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ERS Rich

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  1. ERS Rich
    That’s the ticket! Thanks
  2. ERS Rich
    Hi Nic, could you share a few thoughts on how to get the foot ropes to lay so easy? They look just right…. Thanks
  3. ERS Rich
    My interpretation of the illustration is a single line attached slightly above the pole midpoint, passed through a block, to raise the pole, then, not shown, a single line attached to the pole bottom for tension. Cheers!
  4. ERS Rich
    Welcome to Model Ship World!
  5. ERS Rich
    Close Ups Dry fitting, adjusting, painting the details, working towards the superstructure glue up. Debating about the big gun barrels, leave brass, or paint black, probably black…. I just love the character of this ship!
  6. ERS Rich
    Welcome! Always available to answer a question. -Rich
  7. ERS Rich
    Thanks for joining, appreciate your kind words, and will keep the updates coming. Cheers!
  8. ERS Rich
    Flying Bridge Supports Had to give this some thought as these supports need to fit exactly through square holes in the Navigation Bridge. Precise bends are required. The supports are 1/16” brass rod. Note my first attempt was not successful and needed more bar stock. Called Bluejacket and the crew helped and sent out additional stock right away for a reasonable charge. Decided to make a jig, shown below. The instructions call for 1/8” radius bends. So measured the inside spacing of the square holes in the Navigation Bridge, and drilled 1/8” holes in the board so the distance between the outside edges of the bits correspond to the measurement - 25/32”. Also installed a third bit, to minimize the upward bow, midway between the 1/8” bits. Make a mark on the piece to bisect it’s length, and register the mark on the middle bit, to help get even legs. I used the vise (available at Micromark) to make sure the bar as fully wrapped around the 1/8” bits. Dry fit…. Stacked up the superstructure to get an idea of the leg length. First pass, about a 1/16” gap between the pilot house roof and the flying bridge deck. Used wire cutters to take a nibble off the legs. Evened up the legs with the Ultimation disk sander and a file. Dry fit on the model….
  9. ERS Rich
    Thank you Rick, tried to gear the information to show that ship modeling is doable. Cheers!
  10. ERS Rich
    Progress Photos Almost in the home stretch. Navigation and Flying Bridge assembly are major bits left….
  11. ERS Rich
    Forward and Conning Tower Catwalks It turns out I was too aggressive when flattening the conning tower. So during the dry fit found, rather than the two catwalks being flush, the catwalk deck was about 3/32” higher than the conning tower catwalk. I was able to reduce, but not eliminate the step, by making the grooves to accept the catwalk girders, as shown in the previous post deep. Here is the setup to check the dry fit. The long board in the catwalk is to square up the rail. And the block under the conning tower catwalk establishes the height, where the deck is 1/16” below the conning tower portals. It took many iterations of deepening the grooves, fitting the catwalks, and trimming the conning tower catwalk railing to get it nice. Blocks removed. Slight gap where the railings meet. Will try to close it up, but hardly noticeable and don’t want to snap off the catwalk railing, since that glue joint is hard to work with. Decided to use this brass bar to apply pressure to close the gap, then hit the joint with liquid CA.
  12. ERS Rich
    Hi Jacques, Your boat looks nice. A couple of ideas to consider. It is all about the finish. Wood fibers, in particular pine, because of sap, absorb paint differently across the board grain. So unprimed wood can appear blotchy, again pine in particular. There are products to “pretreat” pine prior to finishing, meant to even out the finish. However, blotching or uneven finish absorption, may not be a bad thing, depending what you are going for. This is a wood kit, if the wood is say completely primed and painted so evidence of wood disappears, the finished product can look plastic. On the other hand, evidence of wood, meaning the grain is visible, tells the observer they are looking at wood. I like both of the pictures above, the first looks like a boat that’s been in service a while, the second looks like the boat is new. Thanks
  13. ERS Rich
    Checkout Tamiya masking tape…. Cheers
  14. ERS Rich
    Installing the Catwalks Inevitably both catwalk legs are not entirely level, fore and aft, and side to side, and the deck is slightly uneven as well, so need to level the assembly on the deck. This assembly is fragile to say the least. Decided to tackle the problem by making a groove in the deck and recessing the legs. Practiced with a couple of pieces of scrap deck. First made a dimple in the deck on the outboard side of each leg. Then set the dividers to the leg width and made a second dimple. Then drilled out the dimples with a 1/64” bit, drilled several other holes in between and cleaned out the waste. Nice fit!
  15. ERS Rich
    Thanks a lot Rick, appreciate the encouragement.
  16. ERS Rich
    Deck Lights Revisited. The deck light rings filled with clear glue did not turn out very well, so decided to do something else. A picture of Maine on page 53 of the instructions shows the light housings protrude above the deck. So I decided to simulate this by using a rhinestone on the brass base ring. The rhinestone are from Walmart, and have a flat top and bottom. Glued the rhinestone to the ring, gave it a wash to cutdown on the shine, then painted the top brass. The first attempt on the left, with the new on the right.
  17. ERS Rich
    Coal Scuttle Installation A “story stick” is commonly used in cabinet making. In this case we can use the plan to make marks on a stick to help with locating the scuttles on the deck. Here the stick, of the correct width between the superstructure and the scuttles, is shown on the plan, with a pencil mark at the aft end of the superstructure and marks at each scuttle. Then it’s a simple matter of positioning the stick on the deck and installing the scuttles with CA.
  18. ERS Rich
    Amidships Superstructure Buildup Spacer blocks are important construction aids. Building up the amidships superstructure is a good application. Here we need to find the height of the deck forward of the conning tower and between the amidships 01 level, the deck where the conning sits, and the 02 level, the Navigating bridge, where the pilot house sits. And to correctly position the Pilot House fore and aft. First Spacer Block From the plan the conning tower deck is 1/16” below the viewing ports, added this to the thickness of the deck, and subtracted this sub-total from the total height from the man deck to get a block height of 1 1/32”. Cut the block on the Byrnes table saw. This block will be used as a table for attaching the deck to the conning tower. Apply adhesive to the deck edge then slide it on the block to the tower, for a level fit. Second Block This block establishes the height between the 01 and 02 levels and will be used as a reference for cutting the 02 deck support stanchions. First dry fit a 1/16” bar on top of the conning tower. Through measuring, and trial and error cutting blocks, found a block height of 47/64” made my 02 deck level and the deck support stanchions will be cut to this length. Last Block Next is a block to help with fore/aft positioning the Pilot House on the 02 level. On the plan measured the distance from the aft edge of the pilot house, to the edge of the waterway on the aft end of the 02 deck, and found it to be 9/16”, and cut a block to that size. Here are several pictures of the ship, with the blocks in position. First Block Second and Third Blocks
  19. ERS Rich
    Coal Scuttles and Deck Lights Note: the Deck Lights were later rebuilt with a different method shown in another post below. The PE scuttles need the frames painted and the center discs left brass. So the center discs need masks. Tried to find adhesive 1/8” diameter labels. Thought about a liquid mask. Settled on cutting Tamiya tape with an x-acto. Did a few and realized a burnishing tool could be used along the rim of the disc to cut the tape. Then lift off the waste. Then prime, Rustoleum White this time. Taped the deck lights down on a piece of wax paper, then filled the rings with Testors Clear Parts Cement and Window Maker. Coal scuttles painted and ready for use. In the background, dry fitting the forward catwalk.
  20. ERS Rich
    Sub Assembly Finishing At this point all of the sub assemblies are built. Here the paint booth is shown, and prior to a color coat, assemblies have received a primer coat of Tamiya White Primer. At this point we are on page 48 of the instructions and beginning Final Assembly.
  21. ERS Rich
    Stacks Here most of the work is done and built on a wood block.. I made a mistake with the hand holds, should have been a smaller diameter wire - of course noticed at the end. An aluminum rod is used for support between the stack and its base. Here a Foredom press is used to drill a 1/16” hole through the wood base and its top brass plate. The corresponding hole in the stack as drilled by hand. Another view.
  22. ERS Rich
    Pilot House Sorry photos of this step are rather incomplete, since I was doing several things simultaneously. Started by clamping the house around the former, and let it sit for a few days. Here the house is in a clamp from Micromark. The house needs to fit exactly the width of its roof, the flying bridge - 3/4”. Also the aft end of the sides need to be trimmed and bent in such away that the joint is located in the middle. I trimmed 1/64” off each side of the former so the width of the former, plus the thickness of the sides totaled 3/4”. Therefore when clamped the pilot house sides were flush with the flying bridge. Now I could mark the location for the bends on the aft ends pilot house sides. Front view showing the roof fit. Not shown are the final steps of bending and trimming the sides. CA was used for the joint.
  23. ERS Rich
    Navigation Bridge Decking Woodworking is about measuring, marking, and cutting away the waste. Several of the brass decks need glued up decking cut to shape and fitted in a recess formed by a border along the outside edge. So far, this was trivial for the rectangular searchlight platforms. The navigation bridge, a polygon, is a different situation. Start by making a template. A piece of vellum is taped to the plate. A toothpick is run along the edge of the recess. Next cutout the template with a razor knife, this one is easy to get into the corners. Cutout the template and tape it to the stock and mark the template outline, a straight edge helps. Use a flat chisel to cut along the lines, right on the pencil line, to remove the waste.. Drill relief holes as necessary - see the previous post on making the splinter shields. It’s important to stay on the line or keep the line visible - so the whole piece is slightly over sized. The next part, fitting, is an example of the art of craftsmanship. Start by fitting the aft edge, then work in one direction, say counterclockwise and fit each edge with fine chisel cuts, the razor knife for the corners, and the file for the curved forward edge - I left that for last.
  24. ERS Rich
    Railings Began working with railings. Found, after several tools, this one from Small Shop worked best for me. Railing shown on top of forward search light platform. Dividers help with spacing, take a measurement off the platform, and use them to establish the length of the railing section on the tool. Forward mast platform railing. Set the railing back from the forward edge, and used right angles, trying to curve the railing around the platform a little to ambitious for me.
  25. ERS Rich
    Reels, Masts, Ships Wheel, Skylights and Searchlight Platforms A productive week building sub assemblies. Let’s see if all can be completed by the end of next week, then on to Final Assembly. Driving to finish by the end of May. Reels Used a block of wood to help with the assembly, built the reel first, then added the legs. Masts Filed the metal parts, tapered the top masts and spars. It was important to spare the top of the masts to get a nice fighting top fit. Bands fixed with liquid CA and good old capillary action. Ships Wheel Again a block helps with assembly. Skylights Byrnes saw with the tilt table was essential. Used the skylight frame PE to get the tilt table angle. Skylights ready for finishing. Forward Searchlight Base Mini vise with flat jaws used to get the bends. Evening up the legs. Forward base.

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