posted
Hi Folks, I've been working on assembling & painting this brand newly build Ledge style gypsy waggon for a client.
It's a long story, and a fascinating job, but basically it is his dream to have it as genuinely nicely fancy & ornate as possible. Many gypsy waggons I've looked at in photos are in my mind very garishly painted & decorated. A few are beautifully-done though.
Tonight I've just finished striping the forecarriage part.
Here are some more photos-before & after of the two axlebeds, and the forecarriage (which the gypsys like to call the 'lock')
This just shows some of the contorting & squeezing needed to get into the tight spaces that some of the lines have to be put.
This is part of the back part which goes over the springs, and under the floor:
(I've also uploaded the pictures to that awful/neat "Book of Faces"...)
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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And the body so far: (We're not building it as such, just painting & assembling & decorating/lining it.)
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Very cool! Thanks for sharing! I look forward to seeing more!
-rampa dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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[ November 30, 2011, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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[ November 30, 2011, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Thanks! Psyching oneself up to start can be the toughest part!
Doug, a bloke I knew called John Thompson in UK drew up a set of plans in the late 1970s from a very ornate gypsy waggon. They are available for sale-about 7 pages 18" x 2 ft each. This was built/is being built brand new from those drawings.
We're not actually building this ourselves- we're just painting, striping & assembling it all. A bloke up the coast near Dave Drane is building it-he's a ship's carpenter or shipwright by profession, and another bloke in Toowoomba is doing all the carvings. He's a retired architect. The owner has made up timber patterns for getting some ornamental brass parts cast.
[ November 30, 2011, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
There are over 1300 carvings to attach to the body also, after we've painted that (which is still all in undercoat stage)
The carvings will be probably done in a metallic gold bronze paint.
Inside the body:
The 'cratch' which is like a tailboard at the back (still needs painting here):
and the ladder-this curviness might appeal to Dan!
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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-------------------- dennis kiernan independent artist san francisco, calif, usa Posts: 907 | From: san francisco, ca usa | Registered: Feb 2010
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posted
A doozy alright, Dennis - I think the body has more chamfers to stripe than the undercarriage has, but at least they're all accessible! (and no, I'm not particularly interested in counting them-like the carvings, I'll just be content when they're finished!) I'll be alternating broadline colours, like I did on the forecarriage.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
My nerves would be shot but that is very cool!
-------------------- You ever notice how easily accessible people are when they are requiring your services but once they get invoice you can't reach them anymore
posted
What a delight to see! Absolutely amazing!!!! How many horses will draw it?
-------------------- Catharine C. Kennedy CCK Graphics 1511 Route 28 Chatham Center, NY 12184 cck1620@taconic.net "Look at me, Look at me, Look at me now! I't's fun to have fun, But you have to know how!" Posts: 2173 | From: downtown Chatham Center, NY | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Mainly just one, or at the most, a pair of gypsy cob horses.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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I would have enjoyed doing the first wheel, but as soon as I finished I would have thought something like,"Damn, now I have to do three more just like it."
-------------------- Don Hulsey Strokes by DON signs Utica, KY 270-275-9552 sbdsigns@aol.com
I've always been crazy... but it's kept me from going insane. Posts: 2273 | From: Utica, KY U.S.A. | Registered: Jan 1999
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posted
Now we can all see just how fine a craftsman you are. This is a job that will stand out above all the others. It is so good to do a job you really like. Bill
-------------------- Bill Riedel Riedel Sign Co., Inc. 15 Warren Street Little Ferry, N.J. 07643 billsr@riedelsignco.com Posts: 2953 | From: Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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posted
Beautiful work, I like the shot of you lining the inside of the lock, Many don't realise just how difficult it is just to get to the line to be painted. I am on a similar job at the moment. looking forward to seeing this finished. Still got some things to send over to you Stewy, will post in the new year Cheers Terry
-------------------- Terry Colley The VintageSign Co 42 barrack hill Romiley Stockport Cheshire, England sk6 3az tel 0161 494 5089 terry@bullandbrush.fsnet.co.uk Posts: 210 | From: England | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Very cool job! Keep posting pictures!! Thanks
-------------------- John Arnott El Cajon CA 619 596-9989 signgraphics1@aol.com http://www.signgraphics1.com Posts: 1443 | From: El Cajon CA usa | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
Wow, if you weren't already good you sure would be by the end. I can't even begin to imagine the man hours in the whole project! That peacock on the wheels is lovely - did you design it?
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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Yes, Kelly, I did design the peacock at the base of the spokes. The client is a keen bird enthusiast, and I usually paint a bit of a scroll down there, so felt it would be most appropriate to combine the two ideas, and come up with an easily paintable stylised peacock-looking scroll! (I did that before the bloke doing the carvings did the peacock in the body sides.) There are about 254 little carved birds to go on the sides of the body panels, when I've finished painting them-ugh that IS tedious-I prefer stripes!
Terry, I think I owe you something too-it'll happen when I come up for air again! (I also owe a couple of others here some panels too-I'm bad at puting things off, sometimes...) I have a few other photos of the strange places or positions you have to plant yourself at, to get to be able to reach all the chamfers, or the sides in one go. Sometimes there is no option but to start from each end, and meet in the middle, though.
It can be really tempting to decide 'No one'll ever see this spot, let's just omit the stripes there', but you can't do that-only others do that!
Don, it could be easy to get daunted by it, but I don't focus on the magnitude of it-that could put you off doing it! You just begin at the beginning, and plod through, with some good music or something. You also don't focus on the end of it & how close or far you are from it-it's just a matter of making this line the same as the previous line, and so on, and make sure you don't accidentally rub your arm past something you did 15 minutes ago. Eventually when you think you've finished, you'll find a spot you missed or a bit of a smudge to fix, but that's life!
Striping those peacocks on the spoke bottoms took almost an hour for the first wheel, 45 mins for the second, and I knocked the 3rd & 4th wheels over in half an hour each- about 2 minutes per peacock, including palleting the brush etc, and also painting a long stripe along the edge of the spoke above the peacock, out toward the felloes. The broad lines on the wheels took about 40 minutes per wheel to do the hubs, inside & outside the felloes, and both sides of the spokes. Fine lines were a bit quicker-except there are more of them-one each side of the broad lines.
The 'lock' which terry calls it, or forecarriage/turntable which I call it, and the axlebeds took-well I don't know. 3 to 4 days. and nights. or something. or maybe five of them.
You learn not to focus on the time it takes, and instead just focus on getting each bit right-the first time! The end will reach you in due course.
I can see slight variations in line thickness that could be improved upon, but the overall effect hasn't been compromised, so I'll pass it-just!
[ December 01, 2011, 06:33 PM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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He does do magnificent work, and he's a nice bloke, too. He's a retired draughtsman (or you might spell it draftsman).
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Thanks for the compliments. We assembled the parts yesterday. Here are some photos, and a couple more 'contorted' striping photos for Terry!
(P.S. The body paintwork will have to wait till after Christmas)
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Ian, you are a master of understatement. Any chance of dropping by? I'd love to see this and the kids are still as horse-mad as ever
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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