yvesvidal

A quick update, as I have not had much time to work on this model, due to multiple side activities.
 
I completed the chimney for the oven. All parts are made of copper tubes and aluminum tubes, soldered and glued together. The shape is inspired from the Anatomy of the Ship book.
 

 

 
On the deck:
 

 

 

 
Hmmm... after seeing these pictures, I think I need to paint it darker....
Yves

Lamps are finally finished. These kits (from Syren) are little projects in themselves and take some time to be completed. Again, as mentioned before, the lamps are made of 80% Syren and 20% CAF Model parts. Through the glasses of the lamps, you can see the main candle, a blob of wax on the base and the black candlewick. A small maintenance door facing the stern, allows access inside the lamp.
 

 

 

 

 
Overall view of the stern:
 

 
Now, I have to find a solution for the staff. Then, we will move to the bow....
 
Yves

Finally, Step 8 of the second session is over. 
 

 
I am letting you enjoy the plethora of information and guidance that CAF model is giving to the builder: Coppering !!! It is all in the name :-)
 
That tedious process is finally over, with close to 2,400 tiles cut, embossed, peeled and placed by hand. The number is very close to what the real ship used and that is a testimony to the size of the model tiles (25 mm x 8 mm). I would absolutely recommend the process of using the 3M copper tape, as it is so much easier to prepare, install and glue than pre-cut tiles with CA glue. The burnishing allowed with the copper tape also permits you to finish nicely, those delicate sections where a piece of metal may not fit perfectly.
 
Finally, if the cost is a consideration, know that I was able to finish this enormous hull with only two rolls of tape and I have plenty left for the rudder or any repair. Cost was $43 including shipping versus the $400 for the tiles + many glue bottles that the kit copper tiles would cost you. A big thank you to all the readers that have convinced me to go with the tape.
 

 

 

 
I am going to let it sit for a few days, as the copper is slowly tarnishing and acquiring that red and warm hue that I enjoy so much. After that I will seal it with Future Floor most likely.
 
Let's enjoy some pictures of the finished animal: 
 

 

 

 

 

 
For those who would be tempted to follow this process, here is the invoice for the two rolls of 3M tape: 
 

 
and the product: 
 

 
There are some variations in the color of the tiles, which is actually rather pleasant, but the more I wait and the more everything blends nicely like the foliage in autumn.
 
I hope you have enjoyed that approach. I know I was very hesitant to start it and I do not regret it in any ways. The only casualty of this process is that I no longer have a full nail on my right thumb, after peeling 2400 copper tiles from their protective adhesive backing. I am going to force on the brewer's yeast supplements to re-grow that nail....
 
Yves
 
 

Allan, thank you for the compliments. 
 
To be completely honest and precise, the Copper tiles set from CAF is $328 plus shipping (not $500 as I had said before). They basically send you 50 sheets of copper, pre-printed and pre-stamped. You still have to cut them one by one and glue them.
 
I never purchased the whole copper set and only asked them to send me a sample of the tiles when i purchased the Session #2, before committing to the copper purchase. I am glad I did that, as the size was not what it needed to be. CAF offered to print larger tiles for me and that may have entailed an additional cost. In the end, I decided to go with the copper tape, and I am glad I did as the installation is a lot easier and the hull will not look like it has chicken pox.
 
I have tiled close to a quarter of the hull, as shown below: 
 

 

 

 
Each roll of copper tape is 33 meters long by 7.98 mm wide. That is equivalent to 1320 tiles of 25 mm long each. With this calculation, I should be able to tile half of the hull with one spool of copper tape, since the original vessel required about 2400 tiles to cover the entire hull. We will see how it goes. I have a second spool on hand for the other side.
 
Yves

Updates will be coming very slowly, from now on, until I can finish at least one side of the hull coppering. 
 

 
Each tile is cut, embossed and placed by hand. There is a slight overlap in both dimensions (flotation line overlapping keel tiles and bow overlapping stern tiles). A labor of love and infinite patience, but so beautiful under a dimmed light.
 
Yves

I just started on the coppering..... The beginning is not too tedious, but I am sure it will not be the same in a few days....
 
The tiles are made one by one, using the chopper tool:
 

 
I am using 3M adhesive tape and that helps a lot as the tiles are easy to install, do not require any glue and can be burnished in position for a nice fit.
 
As mentioned before, the copper tiles provided by CAF are not of the right size and require the use of CA glue. Below you can see the difference in size between the CAF tiles and the ones I am building: 
 

 
The CAF tiles are rather expensive (I think the set for Bellona is about $500 plus shipping) and the 3M tape is a lot more affordable. The real tiles were 4 feet long by 15 inches wide. At the scale of 1/48th, it means a tile of 2.5 cm (1 inch) by 8 mm. The 3M tape is 7.98 mm wide which is perfect for this use.
I am using a wheel to mark a line of nails all around the tile. In my humble opinion, it looks more realistic than the traditional porcupine tiles provided by kit makers. Also, the holes are indented into the tiles instead of protruding out, which is contrary to the real way this was done. Copper nails were hammered into the tiles and there were no bumps visible.
 
The real ship required 2741 tiles and about 2.5 tons of copper nails (according to the Anatomy of the Ship book). The overlap was about 1 inch and a half, which is close to 1 mm at 1/48th scale. I am setting the tiles starting from the keel and from the stern, and overlapping them, until I reach the flotation line and the bow.
 

 

 
Yves

The stern planking has been completed: 
 

 

 
Now, it is time to move to the copper tiles... I am quite apprehensive about it.
 
Yves

Third quadrant, at the stern: 
 

 
These maple wood strips are interesting. They are extremely flexible, allowing you to espouse pretty much all shapes, which comes handy at the stern.
In addition, after gluing them, especially when using Titebond Quick glue, the wood need to be "burnished" to embrace the exact shapes of the support. It is like burnishing a thin sheet of copper and is very unusual in the way it reacts. I am using an ice cream stick to do all the burnishing. The wood of the stick is hard and smooth and does not damage the thin planking.
 
Multiple coats of Wipe-On-Poly have been applied and the stern is now hard and extremely smooth to the touch. The blue color is Cerulean Blue by Liquitex (Acrylic) and that is the color I like the most after trying about 4 other Royal blues, and other blues from Model Shipways and Tamiya. I find the traditional Royal blues way too dark for my taste. On top of that blue, various decals will be applied, since the freezes on these  vessels were painted and not carved.
 
Yves

The second Planking of the bow is now completed. The wood has been covered with multiple coats of Wipe-On-Poly and is hard and smooth to the touch.
 

 

 

 
Now, to the stern..... It will not be so easy....
 
Yves

Great kit and great subject. I will follow, if you don't mind.
 
Yves

The chimney has been re-painted black. I am now working (between many other things...) on the bow and more specifically trying to improve on the CAF kit. The pictures below are showing the short dowel provided by CAF Models for the Bowsprit:


 
Of course, the original kit wants to present the model as an Admiralty proposal.
 

 
I will be presenting soon the improved bowsprit that I intend to use on my model.
 
Yves

A quick update, as I have not had much time to work on this model, due to multiple side activities.
 
I completed the chimney for the oven. All parts are made of copper tubes and aluminum tubes, soldered and glued together. The shape is inspired from the Anatomy of the Ship book.
 

 

 
On the deck:
 

 

 

 
Hmmm... after seeing these pictures, I think I need to paint it darker....
Yves

Thanks for the comments and the likes.   As mentioned, I've taken a bunch more photos and added some of them below.  I've joked before that I really only build models to have something else to take pictures of.
 
The final construction did have some hurdles.  First, getting the chassis into the body was a bit tricky.  At first I was not even sure it was going to be possible but I found the right sequence of actions and twists and turns to get it together.  Unfortunately, one of the small pins in the hinge for the rear trunk lid broke in the process.  There was not anything in the trunk anyway, so I just glued it shut.   Also, the hinge for the engine cover did not work well....I am not sure if I got the part that attaches to the cover too far from the edge or just what happened, but the engine cover only opens about a quarter inch.  So, the extra detailing I did on the engine will never be seen.   The front bonnet hinge works well though I now realize I forget to take any pictures with it propped open.   Finally, the last dicey operation was attaching the wheels.  They were attached with screws and it took some effort to screw them in (effectively tapping the hub with the screw as you screwed it in) and the wheels were just barely big enough to fit over the suspension bits.  I was quite concerned that I'd break something just screwing the wheels on, but did not.  However, you can see in one of the pictures that I have a lot of camber on the right rear wheel, and in fact the right front tire does not touch the ground.  Oh well.
 
Overall, I enjoyed this build and thought the kit was decent, especially considering it is nearly 40 years old.  The decals were rather thin and fragile but there were very few of them to deal with.  I feel like each time I get a little bit better with the finish on the body, though still far from perfect.  I tend to get a decent finish and then I am afraid of doing any more sanding or polishing or whatever, concerned that I'll make things worse instead of better, so I say "good enough".
 
Here are more pictures of the finished model.  Thanks, as always for following along.
 
 

Ladies and Gentlemen, lets start our engines and begin a new adventure.

Some month ago, I received my first MFH kit, after I saw some pictures of the finished model and fell in love with the bike immediately. There she was, all the great ingredients of an American bike classic minus the to my eye ugly mid section, the classic Harley Davidson models have. 

I will not tell a lot about the history of the bike, as I´m not an expert here, but it´s a pretty exclusive one. Hand built, the numbers of production bikes range between 60 and 300. The few surviving beauties are among the highest priced motorcycles of today.
The Crocker was fast, so fast, that the company complied, to give back the full price of the bike, should the driver be overtaken by a Harley or Indian on a strait road.

The kit was bought from MFH in Japan directly for a decent price and the fastest and trouble free shipping, I ever had and reached after six days on my doorstep.



Since then, I bought some more MFH kits, as simply browsing through the boxes, the absolute top quality of the kits has an addictive spell over me. The kits are multi-media, most parts are from cast white metal, some photo etch, rubber parts, different hoses and wires, some chrome plated metal parts, nice decals, ...

I preparation for the build, I read a lot about MFH kits, to get a hold onto the many new adventures, I was expecting with the build and as one result, I invested into a magnetic tumbler polisher for cleaning the white metal parts. It took my month to finally obtain one to my remote place in the world, but finally, it arrived.



After some successful testing, all white metal parts were dumped into the tumbler´s bowl, then, I added water with a drop of detergent and 200 gram of 0,3 mm steel polishing needles. The strong magnet in the base swirls the needles around the non magnetic parts and `hammers´ the surfaces very gingerly. After about an hour of tumbling the water was dark black and the parts looked like this.

 

It was not so easy to remove the tinier parts from the needles and I keep all the bowls with needles and the blackened water until, I made sure, I picked all the parts out.
For now, I rinsed the parts with water again and layed them out onto kitchen paper to dry.







The finish of the tumbled parts is fantastic, but of course, further cleanup will be needed down the road. Some parts will get polished, as the white metal looks perfectly, like steel or even chrome when polished carefully.

Next step will be checking against a copy of the manual, if all parts are there. MFH manuals include only a rudimentary parts list, but on their homepage, they have pictures of the kits parts, which will be helpful for the task.

I will add a few detail pictures from some of the parts, to show the fantastic casting quality. The tumble polishing of the parts effect surface detail only minimal, details remained sharp.

 







Stay tuned for more.

Cheers Rob

The chimney has been re-painted black. I am now working (between many other things...) on the bow and more specifically trying to improve on the CAF kit. The pictures below are showing the short dowel provided by CAF Models for the Bowsprit:


 
Of course, the original kit wants to present the model as an Admiralty proposal.
 

 
I will be presenting soon the improved bowsprit that I intend to use on my model.
 
Yves

Fantastic work on the seat and great idea to clear the headlight, too.
 
Yves

Enjoyed the spoke discussion… I’ve been pre stressed and tense myself lately; our modeling hobby is good therapy.
The seats in the kit are a black flexible plastic, good quality but looked a little plain. I wrinkled up some leftover tissue from my Guillows spitfire and applied it to them with a fluid mix of wood glue and water, then a few tries with various brown paints until it looked something like well worn leather. Finished it off with a few brass pin heads from my wooden ship box, and a bit of Vallejo gloss oil stain on the saddle to give the impression of wear and sheen.
I cut off the shielding from the headlamp just because I felt like it, and because the kit has rather a nice lens I wanted to see. Added bumpers on the tank. Haven’t put in any tubing into the machinery yet, hoping I can do all that at the end. 
Tim
 
 
 

The chimney has been re-painted black. I am now working (between many other things...) on the bow and more specifically trying to improve on the CAF kit. The pictures below are showing the short dowel provided by CAF Models for the Bowsprit:


 
Of course, the original kit wants to present the model as an Admiralty proposal.
 

 
I will be presenting soon the improved bowsprit that I intend to use on my model.
 
Yves

I think it better for ventilation and drainage open.
A model of the Bellona has it open.

Here are 13 hulls, awnings and 'verandahs' (promenade decks?). And the thing with all the clamps on it is the promenade deck for the big model - I'm gradually adding planks; one or two each day.

Plus the deck fittings for the wheel and what I think is storage. And the wheel itself under construction. I cheated with this. I asked a fellow Men's Shedder to turn it on the lathe because I don't have the skills. You can see the little holes in the sides for the handles. Once they're in place I'll slice it off its substructure and we should have a wheel instead of a cylinder.


Steven

The upper mizzen shrouds are a repeat of the lower shrouds with smaller line. They're 2.5" circular, translating to .32mm in diameter with .15mm lanyards.  The foremost shroud served its full length, the other shrouds served just below the hounds and the aftmost line is the backstay.  Each shroud is paired with the rear pair splitting off as the third shroud and the backstay. 
 

 
 The process is the same as the lower shrouds for me, I have my smaller version of the "deadeye measurer" illustrated in post #283. I measure out the shroud, mark the necessary length that needs to be served with a tiny spot of white paint, serve the line, then rig it to the mast. Once again, I go back and forth from port to starboard to make sure the mast ends up straight.  All that said - the backstay did present me with a choice to make.  The kit instructions show the backstay attached to deadeyes hooked into eyebolts just forward of the quarter badge. Lees has the backstay attached to a deadeye plate bolted into the ship just above the badge, and the FFM shows a small stool fitted above and aft of the quarter badge (also shown in Vadas' vulture. Although I've been leaning toward the FFM with most things, I simply do not have the room around my quarter badge to accommodate a ledge. So I opted for my own version - an eyebolt and deadeye plate just above the badge, but I also attached the deadeye to a plate/chain then the eyebolt. I realize this departs from accuracy slightly, but it keeps lines from being fouled and is also pretty pleasing to the eye to me.  It was definitely a bugger getting the deadeye evenly rigged amongst all the things happening back there however. 
 

 
 
 
I kept most of the deadeyes loose until they were all rigged, then tightened and seized all the lines and lanyards. 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

My selfmade Tool to work with Blocks and Deadeyes etc.

I decided to work on the mast. Different materials used. PE parts, plastic rods,, rails and brush hair.
After painting, time for dry fitting 

One evening one piece.
I decided to work on the main mast. While assembling the PE part it came obvious that while it was detailed, the tripod was too thin, more of a 2d shape. And since Ticos have a reinforced mast like Spruance class I decided to work on the original part.
Work begun on SPS Radar. While holding the arm with tweezers and trying to attach the radar, it twisted and bended. I took another  set from my spares, but proved very delicate and broke after a slight bend. Perhaps If i could use 10 sets I could have damaged all. An attempt to glue them failled,  still looked wrecked. 
So basically I took the arm of the plastic piece and add the main radar plate on it. It was the best solution I could think after all other options have failed