Danstream

Doug, I love your model, it is really neat and sharp beside looking very realistic. Congrats, Dan

Hi, I finished covering the inner surfaces of the bulwarks with limewood strips. I am going to paint the interior of the bulwarks, hence I used limewood instead of the suggested walnut strips because the former is more pliable and easier to work with. I also opened the cutouts for the cannons and the oars while installing the strips. The shape of the cutouts came out ok, but not as sharp as I whished. Hence, I am thinking of framing their inner edge with thin walnut. Mating the upper part of the transom panel with its supports was not quite well defined and to improve it I added two small wedges to the outer supports. Now I am waiting for the material which I ordered to plank the deck because I didn't like the wood provided with the kit. Best regards, Dan

Good job so far. As very last sanding, you could try a wet very fine sanding using very fine grit (1000 or 2000) soaked with water. Without putting lot of pressure, let the paper do the work. As last step, before painting, I usually rub the model with a cotton (or paper) cloth soaked with alcohol (usually IPA) to remove the last dust and grease. Good luck, Dan

A challenging model, but without doubts a very interesting subject. About the NMF, please note that Russian planes of the time were overpainted with a transparent protective paint that muted a bit the appearance of bare metal. Good luck, Dan

Impressive model. The stance and the overall look resemble in every way a B-17. Congrats, Dan

If they are their acrylic type, Tamiya paints can be removed by alcohol (IPA). I have done it several times in the past. Alcohol does not affect polystyrene plastic. Otherwise, I also used Mr Color Leveling Thinner. Please make a test on a small part first. Good luck, Dan

That looks like a very neat planking! Regards, Dan

Impressive details and workmanship, Andrew! I missed in the past this fine build of yours and went through it only recently. I found it brilliant and I am saving it for my future reference. Best regards, Dan

Great details and workmanship on the gun ports and overall. I was impressed by the details of your deck. May I ask which type of wood you used for the planking of the deck? Indeed, this is a trick that I used a lot for my plastic models. I will surely carry it over also for my ship build. Best regards, Dan

Hi, finally, I completed the second planking of the hull. This is the first time that I managed to arrive so far. It was a long process for me, but I arrived at the end with a reasonable result. It is not free from defects, as I will show below, but it is ok for me. Fortunately, the major defects are located on the bottom half of the hull where they can be hidden by the white paint. I am satisfied with the pattern of the strakes that I obtained, but on the bow, on both sides, at the points where I introduced the rabbets, I got a discontinuity of the smoothness of the hull surface which I had to correct with a bit of filler. As said, these will be hidden by the paint. Definitively, next time, I will carve a rabbet on the entire length of the bow. The strakes of the area of dead wood had to include three drop planks to cope with the spreading of the planks. The sides of the hull turned out quite alright: Next, I will cover with wood strips the inner sides of the bulwarks. That is all for now, thanks for following and best regards, Dan

Good luck with this new build. About single or double planking, if you haven't already seen it, have a look at some considerations given here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/21306-double-planking-a-hull-pros-and-cons/ Best regards, Dan

She looks terrific to me, Andrew. Sails are definitively very realistic. Cheers, Dan

This is also what I found to be a great advice. Following your work, best regards, Dan

Hi, few more steps on the second planking. For the remaining part of the bow, a carved a small rabbet to help in defining the shape of the garboards. In retrospective, I realize that I should have carved a rabbet along the whole bow. I will keep it in mind for the next build. Following a recent comment above by @flyenrw,I am posting below a picture showing one of the strips which I edge bent (aka lateral bending) and ready to be glued. Before completing the last strakes, I decided to make the garboard first, being this one of the most critical part for me. This is the first garboard glued on: And finally, both garboards are on: Next, the last strakes will follow to complete the hull. Best regards, Dan

Thank you Roger for your comments. Yes, I visited with much interest your build log, being myself a newbie to the wooden ship modeling I appreciated your approach to the build. I figure it out looking at the point where the strakes start to refuse to follow the curvature of the hull. For each strakes, the point might be different. However, it is not an exact science and I proceed with incremental bending, i.e. I don't expect to get the final shape at the first try, but come back to bending where I find it necessary. Anyway, the flexibility of the wood stripe gives you a bit of scope for final adjustment. The fact that also the second planking is 1 mm thick (and not thinner) helps lateral bending the strips. Please keep in mind that I am not an expert modeler and I am learning during the build, but the steps that I follow are: - trim and taper the strip (I leave it longer at its two extremities for handling); - successive edge bending sessions until it fits reasonably; - trim the strip at the bow with its final length and give it its final shape; - bend it out of its plane with a normal hot iron bender as necessary to adapt it to the hull; - commit to gluing. Please, might more expert modelers give their opinion if something should be corrected in the above. That's correct, this is what I can also see from your pictures and that is the most important point for a first planking. I am slowly proceeding to the end, I will post more intermediate pictures of the remaining work. Best of luck, Dan

Dear OC, actually my build log is already started, but it is on hold since long (but not yet included in the list below my signature). I am working on my house and in the little spare time on my ship model which is producing a lot of wood dust making it not compatible with the activities on a plastic model. My best regards, Dan My Mosquito log

OC, having been away lately from this corner of the blog, I have seen the conclusion of this build only now. Hence, I am posting my comments late. Anyway, I love your models and the family story behind. It is clear that you have put lot of care and thoughts in them and indeed I enjoyed a lot your presentation and pictures. Congrats, Dan PS - This reminds me that I have a Mosquito on hold waiting for being attended to.

Thanks for your generous comments, Andrew. Thanks also to those that hit the 'like' button. BTW, I hope to be able to post the end of the second planking soon because this phase of the build occupies all my hobby time. Cheers, Dan

It looks like a very lovely model to me. You were also very quick in building it. Congrats, Dan

Hi, I resumed working on this model and I would like to present some progress made last weeks. I continued with the second planking (walnut 4x1 mm strips): This is the extent of hull covering achieved so far (still a 25% to go): By tapering and edge bending, I managed to get a reasonable pattern of the strakes on the bow without introducing any stealer: A side view of the strake pattern: On the stern, due to the sharp curves, the situation was a bit more complicated: The planks there need to spread out to cover the dead wood area and a couple of stealers are needed: This is the state of affairs to date, I hope the end of the planking is not far (I manage to finish in average only one strake per day). Best regards, Dan

Great model beautifully made. The clean finish is so nice, in some picture it looks like a real one. Congrats, Dan

Mike, you produced a truly lovely model. The subject is great and it is a pleasure to look at, with a lot of features and details to discover. The paint scheme is awesome and you did it masterfully. Congratulations, I love this model. Cheers, Dan

Hi, at my glacial pace, I started with the second planking layer. I am showing an intermediate step with a first band of five strakes. During the application of the strakes, I also made the cut outs for the ports of the guns and of the oars. The bow looks ok so far, but these were the easy strakes. I had to start edge bending with the lowest one: I also tapered the last one to get around the sharp curve of the stern with a narrower strake: The sternpost is not glued yet but it is just posed for the picture. I decided to follow the plans and installing the wales only when the second planking is completed. That is all for now, best regards, Dan

Great result Olli, congratulations! I am amazed by how fast you have been in building your model. In just a couple of month you went from start to finish. Well done, Dan

Seen your final pictures only now. What a great and detailed model. Congrats, Dan