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gjdale

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Everything posted by gjdale

  1. Thanks Bob, Always nice to have you along for the ride. 🙂 Speaking of rides, have you been on your bicycle lately? I find myself riding more and more often nowadays - sometimes 5 or 6 days per week.
  2. Thanks Ras, I’ll keep that in mind as a “fix” if needed. Hopefully the steam plant I have will do the trick.
  3. Thanks Ken, Yes, that is the plan, and if I can pull it off, the figures will contain concealed servos….. (an idea I picked up from someone else). That said, this will be an evolving build and some of my current plans may change as we go, either by necessity or to be replaced by another TGI (Thundering Good Idea)!
  4. Thanks Steven, That is of course the first thing I did - search the forums, but the search turns up no actual build logs - only a completed model in the gallery and some discussion about plans and figures. I’ve also tried other forums, but to no avail. If anyone can point me to an actual build log, that would be very much appreciated.
  5. Introduction I have long had a hankering to build a small launch with live steam propulsion. The African Queen seemed to be an ideal choice of subject, however finding a kit to modify proved somewhat elusive. In the end, I settled on the Billings offering in 1:12 scale as it claims to be suitable for Radio Control (albeit using an electric motor). Here is a picture of the box art. The next challenge was finding a steam plant suitable for inclusion in the model. After an exhaustive search, I settled on a complete steam plant from Miniature Steam Models (MSM) in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 2” boiler with the “Avon” twin cylinder double acting oscillating steam engine. The steam plant comes complete with a boiler certificate and the engine is matched to the size of the boiler. For the tech heads, it has an 8mm bore and an 11mm stroke (and it is reversing). Overall, it is very similar in size to the “fake” boiler/engine plant provided in the Billings kit. Here are a couple of pictures of the steam plant as provided from MSM. What’s in the box? The Billings kit is fairly typical of the Billings offerings. The hull is provided as a single-piece vacuum formed ABS mould. The rest of the kit includes a variety of laser cut plywood parts, some strip wood (not particularly high quality), some brass components and some plastic components. As I will not be using the provided boiler/engine parts, a lot of these will be redundant. I was concerned by the apparent flimsiness of the hull, and my plan is to sheath the hull in timber, and then fibreglass over the top of that. To this end, I have obtained some 1mm thick Alaskan Yellow Cedar from Hobby Mill EU to be cut into planks as appropriate. I will also be adding some aftermarket timber for the deck planking, as the kit would have you simple draw planking lines onto the provided plywood. I’m currently in the process of placing an order for this with Hobby Mill EU. Instructions are, I believe, typical of Billings – which is to say, next to useless. This is not a kit for a beginner, although it is marketed as “Advanced Beginner”. We shall have to see whether I have sufficient skills to pull this off – otherwise, there is considerable investment “down the tube”. The Hull Here are a couple of pictures of the ABS hull. As can be seen in the pictures, there is a considerable excess lip around the upper edge. I will need to remove the vertical component of this before I can do anything else. My current plan is to do that, and then fit the internal frames to provide some stiffening before attempting the outer planking. Welcome aboard for what might prove to be an "interesting" journey!
  6. Continued from previous post... The Loading Dock The Main Dock That completes the series of "glam" shots and brings this project to a close. I'd like to thank all of you who have followed along and offered support, encouragement and advice along the way. This has been a most enjoyable diversion into this style of modelling and I've learned a lot along the way. i do have another of these kits in my stash (Foss's Landing), but I've got a ship or two to build first. Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure!
  7. Continued from previous post... Some of the individual "scenes". The Ship Under Construction The Yard Master (studying the plans) The Steam Box The Upper Yard Shed The Derrick Dock Continued next post...
  8. Thanks very much Keith, Glen, OC, Jack, Yves, Mark and Ken, and also to all of the 'likes'. I didn't quite get around to posting the final "glam" shots yesterday, so here they are. There are quite a few, so I'll split across several posts, starting with the overall "spin" shots. Continued next post...
  9. Very nice work on the bow and stern carvings Glen. And good thinking re the oars too! This is really starting to take shape now.
  10. Thanks again for the input guys. I decided to have another crack at the water – I just wasn’t happy with the ripples, nor the smooth patches. So I did two more applications of the Water Gel Effects using a softer stencilling (I think) brush. My aim was to blend in/out the heavy parallel lines that could previously be seen, and also to remove the totally glass smooth areas. I’m happy with the result and am going to call “done” at that. Here’s a few shots of the final version of the water. Final "glam" shots to come later today....
  11. Thanks for that input Glen. The photo you posted is pretty much exactly the effect I was going for (but still with the odd calm/still patch). I’m going to have another crack at this today - I have a couple of ideas/techniques in mind….
  12. Thanks Wefalck - that kinda aligns with my thinking. The “white foam” around the posts is actually just a trick of the light though.
  13. Thanks for all the input guys, and also for all of the 'likes'. Finishing the Diorama – the Water (cont’d) So I acquired some AK Water Gel Effects (AK8007) and applied this with an old fairly stiff brush. The effect I was looking for was that of a gentle breeze across the water surface, with occasional clear patches of no breeze. As this is my first attempt at this process, I would appreciate some further feedback and/or guidance/tips to improve the appearance. Are the "wave lines" too distinct? Would I be better off using a more "stippling" method to remove/reduce the line effect? The good thing about this product is that I can add more to change the effects. Here is the first attempt. Thanks in advance for any and all input/advice.
  14. Thanks Wefalck and Glen, You’ve convinced me to have a shot at adding some texture to the water surface. I’ve just ordered some of this:
  15. Thanks Wefalck, that’s pretty much what I had in mind. 👍 I have no experience with any of the products/brands available though, so was hoping for some recommendations in that regard from those who may have trodden this path before.
  16. Thanks very much once again for all the kind comments and the likes. Finishing the Diorama – the Water To complete the diorama, I added an external frame of 3mm plywood, that doubles as a dam for the resin water. Once glued in place, I sealed the inside joins with silicone and then used automotive masking tape to reinforce all of the seams before pouring the resin. I used Envirotex Lite resin as recommended in the instruction manual. I did several small test pours with varying combinations of paint to tint the "water", before settling on a mix of Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue and Black in about a 5:1 ratio. With the testing complete, it was time to take the ‘no turning back’ step and actually pour the water. All seems to have gone well. The pictures below were taken about two hours after the pour. All bubbles seem to have sorted themselves out and I have “embraced the creep”. Not sure yet whether I will apply some paint along the shoreline to change the colour there a little. The other thing I’m not yet sure about is whether or not to attempt adding some texture to the water surface using either a Woodland Scenics product or an AK Interactive product. I’m open to thoughts on this. Here are the photos with the resin still curing. Once I’ve made those final decisions, I’ll take off the tape and take some final “glam” shots.
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