gieb8688

Well here we are Four coats of rustoleum prime and still lumpy,but it doesn't look too bad in the photo so I guess it wil have to do.

This is my first encounter with a BlueJacket Shipcrafters' kit. This kit comes with a carved hull carefully wrapped, a number of packages of nicely and cleanly cast metal bits, clean laser cut lumber as well as brass photo etch! The plans are new (dated 2017 and huge!) and the instructions were printed with color photos (on 'regular' printer paper). To my untrained eye, this kit has had a complete make-over in comparison to the older USS Perry kits of yesteryear lurking in the corners which may visit Ebay every so often. Here is my obligatory photo of everything before I start to make a mess of it!!

Yep @clearway the mast are not glued in yet either, so I can set the sails before dropping the masts in and setting the standing rigging. I’m still considering how to present the sails. 🧐 I’m thinking silk span rather than sewing, it would be a first for me. Although, at this scale I might use cloth, I am just not sure how it would look some furled and some set. 


 

 
I am leaning towards fully set suit of sails with sewn cloth, saving the silk span for smaller scale. 
 
Opinions please. 🤔
 

Here is my inspiration photo… 
 
Fully set full suit of sails 😎

Stanchions and Railings
 
The kit includes single-ball stanchions for the searchlight deck, 2-ball stanchions for the main deck, and lots of nice, 1.5 mm diameter brass rod. Every build log mentioned above says that that the cast metal stanchions are just too flimsy, but one builder said that his kit came with brass stanchions, and another managed to buy replacements. Caldercraft does sell brass stanchions the correct height so I ordered some a while ago. I ordered 3-ball stanchions for the main deck, planning to cut off the top ball and cap it with a wood railing. When it was time to install them I discovered that the 3-ball stanchions had 1 mm holes, and the single-ball stanchions have .02" (.51 mm) holes, both too small for my brass rod. I ended up buying more brass rod the correct diameters.

Here's a sample of the cast stanchions at the top and the brass stanchions below.
 

I drilled mounting holes in the deck and assembled the railings in place.
 

I lifted the entire rail assembly from the deck and sprayed it separately.
 

The cap rails were made from some scrap mahogany using this jig to hold each piece while I rounded the edges.

Making Progress But More to Do
 

Here's everything stacked up. You can see the boat deck attached to atop the forward cabin now. Most of the small parts have been attached to the deck, but the cabins and bridge are all separate.
 

Lest you think that I'm almost finished, here are all the parts that I still have to complete.

Miscellaneous Small Parts and Bridge, 195 hours
 

Map and flag chest, two hatches, and stern companionway ready to spray.
 

Four ladders with white metal sides. The kit includes laser-cut ply steps but I used some scrap mahogany.
 

Parts for the skylights. I sure dreaded cleaning up all that white metal ...
 

but it only took a few hours.
 

Ten vents ready to paint.
 

The kit has printed plywood for the bridge. I covered those pieces inside and out with cherry, and used more mahogany for the rails. There were obviously lots of other little parts to clean and paint.

Moving Right Along, 117 hours
 

Here is everything stacked up so far. It seemed like this was going pretty fast but then I looked at how many white metal pieces are left ...
 

And here's my dog Loki admiring my work.

Miscellaneous Small Parts
Caldercraft includes several mini-kits for various pieces of equipment. Everything is white metal, which often gets bent when it is removed from the mold. Or in shipping. Or if you look at it crossly.

This steam engine for the capstan took a bit of straightening out and cleaning up.
 

Here's the finished capstan.
 

The anchor winch is very nice. I experimented with weathering the bollards but ended up repainting them.
 

The instructions call for two water tanks to be made from certain blocks of wood. The parts list gives the dimensions for those blocks but none of the blocks that came with the kit were close. I had some white Azek trim in a good thickness and cut my own. The white metal straps were much too long so I built new ones out of styrene strips.  The tanks were painted with a spray color called "Iron," which looks pretty convincing in reality.
 

These two grates go in the top of the rear cabin. I'll probably paint these "Iron" too.

Cabin Details
I worked on cabin details while waiting for paint to dry. The GRP cabins tend to bend inwards and required internal bracing. Then portholes, doors, and other details were attached. Portholes were bored with a step drill that basically grinds its way through the GRP with minimal splintering.
 

The forward cabin has a lot of portholes, but there doesn't seem to be any doors! None of the 3 build logs listed above has mentioned that. Maybe the door is in the hidden space in the back?
 

The rear cabin has a lot of portholes and SEVEN doors. It also has 2 stairwells that had to be cut out and framed in from the inside.
 

Here's how I framed the stairwell. I will glue them in after painting.
 

Here's how everything will fit together.

Paint Stripping, Experiments, and Repainting
 

The Rustoleum primer did not stick to the GRP hull. This is what the hull looked like where it moved on my foam-covered stand. Soon after I made my last post I removed most of the primer using mineral spirits and coarse steel wool. The job only took a couple of hours wasn't as messy as I expected. I couldn't get everything and decided to leave the bulwarks primed. Here's the hull after stripping.
 

 

In the meantime I tested several kinds of paint on styrene sheet.
 Rustoleum 2X gray primer, the primer that I had trouble with. Later I put Krylon white primer over it to make sure that they were compatible. They were.  Rustoleum Colonial Red. I really like this color for anti-fouling paint on the bottoms of hulls, but I've already used it on three other models.  Krylon Fusion gloss black. Krylon Colormaster white primer. Krylon Fusion Satin Brick, an alternative for the bottom of the hull. Next I tried to scratch each sample with a fingernail and then a hobby knife. They were all VERY difficult to scratch. So my original problem was  the GRP.
 
I still had two GRP superstructure components that had not been cleaned or painted. I cleaned one very carefully with Dawn and then TSP, then sprayed one face of each component with Rustoleum primer. The next day BOTH components scratched easily; so the problem was not lack of cleaning - Rustoleum simply does not stick to the GRP. I stripped both of those components.
 

I re-primed the hull with Krylon Fusion gray primer. This is my high-tech spray booth, AKA garage. I painted the lower hull with 3 coats of Krylon Fusion Satin Brick, masked the water line with Tamiya masking tape, and painted the upper hull with Krylon Fusion gloss black. Everything came out perfectly and does not scratch.
 

Here's the hull on the stand. You can see some of my other interests in the background.
 

I still love this view. Now time to clean up the garage.

Deck Planking, 87 hours
I bought some cherry strips 0.5 x 5 x 1000 mm from agesofsail.com and used them to plank over the plywood deck overlay supplied with the kit. I used some cherry veneer for the curved pieces and they came out slightly darker. I filled the entire surface with Timbermate wood filler in white oak, sanded, stained with Watco natural, and applied several coats of Minwax Polycrylic clear semi gloss. The entire job took about 20 hours over 3 days, and I couldn't be happier with the outcome.
 
I love the way that the planks are stepped into the curved edges. There's a term for that but I don't remember what it is. Does anyone know?
 

 

 
 

Bulwarks and Hull Details, 48 hours
 
The inside of the GRP hull is rough. The instructions suggest smoothing it with some random resin., but I used Rmay's suggestion on rcgroups.com (see link above) and lined the bulwarks with 0.5 mm styrene with a 1 mm strip along the deck. I had to leave room for the side ports.

 
 

 
 

 
The rivets are made with Tulip fabric paint, another idea from Rmay on rcgroups.com. The container has a thin nozzle that is perfect for dabbing rivets. The paint is very thick and drys quickly with a distinct, raised feel. They look a little sloppy but should be fine when painted.

 

 
Finally, my 65 mm Raboesch propellers came today. They are just outstanding and certainly make the business end of this tug look nice.

What's in the Box

The BIG model comes in a BIG box, almost as big as the ARF airplane models for sale at the hobby store.

Most of the box is for the GRP hull and superstructure.


There is one page of plans at the wrong scale, and a slim instruction manual with only a few illustrations. All of the build logs on rcgroups.com agree that the plans are poor and the instructions are terrible. I've already consulted those other build logs several times to see how to build things. More on that later.

There are several sheets of high-quality laser-cut ply. The deck planking is printed nicely but I plan to plank the deck.

There is a quantity of dowels, strip wood, and wire and tubing. The kit includes two good prop shafts but no props. I just ordered those. A single screw version of the kit is also available.

Finally, the kit contains about 600 well-made white metal parts, package for each major assembly.
 
I'm not too fond of working with Glass Reinforced Plastic or of cleaning up white metal castings. What have I gotten myself into?
 
 

Prop Tubes Installed, Interior Framing Completed
1 month, 28 hours

Step 1 - Install the A-frames, rudder support, and prop tubes. The white metal parts required a lot of cleanup. The instructions are vague and the supplied bolts didn't fit. Thank goodness for those other build logs.

Step 2 - Build some supports for the sub-deck. The instructions basically say to superglue the deck in place and seal the perimeter with resin. So far I have done everything the same way that the RC builders have done.

I spent several hours yesterday building a cradle to hold the model while I work on it. I'll build a nicer stand for display. The model is too big to turn easily on my bench, but the cradle helps. Here the sub-deck, printed deck, and superstructure are installed temporarily to check the fit.

Hi some more photos.

A lot more filling and sanding and priming. I pulled out the bag of deck hardware "goodies" that were metal fittings and primed ahead if their use

More work on the pilot house tonight. 

First layer of bottom paint applied. 
More putty added and deck attached. The bridge wing bulwarks and stringers were added. 
Construction started on the pilot house. The kit has solid bulkheads which the real ship does not. I opened up the frames so I could add details to the interior.

A minor end of week update.
The printer is churning out parts without needing any adjustment. I completed the large bridge piece without issues. I'm still nervous about talking about this too loudly though. I'm convinced there is some voodoo in there somewhere. I'm still using a combination of brims and corner brims and so far no warping

In between the thunder showers I got the final primer coat on the hull and sanded down. The finish has come out quite well and i think I like the slightly subdued panel lines
My local Ace Hardware is now out of Automotive primer

 

After wandering around the web and buying another corvette book I have decided to go with HMS Campanula as the subject. The paint scheme is the better defined of the two choices (HMS Poppy was the other) and she was an early Flower but had sufficient refits to justify any artistic license with the wooden decks, engine room skylights etc. I found a view of Poppy showing the foredeck wooden section but teh paint schemes are hard to nail down especially as I don't want to build the minesweeping gear.

Campanula is the nearest I'm going to get to Compass Rose so I'm happy with the choice.
Accordingly I put an order into Sprue Brothers for supplies and now realise I forgot the dark grey deck. I'll have to put another order into Freetime Hobbies to spread the load around; it gives the chance for a few other things to fall into the shopping cart.
Thanks for looking and have a great weekend.
Alan

After a bit more putty and an overall sanding down I put the first coat of primer on yesterday evening and this morning rubbed it down. It is going to need more primer coats but it looks quite good already and its hard to pick the section join lines from the printed weld lines. One coat used an entire 12 ounce can of primer! I bought two more cans tonight.

 

 
In parallel I have been printing the sections for the chartroom. The mouse ear brims seem to have been working well and I set up and ran each print without any issues. Either that or the Gods of Modelling have found someone else to torment.

 

 
I plan to pause updates for a few days while I print more of the chartroom, bridge and engine room and get a sense of how the deck and its superstructure are going to assemble. I need to sort out plastic shims and how to set the decks to the correct levels, find some wood strips etc. That's probably going to require some on-line shopping but I need to work out shim thicknesses first. I also need to decide on a ship and get the paints for the appropriate scheme.
None of this is going to be terribly exciting unless the printer really gets out of hand so i won't trouble you with the daily progress until we start moving into the next step
Have a great weekend and thanks for looking in
I'll be back with the next installment soon
Alan

Masts…
 

 
Tapering Mast, only from the spreaders up… Spreaders down stay consistent 1/4”. 
 

 
Found some nice dowels at Home Depot. The rods in the kit were too warped. These have a nice grain, they look like trees. 😆
 

 
Cutting out Boom Jaw Rests from 1/32” material, I will laminate two to get 1/16” thickness. 
 

 
Jaw rest supports are cut from scrap mahogany. 
 

 
Main Boom Jaw Rest completed 
 

 
Bending 1/16” square Bass Wood for spreaders
 

 
Clamping and gluing. 
 

 
Trimmed up and sanded ready for paint. Used a rat tail file to round out the fit for the masts. 
 

 
Painted…
 

 
Mast Hoops  it from Brass Wire wrapped on a 1/4” dowel as per instructions. I will need to paint these to look like wood hoops. 
 

 
Spreaders fitted temporarily… I will  need to finish hoops before gluing them in place. Note to self… 🧐

Later…. 😎

Just had my decals arrive for Nisha and Erycina.
 
I know a few asked about the vessel registration numbers from my previous kits, so I contacted Eduard and they produced me these for the new kits.
 
Very small, but hopefully, they will make a difference to the finished models.

good evening everyone
 
well the redo's returned today and hopefully the 1st netting looks tidier
 
 
the 2nd one then made up and into place she has gone,

i have two more to make up but requires more lines to go in to secure them
 
still neds a tidy up and some loose ends sorting out, im happy
 
 
 

Little update:
 
I am expecting the Sphinx photo etched sheets to be delivered next week. These are all I am waiting for, as the rest of the kit contents have already been done and boxed. Sphinx is now available to pre-order. This is the Revision 2 version, with the thicker manual and revised parts list.
 
Right now, all laser production is stopped for two to three weeks (but all kit laser cut sheets have been done and all is in stock), as our large garage is being converted into a proper unit to house  two laser machines and a separate area for materials and packing. I take delivery of my larger second laser machine at the end of next month. This larger machine will allow me develop much larger kits and cut thicker materials faster. The garage conversion and new machine are massive investments for me, but I think ultimately worth it.
 
I am hoping to have the small fishing vessels, Nisha and Erycina out before December. These will have optional sail sets. Tomorrow, I take delivery of the waterslide decals for both fishing boat kits, these include the vessel name and registration number. These are what I am working on now.