drobinson02199

Built and mounted the cowcatcher; stars on the wheel hubs. You may see that the top frame of the cowcatcher is a lighter blue than the rest. That's because I used a spray, but needed to touch up the top surface and my brush blue is a bit lighter. It's a bit more noticeable in person. I've decided that it's actually OK, because there will be blue items on the engine that I will brush paint, so this provides a transition to those. Regards, David

Pistons and some other fittings assembled and installed. Regards, David

Mounting the main driver wheels: the front and rear wheels on each side have to be aligned in terms of rotation, and the wheels on the opposite side are offset 90 degrees. So even though it's not called for yet, I used the linking rods temporarily to align one side, then attach the third wheel offset 90 degrees, and then the fourth aligned with it. It all works when you rotate the wheels, although the last thing I'll want this model to do is roll freely once it's finished. Regards, David

Started on the main driver wheels. These are cast metal, and need to be hand-painted. Here's a before and after. Regards, David

Here's a small assembly finished, and mounted in the chassis. Regards, David

Greetings from the learning curve. After I posted the above pic as "completed assembly", I looked again at the instructions, correlated two different sheets together, brushed up on my sign language, and realized that I was missing a few final parts, but more significantly, needed to paint the whole thing black. I think I have maybe finally decoded the instructions logic and symbology. Fortunately, before doing that I realized that there are two bolts imbedded in the assembly that needed to be taped over so they wouldn't get clogged. Nothing in the instructions about that. You can see that in the first picture after I removed the tape. I then hand-retouched those areas plus some others the spray missed. Painted assembly also included below. Regards, David

Here's the first assembly done. I've included a picture of the instructions page that covers this assembly, plus a couple of views of the finished product. It uses metal, a thick black plastic, and wood. All of the parts are extremely sturdy and heavyweight. Thanks, David

Taking a break from ships to build this striking locomotive model from Occre. The Jupiter represented the Central Pacific Railroad at the "Golden Spike" ceremony at Promontory Summit when the two parts of the US Transcontinental Railroad were linked in 1869. Here's my "what's in the box" post, starting with an overview of box contents: laser cut wood sheets, photo etched sheets, and metal parts. I have also added two pictures that show the instructions logic. Other than a page of overview comments on building approaches, there aren't any step-by-step written instructions. Instead, there's a page that shows how to label the laser cut parts, and then a set of pages that show assembly in pictoral form. So this isn't a kit for beginners. I'll label all the parts on a sheet the first time I need to access that sheet. Regards, David

I decided for variety that I'd build one of the beautiful wood model locomotives that Occre supplies. Since I can't post a build log for that here, I have created a group Facebook site for it under the title "Occre Jupiter DGR". It's public, so if you are interested you can go to Facebook, search that title, and see what I post. If you join the group, you'll get new posts on your own Facebook page. There's not a lot there right now as I just wanted to create the site as a reference to post here. Here's a picture of the Jupiter, which was one of the locomotives present at the driving of the "golden spike" that completed the US Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. Regards, David

Bismarck is FINISHED! Elapsed time for this one was one year three months. I've posted one full picture of the model here, but I have also posted an album of completion pics in the Gallery. [See post that follows if you want to follow my next build, which isn't a ship, and which therefore has to be done on another site.] Regards, David

I finished up the port side railings with about 30-45 minutes of work. This compares to 5 elapsed months for the starboard side using the Amati railings -- although I must admit that sheer boredom with the process played a good part of that elapsed time. Just put the first coat on the stand. Regards, David

Back from vacation to find the photo-etched railings referenced above waiting for me. Painted them gray this afternoon and then mounted two strips as shown. Took about 15 minutes to mount the two, no drilling needed, just CA glue and some instant set. They are perfect scale and I think look as good as the other ones, but neater and most important, HUGELY transformational in terms of building this ship. I covered about 20% of the port side with 15 minutes of work, compared to the hours and hours it would have taken using the starboard side method that came with the kit. Just wish I'd thought of this sooner -- or frankly, that Amati had. Now really close to the end. Regards, David

While waiting for the railings to arrive, I did the nice plaque that comes with the kit. The brass is prepared the usual way -- paint then sand to leave the etched lettering visible. It mounts on a nice walnut block that comes with the kit. Regards, David

So I did some searching on Google and came across a number of photo-etched railings that go in as pre-assembled sections. These are a perfect match in scale and number of horizontal railings, so I have ordered them and they should go in fairly quickly on the starboard side. Right now, I don't intend to rip out the port side and put these in, as I think they will be a close match and only one side is the display side anyway. I'll pick that side after I see how these look. They will likely be delivered while I'm away for a couple of weeks, so late February installation. Regards, David

This morning I finally pushed through the first HALF of the railings. Looking at my logs above, I started this side on August 17, so about 5 months elapsed. I have a lot to say about how the manual says to build these, problems with that, and how I'd do it now if I had it to do over again (and why I can't adopt a revised approach for the starboard side). The problem comes from painting the stanchions ahead of time, and if you are building this ship and haven't done that yet -- DON'T. The difficulty comes from the paint clogging the holes, and how devilishly hard it is to clear them enough to thread the railing wires. So the approach I used was: 1) Paint the stanchions before removing them. 2) Use a fine drill bit (manually) to clear the holes. Often takes 2-3 tries and is hard. 3) Thread the wires thorough the stanchion. If they don't fit, enlarge the problem hole again. Sometimes do this repeated enlargement for 2 out of 3 holes on the stanchion. 4) Mount the stanchion. 5) Rinse and repeat. As I noted above, the manual says to mount all of the stanchions after clearing the holes, and then thread the wires. But that just wouldn't have worked for me, because I'd have run into holes I thought I had cleared but that needed another poke -- which can't be done after they are mounted. This has led to a rate of installation of about 4-5 per hour, and I have to confess that I can't stand to do more than an hour per day, and frankly haven't done work as frequently as I normally do because it's such a tedious task -- MUCH worse than say coppering the bottom of HMS Victory, all 2,500 plates, which was kind of fun. I wish I hadn't painted all of the stanchions, because if I had it to do over again, I would leave them unpainted, which should result in holes that will accept the threads, then thread and mount, and then when they are all done, paint them with a fine brush. That would have gone much faster. Finally, when you look at the pictures below, you'll see a lot of specks on the forward black section of the deck. I noticed those in the picture and just blew them off -- so no need to repaint. Now on to the starboard side. The snow will have melted by the time I get that done. Regards, David

Klass: I can't remember this one, but the solution you outlined sounds fine, particularly if it will all be covered up. Regards, David

Just about halfway through the first side on the railings. I can do about 7-10 of these per hour, so it's slow going. Regards, David

Another reason to use the approach I've described above to string the railings vs. mounting all the stanchions first (as recommended in the manual). I'm finding that even after I poke the paint out of the holes and think I've enlarged them, I occasionally have to go back in with my very small miniature drill bit (manually) and clean them out to get them to accept the thread. This would be impossible if the stanchions were mounted first, because the adjacent stanchions would block getting the drill bit lined up. Regards, David

Your bow looks a bit more blunt than mine, You might consider trying to sand it down to more of a knife edge, but be careful not to sand out the planking detail. Regards, David

More work on the railings. The reason these take so long is that you have to poke the paint out of tiny little holes using a tiny little drill bit, then thread them (like threading a needle), then mount. Regards, David

I'm now working on the railings, and it's going to be a long, delicate process. First picture is of the metal railings, which are installed at points on the deck. Second one shows the start of the cable railings. The instruction manual says to install all of the stanchions and then thread the wire, but the holes are just fiendishly small. So my approach, as shown here, is to string the wires as I go, which means I can thread them off the ship where I can manipulate the stanchion to see the holes, and then install the threaded stanchions. Working well so far, with a LONG way to go. Regards, David

Here's the rigging on the superstructure. Railings come next. Regards, David

Deck detail at the stern. Regards, David

I would just cut the planks and the wooden part back where they extend past the bow. I don't recall whether I had a similar issue when I built the ship. Regards, David

Here's the rest of the deck detail at the bow. The rope racks next to the red and green buoys are actually fabricated from wire -- I somehow lost the photo-etched ones. I can't figure out how -- if I knew I could probably find them. So I just built these two. Regards, David