Fireball XL-5

Ken Pugh · August 14, 2010, 01:33:16 PM

The gentleman in question is Philip Reed. He has several books but you cannot always find all of them. They are mostly pictures with captions. I have two and probably will not get any more because they cover most everything well enough. I got them on Amazon.

Period Ship Modelmaking An Illustrated Masterclass. This book goes over the construction of Prince de Neufchatel in 1/192, which is half the popular 1/96 scale. He builds two models in this book, one with and one without sails. The one with sails is placed in a sea carved from wood. The hull itself is about seven inches long. His models are fully rigged and he reveals his standard methods for the creation of parts one would normally buy for a ship model.

Building a Miniature Navy Board Model is the second one. This one showcases the building of an admiralty model of the Royal George in 1/192 scale. The model does not have masts or sails but does show the frames planked only in the upper area from the guns up. This ship has many carvings decorating the hull and they are well presented on the model. He shows how he does these carvings.

Philip Reed is the world renowned master at this size and type of ship model. He doesn't use as many special power tools as most ship modelers. Most everything is done by hand and can be done in a small work area. There are some tools and jigs he has made but they are not very hard to reproduce. These books have given me a lot of ideas and put me in the frame of mind to give small models a try. I would love to build small planes that have the appearance of high detail. I think the Japanese have specialized in small models because they have small homes and little storage space. I know they are heavier consumers of 1/144 plastic airplane kits than in North America. When you remember you are looking at detail photos of the models in these books you will appreciate his work even more. These tiny models are built better than most people do in twice the size. They must be truly incredible when viewed in person. There is no reason these techniques could not work in modern ships.

If you have any interest in this size of model, his books are great reference. The site below sells some of his models. Click on sold models to see some of them. The pictures are too small but they do give an idea of what this man does.

http://www.shipmodel.com/artists/phillip-s-reed

These are the two books I have from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Period-Ship-Modelmaking-Illustrated-Masterclass/dp/1591146755

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Miniature-Navy-Board-Models/dp/1848320175

Ken Pugh

Ken Pugh · October 04, 2010, 01:59:12 AM

The model is completely built and painting has commenced. Pics will follow.

The silver finish is quite a challenge, especially since I do insist on dropping things on the rocket. I have done this twice now. I painted it with Krylon Matte Aluminum. It came out a very bright silver that looked chrome. Don't know where the matte part comes in. I then coated it with Krylon Satin Chrystal Clear, which turned the finish a very ugly gray. This is really getting annoying. So, I coated it real good with the clear and will try again using a metallic silver acrylic craft paint. The big problem is getting a finish durable enough to allow masking and further painting. I guess I tried to do too good a job on the silver and will now try the cheap paint.

Ken Pugh

Mark Braunlich · October 04, 2010, 04:31:07 PM

Ken,
By far the nicest silver paint I've used where masking is required is SnJ paint. Beware that once the bottle of paint is opened, the paint seems to have a limited shelf life....no matter how tight the cap is. Does a super job though. http://www.skywriters.net/snj.htm

Mark

Ken Pugh · October 05, 2010, 01:34:23 PM

I have also seen where people have used SNJ powders in Future Floor Wax and got good results. If I ever find any metallic powders at the craft/hobby stores I may give that a try.

One day I will try actually using aluminum foil. My only thought is how to paint on it. I know acrylics don't like to stay on metal without a primer and I am not sure how to mask/prime/paint markings on foil. Yet another avenue to research.

Experimentation will continue. It will be a matter of finding the combination of products that produce the results I need at the price I can pay and are available locally and easily. The journey continues.

Ken Pugh

dave_t · October 05, 2010, 04:27:39 PM

There are two beautiful examples of aluminum painted solid models added to the gallery this week, a B-17G and a DC-3. It would be great to hear some details on the finishing technique used for those.

Ken Pugh · October 23, 2010, 12:48:31 AM

Good news and bad news.

Bad news. Using the Krylon Matte Aluminum over Krylon primer and coated with Krylon Crystal Clear is a big problem. The paint flakes up, that's all there is to it. I have covered with acrylic and when I use any kind of tape that is de-stickied, the underlying silver flakes off. I will never use it again.

Good news. The cheap acrylic metallics you can get from the craft stores work just fine. The Anita's Acrylic metallic is a very nice color and works great. If it weren't for the other stuff flaking off underneath it, things would be simple. The flaking has been such a problem that I have considered stripping off all the paint and starting over, but after a year I'm not interested in starting over. I got all the acrylic metallics I might use that were in stock at both our craft stores so I am definitely ready for metallic finishes now.

Ken Pugh