egkb

Thank you for all the kind comments!
 
I made a mistake in one of my posts, it should have read 'No surgery required', I omitted the No!
 
It is the top of  the 'Tibial Plateau', and wasn't so misaligned that surgery would be required 

Getting some paint on the deck. The kit has it as fairly smooth but I know there are panels on it so I’ve improvised with the airbrush. Several shades of grey, once nice and dry I’ll do some filters 

Sorry to hear about her breaking her leg, Chris.   I hope recovery and healing go well with no complications.

First phase of treenails done.   Thankfully.   Doing 10-20 of these is kind of fun, doing 500 and at the smaller diameters, not so much.   
 


(After a light application of wipe-on poly.)
 
At this point its a little unclear where I should start on the next phases, so I just went with what appealed to me and started construction of the lower deck.   I still don't really know what the best approach is here.   Once the main deck beams are cut, cambered and ready Im not sure if I should attempt construction of the rest of the structure (carlings, etc) in-situ or off the model and hope I can fit the completed deck into place.   Its so much easier to get precise cuts and chiseling outcomes if done off the model but Im worried it work end up fitting properly.
 

(Bending the deck beams gently, note the mishap holes in my frames where my drilling for treenails got a little sloppy.  Thankfully those will get hidden). 

I started in on the beam arms as well.  Which has gone better than I expected.   One complication I have been hassling over is the camber of the beam arms matching the camber of the deck beam.   In the end Ive left them flat and decided I would just sand and shape as needed after joining them.   The plans show a clearly cambered shape of the this component but I don't know...   Im not sure it needs to be as dramatic as it looks in the profile drawing. 
 



 
 

Today marks my 1 year anniversary working on Cheerful. This is often the chance to show progress photos, however I’m buried sorting out shrouds.

 
So much fun……yes I noticed I’d managed to snag the peak halyard tackle in the lanyard 🤣

Two down six to go. Lanyards are temporary until all four per side are complete. 
 

The kit notwithstanding, there’s something about wooden passenger car construction that showcases true artistry and craftsmanship. I’ve seen old black and white photographs taken inside the Osgood-Bradley car shops in the waning days of wooden car construction. Not only was the joinery as intricate and precise as you could ever imagine, but the smell of wood chips and sawdust was palpable. I guess the closest anyone can get to that kind of atmosphere is a visit inside a high end wooden furniture shop.
 
Andy

The hull planking and painting is finished. However I still need to attach the gunnel rail. Starting work on the pilot house.
 

 

 

You may be able to see some of my booboos but I think that, for a poor man's boat (the fisherman), they give some reality to the ship.
 
And then the  pilot house. I am working on a layout for the controls of the ship following the work of Big Dan. Thanks for watching, I am having a ball.
 

A couple of shots of Eskimo in her 1944 coat then 1945. You can see the depth charge throwers and racks amidships. I’ve also show a photo of the focsle on a tribal class which shows the flanges (if that’s it) for the chain and smoke pots 

Nothing serious at the moment - just getting it taken care of before it is.   Thank you all for your thoughts.
 
Mark

I hesitate to say Peter, but there are 15 placed around the house, 1 wip, and 1 under the bench.
 
There are also several laid up in ordinary in the loft.
 
You can probably deduce why I am now concentrating on relatively slim models. 🙂
 
B.E.

Thank you all for the likes and comments,
I proceeded with the rudder, wich was so incredibly well designed by Chuck.
 

 
 Just following the step by step instructions
 

 

 

 

 
She loves doing the fiddly things and her eyes are better than mine anyway...
 

 
Not much left to do, and I can turn the hull back over and mount the rudder in its place.
Matthias
 

Hello and thank you for warm words and likes!
 
The "head pieces" (is it right term?) are usually represented on the contemporary models as one piece of wood. On the plans that show this area in detail, you can see a small rail attached:
 

 
So I have tried to implement this:
 

 

 

 

 
They are first fixed with a few drops of glue, because I still have to adjust the seats of ease in the corners
 
Alex
 

I thought it might be a good time to get this post in as it covers a number of tasks that I've been working on.
 
Starting with the gun port lids.
 

The first step was to get these two planks fitting correctly
 

The last plank is placed underneath so that the bottom edge can be traced
 

The final result with all three planks in place
 

When adding the frieze, the top section is cut away so it can be registered with the frieze below.
 

Final result with lid lining attached, painted and ready for hinge
 
Pinned cleats to the bulwarks.

 
Transom windows and sills 

 

 
Mike

Yes. I enjoyed the process of building up the skeleton of the boat the same as the original, and want to see as much of it as possible.  I'm not incorporating this model into  a diorama so I don't need to make it look like a repair in progress.  I plan to leave off most of the deck on that side as well.
No.  In retrospect I wish I had used some sort of non-pigmented stain or dye to darken them slightly prior to construction, but it would be tough to do that now.
 
Thanks for looking in and for the comments and likes!

Well the hull painting is done.
First the bottom

 
Then, the top
 

 
I was going to start the hull painting with the fat white waterline, but I found a little difference between the port and starboard  rub strakes. This was due to the asymmetry of my planking. I plan now on a slimmer line made with chart tape.
 
Have also been doing the preliminary work on the pilot house. We will cover this later.
 

thanks for the likes...
the open/closed harts ar now finich and rigged on the bowspirit , 
the closed harts i have to rigg them over and make the rope again .... it was to long the first time.... 😲
here are the result and am not an expert on rigging ☺
 
svein erik

Right, I've had a go with the new lights and backdrop. In the end I went for a material backdrop (here) as it is bigger than the PVC the one Richard (@Rik Thistle) described and I felt it would give me more flexibility in framing shots. Here's one of the first shots I took (before I'd even ironed out the creases in the material!):

Here's a couple more...

Here's a cropped version of the same shot which I think is better:

Not brilliant but I'm starting to see the potential, especially if I can experiment a bit more with settings. I followed Glenn's advice (@glbarlow) and found his recommended settings worked very well. I did struggle with shadows though, but I suspect that was because my flash is a lot brighter than the LED lights. Either that or I wasn't positioning the lights well. In the spirit of experimentation I decided that if a smaller aperture gives a deeper depth of field and f11 is good, then f22 must be very good. The downside is exposure time, so to offset that I dug out a tripod which also allowed me to dispense with the lights. The last shot above is a 3 sec exposure and, whilst the focus isn't perfect, I think the depth of field is better than I'd normally achieve. 
 
I've included one shot designed to show that shadows aren't necessarily a bad thing, as they can bring a model to life more than a perfectly lit shot:

Onwards and upwards (and back to actually building the model!)
 
Derek

I appreciate your problem Peter,  I too would be reluctant to cut a build short having put the work in, and Bellerophon would look magnificent fully masted and rigged.
 
I had prepped the Topmasts and the Main Yard for Victory when reality cut in and I had to accept that I simply didn't have a suitable location for a fully rigged version, the house is already full of models.
 
My solution was to rig the topmasts in the lowered position using the heel ropes to secure, a sort of re-fit display mode.
 
I have now given up building large square riggers to avoid the torment of the decision making. 🙄
 
B.E.
 

Love the lighting in that last photo Peter. 👍
 
If space is going to be a serious problem, you could always display her with  lower masts and standing rigging only and without yards. It is an option I had to take with my Victory build due to the space  issue.

 
Regards,
 
B.E.

The plans have the focsle area with a checker plate and non slip strips. The kit has horribly raised bits and no non slip strips. When I bought the Pontos Marat upgrade to get the torpedo booms for the Borodino, it had lots of little steel strips which I’ve used here. The bits where the chain goes into the hull are little resin upgrades I got on a IJN set but I’ll have to add flywheels later.  

She's coming along very nicely.  Druxey's advise is excellent - don't be tempted to skimp on this stage of the work.
 
John

Looks like you are getting there. Filling ,rubbing down and repeating is tedious, but the end result is worth taking trouble over.

Some progress to report.  I completed the planking on the open side of the boat:
 

 
After sanding both sides with coarse and medium grit paper and doing some filling, I applied clear shellac diluted with denatured alcohol as a sanding sealer, and sanded with 400 grit paper.  I also trimmed and sanded the planks overhanging the transom
 

 

 
I primed with lacquer primer (came with the Bowdoin;s paint set), did a bit more filling, sanding, and recoating, then drew the waterline and masked it.
 

 
For antifouling paint, I used the same Model Master British Crimson enamel (also from Bowdoin) that I used for the wet well.  When I removed the blue masking tape, I was surprised at how well it had worked to define the edge, with no leakage to speak of.  I ran striping tape sealed with clear lacquer along the waterline in preparation for applying the hull color.
 

 
I had hoped to use Gunmetal enamel (another Bowdoin carryover), black with a hint of blue, for the hull, but a test showed it to be too glossy.  I had two flat blacks - one enamel and one acrylic - available, but they are light-eating flat and I didn't think either would look good next to the British Crimson, which has a slight sheen.  So I opted for a Tamaya semi-gloss acrylic that I had on hand.  Depending on the light angle, it can be pretty glossy but I think it will be OK.  After three coats of this stuff, I removed the striping tape and had a little touch-up to do, mostly where the tape had slightly overlapped the primer.  Here's the result:
 

 

 
I didn't paint the transom because the bulwark planks will need to be glued to it and trimmed later. 
 
I worked on the rudder, which I wanted to sort prior to finishing the hull: 
 

 
I also started shaping the bowsprit.  My carving skills have much room for improvement but it's getting there.
 

 
So now I have to decide whether to install the bulwarks or the deck first, how much of the deck to install, and how to finish it.  Time to look at other logs for inspiration.
 

After a couple of coats of gray spay primer and an off-white spray paint, I thought might look ok but did not like the color.  Needs a little more work on the bow.  Wet sanded to get some dust off and will start painting the hull later this week.

Thanks so much! I took a week off after finishing the semester so got a bit of extra time to work on the model. So next week I'll take it slow and enjoy the process even more. Thanks again for checking in!! 😁