Charter33

Thanks' for the additional tips, Steve. The white vinegar is already in the workshop, the Birchwood Casey 'Brass Black' due for delivery early next week, as are the brass wire brushes for the Dremel which I hope will remove any traces of C.A. adhesive from the pivot rods (?) and the breach rings.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

Thanks' for the additional tips, Steve. The white vinegar is already in the workshop, the Birchwood Casey 'Brass Black' due for delivery early next week, as are the brass wire brushes for the Dremel which I hope will remove any traces of C.A. adhesive from the pivot rods (?) and the breach rings.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

Thanks' Hornet - found it on ebay as you suggested and an order has been placed. I'll have a go and see how it comes out.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

Thanks' Hornet - found it on ebay as you suggested and an order has been placed. I'll have a go and see how it comes out.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

The hottest and longest day of the year.  With the ‘shipyard’ inside the house uncomfortably hot a little ‘Al Fresco’ modelling was called for…….

 
With the scent of jasmine wafting over the improvised work bench, and a cold beer, life’s good …. and this picture was taken just after 8.30pm with the temperature still in the high 20s.
 
I came up with this jig to help me to construct the gun carriages – this is the test of the first of many to be assembled.
 

 
The four elements surrounding the carriage slide up across into place and keep the parts aligned and 'square' while the glue dries. The jig will allow five to be assembled at once.

Reliance on jigs has been made more necessary as recent medical treatment has left my fingers numb to the extent that I know I’m gripping something if I can see that I am. I’ve been assured that this side effect will eventually go but it’s very frustrating at times.
 
Finally a little trick to clean up the carriage wheels – mounted two at a time on the grinding disc mandrel of a Dremel and lightly rubbed on a sheet of glass paper.

 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham.

Thanks' for the info Nick. You're right - using the airbrush can be a lot of messing about. I'll act on your advice and try hand painting first.
I'm enjoying your Confederacy log - keep up the great work!
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

Thanks' for the info Nick. You're right - using the airbrush can be a lot of messing about. I'll act on your advice and try hand painting first.
I'm enjoying your Confederacy log - keep up the great work!
 
Cheers,
 
Graham

The hottest and longest day of the year.  With the ‘shipyard’ inside the house uncomfortably hot a little ‘Al Fresco’ modelling was called for…….

 
With the scent of jasmine wafting over the improvised work bench, and a cold beer, life’s good …. and this picture was taken just after 8.30pm with the temperature still in the high 20s.
 
I came up with this jig to help me to construct the gun carriages – this is the test of the first of many to be assembled.
 

 
The four elements surrounding the carriage slide up across into place and keep the parts aligned and 'square' while the glue dries. The jig will allow five to be assembled at once.

Reliance on jigs has been made more necessary as recent medical treatment has left my fingers numb to the extent that I know I’m gripping something if I can see that I am. I’ve been assured that this side effect will eventually go but it’s very frustrating at times.
 
Finally a little trick to clean up the carriage wheels – mounted two at a time on the grinding disc mandrel of a Dremel and lightly rubbed on a sheet of glass paper.

 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham.

More progress

We ended the year 2016 and January 2017 are entering...

Hi Graham
 
I have recently done just that (see confed log)
I used Admiralty Dull Black, I thinned it with water, probably about 50/50 but thinned it to a water-like consistency whilst retaining some degree of colour.
I then sprayed many coats, many coats! about 20 in all.
If you do very light coats, which is a must to avoid runs then they dry in less than an hour, at least enough to do a further coat.
 
But as I mentioned in my log I am leaning towards a brush rather than an air brush in future.
The multiple tinned coats works pretty well when brushing and using the gun is a lot of extra faff.
 
Best of luck
 
Nick

Carl, Rob, Christian, Niles and the likes - thanks for your kind words, encouragement and patience on this slow voyage...
 
Jesse, Dave - Of course you are right, but no matter how many times I tell myself that it doesn't help...I probably have one of those personality disorders along the lines of "well he did it, so why can't I?"   And yes, its gets me into trouble with those fixes around the house that I maybe shouldn't be tackling.. 
 
Anyway a little update as I really can do no more to the bow at this point, which means I need to get back to the stern...then I remembered that that was basically the reason for me taking a break and starting work on the bow...There are a couple of questions at the end.
 
Once the cheeks and the rails were done, I needed to tackle hawse holes and the bolsters.  These had me really thinking, but first step was once again to shape from some thick stock, only this time I had to take it even slower as pretty much the entire interior face needed to fit tightly against the hull because any errors would be really obvious once the holes were cut.  The balsa filler blocks were also removed (Interestingly, you can see the outline of the recess that I had put in a long while ago to try to introduce a void behind the expected hole placement to look a little more authentic...seemed a good idea at the time but they would have been in slightly the wrong place)
 
The holes themselves are ~6mm in diameter, and taking a drill bit of that size was clearly out of the question.  The hole centers were estimated and I drilled with a 2mm bit in a hand drill.  This was large enough to get a round microfile in to gradually enlarge and then use a larger round file.  Once the holes were approx. 4-5mm and still quite rough, some tapered dowel was used with sandpaper around to again gradually enlarge until they were approximately the right size.  All the time doing this, the bolsters were held in place with fingers so everything would align - I didn't want to commit to gluing in place just yet.

Once again, I knew I'd be making my own out of castello, but continuing the trend I think the kit supplied parts are way undersized.

One other item to take care of is the Gamming knee, the kit supplied part was generally oversized, but it was necessary to cut a new piece because the back of the knee was undersized.  Not sure how much of this will be visible, but it fun to make.  The hole is for the mainstay collar, some alteration will likely be needed on the head timbers but that is for another day.  This is not attached yet.
And the final results...these pieces seem to really bring out the face of the ship and to my eye really add some character.

 
Some questions:
The bulwark are considerably thinner than they would be in scale, and although the photo makes it more obvious, this is apparent if you look for it.  Also, I know that the hawse holes were lined in lead, but I'm not seeing this as a feature standing out to me looking at models, in many it seems these were just painted ochre...would welcome other's thoughts and suggestions here.  I'm leaning toward a 'lead like' grey just on the inside of the bulwark but not extending over the bolster. For fellow Diana kit builders.  I placed the waste rail on the starboard bow side only as it seems to me that this could cause problems with the fitment of the bow grating against the hull - anyone have any experiences on this?  
 
 

Forget to say that one of the main sources of documentation is the model of the Museum of Annapolis.

We are already in December 2016

Make sure you check out Uschi's metal powder offerings, those kits are perfect applications for them. They are actually quite easy to use and can produce metal finishes that are exceptionally realistic.
 
This one shows off some of his leather decals and wood paints/decals.

Note both of these show a Mercedes D.IIIa/au engine as used by the Albatrosen and early Fokker D.VIIs  


And here's a guy doing a terrible job of using them on your 80hp Le Rhone kit, rough sanded with no undercoat and it still looks pretty good.

 
The only downside is metal finishes like this are the least forgiving in existence, and in fact if you had a need to find every single scratch on a surface down to near atomic levels, rub some metal powder on and you can see them pretty easily.
 
It's not quite that bad of course but you get the point, best results will be to use the same undercoats he recommends on a surface that's been sanded/polished to the highest grit you can stand. Novus Plastic Polish works very well here, you sand to maybe 1200/1500 and the #2 fine scratch remover will take out all of those scratches and leave you with a glass finish and can be done by hand but felt points of various shapes for your rotary tool can help speed up things considerably.
 
This is a glider I made painted Tamiya flat black and rubbed over with one of the powders. Tragically, being made of balsa, it moved way too much and the finish got all wrinkled a few months later. So not recommended over wood.

 
 

Good day Shipmates,
 
I thought I'd post my current progress as I will be away for a while. So, since last time I have double planked the deck, installed the deck rail, the timbers, the hand rail and the main hatch (not glued in place).
 
First layer of walnut planking. The 1.5 mm thick planks are continuous. They need to be sanded down by 0.5 mm. It becomes obvious here how important it is to get the bottom of the scuppers location right.

This is what happened when I accidentally dropped my feeler gauge (I'm forgetting the right name for it). I've had a good year's use out of it so the tears were brief.  Maybe the metal rods will come in handy.

Here is the second layer of yellow cedar decking completed; deck rails installed, hatches and entranceway holes and timbers glued in place. 

The approach I used for the final 0.5 mm yellow cedar deck planks was to cut them with a jig, square them with the Byrne's disc sander, and pencil the edges (not shown). I was not happy with the pencil approach so I will look for a different approach next time. If you're wondering about the rubber gloves...they gave me a better grip of these thin pieces.


The deck rail (the walnut on the periphery of the deck) is challenging to glue down because the 0.5 mm pieces immediately curl up upon gluing. The king plank is supposed to sit proud of the decking . The cap rail bow pieces were fiendishly difficult to bend but I got there eventually .

Thanks for looking in.
 
Best Regards,
Ian

So as promised here is what I have been up to on the bounty while awaiting final parts required and alongside my other little build the fast patrol launch
 

 
I am adding as many lines as possible to the masts off ship this will speed things up dramatically however it feels very commercial and I was happier with my previous build just to add one line at a time on ship and keep everything tidy ,even tho it does mean a lot of tedious fidely work
 

 
I am not going for super accuracy on the rigging ,more just as billings intended ,the ship is already inaccurate in many ways so I don't feel the need to spend three four five years rigging
I hope to keep the whole build down to under one year .
 
the last thing I need is the sails that came with the kit sewed up for me so I cut them all to size and took them to a seemstres I was quoted fifty pounds due to the work actually involved and I do understand that but was a bit shocked ,I have tried buying pre sewn sails in 1/50 but have been unsuccessfull
my mother has volunteered to give the sails a go and they are currently at her house so will hopefully get to show you them in next couple of weeks.
we will see how they turn out but I think I will use them regardless of how they turn out as it will be nice to have another family members touch involved in the build .
I have given my mother the pictures on the box and asked if she can replicate that ,they are far from realistic but I do like a ship to have sails
 


thanks for viewing
 
steve

And yet more-


Here's the finished paint job.
 


I have now moved on to the Channel Wales.
They have been cut bent and glued on.
Here I have masked the painted surfaces so that I can sand the Wales without a risk of marking the paint.


Now, after sanding them down I am giving them the tree nail treatment.
I used a piece of masking tape to mark the drill line as I went.


Now the Channel Wales have been fully tree nailed, filled and sanded.
You can also see here the Black Strake above the Main Wales, ironically not actually painted black.
I put this on after the painting so that I could get a sharp paint edge.
It is thinner than the Wale so I made them up fully, complete with tree nailing and sanding before fitting.

Finally to bring me right up to date.
These are the fancy profiles to go along the painted upper hull sides.
I have used Chucks scraper, supplied with the kit, to make the shape.
Here they are getting a coat of Danish oil before fitting.
I will be using Danish Oil for finishing all of the bare woodwork.
 
Thanks for dropping by
 
Nick
 

to continue-



Main wale both sides now sanded back and a small radius sanded in top and bottom.

Next job, remove some of the capping structure where it crosses the higher gun ports.
Here's on done and one waiting, first carefully saw them out.

Then a gentle sand back to shape.
The paint gets a touch up a bit later.


Now I can get prepared for some painting.
I am giving the painted surfaces a coat or two of Shellac sanding sealer, then a very fine grit sanding.
First time I have used this but I am pleased with how it worked out.
Here you can see the Wale coated and the upper works.

Bit of a jump forward.
But hull masked and 20 coats of thinned (quite a lot) Admiralty dull black acrylic applied.
I used an air brush.
But I think that it will be the last time I do use the air brush.
I have been finding that the many thinned coat approach gives a perfectly satisfactory finish with a brush.
The Air brush is, to be quite honest a huge P.I.T.A.
Extra masking, dedicated painting area, constant clean between coats, who needs it.
Another shot from the bow.

I'm afraid it's been a while since I updated my build log.
But here we go with a few posts to bring it up to date.

This where I had go to.
All the above wales planking is now drilled for tree nails.

And I then sanded back and rounded out the holes with an awl.

Now they have been filled and again sanded back.


Next thing was to add the main wales.

For the strakes at the bow some special treatment is required.
First I need to edge bend them.
I have a jig with a couple of suitable radius guides glued on.
Put in the plank and use my hot air gun to heat it up, then gently push in the loose outer guide and clamp in place.

Once cool (I tend to leave for at least an hour but not really necessary) the plank comes out.
There is always a bit of spring back but that was allowed for with the guide.

Then I use the hot air gun to gradually work the required radius in for the planks position.
This method allows me to constantly try and adjust till I'm happy, heat it up - flex or twist a bit by hand - try in place - repeat.
Here is the wale at the bow finished.

And at the stern.

Because the wale will be painted I have been able to use a bit of filler to fill any small gaps etc.
 
Nick

Nice job on the plating.  Canons look much better with rings.
 
Regards

Thanks for the ‘likes’, comments and input.  Always welcome and appreciated.
 
Michael (MEDDO) – the equipment is not exactly mine,  but having access to it is the next best thing. The planner / thicknesser and I go back 40 years – and I believe it was almost 20 years old when I first used it!  I must have fed the equivalent of a small forest through it over that time …..
Christian – I agree that the black and the brown pens that I used on the aft deadwood are too dark.  I have found a set of ‘Furniture Touch up scratch repair’ marker pens that contain lighter browns and plan to experiment with these when they arrive next week.
 
In the mean-time the components for the bow structure are ready to be cut out.

I’ve been working on the false keel and keel parts this week.  All the scarf joints have been marked out and cut.


 
I have also made a temporary filler piece for the space between the fore and aft deadwoods, where the frames will go later,  to help with shaping the bottom edges of the keelson components and to aid with the alinement  of the various sub-assemblies when they are glued together.


I’ll be adding the tapers to the ends later.  They are ready for gluing now and once dry I plan to add the treenails to the joints.  Showing my inexperience here,  but should these be wooden pegs or copper wire? – I’ve seen both methods used …..
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham.

Thanks for dropping by Marc, here is yet another jig!
 
Decision made – I’m going to stick with the approach given in the manual and work up from the keel – thanks Steve for the ‘nudge’ that finally swayed me.
After several sessions I have now fitted about 10% of the copper plates. It was always going to be a long haul, but so far it’s been fairly straight forward and surprisingly therapeutic!
 
One aspect that has been giving me food for thought was how to deal with the keel. I wanted to cover the bottom of it with plates folded evenly over the edges. With the keel 5 mm thick and the plates 6 mm wide this means a ‘return’ of 0.5 mm on the side of each plate. Early attempts with flat pliers and then brass soft jaws in a bench vice failed miserably ……
With approximately 60 plates needing to be shaped some kind of simple former was going to be required. This is what I came up with:
 

 
The main body consists of two 60 mm lengths of 5 mm square mild steel bar. The lower part has a shallow recess equal to the length of a copper plate filed into it while the upper bar has two grooves filed in with a ‘three square’ needle file to provide clearance for the raised rivet heads that run across the ends of the plates.  I couldn’t find any small diameter socket headed machine screws to apply the clamping pressure in the workshop so resorted to cutting M3 x .5 threads on the pins of a couple of  plated brass ‘push buttons’ from old 1970’s telephones that were rattling around at the back of a cupboard – knew they’d come in useful one day ….. Clearance holes in the top bar and suitably threaded holes in the lower bar finish the former.
 
The plate is put in place, but first checked to ensure that the rows of ‘rivets’ on the side are equally spaced from the edges – this sometimes varies considerably.
 

 
After clamping the protruding edges are pushed by thumb in the right direction and then a piece of softwood dowel is rolled along the edge to complete the bend.
 


 


... and the job's a goodun...
 
I hope this will be of some use to other builders.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham.
 

Hi,
Thanks once again for the generous comments and ‘likes’ – much appreciated as always. Michael - the Gloucester Javelin has a special significance. My dad worked on their electronic systems when he was in the RAF and I have clear memories of being taken to watch pilots practicing circuits and landings in them - this is probably responsible in no small way for sparking a lifetimes interest in aviation.
 
Meanwhile back in the marine world ,,,,, I need to start this post with an apology!  Throughout my career in teaching I have always been an advocate and proponent of the old adages ‘measure twice, cut once’ and ‘never assume …’  In my previous post I referred to the spigots on the dummy cannons being under size.  I have since found that this applied only to the 32 pdr cannons. Spigots on the 24 pdr cannons were bang on 2 mm. Consequently the holes in their deck have had to be re-drilled (No. series 44). At least they were under and not oversize.
 
Progress with my Victory has been a bit slow over the last couple of weeks. I have just returned to work after an absence of over a year, all be it now on a part time basis, and to be frank I have returned home most days well and truly knackered.  It’s been a long and at times difficult journey but the end is at last in sight.  Modelling activity recently has inevitably been a case of quietly browsing this site (always time well spent).
 
I have now started to add the copper plates to the hull. A strip of micro-ply as wide as the plates and marked with divisions equal to their length was pinned to the hull to help gauge the fall of the ‘part’ plates at the ends of the initial runs and to mark the width of the first line.
 

 
The plates are being attached with a couple of drops of c.a. glue applied before being pressed into place. I am still thinking about whether to follow the method described in the manual ie.  working up from the keel, or to plate some straight runs from the water line down as well.
 



Thirty one plates now in place, so just 2569 to go …..
 

 
Onward and upwards! 
  
Cheers for now,
 
Graham.

Thanks WackoWolf and mort stoll for the 'likes'.
 
A bit of progress made this week …..
With the aid of a couple of card templates,  plan sheet 2,  google images and several build logs the location for the dummy gun ports was found and marked onto the hull.  
 


 
 One of the most helpful logs was JJacobi’s – thank you!  I made a comment on his build log back at the beginning of March about how his build was a few pages further on in the instruction manual compared to mine only to discover that he was still in the process of uploading pictures.  In truth it transpires that he is way, way ahead! If my Victory gets anywhere close to his in terms of quality I will be well satisfied.
The outlines of the ports were incised with a sharp chisel as was the division between the double doors on the middle deck.

The ports were then painted. I’ll add the hinges etc. later on.
 

To drill the holes for the spigots of the dummy cannons some simple guides were made. These were produced from some hardwood offcuts trimmed to size to fit the ports and then mounted in a four jaw chuck on a lathe for boring. 



The manual suggests that the drill to use should be slightly larger than 2 mm.  Checking the spigots showed that they were well under this size coming out at about dia. 1.77 mm.  Trial holes drilled in a spare piece of ply from the kit resulted in my selection of a Number 49 drill bit (1.85 mm).  Although they still need painting I couldn’t resist pushing them temporarily into place.
 


I’ll be spraying the cannons at the same time as the upper gun deck barrels but first I have plans to modify these.  More details will follow once I’ve worked out how to achieve the results I am hoping for.
 
As for progress with my other project - I finally found a couple of UK based suppliers of T Track.  Neither have them I stock at present but at least they have been ordered.  I now have the base board ready and waiting for them, the parts for the gantry prepared and the set of 1:48 scales printed.  About time to start shaping some wood, I think, and another build log to begin …..
With the Victory build the next challenge is the copper plating – lots and lots of copper plating ….!
 
Cheers for now,
 
Graham