RGL

Sensational!

Now, the bridge. I know the photos show some paint missing but I intend to fix it up afterwards. The ships open bridge, I used bits of both Pontos and Flyhawk, plus North Star for the fittings as the resin binnacle and compass directors are second to none. It all went on fairly easily.

The Compass platform just plonked on ad the Flyhawk stuff was a much better fit.

A final addition was the Sephamores. No one has added these but it is referenced everywhere and a little bit of scratch building.  

And finally for scale, you cannot drink coffee when doing this.

Thanks for the likes and comments. All the pre fab done for the bridgework but now work is in the road again.

That, Slog, Is absolutely amazing. Love it.

Nice work, great curve on the bumpkins.

It's all a bit of a binge, lots of tiny part work, then throwing it all on.

Next is the range finder, spare anchor and screen to the W/T and hawser reel. The spare anchor is after market, and I need to find and add another anchor yet to go near the stern searchlights.. Finally the stern rail and search lights. and the final product.

Next will be the bridge.

Next, the flag lockers. Pontos does not address these at all, but Flyhawk supplies 5 open boxes. A few open source photos from the net show the details.. I considered getting individual cotton threads of different colours to represent the flags, but it would be just a bit too much. I used WEM grills cut and folded into the open boxes and some painted foils to represent the covers.

I already added several belaying points for when I rig her out for flag halyards.

Next is the fore 12 pdrs, search light screen covers and ammunition hand up hatches.

Then the 4 search lights on the Admiral's walk. 2 are electronically controlled and 2 are manual, so I placed flywheels on the manual ones.

Now the belaying is done, I can add the Admirals walk and Cabin.I used the Flyhawk one as it fits better and looks a bit more natural than the Pontos one whichrequires you to use the kit supplied roof which would be problematic fitting under the lip of the fore funnel.

Moving right along, now the boat deck. I attached and rigged the funnels. Some of the lines belay to the towers so will have to come after.

Gunther, I can only assume it is to diffuse the heat plume from the stacks. A bit of research on Dr Goigle seems to indicate this but I'm sure there are a few engineers here that could elaborate on this.

I did the same thing, it's the tiny details that make the difference!

It certainly is David, I think all of us are OCD to a point, why would we bother otherwise with this hobby?

Now the funnels which will go on the boat deck. The funnels grill is very intricate and in many pieces which I had to make up a little jig and cut off and replace all the vent pipes and fabricate the pipes for and the horns. Also making up a funnel band and eyelets for rigging later. Came up nicely.

There are a myriad of deck hatches, and Pontos and Flyhawk both have some gaps in their plans. In particular the engine vents   that Pontos just chose to ignore. There is a LOT more detail to go on top the decks but this will do for now to save snags.

No, didn't need to, it sits perfectly flush.

The deck has an adhesive backing, so it "should" just stick on. When I placed it on it stuck, then a couple of hours later it popped up in places, which I rubbed down thinking it needed heat, and a few hours after it kept popping up, thus the thin CA as anything else would leave bulges

The wood deck comes with the pontos upgrade kit, and it is just lovely, just not very adhesive.

A bit of a re think and the deck has to go down so as not to catch on stuff. A simple exercise? No, after laying the thing down painstakingly, after a few hours the thing keeps popping up in sections. Using a sliver of PE and thin CA over the last few days I have been making running repairs to get the thing to sit properly. Still looks good and makes me happy with the guesstimate of the paint colour.

I have now down up all the boat deck and funnels but will now not paint or attach anything until I have done up the deck hatches.

Mate, looks great. I knew it would get to you!

I'm in. There are a few Russian sites with these builds which is why they invented Google translate. Massive undertaking.

Nice work

Yes mate, I will be, but it will be a while off yet, I want to work from the centreline outwards. There is a heap of work to go yet. I'm looking forward to the contrast.

As this part of the kit is fairly well covered up by the boat deck, not a great deal of detail was included. I replaced the search lights, added a front grill, cut off and replaced the winches, added fairleads and ladders.

Grey is such a boring colour after the other kits.