Hi guys,
It took me 18 months (with quite a few works scattered in between), to do that big portion of French battleship Masséna's hull.
of course here it is being broken and rusting somewhere in Turkey in the early 1920's.
Strangely enough the ship is mostly accurate.
thanks for looking
JB

Ah yes,
As always, Jean-Bernard, you have sparked that inner flame inside of me that truly appreciates a fine piece of modeling art in progress, my friend...thanks for posting these progress pic's, mate, hope to see her grow as you re-create her...

Cheers!
~Gunny

When I saw the title, I knew who had done this. Excellent work sir, your skills always amaze me.

Thank you for the perview, looking forward to seeing more.

One doesn't have to be a fortune-teller to see that it is going to another masterpiece.
Your work is very inspirational and you make it a work of art!
Bravo Zulu, JB!
Guido

Allô Jean-Bernard

Finally the Masséna!
I think that your works are getting better and better and this, even with the primer only on, is already a Masterpiece!
Enter the RustMan

Keep up the EXCELLENT WORK, and please keep us posted!!!!!


Rui

This is just glorious! The decay is beautifully done and the gun is a work of art.

--Karl

Truly Stunning Work!...very inspirational..it is indeed ART....congratulations..!

JBA, words cannot do not do justice to your work. I always look forward to your builds and I am never disappointed. Outstanding build, as always. Al

Wow. All the above and more.

Willing to share any tips on how you do those jagged edges? I've never seen plastic look like that. One of the projects on my workbench is reproducing the old 1971 Plymouth GTX a friend of mine used to drive around... not as it was when it sat in the showroom but as it was when he actually owned it... and I'm going to need to develop some skill in that area

As always JB, outstanding so far.

Thanks for the comments friends!
-Mark now it's just a question of painting it, and it's going to be long, 1 month at the very least.. but I look forward building the sea!

-Jim, I don't know who put the "blog" tag in front of the post but i can't remember doing so . i suppose that measn that i migyht post some in progress shots from time to time till it's done!

-Thanks Guido, there is still a long way to go and I am not that good at handling big projects, so well, nothing is sure when it comes to the outcome yet.

-"Enter the rustman" aha!! thanks Rui. I was thinking the other day that should my sons would be American, i would have call them Dusty and Rusty

-Thank you Karl, that gun was plagged by the lack of reference, I made some sort of mix between the ones of various French battleship, in the end I think it might be 5mm too big, oh well, there will be some wood planks on it by the end

-Jim, hey art it is not! Still, I thank you for thinking it could be art

-Al thanks, that build worries me actually, I wonder what i could do after *this*.

-Dave, always a pleasure, you wouldn't believe the amount of your own rivets that are part of that big build

-Dan thanks, the reason why you didn't see any plastic behaving like that it's because it is actually metal. Homemade photoetch if you prefer. If you let it in the acid bath a bit too much, the metal gets eaten all around. Look at the before priming picture below.
The problem is that I doubt you would be able to use the same trick for a round shaped Plymouth. Painting effects of the hairspray kind + a good Dremel would be more useful; methinks

Thanks again guys!
JB

Umm, ah, well...that would be me, my friend....and yes, you have read "between the lines" correctly and got my message! (I couldn't resist JB...your talents deserve a spotlight, mate)
~Mark

Wow la vache!
What a huge piece!
Absolutely fine craftmanship. It's good to see it primed.

Bye,
Alex.

Ah... gotcha. It occurred to me later that maybe the reason I had never seen plastic look like that was that it wasn't plastic after all.

It really is beautiful work. Some people don't understand the peculiar insanity of folks who want to recreate things in a state of decay, but if this thread is any indication there are defintiely a few who appreciate it. When I see something as impressive as a battleship recreated like that it reminds me that all things are fleeting... ashes to ashes, dust to dust, rust to rust

J.B., You have done it again and your'e not even finished. It's unfair the mental consternation you cause me, , but really, your creations are beautiful. This one as usual will keep my atention.

Oh, what a delightfully ugly ship, I can easily understand your desire to build her into something decaying!

Splendid work!

Cheers/Jan

If this isn't artwork, JB ,then nothing is - it's like looking over Michaelangelo's shoulder - we are privilaged to witness this.

All the best,

Peter F

Mark i was pretty sure YOU did that

Alex, yes it certainly looks less than a blob of rust and spider webs this way..Can't believe the hull itself is finished since june 2008!

yep Dan exactly rust to dust, I find a lot of beauty in rusting ships and enjoy showing Nature reclaiming its rights over the built object, that's one of the common points of absolutely all my diorama works since I am 15 or so

thanks Bob, mental consternation?! oh dear! melancholy and sehnsucht is mostly what i want to cause with my dios, not consternation


Come on Jan! i rate the Masséna as being the best example of steel architecture France ever put out, on par with the Eiffel tower
The funny thing is that the Masséna actually was a ship - a friend sent me a Youtube link which I can't find back sadly -a link about the tsushima battle with some other archive footage getting mixed and I swear I never saw a boat rolling and going up and down like that -and yet it's only a 3secs extract!

That's pretty nice from you Peter! Now yep, I think it's not 1 month I'll need but at least 2 to get this thing painted and then another one for the sea and all..