vossy

Intermediate progress on the first structure.  In position but not glued to the deck.
 
Regards,
David

Stanchions (which will go on later) require about 200 tiny holes to be drilled around the edge of the deck.  The way my decking fit, there was very little free room beyond it, so for many of the stanchions I'm gong to have to notch a small slot just a bit into the decking to accommodate the stanchion base.
 
Regards,
David

Back from my trip (and finally time zone readjusted), and I've gotten back to the Bismarck.
 
First step from where I left off was to drill the holes under the hull for eventual mounting on a nicer stand than the one they supply with the ship.
 
With that done, I applied the decking, which is thin printed wood sections.  The way I did it was to line them all up, sand as required to get everything lined up, and then tape the sections down, checking alignment until I had the whole thing taped.  Then I glued sections bow to stern, removing tape and lifting one side, gluing, and then doing the other side.
 
With that done, I varnished the deck.  I think varnishing it at this point is important because soon I need to paint two dark gray bands on it, and I want a smooth surface for masking.  The unvarnished surfaces are kind of rough wood.  Also, if there is any bleed under the mask, scraping it off will look much better if it's on top of varnish.
 
Regards,
David

Nice work, mate.
 
Steven

First dry fitting of rudder. Needs more work, but getting there. I replaced the Amati kit supplied hinges with longer Corel ones from the same era vessel.
 
 

Handrails added and dry fitting of flag locker and tiller housing.
 
 

First dry fitting of rudder. Needs more work, but getting there. I replaced the Amati kit supplied hinges with longer Corel ones from the same era vessel.
 
 

On pause whilst I have quality beach time 

It used to film here regularly until the main star was accused of sexual misconduct against many female performers over the years. I must add though, that I think he was exonerated of the charges. But it still stuffed his career.
 

It used to film here regularly until the main star was accused of sexual misconduct against many female performers over the years. I must add though, that I think he was exonerated of the charges. But it still stuffed his career.
 

Is a shame I live in Australia as I have long admired this model, Amati Bireme Greca Scale 1:35  $75
 
I am sure you will get many offers.
 

It used to film here regularly until the main star was accused of sexual misconduct against many female performers over the years. I must add though, that I think he was exonerated of the charges. But it still stuffed his career.
 

Adding a couple of additional kits.  If you are interested but think price is to high make an offer.  Nothing lost if I don't accept and you might get a great deal.
Amati Nave Egizia scale 1:50  $75
Amati Bireme Greca Scale 1:35  $75

Finished painting the hull.  The thin horizontal white patches you see are lighting.
 
Also installed rudder and screws.  The screws look the same color in this pic, but they are actually copper-colored.
 
Now my dilemma:  I have attached a picture from the manual showing the simplest of the three camouflage patterns.  My issue is that I really don't like the way this looks.  So after some deliberation, I'm going to skip the white coloring.  I really respect those of you that pay close attention to historical accuracy, but I'm going to skip the white designs.
 
This will be my last post until late February.  Going on a long winter trip.
 
Regards,
David

Now some rust streaks. 

So I flipped the model over and did the last ladder -- the one in the center.  Tried a new approach, which is to spread out some glue and dip the ladder rung points in it and then insert, and then you can see the difference.  I wish I had tried this earlier.
 
So with this I'm now ready to paint the lower hull red-brown.
 
Regards,
David

Over to the other side and up the learning curve.  On this side I did two things:  (i) Drilled out the holes in advance, and (ii) Used my super bright LED headlamp so I could see the holes clearly as I was installing the rungs.
 
Worked better.  The first picture reflects all of the skipping of the drill bit on the metal surface.  The second one, now painted, shows the "glue globs" between the rungs.  So I took a needle file to it and cleaned it up (third picture) as best I could.  As they say, "It is what it is."
 
I only have enough rungs left to do three ladders on each side.  My loss rate decreased but was still greater than zero.  So now I'll go back to the other side and add the third ladder, and paint it.
 
There are also some very small eyebolts and keybolts that have been added.  Not sure if you can see them or not.
 
Regards,
David
 

I'm applying the ladders to the external hull at the stern.  The way Amati has designed this is that you do it rung by rung, into pre-drilled holes in the brass plate at the stern.
 
The issue is that the rungs are fiendishly small.  So they are very difficult to grip with tweezers, and of course, they pop out of the tweezers.  If that happens, they are almost impossible to find on the floor or even on the workbench.  As part of my learning curve I've now put a white paper towel under the stern area, and if they pop out onto that you can see them.
 
But I've lost 6 already, and so I'm down to 2 spares to cover the remaining ladders.
 
What you see is the two ladders I've done on one side.  As you can also see, there are holes for two more on this side for a total of four on a side.  Counting what I have left,  if I don't lose anything else, I could make it with two spares left.  But not confident in that.  So I'm going to flip the model and do these two ladders on the other side.  That will leave four to go.  I'll do two (one on each side), and then assess my technique and spares supply to see if I can do the last one.
 
One thing that helps is to drill out the holes.  Then put in the rung without glue, then drop on some glue.  Slow going as you have to wait for the glue to dry, or use accelerator.
 
So now I'll attack the same two ladders on the other side and see if I've learned anything, and I'll report about that.
 
Regards,
David

More progress on the stern decoration and quarter galley windows. Rudder next I think.
 
 

More progress on the stern decoration and quarter galley windows. Rudder next I think.
 
 

ok need a bit of advice here  hope someone can help  it appears there are zero build logs on the beginning of this model
 
in case I muck up the uploading of files again!!!! I will ask the question and just hope the pics come through. Do I need to add any more horizontal first planks to Bounty's stern area? Or should I now just keep going with the first planking layer on the sides and sweep them up to meet the stern area as it currently is?
 
cheers chris
 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 
Hopefully that worked
 
 

maybe this will work
 
they wanted me to plank the deck in walnut in the kit  too dark so I bought new limewood strips and stained them light maple
 
 

:piratebo5:ok so I thought I would begin a log on the Bounty as their are very few around. I have viewed david's and roman's build of this great vessel a zillion times and hope to do them justice with this effort. due to my interstate work commitments updates maybe somewhat spasmodic but I will do my best. please be forewarned I'm no Damien Parer with a camera though!  am going to bypass the usual pics of box contents etc and get into the nitty gritty. here goes.....
 
 
 
I always use filler blocks  its a little known fact that God created Balsa wood to specifically stop model ship builders from abandoning the project at this stage
 
 
 
 
 
and on the stern
 
 
ok heaps more to come just need to see if this worked before posting more.
 
cheers vossy
 
 

Next to the boat deck, so many little pieces, but I finally got the funnels done today 

More progress on the stern decoration and quarter galley windows. Rudder next I think.