hof00

Hull Completed… 

Final coat of Semi Gloss Clear. 

Kit supplied base and brass pedestal…

Onwards…

The Nautilus has been reskinned.   The ink holds up so much better on paper than on the card stock. There are more details to add and some white spots to ink in.  Far from a perfect build but it doesn’t look bad at a distance. I may do another in the future if I get inspired. 

Empennage is done. I can't give this kit high marks for number and quality of diagrams, not for sufficiency of internal structure. I had to muddle through the former and scratch-build some of the latter, but it turned out okay, I think.
 

 

 

So now all those detail pieces are painted and mounted.  Pictures below are five of the area around the large superstructure stern turret, and five of the area around the bow turret.  There are two more large turrets aft and fore of these respectively, yet to be built.
 
The little winders are finished with thread to represent rope.  On the sides you will also see paravanes.  I was not aware that large ships like the Bismarck had paravanes to do their own minesweeping, but apparently so.
 
Regards,
David

She's coming along nicely.  The color variation in the deck ads interest.  I agree with Rob and Snug Harbor Johnny that the bulwarks bulkhead extensions need to pared thinner in both thickness and depth.  I would probably consider using a sharp chisel and pare small shavings until the desired size is achieved.  As Snug Harbor Johnny says, care must be taken here as the pared down bulkhead extensions would be fragile.  Adding some exterior planking at the bulwarks before paring the extensions will give some needed support.  Following your build with interest.  Carry on!   

Hi All,
Small update:
 
While I await the arrival of my new Nail Inserting device, (Lost somewhere within the NZ Postal system), I decided to have a go at making my own Deck House Doors.
 
I first tried with 1.0 X 1.0mm Strip assembled around a "Plug." This proved very frustrating and a very poor result.
I thought about the "Plug" a little more and decided to assemble a "Billet?" around a wooden Plug. This worked a lot better and once assembled the Doors could be individually sawn off the Billet.
One problem with my first "Billet" was that the Grain was running lengthwise resulting in very, very delicate Door Frames.
 
I assembled a new "Billet" this time with all "Billet" components, Grain running Widthwise.
 
The initial couple of Door Frames that I cut off the "Billet" were much improved and easily handled, (And filed), without the Frames crumbling... 🙂
1.0mm Mahogany Sheet was utilized rather than Walnut as the Grain is a little more porous for Glue penetration reasons.
I can now also choose some nicely contrasting wood for the bottom panel of the Door.
(The Frames are supposed to be painted white, I really did not want to mask these up and the less plastic the better!! 🙂)
 
I took some photos of the Door Frames next to the Kit offerings.
O/A dimensions of the Door Frames, 7.0 X 17.5mm
 
I'm sure that this method is not a new idea, but I thought to share regardless.
 
Cheers....HOF.
 
Photos:
 
 

Added the pilot's headrest and windscreens. The kit provide neither interior frames nor glazing templates for the latter; I made photocopies and used those as templates.
 

Good evening mates, I have completed the first of eleven small boats present on the Amerigo Vespucci. It’s as close as I can get as I have been unable to find many pictures of the NC 90.
 

I have been able to fix the mottled look by printing new segments on plain paper rather than card and gluing the new skin on. I am up to the window on the port side.  

I added more details to the engine and also prepared the distributor. Drilling the tiny oil tube connectors proved tricky. They need to be drilled to accept the oil tubing made from solder wire.
Most of the screws shown on the casings are separate parts and also need to be pre drilled and then inserted. The manual suggests to add the oil tubes next, but I will do it later, because handling the still not finished engine would be a nightmare with the soft wiring on. Luckily the places for the tubing should be reachable later.
I also added some dots of black panel wash here and there to enhance contrasts.




 
Cheers Rob

More cowl bits added. I mighta got more done today except I spent the entire day stripping the old finish off my fence. 😬
 

The deck is now glued in markings placed the Trumpter  swastikas were 1/32" basically I made these @ 1/16" 2x wider and they still look just a tad thin??The base is well on it's way to to getting finished the SS's are not glued ATTM everything can still come apart.The plexiglas comes in next week for me to cut and assemble hoping all goes well there.The crane is finished for one side now just need to rig the other I did have to add a roller not included to get close to the original design.

Good evening mates, in addition to working on the small boat I-beam structure, I have been detailing the OcCre supplied hull to a more realistic small boat by adding a scratch built propeller and rudder. A few more details to add, small railing at the stern, rope coil at the stern and of course the boat ID, NC 90.
 

Well, first building steps are prepared. Note to myself, test fit often and understand the manual, specially where parts need to be drilled. I don´t know about the MFH car kits, but with the Crocker engine parts there are dozens of holes to be drilled and some are hard to reach in later stages.

The foot pedal and drill stand for my Proxxon mini drill help a lot to make the job faster. The good thing with drilling white metal, there is nearly no burr to be removed.

The engine block, with one cylinder mostly mounted, showing the parts of the other:



Mock assembly for test fitting of one cylinder. The ribs and heads are actually removed and primed and will be sprayed semi matte black later.





Cheers Rob

Eighteen cowl blisters done. 😵

 

Been working on a bunch of small parts, which all now need to be painted, so here they are on a board ready for the spray booth, with some closeups of some of the interesting ones.
 
As has been the case, these are small, and a challenge -- and if you look closely you can see where I've adapted one of them to account for a part that slipped out of the tweezers and skittered away, gone forever.
 
Regards,
David

Enjoyed the spoke discussion… I’ve been pre stressed and tense myself lately; our modeling hobby is good therapy.
The seats in the kit are a black flexible plastic, good quality but looked a little plain. I wrinkled up some leftover tissue from my Guillows spitfire and applied it to them with a fluid mix of wood glue and water, then a few tries with various brown paints until it looked something like well worn leather. Finished it off with a few brass pin heads from my wooden ship box, and a bit of Vallejo gloss oil stain on the saddle to give the impression of wear and sheen.
I cut off the shielding from the headlamp just because I felt like it, and because the kit has rather a nice lens I wanted to see. Added bumpers on the tank. Haven’t put in any tubing into the machinery yet, hoping I can do all that at the end. 
Tim
 
 
 

Today, I spent some exhausting hours to sort the parts, mainly the white metal cast ones, as they are the most numerous.

I made it a two step affair, first using the parts layout prints from the MFH homepage, to check if everything is there. These photos of the parts are especially helpful, as they are scaled and this helps to identify the parts.

In the second step, I sorted the parts into a plastic box with different sized trays, ordered after the steps in the manual. The tiny parts, like screws and bolts, I left out, as they are easier identified separately. Tomorrow, I will add resin and rubber parts along with screws, nuts and bolts.
 

 

 
Cheers Rob

I was locked out of the forum for a couple months but finally had one of the mods send a temporary password to Mike (landlubber Mike) who passed it on to me on another forum or sister forum.I have been working her over some will just post the latest pics.I had to take a break in the last month which brought me over to a Flak 88 and a turd of a kit a 1/72 Heller Bloch 174 for some reason I just could not send it to the trash can??The wood is on it way to being finished put an oil finish on it I get locally delivered in from Vicksburg MS stuff is really good.I give this some time to dry out maybe another coat either way once dry then goes the varnish and once hard polish it out with steel wool and lastly a fine automotive polish for paint.

Finishing the hull…

Painting the bulwarks…

Deck prepared for finishing. 

I have chosen an Amber Shellac to finish  the decking. 

Time to get started on those pesky belaying pins. 
 
Cheers 🍻 

Good evening mates. I’ve been working on the first of several supports for some small boats on board the Amerigo Vespucci. The OcCre plans are a bit plain, so I spruced them up making them out of I beams, very similar to the real AV.
 

The main fuselage sections are done now. Next I'll need to go back and mount all the little lumpy-bumpy parts.
 

Hi All,
Small update:
 
Completed Deck width repair issues Triple checked overall Hull alignment All Decks look and fit much better.
Port Side, Bulkhead #7 out of symmetry by 0.5mm (Mid Bulkhead) to 1.0mm (Bottom Bulkhead. Two laminations 0.5mm X 4.0mm glued and faired into bulkhead.
Much better, I could see the discrepancy, it was really bugging me.... 🙂
(Planking Strake Port and Starboard to double check and all seems o.k.)
 
So, I don't know if I'll do too much more today.
 
Things to do next:
Bow "Filler Blocks "Play" with Deck Planking - "Off Ship"  
Cheers....HOF.
 
Photos:
 
 
 
 
 

On my Flying Fish build, I’m trying to make as many of the parts as possible, vs using the parts supplied with the kit.  I think anything you can make will be much better and you will be much happier with the results.
Rick

I applaud your decision not to use the plastic windows.  Wood always seems to look better, IMHO, even if it may look a bit over scale.  Interesting approach to making windows so they are all the same.  I've never used this method but it looks like you got some decent results.  Next time you might want to consider making the window mullions a bit thinner.  Carry on and keep moving forward.  Modeling sometimes is just a series of issues that must be resolved.  In the end, you'll end up with a model that you can be proud of; which will lead to the next model, and the next, etc. etc.  Carry on and keep up the good work.