DanielD
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Well mates, it’s been a few days since my last update, so I thought I would give a little hint on what I’ve been up to. I’m not happy with the way OcCre designed the canopy for the fly bridge, basically gluing small pieces of wood stock to the clear plastic which makes sanding and blending very hard not to mention painting. So I’ve designed my own to be made of 1mm plywood, which will look like the sketch below. These pieces are small and I broke my first attempt, but a little redesign and I think this one will work.
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Good evening, today’s update is all about the cranes located at the bow. The hardest part for me was building the tackle, these pulley's are very small, just 3mm at the widest part.
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Good evening mates, I hope you all have had a great weekend. I’ve been a little under the weather so more time in the shipyard. This weekend I’ve been working on another storage bin with seats and a couple of cranes (see next post). For this one I had to modify the OcCre supplied parts and create one like the one on the real Amerigo Vespucci (see last image). I find that it takes hours to work on these miniature pieces, some of them about the size of an American dime.
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Good afternoon mates, the last couple of days I attempted to make one storage bin with seat. I had to modify the OcCre plans to make more realistic, but I am fairly happy with the outcome.
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Good evening mates, it’s been a couple weeks and very little AV progress. The admiral and I took our first ever cruise so have been out of touch. In this update, I have secured the equipment to the fore deck and am about to start working on the hatches and finish up the chart room / fly bridge building.
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Good evening mates, I have spent a few days working on the forward capstan, lots of layers of paint and time between coats. Below is the before raw metal version provided by OcCre, followed by my completed version, and the last image the real one installed on the foredeck of the Amerigo Vespucci. The real version appears more straight, but I’m not sure I want to make one from scratch. Keep in mind that this entire piece of equipment is smaller than an American dime.
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Good afternoon, more deck equipment for today. I took on the task of making the brass deck “scuttles” (waterproof hatches, sometimes used to load coal). These were made from flat brass stock, cut into an approximate circle, then soldered a brass rod to the bottom center so that I could turn in my mini lathe.
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Good morning mates, more work going on for the deck equipment. I’ve been painting up the deck vents (not sure what they are called) but they add some nice color to the ship. Interesting note, I showed the completed vents to the admiral and her first comment was “why does the one vent not have a black base like all the others?” Ummmm, well, I really don’t know. However, when you look at pictures of the actual AM deck, this one vent has a white base while all the others have a black base. Not sure why, but that’s the way it is. Thanks to the Amerigo Vespucci virtual tour for the real deck image.
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Good evening mates, a little work on the deck today with some detail taken from the real Amerigo Vespucci.
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Also had time today to build and install the stern marker lights. Installed 3 white and one amber per the real AV.
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Good afternoon mates, I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Todays update is all about the rudder. I have added a couple details from the real AV along with some rivets to match the hull, and finished with a matching pint job.
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And mates, another look at the new assembly, gradually coming together.
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Last added building for today is the chart room with its interior furnishings and lighting.
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Then we have another deck building with as much detail as my skill level allows.
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Next up is the main bridge, complete with interior equipment and lighting.
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Here is a series of posts for todays visual progress! Starting with the ships propeller. OcCree calls for the propeller to be painted black; however, the dry dock images I’ve seen of the Amerigo Vespucci indicate a brass or similar colored propeller and thus the choice for my version topped off with a video of the propeller spinning under its own power. And then…I discover that I have the propeller running in reverse! There is no way to change it now as the entire ship runs on a common ground and to make the change required I would need access to the motor. Lesson learned, next time I’ll add a switch so that I can run motor forward or backwards. I guess I could possible find another propeller that is structured opposite to what I have now…hmmmm…. IMG_4479.mov
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Today I did not have a lot of time in the shipyard, so I took on the easy task of installing, I hope for the last time, the port and starboard marker lighting. My quest to find images of the marker lights on the real Amerigo Vespucci was a long one. I finally found an image of where i thought the markers would be, then performed some fancy image manipulation to get the marker mount to finally show up (final image below). Keep in mind that the image you see here is only a very small thumbnail of the original picture.
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Good evening mates, the final hull paint update. All major colors have been applied and I’m very happy with the clean lines separating each paint color. A few touch ups, but nothing major.
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Thanks for your comment. I’ve not used clear top coat to this point, and I can see some problems with it if I have to retouch something it will not match. I’ve put a lot of hard work into the detail and I don’t want to hide it, but at the same time, acrylic paint doesn’t like to stick well to brass, even after roughing the surface and proper primer. So I thought maybe, just maybe an acrylic finish would help. But I’m no paint expert.
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Good morning mates, here is the latest update on the hull painting…only one more color to add. Question for you experienced modelers. Once I finish the hull painting, should I clear coat it with something to better protect the paint? If so, what kind of product have you used?
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Good evening mates, this weekend was all about paint! Still have two colors to add, but need a day or two between layers to allow paint to cure. I have a couple spots to touch up, but overall very happy about the white stripes!
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Good evening all, started the hull “ladders” (not sure what they are called). These are small round iron rungs installed on the hull as foot and hand holds to traverse from the deck over the side of the hull to a likely important area. In my first attempt, this ladder runs from the deck to the anchor hawse. These will be painted to match the area they are installed.
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Good evening mates, this week I have been working on installing the captains/stern deck with its supports. Just applied the primer with one more enhancement before final paint.
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Good evening mates and for all you U.S. modelers, I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. This weekends update involves completing the stern deck (for now) with its brass inlay and micro (0.4mm) grid.
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Quick progress update…the micro grid is very delicate!
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