Avast ye! If you are not fluent in Pirate lingo then that roughly translates to 'pay attention and check this out'. Go back a few months and my lingo was not up to scratch either, but a bit of research into ideas for this kit and now I wouldn't feel out of place on any vessel (apart from the sea sickness bit). Ross from As Flames Rise came to us with his brief and using some examples of similar kits we have made before, we were able to come up with a plan for us to work with. First up, as always, the shells. We used Keller maple shells for this project as they are always reliable and perfect for applying a fade stain on.
We set to work on the fade, adding marks, dings and cuts into the wood to give it a more aged effect; like something you would find aboard an old galleon. A time consuming process on a full kit but it really gives it that authentic look and we felt it would really work on this build.
Different tools were used to give different effects and close inspection may reveal some wood worm holes across a few of the shells. Once we were happy with the stage 1 finish of the shells, it was time to head off to our artist Ralph. He has done all our hand drawn artwork over the years and has always done incredible work on all sorts of different projects so we knew what to expect!
While the drums were marooned elsewhere, we set to work on the hardware. This also had to be aged to fit the theme so no glossy, shiny parts allowed! Save that for the loot!
We used a 3 stage abrasive process on the finish of every single piece of hardware to rub away areas revealing the bare metal underneath but without leaving any tell tale scratches. Another time consuming process but well worth it. Hardware was then finished off with a satin lacquer to avoid any further oxidation of the bare metal areas. You may have also noticed the hoops with the twine inlays. Aaaaarrghh! While Ralph was still working his magic, we had time to concentrate on the bass hoops. This was something we had never seen before, let alone tried out, so after a few tests we had the tooling nailed and smashed out these hoops using antique twine from The Black Pearl (may or may not be true) Time for some grog!
Once we had our booty back we applied a few coats of satin lacquer to seal in the artwork and make the aged shells really pop. All shells were measured and carefully drilled and time for the best part...assembly.
We like to add a bit of colour to our strainers and this was no exception with an ocean blue sparkle infill. The ocean theme was continued with the Evans blue hydraulic heads on the toms.
The remainder of the build went swimmingly and once everything was shipshape, it was sent off to Ross for him to enjoy his plunder.
Here's a few photos of the completed build finished off with Evans heads and Puresound wires.
Thanks again Ross me heartie, hope you are enjoying! #rtcustoms #customdrums
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