Piet

Looking magnificent Patrick. I had to backtrack a week or so and spend again a lot of time ogling. Not complaining mind you, loved every minute of it. Cheers,

Good seeing you back in the shipyard Mark. Keep that ticker ticking my friend. Cheers,

Glad seeing you back at the table Nenad. Your boat looks great. Cheers,

Wow, that deck or decks I should say, look terrific. Impressive looking ship Hennie. That'll be a BIG model. Cheers,

Nice going Kevin, very impressive build. Cheers,

Impressive work Craig. Cheers,

So sorry hearing about the sad tidings. Our condolences and prayers to you and the family. Cheers,

Thanks again everyone for your very generous comments. My friend Boris, you can put any one of the photos you like on your site, I'll be honored, and I am looking forward to holding Hr. Ms. Java in my hands and start building her up. There is still plenty of room on the O19 display board. Cheers to all,

Nice going Denis, lovely work. Cheers,

Hey John, what a pleasant surprise seeing your Camel project here and also the Fokker triplane. It's been a dog's age that I have visited this site, too may other things taking up too much time. I read through your entire build and have enjoyed it very much. She's really looking very good, nice work. Brings back many memories of working on and even restoring a few old airplanes. Not quite as old as the Camel is but some in the 20ties and 30ties. Yeah, my whole working life was in aviation, from 1952 till my retirement in 2009. But now enjoy building ship models and enjoying it. In the meantime keep up the good works and I'll drip in so once in a while. Cheers,

What a pleasant surprise finding two airplane builds! I haven't visited this site for many months, too many other things to do taking much time. I read through all your posts and must say "well done." You'll have a great looking model when completed. Yeah, I have been tempted several times to buy myself this kit but I already have too many other projects in the bucket list that have priority. Actually I told myself not to get involved with airplanes any more after i retired from my career in aviation, from mechanicking, flying and engineering and devote the rest of my life with ships, my second love. I do need to build a 1:350 scale model of a Fokker C-14W float observation plane though. This plane was used on the ship my father was killed in during the battle of the Java Sea and I am getting a model of that ship to do. When I do I'll start a build log here. In the meantime keep up the good works. Cheers,

What a nice gesture and fitting gift for the Leeuwin Foundation CEO. I'm sure she'll really appreciate having your VERY nice model of the Leeuwin on her desk or wherever se'll be placing it. That miniature model came out just fine, you can be pleased with the result. Looking forward to see you finishing the Leeuwin II. Cheers,

Nice progress on the fiddly stuff Craig. I'm lucky being able to follow you in this build because I have ordered the Hr. Ms. Java from Pacific Crossroads in 1:35 scale. This way I can see what to look out for. Cheers,

Great fix on the shrouds Denis and nice progress with the build, sorting out blocks Cheers,

Thanks to all that clicked the like button and to Craig, John, Carl, Greg, Ken, JesseLee and Denis for your kind words. Yes Denis, I believe that Boris Mulenko from Pacific Crossroads deserves all the credit for being able to supply so much detail at this scale. I only put the parts together to make it look presentable. Cheers,

Thanks to all who hit the like button, much appreciated and thank you Denis and John for you comments. Yes, I could make a diorama of sorts with that crane in tracks and a torpedo hanging on he hook. I already have the torpedo in scale 1:50, or even a mine in the same scale. They are right now laying on the O19 display board. Okay, next detail John is actually the final few items to add to finish the build. I added the antenna wires from the bow to the bridge, all periscopes and antenna mast and the little boarding ladder to starboard side. They store these things inside the sail and only attach them to the deck when needed. Actually, most everything is stored inside the sail or under the deck plates between the pressure hull and the deck. From chains, extra cables, spare torpedos and even a few cases of Heiniken beer. The O19 even stored a 5 man dinghy there. After everything was checked and cleaned up I took the spray can to it and painted her in a flat dark grey. Now she looks like a submarine ready for the hunt. Just a shame that she ran into that minefield. I have picked a few photos to end this build with. I hope you like the result. Being this small and using a few close-ups you'll see some rough edges but most is due to close-up distortion. This shows the O16 right after she was completed and still on my drafting table aka work bench. I temporarily placed the name plate in front of her. For the fun of it and show the difference in scale with the O19, 1:350 vs 1:50 Port side view on the drafting table. Yup, she is small! Another comparison picture, the O16 in front of the O19 sail/conning tower. The rest are taken outside with better light. I incerted this photo of the actual O16 as comparison with the one above. Due to the narrow display board I cemented the name plates on the ends. They are a too large to do it the traditional way. Okay, this is it for this build. I really enjoyed it. It was challenging for me because I'm not used to kit building but I learned a few things. I am also honored having you come along and for your very kind words. Next project is trying to build a diorama of the Young America clipper ship at sea at a scale of 1:3000. Wish me luck with this one and hope all y'all will come to visit. Thanks again everyone and my co-captain Gwen and I wish all of you good health. Until we see each other again, Cheers,

Thanks everyone for dropping in on my build. It's time for an update, finally. Now that the sail or conning tower has been cemented to the hull I can now cement the two AA Pom Poms to the con. I also cemented the two torpedo loading gantries and the deck gun to the model. My luck is holding put, no errors this time. I made small dimples in the deck where the gantry post are to be locate so the cement has something more to grab on to. The final positioning of them to 90 degrees to the deck will be done when I install the antenna wires. I removed the deck railings from the PE sheet in anticipation to cementing them onto the deck. They needed a little dressing op, checking for proper fit. I was going to wait with that till another day but - - - - Everything went so smooth and in less time then anticipated so I decided to cement the railings on. Below are few pics of the progress and also some photos of them actual O16 for added clarification, and my O19 model. The aft torpedo gantry is cemented on. I strapped the model to the board with some masking tape so I could handle it without fear of it dropping off. The boatswain's mate Ivanna sleeping on the job right on top of my study material. Now I could tell her "you're fired." Here we see both torpedo loading gantries installed, the AA Pom Poms, the deck gun and oh yeah, the forward antenna attaching braces. She's looking more like a sub ready for action. The deck railings are ready to be cemented on. I may have mentioned that the AA guns can be retracted into airtight pressure buns. Here is a pic of my O19 model showing them retracted. And here they are up and ready for action. A was fortunate to be able to get copies of the original build drawing, courtesy of Remco. This shows how it was done. They used a hydraulic lift, simple. Here is a photo of the actual 5.5 cm deck gun used. A photo of the O16 at sea looking aft showing the deck gun, the antenna gantry on the bridge and deck railings. You may be wondering what those rails are for in the deck. Well, the smart Dutch figured that at times they may not have access to shore facilities to load supplies or torpedoes. As with the O19 also loading the 40 mines. They made a little crane that could be bolted together. The tracks are U channels laying in their side and welded to the deck framing and the gantry has small steel dolly wheels that fit nicely in those tracks. I'm still contemplating to make a model of this and add it to my display board of the O19. The deck railings are now ready to be cemented on. Deck railings are cemented on. A few more details to take care of like the periscopes and antenna mast and the antenna wires. After that I'll paint her a nice dark flat grey and place the Dutch national flag on the aft part of the con. That should be close to final then. Hope youns enjoy it. Cheers,

What a joy it has been following along with your build, she's a beauty for sure. Thanks for the visit in your hobby room and be able to ogle your models. Cheers,

Another Dutch ship, and a beautiful one at that. Lovely work Kay. Cheers,

Those are looking really nice Dave. Cheers,

Thanks to Craig, Jan, John and Carl for you kind words. I should put my brain in gear before I do something, the little I have left. Been too busy today to do anything but tomorrow should be okay to spend a few hours on this poor little model. Cheers,

First some good news though. My 6 month check at the dermatologist this morning showed no sign of melanoma cancer. I guess i am doing something right. He set me on an annual followup. Okay, now for a small update. Well, small is relative. The following update took place over a few days, due to other chores and a goof-up on my part. I cemented the extended AA gun position platforms to the deck of the con, the aerial antenna support bridge in the "bathtub" or bridge, the bow net cutters, the trim planes and gun deck railings. The last item I screwed up and had to remake them, was just not thinking The pictures below will explain everything. Again, it's a good thing that Boris included an extra sheet of PE. Here are the AA gun deck extensions cemented on. Ready for the railings. Here I have preformed the railings - - not taking the platforms in. Here we have the famous "oh @&$*&^" moment when I saw my dumb oversight. Soooooh - - back to the drawing board. Here you see that I made a jig of the deck gun area for both the forward and aft decks. Bending the new railing pieces went off without a hitch. The aft AA gun deck railing received the same treatment. Forward gun deck railing ready to be cemented on after a final adjustment. Aft gun deck railing ready to be cemented on after minor adjustments. Both railings cemented on. The bow net cutters and trim planes cemented in place. This is a photo of the actual O16 on the slipway showing the trim planes. Another shot of the O16 bow with trim planes installed. Sure hope you like it so far. More to come soon. The plan is to cement the sail or conning tower to the hull, cement the torpedo loading crane support frames and the deck cannon on. Cheers,

Yes Craig, they were cramped for sure. I am not aware that trey had height limits for the crew. My father was 1.95 meter tall and lanky, just like me, although I am only 5 ft 8 or 1.76 meter tall. A few years ago I visited the USS Cod in Cleveland, Ohio with my grandson. We got a private tour by the director of the submarine museum, very nice. That boat is close 98% seaworthy, according to the director. That is the sub that came to the rescue of my father's former sub, Hr. Ms. O19. From the stories I have read about the O19 crew rescued by the Cod in July 10 of 1945, she was rather spacious, compared to the Cod that is. As a young lad of 6 my father took me on board of the O19 in 1940, just before his promotion and I was in total awe over all the gauges, knobs and wheels. Of course to a small boy everything seemed spacious. Being small, lanky and light weight I have no problems fitting in the "driver's" seat of general aviation aircraft. I have flown most everything from a single seat home-build airplane to the Boeing 757. The Beech King Air is a nice airplane and have flown its bigger cousin, the model 99 and 1900. It almost seems that when I strap myself into an airplane I become part of it. Actually, the DC-9, MD 80 are cramped in the cockpit and so are other commercial airplanes. When I managed and partly owned an aircraft repair facility in New Jersey most of my customers asked me to test fly their airplanes, plenty of free airtime, I loved it. And here I am building model ships - - - and loving it. I'm done designing, fixing and flying them. Cheers,

Superb looking ship there Craig. Love the weathering as well, which poses a question or two or three. You mentioned using powder and dry bushed it on. Never heard of such a thing. It was mostly sprayed on with airbrush or dry-brush with wet paint, but at this scale that may be difficult to do. 1. What kind of powder is it and where can one obtain it. 2. Does it adhere well enough, or is there another application afterwards? Reason for asking - I ordered a 1:350 scale model of Hr. Ms. Java - the Dutch cruiser my father was killed on on February 28, 1942 - and I like to finish her as she was going into that fateful battle. Cheers,

Nice going Denis and I keep making notes, who knows when I can put this kit together as a VOC ship - - - my next life Cheers,