Captain Slog

Very nice Jeff, you should be very proud. Looking forward to following your Pickle build. I used to keep track of the time spent on my build, which I would record the date, what was done and for how long. Kept it up religiously until my computer detonated and lost it all including early build photos so don't bother now, but will again for my next build (and back up more!) Cheers Slog

Hi Kevin I don't think you have been shot as the messenger but I think the thread has gone off track slightly. I also don't believe that new mass production technologies will kill craftmanship. The thread I was following was about the design and construction process of a prototype for a mass produced KIT. If new mass production technologies can give us clean, crisp detailed mouldings, carvings or whatever instead of the usual blobs of metal then we as KIT builders can only benefit. If Chris pushes for the best method for the best carvings etc then that can only be a good thing...unless the additional cost pushes it outwith the reach of many. Craftmanship is associated with scratch builders who pick one ship and (typically!!!) only make one investing thousands of hours over, in some cases many years. Mass production doesn't come into it. He will carve each piece individually as needed and if he can't carve will learn to and then show us all here craftmanship! I can't see a scratch builder investing thousands of dollars on machinery and software and then learn how to use it to create the one piece he needs for a stern detail or whatever. If I live long enough to get into a full scratch build then I for one will pick a ship with no carvings or learn how to carve. A lot of trial and error blocks of wood thrown on the fire is cheaper than the production methods needed not to...then I to may reach craftmans status LOL Finally I can't see Amati or any of the established kit manufacturers paying for CAD designers to produce a CAD program/file for mass production only to sell it to the Chinese...aren't we trying to stop that? Anyway my 2 cents, don't usually post on such topics but I was enjoying this thread immensely. Hope to see more of Chris's stunning work. Cheers Slog

Hi, Deck furniture fitted. Next up will be the bitts and gallows. Cheers Slog

Hi All, A small bit of progress over the past week. As mentioned earlier the fake splices on the rudder pendants were annoying me so redid them. I also made up new chains and counted the links in each side to match, they were a couple of links different previously. Also the 0.25mm and 0.5mm rigging thread for the deadlights and pendants respectively weren’t sitting correctly, so I suspended clothes pegs off the ends of them and then brushed on a 50/50 mix of PVA and water and them pulled the excess off with my fingers. When they dried they were stiffer and straighter and could be manipulated easier. They now look more like they are pulled tight under tension due to the weight of lids and chains. I also removed the eyebolts from the taffrail(?) for the deadlight ropes and replaced them with some cleats made from 0.5mm brass wire bent to shape. They aren’t the best but get lost under the rigging thread anyway. I decided to fit what deck furniture I had made previously. I needed to find the angle of the rear deck as it slopes upwards to the stern so I can sand the correct angle on to the bottoms of the bitts and binnacle so they sit vertical when fitted. With the hull sitting level I used a sliding bevel placed on the deck and then a small level attached to get the blade vertical. Now I have the correct angle I will adjust the square on the disc sander and sand them to fit. I didn’t manage to get this done. With the hull level, the middle and fore decks are also level so can just use a small engineers when I get round to fitting the bitts and gallows in these areas. Started fitting the furniture with the 2 middle deck hatches. As these were made with straight bits of wood and the deck has a camber on it I placed some sand paper directly onto the deck and sanded the hatches back and forth to get the cambers correct. Second shot shows a decent fit of the hatch to the deck. Next up was the belfry. I marked the position on the deck and then drilled holes in the base of the belfry and the deck to take 1mm brass rod to secure the various bits and pieces to the deck. Will do the same with the bitts and gallows. Once the belfry and the windlass were glued in place I could fit the CNC cut belay rails which joins the belfry and windlass frames together. I don’t think I messed up as the windlass was constructed as per the plans and parts supplied but the belay rails were short. I don’t know if anyone but a Caldercraft Endeavour builder would know or care but I made new ones from the same ply sheet the originals came from and used the supplied ones as templates. Will post some pictures showing my furniture fitting to date shortly. Cheers Slog

Hi Jeff, Just catching up on your build and your rigging is looking first class, nice work.

Hi All, Thank you all for your nice comments. Wayne, that was my 1st attempt at using the rigging thread and again the dreaded macro emphasises any discrepancies. I had a good look and the chains also had uneven amount of links so redid the chains and the rope splices again as it was really bugging me . Newmanrj, always good to see another Endeavour. I think it was Wayne who said earlier that aussie builders are drawn to do the Endeavour, how true. I suggest you start a build log of yours as there will be plenty of people looking over your shoulder to help out if needed. Shipcarpenter, your Santa Maria is looking very smart indeed and enjoyed seeing your metalwork. Look forward to seeing your Endeavour when you get round to it. Hi Nick, Caldercraft supply all 4 boats on a CNC machined sheet of 1.5mm plywood. I lost all my photos of that stage but found 1 with the skeletons glued together. I added scrap cross pieces across the ribs as I kept squeezing them together by mistake The photo below shows all 4 at various stages. From left to right: Yawl (70mm), Pinnace (99mm), Skiff(109mm) and the finished Long boat (98mm). I had a look on the Cornwall Model Boat site and they sell individual ships boats from Caldercraft and Amati but I couldn’t see the ply sheet ones like in the Endeavour kit but they may have something to suit. Alternatively maybe contact Jotika direct and see if they will sell the ply sheet by itself? A bit of progress. After redoing the rudder pendants I went on to the tiller. The supplied tiller is 2 parts from one of the ply sheets which is glued together and then fitted to the top of the rudder. It looks a bit chunky where it slips over the rudder and after gluing it up and almost fitting it on I decided to see if I could make a simpler, slimmer version. I got the walnut sheet where the rudder came from so the tiller was the same thickness and looked to see where I could steal it from. I choose the top section as it meant apart from cutting to length I didn’t need to shape it any I laid some scrap ply on the deck to get the height right and then shaped the end against the rudder and drilled a 1mm hole and glued in a piece of brass rod and then drilled a receiving hole in the rudder. Finished tiller. I glued and wrapped a 2mm wide strip of cartridge paper round the tiller to simulate an iron band and then painted and fitted the photo etch tiller handle. Cheers Slog

Hi Adrieke, I got the same paint set when I bought my Endeavour. Be careful with the Matt Varnish depending on the look you want. It does exactly as it says in the speil "does not change the appearance of the wood". I used it on my deck and expected the grain to become a bit more emphasied, but it didn't change the appearance in the slightest and even after 2 coats you couldn't tell the deck had been varnish. If that is the look you want then your laughing! Also don't use it on top of previously painted surfaces as it can leave a hard milky appearance. I used it on my red bulwarks thinking it would provide added protection to the paint but like I said it left a couple of milky areas. Cheers Slog

Hi Rowan, Welcome to the Endeavour club. I missed your log until now. You're off to a flying start and looking good. Slog

Hi Wayne, these latest photos show just how clean and crisp you build is, fantastic. The morter looks great.

Hi All, Thanks Ron for dropping by and the comment. I used to have 3years of photos from box opening until now but unfortunately lost the first year and a half’s worth in a hdd failure. Only have from sanding second layer planking to now. I am going to work from the stern forwards now, doing both hull and deck details. 1st on the list is the stern window lids/covers/deadlights? The deadlights are from the 0.8mm ply sheet, parts 22 & 23. The 2 outer lids are different from the 2 inners due to the shape so needed to make sure I didn’t mix them up. Marked them with the numbers before cutting them free and then used a plastic storage box to keep them in the right order. The brass hinges have small tangs which go into drilled holes. The plans say to use 0.1mm rigging thread for the lanyards but I choose 0.25mm instead. I faked the splices by using a needle to pierce the thread and then pulled it through. I got that tip from Gil’s Victory log but mine don’t look half as good as his. I haven’t attached the ropes yet as I might make small cleats to replace the eyebolts as per the plans. The plans don’t mention attaching rudder pendants but the AOTS shows them with the lower section as chain and attached to eyebolts in the rudder and the upper section as rope which runs up past the deadlights and I will tie them off on the big stern cleats previously fitted. The chain I bought probably 1 ½ years ago from Modellers Shipyard but can’t remember the size (1mm?) I had no idea what size of rigging thread to use so settled on 0.5 which seemed chunky enough to hold on to an unshipped rudder in real life. I was quite chuffed with the effort, using the same cheating splice, until I saw the photos . One of the splices is average and the other is terrible so I will do them again. I think I will try and get some bees wax also as the 0.5 line isn’t hanging as I would like. Cheers Slog

Hi Wayne, Thanks for the comments. The paint I use is Jotika/Caldercrafts own Admiralty Paints, yellow ochre. I ordered the white hull paint set from Cornwall Model Boats when I purchased my Endeavour from them. There is an Aussie stockist of Admiralty paint at the following website http://www.miniaturesteammodels.com/category89_1.htm I have found the Admiralty Paints to be very good especially for coverage particularly the red ochre, black and French blue. I have been having difficulties in airbrushing with them but can’t be sure if that is just acrylics in general or my n00bness. Cheers Slog

Hi All, Well a major milestone, 3 years in the making has been reached. The hull is essentially finished. There is still a lot to do to it but its all little detail work and of course the deck furniture. A lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to this stage but overall relatively happy with the outcome. There are a lot of mistakes made along the way and lots of lessons learned. Cheers Slog

Hi Greg, looking real nice

Okay, here’s part 2 of the sorry tale of hull painting. After masking up the hull in the last post I set up the airbrush and mixed up the Admiralty Paints Hull White. In previous posts with experimenting with the airbrush I tried using Tamiya Acrylic thinners which didn’t really work very well. This time I just used water and it was a lot better. I decanted about 10ml of paint and mixed in 3ml of water and the consistency looked very good. I then started spraying one side of the hull first going round the stem, keel, stern post and the water line and then filling in the hull. The first coat was very light and could still see the walnut underneath. It would take a lot of light coats to cover the hull fully. I did a couple of coats like this and again they were very light to build up the opacity. Then went to the other side to do the same and then that’s when it started to block the needle with build-up. I pulled the mixing cap off and cleaned it and continued spraying but the paint flow quickly reduced again and after getting a couple of light coats on the other side I gave up in frustration. I took the ship outside and sprayed it using the Citadel Skull White from a spray can. Got a bit wet at times but it’s very forgiving as each coat flashed off it tightened up. But had some problems with overspray as will be seen in the photos below which I think was because of the large spray of the can and moving the ship which probably dislodged some of the masking paper. The airbrush had a small controllable pattern which wasn’t an issue. I would spray a lightish coat with the spray can come back in then go out and do another coat etc for several coats. This was a near disaster as I went back out and picked up the can gave it another long shake and started spraying only to see Chao Black going on to the hull! (I picked up the wrong can as they are identical other than the Paint name. Luckily not too much went on and a few light coats of the white covered it up. Here’s the rudder and hull painted in the shed. Once I peeled off the tape the actual waterline isn’t too bad. A lot better than expected with little or no bleeding under the tape. A bit of over spray in the corners where it was difficult to get the tape into the sharp internal edges. Looks a bit off going into the wales the way it does but I still think this was the best option. Here’s the horrors now. So much overspray got in under the paper I couldn’t believe it when I peeled back the tape. My heart sank. The starboard side copped it with the stern, some of the wale and the rough tree rails, stanchions and channels getting a dusting of white. If I persevered with the airbrush I wouldn’t have all the remedial work ahead of me, as usual will know better next time. I have already started to clean up the overspray with wire wool and fine grit paper. I have touched up the yellow channels and the stern castings and touched up little bits of the French blue. Also I covered all bare wood with a couple of coats of Wipe-on poly leaving only the black wales and the railings etc to re-do. Should hopefully get it finished up today which I will post pictures of the completed hull later. Cheers Slog

Hi Timmo, Build is coming along nicely. Your cannons look fantastic. I will start on mine soon, hope they look half as good as yours. By the way, I prefer option 2. Cheers Slog

Hi All, A bit of an update on making eyebolt rings. I tried a couple of things to see if they could be made easier. Firstly, using the same technique of annealing the wire over the gas stove, I wrapped the same 0.5mm wire round a 1.37mm drill shank instead of the 1.12mm drill used the first time. This gives a real life hole of almost 88mm and an overall outside diameter of 152mm which is probably a fair bit over scale). After pulling the coil off the drill I re-annealed the coil to red hot again. The slightly larger ring allowed the point of the Stanley knife to get in further and I could cut 2 rings each time and was a lot easier as the brass was softer and didn’t lose the point of the blade this time. The larger ring also made it easier to grip with tweezers to feed through the eyebolt. Also the second annealing after coiling made flattening the ring and closing the ends so much easier and I think the ends closed tighter as the ‘spring’ of the wire had gone. I will continue to use the larger drill as although over scale the easier and far quicker fabrication is preferable to me. Now that I can make fairly reasonable eyebolt rings I decided to go back and re-do the mid-deck hatch. I originally made this as per the plans which instructed to use the supplied eyebolts as is and just bend then down flat to replicate the ring. These were originally glued in place with CA glue and the tail on the underside bent flat and more CA applied liberally along the underside. The bent tails were easily pried up with a finger nail and the eyebolt pushed back out through the drilled hole. After painting the modified eyebolts I glued them back into the drilled holes, which in my opinion looks heaps better than the bent over eyes. Time to paint the lower hull. I planned in using the following for marking the hull line. A combination square with a pencil clamped to it. 2 problems the pencil couldn’t go back because it hit the 45 degree angle part which meant it was pretty floppy out at the point and secondly because I used the hull holding jig I couldn’t get the point in close enough to touch the stem. I cam up with the following a bit Heath Robinson but go the job done and I could reach right in to the stem. If anyone has been following my log from MSW 1.0 you might remember that I placed the wales one plank width to low. This meant the water line didn’t match up with the plan and worse, it bisected through one of the rudder hinges. 3 options, place it where it is supposed to go and have a part white and part black hinge. Place it below the hinge but have a shallow waterline or place it above the hinge and have a decent white hull but the waterline intersecting with the wale. I placed the waterline above the hinge as in my opinion is the best option of the 3. I only had 18mm Tamiya masking tape which is too wide to follow the curve under the rear counter so pulled out a length and cut the 2 edges from to use. Looks a bit ragged on the top side which doesn’t matter as used the clean edge for the line. I placed the tape slightly above the pencil line and then used a eraser to buff the tape down and remove the pencil line After using the Tamiya tape to mark the line I used cheapo decorators tape to build up a bit of width ready for masking out with paper Again using the decorators tape I used a shiny newspaper supplement to cover everything else up. I think newspaper is to thin and there is the right the newprint will come off or bleed through if it gets damp. Here it is already for painting. I made this post whilst waiting for the white to dry. The whole painting process wasn’t too successful in my opinion as a number of problems crept up. I almost had a disaster which was narrowly avoided. I will go through the problems I had in my next post either later today or tomorrow once the tape is removed and the finished result seen. Cheers Slog

Looking forward to following this one. Nice work

Hi All, Ferit, thanks for your kind comment. Since I have almost finished the hull (except for the white stuff) I have been concentrating on the deck furniture and the little detail bits as I can do these without worrying about making a mess or lots of tidying up afterwards. (I work at the kitchen table). I wanted to try and make some rings for the supplied eyebolts that will be fitted in their multitude shortly. The technique of bending the wire round a drill isn’t mine. I saw it on MSW somewhere and I apologise to the original author for not giving credit as for the life of me I can find where I saw it or by whom. I remember reading that the brass wire can be annealed to make it softer by heating. I tried just using my cigarette lighter which would have worked but taken to long and the yellow flame leaves black soot on the wire. So I used the gas stove and 3 things happened, the blue gas flame turned green, the wire went red hot instantly and it was cool enough to touch after only a few seconds. Okay, Caldercraft supply hundreds of copper eyebolts which are 10mm long and the wire is 0.55mm thick (based on my cheapo vernier) and trying different drills into the hole I determined it was 0.94mm. A 0.99mm drill didn’t fit. I then used a 1.16mm drill bit to drill a hole into some MDF and when deep enough I put the shank back into the hole. My thinking was this would be stronger for pulling against than if the fluted part was in the hole <shrugs> Then taking the annealed 0.5mm brass wire I bent it over the edge of the MDF so I could hold it tight and then tightly wound the wire round the shank of the drill bit. I think doing this actually work hardened the brass wire again as it felt like it was stiff again Then sliding the coil off the drill bit, I used a Stanley knife to get the point into the coil and cut, then moved in and cut and so until I worked my way along the coil. Each cut produces a ring. It only took a few cuts before I lost the point of the blade but persevered. I think annealing the wire again before cutting might be easier. I will try that next time. Here are the rings. 0.5mm with a roughly 1.16mm hole. Some of them have nicks where I couldn’t cut through in one and moved the blade. I used a safety Stanley (which I hate) and the blade would sometimes slide back in. so took a couple of goes to cut. Here is a shot of trying to feed the open ring into a less than 1mm hole. Doing one took longer than making all the ones in Photo 5. Plus initially lost 1 in 3 to some rift in space. Finally managed to get it in, keep it in and squeeze it gently closed with needle nose pliers. I think I will use a larger drill bit next time as 1.16mm rings was very difficult to handle and actually doesn’t leave much room for the rigging thread plus it will be easier on my fat fingers and eye sight. I will also try annealing the coiled wired again before cutting, but overall quite happy for a first try. Cheers Slog

Hi Ferit, Thanks for dropping by. Is the photo below what you are after? On the stern I have still to do the window deadlights, the opening ropes for the lower ports and the rudder pendants and maybe the rudder coat. These will all be done once I finish painting on the anti fouling ‘white stuff’ on the hull as after that there is no need to man handle the hull much or turn it upside down so don’t need to worry about damaging delicate bits and pieces. Once the white stuff is done I will also finish the varnish below the counter. I had look at your Berlin log and you are doing a fantastic job. Very clean and sharp. You have done an outstanding job on the details you have scratch built to replace the kit items, I especially like your doors you have done. Cheers Slog

Hi Guys, Thanks for your comments. Been squeezing in a bit of work here and there and finished up the lantern. I used a bit of 1mm brass rod and bent it to shape as per the drawing on the plans. I used games workshop Chaos Black spray to paint it. The rod was then glued, using CA, into a 1mm hole drilled into the base of the lantern. I used the same 1mm drill to make a hole in the stern and it is too large so when the time comes to fix it I might use epoxy as the lantern is very top heavy. I may also make outriggers to hold it more securely like the AOTS and the Endeavour replica shows. I decided to smash out more of the deck furniture as the hull isn’t too far off being painted and finished. (only taken me 3 years give or take a week to get to this stage). I decided to do the stern platform and the binnacle which were all on the 1.5mm walnut ply sheet other than the 2 steps which is from the 5mm solid walnut sheet. Here’s all the parts cut out and tidied up a bit. I have used this technique a lot for holding small parts together square for gluing. I use a small engineers square and various clamps and clothes pegs etc to hold them. This is a front panel of the binnacle and one of the sides. The PVA doesn’t really stick to the metal so after a short time the wood parts can be prised off the square. I used a steel rule and a clothes peg to hold an inner binnacle panel whilst the glue dries. I have found that after gluing and clamping I can usually remove the piece to work on it more after only 10mins. So could alternate between the platform and binnacle pretty quickly. After gluing all the end and internal panels to one side I could place the opposite side on and hold together with clothes pegs. Only need to add the top panel to complete. The 5mm block stairs glued to the upright panels of the platform and the top planked with Tanganyika strip (spelling?) which was used on the deck. I had forgotten just how poor the supplied Tanganyika wood strip was when I did the main deck. Didn’t matter so much for this as only need short lengths. After trimming the platform planks to length I used the square again for gluing the upright/steps to the platform The finished binnacle and stern platform shown in place. They aren’t glued down as still have a handrail to put on the platform and some binnacle eyebolts for lashing and might try fashioning a small brass vent for the binnacle map light. I gave them a couple of coats of minwax wipe-on poly. Doing both components from cutting out to taking finished photos was around 3 hrs work. Cheers Slog

Hi Chris, Sorry don't have any experiance of other kit instructions other than what I have read in peoples build logs. As Chris (ccoyle) says any Model Shipyards kits design by Chuck will have decent instructions. You can go to the Model Expo site and download the instructions for all Model Shipyards kits in PDF form so might be worth having a browse of them to see if they fit your needs. Good luck with whatever you settle on and remember to start a build log. Cheers Slog

Hi All, Thanks for dropping by and your comments. I ordered the hose from Airbrushmegastore last Saturday night and came on the Wednesday so pretty good service. One end connects straight to the airbrush (as you would expect) and the other has a 1/4inch BSP female end so a compressor connector fits straight on. Okay, here is my set up and first attempts at airbrushing. I’ve had this cheapo generic compressor for a few years now and mainly used it for blowing down my tools and blowing up my tyres. The air reservoir is 40 litres so plenty of storage and the pressure cut-off is about 100psi. I will leave the compressor regulator set at max and reduce the pressure with a combined regulator/moisture trap at the airbrush. The compressor is very noisy when running but I have enough airline to leave it in the shed with the door down and run the airline into the house. I purchased the combined regulator/moisture trap from Supercheap Auto. Unfortunately because I do my modelling at the kitchen table I screwed a piece of MDF on to the regulator bracket . Now when spraying I can just clamp the regulator to the kitchen table with a quick release clamp. Having the regulator next to the airbrush has a couple of advantages, obviously the first is being able to adjust the pressure without stopping work and going outside. Secondary, since I am using such a long line from the compressor to the house I would expect some pressure drop at the airbrush so setting 20psi at the compressor would be less at the airbrush. Having the regulator close to the airbrush the set pressure should also be the pressure at the airbrush. When it comes to mixing paint I found plenty of YouTube videos about mixing Citadel, Tamiya, Floquil and other modelling paints for airbrushing but nothing on Caldercraft’s Admiralty paints which I will be using. The recurring theme about mixing paints for airbrushing is to obtain the consistency of milk. This has to be the most ambiguous comment of all time! I used Tamiya acrylic thinner to reduce the paint, but others have successfully used Windex (window cleaner) to reduce model acrylics. I will probably also try out readily available General Purpose thinners from the local hardware store as dedicated modelling and airbrush thinners are expensive for the volume. A$12-A$15 for 250ml as opposed to A$10 for 1litre. Okay here is my first attempt at spraying and after a quick test on a piece of posterboard I sprayed the lantern top and bottom. I cleaned the brush and just messed about with black trying stuff out. Right first off, paint thickness and pressure is the 2 main things to get right. I initially started at 20psi which I think was maybe too high and tried different pressures down to 10psi which seemed to low. I messed with it constantly and settled around the 15psi mark give or take. Paint mixing was a pain, firstly I think I mixed the yellow to thin and to be honest I don’t think Tamiya thinners was the best for this paint. With the black it was probably slightly too thick as after a while the build up around the nozzle and needle was enough to stop the paint which didn’t happen with the yellow. I will say that 9mls of paint goes a long way! The black in the last picture was probably less than 1/3 of the cup and I poured the last out to clean to clogged nozzle. Thoughts; Will need to experiment a LOT more to find alternative reducer/medium to thin the Admiralty paints I used and also to try different brands as not convinced Admiralty paints are really that great for spraying…saying that it might just be my n00bishness. Cheers Slog

Hi Chris, I am currently building the Caldercraft Endeavour. This is my 1st wooden model ship and I think I am doing not to badly with it for a first build (others may disagree but are too polite to say LOL). There was a thread in the General section I think about the difficulty ratings of kits and someone came up with the very good point in that the difficulty usually relates to the size, time and effort required, after all most kits need planked, advanced rated ships just need more of it. ccoyle comes up with a couple of good points. I really love the Endeavours history etc and it was always the ship I wanted to build first, so I will see it through to the end eventually (however long it takes). Also Chris’s comments on the instructions being limited is very true but to be honest I have barely read them, all 4 pages! I read the instructions a few times to get started and occasionally checked them to see the order they recommend building or to see if they mention something I couldn’t find in the plans but they don’t tell you how anyway. I find the plans and questions answered by the friendly people on this site are more than enough to keep going. One thing I will mention though is the Endeavour has a very bluff bow and I did find that frustrating but other than that its probably only more of the same you have already done. If you do go for it remember to start a build log as there are a lot of Endeavour builders here to help out. Cheers Slog

Hi All, Thomas thanks for dropping by. I also followed your build and referenced yours and other build photos when I want to check how others done something. I have a few other builders Caldercraft Endeavour photos saved from MSW 1.0. Will you be starting your Endeavour log in MSW 2.0 again? I have been sneaking in little bits and pieces of work this weekend and finished painting the rough tree rails swivel gun posts and stanchions. I moved on to the ships lantern as I wanted to try out my new airbrush out on the yellow top and bottom. Unfortunately I forgot about the air hose so will have to wait until next week to try it. All the parts shown below including the photo etch lantern, cast metal top and bottom and 1mm brass rod. The castings weren’t too bad. A file round the edges cleaned up a bit of raggedness and a small bit of flash on the top bauble thing was cut off. A small rub with fine sand paper then a scrub with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush to remove any residue. The photo etch lantern is smooth on one side and has grooves on the other. (See photo 7 to see what I mean). I assumed the grooves went on the inside and closed up when the segments are folded together. It was very tough to bend this way and I couldn’t get a sharp bend line so I flattened it out and flipped it over. I then bent the lantern with the grooves on the outside. Using a small square file I held the photo etch down as hard as possible and slid a razor blade under it and prised it up. Then using a bit of MDF I sanded to 60 degrees I checked the angle was correct and continue working round each segment. Some sections bent easier than others and once all bent went round and round tweeking by eye each bend until the edges closed up and then ran some CA glue down the seam. Dry fitted all the parts to make sure they fitted. To paint the lantern I needed to somehow hold the small awkward cage whilst spray painting. I came up with an old paint brush and a couple of clothes pegs to hold one of the Admirals hairs which I threaded through the cage. (I have no hair of my own ). Then went outside and used Citadel Paints Skull White from a spray can. The black spring clamps were too keep it off the bench. A close up of the drying lantern still hanging from, a now considerably thicker, Admiral hair. Cheers Slog

Hi All, I decided I needed an airbrush a few months ago when I got Photo etch parts for my Bismarck as I doubted I could brush paint the tiny parts to a satisfactory level. I had a look around and found that the iwata range of brushes were well regarded and used a lot in auto custom work and vaguely remembered an iwata air brush review in MSW 1.0. There is also a link to a UK company selling iwata’s on the home page of this site. I did start a thread earlier in this section asking about any experiences of buying from http://www.airbrushmegastore.com/ here in Australia but decided to give them a try as searching through airbrush forums found them mentioned a few times with good comments. Their price was approx A$100 cheaper than another mail order company and a local place I found. I decided to get the HP-C Plus which was a balance between performance and price and appears to be a popular model. I think it falls somewhere in the middle of the iwata range between the hobbyist models and the ridiculously expensive professional range. I placed my order on the Sunday night and it arrived first thing on Thursday morning so first impressions are good. In the box I received the airbrush, an instructional DVD, which gives a lecture on painting the wolf on the cover and an airbrushmegastore sticker. I started watching the video and is really good. The artist does custom auto work and explains his actions in detail as well as using the same AB I bought. Slipping the airbrush box out of its cardboard sleeve reveals a nice hard plastic box which shuts firmly and securely. The instructions are also included in the sleeve and to be honest are pretty useless. Mostly in Japanese with English translation. The exploded view of the parts list is useful but the line diagrams and few text is pretty average. I have watched several YOUTUBE videos about using, stripping and cleaning this model so no issues about the instructions Now the exciting part, opening the box! There is of course the airbrush, the paint cup lid and a little spanner for removing the nozzle. Also included is a test in the lid which I will show further down. A close up showing the quality of the chrome and the make and model engraving on the body. The look, feel and weightyness of the body adds to the impression of quality. The airbrush is dual action so pressing down on the trigger starts the air flow and pulling back starts the paint. Both actions felt very smooth and controllable. The more you press and pull back the more air and paint respectively comes out. The knurled knob at the rear is to adjust the paint preset stop. It works by limiting how far back you can pull the lever for paint. If you were doing fine work it would prevent you inadvertently pulling the trigger back to much and getting too much paint on the work piece. With experience and control this probably isn’t needed and some videos I have seen of professions remove the whole assembly as they can control the amount of paint on the trigger alone. This airbrush comes set up with a 0.3mm needle and nozzle which can spray from pencil line thickness to 25mm straight out the box. I believe you could change the needle and nozzle for other sizes but 0.3mm seems a good balance. The HP-C Plus is gravity fed and has a 9ml (1/3 fluid ounce) and again the quality of the chrome is so nice. When I was looking around for a brush I thought 9ml didn’t sound like much but when you see it physically the cup is larger than I imagined it to be. Here is the test card that came in the lid of the box. This is the factory test card for my very airbrush. Apparently someone does a test spray of each airbrush and includes the result along with the airbrush. So potentially I should be able to able to achieve the same result. ON first glance it appears to spray nicely. Time will tell. Not used to using an airbrush so will take some time to be comfortable using it but feels comfortable to hold and has a nice weight and feel to it Lastly I couldn’t resist getting a genuine iwata bottle opener keychain also I was going to do a run down on using it for the first time etc but unfortunately for some reason I thought it came with a hose. I double checked the website and nope doesn’t come with a hose. I don’t know how I missed that. I have 3 options. I searched locally and assuming they are in stock I can go to one shop to get a Paashe hose and another shop for an iwata to Paashe hose adapter. Running about plus the combined price is more than ordering it from the address above. I actually found an iwata supplier 5mins drive from my house but they list airbrushes (A$100 dealer for my model) but they don’t list hoses and aren’t open until Monday. Thirdly do what I am going to do and order a genuine iwata hose from the same place I got the AB and wait a few more days. Hopefully next weekend I can get some paint through it. Will let you know how it goes. Cheers Slog