aliluke

Very nice work Maurice. I used this technique on the wales for Fly but I cleaned it up so well that after painting them black the jointing was invisible! Be careful of that.

I have, when time allows, been tinkering away at the VM 26' Launch. It is a relentlessly tricky little kit and I'll be glad to get back to the main subject - HMS Fly - next. My launch is pretty well a straight out of the box kit. The main floor didn't fit so I removed the outer planks. I added an anchor rope. I shaped the oar handles and blades but inserted them into a micro brass tube for the shafts and added a leather? thickening where they base through the oarlock slots. I painted the upper works red as that suited my ship's Captain. Even though I didn't need to, I painted below the waterline in a creamy white. My hull planking allowed it to be left natural but I thought that would look odd on a ship with a copper bottom. Some photos (which show touch-ups required). I have yet to stow the oars which promises to be as fiddly as everything else was.

Your work on these looks pretty good. Blue Ensign has nailed this - talk to him.

Hi Avi Just looked through your log - very nice work indeed. But I'm confused by your coppering technique and it seems to frustrate you as well. Why at 1/96 - a very small scale- are you overlapping the plates? It seems like a near pointless detail that is causing the frustration and it appears to be "ruffling" the lines of the hull. Why not just butt joint them and the problem goes away? Why are you doing them in sections rather than them running full length side to side? On my Fly model at 1/64 they are just butt jointed and I laid each row, starting at the keel - stem to stern, side to side before I moved up to the next row. All glued with a light coating of CA. The plates follow the planking lines and are snipped to the correct angle when they reach the waterline. At least for Fly or Pegasus this the correct layout for these ships. They aren't the Constitution of course so I can't speak to that. I have no idea how you'll be able to match the sectional approach from side to side. I'm also confused about why the kit supplies them as individual plates when you can get them as strips which work quickly and accurately for long horizontal runs? With strips you can snip off individual planks to work with the upward flow made by imperceivable increments. The strips with butt joints also keep the flow of the hull intact and avoid the "ruffling" effect that I see and remove the adhesion problems as well. I can't help feeling that you are digging a hole with your method and it looks like it'll just get deeper as it progresses. My more radical advice would be to de-bond what you have done and take a simpler line of approach. Strips if you can get them, butt joints (for sure), run them full length and from side to side and go with the planking flow from the keel upwards. I'd see this as a make or break moment as an outcome below the waterline that detracts, for you!!!, from all of the work beforehand will always detract from all of that work and all of it afterwards. I hope you take this as intended - advice from someone who has coppered a hull (but not done a Constitution build!) and had a relatively easy time of it.

That's a brilliant build and a brilliant design! A stunning ship with those "go fast" lines. Thanks Jim and Chris - I'll seriously be considering adding the kit to my (so far...) meagre stash.

The current state of affairs is extremely impressive!

Hi Ron That is an insane number of cannons. Cross eyed indeed. The cannons have become the least favourite part of kit building for me and sent me away from the ships for a while. You have a heck of lot to go. Allan's image of a crew at work is great - the tensions, the chaos, the dangers and the mess of ropes. I'm not sure what you mean by the lack of 'trunnions' in the kit - that is just the pivot pin for the gun? And how can a hardware store help? I have decided on my Fly model to only add breeching ropes for the eight remaining cannons. I went through the whole tackles thing for those that are concealed under the decks - never again. The breeching ropes I used were 0.6mm (Morope) which felt about right for scale. Trust you are dry down there as we are here in Welly - no wind either. Bloody hell - who'd live in Auckland?

Thanks Allan It is a VM kit and I went with what was supplied. A wider or thicker plank might be historically correct but the contortions I put the planks through while gluing them would be much more difficult. Essentially I am edge bending and twisting during the gluing process using my highly specialised clamps = fingernails and thumb! A wider and thicker plank would resist that very gently applied pressure. But you give me thoughts for the future. Cheers A

Thanks Vitus and HOF My experience with Vallejo was the same as others I tried - not matte enough. Same with AK but I haven't tried the 'Ultra' - will have a go with that. My find of Pintyplus in NZ was a fail. As soon as you go to the various website offerings they don't ship to NZ because it is an aerosol. A minus for living here but hardly a reason to live elsewhere...

Thanks John! Never heard of it and you can get it in NZ which is a miracle. Will give it a go. Cheers, Alistair

Hi Can anyone recommend a brand of matt clear coat - acrylic or enamel - that actually dries matt? Everything I use ends up drying semi-gloss even when I stir up the sludge from the bottom of the bottle or can. It drives me nuts!

Thanks Chris, Allan & Whitejamest and thanks for the likes Allan - the planks are 2mm x 0.6mm

My mum went out that morning to bring in very less than dry washing. Just as she got inside a large tree crashed down onto the steps to our washing line. Seconds earlier it could have killed her. Wind in Wellington can be extreme but that day was the most extreme. Funnily enough, in recent weeks it has been calm as a millpond. Breathless. But back to your model - I am fascinated now how it will play out...

Hi I have achieved my slightly absurd, self, challenge of planking the VM 26' foot launch without resorting to stealers, infill planks or any fillers. Strangely I get wood striping even though all of the planks came off the same sheet and were always orientating outwards on one side. It doesn't really matter but is odd and I can still elect to paint. The keel has some variant colours too - but that is also okay with me. Of course there are some air gaps and you couldn't float this boat but it isn't a bathtub toy! The shell is eggshell fragile and I have yet to sand inside. A tricky but very cool little kit. I did the last plank in three sections on both sides (it's the third one up from the keel) - it was a killer to fit. Otherwise all planks run full length. When I finish it, I'll get back to the main subject = Fly.

That's incredible. It is only my memory that tells me it was 135 mph measured on the top of Mt Kaukau. 275 kph - 170 mph! No wonder then that pine trees were flying through the air up there. And you are right HOF - I didn't know that. I had a look at NIWA data: https://hwe.niwa.co.nz/event/April_1968_New_Zealand_Ex-tropical_Cyclone_Giselle

Hi Richard I'm a late comer to your log. Your model of Wahine is extraordinary - in scale, research, detail and results. I can't offer anything to you on how you do this - way beyond my modeling skills! I was eight years old when the Wahine Storm struck. I remember it vividly from our home in the northern suburbs, watching trees flying through the air on the ridges of Mt Kaukau and listening to pine cones slamming into and smashing our tile roof. Two days later we went down to Fort Dorset to look at the wreck. I was excited about that but when we got there I remember the actual terror of seeing Wahine lying on her side so very close to shore. I was shaken. I had never been on Wahine but, as a younger boy, had done several trips with my mum and brother on T.E.V Maori - Wellington - Lyttleton - Wellington. We'd always got E Deck as it was on the waterline and much cheaper for the swishing noise of water keeping you awake. I loved that. Maori was also a very beautiful ship. My grandmother was booked for the 10 April crossing on Wahine but had to cancel for reasons that I forget. I doubt she would have survived that. She came up to Wellington on Wahine's replacement, Rangatira, for a while afterwards until air travel killed the route for good. I have crossed Cook Strait many, many times. Starting in Aramoana and then Awanui and lately in their new fleet plus on Bluebridge. The earlier trips on Aramoana/Aranui where often epic as safety was less of a concern then than it is now. I've crossed in monster seas on Aramoana where the propellers came out of the water as the ship dived into a trough. Luckily I am immune from seasickness and the rougher it got the better it was for me and that holds true even now. The Wahine Storm was not cyclonic. It was a collision of two fronts from the north and south that caught the meteorologists completely off-guard. I read a few years ago that even with current computer modelling, the way this storm behaved could not have been predicted by computers. Wind speeds hit 135mph but it wasn't a cyclone. I'm sure you know of Dan Flannery's diorama of the Wahine capsize which is displayed in The Wellington Museum. https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/media/wahine-model.138970/ I am fortunate to own one of his dioramas in a case - a Norwegian whaler with a surfacing whale alongside - that I picked up on Trademe for a pathetically cheap price. His models were/are incredible. Anyway, that diverts from your project which I'll now follow. The size of your model is amazing! Cheers A

Hi Mustafa I have just reeled back through your log having had a look at a while ago. Truly spectacular work in all regards and a great reference for those (like me) who will be taking on the 1/64 kit VM version of Alert. Your model is a brilliant rendition of this very fine wee ship!

Hi B.E. I'd be honoured if you used my copper aging method! I won't offer to come around and help though - it is a technique best done in private...😏 Cheers A

Thanks for dropping in Jason. As said in your log, Jason is an example of superb model making - I'll keep watching progress on that project in awe of your skills.

Wow! Yet another temptation. The speed with which you design and trial your stunning kits is just incredible.

Thanks Allan - very nice drawings and I'll refer back to them when I get on to the pinnace. Thanks whitejamest - the funny thing is that after posting and boasting about not breaking a plank while tapering them, I immediately broke a plank while...tapering. At least I have met my contractual obligation!

Hi Don Apologies for dredging this log back up from the depths of time. It is a stunning model and perfectly built by you - so much so , in both cases, that I am buying one from Zoran. Cheers A

Hi Been mucking around in the background making a VM 26' launch. My target boat for Fly is the 28' pinnace but the launch is a practice kit and just might do - we'll see. I challenged myself to do it without stealers or infill planks so that I could leave it natural if I chose so. That has worked out so far. These are really amazing little kits but very fiddly. Two planks to go on the port side, three on starboard. Lots of sanding to come... My plank bending device - a four hands magnetic table by Weller So what could go wrong with this kit? These photos are from the instructions The very narrow junction on this part is bound to break - and break it I did while beveling it. Determined not to do it again...I did it again. An easy fix with white glue. I decided not to insert the stern board before doing the beveling as I could see myself whacking it with a stray stroke and taking out the sternpost with it. I can't prove that that happened because of my caution but a later insertion, after the hardcore bevel seems wise. Other thoughts on this tiny kit to date? - The turn in of the planks to the bow is much more severe than you suspect at first - Tapering planks at 2.0mm x 0.6mm with a knife cut is too dangerous for me - the knife would swerve off and take out the plank or some part of my finger. I tapered them by sanding only. - Edge bending is probably necessary but given the tiny size of the planks you can contort them, against their will, while gluing them down. Once bent and tapered, I just glued them down with gentle hand clamping - The pear wood is very strong even at very thin widths. It took a while to get this and, for tapering with sandpaper, you can be quite aggressive. I broke one plank by another accident but none by sanding. - My method of running the planks full length without stealers and infills seemed to take a toll on the kit provided planks - 26 in total. My hull has 24 planks with two more needed for the wales and two more for the final upper works. Somehow I completely lost a plank so I'm at least three short. Very kindly, VM is, no questions asked, going to send me a new billet of planks. I'll post the finished outcome when I get there! Cheers, with apologies for the crappy photos... A

That is seriously cool! I've even changed my mind about the 'green' and like it now in the overall scheme. Grecian goes on my wish list from now on! Cheers, Alistair

Hi Jason Just re-found this log and seems I posted on it way back in 2014 when you found a bowed frame. After a long hibernation from MSW, I return to find a stunning outcome to date. Absolutely superb model making - so very crisp and well detailed. No part of my Fly model would stand that level of macro photography and very few other kit models here would either. It looks 1:1. Thanks for sharing! I'll keep up from now on. A quick question - what diameter is your anchor cable? I'm guessing it is Syren rope? The answer may already be in your log...