"Tarting up Sails of Glory" Topic

I managed to get an hour to myself tonight and decided to experiment on one of my Sails of Glory frigates. Now, this is a first attempt and there are plenty of things I would like to have done better, but either way here are the results.

Sails and spars painted and given a wash to make them more salty. Some rigging added – not happy with it, but it was a learning exercise after all.

HMS CLEOPATRA FROM THE LARBOARD BOW

AND FROM THE LARBOARD QUARTER

AND FOR COMPARISON, AGAINST UNMODIFIED FRIGATE

All in all I am pleased with the improvement to the sails and spars, but I took shortcuts with the rigging and the material wasn't right (a sort of thin elastic cord); well, we all learn from our mistakes!

Nick

My thoughts exactly, Nick. Good job, overall.

(Maybe a dark brown wash on the sails to give more of a shadow/worn look to the reefs/handholds)?

You could try EZ Line, its a thin elastic polymer used by model railroaders to string power lines on their layouts. Model aeroplane builders also use it for aerial lines etc. It comes in a few thicknesses and colours. You don't need to stretch it to its full length, just a minute drop of superglue at one end, take the slack out of it and another minute drop of superglue to secure it. Just make sure you don't overspray with a finishing coat, like Dullcoat after you have rigged your ship, do that before you rig her.

You can also use stretched sprue.

That looks great. May I ask what colour you painted the sails? In the first picture I hadn't noticed they'd been painted, but the comparison pic shows a real improvement over the out-of-the-box colour. I've painted the yards on some of my ships, but after seeing your pictures might have a go at the sails.

If you go to the Sails of Glory forum – The Anchorage, there is a tutorial for rigging using nylon paint brush bristles.

sailsofglory.org

Nicely done!

Thanks guys, and thanks for the advice.

Corto – I painted the sails by mixing a cream colour, then applying a wash of brown.