RGL

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.

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

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

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

OMG, WOW, WT....
Great work there Greg.
 
The level of detail is reeeealy up there.
 
Dave R

That, Slog, Is absolutely amazing. Love it.

That, Slog, Is absolutely amazing. Love it.

That, Slog, Is absolutely amazing. Love it.

That, Slog, Is absolutely amazing. Love it.

Nice work, great curve on the bumpkins.

Nice work, great curve on the bumpkins.

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

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 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.

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.

Hi All and thanks for all the likes and comments.
 
I haven’t got a great to show as I have been pulling down the 3 layers of the hull to reassemble with glue.  I have currently done the lower hull and the middle section.  I previously mentioned I hadn’t cut out the doublers for the casement guns and so needed to check an update for these.
 
With the kit there was an A4 sheet with changes which I needed to check what they were talking about.  Apparently the change is to increase the size of the laser cut holes.
The photo shows part of the A4 diagram, the laser cut form with the small laser hole and a former with my trial hole.  I thought I better see why the hole was getting enlarged so found the gun pedestal base (part 10) which corresponds with the new hole so mystery solved.
 

 
 
I also mentioned the benefit of trial fitting parts before gluing and here is a good example of why.  The horizontal forms of the bridging structure had holes in them which were off set to one side and I just randomly put them in for the dry run.  Before gluing I checked against the skin which wraps round the structure and low and behold my test fit was wrong.  50/50 chance LOL  Card models in general have very little instructions and this one has none so they assume you know what you are doing.  There was no indication about the position of the holes in the plans.  Check, check and check again is the motto.
 

 
 
With the bridging structure now correctly orientated and glued up it was finally time to do some paper modelling, huzzah!  The rear skin has some portholes in them which although I quite like the orangey bronzie colour I want to replace all the portholes with photo-etch ones.  I already have 1.6mm portholes which were a good fit for these.  I used the same technique I described in the Bismarck log where I use a drill to put an outside edge into a piece of brass tube to make a punch, 1.5mm in this case.
 

 
 
To glaze the hole in the porthole I wanted to try a technique I came across somewhere, where you use a floppy disk.  I think it is mylar, but whatever it is it is dark, shiny and very thin so should look good.  I cut a thin strip then cut into little square to fit behind brass portholes.  Incidentally the little metal door of the disk is very thin also so went into the spares box in case I can use it for something.
 

 
 
Okay new photo-etch portholes installed.  Once hole was punched through, I coloured the hole edge black and then put a dab of PVA glue round the edge of the hole and dropped the porthole in and then pressed down with the flat handle of my tweezers to make flush.
 
I then flipped the part over and using PVA again, painted round the area and dropped the plastic ‘window’ over it, again pressing down with the flat of the tweezer handle.  The PVA held the port holes and the plastic with no problems despite a fair bit of handling while skinning up the structure.  The mylar (?) is thin enough not to be a problem under the paper skin either.
 
I think they look okay and I do like the dark shiny effect of the ‘glazing’ so will continue to use this for the rest of the build.  One thing the macro shows up is I didn’t clean up the edge of a photo-etch porthole very well so will remember to take more care for the others…although at 1.6 mm diameter not really noticeable.
 

 
 
Just a quick tip for edge colouring.  For some of the build at least I will be using Faber Castell PITT artists pens and the black on black works very well.  Just remember to come in from the back side (also if using watercolours, paints etc) so if you slip you don’t mark the printed side.  Sounds obvious but have done it in the past.
 
Also noticed in the photo another tip.  When handling card parts always try and hold the flat part and not the edges.  If to small use tweezers or something, it doesn’t take much handling for the edges to become tatty and mashed up.
 

 
 
Captain Petr Serebrennikov and a couple of seamen have come to check the progress of his ship LOL  (the figures are actually 1:200 1940’s Kreigsmarines I got for the Bismarck).  I like the shine of the plastic ‘glass’.
 

 
 
The front part of the structure is actually one part so care was needed for the 2 bends on each side to wrap round the wings.  You can see the white dotted bend lines.  I transferred these to the back side and then with the ruler on the line I scored them gently with the knife just cutting the outer surface and then slide a razor blade under and folded up similar to what you would do with photo etch.  PVA glue used for gluing.
 

 
 
That’s all that can be done to this structure for now.  It needs installing onto the upper deck and the hull skin extends up and over it to complete.
 
Cheers
Slog

And what´s a thimble without a rope ?!?
  Took off the inner edges to give the typical rounding on the inside ...     ... hooked them up to put them into the blackening soup and to get them out without having to search ...     ... ok, first trial was not the wanted result as smartened ropes can´t be sliced ...     ... so to be smart no smartening but a splice, inserted the thimble and closed the loop ...     ... smartened the ends off and lashed it down ...     ... and went happy about the result :-)     XXXDAn

Totally Superb greg,  your eye for detail Blows me away :o I am sure I am not the only one who holds his breath with  building at such scales, but when you achieve what you do - The sense of pride is Huge.
 
 
OC.

This is what modelling is all about. Replicating detail at an eye watering scale. I'll bet that if I was in front of it, I wouldn't be able to see half the things you have done without a magnifying glass. Great work!

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.