ccoyle

Here's a quick update. Each cant frame is made of four pieces. The laser-cut parts have no tabs and literally drop right out of their frets, which is why the manufacturer has taped the back side of each fret. It would obviously be foolhardy to remove the tape all at one go; instead, I remove only as much as is needed to release each part. There are 31 frame stations along the hull, so as I complete each frame, I use some leftover tape to label it with its station number and, for cant frames, which side it goes on. This process worked well until I got to cant frames #4 and discovered that two of the futtocks for these frames are missing (the same part for each side). I checked all of the frets three times and then checked the parts sheet drawings as well. Yep -- that part # somehow did not get included. I'm going to have to make replacement parts from some scrap material. I think that Mr. Dremel Tool and I will be able to make short work of this task, but it is mildly annoying when one discovers that a kit is missing some parts.

Coincidentally, our family also has a Bean (it rhymes with her given name, Kathleen), although I'm probably the only one who calls her that with any regularity. Ironically, her dog is also named Maisy.

Welcome aboard from your neighbor to the south!

Very nice!

Welcome aboard!

Congratulations -- she looks great!

Welcome aboard! Sounds like you got your hands on a Shipyard kit. We have a small group of enthusiastic card modelers lurking about here. I built Shipyard's Wuetender Hund wood kit a couple of years ago.

Now my brain hurts.

I'm not pickin' up what yer layin' down. The right-hand drawing makes the frame appear to be bent, or curved, which is impossible to do with the 3 mm thick pieces.

Okay, hit my first big snag already! This instruction basically says "build the cant frames." Sounds easy enough. Except I can't for the life of me figure out how to interpret the 1:1 scale drawings for the cant frames. The image on the left I was able to solve, as it simply shows the overlapping frame pieces (four in total). It's the drawing on the right that I can't figure out. As you can see in the image that comes later in the construction manual, the cant frames need beveling (duh), but they don't appear to be bent in any way -- seen from the side, they appear to be straight up-and-down. So what am I reading wrong in the drawing?? 🤔

Looks-wise, they both look good, but off the top of my head i can't tell you which one would be a better choice for your subject.

Wow! I'll just echo the previous comments -- beautiful!

Which may also explain why Mr. Okumoto-san is sold out of this kit!

Okay, so here are the parts for the keel. In the center are the two bits of scrap that I test glued and let dry over night. I couldn't get them apart with finger pressure, not even while twisting them, so the char does not appear to be a problem for gluing. Here's a close-up showing a laser-cut edge. Like I said earlier, the char is medium-brown in color, not black, and personally I kind of like the bit of contrast. But what do you think? Fly's name plate arrived in the mail today, but I will wait until the "big reveal" to show what it looks like with the model.

As a kid, I built Revell's 1/72 scale version of Goering's mount.

Re-homed from another MSW member.

Wow! That's a great display!

Hi, BG. Check out the work of Bob Wilson (click here for website). He offers quite a few downloadable how-to files. Cheers!

Hi, gang. So, while I'm still waiting for some materials to finish up USS England, I've decided to start up a new project. This is the 1/70 scale Hannah kit from Ship Model Okumoto. I won't do an unboxing here, since James Hatch already wrote up an excellent review of this kit, which you can read here. Mr. Okumoto's kits are basically POF, but without the 'P' part -- just the framing. I may decide to add some planking later to make Hannah more of a conventional POF model. As you will note in James' review, the instructions for this kit are entirely in Japanese -- I am only able to begin work on it now because I was recently forced to replace my dying cell phone with a new one that includes Google Lens, which has a built-in translation capability. I can attest that Lens does a more than adequate job of translating the kanji characters. As James also noted, the laser cutting on this kit is very good, but, interestingly, there are no laser-engraved numbers on the parts. The instructions say that the first step is to write the numbers on the parts in pencil, using the kit's printed part sheet templates as guides. Not knowing in advance how much of those numbers will eventually remain visible, if any, I have gone ahead and written them adjacent to the parts, just to be safe. James mentioned removing the char, but I intend to do a test bond on some pieces of scrap to see whether it is really needed. What little char remains on the parts is not loose or sooty, and its medium brown color actually pairs well with the tone of the wood used in the kit. If I can get away without having to do all of the scraping and sanding, it will save a huge amount of work. We'll see how it goes. Cheers!

Yikes! My short-term memory isn't what it used to be -- but your model proves the point I was making! Cheers!

She'll go back in the bookcase with glass doors.

Welcome board, Charlie!

Nevertheless, it is to these same cruel taskmasters that we must ultimately answer. 😉

More progress. The Swan-class sloops had a very small number of belaying pins, located in racks along the quarterdeck railings. As usual, these off-the-shelf pins benefit from being chucked in the ol' Dremel and being turned down a bit. And the hammock cranes are done as well. No netting -- sorry. Just don't feel up to the additional effort. The black line is also a little on the thin side, but I didn't have anything on hand that looked 'just right', and all the other available cordage was too thick. Believe it or not, there is not much else to do. I'm planning to replace the kit swivel guns with parts from Vanguard Models once they are back in stock, and I also plan to add one or two of the anchors to the display. I also ordered a brass name badge -- she deserves at least that much. So, once all those things are in place, I will report back, but that's pretty much it for now.

Good luck with your project! This kit produces a quite spectacular model.