Old Decals and Sails
They seemed to make decals better about fifty years ago. I have Authenticals decals from those days that are good as new (I used some on the A-20). The decals that came with the Golden Hind looked dreadful.
So I gave them a coat of Liquid Decal Film and crossed my fingers. They went on just fine, but there is some silvering.
Who cares! The fact that they work at all is a minor miracle. I should point out that, somehow, the “stern gallery” is crooked. I carefully compared left and right sides and how it attaches to the hull but I can’t figure out how it ended up crooked.
Who cares! It’s a minor thing. I’ve been obsessing over the sails. I had to figure out a way to install the sails or forget them. One of the things I have going for me is my experience. I have installed these types of sails on models before and they usually develop problems. The instructions tell you to poke a hole in the sail at the corner and start rigging. This is not really a good idea. The holes tear and you get a ripped sail with no place to tie anything. So you poke another hole and process repeats. (This is assuming that you don’t “upgrade” your sails to something a female friend sews up out of silk…oh come on!)
First issue is how to attach thread to the sail. I had a long layoff from model building during the last couple of years, and I honestly forgot about this stuff.
It’s not bad stuff. I decided to try to glue a thread to a piece of sail plastic.
Works great. I intend to glue the threads to the edges of the sails and use the glued-in threads to tie the sails in place.
Then I had to figure out a way to “discolor” the sail material. That bright white isn’t going to work. I tried the sepia pastel, ground up and applied with the finger tip.
That worked well too. It’s just enough “dirt” to make the sail “not so white.”
My struggle with the longboat came to an end as I admitted that I’m not going to be able to make it look like I want, so it’s best to stop fooling with it and press on. I took the old “seats” from the original boat and just put it in the “new” boat.
Got the aft cannons installed. Now that I’ve done a dozen of them, I’m ready to start!
I’m actually feeling pretty good about this. Might get it finished!