gieb8688

Dear friends, thank you very much for your comments.  It is a pleasure and honour for me, that you like my work.
Here is the hull oversprayed with acrylic paints and body spray + primer used for cars. After grinding I will start to change it into a wooden look using strips of various  types od foils. I have already written many details about this technology, so if you are interest in that, please refer at my building log Royal Caroline.

It takes me sometimes more than 2-3 years, than the model is finished. There is no problem with these card models, I use high quality and efficient impregnation, so the models are similarly durable as wooden. At home i have more than 20 years old card models and they still look like new.
 
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Here you can see the finished second layer of planking, made of cardboard as well.I use various thickness of this material - from 0,5mm to 2mm.

The deck in the central part of the ship is covered by tapes from plastic foils, that I use on all my card models to imitate wooden look..
 
The inner parts of the model are already covered with a second layer of carton and bases for the upper decks.
 
I have also a handsome helper who makes me a companion during model-builing.
 

And here I have started with lower deck and center part reinforcement. The hull  -
 although it is made of cardboard - is very solid and heavy - it weights more than 3 kg.

Dear friends,
I appreciate your kind words a lot and advice. Thank you very much. That is a great honour for me. I have to say I was thinking about HMS Royal Katherine for a long  time. Finally I have found the courage to start this large project and would like to share it with you...
Here you can see the complete stern of the model, some gunports and other details on the hull were changed to be more accurate and corresponding to the position in the painting of the real ship. 

Hull construction and gunports placement:
 

Hull planking - first layer - all is made of cardboard:
 
 

Redesigning some bulkheads on the bow:
 

It's time for me to put a bow on this one and call it finished. Tonight it will go into my display case for the grandsons and other visitors to eyeball behind glass, safe from curious hands.
Of course, I reserve my right to float it in the bath tub with me from time to time when necessary to run "sea trials". 
 
 

Another week and this one should be finished. I can see light at the end of the tunnel now.
My aftermarket set has replacement railings for the model, in the form of photo etch stanchions and either very small diameter wire or thread. After looking it over carefully and dry fitting some of it, I thought the 2 dimensional photo etch stanchions looked out of place at this scale. They seem to look great on 1:350 scale models, but at 1:72 scale the 2 dimensional look leaves something to be desired in my judgment. So I used the kit supplied railings which are not perfect by any means but a better alternative in this case I think.
 
 

And after it got oiled...pretty cool grain

Well I have been working on lots of honey-do things all day...but I stole away about an hour and I went to the wood shop and cut some parts for the new stand for the Great Republic.  I'm using wood from a Maple I cut down last year....a unique piece was used to build the model support.  The grain is amazing...like knotty walnut.  It will be tongue oiled when completed.
 
I set the almost finished coppered model in place to show the effect of the suspended design of the stand.
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Rob

As usual..I got in about an hour today to lay some more plates.   Cutting and laying the keel plates took the longest..since each one is 3/8" wide and not the same size as the regular plates.  
 
Coming along.
 
Rob

And thanks for all the likes.....coming from the master model shipwrights on these pages....I am honored.  I consider myself a lazy..git-er done fast kinda ship modeler...skip through the tedium and lay down some paint.....
 
Gee...I'm sounding like I don't care.......
 
Thanks everyone!
 
Rob(I built my 1/96 Cutty Sark diorama in under 3 months)

Hello friends, 
 
I want to show you a new update and what I have done in the last few weeks.
 
As I told you, I decided to finish the planking of the hull. Again I have the situation, that I don´ t want to use the parts of the kit. There are several moldings to put on the planks that have to be made of wood. I study the Victory of Alexandru very carefully, because he does it in such an outstanding way. I try to copy his work. But - surprise - it´s not as easy as it looks :-)
 
I had so many problems with it, I could not tell you. I decided to do it in my way, concerning to my skills. But even than I get some problems. First I had to find out, that my molding was invisible, because I used the same walnut-wood I used for the planking. The strips were a little bit thicker (1,5 mm instead of 1,00mm) but that was´t enough to have a visible contrast. The solution was to prepare them with my black wood filler and make them darker. Wood filler become a panacea for all my problems....
 
The next problem was the second and smaller molding. I simply don´t know how to do it and where to fix it. I have to admit that I was not able to build everything in the way that it fits perfectly and everything is exactly in the right position as it is written in the plans or on better models. So again I have to say: my model is inspired by the original, but it´s not a perfect copy. 
 
After finishing that part I returned to the upper deck and the walls (you can see in my pictures what I mean). Comparable to the stern I don´t wanted to use the sheet windows from the kit. I made new ones with my yellow wood.  Also I had the idea to fill the vertical slits with that wood, to have a contrast and a little "eye-catcher".  What do you think about it? 
 
Of course these parts are not fixed on the deck. I only placed them for the photo.
 
Best wishes 
 
-Heinz-

Hello my friends!
 
It´s time for a new update!
 
Last time, I asked myself, whether I should start to plank the deck or finish to plank the hull. I decided to first plank the hull. Unfortunately I had some problems to get new wood stripes. This is why I changed my mind and start to plank the deck. 
 
I knew that it would not be easy to do, because this time I first built the gratings on the deck. In fact, it took my much longer to plank the deck. But I think I managed it quite well and I am glad to say, that I am happy with the result.
 
As you can see in my pictures, I used my "old" technic. That means I first lay the wood stripes with a little slit between them. Then I fill the stripes with my black wood filler. After scraping and sanding the planks I seal them with varnish. 
 
Now I start to finish the hull planking!
 
Greetings and best wishes to all of you!
 
- Heinz -
 

Hello friends, 
 
another little update.
 
I took the next step and fixed the deck. Of the 30 guns that I made, suddenly only 10 are visible :-((( 
 
I have put in the masts temporarily, because I was afraid that they would not fit later. And I decided to change something in the way I build the deck, compared to the deck below. As I build the deck below, I first do the planking and then put the gratings with frames on top. I had some problems because the deck is slightly curved. You could not see the slits where it does not fit perfectly, because of the cannonballs beside them. 
 
Now I want to first build the gratings and then do the planking around. 
 
Or should I start with the ship´s side. That would give me the chance to finish the second planking of the hull. 
 
Maybe someone can give me advice at this point...
 
Best wishes to all of you !
 
- Heinz -
 

Well that is just what I did all day today.
 

 
The tool is made from stock wooden dowel 
1 x 3/4 x 3 1/2 long
2 x 3/4 x 2 1/2 long
1 x 1/2 x 8 long
2 x 1/2 x 2 1/2 long
2 x 3/8 x 2 long
6 off 8 x 32 x 3/4 long round head machine screws
1 off 8 x 32 x 1 long round head machine screws
7 off 8 x 32 brass thumb nuts
1 piece wood for base, mine is 8 x 4 1/2 x 3/4  oak
 
The top clamp arms do not have the second rotation but for most tasks this would not be an issue there is still lots of control, and on my one I ran out of brass thumb nuts so I had to use different nut on the base post, and the 8 x 32 round head screws are reversed on one side to show that it can be done without the brass thumb nuts.
 
basically the screws are threaded in from the bottom with the clearance hole on the top so that the brass thumb screw presses the top half of the dowel down.  without the thumb nuts the machine screw pulls down the wood.
 

 

 

 
wood third hand tool.pdf
 
So I hope that this information is useful to those who want to make one for themselves The only machine tool I used was a drill press to drill all the holes, this could have been accomplished with a good hand drill
hand tools included a small back saw
a hack saw
a thin file
an 8 x 32 second tap
 
Michael

Completed the hull planking, quite happy with things so far - need to do some finishing touches to the bow still (used some vertical strips that need sanding), and next step will be a rough sanding using 60 grade grit, before applying some resin into the joints.
After than some more sanding and applying filler where needed.
 
E

Druxey this is the direction I was leaning in. I do have an airbrush, the funnel is entirely metal pretty much all brass.
 
I will after stripping give it a fine coat of Zinc Chromate primer before applying the colors. All of the stay eyes are through holes then bent on the inside so all of these will also be removed.
 
Roger, I do not have an air eraser and do have acetone which on brass will work well enough and if it has difficulty with any of the paint I will use Lacquer thinner which I also have.
 
Thank you all for your suggestions and input, it really is helpful to hear your opinions and Ideas on this area.
 
Yesterday before we went into the city I glued up the boat deck.
 

 

 

 
After setting overnight I just removed the clamps to see the next milestone achieved.
 

 
An additional thank you to all who are visiting quietly it is encouraging to see the interest in this project.
 
Michael

Thanks for your thoughts on this area Druxey and Carl.
 
Before I glue on the lifeboat deck I still needed to fix the top part of the lifeboat deck structure.
 

 
I set up a flat plate that I could use as a guide for the pairing chisel.
 

 

 
Once the damaged area was removed I fitted a new piece of maple this will get painted on the top inside edge before it gets glued in place.
 

 

 
A lot of little steps it seems.
 
Michael
 
 

They paintjob may be your largest chalenge.
Those old type of paints do no longer exist, I'm pretty sure that the colours went a bit 'off' over the last decades, so you have to match colour, 'structure' as well as 'age' in the paintjob. (and prepping the surface of the new wood, without damaging the old paintwork micht be tricky as well. But just a plain repaint of the whole ship is a severe sin from a restorers point of view.
 
I'll follow with interest.
 
Jan

Yes, I do completely agree with you on this score.
 
Jud you are right I do not want to replace all the wire standing rigging, but I might have to, a closer inspection shows that nearly all of the brass wire rigging is stretched and loose. 
One option is to undo then one at a time and then rewind them again and make a neater job of all of them.
The other is to replace them all.
 
All the funnel stays  are all damaged to some extent, the eye-bolts that go into the funnel are bent wire and then bent down inside.
 

 

 
Only a few of the running rigging lines that are fitted to the booms have been snapped and that will be tricky but likely easier to deal with that the wire rigging.
 
I spent most of the afternoon removing the funnels and the structure under them the tops were crushed a bit.
 

 
An area that is serious and not apparent in the beginning is the area highlighted in the next picture
 

 
This one is troubling. Basically the whole of the front sheet is moved forward away from the deck behind it. This is the brass piece that the top member that supports the boat deck need to be soldered to after making a new piece.
 
One thought is to cut the section at the blue line to remove the side in order to straighten and solder the new section to it.
I am reminded of Druxey's comment now about hidden damage that was not apparent.
 
I am having this feeling of digging a hole and it keeps getting bigger. Definitely stretching my abilities.
 
I would love to have a time machine and go back to see how the chaps at Bassett Lowke assembled the metal rigging, did they have the metal stays pre-made on jigs, or did they wire them up in situ? better yet use the time machine to get to the model just before it got knocked over and prevent it from happening in the first place.
 
Dale yes and a steady hand for sure, I am going to have to practice a bit, notice the fan that has been pinned onto the skylight. Whoever did that was just guessing and they even made a wedge for it.
 
The other hidden damage is regarding the handrail, a number of the stanchions were snapped.
 

 
I used some flush cutters and a bit of brass to lever out the remains.
 

 

 
The handrail was pinned in quite tightly, perhaps the wood has shrunk over the years.
 
This is the section I had to remove. you can see how many of the stations were damaged.
 

 
I did do another experiment with the stays, this is some control line brass wire a little too heavy but interesting.
 

 
Time for a break.
 
 
And Thanks to all who have looked in and pressed the like button. 
 
Michael
 
 
 
 

I was recently commissioned to restore to "Original Condition" A 1:100 model of the steamship Albertic. The model was knocked over and sustained considerable damage to the port side lifeboat deck Funnels and railings along with vents and all sorts of lines and wire stays.
 
I have made extensive photographs of the condition as I received it, and have begun recording the removal of the damaged parts that were still attached, A few surprises that were not evident when I viewed it at the clients premises have come to light.
I cobbled together a quick trolley so that I can move the model around, I will make a lightweight dust cover to keep the dust off the model.
 
I will no doubt be calling on the expertise of the membership for advice as I move forward.
 
As tragic as the damage is I am hoping that this will be a good experience and that I  rise to the occasion with a smile as things become repaired.
 
here are a few pictures to show the extent of my task.
 
Builders Name plate

 
Port side sustained the most damage
 

 
Starboard side suffered mostly inertial damage
 

 
The funnels took a beating because they are heavy and brass
 

 
A lot of loose parts were piled on the deck in front of the bridge
 

 
The stern end of the port lifeboat deck is badly bent and twisted
 

 
The stairs didn't fair too well either
 

 
Below the port lifeboat deck is the most damage on the hull I am really hoping that this area can be reworked without having to repaint the entire side, we will see?
 

 
A box of the loose pieces now lifted off the ship
 

 
Ouch
 

 
This will keep me busy over the next couple of three months. As I was removing all the big loose parts I was noticing how much of the fine lines and wire cables have also been damaged. many of the parts were attached with micro brass pins, all the lifeboat davits for instance.
 
Michael