BANYAN

Mike, have a look at this one - does exactly what you asked I think? http://jbwid.com/scalcalc.htm cheers pat

Well, I have bit the bullet and stripped back the top masts and poles to be 'reengineered' this weekend. Hopefully get it right this time. cheers Pat

Danny, you could install / use a free-standing de-humidifier, but it is a more expensive solution. You can get mini-dehumidifiers for under $100 but a medium will be over $100 - if it works though might be worth it? You would have to try and seal the workshop a bit though I would think? cheers Pat

Danny you are a rigging master - very nice - a very high quality of finish to your rigging! cheers Pat

Greg, Danny has explained the process far more eloquently than me That is basically the process I (have stumbled on) am using; as I said horses for courses. cheers Pat

Great idea Keith - now that is thinking outside the square (oops sorry you want square don't you ) cheers Pat

Nice pick up Steve, I wish I had been as diligent Nice work on the shroud whippings - far better than mine. cheers Pat

HI Dave, many thanks for that but I have the dimensions now that I had to recalculate it all - but I do appreciate the offer. cheers Pat

Thanks for looking in Keith, Steve and Mike. Sorry Keith - my engineering man is tied up for a while (not with my work either). I still need some adjustments on this as we get to know it better but it is a "nice" tool. Appreciate this feedback re scale errors folks - nice pick up Steve. I made the topmasts and poles some time back in preparation for rigging so no matter what, I would have had to redo them anyway - practice makes perfect they say. I will have to take down the topmast shrouds, but they will be reusable as they will not be shorter I have to find some positives. You can bet your bottom dollar I will not be taking the published scales at face value anymore cheers Pat

Hi Mike - Very displeased but a valuable lesson learned. You are absolutely right on both counts mate; the printed scale is incorrect - and I did use these and scaled accordingly. I had a discussion with the author this afternoon - he was not aware of this himself and appreciated the feedback. It appears the publishers have rescaled his drawings (which were all 1/4":1') to fit the page but did not provide the correctly adjusted text for the scale. I thought they looked a little too tall. This also explains why the mast caps weren't quite right - I thought it was my joinery. At least I can reuse the topmasts to sand them down to the smaller sizes - using the AL kit 1:1 drawing at least the lower masts and the mizzen are correct (but I will check) . Surprising this has not been reported before. How did you pick up on by by the way? cheers Pat

Thanks Mike, I wasn't aware of this and I will be very displeased () if I have this wrong - I will double check tonight) cheers Pat

Hi Russ, John, Slog, Greg and Keith; many thanks for looking in and your interest in my build. Greg, I'll PM separately; thanks for the offer of the article. WRT masts, the way you suggest is the way most people do it. To be totally honest, I made all the bits and then experimented to establish the best way for aligning the deadeyes/doing the shrouds. I then forgot to remove them to do the upper work and I have progressed with building the masts on the model. This has actually been beneficial in some respects but it is probably horses for courses as to your approach. I am lucky in that I can adjust my work table up and down and I have a home built working rest for working on rigging that makes the task easier to do on the model. I'll post a picky of it next update. Keith the duplicator is a self design with some engineering work by a mutual acquaintance. You would need to talk with him cheers Pat

Another update, but to the workshop more so than Endeavour. A fellow club member has assisted with some of the engineering which has helped greatly. The duplicator (for my Sherline lathe) is an adaption of a design by David Antscherl in his TFFM series. I have yet to try this in fully-fledged anger, but the trials and testing is very pleasing. cheers Pat

Hi folks, as promised another small update - slowly getting there. I am now working on the topmasts with only the shrouds on the foretopmast to go at this level. I have also made a temporary cover to act as a dust cover when not working on her. cheers Pat

Hi again folks, I have applied some of the resin and waiting for it to fully set to see if this is better than a putty option, which from reports I have read sometimes falls out of resin. I will post a full report once it has set. In the meantime I have made a small start on getting rid of excess flash/moulding etc. While looking around the net for ideas etc I came across the following from Hobby Elements (no connections etc) - it works great on resin. I have it set up in my Dremel shaft for that extra bit of flexibility. It is a 3mm shaft so unfortunately does not fit in the dental tool (2.34mm) cheers Pat

Pete, the helmsman (men in rough weather) stood to the side of the wheel not behind it. Hope this clarifies? cheers Pat

Hi all, Thanks for looking in Patrick (great name!), Mark and Dave. Dave Vampire 1 was one of the ships in our old 'V' class and formed part of the 'scrap-iron' flotilla during WWII in the Med. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrap_Iron_Flotilla - Vampire II, along with Voyager and Vendetta, were named in their honour and followed the RN tradition of renaming ships with the same name if they had 'honourable' names and histories. The scrap iron flotilla proved a very big thorn in the side of German attempts to supply their troops and trying to isolate ours - got quite a name for themselves. The number of names that can be used that start with V are limited so perhaps that is one of the reasons for "Vampire"? Brian, here is an example of what I mean by the pin-holing (you need to open it the larger size); appreciate your interest in this little project. I don't know if this is normal (this degree of holes) for resin or not as it is my first one cheers Pat

While assessing the Resin kit version I had decided to change the turrets provided in the kit. A close inspection shows that some of turrets were subtly different. Only B turret had the aerial mounting platform, and other turrets have different numbers of access panels. Bogey (from bogeys bits) was able to create a set that represents the turrets exactly as fitted in Vampire, and with a little more detail than the resin kit version provides. I am still trying to find brass barrels for the 4.5" guns, but will resort the printed ones. If you have a close look at the printed turrets, bogey provides two mounting options, one with, one without the barrels in situ. the design also allows the barrels to be set at any angle you like. There is also more detail provided in the barbette mounting/slip ring under the turret. This was fortuitous, as these parts are now part of the 3D printed kit. These bits are designed by Bogey and printed via shapeways in Frosted Extreme (FXD) Detail which really is great for showing detail, even at this small scale. See: http://www.shapeways.com/product/RVMV7YE2B/hmas-vampire-d11-4-5-inch-mk6-set-1-350-scale?li=shop-results&optionId=57742057&rc=SearchResults The following is a copy of picture from Bogey's page on Shapeways which shows what it can look like when painted. Also shown is a copy of the Limbo Mk10 mortar that will be fitted. Also note that this is a standard turret and that Vampire had 3 panels in hers. These printed items are good value for money and will allow me to show much more detail. Anyone know of a brass barrel manufacturer (at 1:350) for these 4.5" guns (Master does not have them)? cheers Pat

Very nice work Rusty, some great detail appearing cheers Pat

Nice looking wood Mark. I'll have any leftovers cheers Pat

Hi John (Neptune) thanks for looking in also. I have done a dry fit of the bits and pieces without having sanded the flash etc off and all seems to align pretty well but there will be a gap where the two hull halves join. As to the pin/holes, a tip I have picked up is to fill them with 5 min brush on resin gel (the stuff fingernail artists use) as it adheres better than putties and works well. I have picked up a bottle and intend to try it this weekend. cheers Pat

Hi John (Jim Lad), thanks for looking in and the 'comments' - me bow - NEVER (well only until dinner time) cheers Pat

Hi rpeteru; I went to Duchess after leaving Vampire and paid her off - many a fine run in the Sth Pacific Thanks for looking in mate. cheers Pat

Hi Chris, yep in a tube in bubble wrap [Edit: I am no longer building the resin version Chris refers to and I discuss below] Not sure about the real quality of this kit yet. While there is a lot of hint of detail, not much is fine detail but at this scale that is to be expected I think? Also there are quite a few air bubble holes (larger than pinholes - probably 1 to 2mm wide, but also pinholes.) and the bubbling/descaling evident on the port bow at the waterline (see first photo). This is all repairable but perhaps should have been caught in QA? Perhaps I may have been expecting too much? I just had a quick look at your Torpedo Boat V108 - a very nice build and excellent finish. Is that a resin also. cheers Pat

She's coming along very nicely Sharpie (despite your best efforts to destroy her ) cheers Pat