gsdpic

Thanks to those who have taken a look and to those who've hit the like button. I've taken a bit of a detour. As above, I was working on bending the strips for the rail around the edge of the deck. But before installing that rail, I decided that it might be best to install the sheer trim strip on the upper side of the hull first. It is likely that my only way to "clamp" that piece is with some tape and I'd prefer to do that before putting the rail on. But, before putting on the sheer trim strip I wanted to put on the trail boards because I envision the sheer trim butting against the aft end of the trail board. The kit indicates using some of the 1/16th basswood sheet to make the trail boards. I was hoping to carve some design into them and basswood is not the best for that. I had some other thicker sheet that I believe is Castello Boxwood and thought that might be a good alternative. But so far in working with it I am not sure. It seems very hard and difficult to carve, though I have not yet tried soaking it in water, which I have found to be helpful carving other hard woods. Anyway, the pictures below show my patterns and the original pieces I cut out (Though I made the rookie mistake of not considering orientation of the grain when laying out the pieces. Not sure if that will be a factor). The second picture shows the pieces with some initial sanding and marking for port/starboard. The third picture shows the port side pieces with additional fitting and shaping, but no carving yet, temporarily fitted using a bit of double sided tape. I'll probably continue a bit down this path though no guarantees I won't turn around.

Craig, any idea about when you might start on this beauty? I just happened to notice that one of these kits recently sold in the US on ebay for $1525.

I'm not a tank person, but I'll follow along. And yes the phrase "steam punk bat mobile" caused me to google "Romfell armored car"

I took a few days off from the build, but have resumed, at least a tiny bit, today. Part of the reason for the pause was that I had trouble locating my supply of thumbtacks/push pins. 🙄 They were needed for the jig to help bend the strips for the rails. The rails consist of a basswood strip that is set on edge, at the perimeter of the deck and that is topped by a flat mahogany piece. Both strips are 1/16th by 1/8th. Bending the basswood is no issue but the mahogany is an edge bend. So I created the jig below. It is a little hard to tell but the mahogany is laid flat and held down by the flanges on the thumb tacks to create the edge bend. I soaked the strips in hot water and placed them in the jig and also applied some heat thanks to a hair dryer. I'll let them dry more and see how it turns out. Before installing, I will paint the bass wood the same off-white color but leave the mahogany bright.

Thanks all for the likes and Jacques for the compliment. Work continues....I completed the cabin hatch and have been doing some trim work around the cabin and cockpit. The trim is primarily 1/16th square mahogany. I bend it by wrapping it in a paper towel, soaking it with water, sticking it in the microwave for a minute or two, letting it sit for a bit, then clamping it around the rim of an old kitchen sauce pan. That gave enough of a curve to put the pieces around the cockpit. I think I have that trim complete now. There is still some sheer trim where the deck meets the hull, some trim around the transom, then a rail all around the perimeter of the hull, then trailboards, bowsprit, cleats, etc. before moving on to masting, rigging, and sails.

Thanks all for the likes or for just looking in. I've now completed most of the major parts of the hull. I opted to paint the top of the cabin the same green as the bottom of the hull. I still need to do the rest of the hatch assembly atop the cabin and then a lot of various trim work. For the latter, I feel a little bit on my own as the instructions and plans are not entirely clear or complete. The kit provides a couple different sizes of mahogany strips for most of the trim.

And another quick update..... I repainted the coaming with the same off white color as the top half of the hull. I think it looks much better. I then made the seat and installed it into the cockpit. I simply cut and laid out the strips over that paper template I showed a couple posts ago.

It's not so noticeable in the picture, but I kind of do not like the white versus the off white on the topsides of the hull. I just might tape it back up and use the same off white on the coaming around the cabin and cockpit.

Just a quick update....here she is with the coaming and cockpit painted. There will be a trim strip around the outside of the coaming so I was not too diligent about a perfect taping job. Next is the seat and tiller, then enclose the cabin.

Thanks for the likes and the comments, and thanks for the patience. I am back to working some on the Friendship sloop after doing some traveling then finishing a side project which you can see here: On the sloop, I have done the vertical planking of the inside of the cockpit coaming, then I taped it up in preparation for paint (and yes I sanded it some after taking the first picture). I plan to paint the inside and outside of the coaming white, then I will tape over that and paint the inside of the cockpit gray. I plan to use the air brush for the white paint though it is a bit awkward as this model is too large for my little spray booth. I have some rattle can gray that I'll use for the inside of the cockpit and likely take the boat outside to do that.

Hi All. I've completed my build of the Fujimi Ferrari 288 GTO. This is the same one built and logged by @CDW though I opted for the more traditional red instead of yellow. And extra thanks to Craig for his build log, pointing out all the potholes with this kit and supplying a bunch of photos of the prototype. I referenced both numerous times during my build. This was definitely a challenging kit with many small parts and parts that are tricky to attach and get lined up. But overall, I managed to include most of the parts in my build. The decals on my old kit were definitely fragile, and the instrument panel decals were poor....they were far too large for the circular gauges molded into the panel. Instead I just painted them. You may also notice that the side windows are open. Unfortunately that large clear piece was not completely molded so the passenger window was partially missing. I opted to cut off both side windows and actually like the effect and may do more of this on future builds to give better view of interiors. Every time I build a model car I think I am going to emulate the guys I see on youtube going nuts with clear coat and sanding and polishing and get that glass like finish. But then after applying several coats of clear, I think to myself that it is good enough and I fear doing any sanding or polishing is more likely to ruin things. That is especially true for a somewhat hard to find model like this one. So I just stopped after applying the clear. And yes, I went over to hobby lobby and bought a couple cheap, common models on their 40% off sale and I swear I will practice my highly polished, glass-like finish on those. Maybe. Anyway, here are pictures of my build. Overall it was a fun build despite some challenges and I am very pleased with the results.

Welcome aboard! As for your question about uploading and posting pictures, first realize that it may depend on how you access the forum...browser on PC or MAC or phone or iPad. But, at least with a PC browser, when you reply to a post there is an area where you can drag or choose files. Just select your picture files there. Note that JPEGs are probably the best bet. If you have an iPhone and it is set to the default HEIC format, those pictures will not appear on the forum, and need to be converted to JPEG. For more help, check out the pinned posts both in this subforum and in the "Using the MSW forum" subforum.

Nice, I will follow along. I've been tempted to add this kit to my stash, or perhaps the non-race-car version of it that they sell. It will be interesting to see how it comes together.

Welcome aboard! It may vary based on how you are accessing the forum, but in the browser based interface there is a search field near the upper right corner. If you type something in the box it defaults to searching the current topic. If you click on the magnifier, it shows many options. If you select "topics" under content type, a drop down menu should appear that allows you to select the 1901 to present subforum. Click on "content titles only" and enter bluenose in the search box and you will see many topics for bluenose build logs.

Wow, beautiful build, take a bow. And pretty quickly done for such a complex kit. Glad it went together so well for you, and looking forward to what's next.