gieb8688

thanks for the info Mike.....I'm probably going to go with two.   I really like the hardware involved.  the hardware kit only supplies the main shaft bracket,  and finding the center one might be a challenge,  unless the base can be bent to sit flush on the keel.  this fellow must be working with a different fitting kit,  because the angle of the shaft is less acute.  I ordered my hardware kit from Model Expo...this is what I got:

the main shaft bracket and the shaft tube......it's likely set back a little bit further.  it's going to be a feat to drill the hole for the shaft tube......I'm thinking of making a wood template to guide the drill.

the actual shaft,  the sad excuse for a prop,  the U joint,  the rudder arm,  and thrust spacer......the set screws for the u joint and spacer are in the pile, in the last picture.

here is the rudder tube,  the shaft {slotted},  the rudder,  and the pile of screws and what nots.  his rudders aren't shaped like this one either......I wonder if trimming it is needed.  if you could pass along the link for the machine guns,  I'd appreciate it.........in the meantime,  I think I'm going to look around for a different hardware kit.  those extra parts look really good  

Moving along with Module #3A: This one was easy as all was prepared ahead of time... :-)
 

 

 

 

 
Notice the railing above....
 

 

 

 
It is starting to look like a Corvette.....
 

 
Next is Module #4: the galley, the smoke house, the mast, the dinghies and all kind of details.....
 
Yves

I realized I had not posted in a little while. The 2nd module is pretty much finished. The railing will be completed, once I glue Module #3.
 

 
Lots of cabinets to store ammunition and rockets, for the Hedgehog and 4 inches gun.
 

 
A little crane to embark the ammunition. The gun with its Donald Duck insignia.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Next will be module #3A, the wheel house.
 
There is of course, plenty of room for extra detailing. I really do not have the time and skills to extend this kit with PE and other details. I am still trying to see what can be done with the Virtual kit plus some extra parts here and there. Access to a Resin Printer would have been much better for the gun, but that can be retrofitted later on, as the gun is removable and parts can be printed again, with higher resolution. 
 
Yves
 
 

I thought a little update was overdue. There we go: working on Module #2, the 4 inches gun and blast shield deck.
 

 
Very smooth transition from the wooden deck to the metallic deck. Nobody will stumble....
 

 
Here, I have added seven stanchions and some 0.9 mm brass wire to create the guide that prevents the gun from firing too low. The parts are soldered and then glued.
 

 
Painted and assembled. 
 

 

 
Installation of the Blast shield. The kit provides a straight and too wide shield. From archives pictures of the Snowberry, I have reshaped that shield and added a corner and side walls, by printing a 30 mm long blast shield (from the kit). It looks a lot more realistic and prototypical: 
 

 

 
Hope you all like it so far. Next is the Hedgehog, which is ultra simplified in the kit to the point of being  a disgrace. None of the rockets are represented..... :-( I don't know what I will do....
 
Yves

With the roof of the engine room glued, all was left was a nice overspray to "harmonize" the decks: 
 

 
You can see that the junction between Module #4 and the engine room (Module #5) is smooth and flush: 
 

 

 
Now, I just have to work all the details on each of the module. The hull and decks are for the most part completed.
 
Yves

Major milestone again, with the permanent gluing of the side decks and rear deck. At this point, no coming back without rebuilding a significant part of the model.
 
First, the wooden covered side decks. These are stained with natural stain (Micro-mark) followed by a dilution (lavis) of Payne Grey acrylic. They are submitted to the elements of high sea, not as much as the bow of course: 
 

 
These two panels are then glued. Again, I am very grateful I spent all the time preparing the fitting of these parts and of all the deck sections. It really pays off: 
 

 
Strong of that success, we are moving further: the rear deck !!
 

 
Each of these parts are left to dry multiple hours, for a perfect and strong bond. Then the platform for the depth charges rails: 
 

 
I will have to pull the airbrush and harmonize all these parts, with a fine mist of Dark Grey XF-24.
 
Now that we have a rear deck, the engine room extension can be glued: 
 

 
And so we do it.....
 

 

 
The extension could have benefited from two panels of extension, but the curvature of the cabin prevented me from doing it, without redesigning the parts. Besides, with two panels more, it was getting very close to the rails. Overall, I am rather happy and it looks better than the original kit: 
 

 

 

 

 
The roof of the engine room is not yet glued. It will be the next step.
 
Yves
 
 
 
 
 

A small improvement at the juncture of Module #4 and Module #5. I noticed that the newly added deck is sagging and not joining perfectly.
I decided to build four small pieces to provide extra support for the deck: 
 

 
These are based on the ENGINE>ENGINE_ROOF_JOINER part provided in the kit and resized to 30 mm x 19 mm x 1.6 mm (thickness is unchanged.). The smaller parts are 19 mm x 10 mm x 1.6 mm. The small parts are glued to the end of the large parts, and the large parts are glued underneath the Module #4 deck.
 

 
It now offers a very solid base for the extension deck, discussed previously.
 
Yves

MODULE #3a - The Wheel House
 
As promised, here are a few pictures of the Wheel house, located on Module #3a. I have decided to not depict the inside of it, first because I am not sure how it was done and secondly for the simple reason that it will be almost impossible to look into it.
 
The Virtual kit provides all the parts that you see here. The only additions are: 
 
- 3 stanchions (Caldercraft 20 mm)
- Thin plexiglass to simulate the glass
- 1/32th x 1/8th inch basswood strips
- 0.6 mm brass wire for the railing.
- four tiny piece of right angle styrene strips to hold the walls.
 

 

 

 

 
In situ....
 

 

 

 
Module #3a cannot be glued to the hull yet, as Module #2 must be "inserted" first. It will be kept aside for now.
 
Yves

Damn that looks good. Depending on how far you wish to send yourself broke, Micromaster has just brought out their guns! 

Thanks for the Wellcome and kind words  mtaylor, Kevin, Cog, and GranfpaPhil 
I must tell you gentleman that I’m in awe of the build blogs and how many talented craftsman
share there skills all I can say is Thank You All 
 
Just got to finishing the hull painting. 
 
 



 
 



Considering making modification on model to convert to CAM Liberty with one time Hawker 
Hurricane defense aircraft. Almost done with all the main fixtures getting down to detailing and paint.










This was the sea test of the hull under power.

IMG_0053.MOV

Working on Deans Marine model Liberty Ship hope I’m going to get this right I have been making progress and will try to upload 
pictures. Well I see the photos weren’t a problem but adding captions under each photo is I would imagine the pictures explain 
the progress one other thing I would like to mention the last photo of the rudder is not scale as the kit cast resin rudder was a poor casting and the shaft was only  3/32 dia. Wire which I thought a little less then I preferred so it was replaced with one I fabricated. I know one of you will notice it doesn’t have the division half way down with right thrust added to correct fo the large prop torque on the full scale ship to save fuel but since I’m not going to cross the Atlantic I opted out on that detail. 
 

Skegs complete. Test fit of the props and shafts.

Today I puttied up some more low spots. The real ship has a bow thruster but the model makes no call out for this. I measured back about 4.25 inches from the hawser hole in deck and drew a circle around the boat to find the placement. I never like cutting a hole in a perfectly good hull. I used a small starter drill bit as a starter. I then moved up to 3/8ths then 5/8ths. The plastruct tube in inserted was larger than that one the outside diameter. MAKE SURE you glue one side prior to cutting the tube flush or it will pop out.

Progress on the cabin today. Sheeted and framed. It will need putty and touch up.

I used a lot of epoxy putty and sanding to get the tunnels complete. So far I am glad I did it because the stern will look sharp once the anti fouling paint and draft marks are on. I slapped some black paint on the stern to look for high spots when I sand it a final time. A shipmate sent me a photo of the stern of another FRC soon to be launched. This helped me out so I will post it here. I also started building the roof of the 01 deck and installing bulkheads. These are super tricky and the port and starboard structure rails are different sizes. The instructions are a bit ambiguous with the markings but just got slow and make sure you test fit a few if the basswood "C" bulkheads prior to gluing in the rear C9 flat panel guides.

There was a lot of thought and fiddling that went into this one but I decided to use scrap Abs strips that were part of the pars spruces. I built the stern up then added strips. Tomorrow I will be hitting the area with epoxy filler and sanding. The shape came out how I wanted it so that was a win.

I decided to try and make the stern more accurate based on the original design. The stern has defined tunnels which house the rudders. I do not totally have the basis of the structure lined up, but I wanted to get this set prior to putting on forming putty.

I finally got the courage to cut out the anchor chain tube in the forecastle. The diagrams on where to put the hole in the deck.
Use a small bit first and go slow. Move up to a 1/4 inch bit. Slide the 1/4 inch tune up into the hole and cut flush. The boat door was glued up on the stern.
The back deck was also cut to fit as a slide in.

The final bow rail pieces were fitted. There is a jig provided in the kit to true these up relative to the deck. Since both pieces extend beyond the stem I decided to simply bend the plastic back and use it as a clamping point. The worked well. They boat well in the stern went in fairly easy but your need to do a bunch of angle tapering to get it to fit. The plans say to sand the pieces flush with the frames. I highly encourage you to do this prior to glueing them in.

Hull sheeting complete today. I will need to use some filler despite a nice fit up.

I had to take the kids to visit the Mouse in Florida and now I am back to the build.  The hull is made of ABS plastic so I have been using both epoxy and super glue to post the panels.

Rear transom pieces attached.

More battens added. Final structure in place. The stern needs sanding as well as the keel at the bow.