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drobinson02199

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  1. drobinson02199
    Chris: It's a website called Love Pops: https://www.lovepopcards.com/ They actually have a bunch of ships. Regards, David
  2. drobinson02199
    Back to the boat. I fabricated a jig to hold the third deck posts upright and in position while the glue dries. Because there's no mechanical hold on these pieces, it's taking a long time to get them all up. But the jig works and keeps them properly aligned. Regards, David
  3. drobinson02199
    A diversion -- in honor of my new hobby, my wife gave me this detailed pop-up card for my birthday. Regards, David
  4. drobinson02199
    Scott: I just caught up to your build log on this model. Wow! Now I see what it looks like when someone who really knows what he's doing (and has more patience and steadier hands than me) builds one. This is a spectacular piece of craftsmanship. Regards, David
  5. drobinson02199
    I have finished the second deck railings, and here are a couple of pics. I like the way the railing curves around at the stern. I am now more amused by the last paragraph of the manual when it said "most of the detail work is now done; just follow the pictures from here on" and then ended. In terms of detail work: every vertical post and horizontal wood railing (both under and over the white part) had to be individually hand-fitted, with lots of careful sanding to get the lengths right, as they aren't quite uniform. Same true of the white parts of the railings. So if that isn't detail work, I'm not sure what is. I will now do the railings around the stair openings on deck 3 first, because I'll have a clear shot at them before I put up the posts and railings on Deck 3. Regards, David
  6. drobinson02199
    A construction discovery -- the third deck is not quite as wide as the second. It's 3mm narrower on both sides. That left me with two choices: If I wanted the vertical second deck posts to be flush with the edge of both deck 2 and deck 3 (as shown in the photographs in the manual), then I'd have to noticeably cant the posts inward from bottom to top. Or, I could align the posts to the edge of deck 3 and move them in on deck 2 about 3mm. I picked the second option, as I thought the canted posts would look awful, and I don't think the "indentation" of the posts looks bad. I installed some of the lower railings, and you can see how it looks in the pics here. Regards, David
  7. drobinson02199
    Not a lot of visually interesting stuff in this post, but some useful construction tips from my experience. I looked over the plans to see what I should install before doing the railings, so I wouldn't have access issues. That turned out to be the stairs and railings fore (2) and aft (1), the three masts on either side, and most of the eyebolts. Some learnings: Once the ladder rails are painted, the paint adds width which makes them too wide for the deck openings. So I reduced the tread length from 10mm to 9mm and clamped them to be sure they were seated. It was helpful to shape one brass stair railing and then use it as a template for the others before installing any. The two slanted masts on each side require some work on the deck holes they fit into -- but the second deck holes aren't drill-accessible. I didn't have long bits, so I opened out the third deck hole on a slant, then inserted the bit and manually turned it through the second deck hole on a slant using a wrench. It worked, and wasn't much trouble, but doing the ship again I'd want to make those second deck slanted drills before installing the third deck. Now I can move on to the railings without having to maneuver around them later on. That would have been really hard if I'd tried to open those mast holes after the railings were on. Regards, David
  8. drobinson02199
    Chris: The stacks are wood dowels. Needed some sanding to fit the rings and stack bases over, then one coat of Model Master flat black, and one coat of satin polyurethane varnish. The large stack tops are cast metal, hand-painted. The rear stack tops are solid brass pieces. As I noted earlier, I had to hijack and re-purpose two deadeyes for the small red stack tops. I really like Model Master acrylic paint since I began using it. Covers really well, but cleans up with water. Regards, David
  9. drobinson02199
    Antony: Yes, I keep all my boats, and I'm eventually going to run out of wall space in my office! What's the alternative? What else do you do with yours besides display them? Regards, David
  10. drobinson02199
    All the stacks are up now -- and I couldn't resist a picture because the color scheme on the tops of the main stacks is pretty cool. This is the scheme called for in the model. Regards, David
  11. drobinson02199
    Chris: The deck colors are just a photo trick -- it's all the same stock planking from the kit. It's the ONLY thing AL provided spare amounts of -- everything else is either just enough, or short. No room for error. Regards, David
  12. drobinson02199
    Antony: I just looked up your Turtle Ship, and your workmanship is incredible. Makes me realize how far I have to go in my own skills -- if I ever get there. Your last post was months ago. Are you still working on it? Regards, David
  13. drobinson02199
    I've completed the top structure now, which has an interesting stair structure up to the wheelhouse. I kept it removable for now, not because I want to leave it that way on the finished model, but because I think the railings and other finish work on the deck it sits on will be easier to do if it's out of the way. See pictures. There were a number of construction issues here: The manual shows the ladders with white rails and natural steps, and I thought it was just the outside, so I assembled the ladder and then noticed that the entire rail needed to be painted white before assembly. So I decided to make the steps on this level brown, and go to the other color scheme on the lower decks. The ladders are constructed out of pre-cut rails, and pieces of step material that you have to cut to length. Turns out there aren't enough of those for all of the ladders on the boat (I looked ahead). So I went to my "leftover stuff" box (thank you Amati for extra material) and used ladders from that for the short ones. You'll notice that they are wider than the ladder in the structure. I have enough AL ladder material for the three on the lower decks, which is good because the Amati ladders would be too wide. The kit is also missing the top of the stacks you see. So back to the "leftover stuff" box and two small round deadeyes, wood filler in the holes, and they look pretty good. I decided to paint the tops red just to add some color to the model, and it matches red that will be on the tops of the main stacks later. The manual doesn't have the two platform edges finished, but I added some "leftover stuff" strips to finish it, since the rest of the structure has a lot of trim and finish. I also added a skirting board around the bottom of the wheelhouse to finish it off. [See Chris, I listen ] Speaking of construction, the instructions stop here, saying "most of the tedious and detailed work is now done -- follow the pictures for the rest." Since each vertical post has to be hand-sanded to fit, and there are a lot of railings to fit, I don't think the detailed work is quite done yet. Regards, David
  14. drobinson02199
    Chris: Grand Banks is a modern power boat by Amati. I have attached their stock picture. After rigging the Revenge, I wanted to work on a couple of boats with no rigging. Then I'll swing back that way. Regards, David
  15. drobinson02199
    Chris: It would seem like I'm getting close to the end, but when I look at the model there is a lot of detail work left to do. Next model will be the Amati Grand Banks -- which I have already bought. How is your riverboat coming? I have looked for a build log but don't see one? Regards, David
  16. drobinson02199
    Finished the wheelhouse and have mounted it. I spent some time on the interior, with painting and also accenting the helm spokes to a brass finish, only to discover as I dry-fitted the roof that the interior goes dark. So a picture here first before I put the roof on. Some building notes: The manual calls for scoring the acetate into large panes, then painting and wiping as it did for the lower windows. I didn't like the look of that in the instructions, so I built window frames and mounted clear acetate behind it. Looks better given the level of detail on this little structure. For once with this model, the metal decoration anticipates the curve of the roof. But the manual shows it mounted on the roof before the roof is mounted on the wheelhouse, and until that happens there is no curve. So mount roof, then attach decoration. I built the decoration into a rectangle off the roof, and then mounted the whole sub-structure onto the roof. Easier to align. As I look at the pics I'm attaching, I see that a skirting board would be a good idea, but I'll wait until I've built the stairway structure, which includes platforms and landings and is the next step. Regards, David
  17. drobinson02199
    Added the skirting board, and gave it a curved shape to fill the gap. Works well. And the structure is still removable! I forgot to mention that I gritted my teeth and used the acetate for windows on this structure, and it reminded me of how much I really dislike working with that stuff around glue. In fact, the yellow "shutters" you can see on the curved window on the right are there to hide "glue mess". I think I'll try to find some thin lucite to have around. Regards, David
  18. drobinson02199
    I have finished the third structure and fourth deck. A few construction items: If you look at the first picture, you'll see that all of the lower decks are slightly curved toward the center from bow to stern. This curve seems to be imparted by the top of each structure to the deck above it, even if the bottom of the next structure isn't correspondingly curved. So I had to install a molding at the bottom of the second structure, as discussed earlier. What you can see from this and the next picture is that the lower part of the third structure is dead straight, while the deck below it is curved, leaving a gap. I saw this coming, and considered trying to adjust the lower part to be curved, but thought it might mess up those little windows with the brass nails, so instead I'll again follow the guidance from Chris (Vossy) and dress it with a molding -- but I'm going to shape the molding. The manual says to drive in the nails and then file down the nail heads, but it's much easier to clip the heads off before putting them into the holes, The top of the structure isn't varnished yet. I want to shape and install the moldings and then I'll varnish the rest of this. This structure is made to be removable, and this isn't a RC model. Does anyone know why this would be? At the end, I'm going to glue it on. Regards, David
  19. drobinson02199
    Chris: The idea of building them up at the base was one I considered before I installed them. Having built and installed them, I'd be reluctant to try to pry them out at this point for fear of really messing them up. The joins between the treads are fairly fragile. I think I'll just live with them as is. I just looked at them again, and one thing I might do at the end is dress the bottom of the curved railings up to the bottom of the second deck with a piece of Sapelli, so that there is at least a smooth transition. I'll need to do something similar at the railings. The solution to this is to build it differently, carving out an extra straight tread and adding it to provide height as I noted above. Regards, David
  20. drobinson02199
    Finished the third deck and mounted it on the boat. I oriented the herringbone so that it runs in the opposite direction on the outside bands from the deck below. Thought that would be more interesting. On the side view, you can also see the drive rods on the paddlewheel. Regards, David
  21. drobinson02199
    Chris: Some more thinking about solutions to the circular stairs. I took some measurements, and the treads are 3mm high. There are 13 of them, so that's 39mm, and the distance from the lower deck to the bottom of the second deck is 42mm -- just one tread higher. My staircase came out at 39mm on the nose, so my thought above about "drooping" may not hold. It would take a lot of precision to impart a slight uptilt of 1/4 mm on each tread, which is what it would take to add that extra 3mm over 13 treads. Another possible solution would be to cut a couple of extra straight treads out of the laser cut board they came in. I had to cut both of my straight short railing sections down, so I think they would take the extra length. I also had to cut one section off the curved railing -- so maybe it would take the extra tread as well. Thanks, David
  22. drobinson02199
    Chris: I had another idea about how to get the curved stairs to come up to the second deck. When you assemble the stairs, you glue one tread above the other, and when it's done right in terms of length, there is very little common surface area between the two treads. It occurs to me that this might cause a very slight "droop" in the angle of the treads relative to each other, and therefore shorten the rise. The fix (and it would be very doable with this kit as is) is to sight each tread assembly while gluing and make sure that the treads are at least precisely level relative to each other, and perhaps slightly (very slightly) canted up. I can't tell now with the stairs mounted if mine had any "droop", but I suspect so -- but it would be so minor that you wouldn't see it unless you are looking for it. Over the 13 treads, that could result in the one tread height drop that I got. Regards, David
  23. drobinson02199
    Chris: I fretted over that when I dry-fitted the staircases. They are just one step height short of ending flush under the second deck. I considered elevating them with a sort of platform on deck 1, but then looking at the finished model, it seemed to me that the part where the staircases meet the first deck will be more visible than the part where they meet the second deck. I may be wrong about that -- but I opted to have that first deck join look normal. The angle is OK -- on one of mine, the way the stair rail twisted around left it angled in just a bit. I think if they were elevated to come up to the second deck, the angle might look OK. I'm glad (sort of) to hear that it's not just me. It would initially seem that it would be an easy fix for AL to just add one more straight step -- but . . . those are in one of the laser cut panels, and the railings would have to be lengthened, and they are laser cut as well. So not an easy fix for AL. The plans and the instruction booklet pictures show the stairs coming up so that the top step fits flush under the second deck, effectively making the second deck the last step going up. The rails line up with the second deck railing. That won't happen on mine. What might cause it is the bowing of the second deck when attached to the engine and boiler rooms. I assumed that was what was intended and so glued it down with a fore-to-aft slight curve. That could cause the bow section of deck #2 to lift up just enough to cause the issue. That is probably not intended, but it's likely what caused me to have to add the skirting board you suggested. The next modeler to tackle this kit could instead glue on deck #2 without pushing the center down, and then dress the gaps in the join with the engine and boiler rooms with a molding. Or, sand down the fore and aft sections of the first deck structures to remove the bowing of the second deck. Either of those would seem to be the fix for this as I think about it. But you'd need to know that in advance, as the picture on the box suggests a slight curve. Regards, David
  24. drobinson02199
    First deck posts and railings done. AL uses a lot of Sapelli in this kit, and I really like the reddish cast -- makes the natural wood combination look much better. Also take a look at the small second deck enclosure around the circular stairs. Took some work to get the sideways bend in the Sapelli strip. Best regards, David
  25. drobinson02199
    And the curved stairs now mounted on the boat.

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