Ahab

Here's the finished "Ahab". All painted with acrylics. I added a scar to his head, per Gregory Peck's character in the 1950's movie "Moby Dick". Which, by the way, I watched a dozen time while working on this model!

I labeled the cask "SAIL MAKER", again, picked up from the movie. Just what that means, I have no idea.

I gave the hatch a chipped paint look. I think it helps make the whale design hinge pop.

I have one more item to add as soon as I figure out how to build it. Right now, I'm going to take a break and start on a project, which will no doubt take all summer to complete.

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Whale oil cask SBS, Pt. 2

At MFCA, I picked up this neat base from Ken Thomas. The engraved swirl pattern fits the subject, giving it a whirlpool look.

The rest of the SBS, is again, pretty self-explanatory.

I did re-do the hat. The previous one didn't look right to me.

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Whale oil cask SBS, Pt.1

Well, I never thought I would start a post with the title "Whale oil cask SBS"!

I started by making a "casting" of the barrel by simply adding a small amount of resin to a small plastic drinking cup. The cup had just the right shape for a barrel top. The rest is self-explanatory.

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Heave away me Johnny, heave away

I found some neat pics of whale oil casks sitting on their side. How they're secured, I'm not sure. I do notice rope around one.

I had an idea of a cask "wedgie" with the lid toward the viewer. Perhaps a 1/4 of it shown. I'm inspired by a scene from the 1957 movie 'Moby Dick', which shows a cask being hoisted to the ship and on the lid says "Sail Maker, Pequod". It would be neat to see this painted all weathered and worn.

I'm going to play with this idea for a bit.

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"Call me Ishmael"

Here's one of my summer projects. It's YS Masterpieces version of Ahab from the book "Moby Dick".

Will a mast help frame this figure? I originally had a pencil which looked a little skinny to be a mast, then I dug around and found this brass tubing which, has some girth to it and makes it look more convincing.

Whats neat about adding a mast is the things you can add to it. For one, the Spanish ounce (worth $16 US I believe) nailed to it. This was the prize for the first mariner to spot Moby Dick. I also thought of small carvings mariner may have done during some down time on deck.

How about the staggered barrels? Is there too much verticality going on here?

I don't like the hat, so thats being replaced.

I'm open to any suggestions as I'm anxious to get started on this project.

Thanks for following.

Vase SBS

Here's a little sbs on the vase. I started out by digging through my spares for an appropriate "bowl" for the vase. I believe this piece is from Historex. I carved off the orginal handles and glued to a round plastic pole. The pole was a Tamiya telegraph or phone pole. It had just the right thickness to be an armature for putty work.

Once glued, I worked putty around the pole to give to give it a vase form. Once cured, I carefully carved and sanded to shape. The handles are brass rod I bent to shape and glued to sides.

I didn't use any picture reference for the vase. I just built what I thought would look convincing. It must have worked, because no one has come up and said "this isn't early 20th century, southern Bolivian, rural, creek bottom mud pottery!"