BLACK VIKING

Well, that's given me a lesson in German - I'd been thinking gestalt meant "the whole" of something (like holistic).
 
But of course, "whole" is ganze, isn't it? (as in the famous Richard Tauber song "Dein ist mein ganzen Herz" (Yours is my whole heart) or the even more famous "Diesem Kuss der ganzen Welt" (This kiss to the whole world) from Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
 
Druxey, this way of doing the robands is much easier and quicker than doing it properly, and I have the excuse that I did it that way before. Here you can see it from the back. The "joining thread isn't really all that obvious unless you look at it close up.
 

 
 

 
Steven

Excellent work on the press.    It looks like the real beast.

Thanks to all for stopping by and for the "likes".
 
 
 
Seems a bit scary to me also Mark.  Check this photo out.  This seems like a false sense of security to me.  The rear wheel doesn't even appear to be chocked to keep it from rolling backwards (or forwards.)  I wouldn't want to be under that thing if the chainfall let go and the weight shifted.  I wonder if this little house of cards arrangement has ever been tested?     
 

 
 
It works pretty well.  The most difficult part is keeping the drill straight and true when going through the rails. Thanks for the comment O.C.
 
 
I believe you're right Keith.  That's a great understanding of the times and one that I never stopped to consider.  All the years I worked in manufacturing the company always supplied uniforms and laundry service.  So yes, what would you do with oil soaked clothes on a modest salary?  Leave them hung over the fence at night? 
 
 
Yes those jacks would add some nice atmosphere and I particularly like the high lift bumper jack.  I don't know of anyone who casts or molds anything like them at this scale, so I'm going to try and scratch some.  Emphasis on try as the high lift would be right at 1/2" tall.  Thanks for the suggestion and photos Egilman.
 
 
Everyone would run for cover when OSHA would step out onto our manufacturing floor.  But when you see the dangerous work places of the "good old days", OSHA starts looking pretty good.  Thanks for the comment and nice words Ken.
 
 
Hello Allen, thanks for looking in.  I agree, especially the oil can as it would be easily identifiable - but crazy small.  I may just give it a try.
 
 
Some Pit Work

Everyday life choirs and activities has kept me from the workbench and little has gotten done.  So this update will be a short one.
 
I added back some electrical piping along the back wall that was pulled off to accommodate the pit installation.  Instead of running the conduit to the right as it was originally, it now runs to the left and up the corner and covers a nasty little gap where the two walls meet.
 
I then replaced some of the “angle iron” around the perimeter of the pit because it was out of square.  Looking at the photo below I can see the angle needs some attention as it doesn't look like iron (too silvery.)
  
Steps are added leading down into the pit.  They are 2' wide with a 8” rise and 10” run (like you really wanted to know that) and are made of stacked basswood pieces.  The hand rail is .022” brass which scales to just under 2” diameter.
 
The pit and steps were dirtied up with some blackish pigment powders and a wash of India ink mixed with water.  The wash brought forward the texture of the pit walls (which I now realize I failed to mention in the last post.)  The texture is straight white PVA dabbed on with a cosmetic sponge.  At first the glue keeps leveling itself out, but as it dries it starts to hold peaks.
 

 
 
I also added some oil stains to the lower center pit and a step down to it.
 


Arbor Press  
 
A break from working on the pit.
 
In the last post I showed a photo of four men in greasy coveralls.  Below is a crop of that photo and just behind the gentleman in the center is a mechanical arbor press.  It appears to be a 20 ton Weaver Hi-Speed Press or one very similar.
 

 
 
The Weaver 28 and 60 ton models have an extra leverage arm high up that the press shown above does not.
 

 
 
These presses had three levels of power vs speed.  The hand wheel could be turned for gentle precise work with little power.  The upper lever was a rack/pinion sort of affair that offered more speed and considerable power.  If that wasn't enough you could choose the nuclear option by using the lever on the left which provides the greatest force.  The photo below is a 20 ton press so it doesn't have the upper lever, but it's a good look at its simplicity and how it works.  Note that the arm (with the Weaver branding) has a choice of pivot points at its left end – three of them, where you can select how much leverage is required.  There are three holes in the pivot plate and the arm is currently occupying the center hole so the the other two holes are not visible.     
 

 
 
I made one of these Weaver presses for the dio, but much of the mechanical detail is not there - just too small.  Anyway, I began with a drawing based on photo scaling.

 
I gathered up some stuff.  The wheel is an injection molded HO scale boxcar brake wheel.  I pulled the styrene rod and tubing over heat to get the right diameters needed.  The brown sprue is nut/bolt heads.
     

 
 
Cut, glue and drill.
 

 
 
Enamel paint and powders.
 

 
The left side power mechanism is just two pieces of bent wire inserted into a styrene bit.  The angle iron that bolts to the floor is out of scale for sure but. . .
 
 
Now back to the pit.  Thanks for looking.
 
Gary
  
   

Sorry for the delay in updates. I was working on getting the sails installed and rigged but then had to take break when the weather got really hot here for a few days, then my son got married weekend before last and we had guests staying with us last week. Now I am back at it with the lower sails and fore topsail all rigged and the main topsail in progress.
 

To see what I am working with, I dry fit the bulkheads and decks together and this was the result. I'm going to have a lot to do. I have been working on this for a week now and I will show the modifications that I started on the next post. 

Hi all sorry I haven't posted for a while but life has certainly got in the way.  But anyway back to the build. 
The guns have been fitted on the gundeck and the sides. 
I have made some lanterns and some weird sticky up things on the stern and fitted some wooden teeth things on the beakhead. 
Next job making the main mast .
Stay safe all.
Martyn 
 

Hi all sorry I haven't posted for a while but life has certainly got in the way.  But anyway back to the build. 
The guns have been fitted on the gundeck and the sides. 
I have made some lanterns and some weird sticky up things on the stern and fitted some wooden teeth things on the beakhead. 
Next job making the main mast .
Stay safe all.
Martyn 
 

Hi all sorry I haven't posted for a while but life has certainly got in the way.  But anyway back to the build. 
The guns have been fitted on the gundeck and the sides. 
I have made some lanterns and some weird sticky up things on the stern and fitted some wooden teeth things on the beakhead. 
Next job making the main mast .
Stay safe all.
Martyn 
 

Hi all sorry I haven't posted for a while but life has certainly got in the way.  But anyway back to the build. 
The guns have been fitted on the gundeck and the sides. 
I have made some lanterns and some weird sticky up things on the stern and fitted some wooden teeth things on the beakhead. 
Next job making the main mast .
Stay safe all.
Martyn 
 

I made a start this afternoon after painting the Penelope. I assembled the basic hull parts and then worked the first PE; the heat shield for the exhaust. Nice PE to work with and  it all went together nicely.
 

 
There are some nice suspension details to add to the hull sides which will be mostly hidden. The PE engine intakes were added and I made up the turret apart from the PE. There are some nice PE grab handles to add. And look at those neat spanners in the fret.

I plan to add the PE and then paint the hull and turret, painting the wheels and track separately. It looks like the early Aust F tanks came in any colour you liked as long as it was dark grey so that will be a bit of a rest after the Penelope camouflage scheme
This has been so much fun so far.  Everything is so nicely detailed and it all fits so well.
 
 
Thanks for support and likes
 
Alan
 
 
 

And here is the finished article.
 
OC.

Bonnets "stitched on". Actually I cheated - I glued the bonnets to the bottoms of the courses with a bit of overlap before I started stitching - I couldn't see any way otherwise that I could hold everything together as I stitched - I'm not all that good at sewing. And that's really not the way it was done back in the day, though it looks enough like it for the job at hand.
 
Here is the main course with the bonnet attached and the sewing partly done, seen from behind. (The funny thing is the stitching seen from in front pretty much vanishes into the pattern painted on the sail. Almost feels like "All that work, and nothing to show for it").
 

 
Here are the two sails with bonnets seen from the front
 

 
 
And from behind. You can see the join between the two lots of stitching on the main course, where I ran out of thread and had to start again with a new thread. I took the opportunity to start from the other end (so the end of the glued join between the course and the bonnet didn't come adrift just as I was getting to the end of the stitching).
 

 
And here's a closer view of the stitching on the main course, seen from the front. I'm pretty happy with the consistency of the stitching - not perfect, but I think this is as good as I'm likely to be capable of.
 

 
As a first attempt the forecourse was not too bad, but as I got better with the main course I'm considering re-doing it. The question is whether there's any point doing so. Are the inequalities in the stitching bad enough to warrant re-doing it, considering the back of the sail really won't be visible when the model is on display?
 
Fortunately, those are the only two bonnets.
 
Steven

the wings were fitted with their wing tips.......can't mix them up due to the way the tabs are situated on the wings.  more injection tabs were cut off and then they were cemented in place.  looking at the leading and trailing edges,  they don't conform to the contour of the tips,  so they need to be trimmed once they are dry enough.   I did the trailing edge of the starboard wing......it's the worst end.  the leading edge just might get away with a bit of sanding.

 

both wings are ready for paint.......I'll probably check them over one more time to be sure I got everything.......

I have another bit of bash up my sleeve.........fuselage windows   I cut them out!

I have been all over these halves.......trimming and sanding every edge!  as I mentioned about the odd plastic thickness.....I did a small goof on one of the halves near the nose gear,  that I will need to fill.  the nose gear can be eliminated......doors are supplied to cover the opening.

the windows I opened at the nose and mis ship,  I will try to use the window maker to fill them.   the gunner's windows I can leave open.....just call it a perk   
 
hopefully more tomorrow!    

well.......that didn't take long,  to size them down for posting    miss me? 
 
since the wings are so bad,  I started with trimming down the rivet detail.   I left just a little to the imagination     there was a lot of flash and the edges were a disaster.  the admiral wandered by and asked why I was play'in with the plastic 'thing'........basically,  I told her how the kit looked interesting.  it did {to be honest}.......but I never expected the poor quality.   old kit.........well......so much for the tooling they said they did     she ran a finger over the rivets,  and even she said it felt gross!  while I was doing that,  I also took the injection pin marks off the stabilizer and rudders.......two on each rudder and four on the stabilizer...

you can get a better look at the deformity of one of the rudders.......can't do anything about it......oh well!  the stand is assembled.

it's got the slip ring around the neck of the cup........there is a ball that will fit into the underside of the fuselage.  it will snap into the cup......we'll see how well it works.  with this plastic being so soft,  I dare not do too much trimming.  the thickness of the plastic isn't consistent either......the fuselage halves shows this like a sore thumb......the top is like 1 mm.......the belly is about .5 mm!  yepper.........strange stuff !  to insure that I can arrive at a seamless assembly {or reasonably close},  I will assemble them now and paint later......not my usual habit,  but as I mentioned,  I'll cross that bridge   they are clamped in many places........no gaps!

you can get a sense of the sanding I did to remove the rivets.  later on.....the clamps were removed and the leading and trailing edges were sanded.  the cowls were fitted on the nacelles to insure they fit flush.

 

just a hint of the rivets is all that is left......I rescribed in a couple of the panel lines.  unlike the wings,  the fuselage bears only minor rivet detail,  so I left it as it is.

to model the plane with the gears up,  the holes for the wing gears had to be filled.  the tab that is to fit here was removed from the landing gears and use to fill the holes.  one came out pretty good.......the other still shows it a little.

the gear doors are molded closed.......I couldn't come up with a good picture of them,  but it really doesn't matter.  I'm on the right track with what IO want to do.  all I really need to do,  is simply cement the wheel in the well.  there is no covering over the wheel......just the gear.

I'm going the cut off the pin that the tire goes onto,  insert it in the hole.   then sand the backside of the wheel to cut down on the thickness,  so the wheel appears to be deeper in the well than what you see here.

 

that's done.........  there's more!

In the little time I have, I've painted the hull with the base colour coat - no weathering or effects yet. I have to admit to a rookie error. I think I 'thinned' the black paint for the airbrush with airbrush cleaner by mistake; (sound of experienced air-brushers sighing - what a plonker.) I'm not a good painter, as you'll see.
Still I recovered the finish, (start again job) and now ready to get on with some decking and superstructure build again.
If you are interested, I used artists acrylics; the lower hull is mars black with raw umber and a hint of mixing white and flow improver. The upper hull is burnt sienna, crimson raw umber and mixing white. The deck is cerulean blue, light umber and titanium white.  All will be dulled with top coats later.
 
 

A little better I'm just much of a camera guy?

By this post I declare the model of the reconstruction Helga Holm of the ship 5 in the archeological excavations at the Helgeands islet finished.
 
It has been a very enjoyable, albeit at time tedious, journey. And I'm quite happy with the result.
 





Thank you everyone who has followed, commented and supported with advice and encouragement. You have been a great help.

There are several holes in the hull used for tight different ropes to belaying pins... not sure if i missed these steps but i have not drilled the holes before. Now it is time to do so.. a bit more difficult that needed be but... mark them first and with little help from longer drill bits i managed to drill 10 holes in total, without damaging other parts. So if you are building this beautiful model, pay attention ahead of time..
 

 


Now i am doing gunter iron gantline rope. First started with 2mm single block and made a hook. Simple by twisting the wire at the end and secure it with a drop of CA glue, then form the hook. Hopefully it will hold. Have some challenges making it at this small scale..
 

 


Working on the rope..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The length of coiled rope is correct, now i need to make few of those..
Happy modelling..

All the lines and reef points has been added to the sail.
To shape the sail I have rigged it up and painted diluted PVA glue that hopefully will dry to a ok shape. The wrinkles should also smooth out as the sail dries.
 

Hi all,   Well I have started  on the Flag Barer  - assembled  and primed.
 
OC.

This is my great great grandfather and g-g-grandmother not too many years after the ACW ended. He died in 1892 at the age of 60. He was a cowboy long before the war started and a natural fit in the cavalry.
 

I have found and brought some  - again paper flags that fold and glue around the pole  but at least they are  54th and 55th  ligne reg.
 
OC.

Evening all,  drummer is finished including his drum  - just needs his backpack fixing and painting.
 
OC.

I saw the MiG-15 and F-86 demonstration at the Chino airshow back in '98 or '99  (time flies). The F-86 leaves a distinct smoke trail that put it at a disadvantage versus the MiG when it came to who spotted whom first.

Thanks for the likes and your notes. It is surprising to learn about how many of them are flying in the US. Surely there are some one-seat specimens flying as I watched them in several videos on youtube. There is at least one where it is flying together with an F-86 (yellow striped). So far, the only opponent I can pose with it is my recent Hawker Sea Fury (although the Dutch markings do not match with it). Yes, rugged and basic aircraft, but quite lethal a weapon for its time.  I was also surprised to note how small it was (likely to contain weight) and how cramped was its cockpit:
 
 
Probably, like the pilot in the videoclip, I wouldn't fit well into it.
 
Best regards,
Dan.