ScottRC

Buddy refusing to be left out of the picture! Will put a few more up of completed ship later
 
Jesse
 

Step 2, The Frame...
 

13 parts, fairly well detailed. one of the things I've noticed about these early AMT kits is the level of accurate detail. It is right up there with many of today's models in the accuracy department. There are other issues with this late '60's injection molding tech, but they didn't short the details.
 
First step checking for rail straightness....

As we can easily see the left hand rail is not straight, (they are upside down in the pic) but I can work with it. (this was after several hours of hot water bath and gentle persuasion to bring it back straighter than it was out of the box)
 

The cross members are in two halves believe it or not, this makes it easier to assemble. I've painted them black on the interior sides cause you will never get spray into all the nooks once it is assembled.... Note you can still see the curve to the left side rail laying flat on the table....
 

Now the instructions say to mount all the cross members to the left side frame first and then cap it with the right side, But doing that with a bent frame rail with result in a bent frame. We of course need this frame to be as straight as possible.... So what I'm doing here is taking the strongest cross members and mounting them first..... (you can still see the curve to the frame)

Glued together and left to fully cure. the tail is square and the long sides of the crossmembers give a large contact area to pull the two sides straight..... 
I mounted the four remaining cross members one at a time, using the rule to set a straight edge while the glue set. this allows the curved left rail to be drawn into alignment with the right side and hold there... the end result? straight as an arrow with no warps.....

At this point, I check scale, and it's right on the nose! at 1/25th scale it should be just under 12" long
Next step is adding the suspension parts Standard leaf spring straight axle front end and Hendrickson Walking Beam rear end. Now I'm not mounting the rear suspension cause I will be changing it to the required Torsion Bar suspension... I'm using it to support the frame while assembling the front end.....

Front suspension completed except for painting, I took the pic here so you can see the detail. once it is painted black it will disappear....

Aftermarket Torsion bar suspension, comes out of Australia.... on the right there is a second Battery box step from Round 2 models for the curbside of the truck.

Laid out you get a general idea of what the torsion bar suspension actually is, they ride outside the frame rails and connect to the axles by way of linkages that twist the bar when one side or other need to travel up or down... a very smooth riding system I'm told but many truckers especially heavy haulers say it doesn't have the load carrying capacity of the walking beams. Hence they don't like it....
 
But this also reveals my first hitch/hickup on this build, the linkages to attach the axles to the bars are not in the package everything else if there but the four parts needed to make it work. The gentleman from australia tells me that he will make them up and get them out to me. but it may be a while. The guys who do the aftermarket in the truck modeling world manufacture to order. Which means that when you order you go on the production list behind those that ordered before you... The suspension kit took a full month to get to me... and now I have to wait another month for the linkages.... so to save the gent the shipping, I ordered a few more parts I would eventually need. another month later, they arrive in good shape. I'm sure you guessed it, no linkages... Turns out he got his orders mixed up and sent the replacement linkages to another modeler. I'm now waiting on the linkages... but I figured that I would go ahead and assemble the Walking Beam suspension so I can at least continue the build.....
 
Thank you for looking in and following along....
 
Next up Wheels and Tires.......

More progress on copper plating! Mostly starting with the main open area and will fill in the custom cut pieces all at once. 

More progress on plating tonight! 
 
I have found that shaping each plate before flying it down allows the plates to sit much flatter and look way nicer. 



Overall happy with the progress! 

More progress this afternoon around the bow and along the keel. 
 

@Keith S thanks for the compliments! The smaller scale is definitely a learning experience for me as well. 
 
Airbrushed around the gun-ports and inner bulwarks white. Difficult to see with the white primer but it looks fairly good. 

Next up is to mask the insides of the gunwales and along the gun ports to pain the rest of the hull black. 

Added the waterways last night and primed them. Getting ready to paint the hull! 

Added what I hope will be the last bit of filler on the ship. There was a very small wave in the hull that you could see with certain lighting that I wanted to fix. 

Going to sand and prime again tonight and hopefully move on to installing the railing etc to paint the hull. 
 

Spent the weekend sanding and priming the hull a number of times to get it looking correct. A bit more work but it’s looking good! 

All the channels are in place as well as those gun port lids which are between the chains. To improve the stability of the chains I tried to close the middle link with some tin-solder. It doesn't look perfect but seems more stable.
While constantly turning the hull for and back I came across our hero's sculpture every time and was more and more irritated by his brown breast armour. As higher Greek ratings anyway were entitled to a metal protection I replaced his leather by metal and even offered a heroic gold plating - means I painted his breast golden. It looks now more in line with the other colours, simpler and better.
 

mizzen channel
 
 

fore channel
 
 

our hero looks good in his new, shining armour
 
 
scuppers
 
Perhaps it's just another one of my obsessions but I try to install scuppers on all my models. They should show that ship's hulls are just fragile and leaking eggshells  and the water which comes in has to go out again.
Learning where to install scuppers was difficult. Finally I found a note in 'Bellona' from the AOTS series saying that there are 6 per side on the gun deck and 7 per side on the upper deck. However no plans where to install them were included. I think that those on the gun deck could be installed similar to those on frigates where I found some information and for the upper deck I will try to find logical positions. It seems that scuppers:
- are about evenly spaced in the central part of the deck
- are not below a gun port and therefore covered by a gun
- may be in the form of a slightly bigger pump dale near the mainmast
Scuppers on the upper deck should additionally not be above a gun port or a scupper of the gun deck.
The locations were chosen accordingly and the one near the mainmast on the gun deck is a pump dale and therefore slightly bigger.
I used again ferrules from the electric compartment with a diameter of 1,5mm respective 2mm for the pump dales . As they are all placed within the black wales I painted them black as well.
 

all scuppers except the foremost on each deck
 

main channel with scuppers
the second scupper from the left on the (lower) gun deck is a slightly larger pump dale
 
 
 
 
stand
 
Originally I planed to step Bellerophon onto 3 pilars mounted on an oak base, similar to Pegasus, Pickle and America.
I like those stands because the model almost seems to float on them. But while handling that rather heavy hull and thinking of the rather sof MDF which should hold the 3 screws which in turn would take all the strain I started to have doubts. Some destruction tests with  leftover MDF slid into the pilars' slot did nothing to dispel those doubts.
Reluctanly I accepted the kit's craddle as final support for the model. Painted with palisander stain it achieved a colour slightly darker than the aged copper but lighter and more elegant than the dull black shown on the kit's box.
 
 
Most of the still missing, fragile details on the hull will have to wait until the rigging is completed. I think the fuselage could be delared completed and it's time to start on the wings. Also this is the time for a celebration beer - I'll check if there's still  some Corona brew in the cellar.
 

ready to launch...

Hard work...

I finished planking the two hatch covers today and like the way they turned out.

And so we start on the fore top yard......

Lower yards all hung, starting to do the lifts.
 

So here's the main top yard installed

 
And a close-up of the twin chain halyards that hold it up.

Now for decking and timber heads. Something was not right with the Yellow Ochre. Looked to orange. Had to mix my own with Acrylics. 

I used copper tape to cover the lower hull. Detailed the copper with a tracing wheel prior to application. 

Top rail, Cat heads, Wales with lots of plastic wood and filling primer. Oh! Also lots of sanding and sanding with more sanding. 

I checked the transom and rudder for fit. Also noted the Charles W. Morgan did not have these windows. Had to modify this piece. 

Thought I would post some history. Stated  with carving out the keel and mounting the first metal parts for detail. Plans certainly show the age of this kit. 

Just starting the bulwarks and planning to finish deck and lower masts prior to exterior hull trim with davits. Seems like that right approach. Please fell free to chime in with advise, the general instructions are very vague. That’s the reason I’m on here. Hoping you all can keep me on the right path. Thanks

Thank you everyone. I plan to post more updates when I start building the shadow box.
Scott

Thank you everyone. I plan to post more updates when I start building the shadow box.
Scott

Well, maybe I'm not finished.  I am experimenting with water techniques (styrofoam, gels, and cotton)  and decided to start building a shadow box display for my father's burial flag and Navy certifications and commendations.
 
Here are some recent pics of my progress.
 


Scott