Albuk

Elmir, Nenad, Carl,

Thank you for your kind words!

Alex

Just a small update...

Hinges

Blackened hinges and nails. Had a lot of problems with black finish flaking. Problem solved by leaving parts in 10% hydrochloric acid overnight and then using the blackening liquid.

Bob, Nenad, Mark, Anja,

Thank you for your kind comments, and yes, as Nenad said kids are indeed the meaning of life.

Best regards,

Alex

Thank you Elmir. Yes, nothing compares to having a child, and if we manage to raise them to be a decent human being, the joy is overwhelming. Fortunately, she is fine, still in a incubator but growing rapidly. Hoping to have her home in a month...

Cheers,

Alex

I has been a while... In the meantime I got a daughter which is also a miniature, being born 2 months early with 1.55kg.

Having a little bit of free time I made a companionway for my Bracera. I used pear wood strips that I bought for the deck, thinning them and cutting to size with a circular saw. I wonder how I kept all my fingers in place. Now I need to do some metal work for the hinges.

I glued the second planking on the inside of the bulwark and decided to stray from the plans once again and make a companionway on the bow. Since I plan to make it semi open, I stained that part of the inner hull. I used CA to glue the planking to make it faster but the glue went through the veneer strips in some places. Hopefully, varnishing will even the color.

I cut openings on the thin plywood board for deck planking and wrestled it to position with nails because the deck is slightly curved upwards on the bow and stern and downwards on the sides.

Γεια σας Tanasis,

Thank you for your kind words. Nice ideas... will try!

Cheers,

Alex

Hello Anja,

I am testing various options for the glass. Right now, I am testing with PVA that dries transparent mixed with ink or tempera paint. One should give me a glossy semi transparent result and the other, flat glossy. Since I have already soldered the lanterns (I really wanted to put a colored glass bead inside but shops were not working these past few days), what I need is to fill them with a cheap, easy to make, glass looking material. They are really tiny and already an overkill...

Alex

More metal work... two lanterns. Unfortunately, I don't have a lathe so I had to make them the hard way with a brass sheet, solder and a lot of filing. Now, I need to figure out how to simulate red and green glass...

Thank you Anja and "likers"

Brass looked nicer to me but this black iron look has its appeal too...

Cheers

Alex

I soldered brass nails to the hinges, filed them on the inside and then proceeded to blacken all the brass parts that I have made. My failure to properly clean them can be seen on the uppermost brass plate. I should have used a toothbrush and toothpaste to clean flux residues, rinse and then soak them in acetone before using the patina liquid.

I got a little bit of spare time and decided to make a bucket with leftovers from planking.

I also made a cradle for the model and cut a thin plywood board for deck planking.

Hello Alex!

 

Very nice build, very clean work. Where did you cut the bulkheads?

Thank you Dida! I bought the kit based on Tehnodidakta's plans, here in Belgrade, with the bulkheads already laser cut. Anyway, there is a lot of places which do laser cutting here. You bring them a vector based file (Coreldraw for example), and they do it in a matter of minutes.

See you on your forum...

Cheers,

Alex

Anja, Nenad,

Thank you for your kind words. It's good to be back...

And, five months later... rudder hinges are finished. I decided to use the brass sheet that I bought previously with a brass pipe and wire. I used a torch and silver solder to connect the pieces.

Continuing with metal work, I decided to make a grapnel anchor because the anchor that came with the kit is way too big for the scale and I don't beleive to have been used on this type of vessel.

I made the grapnel a little bigger than the drawing in the plans. Luckily it looks OK on the model.

Congratulations Elmir! You must be proud of your great build.

Cheers,

Alex

Thank you Nenad and Ollie. There will be some progress soon...

Yes, painting metal can be quite painful. To make it really stick you need to use primers and that, with a coat or two of paint, hides details. I like the way patina works on brass though.

It would be nice to go to the competition to see other people's work and maybe find out where do they buy building materials, for as you have written, it is hard to find them in Belgrade (at least for us newbies).

Cheers,

Alex

Nenad,

You may use a brass plate

http://www.rcsrbija.rs/materijali-za-gradnju/ploe

and patina (450din)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.339158562772791.79547.145897172098932&type=1&comment_id=4592749

Cheers,

Alex

Thank you Anja.

No, I haven't done anything on my Bracera build. I have bought a pet to my son, a parrot, so I was "evicted" from my work table for the time being. The funny part is that my wife was frowning at me for making a mess in the living room... you should see what a parrot does! Hopefully, the newcomer will get used to his new family soon so that I can reclaim my space and continue with the build that is taking too long already.

Cheers,

Alex

Finally, the second layer planking is over. I stained the planks with blue stain and although I like it, plywood didn't go as well. The layers are visible on stronger light. I'm still thinking whether to leave it as is, or paint.

Next, I will paint the hull below the water line with white matte color but before that, I have to do some metal work, for which I got my hands on a 0.3mm brass plate. The copper sheet that came with the kit is very, very thin... more suited for coppering.

Thanks Nenade, hopefully I will finish the second layer of planking in the next couple of days (3 more planks!). I am really busy at my day job so I come back to tired to do some building.

Alex

Wow! It looks beautifull! Can't wait for the rest of it!

Thank you Sinan. The Bracera is a nice vessel and you should have a lot of fun building it, especially that it lets you customize it as you wish (as did the builders and owners of the real ones). I will start posting new pictures as soon as I'm back from vacations.

Alex

Thanks Alex. Yes I have a little extra time. And I'm waiting news from your build log?

I'm on vacations...

Nice job Elmir. I see you have put your build into fift gear.

Cheers,

Alex