DocBlake

Congratulations on your gold medal and your “Best Novice Builder” award at the Manitowoc contest. Well done, Patrick!

Thanks so much, guys! Shipshaper: We’ll miss you in Manitowoc! Yes, I will be bringing the Battle Station to the show and contest.

Every time any one mentions Vanda-Lay Industries I have to smile! George Constanza used the alias "Art Vandalay" when he wanted to be anonymous, and "Vandalay Industries" when he needed a fictious employer. "Seinfeld" was hilarious!😄

Thanks, guys! In thinking about things, I realized that the hatch with the ladder to the gun deck would need a railing of some sort to keep the sailors from falling below deck and breaking their necks. I also realized that in bad weather or heavy seas, this hatch, like the others on deck, would need to be "battened down". The easiest solution was a rope line strung through removable stanchions, probably made of cast iron. I added the rope line to the coaming. I'm not sure if it's historically accurate, but it makes sense to me!

Thanks, guys! I'm getting close to done. I installed the upper deck, pinned and glued the cannon and rigged it. Then I added the various gun accessories. The only task left is to place stanchions with a guard rope around the ladder passageway.

Awesome videos! Thanks, guys!

This Model Airways Sopwith Camel kit arrived today! I picked it up on sale from Model Expo and plan to build it in the background as I work on my other projects My interest in aviation goes back to my childhood. When my friends were building model cars, I was always more interested in aircraft and ships. That interest stayed with me as I grew older. In the 1990's I was introduced to MicroSoft's Flight Simulator and I was hooked. I spent hours flying simulated aircraft on my computer, and finally started designing airplanes for the platform - both the visual model as well as the flight characteristics. I specialized in WWII propeller driven aircraft, single and multi engine and designed more than 20 individual planes, some in multiple liveries. The coolest thing that happened to me was an email I received from an Army Air Corps pilot in WWII who flew B-29 bombers in the Pacific. He told me that my B-29 simulation, modeled after the "Enola Gay" flew exactly like the real thing! That made my month! In my late 40's I decided I would learn to fly, and I ended up passing my check ride 4 days before my 50th birthday! I had my Private Pilot's License! I don't fly anymore, for a variety of reasons, but I still love aviation. I have about 600 hours in my log book in Cessna 172's, and I even have 1/2 hr. logged as Pilot in Command of an Army Air Corps T-6 Texan. I did some aerobatic flying with an instructer: loops, barrel rolls etc. Great fun! So I'll start this build and keep it running in the background. It should be interesting! Thanks for looking in.

Thanks, everyone, and for the "likes". I decided to rig the guns, run out and ready to fire. Here is how the gun deck appears.

Thanks Michael. I'm leaning toward including the rigging. I spent the afternoon yesterday finishing up the detailing of the ancillary equipment for each battle station. I added rope handles to the lid of the tall storage casks and fitted metal handles to the match tubs. These were glued into #77 holes using black annealed 28 gauge wire as the handles. I then put some WeldBond glue into the recesses on the top of each match tub, packed them with sand and let them dry over night. The results are in the photo. The match tub was a safe place to rest a burning slow match when not in use. A water bucket was the typical place to extinguish it. Each battle station will have it's own worm, sponge and powder ladle also.

Guys: I'm thinking of leaving off the gun carriage tackle and going with just the breeching line for a cleaner look. Also, I don't want to go through the hassle of making the rope coils that lay on the deck. What do you think?

Don actually made the barrels, but only 3 for each of us. I felt I needed some additional stuff to add a little interest to the gun deck. I decided to turn a few smaller barrels, some storage casks and three match tubs. The match tubs have a little recess on top for some white glue and then sand! The parts are all turned on the lathe. The barrel bands are made by using a skew chisel to cut grooves in the parts for the bands before cutting the part from the stock. Black rigging line is glued into the grooves to complete the bands.

Because of the port lids, I had to mount the guns in their full run out position, ready for firing. That meant that the tackle had the blocks right next to each other when I rigged them If I'd have rigged them any further inboard, you wouldn't be able to see them from the outboard side of the model, The picture shows the tackle in place, but the line is just loosely coiled and not glued down.

Thanks for the link!

Thanks, guys and for all the "likes".

I glued and pinned the two cannons on the gun deck in place. I glued the rings and eyebolts for the breeching lines to the bulwark.