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mandolinut
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Everything posted by mandolinut
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I decided I wanted the upper davits to be able to pivot (as they do) so I could decide later to put them in any position I wanted. I drilled a small hole through the brass base plate and another hole at the bottom of the lift and inserted a small brass rod. should work out well. Then built up the base of the two masts as it appears in old photos to represent a pipe within a pipe for more strength. I used painter tape. There are two washers painted that this will insert to before going into the deck holes. Also painted the running lights and assembled the communication antennas. Really enjoying this journey.
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I believe I will work on the Avon next based on this old photo.
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Today, I believe I finally finished installing the last of the safety rails. Time for a cold one. These are the two aft pairs of corner safety rails for the upper cabin top. There will be a flexible line connecting these to the other forward safety rails. Also began the two upper cabin top davits and the flagstaff.
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I went through many digital photos of Calypso and could not find any with the radar type included with the Billing kit. It was easy enough to remove the old one and replace it with a carved wood Decca type radar as seen in all of the photos. Thanks again to those of you that pointed this out! There are so many details and visual candy on this ship it is easy to miss one of the details. Installed the bow rails today and painted the double mast assembly. Here is before and after regarding the radar. BEFORE AFTER
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And then there is this. An early photo of Calypso with satellite communication that is round like a golf ball and Decca radar. I guess we have to choose what era we want to represent.
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Thanks for the radar information, Nirvana. Good eye. I will check my photos and see if Calypso had the type of radar at one time that is included in the kit. If not, I will change it out.
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Thanks for those wonderful photos Veszett. They will join my collection of Calypso photos. I will be adding "the big egg" satellite dome later. Interesting to see the narrower thinner radar. I spent a little time today painting some thin veneer strips from my lumberyard gray (grey) to use to mold around the base of the upper cabins and wheelhouse as seen in Calypso photos.
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Today I connected the two masts to the observation platform and added the satellite and radar features. Also added the outer antennas. This is a special build for me.
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Thanks Robert. My purpose for this build log was to help others building Calypso navigate through the build. When I first opened this kit in December, I was overwhelmed with the lack of printed instructions.
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To begin with, thanks to you that are following this thread. We may never meet, but I feel some level of support as I plow ahead on Calypso. Today, worked on more detail of the observation platform above the masts. There is a four-legged taller radar platform and some forward supports for another satellite communication. Happy with the progress. There is a lot of detail in this small section. More antennas and wind indicators etc. to come. This structure will be atop the two forward masts.
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Thanks Nirvana. As you point out, 'Taint a hobby if you gotta hurry. I put some white enamel on the railings previously installed which makes the safety rails fit in with the ship. Since I was in the railing mood, I began the safety rails for the upper mast observation platform. It was a bit challenging to make two identical matching wire shapes. I ended up using a pencil to form the outer curves and a larger ball point pen to form the two forward curves. Then slid all of the rails in place onto the two wires and began gluing down the bases. Finally straightened the post vertical and added a dab of Ca glue to all of the joints.
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Thanks Alan. If I had not had the ladder temporarily in place and guessed the angle, I would have been way off and as you said, it would look very wrong. I appreciate you following my build.
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Back at it today. For whatever reason, I was not looking forward to the safety rail installation. I thought of it as threading a number of small needles but in this case, threading multiple thin wire strands through stanchions. It turned out to be tedious but not too bad. Patience required :0) I was careful to try and get the downward sloping rails at the same angle as the stairs so temporarily had the stairs in place. Now to add safety rails to the bow pulpit and to paint these safety rails.
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I came back this afternoon and started the wheelhouse safety rails and the upper deck safety rails. The rails above the wheelhouse are set in natural wood decking so I placed the stanchions in predrilled holes and painted the bases careful not to get paint in the holes. This will help when it comes time to paint the rails.
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Installed the lower safety rails today. Began by dry fitting running the wire through the stanchions to line the stanchions up. Once dry fit, I began gluing the stanchion bases in place. Then added a small dab of thin super glue to all of the joints. Next, the safety rails over the pilot house and upper deck.
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Removed all of the peripherals off of Calypso today in preparation to working on the upper and lower safety rails. Nothing is finished yet, but all is getting closer to being finished.
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Had fun putting some primer on my water tanks and building "spill 2". Not sure what spill means in Denmark but all of the mechanical deck structures are Spill 1. Spill 2, Spill 3 etc. I + I still need to build the boom assembly that goes with this winch and hangs over the side.. From the plans: https://manuals.handleidingkwijt.com/html/55416/bg19.png
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I have been working on the life raft cannisters and the tanks located port and starboard aft. I decided to replace the "plastic" water tanks supplied with wood because the plastic had a seam around the edges that was nor realistic and when removed caused the two halves to come apart. I could have filled the two halves with Bondo and then glued them together but the wood worked well. Added a filling spout and an air vent to the water tanks. Found a nice petroleum decal sheet online in various scales. I will use a few of these on my 50 gallon brass barrels and paint the barrels a matching color.. I need to clean up the water tanks and file a bit on the brass vent before painting :))
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Looking forward to following your build. Patrick Mathews did a fantastic job on his Pilar which inspired me to also build a scratch Pilar. I was happy with the result but it was not at the level of Patrick's.
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I made a second smaller scale outboard motor for the Avon today. I see from older photos that I have the seats wrong on the runabout and will change them. The forward seat should be all of the way forward and the hatch should be painted to match the deck of the boat. .
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Thanks Paul. I had fun the last few days. Received a package from Ebay with 45 compressed air tanks of various sizes. Not having a 3D printer, this will be helpful for detail . I will use some of the various tank sizes for fire extinguishers, some for scuba tanks on the Avon, Some for compressed air tanks, Nitrogen tanks and oxygen tanks. The only hiccup is these came all molded into one piece. I carefully used my razor saw and separated these into small groups. A little sanding required to get the cylinders round again :0) Also did a little more work on the runabout. A friend tried to 3d print me a 1:45cscale outboard but it turned out to be too small for his printer. A then went to my lumberyard and pieced together an out-board motor for the runabout. Not finished but beginning to look like an outboard. . Fire extinguisher: Many extra tanks: O scale 1:48 which is close to the Calypso 1:45 scale from Ebay Outboard motor at this point: Runabout at this point with extra tanks in the background. Will look better with the outboard motor and gas tank. I filled in the grooves on the foredeck a bit with putty feeling they were to exaggerated. Nothing attached yet. Will have to figure out how many tanks to keep and where to place them. Also made a cradle for the runabout with wood from the lumberyard:
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Taking a break from the safety lines and stanchions and decided to work on the small outboard runabout. The Billing runabout comes in two parts, upper and lower. The apparent flat floor surface is too near the top. I plan on adding two wooden seats and want to have leg room. Today I cut out the floor from the upper half and after sanding, glued the removed part to the bottom of the hull for a flat surface. I feel it looks more like a boat now and less like a jet ski. I have been looking for an "O" gauge outboard motor without much luck. That will make a nice touch and could be either stowed away in the boat or hung off the transom ready to go. I will probably have to fabricate one from wood. Makes me wish I had a laser printer.
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Hello all. I have drilled and temporarily placed the rails in position and am at the point of running wire through the stanchion safety rails. I see this rail feature is common to a number of Billing ships. Question to those who have done this....are there any do's and don'ts? How do you deal with a joint if the supplied wire is not long enough for a run? Thanks in advance. Patrick
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I drilled 34 more holes on the perimeter of the upper deck today for more safety rail stanchions. Added to the 21 holes drilled yesterday for upper safety rail stanchions, Calypso has more piercings than a rock star :0) I also wrapped the mini sub with bumper material I found at Michael's Hobby. It is a 2mm very flexible black rubber / wire found in the bead department. Seems to be a good scale. For some reason the packaging says leather. Go figure. I see I need to add some touch up glue to the front.
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I had fun today working on what will become fenders for Calypso. I began by adding wood glue to the tops to fill in the gaps from the cotter pin. Then hand painted some black on top. The fun part was then dipping them in some white paint to create an even coating at the top. I will do the same thing to some of the other floats with orange paint for dive floats. Began drilling pilot holes using calipers and the life size plans for the safety rail stanchions on the upper deck and pilot house.
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