Tim Moore
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Everything posted by Tim Moore
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…and more boats….a whole fleet of them on board. Took Rogers guidance on the picket boat fenders. Painted them white at first, looked great but way too pretty, so overpainted them in grey. Model is starting to look more interesting. Think I’ll leave the gun installations here on the boat decks until later after the railings are in, so they don’t get in the way as I’m fumbling around with that work. move on to the main guns now and then superstructures. I find some of the more satisfying modeling work is the small boats on ships. The Bounty and Fifie had good little boat projects that really added to the final product. I'm soon going to have to suspend this build for a while as I’m travelling out west for a couple of weeks, and construction season will begin soon after I return, which means a lot less time in the shipyard.
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Hi Ian - great to make your acquaintance, what a great anecdote. That would have been the Railway Inn I believe. I understand that exhaustion and can well appreciate your cycling efforts! I cycled Canada some years ago from Peterborough to mile 0 on Vancouver Island, know that feeling at the end of a long ride, totally done in after fighting the hills around Lake Superior, the wind across the prairie or the brutal climb to the ice fields in the Rockies. You brought me back to those memories with your story!
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Hi Roger thanks for that! It’s funny, this morning I was looking at that very aspect thinking that scalloped edge might be floats, and should really be white or some other contrasting colour. You are obviously correct so I’ll make that change, thanks again for the advice.
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Progress: Continuing with the remaining pieces in the inner areas of the centre section. The funnels have a lot of nice details. I mostly followed the Pontos upgrade strategy with them, except I used the kit PE for the funnel caps and some piping, rather than the so-so Pontos pieces. The Pontos plastic is particularly bad, definitely not worth using in most cases. Had a foul up that delayed progress a day or two, classic bonehead issue. I was handling the ship and noticed something was rattling around inside. Turned out to be one of the big 6” guns which had come off its mount and fallen deep into the bowels inside. Seemed impossible to extricate at first, but after delicate surgery we got it back, reinstalled and the entry wounds stitched up. Musings: This model is a great subject and will be a nice rendition with all the fine detail when it’s finished, but I can’t help feeling it is going to lack something as a built object. Seems a tad underwhelming to me, too small in scale for all the detail, doesn’t pack the punch I expected. Probably just what I’m used to in terms of the larger scale I’ve been working in lately I expect.
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The hanging beams for boat storage complete. The Pontos upgrade provides a more refined result, if a little tedious to assemble.
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Just taking stock of all the superstructures and other details on this boat; this is such a rich subject. Think I’ll continue on with a little more amidships before starting the bridge structures. The Hobby Boss kit manual is very helpful for planning what goes where and the build sequence.
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Excellent! Thank you Artesania Latina.
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Thanks Mike. There are 16 - 3” guns that Pontos provides brass parts for. After preparing one and watching winter turn to spring as well as the eventual visibility on the ship when installed, I decided on a modified approach to the first eight, which are tucked under the centre deck. I replaced the plastic barrels on the kit guns with the Pontos brass, which is easy to do, and added a shield by modifying some of the PE from the base kit. It’s not exact but a reasonable facsimile of what the form of these guns were on the real ship, as helpfully illustrated by Jeff in his current build.
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Most of the deck level paraphernalia on. Lots of nice detail in the Pontos, although disappointingly nothing by way of an anchor upgrade. Got a load of 3” guns to fabricate and install before superstructure on the centre section. They look ridiculously finicky, would love to subcontract them out, but sadly I’ll have to get my ratline concentration mode turned on and suck it up. The kit provides rather cool looking gooseneck vents with PE grilles which look excellent. Pontos changes that to a truncated stack with a basic “X” outlet, which is less visually dramatic. Looked through a few Mikasa illustrations and decided a mix with goosenecks aft was an acceptable solution.
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Ok now that I have the microprocessor circuit board ready all I have to do is reinstall it and the photon torpedoes should be back on line.
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Thanks Joe. Progress: installing the Pontos replacement deck accessories, starting with the centre section. There are dozens of these little gems, hatch boxes or whatever. First part of the process is to turn the brass into gunmetal, then it’s a simple bending process in this instance. A couple of the Pontos replacements are the wrong size so reverted to the kit version in that instance.
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Progress: Deck is on, easy process as it’s self adhesive. Toned it darker with some tannin I had left over from my Fifie alchemy. This will be the base wood colour, will be aging it later, probably after it is plastered with a million PE installs. Decided on a Medium Sea Grey for the superstructure, should all make sense when finished. Tried it on the first few bits. Musings: Speaking of aging, so will I before this sea dragon is done. Speaking of PE, my psychiatrist says it’s safe to go back into the demon Pontos box tomorrow so long as I maintain her recommended drug regimen.
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Hi Jeff - sorry I missed your post above somehow; I’ve had your log up on my iPad but never read yours from the 13th until just now. I’ve made a start, and yes it’s photo etch madness for sure. My method is to try and keep my eye on the big picture and not get too lost in the micro but we will see how that goes. Im just putting the deck on. My modeling calendar is usually restricted to winter which here is a lot, but I will be building on the real world scale as usual starting in April so wanted to at least get it rolling before then. Right now I’m pondering a superstructure base colour - did you paint yours?
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Andrew: What a cracking result, a really unique and lovely boat you have crafted. The fish in a box are great, so is everything really.
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- Vanguard Models
- Brixham trawler
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Haha good spot. yes actually I just moved all my big ship models upstairs to the den, so not much down in the basement. Fiat needs a better spot.
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Progress: Enough on the hull for now, I’m fairly happy with what I’ve got so it’s in the parking lot. Started on the centre section of the superstructure, which first requires application of the upgrade wood deck. It looks a bit involved, removing a lot of the embossing on the kit and then cutting out the wood deck in a complex pattern like some sort of circuit board. In fact it’s pretty straightforward, the plastic is easily modified with a sharp chisel, and my fur cutting knife makes short work of carving out the preprinted deck. I’ve tested the self adhesive and it seems to work well. After finishing fore and aft I just need to come up with a staining solution before laying it down. May get out the old weathering chemicals from my Fifie build again! Musings: the Pontos set is a bit of a hide and seek proposition. The instruction sheets are fine for describing the fabrication and installs locally, but they put zero effort in giving you the big picture. At this price point, I expect better. Takes a while to sort it all out and I find it kind of irritating spending time on that as opposed to crafting pieces. I’ve used many of the brass details on the hull, but dispensed with all the bracket assemblies which attach at the top at various locations. I made up a few, painted and installed them and thought they looked terribly fussy from a design perspective so have replaced with sections of brass rod that look more battleship-like to me.
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Hi Cap’n I am currently building a 1:200 Mikasa and am incorporating a wooden deck, which I will be starting on sometime in the next couple of weeks. The answer to your question depends on the wooden deck upgrade you are working with. I am using the upgrade kit from Pontos that also involves a lot of other photo-etch parts. The wooden deck in this upgrade kit has a self adhesive backing, but I understand you can alternatively use glue. In my case, there are many embossed protrusions on the plastic deck that first have to be removed before applying the wood deck. Tim
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Progress: some more hull detail added, used a wash to darken it, which looks way better, and add visual interest/texture and definition between plate lines. Still much more work to do on that. It’ll be more subtle when finished, hopefully with the richness I’m looking for. Added a grey trim piece just below the black, and painted the deck trim grey, both to give more definition overall. I’ll play around with the hull a few more days then probably set it aside and begin on the deck for a change of pace. I’ll leave most of the weathering until later to tie it all together. Musings: my hat goes off to the PE enthusiast Swiss watchmakers out there. I’m good with doing it a while under the glass but after a day or two the tiny brass work gets a bit tedious to me, particularly if there isn’t a visible payoff. I suppose I’m just more at home with woodwork at present. I’ll probably do some PE editing on Mikasa, dispense with one or two things where it isn’t very visible or that different from the kit package after finishing. On the 4” fore and aft guns, for instance, I completed the Pontos upgrade on one, looked nice in my hand, installed it and realized the work is largely invisible. The brass props are nice, I aged them in gun blue for a few seconds just to take off the raw shine that wouldn’t work with the presentation I’m doing, repolished them with the dremel and painted the nacelles. I’m keen to get the 6” guns I finished earlier mounted in the hull I think it’s going to look sweet.
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Thanks Mike - yes I’ve done those guns in brass and they will look great on install. The plastic ones in the kit are actually drilled though and looked “good enough” at the time. The kit as-is is good quality, not that I’ve gone anywhere near it the last week being now buried in micro PE work. I cannot imagine your challenge at 1/700! I have enough trouble seeing detail on this 1/200 being more used to the larger scale of wood boats and such.
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Progress: Detailing the hull. This is not a two day project. Musings: I find on most modelling projects it takes a while to get in rhythm with what you’re up against and trying to achieve. I’m not there yet with Mikasa but starting to get a feel for where I’m going with her.
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Progress: Not a huge amount, but made a start on some of the photo-etch enhancement on the hull. Finished the portholes, ladders and various other fiddly bits (technical term). Colorizing the brass either gunmetal or aged bronze in most cases where it will lay against the black. I bronzed the portholes before install, with the overlaying bars black, although these are so small the distinction is barely visible to the naked eye. Kit musings: The PE is undeniably exquisitely manufactured. Bit of work to lay on the small stuff - all 120 or so portholes, ladder rungs, etc, but at the end of it all it’s not that big a visual impact unless you are a small rodent or maybe an owl. The Pontos illustrations don’t seem to bother with the portholes at all.
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