Dan Vadas

The stack, or funnel. Horrible bit of kit as the PE really needs to be done up with the deck to get the alignment correct which if flat out impossible with the wooden stick on deck. Good enough for government work and weathered using black pastels for soot. 
 
This is the last main structure with only the mast to go and then lots of planes, boats and guns. 

Thanks all for your replies.
 
@Dan - yes I was wondering about that. I am also thinking about building the Sirius longboat to hone my planking skills. It's a smaller model (and cheaper) model which shouldn't take long to do. I'll check out your build log as well. Thanks for sharing.

Here's a tip J - use a narrow chisel blade Xacto (you will have to grind one to width if you can) and CHOP the INSIDE of the frame out first. Then cut the outside using a steel rule for the straight edges. SHARP blades are vital, a Scalpel works far better than #11 Xacto blades. Use some scrap card for the new frames and paint them.
 
You can buy a Swann-Morton scalpel and blades on Ebay.
 
  Danny

Count me in too J (do you have a name to go with the initial? ), although like Slog I'm more into Steel Ships at the moment. I've about had my fill of the 18th Century for now, after making a dozen or so .
 
  Danny

The Pagoda has been lightly weathered with grime, rust and salt. The lugs that go into the deck were cut off and it sits almost perfectly snug without glue. I'll weather the funnel next, then once attached I can add the crane and it's rigging. You can see from the close up there is a lot of detail to add, and I still need to add 9 25mm's, and do up the remainder of the 13.7cm guns plus one barrel which has gone god knows where. 

Thanks for looking in Popeye, Carl, Scott, Slog, Chris and Alan.
 
The bulkheads would have been very wobbly and difficult to fair without them, not to mention that they'd have possibly moved as I attached the skins. They are VERY solid now, almost as stable as timber .
 
Forget about that - the printed planks are only 1mm wide, and there are about 150 in the width of the deck. They'd also have to be no more than about 0.1mm thick - even then not ALL of the deck is planked (e.g. on the edges where there is a narrow strip of "steel"), so there would be a step where they finish.
 
I can live with it, they probably won't be noticeable when everything else is fitted .
 
  Danny

Thanks John and Danny, and also to all of the "likes".
 
Not a lot of progress on the "mousetrap" this weekend as I spent most of the weekend making a Router Table and Holding Jig for my mill.
 
However, some progress is better than no progress....
 
The installation of the harnesses commences with making the two rear wing attachment posts. These are fairly straight forward, and once again I replaced the kit provided parts with scratch-made parts from cherry. The lower back belt is then made from strips of leather and a small ‘key ring’ (for want of a better term) as the buckle. The leather straps are glued to the base of the rear wing attachment posts and then wrapped with thread.
 

 
The shoulder harness is made in much the same way, although slightly more complex. It is fixed to the base of the neck ring, again wrapped in thread, and also the sides of the fuselage, where the straps are only glued in place.
 

 
 
 
Here is an overview of progress to date:
 

 
I have commenced work on the fuselage cross-bar, but will hold off on pictures until that section is complete. Suffice to say that my mill holding jig that I made this weekend worked a treat.

Railings at the front of the bus done, 2 days work and a cramp in my right trapezius. It doesn't seem much but threading the railing is a nightmare as the elastic catches on the paint in the tiny holes. 

Thanks Craig for the nice comment.  I always feel I could do better although on the whole I am pleased how they turned out but as usual the discrepancy has effects down the track which I will cover below.
 
Thanks for the comment Danny, let’s just say selective camera POV hides many of my mistakes   I know what you mean about being careful around finished work!  In the case of the railings I caught myself a couple of times resting my hand on the ship to support my other hand with the tweezers!
 
Hi Clare thanks for the comment, based on your work on other builds I am sure you will have no problems.
 
 
Before I can continue with installing the bridge deck I need to finish a couple of bits and pieces I skipped over.  One thing I missed was the stairs from the Con Deck to the bridge deck.  It is official, I am the slowest builder out there taking 2 ½ hrs to make one tiny set of stairs!  The handrails were as per the template but they squeeze together passing through the stairwell.
 
Also required were 4 more 0.5mm deck supports.  I painted the ends before gluing to the deck and will finish painting before flipping over to glue down.

 
 
The Con deck curved railing which I was crying about being tilted inwards a bit now affects the front two supports  and because of how well braced they are is preventing the whole bridge deck sliding fully forward into position.
 
The quickest and simplest option would be to bend them back but visually would look average.  So I sliced the card bracing and moved the post back and then used some scrap from the same card to fill in the gap. 
 
A bit messy but not really on view and the posts are more vertical.
 

 
 
Time to fit the bridge deck and trialling fitting caused massive confusion!  The Conning tower has white lines crossing the top which correspond to the bracing positions on the underside of the bridge deck so would mean these sit directly on top of the Con?  This to me makes sense since the Bridge is directly above and if not supported below means only the front 2 posts hold the whole front end up!?! But as can be seen there is at least a 1mm space between the Con and the bridge deck bracing.

 
 
So the deck needs to be level and the rear cabin, mast section and duct work are fixed heights and even if I cut them out leaving the lines on this would account for only a fraction of a millimetre too high.  A double check of all the 0.5mm brass rod supports (c5 on the templates) matches the structures and the template so everything is the same height!
 
The only other option I can think of is that the gap is correct…regardless I glued the bridge deck down; a level deck is more important than an unnoticeable (unless pointed out) gap on the underside
 

 

 
Hmmmm never noticed the front support of the Con is askew before.
 

 
Also after the photos were taken I noticed that the rear port ‘wing’ was being pushed up a little so removed the c5 brass post and filed it down so the corner sat down better.
 
Also from the photos it would seem that it doesn’t matter how often you check and touch up the railings there are always missed bits of brass showing!
 
I really thought I would get all 3 decks and associated railings installed on this extended swing but totally underestimated how long each railing would take and the finessing to fit the deck.
 
Really like how the front structures are shaping up and looking forward to continuing upwards on my next swing back.
 
Cheers
Slog

The three sections of Deck are on and I've finished adding all the extra card to the bulkheads etc, and also added some between the upper, middle and lower "decks" to remove any slight bows between the wider spaced bulkheads as well as stiffening everything up. Now to spend a day or so Fairing everything. I'm not all that happy about the printing on the deck timber, the joins stand out a lot more because the colours of the planks don't match at the joins :
 





 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in Popeye, Carl, Scott, Slog, Chris and Alan.
 
The bulkheads would have been very wobbly and difficult to fair without them, not to mention that they'd have possibly moved as I attached the skins. They are VERY solid now, almost as stable as timber .
 
Forget about that - the printed planks are only 1mm wide, and there are about 150 in the width of the deck. They'd also have to be no more than about 0.1mm thick - even then not ALL of the deck is planked (e.g. on the edges where there is a narrow strip of "steel"), so there would be a step where they finish.
 
I can live with it, they probably won't be noticeable when everything else is fitted .
 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in Popeye, Carl, Scott, Slog, Chris and Alan.
 
The bulkheads would have been very wobbly and difficult to fair without them, not to mention that they'd have possibly moved as I attached the skins. They are VERY solid now, almost as stable as timber .
 
Forget about that - the printed planks are only 1mm wide, and there are about 150 in the width of the deck. They'd also have to be no more than about 0.1mm thick - even then not ALL of the deck is planked (e.g. on the edges where there is a narrow strip of "steel"), so there would be a step where they finish.
 
I can live with it, they probably won't be noticeable when everything else is fitted .
 
  Danny

The three sections of Deck are on and I've finished adding all the extra card to the bulkheads etc, and also added some between the upper, middle and lower "decks" to remove any slight bows between the wider spaced bulkheads as well as stiffening everything up. Now to spend a day or so Fairing everything. I'm not all that happy about the printing on the deck timber, the joins stand out a lot more because the colours of the planks don't match at the joins :
 





 
  Danny

I was just about to ask the same thing Grant . This is certainly something different, it'll be interesting to see the finished thing . It looks like it will turn into a great build given your attention to detail, no doubt there will be a lot of modifications to the kit.
 
BTW - you'll never get it off the ground .
 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in Popeye, Carl, Scott, Slog, Chris and Alan.
 
The bulkheads would have been very wobbly and difficult to fair without them, not to mention that they'd have possibly moved as I attached the skins. They are VERY solid now, almost as stable as timber .
 
Forget about that - the printed planks are only 1mm wide, and there are about 150 in the width of the deck. They'd also have to be no more than about 0.1mm thick - even then not ALL of the deck is planked (e.g. on the edges where there is a narrow strip of "steel"), so there would be a step where they finish.
 
I can live with it, they probably won't be noticeable when everything else is fitted .
 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in Popeye, Carl, Scott, Slog, Chris and Alan.
 
The bulkheads would have been very wobbly and difficult to fair without them, not to mention that they'd have possibly moved as I attached the skins. They are VERY solid now, almost as stable as timber .
 
Forget about that - the printed planks are only 1mm wide, and there are about 150 in the width of the deck. They'd also have to be no more than about 0.1mm thick - even then not ALL of the deck is planked (e.g. on the edges where there is a narrow strip of "steel"), so there would be a step where they finish.
 
I can live with it, they probably won't be noticeable when everything else is fitted .
 
  Danny

The three sections of Deck are on and I've finished adding all the extra card to the bulkheads etc, and also added some between the upper, middle and lower "decks" to remove any slight bows between the wider spaced bulkheads as well as stiffening everything up. Now to spend a day or so Fairing everything. I'm not all that happy about the printing on the deck timber, the joins stand out a lot more because the colours of the planks don't match at the joins :
 





 
  Danny

Thanks Pav, I'll let you know if I do.
 
I'm not overly fussed by the model they show on their website. It looks half-finished, no railings for starters. The black lines look very stark also.
 
  Danny

I've spent two days adding extra pieces of 0.5mm card to the bulkheads to thicken them up a bit, and also adding longitudinal stringers from 1mm card to stiffen the bulkheads prior to Fairing (I haven't started that yet). I used the leftovers from the bulkhead sheets as a template to draw the shapes of each bulkhead to the extra card :
 



 
  Danny

Carl ..... I found a Yamato 1:200 . I noticed that it's currently available too. Hmmmm .......
 
  Danny

That was my plan - I really liked the other Halinski kit.
 
Whoa - I'm already 64 years old. One at a time .
 
  Danny

Probably HMS Hood Pav. Bismarck needs a "companion" .
 
  Danny

It's always a great moment when you apply the clear finish and see all that beautiful timber come to "life" .
 
A word of caution regarding the aft Timberheads, if you're not already aware of it. Most of them aren't simply a straight cut like those on the forecastle, nearly every one of them has an increasing angle that follows the sheer as you travel aft and you'll need to adjust your saw to suit. They are also cut on an angle athwartships due to the greater tumblehome.
 
  Danny

Hi Clare, thanks for kind comments.  I have been following your Alert and its coming along nicely.  Very clean, the printed deck also looks great.  Personally I think the Bismarck deck is too dark compared to other ships.  I think card models lend themselves to steel ships very well.
 
Hi Grant, plenty of swearing, followed by gnashing of teeth, wailing and weeping and finally slumped down dejectedly.    To add insult to injury, I dropped the 3 piece decks and put a couple of dents in one of them  . Although not to bad and won't really be noticable once all the other bits and bobs are on.
 
 Funny, but after I submitted my last post I thought “<beep> it!” and went back and smashed in the remaining panels.  Funny but knowing I had a lot of fixing work ahead of me took the pressure off and knocked them out easier than the previous ones. I even went back to the front and folded in the petals perfectly closing the bulge at the bow.
 
 
I tried a glue stick previously away back without success but who knows, I thought that about watercolours for the edge colouring and that worked out well so might revisit that.  I was going to wait for Chris, MSW’s resident card guru, to drop by with some advice on hull skin fixing in general as must be an easier way.  The PVA usually works great but the large panels were drying out to quickly before fixing and then of course you use more to keep one side ‘wet’ whilst applying the other side and then start rushing 
 
Okay here is the latest photo.  I have already started to varnish the first 7 panels.  I know, from the photo it doesn’t look to bad but there are a few issues which doesn’t really show on the pic below…plus I was being selective on the angle 
 

 
There are a few lessons learned here.  Primarily I think I may have wasted my time with all the balsa in-fills which I believe caused more problems than I expected them to prevent.  I think either leave them off altogether or fully fill in between the bulkheads.
 
One thing I did notice was the designer got the forms and skins spot on and if it wasn’t for my lack of skill would have went together seamlessly. Kudos.
 
I might work on some of the other parts for a break.
 
Cheers
Slog

a small update...I decided to fill the main hull so while that was drying I turned my attention to a few small items.  I picked up a new tool called a screw punch, on Amazon for 9 bucks, worked real well.
results below

The sails needed to have their markings filled in, I taped them to the kit drawings and filled in the crosses with water color pencil

also started the laser cut crows nest that was included in the accessory pack

i'll get the hull squared away next week and include pics, but thats it for now...thx for the likes