Tuffarts

Thanks for the suggestions for the copper plating Steve & Jay. The copper plates are still a long way off adding to the model, I will finish the interior first, then plank the outside of the hull starting at the top. This way I can get the details around the gangway lined up. I have just been playing around with what is possible till then. I have started to plank the gun deck. The raised section has the pumps and the front part without pumps will be the stair landing. It was caulked with white paper, tree nailed with 24 thou ramin dowel and scraped to a fine finish, varnished with minwax poly. Next is to finish the deck, and start cladding the walls around the gunports and working out a method for lining the gunports.then more knees that are more complicated than the lower ones, as they have to go around the gunports.

This kit is supposed to be a learning experience for me, so I probably would have gone with a kit again. ​As for scratch building this it would be beyond the capabilities of the tools that I have for now. It is really only a POB build, the 'ribs' are spaced out way too far there would have been 3-4 times as many ribs in the section I am building, and they would have all been different from each other to keep the curve of the ship. On this kit all the ribs are the same making for a much easier build as the beams run straight as do the bulwarks. On a 'real' ship there are no lines that run parallel, all the lines follow curves in hull, and decks are also curved. I am working up to scratch building, but need to be able to resaw wood first.

They are performed plates I got from modellers shipyard in NSW The rivets take up 2 mm each so to scale they are 186 mm apart from each other, this seemed to be within reason if not a little large. Across the keel will be 3 rivets, so it neatly takes 1 plate on each side of keel bent at 90 deg, and 1 rivet 'set' in between the 2 But I will do some more research, and see what is existing, and what I can obtain.

I have got the fire station and pipes installed, the pipes and reservoirs look good for scale but the fire station itself is a little large. I am going to keep it as is as this is only a model and nothing else is particularly correct. I may write 'FIRE' on the red vessel so people stop asking me what it is also. I have looked at the copper plates for the hull, I purchased some a while ago and was put off with the gaps around the rivets when just laid like tiles. Then I thought about overlapping tiles as they are in real life, I played around with for a while and came up with these results. You can see my first effort in the back. I got them to go around 90 deg quite neatly, and this was just trial. They need trimming to fit so is time consuming but I only have small portion of hull todo. Next I will be putting in the gun deck planking, there is a raised portion in the center planked in contrasting thicker wood that I will caulk in paper and actually sand the deck to fine finish. this should contrast the rustic look of the rest of the deck which will be caulked in brown cotton, like the other deck is.

Have you thought about small magnets hidden in the hull to pull the parts together firmly. I am sure you don not need them but the joints may be even tighter with them. Incredible work you do by the way.

No problem Matt There is a mini tutorial on page 4 of this log so people can 'steal' my idea. It is time consuming putting all the cotton in the slots, but it looks great.

Those 'boys' in the back look very surprised at your efforts Nice looking models

You could try BNA models in Melbourne. They have a lot of paint and some hobby airbrush stuff, and there postage is quick and cheap. Here is a link http://www.bnamodelworld.com/

It is a different shaped hull I imagine, the cross section is more wineglass shaped. The real thing is shaped less romantically, looking straighter on the sides. It also has a different number of decks than the original. So It may have looked out of place beside a real hull.

I will be putting some bluestone ballast, I will get some chips from local rail line and lacquer them into a neat lump, with barrels on top. I just want enough ballast to show it is included, I am still looking for suitable cloth to use as canvas to make bags of tack, spare sail cloth, ditty bags etc. So the hold will be very full of varried stuff.

I usually get called Tuff, plural is not necessary But my name is Scott in Real Life. I took the plunge and decided that all was ready to install the next deck. I had to trim the ends of the beams to squeeze them into the tight fit, I have filled most of the gaps this left. Then after I had installed the deck, I discovered I had forgotten the little porthole windows I managed to get the holes drilled by getting a pin vice inside the hull and drilling a small hole in the the correct position, which allowed me to drill from the outside of the hull. This gave me some tearout on the painted surface, but I will be able to hide with the small brass tube that is rounded over provided with the kit. I am now trying to decide which horizontal knees if any I am going to install. if any at this time. They will be difficult to fit. And I worry about getting them looking consistent with the limited tools and wood that I have. They would look great but the work involved may be too much, and the whole model would be delayed for too long. I may just fit horizontal knees in the 'easy' positions where the smaller beams do not interfere with the fit, this would at least show the idea of horizontal knees, even if they were not all there.

Maple for decks, Holly for bulwarks. Giving the decks that slightly lived in appearance with the grain showing. and creamy 'walls'.

http://vanda-layindustries.com/html/acra_mill_plus.html Again not a drum sander but may serve you better than the Dremel stand.

http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/discsander1.html That is the Rolls Royce of mini disk sanders, it is solid aluminum construction. Proxxon also make a decent sander.

I took a few photos today while test fitting some barrels. I am going to treenail the barrels together into groups and then pin the groups to the model with brass pins. Layout a few ropes in storage/laying around. and get some buckets scattered on the deck Then I should be ready to install the gun deck.

Plastic strip would have same issue that the taper on the barrel does not let the strip sit flush on both edges, or meet without an angle. Plastic may be able to heat with hot air to shrink into place. But while writing this I thought of shrink wrap for electrical applications, it could be cut into rings and shrunk on with hot air. Fixed in place with varnish. might be worth a try. But I have finished with barrels for this model. Next time I will try.

I have got all the barrels done now. I used coloured markers to 'stain' the sides and tops of barrels and used a 2B pencil for the hoops. The hoops came out well because of the precise turning done on the barrels from Poland. Then I added some stanchions to the ladder. I will add some cotton or maybe wire to finish them of before I mount the stairs. I will paint the brass black I think, maybe leaving the brass balls for style.

I tried cardstock and brass sheet but they both had the problem of not meeting at the ends properly because of the taper at the end of the barrel. The tapers were to varied to get the brass or even the card to sit flush on both edges. As I had filed the ends of the barrels the tapers were not even, so a new shape had to be found per hoop. I plan to rub 2B pencil over the hoops this will even out the colour and somewhat the 'lumpiness' of the hoops, as well as giving a metallic look.And I want them to look a bit lived in. I plan on using cardstock for mast hoops, the tapers there are going to be almost negligible, and it does look a lot cleaner.

Masters keep the minwax range, and they have a system for buying some of their range online.

I have been using the 1mm ramin dowel for tree nails, also from modelers shipyard. it is a creamy white so I can stain it to required colour. Needs to soak for a long time to make sure stain penetrates to center of dowel, and then needs to be passed through drawplate again, but you have as many coloured treenails as you have stains.

Got the barrels from the kit finished. I will go through the process I came up with for 'fixing' them up. I started with the supplied barrels. I did not like the smoothness of them not showing up the separate pieces of wood, and the bands or hoops were blended into the barrel not giving a clear margin to paint up to. Also there seemed to few hoops with just 2. I had lots of barrels to do. First I played around with pencil lines and pieces of card for hoops but did not like the results so I decided to 'caulk' the barrels the same as I have been doing with the decks, using dark cotton to show up the edges of the wood. This needed grooves cut into the sides of the barrel, I used a miter box and razor saw to start the grooves. The pegs on the bottom of the miter box worked well, but the pegs shown in the photo used as clamps proved to be too complex to reposition each time. It worked out quicker to just use my thumb. The miter box and razor saw got the groove started but still needed to be finished of 'freehand' with the razor saw. It was important to make sure that the grooves were deep enough and that they carried through around the top and bottom. This was to make the barrel look like it was individual pieces of wood but also to make sure that there was a space to hide the fuzzy end of the cotton when it is cut of. Next was to file off the original hoop and most of the stain while I was at it. The 'wall thickness' of the originals was varied and mostly too thick, so I evened up the thickness with a file. Next was to sand all the barrels ready for staining. I then had to freehand all the grooves again with the razor saw to make sure that they were deep enough and cleared of saw dust. Then the barrels were ready for staining various colours and fitting cotton into all the grooves. The cotton is 'glued' into position with the first of many coats of Liquid Poly. the cotton must be soaked with polly but the overall coat must be thin as there will be many more coats. Also the cotton must be pulled up into the groove at the top and bottom while the first coat dries, it is then partially pulled out of just the end of the groove, so it can be clipped of cleanly and pushed back into the groove with a cotton bud soaked in poly. After getting all the grooved filled with cotton I needed hoops. I again used cotton The first wind of cotton around the barrel was held in position with tiny drops of CA glue, it was then easy to keep winding and finish with another tiny drop of CA glue. Then I used a cotton bud to soak the cotton hoopin liquid poly , I did 1 hoop at a time letting it dry between coats of poly. (sticky finger prints look bad) I still have some detailing I want to do to individualize them even more, I want to fit some with bungs and corks stopcock etc. But I want to label some of them. Flags of origin pics of contents etc. if this sort of thing was done or not I am not sure, other than the XXX lable on rum barrels. Any Ideas? Oh and I made a half barrel as I am doing a cutaway model. Going to 'fill' it up with resin, the blue is just coloured marker to show through the resin. Next is the barrels I got from RB models in Poland I have done a few trial things to them so far. I will stain them different colours etc.but I really want to work out a way of fixing the ends of the smaller ones. The hoops are done with a 2B pencil. I am making more barrels than I need, but I will just choose best of the bunch to go on the model.

you could buy a 5 or 6mm plywood top to go on top of the existing top. You could glue pieces of sandpaper to both surfaces to minimise movement. Then you would have a sacrificial top you could glue jigs on or damage as much as you wanted, just change top every few years

Just a small update; I am still working on the barrels and will tell of the whole process when they are finished. In the meantime I have made a barrel rack to go in the hold. These barrels are still not finished yet. And it fits in here. The barrel rack balances out the look of the lower hold nicely, it looked a bit bare on one side without it. Delivery arrived as well this week from RB Model in Poland It included extra barrels, better cannon barrels, and little tiny ladders. The Cannon fits well and should blacken up with acid better than the kit supplied cannon, it is much better looking shape on both ends, the tulip end looks like a tulip.the only problem was the trunnion is centered but should be easy to file the hole to correct position and fill with solder. I hope this looks ok with the blackening process, I have got 2 spare cannons to practice with I had to put a ladder together to check the fit and try out some stain, which came out too dark. But the fit was perfect somehow, strait out of the little kit from the other end of the world this ladder fits without any trimming or even sanding, it is a snug fit in the hatch and the length is as precise as I could get with a sanding stick or a scalpel. The angles of the ladder rails are lining up with top and bottom like it was built specifically for the spot that I had prepared. Apart from the wrong stain it is a perfect fit, and I have another 7 spare. There is still stanchions to hold up the deck beams to work out, but I am considering some sort of small stanchions attached to the ladders as hand rails. They may be just some nicely bent blackened brass wire. The ladder also fits exactly in the 'folded' position, so I may consider having it moveable in the completed model.

Put the cans in hot water before you use them will make them spray thinner. Paint splatters when it is too cold. Tamia is a great brand for paint, I use them nearly exclusively.

Loctite, or whatever is cheap. I tend to use it for making jigs, small parts installation (not often) or holding ropes (again not often) I like to use PVA as much as possible, as it is repairable, will not harden over time and will move with the model as seasons change and wood expands and contracts. CA glues harden over time and will eventually fail if used to hold structural parts together.