demetri

Mark, I completely forgot that you lived up there in Medford. I passed right through your fine city on Monday afternoon! 
 
Hello Peg Leg Greg from Australia. Glad you found the build log. As I generally warn people, this is really a side project, but I'm having a hard time tearing myself away from it. This card modeling stuff is addictive!
 
And, I have to revise something I stated earlier about card modeling being challenging. The biggest challenge is a mental one. When you get one of these kits, you instantly see a gazillion parts, and you have to cut out each and every one, plus you might decided to cut out windows instead of using printed windows, etc. That's intimidating. So, I'm finding that it's like tying ratlines. You can't think about all those knots you have to tie – you just have to start and do one at a time until you get to the end. Building this model is about baby steps. You can't count how many baby steps you have to take, you just have to take them one at a time.
 
HMS Mercury Progress
Well, I made a little more progress that I thought I'd post for now. 
 
First off, I glued the new pieces into place in the fo'csle and then added the doors back on. If you recall, I'd added the doors earlier and then decided I didn't like printed windows. So, I removed them and the related partitions and cut out the window panes and used canopy glue to add the "glass". In addition to the doors, I also finished the inner bulwarks pieces at the bow. 
As you can see in the photo below, I still have to "edge" the gun port sills with red paint.
 

 
At this point, I began to wonder how well this model was going to go together and test fit the fo'csle and quarter decks. I had to dig through the diagrams and all to figure out if this was all going to work okay in the end. So far, it seems like it should be okay, though there's more gap around the bow that I would like. Not sure yet how to fix this, if it even needs fixing. But, it was nice to see how well the decks seated into place. There are a couple beams I will have to fashion and put into place before these decks can go on. And, of course, I'll need to finish some internal details, plus the cannons.

In the lower photos, you can also see the galley stove under construction. Below, you can see where it will eventually go.
 

Of course, there's a lot of work to do to the stove before it goes into place.
 
Finally, I added the remaining parts for the interior of the great cabin, aft. There's some furniture to go in here. That's one of those things which is pretty neat about these Shipyard ship model kits. Of course, if you want to be able to see any of this stuff, you'll have to modify the original kit, which includes printed windows. Those would normally need to be carefully cut open, but the detail kit I bought from GPM includes some laser-cut parts for the gallery windows. 
 

 
I'm starting to think about the outer layer that's going to go on the model. The kit includes printed parts for two configurations of the ship, one for the original 1779 paint scheme and another for the 1795 (Black and Yellow) paint scheme. I was always planning to build this in the 1779 configuration, but I'm thinking about the later configuration, just because it's different (for this kit, anyway).
 
With that, I'm going to try to set this aside for a bit and get some other work done. It's pretty difficult, as I'm starting to feel a little like a card model junkie!
 
Clare

A major part of the build complete, 13 triple 25mm's and 17 single's. I used blackener to do up the 56 individual barrels and magazines and made up and painted the housings separately. 
 
I had had a plethora of ammo boxes left after my Yamato and this sucked up a LOT of them. 
 
Also added are 6 davits and the jackstaff and 2 smoke generators on the stern that I got from a very rare Japanese set. 

Since my last update, I've made the following items; Captains Quarters, Companionway, Salon Skylight and Bilge pump. All four items are sitting loose on the deck, close to where they will be mounted, except for the bilge pump. The pump has a wire sticking out of the bottom and I have yet to locate and drill the hole, so for the photos below it's sitting over a mast hole. 
 
This is the first time I sat the pump on the deck and it looks a bit too large for the scale, but I'll ck it out closer before mounting it, I hope it correct...   I tried the "typical corner joints" for the cabins as detailed by the drawings but the scale, soft basswood and my skill level simply did not work well for this type of detail, so I simply made alternating butt joints for all three cabins. I found black 0.010 mono-filament cord to use for the window bars and I used the clear plastic from a DVD case for the glass. 
 
I'll probably hold off mounting the above until I finish the gun coils and gun jack-screws so I have plenty of room to access the gun area. Fife Rails are next on the list, along with the stern davits and catheads. I'm really procrastinating on making the jack-screws due to their being so darn small and such a pia to make, but it WILL happen, just not sure when... 

Lots of the same stuff. I finished the Main Mast Yards. Not much different from the fore Mast Yards.
 
 


 
I have everything on the yards that I want prior to hanging them on the mast. Now onto the Mizzen Mast

I have mine sort of in between. Here was my thinking. I have my cannons run out ready to fire. As such, that means the ship is moving toward if not already in a battle posture. My understanding is during a battle the ship's boats would be lowered and towed astern to clear the line of fire as well as try to preserve the boats, which seemed to have a short shelf life. That was also my reasoning in having the rudders attached to the sterns rather than unshipped. Of course, I also like the look.
 
So I just played with the location until I liked the look. Here are some photos. I chose the white and green based on a Bainbridge note.

This will be the last posting for the build log. I was able to get the ship installed into the display case. The Connie is now in her berth. I cut the pedestal out of the spar material. I chose to leave the back side rough. It still shows the wear as well as paint from when it was part of a spar on the mighty ship.
 

 
I spent quite a bit of time researching LED lighting. The top of the case was only ⅞" thick and most of it is glass. I wanted LED lighting that would accurately produce the colors of the ship and be bright enough to allow everything to be seen well. The high CRI led's from Flexfire worked perfectly. They also do not produce much heat which is important in the contained environment of the display.
 
I had a number of goals when designing the case. I wanted black walnut to match that in the ship. I wanted to minimize the size of the surrounding frame to maximize the view of the ship. I wanted a glass top, and wanted the case lit. 
 
By utilizing ¼" tempered glass, I was able to use the strength of the glass to augment the rigidity of the frame. The glass is glued in with a GE Silicone household glue. This provides the holding power required and the give needed to allow for any seasonal movement. I also used low iron glass which is the most optically pure on the market.
 
The display case bottom contains a hidden compartment that is large enough to hold the full set of original plans, printouts of the CAD drawings I used for the ship's boats, and a full bound copy of the build log. 
 
It has been a fun and rewarding build. Now on to my next ship, a scratch build POF of the Brig Eagle. Thank you all for all of the encouragement, technical and mental support during this build.
 

Excellent work, Giampiero. 

Excellent work, Giampiero. 

An excellent work. Always, in my opinion, the small boats give great results.

An excellent work. Always, in my opinion, the small boats give great results.

An excellent work. Always, in my opinion, the small boats give great results.

An excellent work. Always, in my opinion, the small boats give great results.

An excellent work. Always, in my opinion, the small boats give great results.

Very beautiful work  Looks great.

Very beautiful work  Looks great.

Very beautiful work  Looks great.

As a lover of the cardboard I will follow with much interest your thread. I  like the sailships, those of ShipYard and the kits of Shipworks which in my opinion are the best. But for fun I've assembled a kit Dom bumagi, the soviet torpedo boat class D-3 and I found it very good quality.
So far good job with your Borodino, I like.

Wonderful build! Congratulations!

Great start ,looking forward to following your build.

 

 

 

Great start ,looking forward to following your build.

 

 

 

As a lover of the cardboard I will follow with much interest your thread. I  like the sailships, those of ShipYard and the kits of Shipworks which in my opinion are the best. But for fun I've assembled a kit Dom bumagi, the soviet torpedo boat class D-3 and I found it very good quality.
So far good job with your Borodino, I like.

As a lover of the cardboard I will follow with much interest your thread. I  like the sailships, those of ShipYard and the kits of Shipworks which in my opinion are the best. But for fun I've assembled a kit Dom bumagi, the soviet torpedo boat class D-3 and I found it very good quality.
So far good job with your Borodino, I like.

Hi Slog,
I like the sailboats (from ShipYard and ShipWorks) and this is a peculiarity and the first kit of Dom Bumagi for me. I found this particularly well; A comparative with others a solid role, good colors and smooth.

I would like to present my last job in cardboard, the soviet torpedo boat D-3 class. I hope you like it.

Hi Slog,
I like the sailboats (from ShipYard and ShipWorks) and this is a peculiarity and the first kit of Dom Bumagi for me. I found this particularly well; A comparative with others a solid role, good colors and smooth.