Pics: My Santa Maria and Pamir

I think <ahem> your in the same boat as me!

We know how these things should look, we see them in these forums, but getting them to look like that is a far tougher challenge than it seems. Give yourself credit for what you've done and more importantly learnt. The next model you do, will be better, and will keep being like that. This is not a one shot thing, it's a skill that will grow each and every time you pick up that tube of glue!

 

If ever you needed proof!

I was searching for ever more info of the victory when I came across a site that sells models on behalf of the builder, they charge a hefty fee, but some of these things are selling for tens of thousands. Anyhooo, this is what they should look like! I'm guessing that this model is not his first build....or even his 100th

Dear Spelunko,
I don't mean to be cynical but its not clear what the problems are. From the pictures, the Santa Maria looks pretty "woody" and the Pamir is still being worked on. The blush you mention in your other posts is not visible.
Best
Barry

Looks fine to me, Spelunko.  I think maybe you're worrying too much.

Your right, I'm disgusted at those photos  Those builds are looking much better than what I can do, your too humble,  keep up the good work.

Scott

EH...

Sorry I forgot to put captions following the pics.

For the Pamir, I just wanted to show what happened when I was polishing it. I was using my gorilla hands and the stern kinda went snap! It is salvagable.

As for the Santa Maria. The photo was taken following my first coat following the white out. As I thoug, this paint job is going better. Getting more of the color that I wanted. Flat earth, red brown and than a very diluted mix of the 2 colors plus some red and yellow to balance the upper and lower hull colors. I am now using Future between coats to bring out the depth.

Thank you all for your kind comments. It does feel good to hear someone say that they are looking good. Funny part is that I am basically nly showing the hulls. This has taken over 1 month to do these. I figure at this rate, By 2010, I will be able to start the standing rigging.

Robert

 

Robert

Your ships are doing well. Very nice work on both. keep the post coming.

Rod

Looks great to me too, 'specially the deck planking!

That photo above put me in mind of these I took in January at a model show.  It's seeing models like this that makes me despair of ever going beyond the Santa Maria in rigging complexity - and this is a relatively small vessel, certainly no Victory!.  Apologies for the quality but you get the drift.

MJH,

Thanks for the photos. I know what you mean by looking at the quality and detail of those ships and wanting to just hide. But this modeler had to start somewhere, right?

I have never had the chance to visit a model show. I may have to see if there is one sometime in Taiwan. I am sure I would need to take my digital camera and packets of memory cards. The only other optio I have is the LHS I go to. He has some huge models, but his quality is well...... I think I can do better. Perhaps I will take a few shots to post here.

The photos above look exactly like my models. Hey, wait..... those are my models. I knew I left them somewhere.

Anyway, thanks for the photos and comments

Robert

You're very welcome Robert.

The frightening thing is that this ship was completely scratch-built - no kit here.  The nearest I'd get is 'scratching' my head over the plans!

There are some who say building from a plastic kit isn't 'real' modelling, just assembly.  If you were to build the Santa Maria straight out of the box and didn't touch it with so much as a lick of paint I'd agree with them, but as we all know there's a great deal more to it than that.  There's an art to making a plastic kit look as if it's made of wood and that's what we strive for (and in my case have yet to achieve!).

Do you weight your models?

Michael

looks good to me

sometimes we are over critical about ourselves

leave the criticism to the rest of us