hof00

The yard lifts are all done now (see picture).  The other picture shows the first piece of rigging on the foremast lower yard.
 
I'm now going to get into the yard braces, and I have looked at the rigging diagram and concluded that the best sequence for braces to preserve ease of access for rigging is:
 
Do the top three yard braces on the main mast next. Then do all of the yard braces on the mizzen. Then the top two yard braces on the foremast. Then rig the inner brace on the main mast lower yard (matches the one I've done on the foremast lower shown below) Then rig the three lower yard braces on the foremast Finally, rig the three lower yard braces on the main mast. If I do it that way, I hopefully will minimize contortionist activity getting "inside" rigging already installed.
 
Getting close to the end now.
 
Regards,
David
 
 

Finally finished the planking of the hull, luckily the top half is black so I can hide the bad bits under the paint, I'm really pleased with the bottom half though which is good since I will just be varnishing that and leaving the wood to show.
I must admit its turned out far better than I hoped it would.

This brings us to the last item and where I am currently in a holding pattern. The decking plates throughout the boat are obnoxiously oversized in their thickness. I haven't measured them but they are probably a scale 6" or more thick. Yucko. After some extensive research, I came up with what appears to be one of the two patterns for the deck plates. Eduard made some different types of German decking and I was able to find the correct one even though Eduard isn't making them anymore.
 
I began by recreating the uprights that support the decking.

These were designed using some photos of U-995 in Germany as well as some of the 3D drawings. How accurate they are, I'm not sure but with what I could find they're pretty close.

I started by using the kit decking for the basic shape then used the 3D drawings as well as original plan view drawings to refine then overall layout.

I then trimmed it with some styrene angle. The decking is in sections so I need to add some panel lines with a scribe. There are also valve stem fittings (as can be seen it the 3D pic above) that I need to figure out how to replicate.

And this is about where I'm at today. The decking isn't level as I'm still mocking it up. The long section along side the engine didn't come out correctly and I have since noticed there is a dog legged edge near the aft end. I need to finish the supports for that section too.
 
I hope this hasn't been too boring. A lot of pics and yammering for not much progress. If I get 5 minutes to myself this holiday weekend maybe I can get a little more done.
 

Getting the crank mechanisms to actually work took some thought, as the kit makes no provision for this - it's simply all glued together.
 
I made every joint moveable (too many actually - the valve control mechanism is separate from the drive cranks and didn't really need doing) by punching and pinning every one. Most joints are held together with paper "nuts" which are the only parts of the joints that are glued. Here is the slide for the upper shaft which also needs to pivot :



Some close-ups of all the right-hand side crank mechanisms :




With everything now in place the crank movement has really improved. It will get close to perfect once the drive wheels actually touch down - at the moment they are in mid-air as they don't have a flange like the other wheels.
 
I've started making the boilers. More progress updates will follow as I have something to show.
 
Cheers, Danny

after a bit of fidgeting and taking Gibbs out......the Nine O Nine is finished!  she's mounted on the stand in all her glory    the admiral passed by the door and saw it....asked if the stand was a tool that I've been using.  she was kinda surprised I think,  when I told her that it came in the kit.  next thing I know.......she's got her phone and taking pictures of it    





I forgot to show you how the two underbelly patches came out.......they hardly can be seen  




...and there we have it.  it came out well for a spur of the moment build.  it was a fun build.  I hope you enjoyed look'in in on her progress........I enjoyed the company  

Heat shaping the wet gunwales to deck edges. , deck after the process.  

I'll post an answer to that in my next one later today Phil, I'm in a bit of a hurry at the moment and wanted to show an update on my loco.
 
Here's where I'm up to at the moment, details of how I got there will follow a bit later :





Danny

Planking nearly done now 



Hope things carry on the way they are.

Pictured here is the remainder of step 2, then the whole of steps 3, 4, and 5.
 

Thanks you.
Nice answer!! 🙂
 
Following the build with interest regardless.
 
Cheers and Regards,
 
HOF.

Hi all couldn't resist a bit of varnish (just to see the beauty of the wood grain)

Nice Build thus far....
I do have a question for you, perhaps not appropriate for public consumption, how do you determine the cost of this build for your customer?
(I have this kit in waiting for my partner one day soonish….)
 
Cheers....HOF.

Hi all I know I shouldn't yet but I wanted to see how she would look when sanded down so had a quick go.
I know still Leeds a bit of filling in places but I'm really chuffed how it looks at the moment.

Here we go with step 1 and part of step 2, with assembly of the engine.
Colors are Tamiya gloss black reduced with Mr Color leveling thinner, and AK Extreme Metal flat aluminum. Simple and straight forward.
 

Well, muddling right along on this build. We are making some progress altho this bending is proving to be a bit of a challenge.  After trying the hair dryer, travel iron, plank bender (glorified soldering iron with a melt golf ball on the end ), each of which gave varying results, I settled on soaking the planks for about 10 minutes first then slowly bending them applying heat from the travel iron.  The wood is listed in the kit inventory as basswood/Tilo/Tileul/Lindenholz/Tiglio/Tilia/Lindenhout quantity 24 size 1.5 mm x 7 mm x 310 mm. Nowhere in the instructions does it explain how many of these are needed for the hull planking. So looking at the photos of the finished model and counting the planks I deduced the number is 9 per side. (18 in total) which is good since I have already broken 2.  The instructions recommend planking alternating side to prevent warping.
 
Photos follow:
 

 
I am still having trouble getting planks to land flush against the bow stem or stern post.  But I'll get there someday.
 

I bend them wet then attach them to the hull, clamp and let dry (heating them to assist in the bending). After drying, I remove the clamps, test fit the plank and re-wet/re-heat/re-bend as needed. Then I apply the glue and clamp till the glue sets.  I've alternated between thin and medium CA and Elmers yellow Titebond glue (PVA); I've decided to stick with the PVA for this build.

 
So far I have 8 of the 9 planks(per side) installed. The last 2 planks are left to install, then we install a top plank that is walnut/Nogal/Noyer/Nussbaum/Noce/Nogueira/Notenhout (everything is in 6 or 7 languages, including the instructions). Each instruction is rather terse and leaves a lot to misinterpretation.
 
I've built a lot of Artesania Latina kits over the last 20 years or so and these instructions are not up to the quality of those in the first kits I built.

All of the standing rigging is now done (see below), and I have about 1 1/3 masts worth of ratlines left to do.  I can now start working on the mainmast yards.
 
Regards,
David

I now have the foremast yards up, which took a while because as noted above I wanted to stabilize the foremast with all of the stays before hanging the top three yards, which are only supported by the yard lifts, and I wanted to get their positioning right.  So lots of standing rigging and ratlines.  And I needed to do most of the main mast stays since it is partly stabilized by stays to the foremast.
 
The pictures below show the foremast yards, and you may see a bit of blue tape on the lower two where they meet the mast.  They are mounted using a hinge assembly that has a lot of rotational play in it, so without the tape they would slant all the way over and partly turn.  That of course will be fixed with the running rigging.
 
I'll now finish the main mast ratlines and then build the main mast yards and mount them, and then on to the mizzen.  I'll have to do the mizzen stays before mounting the main mast yards -- again because some of those stays run to the main mast and will move it just slightly.
 
Regards,
David
 
 

Hi all got some more of the side planking done and done a bit more to the cabin.

finished build of winch....just needs paint

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

Planking of the main deck complete, I've given it a coat of clear varnish to bring out the wood grain.

Hi all well this is as far as the decking can go at the moment as I've used all the wood left in the kit for this (they were very generous with wood as it was already fully planked so they nearly give you double what you need) I just hope when the new stuff comes it's similar coloured unlike the last bit (for the waterways which were completely different colours) I realise wood is a natural product so can differ I just hope it's not too much different.

Helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooo shipmates
 
Yes happy Jo back again with a small (very small) update 😻.
 
I have cut and bent the new brass strips for the hatchway lids.
Next I have to drill some holes in the ends.
Then glue the straps in place, when glue is dry I have some brass eye things to put into the holes I have drilled.
Next is to bend some brass rods and put them through the brass eye things.
 
After that I think I will turn her upside down and re-spray the green on the hull.
 

Happy days.
 
Jo.

Hello shipmates
 
In my last post I was talking about some grab rails, I think I know what they are now, the rope goes through them and I think they may stop the rope from coming off the wheels or stop the rope from hitting the mast or something like that.
 
Anyway I have put the things on the blocks and also the cleat + two coats of gloss varnish.
I cannot do the other two till the brass wheels arrive then I can sand and shape them.
 
I have also included two photos with the bowsprit in place to show you what it looks like (sorry about the blue tac holding it in place).
 
My brass strips have just arrived so I will try and make the straps that go over the hatchways.
 

Jo.

It took a little while for me to build up these belts to much work and it took about 2 1/2-3 hrs for me to build these four belts but the pit is about to be encase in the fuselage.I want to add that Rabu  of  https://www.radubstore.com/   was very instrumental in working with Revell in the design of the kit and my hat is off to him this kit just falls together he also designed the belts I used and other AM products.I have already built the duct-work behind the pit and installed pretty much SOP.The wing I will show more of it's totally different from ant other P-51 I've built.