Landlubber Mike

Hello All,
In my last post I was experimenting with ways to make the baggywrinkles. I found this “cleaning mitt” which looked like an ideal solution. It would have been perfect, however the scale was way too big, and the pieces fell apart if I tried to cut them down.




So I prowled the dollar store and found this cat toy. These little thingys would have been perfect, as they were about the right scale, but when I cut them off and attempted to thread them on the line, they just crumbled, so it’s back to the drawing board for the baggywrinkles.

 




At this point, the deck and hull are pretty much finished; later I just have to add the stanchions and rope railing along the rail.

I really hated the supplied life rings. They are cast, including the rope that surrounds them, which looked ridiculous to my eye, so I found these ones at Bluejacket without rope and then I added some rope myself. Not actually all that much fun to do, but the result is well worth it.





 








 


 



You may notice that I have omitted the airports that run down both sides of the deck. The ones provided have a large rim that protrudes above the surface, and I just hated the look of it. I did use them on the cabins, but I hated the thought of them on the deck. I know I can buy flush ones, but they would have required very precise holes to be drilled and I doubted my ability to do that 14 times. One misstep and the whole deck would have been ruined. The supplied ones with the large rim would have been forgiving and the holes easy to drill, but I opted to omit them nevertheless.

I was perplexed by the colour of the hull. It never appears the same twice in any of the pictures I find. It seems to change over the course of a season in the water. However, I found a picture of the hull being painted, so I used that one as my guide and managed to find a decent enough match.





 







 
I’m now well into the rigging and it’s always the same – as I near the end of the woodworking part of the build, I can’t wait to start the rigging and then as soon as I’m into it I wonder why I was so anxious to begin. In any case, it’s going fine.


I have been experimenting with upgraded blocks. On my CW Morgan I used Bluejacket cast blocks for the larger ones and Syren for the smaller ones. Both were great. For this model, I am trying Master Korabel which I bought from Vanguard Models. In addition to being good looking, these ones are also nice to use. They have very sharp grooves cut into each corner and the line really grabs. They never slip out of place. However, they are so finely made, that every hole has to be re-drilled to get the rigging line through.





 


 





I recreated the star decoration on the bowsprit on the computer.





 


 




So that’s it for now. Many thanks,

David

As there is no rest for the wicked, I am now launched into my next project - the Pobpob! - (plank on bulkhead Pride of Baltimore.) Actually two projects, as I'm doing something I've never done before and am building two kits at the same time, the other being the Artesania Latina Titanic lifeboat.
 
On the POB, I have the bearding line cut and the bulkheads in place. These are the best fitting bulkheads I've run across yet; they lined up perfectly with the top of the keel and the bearding line/rabbet at the bottom. Not sure how they will all line up when I start fairing, but at a glance they look like they will be pretty good. This doesn't look like it will be too hard a planking job either.
 
David

That paint job looks really sharp Craig.  Very nice job!
 
Nice to be organized.  I went a slightly different route but considered a modular system like yours.  All I can say is that it feels good having things organized and out of the way.  Now maybe I can stop losing my 6" rulers.  I think I have 4 of them, usually because 3 of them seem to go missing for long stretches.

Right then  - a bit more progress,   I  put the primer on both sides of the one wing,  then when dry  - aided with the venerable hairdryer,   I then  moved on to the fuselage  and gave it a couple of coats of  Grey,   I also did the same to the top of the wing.
 
After a  couple of hours  I masked up both the fuselage and wing  - using a combination of  Blue Tack for the edges, and  paper and tape for the bulk of the masking -  ready for paint  tomorrow (if the weather is kind)   also  need to  work  on another system   so the smell  from the paint  does not come into the house  - possibly  putting the  painted parts in a  closed  plastic box  till  dry  - so some of the smell can go off  a bit first before bringing them into the house.
 
OC.



 

That is not how you do it OC.
 
You hold it outside the side window of the car while driving at speed and watch the props madly spin and feel the lift of the wings! Made many a trip as a kid more enjoyable for me. I could do it for hours and by the time I came back to reality, we were there. I suppose it was the portable video game of my time.

Many years ago, DuPont sold spray cans of automotive lacquer paints for touch ups and general painting. The paint itself was excellent, but what I loved were the unique spray nozzles. They were so smooth and shot a perfect "fan" of paint. They were the only spray cans I ever found that were equipped with these nozzles. I often wonder why other manufacturers never used them. They were absolutely fantastic for control and a smooth spray pattern.
I hate to say it, but I detest the spray nozzles on Tamiya rattle cans. Can't tell you how many times I have had issues with their nozzles. Perhaps it's because their paints have set on the shelves too long, as you said. 

While waiting for daytime and a clear day  - I carried on working on the  wing sections/flaps  and engine nacelles  - firstly  I cleaned up the seams  on the nacelles,   then I cut the  two part flaps - test fitted them, and  glued them together,   the idea is  they  have a center bar that allows  them to be drooped or left trimmed.
 
Here are the pics  showing  one of the nacelles  and the flaps dry fitted showing the two stages  they can be set at.
 
OC.

Here is a few pics  - the spray job  and a dry fit of the engine nacelle assembly  just having to do some fettling to get it to fit  - needs a bit of work on a join or two.
 
OC.

 
 

 

 

Loach's and some B models had hanging gun lanyards and used a conventional M-60 gun hand held. The D and H series of Hueys I flew in had the M-23 mount.

 
That used the modified M-60D

 
Some ships used other mounts and systems. I think there was a lot of experimentation going on at the time. You have to remember that using helicopters in a combat role was a very new and untried concept at the time.

Well a short update. It feels strange to have any progress to report so soon after the last report. 
I filled in the excess holes in the deck like suggested and then proceeded to make more, that mostly will also probably have to be filled in later. I assembled the rear jump seats and gunner seats. I then placed them into their proper locations. The test fit looked OK as first glance so I went ahead and painted them. Big mistake! They immediately assumed a different shape or something and refused to be usable in the locations that they seemed fine in prior to painting! So after taking the following pictures I went to a different method of installing the seats that is totally different than what I used on the forward jump seat!
 
Today I hope to get some time to alter the seats and install them. I will of course need to make some more repairs to the deck  and then will be pretty much done with the basic cabin area. I will be adding pilot controls and delicate stuff like that at the last  minute so that hopefully they won't be broken.
 
After that, it is back into new territory for me. People painting! Another area that I have never tried in model building, at least not figures that were meant to be looked at from close quarters.

Well, as i said earlier, I think I have made a little progress since I last posted an update. Not finished like Mark but certainly further along than I was. 
 
In my last update I was still having formal combat with the pilot seats and assorted small and ill fitting/designed photo etch parts. I finally pretty much got all that worked out and ended up with seats that seem to cover the look properly. At least for how I will display this model. I then had to build and install the center jump seat that had to be set up to allow proper seating of the pilots. So I had to make a side trip and set up the pilots in their seats. This of course made me have to cut and file pilot butts to fit in said seats. They probably would have fit in the stock kit seats but of course I had to use the after market seats with the kit floor in my build. So far the pilot has gone through a buttectomy and is sitting pretty much where he should. I may have to so some more for a more custom fit. At some point I was careless and broke off his helmet mike and will have to replace it at some point. Hopefully I don't do the same with the co-pilot when he gets his buttectomy. At any rate it was becoming clear that possibly I have been wasting my time these last couple of weeks making the seats from all those tiny PE parts and re-learning all those cuss words from my shaded past. Everything is becoming so crowded that you can't see much of it at all!  By the time I add the cabin overhead and roof none of it will be visible at all!
Everything you see in the pictures is just sitting there, not glued into the cockpit. The only thing actually "In place" is the middle jump seat. I had to drill new locating holes in the deck to obtain the proper location. Then I got it wrong as there was not enough room for the pilots and seats forward and I had to re-drill holes about one and a half mm further aft. I rechecked the fit and clearances and took the following pictures:
 
This was the first location. It cramped the cockpit too much so I knew I would have to move it. The holes in the deck are the kit holes that would have been used if I had used the kit seats, which by the way are total garbage in every way.

The next view is from the front, showing how little can be seen even before the pilots are seated.
 
After you seat the pilots virtually everything I have done over the last couple of weeks has disappeared!  the co-pilot on the right still needs to be altered to get him to fit the seat properly.

So all in all I am happy to have made some progress at last and that even though the deck is beginning to look a little like Swiss Cheese from all the unused kit holes, and mis-drilled location holes I am also happy with the results. The holes can and will be filled in and the "Look" looks like I remember it. There are of course a few exceptions but they are small and I can live with them I think. I am also getting a bettter idea of what will be possible to see and what won't and will probably stress out a little less about those kinds of things in the future. At least I will try.
 
Next is the altering, locating, and assembly of the remaining jump seats and their painting, along with filling and repainting the poor abused deck.
 
Thanks everyone for looking in and helping.
 
 

Found this photo which may help you to visualise the job, Kevin.  It's of the derelict steam trawler 'Viola' and is from the web site of the Australian Company of Master Mariners.
 
John
 

good evening everyone
 
have i got this right
 
i have tried. although room for improvement to adapt a turnbuckle to hold a replicated cable in place without the need to tie the rope/wire off
 
any suggestions appreciated,  
 

Good evening everyone
 
Thank you for like and comments
 
there was certainly far more reference material for the Victory, there are tons lots of phots of trawlers but they lack any detail, but i try to proceed onwards
 
the shrouds, certainly appear to be wire on the after ones hence the turnbuckels so i have been playing with thread and various colours of grey and silver, the one in the final shot is a warhammer silver and will see how this goes
 
next will be ratlines, i am still undecided if i should  go with wooden slats or wire, or the same as the shrouds

 
 

Really nice job on this Mark.  Especially nice that you could build something you had a connection to.  Congratulations!

Thanks again for the likes and comments, much appreciated.
 
I've been looking for a vendor who sells modular hobby tool organizers and finally found a very good one in Canada.
www.tabletopgamer.com sells a line of organizer kits that they have designed and laser cut themselves. I found them on Etsy, but you can deal with them directly for a better price on their website. I ordered a brush and tool organizer with 2 drawers, another  2 drawer module, and a 4 drawer module. They are precision designed and perfectly laser cut. They fit together beautifully. With postage, all 3 modules cost around $70 with postage to USA from Canada. On the sides, bottoms, and tops of each module are 2 quarter inch holes for mounting magnets, then the units can be stacked on top of one another or side by side, held together by the magnets.  
 

Here, I've highly reduced intermediate blue paint to apply to the navy blue to give the effect of sun bleached/salt stained panels and add some depth to the model. Intermediate blue mixed 1 part paint to 10 parts reducer, then misted lightly over various panels.
 

Started to work on the seine boat. I suspect this thing might be a bit tricky especially based on some of the previous build logs, especially with extricating it from the former if assembled per the instructions. We shall see...

Evening, 
 
"The consistency of Whole Milk"....I can see that, great tip Javlin. Thanks!
 
Still working on the interior. 

The rear deck and compartment dividers are all in. 
These were all placed and glued with both halves of the fuselage taped together.

There are some gaps in the compartment dividers. 
I tried these things every which way and below was the best I could get. According to the PE instructions the smaller end has to be on the bottom. 
So I was a limited a bit by that.
 
Future builds, I may try using Styrene to fill that in. I don't have any right now, and don't see me buying any in the near future. 

There was a lid on the PE box in the below pic. 
It snapped off. If I truly need it I'll attach it later. 
If I didn't break it now, I most assuredly would later in the build. 

Everything seems to be lining up well. 
The front piece of PE will eventually lay flat to the other side of the fuselage, its a little wonky in the below pic. 

Started brining together the cockpit area. 
There are some PE I want to attach before painting. 

Tom E
 
 
 
 
 

Damn, that's looking really nice Jason.  Great work!

No way, sorry guys.  I would be too embarrassed. 🙄  It would be hard to show the true extent of the stash anyway because some of the boxes are two deep so that back ones aren't visible (in part so the Admiral doesn't realize the true extent) 😇  I rarely bought off eBay in the past, but it's a gold mine if you are looking for model kits.  Lesson #2 - stay off eBay.
 
I first started this summer by picking up the Hasegawa 1/350 Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi -- from Craig of all people -- yes, I blame him! 😁  That's like near the pinnacle of 1/350 kits, so I figured I should get experience with a few other 1/350 ship kits before tackling the Akagi.  That wasn't that bad.  Then I decided that I could use some practice on plastic with painting, weathering, PE, etc. so picked up a bunch of 1/700 ship kits (fairly inexpensive so not a big outlay until you buy the detail sets).  Then I came across WWI and WWII planes built by people like Plasmo on youtube.  Much shorter projects I convinced myself, so picked up a few of them.  Then somehow I got into cars from the 1910s-1930s era.  Picked up a few of those.  If you start looking at cars, be careful because it might lead you into buying some of the nicer kits like Revival and Pocher.  Picked up a few of those.  
 
I was telling a friend the other day that i tend to like the subjects represented by plastic models more than the wooden ones.  The ability to detail them with PE these days is incredible, and all the techniques, washes, airbrushes, etc. make painting them a whole new ballgame from me painting them by hand as a kid using Testor's enamels.  At the same time, I do like the flexibility of working with wood when it comes to wood models (including working with the various tools, woods, etc.) -- the kit subjects to me though are typically all the same (British warships with X amount of cannons) and tend to be less interesting to me for that reason.  To do different subjects you're looking at scratch building, and I'm not sure that I'd like to do all the research, CAD work, etc. that needs to go into the front end before you cut your first plank.
 
Good news is that I generally have picked these plastic kits up for significant discounts off of retail, so if I don't get to them, I can sell them without losing much if at all.  At some point the kids will leave the house and I'll be retired with plenty of free time.  The Admiral will be plenty glad that I have the stash or I will drive her crazy.  So, I'm thinking ahead to marital harmony.  At least that's what I tell myself.  
 
Ok, I'll be quiet now. 🤐

Very cool model - love the set up against the picture.  Well done!

No way, sorry guys.  I would be too embarrassed. 🙄  It would be hard to show the true extent of the stash anyway because some of the boxes are two deep so that back ones aren't visible (in part so the Admiral doesn't realize the true extent) 😇  I rarely bought off eBay in the past, but it's a gold mine if you are looking for model kits.  Lesson #2 - stay off eBay.
 
I first started this summer by picking up the Hasegawa 1/350 Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi -- from Craig of all people -- yes, I blame him! 😁  That's like near the pinnacle of 1/350 kits, so I figured I should get experience with a few other 1/350 ship kits before tackling the Akagi.  That wasn't that bad.  Then I decided that I could use some practice on plastic with painting, weathering, PE, etc. so picked up a bunch of 1/700 ship kits (fairly inexpensive so not a big outlay until you buy the detail sets).  Then I came across WWI and WWII planes built by people like Plasmo on youtube.  Much shorter projects I convinced myself, so picked up a few of them.  Then somehow I got into cars from the 1910s-1930s era.  Picked up a few of those.  If you start looking at cars, be careful because it might lead you into buying some of the nicer kits like Revival and Pocher.  Picked up a few of those.  
 
I was telling a friend the other day that i tend to like the subjects represented by plastic models more than the wooden ones.  The ability to detail them with PE these days is incredible, and all the techniques, washes, airbrushes, etc. make painting them a whole new ballgame from me painting them by hand as a kid using Testor's enamels.  At the same time, I do like the flexibility of working with wood when it comes to wood models (including working with the various tools, woods, etc.) -- the kit subjects to me though are typically all the same (British warships with X amount of cannons) and tend to be less interesting to me for that reason.  To do different subjects you're looking at scratch building, and I'm not sure that I'd like to do all the research, CAD work, etc. that needs to go into the front end before you cut your first plank.
 
Good news is that I generally have picked these plastic kits up for significant discounts off of retail, so if I don't get to them, I can sell them without losing much if at all.  At some point the kids will leave the house and I'll be retired with plenty of free time.  The Admiral will be plenty glad that I have the stash or I will drive her crazy.  So, I'm thinking ahead to marital harmony.  At least that's what I tell myself.  
 
Ok, I'll be quiet now. 🤐

Yes, MSW needs to add a warning label to Craig's and other build logs on here.  I went from not having done a plastic kit since a kid to now having a bunch stacked up on a shelf - ships, planes, and now cars.  

not progressed much at all since the last update, lol i dont think im confused so much now, 
 
the main mast is supported by stays, but very few is any show any ratlines, 
 
the instructions do say that the shrouds can be adapted to enable the mast to be removed for transportation purposes, so from that i presume from that no one went to the trouble, even though the superstructure is removable
 
mine will have ratlines, again the instructions call out for wire to make them, is this right?