coxswain

Continue with the following work

So over the w/e I sprayed the hull bottom.

Next step is fitting the rudder to the sternpost. The plans call for tapering the sternpost a bit, then tapering the back edge of the rudder as well.

And, with the keel in place, looking good!

Moving up to the bow, the stem fits pretty good, I think.

Yes, it was only one more round of primer/putty.
 
Here's a shot of the rudder and sternpost, and the rudder hole drilled into the hull.

So now the bulwarks are in, a coat of bondo applied to the gaps in the joint and sanded, and a quick shot of primer to highlight the "discrepancies"

The stern has a pronounced "knuckle" which I lost during the sanding. So, I have to build it up with some Bondo.

OC. thanks as always - happy that you dropped by as well.
 
-- Been much away from the shipyard as well as from home base for a while;
 
I did finally, however, finish stropping the many lines for the gun carriages. My recent focus was for the ten main deck larger carriages. Here are a few images - Next up is securely positioning the carriages then attaching all lines. Then onto the hull gun doors - I think??
Again thanks for your visit - this log is a real slow one indeed.
 
Cheers,
 

 
 
 

Thanks, had a look at your project, awesome, know how much work goes into works like that 🤛 have a laugh, here’s one I started in 1982, Le hussard, promise to finish it some day 😂 

The part of railing removed for this then gave me the stanchions for folding down on side of ship. 👍 the 0.1 wire was cut about 16.5 mm and a very slight curve added, this was then fed through the small hole in superstructure and rested the other end on rail, added a touch of glue and then nudge wire into place. Plenty coats of paint till you think it matches the thickness of the etch railings 🤛 better than going to 0.2 wire and it looking heavy. 👍 still to finish painting these yet. Next part l have done is fitting an anchor and chain made ages ago, this is the spare anchor that is not connected to the capstans, bit of a blind one on this part of build, no photos or references to go on, so again this is just my solution, feasible though, you would just swap the chains over the capstan next to it, think that would work. Even the ship today doesn’t show this or indeed the heavy bosses further forward, bit of a dark horse this one. Last photo shows Mikasa at anchor, used this image as reference for the chains on the side. 

Another thing l noticed when browsing through photos of Mikasa as she is today, were the two small hooks on side of superstructure, l am totally guessing on them being for the rail chains after the gun shields lowered for operation of the guns in action, well at least they are right height and position for this to work, totally my choice to do model this way, doesn’t mean it’s right but works for me. Had to mark and drill two holes through side of bridge to let wire pass through. 0.3 or less for 0.1 wire.

Take care when doing these rails, no extra ones in the box, indeed l had made some of the rails here ages ago, one must have fallen on the floor and didn’t notice in time, Jacqueline came in and stood on it, didn’t tell her though, she turned it back to IKEA, flat pack with a few extra kinks, unsalvageable 😂second set to the rescue 🙄 Once the rails were bent up and before painting did dry fit up on model, one photo shows it needing slight adjustments, the second showing adjustments made, happy at this stage to paint them, just don’t knock them if you can🤞

Ended up cutting the hand rails in the middle at back, then trimming till got suitable gap for staff to fit between them, and also trimmed the bottom plate to suit new position, then reduced the size of brazing, felt it was a bit heavy, used 0.3 wire in its place.  Also added the small piece of rigging helping to support the platform up. Well that finishes the stern deck details so put remaining photos up of work done and how it looks, that will be me starting on the front now, foredeck for everyone else. 😂 At least it’s a change of view for me. 🤪 Thanks that’s me for now. 👍

The problem here is nobody seems to have the staf in the right position or configuration, here’s a photo or two to show how it actually was.

Just one more boat to go, yee ha 🤪 driving me nuts all those boats.

Next part was doing the final fit up to try and make it work, seem to be like a cat, land on my feet most of the time 😂 be it a grumpy puss, Jaqueline shouts up stairs, your supposed to be enjoying that, it’s your hobby 🙄 anyway, got it together ok, just leaving the horrible boat strapping to do, have decided this is murder to do, the result works, but no fun.😂 Also finished the bridge wing bracing and rigging to the davits on boat deck. 

Also bought these little fellow’s, think they’ll help add a bit of scale and interest to the model when finished 👍 they are quite detailed, best l have seen so far, that’ll be interesting trying to paint them for sure. 

Also finished making the last of the davits, glad to get them done. Next stage is to paint them all. As you can see l  am starting to fit up the boat into position, lot of fiddling about at this stage, only two to go though, be glad when the boats are finished as well, been a bit of a slogging match.

Some more slow and steady progress on my Flyer build.
All the lower shrouds are on. I ended up coating them with glue/water mix to try to de-fuzz them a bit and i think they are looking OK. I’ve also managed to ensure no unwanted mast bend - everything seems to be lined up quite nicely.
I’m not entirely happy with the thread between the deadeyes, but I think that’s more a reflection on the thread quality more than anything else. It feels as though the thread has a larger diameter than it ought to have, and consequently it doesn’t look as clean as it might. I wasn’t sure how to tie off those threads either, nor indeed what to do with the shroud ends, so I’ve gone with something that looks OK and is practical at 1/100. There are two seizings on the shrouds, and the line between the dead eyes is just wrapped around the shrouds a couple of times and tied off. I’ll glue them before cutting off the excess.

I’m pleased that I was able to get a constant distance between the deadeyes. For the initial pair I measured everything as far as possible in advance and attached the deadeyes to the shrouds before anything was attached to the model. But latterly I would attach the first deadeye to the ship, and do the second one whilst it was attached. I found that it was quite easy to adjust the shroud length with just the throat seizing on the deadeye so could get a good compromise between the height of the deadeye and the tension in the shrouds.
 
I’ve also attached two of the three forestays. There’s not a great deal of standing rigging left to do, and thankfully I don’t think I’ll run out!
 
I’ve done a couple of test rat lines. I’m not sure whether it’s the colour combination, the thread diameter or the fuzziness, but I really don’t like them. I’d not really paid much attention until now, but the only two threads supplied with the kit are one dark brown and one natural. The thread diameter is not specified but I believe they are both 0.25mm, and the rat lines do not look right. I think the rat lines should be rather thinner threads, so have tried a 0.15mm thread from another kit as a test.

 
The uppermost ratline is the 0.15mm thread, whereas the two below are the kit supplied thread. I’m not sure if it’s easy to make out in the image, but I think the thinner thread is a much better choice - it also appears to be better quality with far less fuzz! Still not sure on colour through - I can’t help feeling they ought to be darker! The decision might be made easier by the scarcity of thread in the UK at the moment - most seems to be out of stock!
 
Still, plenty to be getting on with in the meantime!

A bit more slow progress on the Flyer. I feel like I’m doing everything twice because there is so little guidance in the instructions. Even trivial things like the length of thread to cut for the line between deadeyes - I initially cut enough to get them attached but did not leave enough to tidy up the ends nicely! I’ve no clue how generous they are with the thread length supplied so trying to be fairly economical!
Anyway, I’ve started with the main mast, and put the pair of main stays on first. I’ve not glued the mast in so am relying on tensioning stays/shrouds for placement. I’ve also put the shrouds on, and the aft pair on each side are really pretty tight to ensure the mast rake is aligned with that in the plans.
So far so good I think, and starting to look a bit like a ship! Although I’m still not happy with the fuzziness of the lines in spite of running them through wax. I think I’ll need to coat them with a glue/water mix to improve the appearance.

Hoping to get the foremast stays & shrouds in place this weekend.

I’ve made just a little more progress with my Flyer build. I’m a bit frustrated by the lack of guidance in some areas. There is nothing for the anchor. The instructions & plans just have anchor warp running through the hole in the bulwarks and being tied off on the bowsprit bitt. There is no capstan or windlass arrangement on this model. I’ve see an excellent post on here describing how it would work on similar vessels, but I’m not sure I’ve got the space or layout to pull it off effectively, so I will likely opt for a couple of Sampson posts and will wrap whatever thread I have left around them.
Likewise the tiller arrangement. I understand there would normally be a couple of single blocks on each side of the tiller, but there is not enough space for this to work; the gap between the two blocks is so narrow that it looks odd. Therefore I went with the plans provided and just looped thread around the tiller and tied it off on each side.

 
 
I’ve added the bowsprit shrouds which I’m quite happy with. Having not done this before I was worried that I might not get them sufficiently tight but this has not been a problem so far. The only thing I don’t like is the white wax residue on the dark thread. It’s super fuzzy if not waxed, so would welcome any recommendations on how to avoid both wax and fuzz!
 
 
 
 
 
I’ve also added a few more eyelets in preparation for rigging. Oh, and put a rope to restrain the recoil on the cannon because safety first!
Next steps I think are masts which are only dry fitted so far, and then tackling the standing rigging.
Do people normally glue masts in place in perfect alignment before any rigging, or can adjustments be made via tension on the standing rigging?