What's on my desk? Part 72.

Last week I promised I'd make a short review of the build. In all, I really enjoyed building a wooden ship model. With the San Francisco tram I had my first taste of working with wood. 

Fram was my first wooden ship. Wood models are a lot more work than plastic. You need to cut, grind, sand and shape a lot of the parts yourself. Ships have the added difficulty of rigging. 

I found the OcCre kits are great. Clear instructions, quality materials and a very customer-friendly aftersales service. Some of the metal castings are a bit off and honestly could use some improvement. The videos provided on OcCre's YouTube channel give you a decent idea of how to build the kits. The box cost may be higher than a highly detailed plastic model, but the price is worth it. I started Fram in the last week of December. Take 5 days a week at 4 hours a day and I got 400 hours of enjoyable work out of this kit.

I'm not an expert wood modeller, but I'm proud of my result, even if I see mistakes and things I could have done better all over the ship. Fram is a 'medium difficulty' model, and I would agree. This model was not easy, and took a lot careful building to assemble. I was a bit too impatient at some points (for example, I didn't grind the hull shape enough). Any sloppiness comes back to bite you in later build stages. As with all models, take your time and insert breaks whenever you need them. Patience is key! Rigging especially is a challenge, and gets progressively more difficult, as the more thread you've strung, the less space you have to manoeuvre the next line in place.

If you're interested in wood scale modelling, I'd recommend starting with one of the OcCre trams, as they have little to no rigging. If you really want to build a ship, look at the starter packs. Both Polaris and Santa Maria are modestly priced, are at 'beginners' difficulty and come with a basic tool kit included in the box.

So. Fram is done. Would I build another wooden ship? Maybe. I've learned a lot along the way. In any case, I need a palate cleanser, which is exactly why the Apocalypse was such a good choice. Designed to snap-fit together, it's a nice easy build to relax with.

I've weathered the lower hull, applying a lot of dirt and dust. The wheels and tracks were fixed as well and the upper hull was installed.

I used Ammo-Mig products for weathering. They're enamel and remain workable for some time. This allows for wet-on-wet blending, which is nice, because working with multiple colors gives you a bit more depth.

So: first a layer of 1753 Turned Dirt, which is quite thick and gives some texture, followed by 1400 Kursk Soil and 1401 Light Dust, all applied fairly irregularly. You don't want a smooth coating of these. I then sprinkled some pigments (again: multiple colours gives a bit more depth) over it all and left it to dry:

When it's dry, you can manipulate the pigments as you wish; streak them out or leave them piled up. An airbrushed coat of pigment fixer fixes the pigments in place.

Side view. You can see particles of pigment dust left in place on the wheels:

The tracks are link-and-length, and were primed black and airbrushed with Mig 0034 Rust Tracks. It's a matt, dark reddish brown perfect a base for further weathering.

The tracks were first given a coat of 1002 Tracks Wash on the sprue and the top runs were treated to the same weathering as the hull and wheels, as these will be unreachable once in place. The rest of the run was left without weathering for easier assembly, except for a drybrushing of metal where the wheels would constantly grind on the track links.

Once the tracks were in place, I could apply weathering to the still visible parts.

Then it was time to put the upper hull in place. Being push-fit, very little glue and filling was required. However, this model comes with red LED lights and I forgot to push these in place before closing the hull. Off it went to install the lights, then back on and re-filled.

This is where the tank is at now:

It's a fantasy, and the hammer-and-sickle may look a little silly. Out of the box, these stand out a lot more, but I sanded them down and I think I can get a nice effect with some chipped paint later. They're not entirely without precedent: early Soviet tanks like the T-28 actually had large stars cast into the turret top.

To be continued!

Last week I mentioned I'd be bringing in a compressor and try some airbrushing in the shop. I've now done this a few times. I put up a cardboard box to catch any overspray and sprayed the (enamel) pigment fixer and the acrylic track colour. Conclusion: I don't think it's a good idea. Noisewise it's okay (I brought in my small compressor), but right after spraying the smell is too much, and the small box crates a lot of blowback, right into my work area. I'm going to move the entire setup to the back store, where the nuisance for customers (and me) will be a lot less.

See you next week!