NMBROOK

Hi Daniel, the blue color is acrylic paint from czech producer (http://obchod.agama-model.cz/cz-detail-235034-r29-p-tmava-sedomodra.html).
 
Aft cabin bulkheads are finished and installed on the deck.

speed and feed work together
you can use a speed of 500 tpm if you want but the feed will need to be  slower
20,000 is a more accurate speed  because it will leave as smoother finish on a long run
you could probably do molding at a very slow speed but a slow feed would means  it would take 10 times longer to do
The idea is to find a middle speed of a motor which will give a reasonable feed
 
you could go to 50000 tpm for wood or metal but especially with metal, such a speed will throw  metal shavings many feet away if you do not stop it

For those who have yet to cut out the gunports, you should take note that the position of some of these gunports is absolutely critical. Not all are. 
 
Ideally, Euromodel should provide pre-cut plywood gunports, like other kit manufacturers. If they don't, they could supply a paper template - but they don't do that either. Instead, they supply plans. Whilst the plans are very good, they are a 2 dimensional representation of a 3 dimensional shape. As a result, the position of any features drawn in the plans which curves away from flat in the real ship can not be trusted. 
 
Furthermore, what most RW builders have done is trace out the plans on tracing paper, then align the tracing paper on the model to cut out the gunports. This is not reliable either. I have multiple gunports which are off by as much as 10mm - in 1/72 scale terms, this is a massive error. 
 
Fortunately, the position of most of these gunports don't matter very much. But a few of these gunports definitely matter, and I would like to draw your attention to them. 
 

 
1. The position of this gunport should be located at the end of the transom support (Parts 54/55). It abuts, but does not cross Frame 7. Because this gunport does not open, I would suggest that this gunport not be cut out until the transom support is located. Otherwise your transom support might foul the gunport opening. This is not a discovery you want to make when your second planking and wales have already been installed. Fortunately, mine were correctly cut out. 
 
2. This gunport is located immediately under the termination of the poop deck. As other posts have indicated, the length of the Euromodel supplied poop deck is incorrect when compared to the plans. Most of us have shortened the poop deck. If you do this, you will now find that the gun carriage which should be installed in this position will foul the curved staircase that should be installed. 
 
If you have an eye for this kind of detail, I invite you to look at all the pictures of Euromodel RW that you can find. You will see that this is a common mistake - a mistake that I also made. I had to fix my error by re-locating the gunport (install wood blocks, re-cut). Don't do what I did - learn from my mistake! 
 
3. The position of this gunport on the second quarter deck should be exactly one length of metal part 11184/11185. You will see from my above post that I did not realize this. Fortuitiously, on one side of the ship the position of the gunport was exactly correct. On the other side, I was off by 5mm and had to make repairs. 
 

 
4. If you locate these gunports improperly, you will not be able to install the fenders. I realized this before the second planking went on, and I had to relocate a number of gunports to accomodate the fenders. 
 
The fenders are 3mm wide. I suggest you cut a strip of 3mm wood and check that the position of your intended gunport does not foul the fender before you cut it out. 
 
Take reference from the location of the side entrance. It should abut (but not cross) Frame 1. 
 
5. If you do not take care in the location of this gunport, you will foul the cathead. Do not cut out this gunport until the location of the cathead has been determined. 
 
6 and 7. Neither of these gunports have their position accurately marked in the plans. This part of the ship curves away thus the position can not be trusted. You will note that neither of these gunports can be opened, and the position is strongly influenced by the position of the beakhead railings. I suggest you do not cut out these gunports until you have dry fitted the beakhead railings. 
 
With the rest of the gunports, you can have an error of a few mm and up to 1cm but it won't prevent you from installing any features. These are the only gunports you need to worry about. 

Another update. 
 

 
Having decided to put off the transom for the time being, I am now installing the metal side decoration pieces. The lower limit of the decoration was determined by reading the plans - 1cm above the last wale. I simply took a compass, set it to 9mm, and drew a line exactly parallel to the last wale. I subtracted 1mm because the black line will be hidden under the metal decoration and I wanted some leeway. 
 
Other RW builders will note that the plans call for the side of the hull to cut exactly at the termination of the poop deck. I did not think that this would look very nice so I made sure that I had at least 1mm to play with. 
 
Each metal piece needs to be shaped to conform to the hull, with holes cut out for gunports. Initially I used a Dremel with a cutting wheel, until I found out that a pair of Xuron nippers did a much faster and neater job. It does leave a nipping mark, but this is easily cut off with a scalpel. Oh yes, the metal is soft enough to be carved with a sharp scalpel! 
 
You will also note that the side window (Euromodel part 11260) has been replaced with a scratch built window. This is necessary to let the light from the LED's through. It also looks much better than the Euromodel supplied part. 
 

 
I have completed side decorations to the area of the fo'c'sle but decided to stop for the time being while I install the beakhead. I fabricated a replacement for the Euromodel supplied part. This is Mk. 1 of the piece - I do not like the look of the archways so I removed them. I will be fabricating another replacement soon. 
 

 
Pins were soldered to the railings and holes drilled into the hull to accomodate. As you can see, the railings happily sit on the hull without any glue whatsoever. 
 

 
A cursory examination of the railings tells you how much they need to be bent to fit the beakhead. 
 

 
... and they need to be bent in three dimensions. Not going to be an easy task. 
 

 
Having determined the position of the cathead support, I proceeded to cut out a hole for the cathead. 
 
Uh-oh. 
 
As you can see, the cathead will be much too close to the first gun, and this was despite cutting out the gun position exactly as per Euromodel's plans. Here you can see me moving the position of the gunport - glue in a filler block and recut the gunport. 
 

 
While i'm at it, I also found that I cut the starboard poop deck gunport FIVE MM short compared to port! As a result, the metal decoration does not quite fit. Here you can see the repair - remove the decoration, fill in the defect with a block, then re-install the decoration. 
 
I will have some thoughts on gunport positioning in the next post. 

Super crisp work Jason She is looking fantastic
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Super crisp work Jason She is looking fantastic
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Cheers guys (Yes Mort, I can only imagine it getting heavier, especially with all the cannons in place as well!).  Good news, the fix to the boo-boo turned out just fine.  Lesson learned, so will be putting some protection on these delicate areas going forward. Not much to show for time but feel I need to get up to date.  Lots of sanding sessions to get a nice shape, and the weather hasn't really been cooperating.
 
 
Batten at the waterline has been installed.  Tried thinning down some 1x1mm strip to approx. .5mm thickness but found that this was just too delicate a procedure, so thinned as much as possible and it was pretty easy to take more off once installed.  Used PVA to attach which worked just fine as it develops a sufficient tack needed for this thin stuff, even in the curved areas which just required a few minutes of finger pressure.  To help with this, I temporarily attached some scrap walnut strip to act as guides.
 
Once in place, put on a single coat of wipe on poly to protect the surface and then used some walnut stain to colour below the batten.  Although this will be coppered, think its better to have a darker surface in case there are gaps between the plates.
 

 
Also started to put in place the oar and vent ports.  Each needs to be individually shaped as I think it would follow the profile of the other planking.  Getting a uniform (or as best I can) fit takes a bit of fiddling.  Captain Sterling is keeping on top of things in his new nice new uniform....
 

 
And where things stand...
 

Ferit: Thanks for always dropping by and posting encouraging words. I have to assume, as also with most builders,  the last bits will be the flags.
 
Edwin : appreciate your visits and thoughts - Thanks
 
=======================
 
Working on rebuilding the mainmast lower platform. The one that I had started pre-building (same size as the foremast one) turns out is a bit too small. This one is easier, having struggled through the first two; now have a better grasp on how to make the small bits at a faster clip
 
MIchael
 

I got the forward bulkhead planked and finished the hull where it wraps around the bow. I still think this was a very impractical design with the gun placement but it does have an interesting look instead of just a flat, blunt front. The weather also cooperated and the rain held which was great as I hate trying to apply finish to wood with high humidity as it takes much longer for it to dry between coats. This allowed me to get the finish applied and I think she looks great now with the wood colors brought out. Although there are a few flaws this is my best planking job I've done.
 
I have removed the temporary decks down to the upper gun deck and I will now begin to plank the interior bulkheads and detail it out. I will also begin the long process of building all the canons. This is where the excitement of seeing all the tiny details take shape begins. 

I've completed the first planking of the lower hull on the port side. My intention was to do it "quick and dirty" , so as to achieve a smooth, flowing surface for the second planking, without worrying too much about a prototypical planking pattern.  My reaction after doing this work is to wonder why anyone would want to bother with double planking a hull. It seems like an awful lot of extra work. I'm still going to have to do all of the lay-out work for the final planking that I would have done if it were single planked.
 
In any event, it's now on to the starboard side.
 
Bob

Hi mates,
 
So lower mainmast is now completed. Here are some updated pics.
 
Now onto re-building a lower top for the main – need to order some rope from Chuck so shrouds pending.
 
Again – as always - thanks for the comments, the Likes and/or just dropping in for a visit.
 
PS: Nigel your pencil suggestion made such a great diff. Thanks again.
 
Cheers,
 
Michael
 

Well I think this hobby has gotten the best of me, I mean who wakes up in the morning excited about making filler blocks? It's just not right  .
 Before I jumped into this madness I did manage to get some of the outside work done so maybe I'm not totally over the edge yet.
 For the blocks I cut some pieces out of a 1x6 board to size then shaped by cutting one edge on scroll, and shaped the rest on the belt/disc sander. Finished shaping by hand then glued in place. In the pictures only the starboard stern side has been slightly faired I am leaving the rest of the fairing until I finish with installing all the filler blocks. I'm thinking that all in all I probably spent about 4-5 hours making and installing them.
 

Stern filler block
 

Bow filler block
 

Bow
 

Stern
 
Have a good night

Hi all - I thought I would take a little break from that nasty transom & work on the rudder. The laser cut rudder supplied in the kit has the front edge straight with no cut outs for the hinges  - forgot to take picture  . The thickness of the hinges seemed to make the rudder sit too far away from the post,so I cut out the parts of the rudder where the hinges fasten to inset them. After bending the hinges to fit around the curves of the hull I painted them black & glued them all in place. I decided to go ahead & mount the rudder before installing the transom support - much easier. The rudder is glued in place,but if it were to turn the rounded front edge would keep it from binding against the post. Now back to the transom..........
 

 

 
Mark
 
 

Thank you so much, Nigel. Your compliment is very welcome !!!
 
Ian, please don´t let us wait too long for your surprise. I could not wait to see what you are talking about... 
 
Thanks for all your "likes"!!!
 
Best
 
-Heinz-

Fabulous work Heinz!
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Fabulous work Heinz!
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Thanks to everyone who dropped by.
 
Well, after gun surround #4 found the scrap bin as it broke in two, I spent yesterday planking the side panel for the beak on the port side in preparation for mounting after the bulkhead ornamentation is completed. I carved a new surround this morning and it thankfully survived the process in one piece.
 

 
Here it is mounted on the bulkhead and the set of four is now complete.
 

 
More to follow...............
 
 

Hello my friends, 
 
I finished the cannons on the upper deck. Time for an update :-)
 
Although there are still a few things to do on the upper deck, I decided to start with the next deck. I knew before, that this will mean some new problems for me, because I removed the wooden edges on the frames, as I rebuild the side walls (please look at post no. 5 and 6 on my bulldog).. How should I fix the bows on which the deck will lay? 
 
I decided to fix all these bows on the bottom of the deck and lay the whole thing on the top of the side wall. I am very pleased about this solution. Contrary to my fears, everything seemed very stable. Luckily, you can not see from the outside that the bows hanging in the air, rather than to support the deck :-).
 
Now I have time to take care of the missing things on the upper deck. But first I have to read plans and look very much in other forums ...
 
Greetings to all of you!
 
- Heinz -
 
p.s.: I do not know why all pictures are messed up today. Sorry for that!

Some progress on the RW.
 

 
All the decks seem to line up nicely. 
 
RW builders will note that I have built in a feature that I have seen in museum models but not in Euromodel's plans. 
 

 
This picture was taken from Euromodel's website. The red arrows show the galleries sitting flush on top of the railings. The plans suggest the same. 
 

 
However, the stern from the NMM's model of the RW does not agree ... 
 

 
... and neither does the model in the USNA. 
 

 
This is not the RW but the fourth HMS Victory (launched in 1737) - again showing that the galleries are not flush with the railings. 
 
I decided to extend the decks rearwards and give them a different profile to that suggested by the plans so that the railings would clear the galleries. Unfortunately, this means that the metal decorations may not fit ... so i'll have to do some surgery on those decorations later. 

Also, I don't know if you are aware ... but toothpicks make great substitutes for paintbrushes. 
 

 
This is a comparison of a mark left by a toothpick against a 0.5mm pencil. I can leave a thinner stroke if I didn't load up so much paint on the toothpick. You can see that the mark left by the toothpick is neater and denser than both other marks. 
 

 
This is a comparison of marks left by a toothpick, a paintbrush, and the finest nib gold marker I could find. 
 
I don't need to tell you the advantages of toothpicks: 
 
- cheap and plentiful
- no need to clean
- every time you need a new colour, just shave a bit off the top and keep using it
- superior mark to paintbrush and paint markers! 
- you are not limited by the paint marker's choice of colour. Any colour you can buy, or mix, can be used

Folks,
 

 
This is a model that is not seen too frequently on this side of the pond: the famous and legendary Calypso of Jacques Cousteau. The model was produced by Billing Boats in the early 1980's and was offered with an ABS molded hull, lots of injected plastic parts, brass and some wood for the construction of the cabins and decks. The model was offered with all the parts and details (which was not the norm in the 80's) and could be radio-controlled. The model at a scale of 1/45 was close to 95 cm long, 33 cm high and 19 cm wide.
 
I purchased the Billing Boats model in 1985, spending my first monthly pay on the kit and two Mabushi motors. I was working for IBM on the French Riviera at that time. This was my first big kit and I was (and still are) in love with that vessel and its legend. The pictures you are seeing below show the model after 30 years of almost no activity. The model would have to be seriously cleaned up and re-painted. I have removed a lot of parts (the crane for instance) as well as all the radio control gears (battery, receiver, servos, motors, switches and speed controller).
 
That model, like his big sister, has sailed in a few places in the world: the Harbor of Cagnes Sur Mer (salt water) in the Alpes Maritimes in France, some lakes in the South of France near Toulouse, a couple of lakes in Massachusetts near Boston and Lake Lynn in Raleigh, NC. I built a sturdy box that was used to transport it and move it from Europe to the USA.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
As some of you may know, the Calypso was sunk in the Chinese harbor of Singapore, following a collision with a barge early 1986. One year later she was lifted from the bottom of the harbor and stored in a shipyard. Sadly, Jacques-Yves Cousteau died the same year.
 

 
In 2006, the wreck was given to the Cousteau Society and after many years of transaction (French administration is heavy and slow), the restoration of the ship started recently.
 

 

 
Calypso is considered as part of the French Patrimoine (like the castle of Versailles) and as such will receive governmental funding for its restoration and the assurance of a long and cared for life (hopefully...).
 
Yves
 
 
 

Frank - so nice thanks so much so appreciated.
 
Hi mates,
 
So all of the bits are finally, cut, glued, and assembled.
 
Segway to pic after detailing, sanding, and adding a bit of stain.
 
Starting some of the finishing detail work;
 
Adding the first of three sets of rope wraps. Looking at the 1/10th, and the museum’s it appears as though they cleated the rope ends to the mast as opposed to a Y-Binding.  So model-railroad bits to the rescue (same cleats that I used on the hull)
 
Also for the metal straps Ferrari parts have come to the rescue. Vinyl self-adhesive strips that are leftover from an F40 that my son and I built from a 1/12th kit. We had fun. I will use that as well as those small cleats at the wrap ends.
 
==================
 
But today came the “acid Test” milling the two pulley grooves. This made me a bit edgy because failure here and a lot of previous work would need to be redone.
 
My main concern was how would the milled holes look on the bottom part of the mast, when flipped over for a look, would they also be correctly centered, and grooved??
 
I remember my first attempts at milling knighthead grooves. Hmmm.
 
But it turned out ok on both sides.
 
PS: I had pre-built a second top platform the same size as the one for the foremast (forward thinking !) 
 
Turns out that the main mast lower platform needs to be a bit larger, and the platform planks are diff. shapes Oh well…see last pic (Corel – of course – has fore and mains the same size parts)
 
Thanks mates for dropping by – I won’t post again until mast it totally completed. 

 
 
 
 

Excellent work Ian I simply love the notched planking detail.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Poop deck is finally on! 
 
I am now constructing the poop cabin. The fact that I am planning to light it is posing all sorts of problems and making me find different solutions to what would normally be a standard build. For example, the internal support structures are 3mm thick perspex instead of wood which I would normally use. I have to do this so that light gets through. 
 
After finishing the stern galleries, I should proceed to install the transom. However, because I am going to light the lanterns, I would have to install the lanterns as well. The thought of working on the rest of the ship while the fragile lanterns hang off the stern made me decide to put it off for now. I will finish all the major woodwork on the ship first, and then return to the stern. 
 

 
A bottom view of the stern, showing off the ceiling decorations and the column. 
 

 
You can catch a glimpse of the gallery in front if you look through the open door. 
 

 
The internal reinforcement for the poop cabin is made from perspex. I should note that the metal part supplied by Euromodel appears to be lopsided - the curve on one half does not appear to match the curve on the other. I initally obtained the shape by tracing out Euromodel's part, but when I realized that the shape was a bit off, I ended up drawing my own shape. 
 

 
The decorations were dry fitted for testing. 
 
The lower line for the decorations was obtained by using a compass and tracing a 10mm line above the wale below it. In fact, the lines for all the wales were obtained this way. I think it is important that all the wales are lined up, otherwise the model might look a little lopsided. 
 

 
The metal decorations are all sorted, cleaned with acetone, painted with metal primer, and ready for painting. 
 

 
Construction of a replacement front face for the poop cabin is under way. 

Thanks Greg, Greg, Mark, JP, Nigel, and Michael! Your comments are very much appreciated. It's a little intimidating with you guys watching. 
 
Anyway, here is a little video I took last week of the top gallery of the stern sliding on. The "pop" when the gallery clicks into place was so satisfying, I just had to take a video to remember it: