smoother surface let it flow better. BEcause washes darken everythin down i use Quickshade strong tone, the bottled stuff not the dip in the can.
How do you apply your Quickshade? I bought some bottles to give them a go but found the thickness very offputting - I'm more used to doing pin washes on small details, so this overall washing business is new to me haha!
I used assorted sizes of fine brass wire! Spray the strands with black paint before beginning
That is an incredibly good idea, thanks for that!
I use Vallejo yellow ochre as a base for yellow.
I'll check it out, thank you!
as for a replacement sail i would try using the paper as a template the use tissue paper cover in a PVA glue and water mix
I tried that, but when the tissues were drying out they wrinkled as wet paper does, and got quite a lot of aberrations that I didn't love, even when I pressed them between silicone sheets at the tail end of the process (they wouldn't dry if they were pressed from the start...). Have you managed to get smooth sheets this way? Interested to hear your methods if so!
@@JacquesofallGames I have not try it for sails I use the method on covered wagons for my 15mm ACW and have like the results. replacing the tissue paper with a thin white cloth might solve that problem or litter thicker paper but it might a case of testing until find the out you like.
@@matttaylor4003 Good idea on the covered wagons! I just fear the little wrinkles will look weird on a sail that is meant to be ballooning in the wind. Some thin white cloth might be the ticket for me. Of all things, I've had some luck cutting up particularly thin t-shirts or the tags from clothing and stiffening them with white glue to make flags, so I may have to try that next.
i heard empty tea bags work great,like if u empty the tea bag and get the fabric it works great
That's a really cool idea! I'll have to try that out.
I too came across a reference for using teabags in which you cut the tops open and dump the tea, but then use the tea filter material as sails.
Watching your video with respect to sails, pennants, and flags - got me to thinking. What if you created your jib sails from tea bags or paper or what have you such that, like the pennants, FOLD together to form the triangular shape of the sail? This way, when you fold it over onto the Stays - the sail if firmly anchored to the stay (thread). You can even create another line that anchor's the final point of the sail directly to the bowspirit or to the ship (have to check a book on rigging to be sure).
One experiment that I want to try is to heat the plastic masts to where I can gently twist the mast. Why? As crafted, the masts when placed onto the decks, will have the masts so that they form a 90 degree angle to the centerline of the ship as seen from the top (where the line goes through all three masts and onto the bow spirit). By creating a slight angle, the ship's spars would be angled as they would be when the wind is coming from say, the 5 or 7 O'clock angle from the aft (Quarter Reaching).
I'm also wondering if I can carefully modify the spars with the furled sails attached to where they look as if they do not have the sails furled (ie sand it down, cut it etc), and then craft a new set of sails so that it looks like it is at full sail.
That will come well after I've tried my first few models however. By watching videos like this, I can at least learn ahead of time, some of the issues I will be facing.
Now if only I could find out how the French and Spanish rigged their jibs. The phrase "Cut of their jib" seems to have originated in the fact that sailors could tell what crew was manning the ship by how they rigged their sails...
While it’s a cool model, unfortunately it doesn’t look like Indefatigable, which would have had a raised cabin as she was built as a ship of the line before being razeed. However your building is amazing regardless
Very true, and good eye! I just built her out of the box using the bits Warlord provides, which is a very generic frigate hull and the metal fittings. Converting the Warlord models to make a razee would probably be an interesting project for another day, now that you mention it, haha. Glad you enjoyed the video in any case!
U forgot the bottom sails ..lol
On these Warlord Games plastic models, the Mainsail and Foresail are actually sculpted as being furled onto the lower yards - if you look closely at those lower yards, you should see the sailcloth gathered up and tied! I painted those furled sails very quickly with just an off white and a darker colour for the recesses, trying to kindof mirror the greenish off-white we can see at the bottom of the printed sails that come with the kit. At around 13:19 you can see the Foresail quite clearly below the Fore Topsail, which I am gluing on at the time!