Uschi van der Rosen has some great aircraft rigging materials down to 1/72 scale that might be cool strings.

Hi John!

Thx, but I have directed steel wire, 0.3 mm and solder 0.5 mm - that's enough, I tink!
16. Day, March 22, 2019

The day starts for the guitar parts with a refreshing dip in the ultrasonic cleaner ..:


And when I look at this broth with "deposit" in it, I think: It was necessary!

While the parts are drying, a few words about the guitars of Wladmir Semjonovich...:;

Vysotsky had many instruments that he used during his career in succession or in parallel. Among them were custom-made items.

Many of his guitars are - signed - today part of private collections or museums ...:

During my research I limited myself to classical guitars with classical bodies.

Often he used two instruments of Soviet provenance, namely this one ...


...and this one...:

#

In addition, Vladimir Semyonovich still had a number of guitars from the West, including at least one Italian "Belucci"!

And - now it will be interesting for me! - at least one German "Hohner" - this one ...:




The thing is no longer produced today (Hohner no longer builds classical guitars), but there are plenty of pictures in the www - and so I can finally research in German.

Here is such a "Hohner" ...:


And this is the instrument I will paint!

**to be contunued next post**

Today I primed the inner side of the body only...:;


And when we look through the sound hole in the corpus, we recognize natural-varnished wood ...:


I have done the "wood" with acrylic paints ...

where I deliberately made the grain a bit coarse, so you can still see something of it through the small sound hole later!

We also see that a rubberized paper sign was glued to the corpus through the sound hole before hitting strings on the "Hohner":



By the way, in the late 90's "Hohner" was only allowed to use the "Handcrafted" label with the words "in Indonesia", "in Korea" or "in Pakistan" because that was where the manual work was done!

In Vysotsky's time it was different, the guitars came from Germany!

I made such a sign on the PC and stuck it in the body ....:


It has turned out a bit bigger than it should be - this also has to do with the later legibility.

Do you provisionally now the cover plate on the body, it looks nearly real ...:



I'm assuming that nine out of ten viewers will not even notice this detail - but I really wanted it to be there ...!


So much for today.
Have a nice weekend!

That's pretty slick Martin...…….That guitar is really gonna look great against that blue denim shirt.

17. Day, March 25, 2019


Today the guitar body (or sound box) is closed, with the inside I am through.

These things are very carefully built by instrument makers - and have, as the original shows - no visible outer seam!






So my mini-copy may have no seam!

Let's roll!

First, I close the holes with painters crepe - I want in the inner side neither dust or other dirt!




Then I do something of "Jo Sonja's" structure paste in a slaughtered coffee-pad ...



... and color that stuff with acrylic paint so that it corresponds approximately to the resin...:



This is mainly because of this, so that you will not see anything in the dark interior of the guitar anymore from the actually white stuff.

Next, I touch two-component glue - with as little hardener as possible to extend the drying time.

Nevertheless, work has to be done quickly now:

On the lower part of the guitar body 'comes the glue, the lid is on the edge of relatively generously coated with the "Sonja" paste ...:



Then comes - as long as everything is still wet! - the lid on the lower part, and because of the pressure the porridge swells according to the program from the joint.

It is closed with it!

I quickly wipe off the coarse supernatants with a damp kitchen towel - and leave the guitar body for the rest of the day ...:




Tomorrow the body will be sanded...


Cheers

Amazing detail Martin. A true labour of love.

Of course it will be playable...and knowing Martin, we will be treated to some music references

18. Day, March 26, 2019


Today was the day of the grinding orgy - I pushed my mini-guitar in several passes with ever finer sandpaper!

And when I was almost finished, I was nearly struck when I saw the dark "stripes" in the gap between the cover plate and the body!






"Sh...!!! Now you idiot have rid the fugue again!", I raged inwardly!



That would then be the model-building equivalent of the old plumber's wisdom "After 'solid' comes 'off'!"

But neither the - magnified - eye nor the fingertips could see or feel even the slightest bump..

The puzzle's solution:

The dark "stripes" are sanded hardened two-component adhesive, which has adopted a black-brown color due to the heat of the grinding process!

So it's all good!

And the "inner life" of the gongs survived the grinding without damage ...:




After I carefully washed down the sanding dust of the guitar in the isopropanol alcohol and then carefully vacuumed the work table (as well as myself!) I could then prime.

I have the sound hole - surely for sure! - Primed with a brush (you can see it on the slight color difference!), the rest was sprayed from the tin ...:






Comes good now - no more seams to see - the effort was worth ...!

From tomorrow will be painted again...


Cheers

19. Day, March 27, 2019

Today is the back of the guitar's turn!

First of all, some theory:

Thus Vladimir Vysotsky held his instrument ...:



It follows:

Most of the light falls on the back side to the place under his upper arm and elbow, because the guitar is not covered by the body there - but not much, because the body is so inclined even slightly to the upper body!

The darkest points are therefore below the belt buckle and over the thigh, on which the instrument rests...:



This means for the back the following light guide ...:



As far as the theory - now to practice ...:

With these colors ...



... I have painted a very gentle wood grain - many thin stitches that were very little pressure and only one direction (horizontal!) were blinded - and otherwise focused on the light guide ...:





Incidentally, I have deliberately avoided using acrylic paint on the underside!

The gray primer still seems very thin - and counteracts the impression that it is a brand new instrument.

I'll probably do that with the whole guitar - because the effect can be found on original instruments, like here ...:



I'm just wondering if (and how!) I can replicate the damages on the front under the strings (from the heavy impact and frequent play) that can be seen on many photos (see arrow above) ...:


Cheers

20. Day, March 28, 2019


I have just finished with the side panels!

Here the upper - bright - side ...:






And here the much darker lower side ...:






Now the oil color is allowed to dry in peace - so that next week I will get the black stripes (see arrows!) on it without accidents ...:




Cheers

Nice..caution tho..watch that detail doesn’t conflict with effect..the overall shading, colouring vs micromdetailing. Less can be more

That's coming along well Martin,..So what are you going to do between watching paint dry and grass grow? Don't let my mind wonder and wander.

Wayne

21. Day, April 1, 2019


Well, the decorative stripes are on the guitar - and no "accidents" fortunately are to announce!

I chose these colors - and of course "light and shade" "taken away"!




The strip on the back of the body is very thin ...





... the surrounding strip super thin ...:






Maybe I've made life difficult for myself, because I did not tap anything - but the oil color is still not completely dry and the risk of tearing everything down with masking tape was just too big for me!

Also, I have just painted the back of the handle piece ...:








Cheers

Nice stuff Martin

22. Day, April 2, 2019


In contrast to the back and the side parts of the guitar body 'the front side is not veneered and shows a fairly pronounced grain...:




And with these colors ...




... I just painted it that way ...:






Cheers

23. Day, April 3, 2019

Just finished a hard piece of paintjob...:










All completely freehand!


Cheers