ccoyle

Then I continued with the port frames and planking was started.


Planking process took much time and I was lucky to finish it.

Continuation. Blackened all nails inside the hull. I prepared the material for the further stages of work. Wood is a pear.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Started adding some deck furnishings and decorative scroll work.
 
 Bob R.

Thanks for the sage advice David. I don't believe that's the issue in this particular case, but it's certainly a point well taken. 
 
I'm curious if anyone has ever tried to use the pre-printed planks to aid in the building of wooden models? As far as I can tell, most of these kits don't include individual planks, but the Shipyard Alert kit does, and so does their Le Coureur kit. For the wood ship modeler, these kits seem to be excellent at illustrating the proper shape of hull planking as well as the joggling of deck planks into the margin strakes.
 
Anyway, I'm discovering that card models are not easy, but they are fun. Here are some pics of the model just before I added the keel and glued the bulwarks into place.
 

 

 

 
 
I'm learning that paint really does cover a multitude of sins and works very well on this model!
 
Clare

Hi,
 
Thanks for the comments guys. 
 
A small bit of progress.  I trimmed the decks to size and coloured the edges and then placed and aligned them on the deck to mark the perimeter for sanding.  Unfortunately pretty squally here at the moment so can’t get out to sand.

 
 
As I don’t want to jump around to much with the build decided to do the deck openings.  These consist of top hatch surround and the stair well.  Pretty straight forward with the cutting out and edge colouring of the parts reading for scoring the bends and gluing up.


 
 
Forming the hatch surround with the bends was simple enough but trying to hold them to glue was a struggle. Ended up forming a jig to squeeze the sides together in place then placed the glue into the inside edges with a needle held in the pin vice.

 
 
The deck has several holes marked out that need cutting out and the hatch and stair well drop in to this.  I won’t glue any down yet until the deck is fixed to the hull.  There are a couple I might redo as not fully happy with them but will see as the AOTS show a canvas covered frame work over the hatch.  So if I can scratch these out of 0.2mm wire and tissue successfully they will be more or less covered up anyway.

 
Cheers
Slog 

David,
 
The part you are confused about is the inner superstructure wall.  You actually have the part upside down in the photo - the small panel on the far right goes to the left of the 6 in gun mount.  The second panel must be curved to fit in front of the gun mount.  Here are inboard and outboard pics of the area in question - hope these are of use to you.
 

2003 (roughly) seems to be the year that Halinski made the quantum leap to the level of detail that we now take for granted.  All that detail comes at a price, though, with Halinski kits being anywhere from half again to twice as much as a similar kit from a different publisher.  For some (like me - up to a point), that price difference is worth it, since Halinski kits are usually not only gorgeously printed, but go together rather easily relative to the number of parts and degree of complexity - a real (and regular) feat achieved by the talented designers at the Halinski firm.

Yesterday I received another card ship model for my stash.  It is the IJN Fuso by Halinski in 1:200 scale.  Why the Fuso? I have lusted over this kit for a few years now after following a build log here in MSW 1.0 and since found several more on other sites.  The level of detail in all the build logs are incredible and I wasn’t sure if the kit came this way or was extra details added by the modeller.  After pouring over it again and again I can say the detail is in the kit.  There are very few items on the Halinski Fuso which could or would be improved with further detailing although more experianced people would probably disagree.
 
Compared to the GPM Bismarck I am working on the level of detail to be added is considerably more than the Bismarck which has a lot of items printed directly on to the paper and can be further detailed by the modeller if desired. The Halinski ship provides the detail or provides the info to include them such as step irons and ladders for example.  Later published models from Halinski definitely deserve the praise they receive on the detail of their kits which I will discuss later.
 
Until I came across card models the Imperial Japanese Navy ships were never on my radar but since then found them incredibly interesting.  I love the complicatedness of the Pagoda masts as multi-layered structures with access ways and ladders and passages really appeal (that’s why I am not a fan of modern boring slab sided vessels).
 
The distinctive tall pagoda masts, which were ridiculed by other nation’s navy’s as being top heavy and unstable were developed for the Japanese strategy of night time engagements.  They initially left the ship yards with traditional tripod masts but slowly got added to and climbed higher and higher with refits and upgrades over their life.  The theory being that the higher platforms would be able to spot the enemy at longer distances first with powerful search lights and get the jump on them. The pagoda’s absolutely bristles with binoculars and search lights.  Of course all this potential height advantage was lost due to the introduction of ship borne radar.
 
I love this photo of the Yamahiro, Fuso (middle) and Haruna for reasons I can’t explain.  The towering pagodas give a kind of impression of ‘on your steps’ ‘get ready’…I don’t know the image is so Japanese, like an old wood cut print or something with Manga & Anime imagery all bundled together…like I say hard to explain.

 
 
Okay enough waffling  , on with the kit.  Halinski’s reputation of being the Premium of card models is well deserved and include a few well thought out ideas.  The kit book is roughly A3 size with multiple pages of varying types and weights which is interesting.
 
The parts on the photo below are printed on to thin paper which of course for the deck needs to be stuck down to a thicker form.  The detail of printing is exceptional with a lot of detail although printed flat have a 3D look about them which I haven’t found on the Bismarck.  Some make you run your finger across the page to verify that is just printed.  There appears to be only very minimal weathering on some of the parts.

 
 
This next point I think is incredible and although it would add to the cost of the kit it would be minimal compared to the advantages and other publishers should take note.  Many of the parts pages are coloured on the reverse.  Simple but the benefits off not having to colour reverse sides on exposed services add to the finished quality of the model in my opinion.
 
The majority of parts are printed on what appears typical weight Bristol paper to me but the lower red hull panels appear to be printed on pretty thick paper. I can see both advantages and disadvantages to this.  Since no one mentions this in other builds then must be okay.

 
 
Another nice touch is the assembly drawings are printed on quality glossy paper and appear to be rendered computer images which very clearly show how things are assembled. The shading and rendering shows parts relationships very clearly compared to line drawings.  A couple of pictures showing this below.
 


 
 
Now the details (and this can be seen in the assembly drawings above) the amount of ‘iron work’ to be made is awesome.  There is a full A3ish page crammed with all the rails, braces, pipes, foot and hand holds etc necessary to fully detail the ship.  In comparison the Bismarck has a few of jack staffs shown and the rest could be done with generic photo etch as no details are given.  The Fuso wins hands down on this alone as these are the details which although tiny are many and really brings the structures to life.
 
As my philosophy is now to get laser cut forms where available also applies to the Fuso.  There are 15 sheets of laser cut details and as can be expected the majority of these are for the hull.  Although the hull is very roughly the same size as the Bismarck I would say the mount of forms used to build up the Fuso hull up is at least 50% more.  I have no doubt the laser cut forms will fit perfectly.  I have used others for Bismarck and a vehicle and they always seem to fit right.  Being Halinski I have no concerns there.

 
 
Problems/Issues: Major one, I can’t start it  .  I physically don’t have the space with the Bismarck going as well so will put it away for the time being and bring out to pour over now and then, sad as that may seems  .
 
Finally cost; not a great deal more than Bismarck in fact the forms were the same.  With conversion costs it worked out around to A$80 for the kit and A$50 for the laser cut forms.  Now the kicker, shipping from Poland to Australia was around the A$80 mark.  It was bought directly from Halinski and took around 11 days door to door.  Pretty good as the other 2 Polish places I buy from are usually bang on 14 days every time.
 
Cheers
Slog
 
 

David,
 
The part you are confused about is the inner superstructure wall.  You actually have the part upside down in the photo - the small panel on the far right goes to the left of the 6 in gun mount.  The second panel must be curved to fit in front of the gun mount.  Here are inboard and outboard pics of the area in question - hope these are of use to you.
 

My local paint store will do the scan-and-match thing, but if I remember correctly, they require the purchase of least a pint can of the resulting paint, which of course would last a card modeler several lifetimes.

At the moment I am lucid and able to think so I might be considered sane or normal.  The next thing was to work on the scaffolding.  This is when I really appreciate how delicate this stuff can be and taking very delicate cuts.  
The first thing was to identify and figure out out to do the job.


When getting this thin I was having trouble keeping everything stiff for a straight cut.  So most of it was done using straight edges.


The scaffolding in the front gave me the most problem in getting everything lined up. This involved quite  bit of trial and error until I was able to glue everything down.  I am also touching up the colors as I go.




So far so good.  
David B

Nice bit of progress in the last couple of days. Added belaying pins to the four pin rails, and added cleats to the various points across the hull and deck.
 
Still need to add a few more eyelets to the deck and the hull but I want to confirm which of these require a block to be seized before fixing the eyelet in place.
 
And then I shall be moving onto shaping the masts and bowspirit.
 
 

I used balsa stringers on my build of Modelik's 1/100 scale HMCS Agassiz, and it was a slog, Slog, just as you are experiencing. I hope it proves worth the effort when you get to the hull plating. I tried a couple of brands of art pens at a 'local' (only 50 miles away) craft store, one was Le Plume and can't remember the other brand. Lots of colors to choose from, but both bled, so I have had to stick with acrylics. One source of acrylics that card types might overlook are craft paints, like Ceramcoat. These are cheap, come in a bewildering array of colors, and work fine for paper, even though they use coarser pigments than found in modeling acrylics. Oh, and I can get them at the much more local True Value hardware store (only 20 miles away). I will keep my eyes open for the Pitt markers, because the pens can't be beat for ease of use, that's for sure.

Hi everyone,
 
I finally got the forecastle and quarterdeck clamps, and the waist stringer, installed.  I learned a few things. First, the clamps increase in width, therefore increasing the deck heights, the further aft. The officers got certain privileges. Second, the sheer of the moulding at the waist outboard is not the same as the sheer of the clamps and waist stringer inboard. So the waist stringer on its upper surface--where it follows the sheer outboard--is not completely parallel to its lower surface--where it follows the line of the sheer inboard. Subtle, but it shows just how complex and inter-related are all of the lines of the ship. I continue to marvel at the design.
 
I started on the clamps for the roundhouse, but then realized that these will be in the captain's cabin, and I need to think how I am going to color the cabin. The Princess Royal discussed in Rob Napier's book shows white bulkheads in the admiral and captain's cabins. I find white a bit garish, so may consider natural wood panelling. At any rate, the roundhouse clamp will have to wait until I think this through.
 
Mark
 

Hi,
 
A bit more progress.  In my last progress post away back in April I assembled the hull using the laser cut card forms and decided to infill between the bulkheads to provide more support for the hull skins.
 
Well I got a selection of balsa sheets, strip and blocks in various thicknesses and sizes and as can be seen tried different combo's of shapes along the hull.  Firstly I spent ages fitting each infill perfectly.  This soon drove me nuts and ended up gluing unshaped parts in place knowing I would have lots of sanding later   .
 
This seemed the lesser of two evils and came to the conclusion I hate infilling card hulls as much as planking wood ships.  Here is a few photos of the first pass gross hull sanding.  I took the majority of hull ribs down just short of the forms. The bow will need a crap load more sanding as this was built up and is more or less solid block of balsa.
 
I couldn’t sand to much as I need the finished deck to mark the perimeter so I have a line to sand to. 
First sand photos.



 
 
To prepare the deck I had to first edge glue sheets of 1mm card so I had a large enough surface to glue the deck to.  I just used PVA glue and rubbed the edges together then left with some weights on the join.  The joints are pretty strong and can be handled fine.
 
I rough cut out the deck and then used Elmers spray adhesive to coat the card and then pressed deck down on to this giving it a good rub to ensure it contacted the full card underneath.  I remembered the last time I used Elmers I wasn’t to happy with it and same again.  In future I will try Scotch 3M 77 spray adhesive as this is supposed to be the best according to hard core cardists.

 
 
I will trim the deck to size after at least overnight as several hours later some of the card is still a bit tacky but couldn’t resist placing the deck on the hull to get a feel for the look of it.

 
I also glued up the central prop shaft housing.  I can’t stress how easy and fuss free the laser cut forms slot together perfectly.

 
 
Edge Colouring: A general note of interest on edge colouring.  I have never been satisfied with this; I have tried water colour pencils, water colours, enamel and acrylic paints and for one reason or other each I was never fully satisfied.
 
Well I think my edge colouring prayers have been answered :im Not Worthy: .  On a card forum someone mentioned Faber-Castell PITT Artist pens and since my local Officeworks sold them I bought a set, which contained 3 blacks  but more importantly 5 different warm and cold greys. They also sell them separately. 
 
These are amazing; dry instantly so can’t smudge or smear them and they don’t bleed at all even when I messed around with them on cheap thin printer paper.  As can be seen the greys in the set almost match the hull greys perfectly although saying that they are slightly darker on the edges.
 
I think the range has 64 colours so will check out the reds (for lower hull edges), greens for the ships aircraft (and card vehicle I am working on) and pale blue for the aircraft again.

 
Cheers
Slog

Hi everyone. Some more photos.

Jim, Jason and Mort
thank you, again for your support!
 
Wanted to pre-shape all the yards of the ship. Giving a rectangular shape to the mid-section of each dowel and planking it with walnut thin planks was so easy. I liked Jason's technique so I decided to follow that way even with 4mm dowels...

Oh, indeed it can be!  There are many potential pitfalls with paper, but I think one of the worst is working with a poorly designed kit, e.g. one in which the parts fit is poor, or the diagrams are incomplete (or wrong), or the graphics on adjacent parts don't match up, etc.  Fortunately, HMV kits have one of the best reputations in this regard, and, as in any modeling medium, a lot of the outcome depends on the skill of the builder.  David really took on a big challenge with this kit, and if you recall his earlier struggles with much less complex kits, you can really appreciate how far his skills have come (that old saw about practice makes perfect)!  Like those 6" gun mounts - those are much trickier to do nicely than they appear, and David did a respectable job on them.
 
Cheers!

Oh, indeed it can be!  There are many potential pitfalls with paper, but I think one of the worst is working with a poorly designed kit, e.g. one in which the parts fit is poor, or the diagrams are incomplete (or wrong), or the graphics on adjacent parts don't match up, etc.  Fortunately, HMV kits have one of the best reputations in this regard, and, as in any modeling medium, a lot of the outcome depends on the skill of the builder.  David really took on a big challenge with this kit, and if you recall his earlier struggles with much less complex kits, you can really appreciate how far his skills have come (that old saw about practice makes perfect)!  Like those 6" gun mounts - those are much trickier to do nicely than they appear, and David did a respectable job on them.
 
Cheers!

I has the most trouble with the main turret wall.  The first time I glued it up it did not fit the base properly in trying to fix it I damaged it.  Fortunately I had scanned the plans earlier just in case,  This time I cut out the opening for the cannons.  The carriage was not acceptable and I redid it. Then I fitted everything and proceeded to put in the cannons.



Then to my surprise the main guns would not fit in their numbered occasions.  After some trial and error.  I found out that for some reason the print mislabeled the assemblies.  Once I reversed the locations I got a god fit.
David B

David,
 
The part you are confused about is the inner superstructure wall.  You actually have the part upside down in the photo - the small panel on the far right goes to the left of the 6 in gun mount.  The second panel must be curved to fit in front of the gun mount.  Here are inboard and outboard pics of the area in question - hope these are of use to you.
 

The main topmast is installed with its standing rigging.  I wasn’t pleased with the location of the topmast backstay.  It is too close to the topmast shrouds and the top itself.  I think this is due to my moving the gun ports closer together, which forced the channel location to be modified, which moved the deadeyes for the backstay.  But I’m not going to change all that now. 
Another issue was the rigging of the top yard lifts.  The plans have them attached to a ‘thimble’ lashed between the first and second top shrouds.  This makes the yard lifts part of the standing rigging rather than the running rigging.  So if the yard is ever raised, the yard lifts won’t offer any assistance and, in fact, would be left dangling in the wind.  So I changed the thimble to a block and added shroud cleats for both the top yard lifts and the topgallant yard lifts.  This seems more correct to me.
I rigged the topmast stay as per the plans, lashing some extra line above the block in case the stay ever needed to be loosened.
Also, I’m glad I didn’t glue all of the deck furniture in place until they are necessary.  I have a lot more space to work in.

Then I wrap the few inches I let out keeping it tight as I go. Repeating this process till it is finished. Using Fray Check keeps everything in place but still very flexible. If you don't touch it it dries clear. If you rub your fingers across it as it is drying it gives the line a weathered look.  This process actually works pretty well & doesn't take very long.

Another good weekend at the bench!
 
My goal was to get in a spot to start the masts and rigging this coming week and I am just about there.   I did get into a bit of a groove again,  between football and building, time just moved along and I didn't get pics along the way as much as I wanted.
 
I do have to get better at that,  am trying to at least.
 
This weekends updates are all around rounding out the ship.
 
First the channels were painted, installed and knees added.  These, once in, really made the nearing of the end real to me - very exciting.  Odd how just a small thing can do that, but very cool!
 

 
 
Using some pear in order to continue the scheme of using peaer for accents and trim work I created the frame for the beakhead grating and some replacement grating I had to order from MS to finish up the kit.
 

 
And then very simply glued that in to place, added the walkway planks and pin rail with belaying pins and wallah!  The interior of the beakhead is complete!!
 

 
Then finished up the trim on the outside of the beakhead!  Again just went with the kit scheme to keep it simple.   ON the fence about the beakhead yellow decorations, may just leave them off - still undecided.
 

 
And here we have her, the mayflower - 99% ready to begin the masts and rigging.   I still have some minor bits and pieces to finish up before then, a couple of pin rails to add now that I have the extra belaying pins as well as replacing the railing on the poop deck (it snapped off ).   Once I get those all in place I am going to give it a once over with a nice semi gloss spray.   All I have is testors lacquer, which typically is not good to use over acrylics.  I think I need to go find some acrylic based tomorrow in anticipation!
 
Anyway, once it is sprayed with a couple of coats to even out the colors and sheen,  I will be on to the masts and rigging!!!  (even the ratlines ... )
 

 
 
So here she sits currently - ready for her touchups, dotting of the I's crossing of the T's and a nice shiny coat!
 

 

 
 
Until later... enjoy!

Lanyards and Main Topmast Backstays are complete.
 
I wasn't sure how tight to make the shrouds but I didn't put too much tension in them.   I had to play with the lines a little to get the deadeyes to line up but persistence prevailed.  The Pin Rails with the belaying pin were also tied to the forward shrouds.  I need to thank Modeler12 for his tip in one of his posts about applying some ca glue to the end of the lanyard that is inserted through the hole in the deadeye.  It made threading the line much easier.  I would also like to thank Wayne for his help with the proper way to rig the deadeyes.
 


 
For the main topmast backstay rigging  I started by stropping my block (pardon me if that’s not the correct terminology).  I twisted some 30 gauge wire around the single sheave block forming an eyelet on the top and a hook on the bottom.  This will be used with the running rigging on the backstay.
 

 
I then tied the backstay line to the top of the main mast and threaded it down through the outrigger eyelet.  Taking a measurement from the rigging plans I located the double block and tied it to the end of the backstay line.  Once that was done it was a simple task to reeve the running rigging line through the blocks.  One problem I ran into was that after rigging these lines you are suppose to tie it off to a belaying pin in the cap rail.  Not knowing exactly how these pins would be used when I installed them I unfortunately placed them to far outboard on the rail so I had no room between the pin and the bulwarks to get the thread in.  Fortunately  the aft deck scupper was right there so I passed the line out through the scupper and held it in place so I could glue the line to the bulwarks right next to the pin and then brought the line up and around the top of the belaying pin.
 
Then I tried my hand at making rope coils.  I think I spend as much time on one coil as I did carving the hull.  This one’s too big, this one’s too small, and this one’s unraveling.    I never got one that was just right but close enough.
 



 
 
 
I really enjoyed rigging these lines. With the rigging placed on the model I’m starting to get a better understanding of how they all work together.  When looking at a fully rigged ship, model or real, it’s hard to visualize where all the lines go and how they work.  By doing them one at a time you can see how they brace the masts and how by moving one point on one mast it affects the others.  Very structural, I like that.
 
One footnote, I hope there are extra single blocks that came with the kit.  While trying to strop the wire around them I did launch a few across the room.