yvesvidal

Nice save....I have a bit of room on that sheet so I have added a second pair of those parts 9 & 10 just in case.   Best to have a back up...   I am watching the current builds closely so I can add extra back up pieces based on which ones might need it if room on the sheet allows.  

When it comes to scrap wood, I very rarely throw it away, especially AYC. Digging around in the scrap box I found a perfect piece. It only took about 1/2 hour to make a replacement, now to continue with the build. The swear jar is happy as is the scrap bin, it got the messed up part. 
 
Best Regards …. Rick

Love your engines and the cockpit looks super.
 
I bought that same ZM Fw a month ago. Beautiful kit.

Hi,
this post is dedicated to a problem that I had once I mated the fuselage halves and wanted to install the canopy included in the kit. Actually, the canopy of the kit is very well made with a very clear plastic, but unfortunately it was found accidentally separated from its tree. Consequently, the plastic in the vicinity of the gate was torn off and stress cracked in the bulk of the part as shown below:

The depth of the of the frame at this location is very narrow and once painted it is not enough to hide the offended area. After some attempts to sand and polish the defect, where instead of improving I worsened it, I decided that the canopy had to be binned and replaced. After a search on the web, I bought two vacuum-formed canopies produced by Squadron.

I must say that I never used these types of canopies and I was uncertain about their quality. The bag contains a blister with two canopies, but only one of them is usable for the model I want to build (i.e. the standard type).

My doubts were associated with the very thin material used and with the necessity of precisely separating the canopy part from the rest of the blister. However, according to some articles, these canopies with their thin thickness are supposed to be even better than the original kit parts. For cutting, as prescribed by Squadron, I used a fresh X-acto blade making multiple passes with minimal pressure while the canopy was supported by a blu-tak plug pressed inside it. I first practiced on the bulged canopy before proceeding with the good one. At the end, the cutting and subsequent trimming fortunately turned out to be quite precise:
Next, the gluing operation followed. According to Squadron and to most of the articles that I read, the most suitable glue to be used is the Micro Kristal Klear. The glue had to be thinned with water to decrease its viscosity and allow it to penetrate by capillarity in the gaps between the canopy and the sills:
 
I brushed the thinned glue along the gap cleaning the excess with a wet pointed cotton swab. Because the thinned glue shrinks a lot when cured, this process has to be repeated as many times as necessary to satisfactorily fill the gap and obtain a fairly strong bond. So far it is going fine, but I will be able to see the quality of the result only when I will brush some paint over the joint.
That's all for now,
best regards.
Dan
 
 

How can those of us who aren't piping engineers know for certain that all that piping wasn't just added to the ship in random patterns? 🤔😉

So now both bunker manifolds are in place. Not on Portside, because on that side the bunkerline is actually crossing over the cargo piping (due to the longitudinal piping rack). So first up is the transverse cargo piping and then PS HFO bunker pipe (DO pipe does run underneath the pipe rack, logics 🤪...)
 
First was lining out the support bars for the piping. I wanted to start aft and connect to the cargo heater system, but decided against it and started on the forward piping. Aft part will be more difficult as it's the part going over the edge of the hatch. It would also have restricted my access for the forward piping probably causing damage to the aft piping, so, first forward. 
 
Since I had the two supports of the manifold piping in place, I could now put a transverse pipe in place to line out the supports. I used normal straight pipes. I'm also building the bent cargo piping on a flat surface to have the bends in a single plane. 
As you can see I held the supports up with some copper wire attached to the beams. I used CA on 1 or 2 vertical supports and normal plastic glue (= slower curing, but stronger bond) on the rest of the supports. 

 
One of the supports near the center was a bit angled in, not leaving enough space for the aft (Inert Gas manifold) pipe to pass. I used a spreader on top of the pipe to keep them at a correct distance while using the support to keep at the proper distance. 

 
Seems to have worked. The 3 forward pipes in place. Most forward is Liquid System 2, followed by Vapour System 2 and Inert Gas line. 
For normal cargo operations the Vapour Return is not used on LPG tankers. Normally the reliquefaction plant will liquefy the vapour coming from the tanks and send the liquid/condensate back to those tanks during the loading operation. 
If for some reason the reliquefaction plants can not handle the vapour and pressure rises too much in the tanks, the vapour return connection can be opened towards the terminal, but in that case the vessel will have to pay a fine (normally vapour return is sent to a flare and is therefore considered a loss). So it's almost always connected to the shore terminal, but rarely used. 

 
This may look like major progress, but it's not. As you can see I need to make a lot of flanges for valve connections on those pipes. Lining the pipes up transversally and longitudinally is a challenge as you need to keep the longitudinal distance on the manifold equal, while you also need to keep the bends in the correct places. Again a lot of fitting, adjusting, fitting again etc. 
The forward liquid system also has a big cargo strainer connected. During loading, you normally load through the strainer (you don't want dirt in your tanks), while during discharging, this strainer is generally bypassed (but often stainers are using inside the manifold connections). Of course this means you need valves to by-pass this strainer, so again more valves to add on the system. The stainer you can see already on the starboard side, unpainted. 
 
It will take a while before I finish these lines, but once they are done, it will be quite a step forward to completion of the vessel. 

The hull is growing slowly. 

This morning marks my first contribution to the swear jar. I was trying to fit the stepped part of the keel and guess I didn’t have enough coffee or sleep and really butchered the part. Being this joint is visible, a new part will need to be made.
 
 Best Regards …. Rick

Minor updates again - this kit sat on the shelf of doom since the last post. Hated it because it was pure crap. Still the only game in town so I decided to restart it. 
 
i used lead wire for conduit and started adding PE to the island. Still much more to do but here goes. Enjoy. Did I mention it was pure crap???

Impressive stack of precious wood !!!
Yves

RGL, would you mind elaborating on the techniques you used to finish the water, especially the wakes and foam?
 
This is by far, one of the most realistic piece of ocean I have ever seen. Congratulations.
 
Yves

Hi photo Victory .
 

Well, it is that time again, this time I decided to step into a new zone, for me not that familiar but to see how things will go... For the first time I will be working on La Rochefort, a port yacht from 1787. Here is brief description/history of the ship (from the internet):
 
Created by Colbert in 1666, the city of Rochefort is unusually located since its harbor-arsenal, built on the Charente river, is about twelve miles away from the sea following the river. Although this exceptional distance from the sea protected the harbor from enemy fleets for centuries it caused problems, however, that were unsuspected at the time of its creation. Indeed, in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, the depth of the Charente river made it impossible for large vessels to sail up and down the river without first unloading their equipment, arms and ammunition. The Navy thus created a flotilla to assist and equip the vessels that had to remain anchored in the Aix roadstead while waiting to be fitted out or laid up.
This flotilla consisted of several kinds of small vessels: lighters, yachts, transport-ships or brigs from the harbor. As an illustration of these types of ship we chose the yacht, inherited from from Dutch workers who came to drain the swamps of the Charente during the 17th century.
This small elegant craft is of a simple construction with basic rigging, since only fitted with one mast and three sails.
I will be following Ancre plan and an introduction to model ship building "Dockyard style" by Adrian Sorolla, hopefully making some interesting model. Ancre book includes a booklet and a set of 16 plates of drawings. In the booklet, a chapter describes the creation of Rochefort and the reasons that led to the constitution of the flotilla. The construction and laying out of the Le Rochefort are detailed in instructions abundantly illustrated with 3D figures, followed by a commentary on the plates including a precise description of the rigging.
 
The plans were copied multiple times as I am planning to do a bit of a testing before cutting the real wood. For frame and keel parts I will go with pear wood that arrived from Germany. For other parts I will not purchase any wood at this time and will work on once I reach that point. I do have some other boards I am planning to use for testing, etc..
 
This time I marked all frames on the plan, and cut them into individual pieces. Then all pieces for one frame are put in a bag, where I will be keeping cut parts for the same frame. Or I can just use rubber bands...


 
Then I put all keel/keelsen parts on one piece of wood, this time I am testing alder wood. These will not be on the model, for model I do have purchased pear for keel as well. Testing will allow me to see how things are done in real life, what glue to use for glueing on the board, making sure I check cut pieces for level once they are on the board, position of templates on the board to utilize the most of the board, what cutting tool to use, etc... pretty much the whole process. Maybe a bit overkill but being my first build of such type... next scratch build model will be a breeze...


I might reposition some keel parts a bit better to utilize wood gran flow.. good advice from fellow modeller..
 
Happy modelling..
 
 
 

Update
 
made the removeable deck-house together with hand rails and lightshafts with seatight hinged covers. After primering painting the deckhouse  portholes were inserted. Also the aft bulkhead was fitted out with two doors and portholes therein .... Slowly its getting shape
 
Nils
 

the making of the deckhouse

the handrails are from brass wire. There are 5 screws that position and hold down the deckhouse to the deck

 

Dechhouse with portholes

there are 10 lightshafts around the deckhouse, The doors will be next

 
 

I've continued to work on the keel. I pulled the parts from the billets and prepped them. Chuck has mentioned that the wood is so thick it's pushing the laser cutting to the extreme. You can see the wedges and how the laser cut tapers. It doesn't cause any issues though. The wedges were assembled, cut to match the plans and added to the lower apron. Next I will be adding the rising wood and working on the deadwood and wedges that go on the deadwood.
 
 

Here’s last night’s effort, the stem. It took a fair amount of time to get the parts to fit well, the angle cut of the laser is a bugger and careful sanding is required to get gap free joints. I mostly used a file and sanding sticks, I also used with excellent results my Byrnes 4” sander (RIP Jim, we miss you) for trimming down the joints that Chuck points out is his build. Overall it was a pleasant experience. Now to start the taper...
 
 Best Regards …. Rick

My first stem tapering with a figurehead. Thoughts? Also, how much of a radius should the stem have? I just knocked the corner off for now. 
 
 Best Regards …. Rick

Here’s the final version of the stem. Still looking a little porky, Chuck?
 
Best Regards …. Rick

This marks the start of my Syren POF Speedwell! I’ve been dealing with some medical issues and am now close to being 100%, so here we go! A POF has been a bucket list build for a long time as I’ve admired this style of model. Most of the offerings out there just didn’t appeal to me with the scaffold type of construction. Enter Chuck with his Speedwell, Bingo! I’m a huge fan of Chuck’s designs and all the help he (and the other MSW modelers) provides, it gives guys like me a lot of hope. I’ve built Chuck’s Medway (my first wood build) and it came out awesome. Thanks Chuck! I’ve started Cheerful but a POF build has extreme attraction for me. I’ll probably work on Cheerful when a break is needed. Last month at the New London Conference I got to meet Chuck (and Rusty, Ryland and Olha and several others! Awesome to meet you guys!). Had some great conversations and it was nice putting a face to the name. Also, I got to eyeball Chuck’s Speedwell, pictures in the build thread don’t do it justice. A real beauty! Anyway, here we go! When Chuck said there was a lot of wood in the 1st 2 chapters, he wasn’t kidding! The laser cutting is the best I’ve ever seen in a model. A lot of the parts had fallen out of the billets, so I took some time to place them in their proper place and used some blue painters tape to hold them in place. Because the thickness of the wood, I see a lot of billet sanding to remove surface char in my future. Here’s a picture of the wood. Stem will be started tonight.
 
Best Regards …. Rick

https://cafmodel.com/products/longboat-190mm

The Wood is ready 

I like the interior with the room for the crew in the rear, and the luggage/freight compartment in the front. You can tell that this was better designed than modern airliners which are solely equipped for greed and maximum profit.
 
Yves

Gradually the fuselage lengthens.
 

I've been having a play with mixing colours and trying some pre shading for the first time in the cockpit. I'm trying to get somewhere close to this..
 

 
First I built it up and then primed it with Vallejo Black

 

 
Then fairly heavily pre-shaded with white, all paints are Vallejo Air range by the way. 
 

 
Then I mixed a combination of olive green, BS dark green, black, white and yellow until I thought it was close and then thinned to about 50%. Then applied 3 coats gradually. 
 

 
I'll let that dry now and see how it looks. Then I'll hand paint the rest and do some light weathering. As it's going to be in a museum it shouldn't look too shabby I'm thinking. 
 
 
 
 

Fiddly bits, fiddly bits, and more fiddly bits!
X10

X10

X12

Only X4

X3

X10
 
See what I mean!
Cheers