SI’s 18th Century Harbour Finally Finished 12th Feb - WARNING 25+ images

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[Silent Invader]

Cheers Barry, they were fun to make.  The bateau was deceptively easy to make. 

[Silent Invader]

Now that my competition participation is over (with well-deserved congrats to all those that went through!) I thought I’d provide something of a progress report on the continuing build.

Basically, the varnish is still curing.  I have used about 4 ½ litres for the entire bay and river system and where it has cured the effect is rather nice.  Unfortunately a lot of it is still milky though I remain hopeful that …… eventually …. it will all clear.  Thick pours were the problem (as many anticipated) with thin coats drying very quickly.  It does shrink back though this means that the surface texture is really nice and gives a very good impression of moving water.

Here’s one of the fords as it is at the mo:



And close up:



Worst-case scenario would be to repaint the water with suitable colours for a watery effect and then put a couple of layers of varnish on top of that but, as I’ve said, I remain hopeful that it will completely cure.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I wasn’t pleased with the photos for the comp entry and so have retaken some to give an idea of what I was trying to achieve (but thus far have failed to deliver).  These images lack the wharf, pontoon and ramp up to the jetty, as the sizing of these will be finely tuned to the finished water level.
















I’ll post some pictures of the river and track boards when the varnish has cured and I have completed highlighting the rocks, etc, etc.

[Silent Invader]

Attention Mods:

As I will continue to report on progress, should this be moved to Workbench?

Cheers. 

[bedwyr]

apart from the white, I consider Your river very convincing.
It looks a bit muddy though - have You considered transparent colours?
there are special acrylic additives that make the colour semi-transparent
maybe You should try that, in order to give it a bit of a streaming structure?

[Captain Blood]

When you get that shine on the water from a low angle, it looks bloomin' marvellous SI.
 
It's just a darn shame about the cloudiness 

Sadly, I know how you feel.

Hey ho - it may yet clear... I wonder if it would make any difference if you applied heat, like a warm hairdryer... It might help it go off. Worth a try? 

(Please don't melt your styrene though!  I'd never forgive myself )

[Silent Invader]

Thanks B and CB for the continuing interest 

At the mo the river is proving VERY difficult to photograph, as the cloudiness seems to confuse the auto focus.  The camera's macro won't focus on the clear surface, which is fine because I want it to focus on what's beneath, but the milkiness seems to be throwing it off.

Basically, only the shallow, forded sections of the river are muddy the rest of the river has an earthen bank but is floored with gravel and littered with boulders, most of which are beneath the surface.  I would have preferred a bouldered edge to the entire river but, to be honest, it was just too much (at some point I'll measure the length with tributaries etc).

The nature of the varnish is that it dries around natural breaks in the 'flow', so the water is 'creased' into gurgling, bubbling waves. As the varnish contracts, its ultimate height is determined by what it is poured over, so it also produces the effect of waves washing over boulders, etc.  My fave effect though, is that bubbles (thousands of 'em) are caught amongst the grains of sand that form the riverbed, leaving a somewhat opaque but motive effect.  Of course, none of this amounts to a jot if it doesn't clear!

The hairdryer does work to really speed up the process but there's only so much standing there I can take.  I haven't experienced any problems with the styrene though it is faced with terrain paper in some places and sand in others, which might be protecting it.

[odd duck]

Glad to see you're still updating us on this project!!I love the finished canoes
the way you used greenstuff for the details is a technique I wished I'd new about when i started on my san -pans and Junk.It'll come in handy in the future though, Thanks!Hope your varnish clears up OK and soon

[Silent Invader]

Thanks for the interest OD (and congrats on your own harbour build - great job!  )

As the thread is a bit lengthy and now somewhat disjointed, I've summarised the build progress on my blog (well,  it’s not really a blog, just somewhere I document my hobbies).

The blog homepage:  http://www.silent-invasion.org.uk

Making the harbour buildings, page:  here

Making small watercraft, page:  here

Making the river system, page:  here

Plans for harbour & river system, page:  here

Tumbrel (on draught etc animals page):  here

 

EDIT = addition of link to tumbrel

[white knight]

Well, if the worst should happen and it never clears, wouldn't it be possible to make it a winter themed board? If it's frozen water, it doesn't matter that it looks white.

[Malamute]

Its been great to see this come together and its looking superb (fingers crossed for the varnish).
The fact that you have scratch built everything down to the boats, canoes, hay wagon etc makes it even more appealing. Truly wonderful.

[Silent Invader]

Thanks folks 

Interesting idea regarding the winter option.  Thanks for the suggestion but tbh I think if the worst came to the worst I'd rather just paint over - with the time invested in this I WILL use it for my F&IW campaign, come what may!    

[Admiral Benbow]

SI, I followed your project with great interest and admired your tremendous abilities as boat builder and canoe craftsman. Keep on the good work, and I'm sure you will have many fantastic gaming hours on that table!
 

[Silent Invader]

Thanks Admiral.  The interest of the MASTER boat builder is very much appreciated. 

[Silent Invader]

It's been about 10 days since the last images were posted and the observant will have noticed that they were lacking close-ups.  Basically, I’d rushed the paint jobs for the comp deadline and wasn’t happy with them and so in the last week or so most of the items have been repainted.  The boats, for example, now have greater depth (something I’ve learnt about since joining LAF) and hopefully the improvement will be quite obvious.

First up tho, an image of the water by the river’s mouth into the bay.  It continues to clear as it cures and I’m feeling quietly confident, tho of course only time will tell. NB: I have yet to highlight the dry rocks.



The barn, with its lift off roof and hoist:













The corral:



The mule and tumbrel:



The jetty:



The sail boat:



The bateau:





The row boats:





And last but definitely not least, one of the canoes:





I’ll also be posting these images to the blog idc.

[Hauptgefreiter]

This is extremely cool!