72Nova

The exercise the last couple of days has been fabricating the grating for the beakhead, this took a few tries but I'm satisfied with the result, the slats are made with .015"x.020" styrene, I also angled the bowsprit to the centerline and made the cut outs for the gammoning in the trailboard.

Michael D.

Still in the process of dressing out the bowsprit, starting with the knee and top, as much customizing I've done on ships I've never fabricated a top from scratch, while not totally accurate, I think it looks ok.

Michael D.

In case anyone was curious about how this mess will be attached, here's a few pics of the assembled one-piece unit, the glue points will be at the base of the simulated keel/stem, along the leading edge of the deck and the rear bulkhead piece where it mates against the inside of the hull, in theory it should work. Thanks for looking.

Michael D.

Not yet Marc, still in dry fit stage but clamped pretty good as I fabricate the pieces though.

Michael D.

All of the reworking of the beakhead required fabricating a new bowsprit as the supplied one was about 1" too short after the mods, I left a slight crown in it and is positioned on top as would be in real case scenario and extends out at a 30 degree angle, which was the toughest part of the process. I think it's looking pretty close scale wise but still more work needed.

Michael D.

I figured it would be best to start making the necessary modifications to the beakhead area starting with continuing the middle deck out past the beakhead bulkhead and extending the keel/stem up into the area in preparation for relocating the bowsprit off center, still much more work needed but looking reasonably worthy thus far for all the effort.

Michael D.

Checking the fit of the beakhead bulkhead revealed some work needed to the port side corner, off by approximately  1/8", just a little too much to force it to fit without creating other alignment issues. I'll try placing the corner of the bulwark in boiled water and manipulate into shape, if doesn't work I'll make a horizontal cut underneath the molding below the gun to lean the bulwark outward.

Michael D.

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The prototype railing actually turned out ok, so I just finished it off and looks pretty good to my eye, completed the hatch, coamings, deck staining and the cut out for the tie halliard.

Michael D.

I'm using the same 24carat gold leaf I used on the Reale De France.

Michael D.

Thanks Kirill, that will definitely be of some use. The forecastle bulkhead is slowly taking shape, next I will need to fabricate the railing and the more elaborate main curved deck bulkhead at the Qtr deck.

Michael D.

I've changed my initial design of the belfry as it seemed too closed off, so this is what I have come with and once I add the gilded decorations it should like a reasonable representation of what this area could've looked like, I know with the belfry at the forecastle and the added entry port, this more or less represents her around 1660. Everything is still in dry fit stage. Thanks for looking.

Michael D.

Thank you Marc. The mockup of the forecastle bulkhead is ongoing, but I'm shooting for something like on the HMS Prince of 1670 where the belfry is somewhat integrated into the bulkhead and not sitting on top of the forecastle deck, there will be single doors either side of the belfry, just giving you an idea where I'm heading with this. Also I cut in the entry port on the larboard side only, still a lot of work lies ahead.

Michael D.

With the deck surgery ongoing I took a little time to rework the lower fore mast, introducing taper and fabricating the hounds, also I pulled a mold of the figures on the outside of the bulwarks and attached them to the inside for added detail and a finished look. All of this is still in the rough in stage of course and just amazed how soft and bendy the plastic is for it's age. 

Michael D.

Ian I'm still trying to wrap my head around this entire project, first rate craftsmanship/ engineering at all phases👍.

Michael D.

Hi Ian,

I find it more manageable while I make the modifications/ repeated test fits and it will be so much easier to glue to hull in sections  as I work towards the poop deck.

Michael D

My focus is now on the decks as this will be arguably the most time consuming modification, I started with moving the fore mast forward about an 1/2", up next, I will be removing the existing gratings and making new ones and as far as their locations?, well I've seen quite a few different variations that do not correspond with what's in McKay's book , but I'll figure it out, then I need to rework the bulkheads, all fun stuff.

Michael D.

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Hi Marc,

The plastic is much stiffer but still pliable compared to the reissued Vasa kit and no warpage on the spars and masts at all which is quite surpising. I will not attempt to scribe the planks on the entire the hull but will highlight them in the tuck area.

Hi Ian,

I wasn't sure what to expect of this kit except worse regarding warped parts as the seller did not provide enough pics so I was prepared to fashion the spars out of wood, but I got lucky, Hopefully this build will be of use to you when do decide to tackle it, fortunately my eyes aren't too bad, I do use glasses for distance but I just use my trusty 1.75 readers for modeling.

Work still continuing on the railings, I'm using .020"x.020" styrene to perform the mods. I need to mock up the deck to get a sense of I go about it at the waist but the one-piece deck was too cumbersome to handle, so I cut in half. Initially I was going to plank the inside bulwarks to add thickness, but in stock fashion they look good. Thanks for looking.

Michael D.

With some of the railings needing work I started with the Qtr railing first, once again trying to bring it more in line with Paynes painting, with just a few cuts and moving it aft, a majority of the original railing will be used with just small section needing to be fabricated at the break of the Qtr deck area.

Michael D.

That's a clever technique Jeff with a great result! I just love the work you're doing on this classic model.👍

Michael D. 

Hi Mark,

Thanks for chiming in, I am indeed going with the round tuck as seen in these preliminary mock up pictures, I think I'm pretty close but not sure if the angled planking continues up into the gun port area? my thinking they are horizontal in that area.

Michael D.

I'm modifying the galleries as close to Payne's painting/print as possible, the Airfix piece does provide a good starting base though with very little but tedious mods thus far with the relocation of the corbels and fabricating an additional one being the biggest challenge.

Michael D.

I thought for sure you'd be rigging your own shrouds, dead eyes, lanyards and ratlines on this build, you have the skill set.

Michael D.

Hi Kirill,

I could go either way on the tuck but when I reach the point of removing the molded-on rudder and scratch building a new one, I'll give the rounded tuck some more thought, regarding the scale the box says 1/600, in the instructions it list a constant scale of 1" to 50ft but I'm inclined to say it's more like 1:160 scale. 

Michael D.

The next project is this vintage 60's Airfix kit # 1908-400, this looks to be one of the first releases molded in black. This model is void of any planking so I'm proceeding with scribing in some above the waterline only, I'm not too concerned with the remainder of the hull as it will just receive some texture using 80 grit and be finished with the tallow coating, also another area in question is whether or not I want to create the round tuck, but I still have time to make that decision . Thanks for looking.

Michael D.

Thank you everyone for the nice compliments.

Michael D.