My dear friends thank you so much for your beautiful words
Today a report about things going wrong, a favorite topic for many of you: enjoy and learn from other ones disasters
A few months ago I casted 10 full sails and none of them was perfect. Having a critical look with bigger glasses I was in shock. Especially seen from the top of the yards (thats how gamers and spectators see the ships most often when finished and displayed) they look horrible.
Bamboo is visible for strengthening the inside, some shiny resin was added later on, trying to fill up the air gaps... it didn't work. Iron wire to strengthen the sails was another poor idea.
Here the resin was not mixed properly:
Also the mold did not close correctly so I had two yards grewn into each other like siamese twins, I tried to cut away the head of one of them but it makes it only worse.
Other sails had cracks in the cloth. I tried to glue it with fresh resin. Gluing turned out going well but the sailcloth profile gets lost:
I gave up.
No I did not give up,
I went to the chemical store once more, choose another rubber and made a brand new silicone mold with it:
But first I had to do a make over and full repair of the original sail first.
Traces of blue silicone from the first mold got stuck inside the original and never can get out.
I had difficulties cleaning the original sail from clay for the temporary molding bed. What material do professional casters use instead of clay?
I casted seven new sails of which only two were reasonable. Seven casts, stuffed with iron wire to strengthen, that means a full day of work... for two poor sails only. Some minor damage and holes I fixed with putty.
In fact most of my old blue sillicone molds are bad: like this one for the board fences with two excessive bulbs top left and right:
It comes from a single part mold. I cut that mold in two halves to see what causes the problem inside:
Same bulbs again. It may be caused due to using too much parting agent, while I should not have used it at all in the first place for making a silicone mold.
Having a real close look at that mold:
In the center the giant bulb and thousands of small air bubbles around. I need a de-gassing vacuum machine to solve this. Instead I made my third set
of silicone molds for this object using another rubber product. No airbubbles this time. Finally.
Also the ladder molds were bad (blue rubber again) so I replaced it with this:
Lots of flash but the quality is better now.
Progression again:
Every one of these ships need at least 16 blocks for rigging:
Inspired by Phersu casting his hundreds of wine bottles in long rows, I came up with this idea:
The first set got lost after stuck onto the iron poles. Before the second casting I covered the poles in vaseline before pouring the resin.
And now, finally, my first two home made model-ship kits are ready for distribution. The Greek merchant ship:
And the Phoenician rowing barge with sail:
With every model kit comes a manual. Critics and comments concerning the rigging of the sailingship is appreciated: