vossy

Continuing on with the fancy railings. Doing other stuff behind the scenes on the pilot house and smoke stacks.

Cheers

Chris

You've been busy! Looks really great David. Love the red color throughout. You going to rig the guns?

Cheers

Chris

Hey Eric, yes I got the Chaperon for Christmas last year so she is next up. As I said, she sits in the box waiting for the go ahead. So far all I have done is open the box, check the contents and look through the instructions. I wont start her, or a log, until Mississippi is finished or at least up to the final rigging stage.

Cheers

Chris

I am just interested to get a gauge of usage of power tools over hand tools, (or vice versa), when people build a wooden kit model. I might well be wrong, but I would envisage a far greater use of power tools when building a scratch model as opposed to a kit. For me, I have no space, tools, or knowhow to build a vessel from scratch so I stick to kits only, albeit with a little bit of scratch enhancement when I can manage it.

In building my kits, the only power tools I ever use, in fact the only ones I own, are a soldering iron for plank bending, and very occasionally, a dremel for sanding. Mostly I find myself using hand saws, files, cutters etc. Now I am pretty happy with the end product I achieve with these tools, but looking at some of the truly majestic builds on this site and the internet in general, I wonder how many of these results are achieved via only/mainly hand tools? a mixture of both, with a greater emphasis on using which? And which power or hand tool couldn't you do without to complete a specific task?

Cheers

Chris

5 hours ago, Cathead said:

Lots of fancy railings are definitely a downside to being a riverboat enthusiast (although not all boats had such gimcrackery). Looks like you're off to a good start.

it is one of the things I really like about them I must say, and although I know this particular boat is only a somewhat fancy representation of a grand old lady, I do like all the trimmings she comes with. bit like decorating the tree at Christmas! having said that, I am itching to get stuck into the Chaperon which has been sitting patiently in her box since last Christmas. that is fortunate though, as whilst doing the Mississippi I have been ruminating over what color to do the deck on her??? still tossing up between a red one like Kurt's version. or a lighter stained one. 

cheers

chris

finally starting on the fancy railings.

cheers

chris

hi all, have started on the posts that go around the boat to hold the decorative balustrades. all pieces are just sitting there atm. also made a start on the upper crew staircase, again just sitting there as it needs more sanding and atm is a bit of a different angle to the one below it.

also fashioned some decorative timber on the lower part of the posts at the foot of the main passenger staircase.

cheers

chris

10 minutes ago, cog said:

John,

I don't know about specific RAN models, but you can make quite a few based on their British counter parts, which are available.

Here is a discussion on it. Greg will probably know more on the subject

at the uk site, starling models, they have an Australian Collins class submarine and a small scale, 1/700 patrol boat.

cheers

chris

so finally got all the shutters done and glue on.

upper structure is now also glued into place. just have to add the skirting board around the bottom like I did with the second structure. the top deck is not yet glued into place so this should make it easier to do that. also added the top balustrades to complete the three tier passenger staircase. I really like how this turned out. looks really "busy" and cool in real life.

also added the bow water protection. I ended up scratch building this part myself as the kit one was a really hard pinkish type of wood that I didn't like. this one is the exact same dimensions and should blend in well once it gets a few coats of matt clear to match the deck.

next up, put the false beams on the underside of the top deck and affix that to the upper structure. the pilot house is nearly finished and just awaiting a few interior details I might add. once the top deck is attached I will begin the fancy railings around all decks. should look pretty cool I reckon!

cheers

chris

this is so great eric! I wish I had the tools, space, and knowhow to scratch build some of our early Australian rivercraft!

cheers

chris

Hey David, this rudder looks super. What did you do different to the first rudder picture you took a few posts up? It does look heaps better now they are all connected I reckon. I am really enjoying your work on this build. Doing a great job on her.

Cheers

Chris

7 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

coming along nicely Chris   

Thanks. Should have a photographic update this weekend. Been working on small, fiddly stuff like shutters and skirting boards. Would have been heaps easier to apply these before the I fixed the upper deck in place, but after soaking, bending, painting, clamping, and gluing little by little in place I will get there. It does give the structure a nice straight bottom edge and finishes it off nicely I reckon.

Cheers

Chris

fabulous looking boat david! really well done. personally I didn't notice the stern naming until you mentioned it, but now I see it redone it is much better. you are creating a super model here!

cheers

chris

hi carl, on my boat I made the middle deck the dining room and on the side are the windows on either side of one long room. they are not individual doors, and hence have no handles. the upper structure I envisage as separate cabins, hence the individual doorways with handles and steps leading up to them.

just my take on things.

cheers

chris

hope the stairs haven't beat you on the paddle steamer?

chris

super painting, lovely details and colour david.

cheers

chris

very nice, clean, and crisp david. the red really sets it off well. do you have any sort of sheen level on her? or just keeping it matt?

cheers

chris

Dry fitting of upper vent structure and posts to make sure they align up properly.

Cheers

Chris

Hey mate, I have been going through your build log. I thought you did a great job. To me, no manufacturer could possibly be any worse than Mamoli. Also, it appears you got a pretty old kit version. I would be hoping that maybe they have upgraded a bit and fixed a few errors. I emailed the owner of an Australian distributer here and he said that the kits were double planked. not sure if this is true or not, but if it is, it represents an upgrade from your single planked hull version.

Cheers

Chris

Begun the steps and put edging on the fancy flooring. Behind the scenes, the building of the shutters continue!

Cheers

Chris

thanks for that. guess I should have looked in the kit log section first! oh well, good to see some have built her already and by the looks of it my questions about quality etc. have been answered. I really like the Mariefred.

cheers

chris

hey, yeah I have seen both of those pages when I did a search as well. really want to find out more about quality etc. though.

cheers

chris

Has anyone had any experience with this company (Nordic Class Model Ships)? There models look really interesting to me but I would like to know a lot more about the construction and quality before forking out on them. Are they double planked etc? What is the quality/quantity of the timbers used? Is there any plastic (hope not). What about metal/PE parts? How does the overall quality stack up against some of the more well known reputed brands; Amati, Caldercraft Sergal etc?

Here is a link to a company in Australia that has just begun to stock them. A quick search online finds many other reputable companies overseas stocking even more vessels from this manufacturer.

https://www.modelerscentral.com/model-ship-kits/nordic-class-boats/?mc_cid=fdf68ef080&mc_eid=b2e1744581

I have emailed Modellers Central about the product but am yet to receive a reply.

Cheers

Chris

Thanks David. The external flooring outside the doors just calls for it to be planked the same as the deck. I just wanted to jazz things up a bit for my high class passengers. I think it will look heaps better when the edging goes on as well as the fancy handrails.

Cheers

Chris

Small update.

Front and rear of doors before fitting. A small blob of Blu-Tack stops the door handle from ever slipping out. Drapes are simply cut out of stiffish yellow cardboard.

For the small window in the structure I decided to have curtains instead of fancy drapes. Perhaps a bit out of scale but it looks pretty good irl.

At the front of this structure there is a overhanging veranda which has fancy posts and rails around it. It is also slightly raised from the deck itself. I decided to plank this bit a little bit fancier for the comfort of my passengers.

All structures at this level are only placed and not glued as yet.

Cheers

Chris