BLACK VIKING

I've finally started the decking on the aftercastle. The original decks on the model were made from bamboo strips from an exterior blind, glued straight onto the deck beams. I'm making the new decking from the same stuff  (it's ok - I didn't steal them from outside the house - they were surplus strips when we adjusted the blinds to fit the windows. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I had to strip off the outside "skin" of the bamboo to make it sit better. And sanded the inner surface smooth, as it's the side that will be upward. 

The original deck was made by just gluing the full-width strips onto the deck beams, but this time I'm cutting the planks individually to the correct historical width - partly to show which is old and which is new - and as bamboo is "tube-shaped" the strips have a bit of transverse curve to them, which can be minimised by cutting them into thin strips. 

Here's the first plank in place:
 
And another. I've marked the locations of the masts, so I can cut holes for them later. And I've also marked the hole for the ladder down from the upper deck into the hull.
 II
And here's the ladder (remember it's 1:200 scale - where's that giant matchstick I use for comparison?)
 
I added a fake deck below it so there's somewhere for the ladder to go. Another consequence of not adding the lower decks when I originally made the model.

Putting this assembly in place was harder than I'd expected. You can't just glue the top of the ladder to the underside of the deck and expect it to stay there. My first solution was a frame that was to be glued to the adjoining deck beam and the underside of the deck.

It didn't work. Much too fragile and kept warping and bending out of shape. 
 
So then I made a solider structure, with a  bit of wooden sheet glued upright at each end, like a couple of walls.

That worked. Unfortunately as I was gluing it in my hand brushed against one of the bronze cannons and dislodged it, so I had to glue it back in place (not shown in photos).

I'll have to tidy up the edges of the hole in the deck, but that can wait till later. Also the central plank is a bit high but I'll be sanding that down when all the decking is in place.
 
Steven
 

Final subassembly before paint....
And, as a teaser, A shot of the subject model at this stage of assembly. Still in subassemblies, just prefitted before paint to make sure everything fits the way it should. After this we will be in it's first drab dress....

Cab pre-fitted to the deck, deck fitted to the hull with some of the body superstructure fitted in place.... I built the blade as a subassembly cause like the front plate, there is a lot of detail that will not be readily seen once assembled.... And at this point a note. this kit is right up there on the accurate detail end of the scale, equal to ANYTHING produced today. I am very impressed at the level of detail and the crisp clean molding. I would recommend it to anyone as a fine example of the M8A1 HST. This effort by Nitto is far and away better than their M4 HST in accuracy and manufacture.... Unfortunately it is not manufactured anymore, but Bluetank has the Nitto molds and has re-released this kit several years ago, it is still available at a reasonable price, and makes a fine addition to any artillery prime mover lineup.
 
Well, here she is, a new suit of clothes.....

I pulled all the superstructure off the back as they need to be painted individually. There are underneath places that need painted which wouldn't happen with the body completely assembled....
Need to let the paint cure for 24 hours before I can do any details or touch-ups.......
 
At this time I went thru the Kit from this point forward looking for any problem areas that may be laying in wait while the paint cured. Noticed that the M2 .50 cal was missing, the mount is here, what they call an ammo box is here but the gun is nowhere to be seen. All I can think of since the bags were sealed closed (mfgr. stapled) it must have fell off during bagging. OH Well! I went and found a replacement online... Asuka Browning M2 Machine Gun Set B w/Cradle. Said to be the best, better than resin & photoetch so I guess we will see. As I was prepping the remaining parts for spraying, I was looking at the body and thought something is missing....... but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.... 

Reels......

The M51 Skysweeper used two main sets of cabling, one set ran from the Generator to the Gun and the other from the Gun to the Director. And the kit has no reels.......
So where do I find reference to period US Army cable reels???? Google doesn't help, it shows current reels and those commercially available, nothing WWII/Korea vintage.....
So who in the US Army used Cable Reels? the Signal Corp of course! I searched on Signal corp operations and imagery and came up with two photos of what I needed to make....

France 1944, Signal Corps troops repairing the telephone system. A standard 22"dia cable reel is at the base of the pole.

Korea 1952 I believe, telephone work at an airbase. four standard 22" cable reels in the back of a cable service truck.

Making reels is fairly simple, two disks and a tube, 3/8ths tube and .020" sheet styrene cut in a 5/8th circle drilled thru the center to accept the rod......

Mounted in the Reel Holder, looks like they will suffice, but need more details.

.025 styrene rod used to replicate the six stiffener spokes on the reel....

Showing the method of glueing the stiffeners in place using liquid cement......

Almost finished with the stiffeners, a simple six spoke pattern flush with the disk edge....

Inner bearing disks glued over the center of the spokes and drilled, and the beginnings of attaching the rims of the reels.....

Mounted on the rod in the reel holders.

Ready for final sanding and paint..... The wide reel held the power cable and the narrow one held the director cable. Now I need to find a suitable material to simulate the cables. Standard wire doesn't cut it....
 
Next up, more Painting and Assembly, Tracks and looking forward to the Generator set which is not included in the kit.....
 
 

Hi all,   I did a bit more on the spit today  - next was to build the first of the two wings rads, these are five section units  - they were assembled then the rad filters inside were painted flat alum, with the indside bodywork cockpit green, there is then a rear adjustable vent cover that was fitted with an actuation lever in the open position, this area was also painted.
After I used my pencil for some shading and white for highlighting.
 
Just dry fitted will keep them off and fit after spraying the bottom.
 
OC.

Here we are at stage one, quite a lot of filing the slots to get the ribs to fit the keel however they seem to have fitted OK and the decks are glued down. Next to do is my first attempt at fairing.
 
I made the clamp stand but did find that the keel came loose after awhile, maybe the material used was too slippery however I cut two small strips of 80 grade sand paper and solved the problem. A tip if you've had the same problem. 

We have a lot of time at home to challenge difficult models

First encountered this ship in the seminal Ships of the Pharaohs by Björn Landström. More recently I saw again the well know relief from Sahure's grave complex in Shelley Wachsmann's Seagoing Ships & Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant. Amati has long now provided a kit for this ship, mostly based on Landström's plans, with a few oversimplifications as usual.
 
Started out with forming a basic mold for the hull shape, over which I built the hull shape. The wood used is Linden, stained with a reddish teak water stain and then treated with tung oil.
 
 
 

Hi Everyone as a Newbie here, this is my first post, so I hope I have completed everything ok.
Nearly finished painting all the parts for my Airfix 1:72 Golden Hind Galleon, won't be long before the Assembly begins ⚓⚓⚓⚓

Morning,
 
Thanks for comments and likes!
Popeye, your right about the PE. It's a labor of love.
The majority isn't seen, but it will bug the heck out of me If I don't do it!!!!! 
 
I seem to have found a little rhythm while staying at home. 
One day I'll work on my Niagara build, then the next day I'll work on the Mitchell. 
The crazy part is, while working on one project, I'm usually feeling guilty for not working on the other!!!!!
Man! I've been at home WAY too long! 
 
Anywho…..
 
The bombs were assembled, as well as some ammunition boxes, and airbrushed a Mr Color flat black.
I've never used Mr Color paints before and I'm rather impressed.
Since I've never airbrushed before, the learning curve has been visible. 
Yet, the combo of Mr Color paints and thinner still produce a quality paint job even while learning the craft. 

Easily installed. 
The rear seat has it's seatbelts and glued into place as well. 

I could have done a better job "burying" the rear part of the belts into the plastic.
 

Both sides of the fuselage have ammo boxes. 
There is some PE ammo belts for these. 
They are a 3 part "sandwich" like construction. Should have some pics soon. 

Not going too crazy on the bombs, the fins were painted a Tamiya gun metal.  Almost imperceptible, but it's there. 
The very tip of the bomb will be a Tamiya flat yellow. The same yellow ultimately used on the front area of the engines. 
Well see what becomes of these. 

Check in on your neighbors,
 
Tom E 
 
 
 

Good evening all,    I managed to get a bit done this afternoon  -  I cleaned up the front cowl  seams  and added just the smallest amount of putty.
 
OC.

The starboard gunports are now done and mounted.  I'm going to run an extra bead of glue around them to be sure they are really fixed on so that they won't pop off when they are sanded down to flush with the frames.
 
Now on to the port side.
 
Regards,
David

Thank you, MD and Victor.  Well, as you know, I’m a huge fan of the Heller kit, and the main reason for that is that they were extremely attentive to re-creating Tanneron’s sculptural work.
 
This is why I will go to some lengths to adapt as many of the large sculptural figures as I can.  With the exception of Africa, whose entire posture has to be altered, I should be able to re-use them all.
 
You made me think of another Heller prestige ship that was very finely moulded, and that was La Couronne, at 1:200.
 
I used to own this kit as part of a large stash of un-built plastic kits. When I moved into my then girlfriend’s studio, before we married, I divested myself of all but the Airfix Prince and Vasa, which I deemed to be the best among the lot.
 
I should have held onto La Couronne, though.  This is another kit that would benefit tremendously from cutting away the lower hull, and building all of the deck furniture from scratch and to scale.  The overhang of the stern counter is exaggerated, but it could be modified, somewhat.  The upper bulwarks were gems, though.  Aaaah, well - the things we sacrifice for love!

That's about what I'm going to do also.

Just an idea.
I made crates. Filled them up. And placed them near each cannon.
To give the impression that they were brought on deck just beforea they were needed . 
 

 

 

Minesweeping Trawlers 'Ben Dearg' and 'Cardiff Castle' return to Base. 
W/C 11” X 9”

Fear Nothing
HMS Dreadnought docking assisted by Tugs
14” X 10” watercolour
Jim

Lovely work OC love the exhaust. 
Martyn

It is refreshing, periodically, to shift between the intensive ornamental aspects of the build, and the more constructive bones of the project.  I enjoy the ornamental work very much, but it is fatiguing.
 
So, I’ve been fitting-out the lower gun deck.  The first order of business was to scribe and secure the side platforms that will support the dummy carriages.
 
Clamping these to my “beams” was tricky because clearance between beam and plinth base is very limited.  I could get a binder clip on, near the hawse holes, but I needed to develop a system for the rest of the way.
 
Since none of this will be visible, I decided to drill holes on each side of each beam, through which I could thread ties that I could pull taught over a short length of toothpick (temporarily secured with double-stick tape), and then fix down tight with a drop of cyano:

This worked beautifully.  I then found that I could increase clamping pressure by wedging the end of a second toothpick into the tie-loop:

Once the liquid plastic adhesive had cured, I knew that I had solid connection all along the length of the hull.

Next, I wanted to scribe and secure the vertical gussets to which the middle deck “beams” will be secured.  I was careful to space them so that they did not interfere with the lower masts.
 
Simple templates were cut from index cards, and with only slight adjustments one template could produce gussets for that location, on both sides:


This has become a pretty straight-forward framing exercise that I’ve gotten to be pretty efficient at.  Here is the full run of gussets in place:
 
 
Finally, I wanted to get a sense for where my dummy carriages needed to be placed, in order to have the right amount of gun barrel poking out the side of the hull.
 
Here is where I discovered a few issues that I did not properly anticipate.
 
First of all, my early estimate of the gun platform decking thickness, combined with the height of the gunport sills above the decking, was off.  So much so, in fact, that a barrel inserted into a dummy carriage was resting on the sill.  I drilled the holes too low.
 
Okay, no problem; I simply shimmed each dummy carriage with a length of 1/16” styrene.  In the following picture, you can see these shims (on the left row), which I’ve blacked out with permanent marker, as well as the annealed wire eyelets I made for the port lid laniards:

The other little surprise that I failed to calculate was the sheer length of the lower deck gun barrels, after cutting off the cascabels.  My Initial plan was to butt my blocks up against the slight raised lip of the carriage decking, and that would determine the outboard projection of the gun barrels.  The trouble is that would place the trunnions (which had been shaved off) and the dolphin handles outside the hull!
 
Instead, I discovered that I could place the dummy carriages a little further inboard, so that the new 1/16” shim butted up against the raised lip of the platform decking.  This provided me with the extra real-estate I needed for a reasonable projection.

I wanted, however, for there to be a little extra support for the carriage blocks, so I made small outrigger blocks that I’m in the process of gluing to the inboard edge of the carriage platform decking.

There is a generous 1/4” gap between these outboard gun platforms and the inboard central decking that supports the masts.  When it comes time to secure the dummy carriages, they will be cyano’d in-place to both the decking and the out-rigger blocks.
 
While I won’t glue-in the gun barrels until the model is rigged and nearly complete, here are a few shots that show what that projection will look like:


I think that my efforts to increase the breadth of the cannons provide a better sense of heft and scale than would otherwise be the case.
 
So, that’s where the work is heading.  I still have a fair amount of repetitive work to do before I can place the middle deck beams. I won’t get much beyond that, though, because I need to buy some appropriate anchor cabling from Syren, and it may be a while before Chuck is filling orders again.
 
Anyway, if I get stuck, I’ll turn my attention to constructing the quarter galleries from the lower finishing, on up.
 
Thank you all for checking in on me, and your well-wishes during my recovery.  I’ve had some relapse of symptoms - which is apparently common - but nothing concerning.  I’m going to be just fine.
 
Until next time, stay well and close to your loved ones.
 

hi again all, using longridge as a reference altered/ updated the billings plans as they either simplified or missed a lot of rigging! Also attached and trussed lashed the breeching ropes and added the block and tackles on the quarter deck - not sure whether to leave these or remove and just leave the breeching ropes. Added the billing brass belaying pins- none of the hammock netting cranes are glued in place yet.






have fun all and thanks for the views and likes- always appreciated.
 
Keith

Ok, Lou,  I did the rest of the tank after supper tonight
 
The basic tank is finished.  Up next is camouflage, add all the extra gear needed for combat mission. finish the 3 infantry figures that go with the kit. Basically 4 sprues worth of fiddly bits to add to the tank.  And then the hard part, coming up with a suitable display format for it. 
 
Compared to my other tank models in my collection, this one is tiny, even for a model.
 
Fixing the figures to their respective posts.
 

Assembled tank tread (one of two)
 

 
Turret prior to installing on tank
 

 
Tank upper body half
 

 
Lower body half with tank treads installed
 

 
Upper and Lower body halves glued together
 

Turret attached

 
Finally all parts together
 

 
Stay tuned while I work on the extras. 

Like I said it's the starter kit...no ejector seats... Just seats...😋
And thanks for the "VERY COOL". Like that!😁


Woohoo uploading is working again!

I should have this wrapped up within the next few days. I need to attach the coffin handles to the body and the rumble seat to the rear. A few touch ups with some paint and I'm hoping my 2.5mm sheaves will arrive so I can continue on with my Jenny. 
 

The kit consists of several bags of wooden parts, paper sheets, small parts, even a LED and battery case for illuminating the flower house is part of the kit. A 30-Page manual guides you through the construction. Boy, this will be more stress than building any ship model.  

The Kontrollraum is pretty much finished. I just need to populate it with a few sailors. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of it: 



As you can see, the front of the compartment is completely devoid of details, to allow some view into the back wall. It is a little bit unfortunate that Trumpeter did not push the efforts to include the diving stations (two sailors sitting on the bench) and the Christmas tree of valves.
 
A couple of views through the hatches: 


What you see in the center, is the computer used to calculate and program the torpedoes trajectory. In fact the computer is composed of a lot of parts, but the keyboard to enter the data is what is being shown here.
 
More pics of details and what will no longer be visible, once the roof/pressure hull is assembled: 


The bench is covered with fine lamb skin.... just kidding. The two cabinets under the navigation table, are also part of the Torpedo Trajectory calculation computer.

Picture above: The equipment seen on the top right corner is nothing more than the compressor to produce cold for the fridge on the other side of the wall.

Verification that all compartments fit into the hull: 


As you can see, the fitting is not too bad for such a large and complex model: 

Yves
 
 
 
 

Morning, 
Hope everyone had a nice Easter.
VERY quiet around here! Oh well, just a sign of the times. We gotta do what we gotta do these days! 🧻
 
Admittedly, not much of anything was done in this house yesterday.
Most was done Saturday.
 
The cockpit has it's seats.
She's a bit snaggle toothed, but not bad for my first plastic kit in 15+ years. I've never used PE before. 
I've learned when working with PE, it's like deer hunting. When you have a deer in your sights, you start to control your breathing. 
When your working with really tiny PE, my breathing slows like I'm aiming a rifle. 
Could just be my Goblins!!!! 

I had an epiphany related to airbrushing recently. 
I realized that I have more control in the paint to thinner ratio than in the finger trigger it's self. 
I was using WAY too much paint and vice versa at times. Definitely a learning curve.

Here's the cockpit in the Starboard fuselage. I haven't glued it in permanently yet.
There's more to do. 

The fit of this kit has been good. Not perfect but not too bad either.
The normal shaving and the like, and the parts eventually nestle into place.

 

Port side. Not glued in yet. 
There were no fit issues on either side. 
All pieces were test fit multiple times before they were even painted. 

I think the one thing you learn with PE, is sometimes it's better to leave the original area as is. 
Don't get me wrong. Really liking the PE and what it brings. 
Looking back I may have left the cockpit instruments as they were originally molded. 
These PE pieces seem flat and add no dimension/depth to this area. 

 
Off to the kitchen for another cup of coffee!
 
Tom E 
 
 
 

Small sign of life 🙂
 
Heavy times in the office and also very funny moving home at Corona times, as the dozen of helpers had to be reduced to 2 as the local regulations required. 
Also I kept to my credo: knock down and build up again, this time larger scale, the kitchen proved to be the place of my darkest desires. My wife now understands the term of dafinism 😉
 
Only difference is that what used to be a 0,4 mm eyebolt is now a 4000 mm worktop in the the kitchen - a magnification of scale of the factor of 10.000!
Start of March, when life was still almost normal, I was with my Vic and my Soleil at the exhibition at Augsburg. Here some pictures from there and also some from the temporary display of my set of the 4 slices.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I am already looking forward to finish the 1803 version 🙂
 
Happy Easter and stay healthy, cheers!
 
XXXDAn