egkb

It's about time I updated this.
I've got to the point where I need to do the chain pumps
So I made up the gallows a the bits, painted them and dry fitted, brass rods placed for the height of the previously made brackets.so far so good
Though on this photo the gallows need squaring up with the hatchthe columns are placed

And work continues 
Thanks for all the likes, they are much appreciated.
Cheers

So having discovered that I didn't cut the reliefs for the pintles I thought I'd give it a go.  This would have been so much easier when the piece was still square.


I got a good result and it needed to be done.  The pintles are made out of 1mm x 2.3mm brass so they need to sit flat as trying to force them into shape just will not work and damage the rudder.  You can see below the much better beds for them


I also have made the iron bands that reinforce the rudder around the tiller hole

Thanks for all of the comments and likes they really are inspiring.  I'm off to Malta for a week today so I'll catch up with you all when I get back
 
Mark

Update:
 
I actually wanted to post an update only after I finished the entire bow...but I had so little time to actually work on the ship, so I thought...might as well post a small interim update. Otherwise, it'll be a very long update.
 
First, I had to fit the gammoning knee. I noticed it didn't quite fit the curve of the prow. I probably sanded away the char a bit too enthusiastically. So I glued some scrap wood to the knee and then sanded it into shape.
 




 
Supervisor 🥸
 

 
Next, I glued the V-brackets to the gammoning knee, but discovered that the middle one wasn't completely straight/level, which would cause problems. So, I loosened it with some alcohol and re-glued it.
 

 
Dryfitting as much as possible, nothing glued here
 

 
Okay...this part wasn't so good, haha. I was too hasty here. I had everything nicely taped off before painting, but I didn't do a good prep (sanding), and with the WOP already in the wood, removing the tape didn't go well. That was just stupid of me and way too hasty. Prepping is very important, especially if the wood has already been treated.
I pulled off a nice chunk of paint while removing the tape  
 

 
But with a sharpened screwdriver I was able to remove the paint again and this time I did it properly with the right pre-treatment
 

 
The bow hair brackets were relatively easy to paint because I could scrape off the excess blue paint with a knife. This gave me a nice, clean decorative line in the center, as the laser-etched decorative lines are slightly deeper than the rest. I did, however, paint the "raised areas" that weren't going to be blue with WOP first. This made the blue paint adhere even less, which was an advantage.
 



 
Glued the bow hair brackets onto the now painted prow.
 

 
It looks like this now  
 
I painted the black line at an angle, this seemed to be the case with almost all the contemporary models I've seen. 
From the side it then appears that the wales continues at the same angle towards the prow.
 

 
I've already finished the bow grating, etc., but I'm still unsure whether I should do anything about the bow lower rails that will be attached to the sides.
Blue Ensign indicated in his log that the slots in the V-brackets could be smaller. But perhaps I'm too far along in the build to do anything with this. It doesn't seem very visible in other build logs, so I might leave it as is.
 

 
Later I will continue with sanding and attaching the bow cheeks
 

 
That's it for now...I hope I can make some more progress in the near future  

Thank You, Igor. Your work to create these figures is exquisite.

I'm not sure why so many people have hit the laughing emoji for my post, as the suggestion is not intended to be humorous. I'm well acquainted with production schedules and realize that it may be too late, too expensive, too troublesome, or simply not within the capabilities of the process to incorporate this fix, in which case it wouldn't be a deal breaker, obviously. But if every effort is being made to make the pieces as accurate as possible, and the capacity to make the fix is there, then why not? It's just something to consider.

And here is the full scene, Aubrey, Maturin, table with candles and music note stand - standard in all Surprise kits.

The rudder - This is made of 2 quite substantial pieces of wood which are 11.8mm wide.  I hadn't really studied the drawings of it before but it became obvious very quickly that it was going to be harder to make than first thought.

The challenge was working out the cutting order in sequence as the rudder is tapered in 2 dimensions.  Once tapered holding down onto the mill becomes difficult so I worked out how many tool cuts I could do with both pieces still being square.  I also cut the 2 pieces individually rather than gluing them together first.


After gluing together the first few cuts are straightforward as I'm just bringing the wood down to size 
Next I cut the taper on the main body of the rudder - the rudder widens away from the stern.  It's not much of a taper; it transitions from 8mm wide at the stern post to 10mm.  I did this but cutting a series of steps into the rudder which can be sanded smooth later.


Sketchy machining warning  - now I can't just turn the piece over and repeat as it will no longer sit flat on the tooling plate.  So I used a couple of laths to level it out but as you can imagine you are not going to get a good work hold doing it this way.  Its just a case of giving it a go and holding your breath!


I wouldn't recommend it but I got lucky and nothing moved.  It was nice to see the taper so even considering my less than safe practice.

Next to be machined was the taper on the leading edge of the rudder.  I worked this out to be 51 degrees which worked out OK.  Once again gripping the rudder was a bit hit and miss due to the tapers.  Small cuts and taking your time helps enormously in these situations 

After a good clean up the finished (wooden part) of the rudder




I need to make the pintles next but I'm waiting on a delivery of brass and also some silver solder.  They also look like a good challenge.
 
Mark
 

I actually wanted to finish weathering the towers today. But firstly, things don’t always turn out the way you expect, and secondly, they don’t, right?!
While placing the large
artillery pieces in their barbettes, my attention was drawn again to the bridgehouses with the structures I had modified from styrene profiles.
Wait a minute, I thought, I did that on the hull too. And that’s where the supports for the torpedo nets are attached directly to the hull.
Oh dear, open the dry dock carefully immediately.
 

 
And indeed, the supports run along the hull at the points marked in green, and the profiles would create a large gap there. So, I marked the height with my waterline marker.
 

 
I put the Mikasa on its side, put a new blade on the scalpel, and started carving notches. My little dry dock is invaluable again. It allows me to rest my hand properly and perform open-heart surgery with a steady cut.
 

 
So far, so good. A scrap piece of an old etched circuit board was cut to length and applied. No gap visible anymore, perfect.
 

 
So here’s the result. The notches run exactly under the green line, which is supposed to represent the torpedo net support.
 

 
Then do the same on the other side. Since I’ve already opened the dock, I checked the positions for the barge and the cutters. That should be fine.
 

 
Of course, I added the bridge decks for posing. I rarely see my model like this.
 

 
This model really keeps me awake at night. But whatever, this beautiful ship deserves a little effort and attention.
 

 
 

Brave new world, but cool that you can follow my report like this, Loyd.
 
So, another little update today.
The primer was smoothed and repaired again in the damaged areas with 1000-grit sandpaper.
Then I cleaned and attached a lot of microscopic parts.
The turrets are made almost entirely from the Pontos kit. Only the armor plates of the small turrets were provided by the KA kit.
See green arrow.
 

 
This allowed the base coat and a first wash to be applied.
Bow:
 

 
And stern:
 

 
Mikasa’s face continues to become more complete. 💁‍♂️
 

 
 

So, the gun barrels are now rigidly mounted, glued together, and stable.
This doesn't bother me, since I always build the main turrets in the moving position anyway.
 

 
The green arrow shows the defective primer.
 

 
After painting, you shouldn't notice any of it anymore. Now I can continue working on them next week.

Ahoy, dear forum community.
I’m back from my vacation.
I hadn’t quite unpacked my suitcases yet, but I was already magically drawn back to my ship model.
But since I didn’t feel like dealing with small stuff and wanted to make something big and simple, my eyes immediately fell on the large towers.
First, I cut out everything and collected it.
 

 
The interior was already prepared and only needed to be glued to the hood. Then the brass ring was attached to the base. A nice, easy start after the vacation.
 

 
Things got a bit more difficult with the large brass component that goes on the turret lid. But that wasn’t a problem with MIG’s acrylic glue. Of course, unlike with superglue, you have to hold the whole thing in place while it dries.
But that’s no problem.
 

 
Then I primed it, checked for cracks, and closed them.
So far, so good.
 

 
And then came the unexpected setback.
Getting the brass gun barrels into their mounts proved surprisingly difficult. The turret openings were very narrow and in some cases, the primer was peeling off the barrels. Furthermore, the barrels didn’t fit particularly well in their brass mounts and were relatively unstable. I then filled them with a lot of glue.
Thankfully, you won’t notice any of that later.
 

 
Standing upright like this, I’ll let the towers dry thoroughly before I continue working on them.
 

Did you know that on this day throughout history a ships cat has scratched its own bum.
 
Probably something you didn't know.
 
But us cats like to keep traditions alive.

Below-waterline painting completed, time to celebrate a little.
 
 


 
After two layers of acrylic, I opted to touch up the seams with a brush. I lost count of how many airbrushed layers of paint I applied, but before the final two ones I attached the PE parts with CA. Too much CA in fact, some of the depth markings had to be removed, bathed in acetone, and re-primed. 
 


 
I think that there is a nice amount of woodwork still visible. I would have preferred more consistent lines of planking, but for a first model it's close enough to the real thing:
 
 
I have to take a break from modeling now, as I'm waiting for Cornwall Model Boats to restock Admiralty Paints' yellow ochre and 5x5 mm walnut strips. The strips are for a little slipway that I'll try to build for the finished ship, inspired by these models:
 
 
 

 
https://nauticalhistory.weebly.com/the-70-gun-third-rate-prince-frederick-of-1714.html
 

Hi all another update from me - this one's going to be a bit picture heavy.  This time I'm approaching the gunwales; moulding and timber heads.
 
So I started with the easiest pieces which were the lower gunwales.  These were easy to make and I pre-drilled all of the holes for the guard rails


Next I needed to sort out a piece that I had failed to see in the drawings - goodness how long ago was that!  It was this piece coloured in red below - Its a small extension of the short frame which supports the fancy transition between the quarter deck and main deck gunwales.  Because I didn't see this another issue was that I cut the interior planking too short.

So I made a piece that could fill the gap and also go far enough inboard to be flush with the interior planking


Next was the mouldings  - these were pretty straight forward.  I scraped them to shape and to hold the tricky bits still I PVA'd them to a piece of scrap and then heated the back to release them.  They did take a bit of fitting but I got there and I took the opportunity to finally shape the timber heads.




Now this is a tricky part to make - the gunwale transition.  It is such a prominent part it needs to be as good a possible.  The gunwales are different widths and they need the transition to "S" a little too.  So what I ended up doing was to make the part much wider that I needed it.  In fact I made it 13.5mm wide.

I then roughed the "S" out but left loads on to finalise the shape once the quarterdeck gunwale was fitted.  This is one of those parts where if you force it - it will snap so I just slowly worked away at them until I got a good fit.


Lastly I made the remaining wale - It fits around the timber heads and also the guard rail stanchions so I made sure that they fitted correctly.  I think this would be difficult once they are fitted.

A few pictures of where I am now.






So next I guess I need to finish the planking between the mouldings and also make the decorative face for the first beam on the quarterdeck.
 
Thanks for all of the nice comments
 
Mark
 
 
 

Good morning, model builders.
Before I go on vacation, I wanted to post a quick update.
The front wheelhouse has been soldered and assembled.
 

 
And the deck, too. I added a small styrene profile in the middle. This ensures the deck rests firmly on the armored control station and gives the whole thing stability. You can’t see any of it.
 

 
Once you hang up, you’ll see that it would have been really tight with my profiles.
 

 
And that’s how the Mikasa got its two upper levels. stern…
 

 
and towards the bow.
 

 
That’s it in a nutshell before I set off on my journey tomorrow.
And here are a few more impressions of my model in its current construction state.
 

 

 

 

Hey Jeff, and thank you for your praise, it makes me proud. 😊
You speak from my heart. I really spend a lot of money on the high-quality additional details. But they catapult a model to the next level.
And if they're not there, two crazy people like us spend days tinkering with the inferior original kit.
But that makes us model builders, right?! 💪
 
I pushed the next cutters back for now, as the davits are missing and I can’t determine the optimal position. The steamboat isn’t glued down yet either.
So I started on the rear bridge. I was a bit apprehensive about this construction phase. You might remember that I removed some of the profiles on the bridge houses because I wasn’t sure everything would fit in the end.
But first things first.
First, I laid the wooden deck while I could still exert pressure on the plastic part.
 

 
This will stop once the underside has received its large brass component with the gusset plates.
 

 
After everything had thoroughly dried, I wanted to attach the posts that support the bridge on the bridge house. They were originally made of plastic, but I immediately rejected that idea. I cut some out of brass to give them more stability.
Attaching them, however, turned out to be a real test of patience.
 

 
After testing the bridge, I realized, no, not like that. It’s completely unstable.
So I’m starting from the back. I drilled holes for the posts so I could push them through from above later.
 

 
Next, the outer support structure was attached. What a delicate construction phase. But it looks so good, doesn't it Jeff?!
 

 
After I had completed that satisfactorily, I had to carefully tape everything off to avoid dirtying the wooden deck with the primer.
 

 
The base coat is applied, and then the moment of truth. Does everything fit?!
 

 
And you see, yes… everything fits together perfectly. So I wouldn’t have had to remove the profiles at all. It would have been close, but it would have worked anyway.
Still, she’s confident.
 

 
I’ve already soldered the little bridge house and placed it on the deck for fun.
Very nice.
 

 
 

Brannaren is finished!  Here's one photo -- a set of completion pictures can be found in the Gallery of Completed Kit-Built ships.  As I've noted above, this was a fun build, but only for those who have enough experience to make lots of decisions on their own due to sketchy instructions, and who have a decent stash of spare parts from other kits (rigging line, etc.).
 
Regards,
David

I'm still plodding on with the lodging and hanging knees I'm managing to one beam at a time, so slow work 
Thanks for following and all your support, this group is helping greatly.
Cheers

good morning everyone
 
without notice the wife has been admitted into hospital, which has thrown a massive curveball in my direction, so i have decided to put all my present builds on hold like the Bounty, however i fancied doing a bit of rigging, if and when i get chance, so have brought the EX Amerigo back to the table to redo all the shrouds and rats

No Christian. I have shelved the project in order to pursue, once again, a hobby which I was actively involved in from 1973 to 2006. Control line precision aerobatics. All the ships are being well preserved should I decide to start building again.
 
Mike

Okay, so it turned black.
 

 
Today, the entire machinery arrived in the barge.
Placed on the deck in its cradle for testing.
 

 
The space is very limited and it is damn tight.
 

 
Since the davits are still missing, the barge isn’t secured yet. The chain hoists for lashing it down aren’t attached either.
 

 
The next cutters are again 3D prints.
 

 
The shape of the Mikasa is slowly taking shape.
 

I have a question for you about the boiler of the steam boat, which I just painted in my favorite color, gray.
 

 
Now I'm looking at the boiler and wondering, were they really painted gray?!
Or were they perhaps painted black, since the gray wouldn't last long in the heat and might burn and peel off.
Do any of you have any information about this?
 
Edit:
Hello everyone.
This question has already been answered in other forums, and I'm going to paint the boiler black.

Thank you very much Jeff, very thoughtful. 😊
 
Let’s move on to the next yawls: the small steam launch. 
I haven’t found a 3D printer for this one, so I emulated Jeff..
Originally made from the box, the boat really doesn’t look anything like it. First, I removed the rough outline of the engine and the bulky center bar of the upper section.
 

 
Then I inserted a grating floor. The Bismarck’s former bridge wing was trimmed and fitted. Cheers to the etched parts grab bag. And I removed the suggested grating at the rear.
 

 
Now I made a bench seat and glued in the ribs from profiles. I attached an etched grille from the KA set to the rear.
 

 
We still need a boiler. It’s also only rudimentarily represented in the original, so there’s room for more. A small profile should represent the engine and its cylinders. A few flanges on top—you can never have enough.
 

 
Then, little by little, more details were added: piping, a handwheel, and a support for the tilting funnel. A small instrument panel at the front rounds it all off. Everything is then mounted on a styrene strip for easier handling.
 

 
More piping and a second handwheel. It never hurts.
 

 
And then I am quite satisfied with the whole facial expression.
 

 
Let’s put the whole thing in the little boat. Let’s put the funnel in for a test.
 
  Ferrules are really great for small funnel.     So far, so good.
Now we’ll apply the paint, and then we’ll add the small parts like the propeller and rudder.  

Update:
 
All the channels are mounted, including their knees. It wasn't a difficult job, only the knees were a bit fiddly when it came to removing the laser char. They're small and difficult to hold, etc. But I'm happy with the end result. The color of the channels turned out a bit darker than I'd like, but that's just how it is when you're dealing with different sheets of pearwood...they're not all the same. But it's not really a problem.
 
I initially thought the channels should be flush against the decorative moldings, but I discovered in other build logs that several people didn't have this. So I abandoned that idea.  
 
By the way...the manual advised to paint them black, which looks indeed nice with a painted hull. But I have chosen to leave them natural, I think it looks nicer with a unpainted hull.
 
 
Here's a brief description of what I did. First, I used a needle to center the channel, which will soon be drilled with a hole for a reinforcement rod to give the channels some extra strength for attaching to the hull.

 
Drilled a 0.7 hole (with a dremel in a vertical drill stand) so that it is straight.  
 

 
Small cut nail with CA glued in it
 

 
Some channels still needed a bit of sanding to fit (which is understandable, as every hull is slightly different, of course). You could clearly see if they fit properly from below.
 

 

 
Then, I pre-coated the bottom of the channels that are against the painted hull with WOP (so the varnish doesn't touch the painted hull). I didn't put the entire channel in the WOP because so many parts still needed to be glued. I thought that would be better on bare wood.  
 
I made a mistake here... somehow I didn't thin the varnish or even stir it (my mind was elsewhere). This resulted in a very thick layer, which is still visible in the final result. I could have sanded it down and re-varnished it, of course, but since it's on the underside and I almost never look at a ship that way... I just left it as is.  
 

 
The respective knees used as guides to glue the channels at the correct angle (parallel to the waterline).
 

 
End result after putting 2 layers of WOP on the channels
 

 
Here you can still spot the error between the diluted and undiluted lacquer  


 
I'm really looking forward to the next step...all the prow/bow stuff. HMS Pickle didn't have any of this; it was a very simple bow, so this will be really fun to do for the first time (I think ).
 

Many thanks again, Javlin.
This weekend, I had planned to finally finish the pinnaces.
The funnels had already been laid down and installed, but there were still a few small items missing that I wanted to add shortly before the end to avoid tearing them down again.
 

 
Two more boat hooks scratched on each pinnace and the portholes glazed.
 
  A chain hoist is installed to secure the boats.     Railings and companionways mounted on the foredeck.     I need to refinish the deck where the pinnaces rest. During all the adjustments, I scratched the paint surface and had to patch it up. I’ll have to go back to that.     Slowly life comes into the place.     A new sailor has also started his service.     He checks the tension on the pinnace’s chain hoist.