gjdale

Thanks Glen. I tip my hat to you once again for your outstanding work on your miniature Chinese fleet.

After a couple of months of no progress, I finally got back to this over the last couple of days. The usual excuses of life getting in the way, coupled with a focus on a new furniture project (building a display cabinet for some of my models). That project is ongoing, but hopefully I’ll be able to progress this little one at the same time now. The stand is comprised of a timber base with a brass top plate and four ‘columns’ that will support the ship. After painting the timber base, the top plate was glued down and the two lateral columns added. The longitudinal columns get added a little later. The decks are photo-etched brass. These are painted a dark brown and once dry they are sanded with a very fine sandpaper (1200 grit) to remove most of the paint, leaving only the caulking joints with paint. This is a quite effective method. (Note the metric ruler for scale). The main deck is attached to a photo-etched sub-deck that has two sets of ‘ears’ that will become the mast steps/pivots. These two components are then held in place while the position of the quarterdeck is checked. The bulwarks are a single piece of photo-etched brass that is first prepared by painting in a similar fashion to the decks. Here you see the outside face of the bulwarks after sanding off the excess paint. The inner face is painted in a solid coat of dark brown. The bulwarks are then bent to shape, initially forming around a piece of dowel of roughly the right diameter, and then on the actual hull. Slots in the bulwarks go over the channels. This is temporarily held in place (with fingers) while checking for clearance at the quarterdeck. There are three holes on each side that rigging will later pass through and these need to be clear of the quarterdeck. More by good luck than skill, my quarterdeck needed no adjustment. The quarterdeck and quarterdeck planking are then permanently attached, and then the fun begins. The bulwarks are then once again held temporarily in place while the keel/bowsprit (a single photo-etched piece) are test fit. The keel/bowsprit hooks over the forward end of the bulwarks and then should sit in a slot in the bottom of the hull (carved by you) all the way along and up the transom. Let me just say this was a lot trickier than the instructions would have you believe. It took me a couple of days of head scratching to figure out how to make mine fit. In fact, I walked away from the model for two days while I thought about it. Eventually, I decided that the only solution was to deepen the slot on the bulwark where the keel/bowsprit hooked over it. The only tool I had that would fit this narrow slot was a cutting disc for my rotary tool. Some very careful and delicate touches were required, but eventually I was able to get a reasonable fit. Here is another overview shot. You can see in this and the previous shot that the deck hatches and gratings have also been added. I still need to touch-up / re-do some of the paintwork – particularly the white paint on the lower hull – before moving on to the deck furniture. Hopefully, it won't be another two months before the next update!

Fascinating project Glen - “ambitious” is the understatement of the year, but if anyone can pull it off, you can. Now, about those penguins……

Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell Bob. Hope to see you back at the bench again soon.

What a lovely thing to do for your friend - I’m sure it will be a prized possession.

Congratulations Glen on another excellent build. I love your choice of display stand as much as the ship/bottle. Of course, the obvious question is, “what’s next?”

Well done Glen - a great fix indeed.

WOOHOO!!!! Congratulations Glen. I know you’ll work out how to solve those remaining minor issues. I’ll get the champagne on ice in anticipation.

Congratulations Dave, well done!

Congratulations Dave, looks fabulous.

Steve, Welcome to MSW. The simplest answer to your questions is to soak the end of the thread (say 5mm or so) in a little CA glue (super glue). Then, once hardened, cut the end at an angle. This will give a hard, sharp end to thread through the block. Once fully threaded, you can simply cut off your sharp end.

I placed an order with Vahur a couple of weeks ago as I was interested to see if Black Hornbeam might be a suitable substitute for Ebony. So I ordered one piece each of 10mm and 6mm. For such a small order, the postage actually cost more than the timber, but that is not Vahur's fault - I'm kinda used to the extortionist costs of international postage these days! Vahur kindly also included some samples of other timbers, including White Hornbeam, Swiss Pear (both dark and light), Holly, Costello Boxwood, and Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Delivery time was under two weeks, which is quite exceptional these days - I usually figure on a minimum of a month for international deliveries. Vahur also went to considerable effort to package the timber very securely to prevent any damage during transit. The timber itself is beautifully milled. It is of the same standard as that which some of us were used to receiving from Jeff Hayes at Hobbymill (US) before he retired, and that is a very high bar indeed. Full marks to Vahur for both quality of product and customer service - five stars all round 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. I highly recommend Hobbymill (EU) as a go-to source of model timber supplies. Oh, and the answer to my orginal question is yes, I think that Black Hornbeam can be used in place of Ebony. I compared it to a piece of Ebony I had on hand, and it is hard to tell the difference. Thank you, Vahur. 😊

Outstanding Tom! Congratulations on completing a fine build. I'll be standing by to follow your next scratch build - it's sure to be a beauty.

I think we all have those days, Glen - some of us more frequently than we would like! Ship's looking good - can't wait to see what you do with the sails.

I shaped the hull today. Initial sanding to get the shape roughly right, then applied a coat of Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty to even out the various imperfections, followed by a final sanding at 240, then 400 grit. Here is the hull as it stands today.

Thanks Glen, Keith and Mark - glad to have you all onboard for the ride. Glen - you know that yours is my "go to" reference log for this build! Moving right along.... I proceeded to glue up the lifts, adding the additional stern pieces. These were fitted leaving a gap between them for the keel. The photoetch brass sheet containing the keel was used as a spacer for this purpose. At the bow, there are two additional shorter pieces added. These are then sanded to create a continuous slope before attaching the final piece, called the under deck, that runs the full length of the hull. Here are a couple of photos prior to commencement of final shaping. Not much to see, but they give an idea of the process. The Quarterdeck is made up separately from four more lifts, which are then shaped to a “wedge” shaped profile shown in the instructions/plans. Interestingly, two of these pieces are duplicated and shown as “optional” – presumably to give some latitude in achieving the correct final thickness. I found that I did not need to use the optional pieces. Here is the result – again, not very exciting. This piece is then set aside and attached somewhat later in the build. I must have read through the instructions from cover to cover at least a dozen times now, and they seem to be lacking in some areas (no surprise there!). Although they are quite specific about painting some bits and pieces, at no stage do they indicate to paint the hull itself. I’ll make a judgement call about that in due course. They also give quite explicit instruction about NOT fitting two of the support columns on the base, but never get around to saying when the right time is to do this, or even to attach the base to the hull. Another conundrum to solve. Rest assured, I’ll be checking through all the other build logs I can find to see how others have approached these issues. Now waiting for the glue to cure fully before starting to shape the hull.

I’ve only just caught up with this build - great job! Love what you have done with the various electronic components/steam generators. I hope you can resolve the stability issue satisfactorily so that you can enjoy sailing it more.

Coming together nicely, Glen

A Ship-in-a-bottle has been on my “bucket list” for some time now. A little while ago, I was re-enthused about such a project when I saw Glen McGuire's excellent rendition of this kit. A heavy hint was dropped to my wife, who duly produced the kit for my birthday in November last year. Completion of another modelling project, the holiday season, and work on a new furniture project has kept me out of the shipyard until now. I will forgo the “unboxing” photos as there are several of these already on the forum. Suffice to say that the only item that immediately jumps out at me for replacement are the sails. These have heavy black lines drawn on them and they look nothing like the box art. I have asked the Admiral (an avid sewer) for some assistance in sourcing an appropriate replacement material. The Hull Building commences with the hull, which is assembled from a series of lifts. I have read in other build logs where some have found that these did not accurately match the 1:1 templates provided in the instructions, however I was pleased to find that in my kit at least, they were a very close match. These templates each have a couple of crosses on them, that I can only assume to be alignment marks. The instructions are silent on this point, and I do not recall reading in anyone else’s log where they have been put to use. The instructions simply invite you to assemble the lifts in numerical order, with no further guidance on alignment. I decided to make use of these marks to help align the lifts correctly. I scanned the 1:1 scale drawing, printed it and cut out the individual patterns. I then pasted these temporarily onto the lifts with a UHU glue stick and drilled a 0.8mm diameter hole through each of the reference marks. The paper templates were then peeled off, leaving the lifts ready to be assembled. I used two pieces of 0.8mm diameter brass rod to dry fit the lifts together. There are several more lifts to be added under the stern, but these will be fitted in two pieces to accommodate the keel. This seems to have been a reasonably successful process, so I will now go ahead and glue them up. It feels good to be back at the bench!

I have this kit in my stash, so I’ll follow along with interest.

Looks pretty good from this distance too, Bob.

There’s some serious wow factor developing there Glen!

Looking great Glen.

If you’d like to see the Granado cross section, here’s a link to my build:

There is also a cross section of the Bomb Vessel Granado, with plans by Jeff Staudt, available through the Model Ship Builder site.