gieb8688

Friends, I need help.  I am almost finished a fully rigged Sergal Cutty Sark.  I have no idea how to make the bumpkins. 
 
Any suggestions?  I don't want to use eyebolts in the hull -- not true to the ship architecture.
 
As for the sails, I just cut of the excess material and sewed rings into the corners.  Some adjustment of yard height was needed, but the overall effect is satisfactory to my eye.
 
Now for the bumpkins.  Help!  Thanks  Lou

thanks Ken    of course,  with these sub assemblies,  there is still more to add.  the raft was one of the things I did yesterday.  the placement of the rest of the torpedo mounts and the border was completed.  the border is only 1 mm thick......I have a bunch of other planking,  but they are 1.8 mm {the overage {1.5} is the allowance for sanding}.  in most kits,  they say the planking is 1.5 mm.......but it's actually 1.8 if you mic it out.  I found this out when I used left over planking to fill in shortcomings I've had with other models.  some are right on the money.........some are not.  it's not a big deal......I've found this little 'fib' to be useful in different situations     I will do butt shifts,  since I find it hard to believe they handled planking in these lengths.  the Revell kit I've been studying doesn't show butt shifts,  but I will say.......that the kit is very close to what the actual boat looked like. 

 

 

at the front of the center filler panels,  the nose of the helm structure was traced out for the planking.  tabs were added so the panels will sit flush when cemented in place.

the line you see on the deck sheer,  is where the corners of the structure are....some 5 - 7 mm from the line of the opening.  I also started to play around with the .50 cals,  while sub assemblies were drying.

fitting the brackets in the turret mounts

there's quite a bit of detail to these guns.......  I started to give the panels some thought........the only opening I actually need is at the stern.  so the panels were cut where the engine cover ends off,  and I can cement the rest of it in place.  pretty soon,  I will need to paint the hull,  before I can put anything on the deck.

 

the configuration of the helm floor was traced out,  I have something in mind for it,  as well as the two shields.  I left more than enough room to set up the rudders.

  as I mentioned on Mike's log,  I had a rattle can of Deep Forest Green......a Rustoleum 'camouflage' color.   it's a non reflective paint,  specially designed for camouflage.   to relieve the itch to get some paint on her,  I decided to spray the helm.....but the can won't spray.  I think it is dead   I'll figure out a way to tell if it's still energized.......if it isn't,  I'll drain it somehow....I'm not wasting paint    another color I bought is an Army Green......not a bad color.....gives the sense of fading and will help highlighting the detail.

 

 

 
 

Here are some more, very nicely packaged, with the sprues in the three boxes, along with a few frets of PE. Hull is quite plain, though, although a single piece. 

OK, just arrived, and wife still in hospital and arriving home shortly.
 
She's gonna kill me, it's huge!

Everyone: a quick update on the rigging of sails on the Agamemnon. Finally got the lower main course sail on.. its size has a advantage its weight helps keep the rigging line tight! 
 
More pics to come soon
 
Mike Draper
Whitehorse, Yukon

Everyone: Just a quick progress pic.. the foremast sails are mostly rigged.. leaving the bowlines and brace lines off for now until I get the job sails up. Now Im going to tackle the main mast lower course. Im still amazed how large these sails are!
 
Mike Draper

yesterday,  I took the day off.  I made more progress.......the first being the sanding of the life raft.   to hasten it up a bit,  I used the Dremel to get the shape,  and then sanded the rest by hand.  what I ended up with was this.....

in the kit,  they supply a small sheet of screen....enough to make three life rafts.   cutting a piece to fit....then rounding off the corners.......this was the result.

 

more to come   

I suppose I'd better get caught up with the progress.......I've made quite a bit since the last update    I've been wanting to paint the hull,  but the weather still doesn't want to cooperate.......I may be forced to paint it in the spare room   so what I will do is flesh out the basic deck layout and plank it.  I did get scared though......Mark had sent me a huge bundle of .5 X 880 mm blonde basswood planking...of course,  that was a while ago.  I have used some since then.....I found that I have only a quarter of what I used to have.   this sent me scurrying through the other bundles of wood......luckily,  I scared up a bundle of .5 X 550 mm thin strip!  RELIEF!!!  { More about this a bit later}
 
carrying on with some more sub assemblies.........I began to flesh out the torpedo tubes.  the first thing was to mark out where the bands are to go,  as well as the chocks.

the nose and the tail parts were added.  my plan for the deck payout,  is to add the torpedo mounts and border around the deck sheer.   1 mm strip was use to border the sheer,  broken by the mounts.  measurements for this are few,  so I went with the big diagrams.

I also used some of the measurements from the torpedoes for the swivel mount placement.  if you can see,  there is a hole drilled into the center of the disc.......a pin will be inserted in the center of the rear chocks to fit them.

 

the life raft was another sub assembly.........it is to be made of wood,  and the 'blank' has to be assembled.   the parts were cut from a 1/4 square piece of pine,  supplied in the kit.  cemented together,  you get this.......

there are some hood vents that I'm not too crazy about.......they don't even look the part.   most likely,  I will scratch build some.

this was done on Friday of last week........

Just in case you want to brother....I'm sending you two scaled drawings of the M-3 37mm..... In the correct 1/29th scale... And an image that shows how it was mounted....
 
 

 
In case you decide to do it, these have the proper images my friend...
M3 37mm Gun 1-29 scale 1.tif M3 37mm Gun 1-29 scale 2-1.tif

Another small update with the main Wales now installed on the starboard side and painted in yellow ochre. Scott

I’ve started the hull painting ahead of installing the main wale. This is French Blue (admiralty paints).  

Thanks Rob and to all for the likes!   Now that I’ve moved on to deck fittings these little steps seem to really help bring things together after the snails pace of planking. I’ve now added the curved roof near the bow and voila I’m done sheet 1 of the 5 plan set!  Even with all the recent progress my crewmate has fallen asleep at the wheel.  Scott

Some additional photo etch and hatch coamings now added. 
Scott

A bit more progress on the decking fittings.  Not having worked with photoetch before the window panels were not too tricky.  Perhaps I should have tried to simulate glass panes. Not sure if it is too late now.   I was thinking of trying some kristal klear - I’ve never used it before.   Scott

Happy Friday!  Some progress on deck fittings. I found the roof of the structure framed around the door was a nit too small so just created my own from the kit scrap wood.   Scott

A tiny update with all cap rails now installed.   Scott

I’ve used of all things a pencil crayon from my daughters supply and hopefully rather than making a bigger mess with the wood colour discrepancy between fore and aft decks have made the difference less obvious. Again it seems things that aren’t as visible with the naked eye stand in sharp contrast when you look at a photo. 

Well time has certainly zipped by.  I have been working on Chatham yacht on and off. In hindsight I wish I had posted in progress pictures to benefit from comments. While the second planking wasn’t a total disaster (in my humble opinion) it is not a sight of beauty either. I’ve learned a lot, and next time will apply lessons learned to the spiling and bending process.  Parts of the hull will be painted so that may mask some of my many errors.   Live and learn!  Scott
 

Well, not that exciting, but now I have completed the equivalent second planking on the starboard side. I’m trying to do both sides in equal progression for symmetry. I will be doing tick strips and tapering from this point on both sides although I did have to taper the middle planking in the elevated stern section (again equal tapering on bother sides).   

Good morning everyone,  I was able to get a small start on the second planking on the port side.   

A little more progress with bulkhead fascia installed and some progress at the stern.   Scott
 

Good afternoon everyone,  It has been a few months since I posted an update. I’ve have had very little time in the shipyard -between work and home and life in general it seems I can only steal away an hour or two on the weekends. I’m now getting to the point where the first planking is largely complete.   I’ve added filler and am working on sanding to try to get as smooth and consistent a base as I can.   Stay safe, Scott 

Ever so slowly the first planking continues.  I soak each plank several hours and clamp to the ship and let dry. Then I remove the plank and taper. So far this seems to have worked well.  

Hi Cathead, I sure hope that's true, because there's a multitude of mistakes on this!  But I appreciate what you are saying, and yes, I am VERY happy that this kit was only $49!  (And with tools, since I didn't have any, it seemed like the best choice!)
 
So I went ahead and replaced part of the broken frame with a newly carved piece, and it seems to look ok.  And as you said, the end result hopefully will result in a good "overall impression", if people don't look too closely at the details!  (I have friends who are amazed that I'm even attempting this!)

A little bit crooked, but hoping no one will notice!

 
 

Looks like it can be fixed with some glue and clamps.  Just glue the broken piece back on and once dried, place wood glue between the frame and the plank and clamp until the glue is dry.  Be sure to place a scrap of wood between the plank and the clamp so that the clamp does not leave an impression in the plank.  You can get good clamps at a very reasonable price from Harbor Freight.  You can never have too many clamps.  Your model looks good.  Do not be too hard on yourself as this model is a learning experience for you.