weathering

[TimboParticipant @timbo]

With time on my hands I am just about to embark on my first wooden model boat. 250 years ago varnishes (if used) were of very poor quality, lead based paints faded in the sunlight and timber weathers to a dull grey. Why do enthusiasts insist on using bright varnish and colours?

[TimboParticipant @timbo]

[Barry FooteParticipant @barryfoote68385]

Welcome Timbo,

I think you will find on here and other specialist Model Boat sites that weathering of models in now done to a very high standard. It is not so easy on period ships, which tend to be static models, as any weathering can just look like a badly finished model. there are exceptions of course..

Barry 

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Here is my rusty-hulled four-masted barque LAWHILL  , lying at anchor in a crepe paper sea.

Bob

 

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Here`s my rusty Great Eastern………Another Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

There is an article in the next issue of Model Boats on weathering by Richard Simpson – shopuld be interesting!

 

Colin

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

It’s my contention that a model, such as Bobs Great Eastern should be as pristine as the original was on the day it was delivered, just as the designer intended and not covered in rust and grime.

Of course this is my own opinion

Paul

 

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I cannot agree that Bob’s GREAT EASTERN should be shown it pristine condition if he wishes it to be more accurate to life.   To me, it is a fine looking model, true to life as well!      Most of my static models are not really true to life  because most are shown in pristine condition.     But from time to time, I do weather them and in many ways they look all the better for it.   What about the “air-brushed” beauties we see on the covers of glossy magazines, they don’t fool most of us, especially when they are photographed without their make-up?

 

Ships work in a very harsh and unfriendly envoironment and to me, it is quite correct to sometimes show the wear and tear of real life.      

 

Most “Boats” are usually well-kept in normal life, but “Ships” are a different matter!

 

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

How about this for “real life” weathering.    This is my old ship, the passenger liner RMS ST. HELENA, refitting at Falmouth following 13 months M.O.D. service in the South Atlantic 1982/83.

 

Scars of Honour!

 

Bob

 

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Saw a Louis Heloise model at a recent exhibition ……..and it looked silly!

 

Why?

 

Because the hull was as shiney as an FG job!…………….Not a plank in sight and it was PoF too.

The designer Andre Moreau said in his write-up that the hull should look rough as in real life…………and I agree with him

 

Was going to post a picture, but my Loius Heloise gallery has disappeared!

 

New picture to follow…..Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

See what I mean?……..but a bit on the shiney side?

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

And thats how she should be……..just as she left the builders yard

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

That’s how it should be if the model builder wanted it that way, but how about the rusty weathered ones pictured above?    The builder’s wanted them rusty and weathered.      Does it devalue them in some way?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Here is my model of the battered and rust-streaked British four-masted barque SOMALI shown running the easting down from the Cape of Good Hope towards Australia in the depths of the southern winter.    

Bob

 

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

No Bob

 

The weathering takes nothing away from the model….as I said its just my opinion.

I think that in real ships/boats an untidy or rusty example tells a tale of poor maintance and as such constructing weathered models only sanctions this lack of care.

 

Paul

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Paul,

Afraid you are quite wrong when you say you think a rusty, untidy ship tells a tale of poor maintenance.       A sailing ship may have been several months at sea in with no chance at all to paint the outer hull at all.

Look at my picture of the ST. HELENA above.   Very rusty and untidy, but we had just spent 13 months in the most difficult circumstances and appalling weather conditions that I ever came across in 32 years at sea!

I was never in charge of deck maintenance on any of my 19 ships, so I have no axe to grind on this.   But circumstances at sea are not the same as on land.       Ships get battered by seas that would absolutely astonish you if you had not seen them for yourself.

As I said, they are more “Scars of Honour,” than slipshod incomeptance.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

A typical everyday scene showing winter, North Atlantlic.  It could go on for days or even weeks with no chance for venturing on deck at all. let alone painting and keeping things smart.       24 hours a day, rolling heavily when life could become  a trial and a burden with disrupted meals and broken sleep.       I took this from the bridge of a 10,000 tonner in 1964.   It is not excessively rough and there is very little danger in it, but how on earth could anyone keep the ship from going rusty in conditions like this.

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 11/09/2009 21:35:43

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I think weathering a model is a matter of personal preference influenced by the subject matter. As for myself I like to depict my models as just out of the builder’s yard but, as Bob says, any ship which has been at sea for more than a week or so will be showing signs of weathering. One possible exception is cruise ships where painting and maintenance is going on on a continuous basis. Workaday ships cannot afford such luxuries.

 

If you are going to weather a model then you need to do it properly, not just allow it to get dirty as some people do.

 

Colin

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Bob

I understand your point about ships like St Helena which have spent months in a hostile environment obviously the crew had much more to do than bother about painting.

But I ask you to consider ships such as trawlers, yes they work in the worst of conditions but they have to return to port on a very regular basis and they spend much of their time laid up due to the vagaries of fishing quotas, why can’t these vessels be maintained?

We watch television programmes such as Trawler Men and are in awe at the conditions in which those men have to work with heavy seas and long hard hours of dangerous work, of course they cant have a paint brush in their hands when the boat is working but what about when they are back in port and laid up because of the quotas?

The crew might not be there but the owners are.

 

 

And I have been to sea, I owned a 5 ton yacht and sailed around the coast of the UK. I know this isn’t deep water sailing but I was on my own and each time I put into port I carried out maintance and looked after my boat, even after a very nasty force 8 whilst sailing off South Stack when I put into Bangor my first thoughts were for my boat.

Paul

Edited By The Fat Controller on 12/09/2009 06:29:33

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

The question of why laid up trawlers are not always painted is unfortunaetly down to their owners & economics.     Their profits are severely curtailed these days by quotas that restrict their fishing (but that is political and of no concern to me as a ship model builder).     To paint a “laid up” trawler, they would have to emply someone to do it and it would prove very expensive.      They are struggling for survival as it is!

 

Cruise ships can be painted every time they are in port.    Cargo ships were different.   Cargo working often prevented any external hull painting (especially loading nitrates, cement or iron ore).      In my younger days, I tried to make a difference on one ship by going over the side in a small boat when in dock with the chief officer, where we would spend hours slopping paint on our bright yellow hull (collier as well!).   The ship was 2,500 gross tons and we hardly made a difference – just a small area of clean yellow amongst the red lead and rust!

 

In older ships, rust was always present.       I accept that most of my waterline models are innacurate because I do like to have them clean and tidy.    The accurate ones are the ones that show rust!

 

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

 

My models Great Eastern and Jeanie Deans at war combined my limited skills of a model maker and a landscape artist………a landscape artist paints what he sees, rust and weathering are part of the technique and bends the rules where necessary to produce a picture that looks correct at a distance.

I think my boats seem to come alive once they are on the water at about 15 feet away.

 

Nobody seems to have noticed how rough my models are!………In the same vein, take a look at an oil painting close up!

 

Stand-off scale…. versus…… Pristine quality……is also another debateable subject

 

I prefer the first option…………….Bob

 

 

 

Bob Wilson….

 

Your SOMALI MODEL looks excellent and full of atmosphere….Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I always think models (and ships) should be looked at as a “whole” from a distance.    If you get too close to a ship, you see lumpy, flaky paint, various dents and scrapes, rust etc and it looks awful, but move back a few hundred yards and you get a true picture.

 

I have found that when I do build rusty models, they seem to attractt more interest than clean ones.      Also on a model, a bit of rust and damage can help to hide defects thatotherwise may be a bit too prominent.      I have often heard my models described as “perfect in every detail,” but that is simply not true.   If you look too closely, they look awful, and rust can help!    I am creating “illusions” rather than perfection, but a certain amount of rust and grime can add realism!

 

Bob

 

 

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