rcmdrvr

Everything is looking good. Great build.

I have my eye on the Mikasa. Not sure that I will do the Pontos thing....expensive and I do not have alot of experience with Photo Etch. I will follow your build with great interest. Oh......WELCOME!

It has been awhile since I last posted to this build. During that time I have completed most of the deck structures and assembled the cannons and placed them on the deck. As mentioned in my last post I had to "scratch build" most of the deck structures to insure that the positioning scribes in the deck were covered. I think that I was able to accomplish this. I purchased various thicknesses of basswood sheet at my local hobby store and using a zona saw and hobby knife I cut block to appropiate sizes. It was actually kind of fun to fashion my own structures. The only kit supplied parts I used were the vent louvers; which were PA provided in the kit. Next came the cannon carriages. The sides of the carriage were those provided by the kit but the pieces connecting the sides were again scratched as I found the carriages were too narrow for the metal cannon barrels. It took quite a bit of fitting and filing to get everything to fit. Preparing the cannon barrels for painting was also a lengthier task than I thought. It took quite a bit of filing and polishing with a dremel tool to get them ready for priming. Once completed I was surprised that they would only fit in their positions if the barrels were pointed down. Otherwise they would not fit below the railing. I am convinced that the provided cannons are too big for the scale of the model. Rigging the carriages was the final step. I chose to minimize the amount of cannon rigging as was suggested in the instruction booklet. I have provided photos of the build to date. While I have expressed some difficulties with my build so far; I think the final results are pretty nice. Next task; figure out how to make round masts from squate basswood sticks cut from the provided sheets.

A very pretty, little model. You can be proud of your efforts.

Great job on your cabin and pilothouse. Wish mine had turned out as well. I don't understand why your photo etch fit so well. I must have really screwed something up in the assembly of the basic structures.

SalD. Soon you will be building the cannon structures. I have not posted my cannons yet (I am travelling) I swear that the cannons are too big for the carriages. I had to do alot of work on the carriages to get the cannons to point out the ports. Take it slow and test fit over and over. I also spent a few hours with a jewelers file to get the barrels ready for painting. Good Luck!

Very much like your deck. Hope you can build your deck structures to cover the location scribes. I was only simi successful.

I really like the eagles.

Welcome. Model Shipways has a "kit" containing three small models projects that will get you started step-by- step. There are also build logs that will be very beneficial in your build of these models. Have fun!

You hull is beautiful and the planking is impressive. I have to hide my planking behind paint.

Welcome. I think you will find that the only way to obtain the skills for ship model building is to build. Not all those builds will meet your "excellence" criteria but they will provide excellent learning experiences. This from an average builder.

I might go back and do that. I am now working on other deck structures. I am having to cut my own (purchased basswood in various sizes from hobby shop) as many of the structures provided do not hide the etchings.

With the paddlewheels and housing complete it was time to move to the cabin and pilot house. This deck structure was a relatively straight forward build until I got to the pilot house. This rounded section of the structure consists of a "sandwich" of three separate parts. There is a photoetch piece that is on the inside which are the frames that would have held the glass in the forward windows. Next there is a 1/32 sheet piece of basswood that contains the window frames and finally there is a paper piece that is the decorative surface on the exterior. All of these three pieces must be "bent" around the forward end of the housing which is a pretty sharp bend. In addition the window portions of these pieces must be properly aligned such that the window supports of the bass and paper line up and the glass photo etch frames are centered in each window. I struggled for days with this task. Soaking the basswood sheet and bending around the base of the structure was not too difficult. I did have to add a roof piece to get the basswood to maintain its shape. Next came the photo etch on the inside. I could not get the piece to line up with the windows in the bent basswood so I had to cut the larger piece into individual window pieces and after alot of trial fitting I achieved a result I deemed acceptable. The last struggle was with the paper piece that was to be glued to the exterior. Again, I could not achieve proper alignment of the windows. I end up cutting out the window frames in the basswood, applying the paper piece and then replacing the supports I had removed. I hope all of this makes some sense. In summary, the pilot house part of the assembly was not fun. After completing the pilot house, I discovered that I had some how mis-aligned something and the drive shaft holes in the cabin did not line up with the drive shaft hoses in the paddle wheel structure. A bit of cutting, fitting and drilling cured this issue. I painted the structure white before epoxing to the deck. This exposed another issue. The deck has been "etched" to show where all the structures are positioned. In the case of the cabin and pilothouse; no matter how I positioned the structure; some of the etching peeked out from under the structure. The final step to completing this structure was to add some windows, vents and the funnel. The windows and vents are no problem but the funnel took a bit more time. The funnel is essentially paper rolled around a dowel. This actually went pretty smooth. Before painting you add a steam escape pipe and a whistle. These parts are made from "britiannia" metal. They are very poorly cast. I was able to scrape and file and get the whistle to look like a whistle but the steam escape pipe was a diaster and ended up in the trash. I constructed another steam escape pipe using brass wire, a small piece of wood dowel and some brass rings. Well it is the structure is complete, I think it is OK....you be the judge.

Those look really great!

It was now time to complete building of the upper paddlewheel housing and affix these structures to the hull. Again, I was pleased with the fitting of the pieces. A bit of sanding of the joints between the housing and the water closets was required. There are a few photoetch pieces that decorate the upper housing but they fit well. Just follow the directions, take your time and all should go well. Once attached there is a "paper" facade that is glued to the inside of the wheelhouse and down to the decking. It will take a few moments to trim the wood you placed around the base of the bulwarks but this is not a difficult task. Once everything is mounted; paint is the next step. I painted white first. I masked the deck and bulwarks and brush painted. Next I masked the white area of the wheel housing and brush painted black. Overall, I am pleased with the effort.

Impressive.

Get used to re-do's. Mistakes and other overlooked issues are very common. Fixing or re-doing is part of the fun.......I guess.

Really nice build log. Lots of instructional photos. Keep up the good work!

A beautiful model.

Have a safe drive back to Connecticut. In a week or so my wife and I will be leaving on our Spring RV trip. Just waiting for temperatures up north to moderate a bit. Will be on the road 7 or 8 weeks.

Nice model. Your paint work is very good.

I have not posted for a few days but work has continued. I spent quite several nights filling holes and cracks and sanding the hull. After the first round of filling and sanding; I applied a clear, acrylic sealer and let it dry. This seemed to "stiffen" the hull planks and make it easier to fill the smaller cracks and holes. Next I primed the hull, gave it a final sanding with 320 grit and marked the waterline. While I admire the copper bottom that SalD applied; I decided to go with a hull red paint that was included with the kit combo package from Model Expo. I carefully masked off the water line using Tamiya flexible masking tape and brushed on the Model Expo paint. It is quite "creamy" but I decided not to thin. It went on smoothly and flowed well. I was happy with the finish. I also primed and gave a single coat of white to the inner bulwarks and then stopped. I decided that I would wait until the decking was installed before completing painting the bulwarks. Next came construction of the exterior hull pieces that will make up the lower and upper paddlewheels. For the first time I ran into some difficulty with understanding the instruction booklet. I came up with a few questions regarding positioning of various parts that the photos just did not do justice. I looked at the build logs of a couple of Harriet Lanes in this forum and they were quite helpful. Being able to look at other builds of your current build is a HUGE help. I also deviated from the recommended paint scheme of the lower paddlewheels. The booklet and kit photos call for the entire structure to be painted black. I decided to paint the wheels red and the paddles brown to simulate a natural wood finish. Not scale; but I like the way the paddlewheels stand out from the hull. With the lower paddlewheels installed; I began work on the deck. This task was both easier and more difficult that I expected. A lot of very careful fitting and shaving is required. This was the first time I ran into a kit piece that did not fit well. I wish Model Shipways had made the decking pieces a bit oversized and let me do the fitting. Once the decking was installed I ran a strip at the bottom of the bulwarks to "hide" the gaps that had appeared. Not perfect; but I am satisfied. The last step was to give the bulwarks a final sanding and then several coats of white paint. Quite a bit of masking is required. I have kind of hit a milestone. The hull and main decking is complete. From here forward most everything else I build will be built above the deck.

I am currently building a Model Shipways kit. It contains a fair number of metal parts (including cannons) which are cast in Britannia. The castings are quite crude and I would like to eliminate the seams and other extrusions and get them ready for painting. How do you go about this task.....files, sandpaper, grinding wheels. Any advice would be appreciated.

Welcome.

Work continues. Thought I would post a few photos of the planking process. The planking in this kit is laser cut on 1/32" sheet. This really cuts down on the cutting, fitting and shaping. Each strake (there are 10) consists of 3 pieces (fore, aft and center). Generally the fore and aft pieces require soaking in water before fitting on the hull. I used a 1" diameter PVC pipe, plugged at one end, tipped on end (vertical) and filled with water. Just drop each planking piece into the tube to soak. Worked well. I soaked the fore and aft pieces for about 10 minutes before fitting and gluing to the hull. I used CA for the adhesive. I did have a bit of trouble with the some of the planking bowing between the frames. I tried steaming or adding a reinforcing piece behind the bows. This worked most of the time but there are still areas that are slightly bowed. Hopefully this will not be too conspicuous. The next step was to cover the planked hull with spackling paste and sand, sand, sand. I used spackling paste because it is inexpensive and sands easily. Next step, plank the inner bulwark. This went very easily until I reached the stern where the curve is quite severe. The provided pieces (again, 1/32" sheet) were soaked about 20 minutes and then carefully bent around the curve. I did not use heat, just slow bending by pressing the pieces against the bulwark. Some triming at each end was required. I cemented these pieces by brushing alphic resin (wood glue) on the piece. The following photos are of the hull during the planking process, the first round of spacking and sanding and fitting of the inner bulwark planking: