BLACK VIKING

I added the ends of the sash and the tails of the helmet cloth. I continued painting the thin blue stripes on the sash. I was convinced that I would be unable to do this but I surprised myself. It needs a little more work but it’s not too bad for a first attempt. The new brush helps a lot too but it makes me feel that I can tackle figures that need this sort of details.
 The axe and his hand was added and some touch up will needed there. 



There are some small pieces to add to the helmet, the sword and shield to complete the figure. The base doesn’t lend itself to anything extravagant.
Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments.
Alan

good evening everyone
 
Day 10 1st planking port side complete
 
thank you for comments and likes
 
this build is quite the monster, i have just finished 1st planking the port side and she has taken 50 lengths of 1x5mm lime strip, the other side is progressing.
Although a slightly smaller scale than the 1/72 Victory she looks a far bigger hull. (i need to check that fact out), will certainly dominate the display area when completed
The planking is not pretty at all but gives me a lovely base for the next layer once the planking is complete i need to mark out the gunports over 4 deck levels

day 6 1st planking
good evening everyone
 
no regrets at all on changing the planking from single to double, i have 100m of 1x5mm lime strip on its way, might need some more, at present im using anything left from previous builds
gave her a bit of a sanding, starting to look like the instructions now, working on the gundeck before it more of less gets covered over
 

I never posted finished pictures of my stagecoach.
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my second Doctor's buggy. The first was not a very good kit and I ended up kit bashing it. This one from Model Expo was a much better kit with easier to follow instructions. It helped that I am pretty familiar with the actual antique Doctor's buggies so the kit and build made sense. 
 
Finished:
Dr's Buggy Model Trailways 1:12 scale
Navajo Wagon - Kit bash from Model Trailways Chuckwagon 1:12 scale
In Progress:
Rucker's Ambulance Model Expo Historic Artillery
Future Project:
Model Shipways Shipwright Series?
Model Trailways Stagecoach 1:12 scale
 
 

Thanks Steven,
This capstan also served to raise the anchors and is therefore placed on the upper deck.
 
On the upper deck of the rear castle there is a winch for operating the mizzen sail.
 
But, I completely forgot about the knight For the main sail.
Thanks for bringing this up.

The Lomellina (Genoese, sank 1516) had a capstan a little aft of the mainmast, with a knight between the two.
 
 


As the May Rose's mast appears to have been directly forward of the aftercastle, it would perhaps be a little differently arranged. But Generally I'd expect it to be similar. On my Great Harry, I put the knight and capstan on the upper deck of the aftercastle - see post #308 at
but that's not to say my interpretation is correct. By the way, note that unlike later capstans, the holes for the bars pass right through the capstan and are at two different levels. So there are only two bars, each of which extends out from both sides of the capstan, so there are only four positions for the crew to push at the capstan.
 
I hope that helps.
 
Steven

Small update on the upper deck layout.
 
During a week of vacation I asked and received information from the Mary Rose museum. Was there a capstan, and if so where?
Answer.
There is no real evidence that there was one, but also no evidence that there wasn't one. And the most logical place is behind the main mast.

Also received a pdf "Cabels and Cablets of the Mary Rose" which contains a lot of information about the layout of the upper deck and the anchor cables.
This results in the following setup (not a technical masterpiece as it is sketched on a beach chair, but reasonably clear).

Start upper deck.

 

Well I have started the painting process on this one.I started with Mr Surfacer 1500 grey,Tamiya Semi Black,silver (chip) and I guess yellow ID bands.The plane looks like it's going to get colors from 3 different manufactures go figure🤨

Today's work, waiting for delivery of my order for1 x 4 mm planking rods about 2nd battery of 18-pounders  :

Most of the cowl interior is done now. Some sloppy fitting here and there -- my fault, since much of the work could only be done while viewing with one eye, which ruins depth perception of course. I also installed the two tiny spacers inside the middle section of duct work upside down, meaning the ugly seam shows, which shouldn't be too visible on the final assembly. Next step will be the necessary modifications to the engine cylinders to get that darn thing to fit inside the cowl.
 

I decided it was time to start adding vegetation to the Moniteau Creek area. As a reminder, this area was pretty grassy/weedy/scruffy back then, with scattered bushes and a handful of trees.
 

So I started with a layer of complex grasses. Modelers often use static grass for this, which is a product consisting of fine grains that are applied onto a glued surface and then made to stand up vertically using static charge. It actually works quite well, but my problem was that static grass doesn't come in the proper brown/deep yellow shade of late fall Missouri prairie grass. I also find that most manufactured scenery products never manage to have the subtle complexity in color and texture that natural materials do (just like the ground cover already used). But I found a really effective natural replacement that comes out like this:
 

Any guesses?
 
It's hair. Mrs. Cathead's hair, to be specific. Her hair color is nearly exactly the shades of dried Missouri prairie grass, and has all the natural complexity one could want in a scenery product. Here's how I used it.
 
I took some clumps leftover from the hairbrush (we save some of these anyway for use in deterring garden pests like mice). I twisted lengths of hair into tightly wounded bundles, then cut them off into short clumps that stick together naturally. 

I then spread scenic glue on a patch of landscape and began planting the clumps, teasing them apart a bit to create the naturally even clumpiness of prairie grass while still covering most of the landscape. To emphasize this point, too many scenery makers assume that natural grass grows uniformly, like a lawn, but prairie grasses especially grow in tight clumps with space around their base. That pattern is actually essential to the survival of a variety of native animal species, but that's a different discussion.
 
Here's a shot of one creek bank done, and of the broader area in various stages. The glue starts out white but dries clear.
 


And one more view of a completed area:
 

I really like the natural complexity in color and pattern this creates. It needs some bushes and woody growth to break up the pure grassiness, but it's a great start. I will be using static grass elsewhere in Rocheport, but wanted the creek banks to be especially wild and diverse in a way that static grass struggles to get right.
 
If you're wondering, I haven't poured the creek water yet because I want to do most broad-scale scenery work first, to minimize the chances of dripping glue or color onto the finished water surface.
 
I can give two other quick updates. One, here's the nearly finished bluff line on the east side, with mineral staining added. Here it's lit by a nice low-angle western sun. And the main Missouri River riverbank has had its scenic base layer of dirt and shredded leaves added, with the bluffs continuing on the backdrop downriver and the river itself having its base color added.

And two, I've started experimenting with various arrangements of building footprints for the town. I'm having to compress a lot of visual interest into a small area so there are various ways to use specific buildings to highlight aspects of the real town. I'm mostly going to use laser-cut wood kits for all of these, probably scratchbuilding a few simple structures. I don't feel the need to build all the buildings to match real ones; the keystone "real" structures for the location are the grain elevator / hay barn and the depot. The rest can simply create the right era and feel. Someday I can always go back and scratchbuild specific town buildings but I really don't see the need to put that much time into such things up front.

Hope my unorthodox scenery in this post wasn't too hair-raising. You can always comb through other build logs for more normal content.
 
Thanks for reading!

Post 84
Completing the masts.
The Pin rails and a driver boom saddle are added to the lower mast sections.

4576a
Fore mast Pin rail, beautifully cut slots for the pins.

4575a
The Pin rail on the Mainmast really needs fitting before adding the lowest  ‘iron’ mast band otherwise it won’t slide up to the correct position.
 
The tops which are traditionally painted black down to the hounds, are now attended to.
I used Vallejo Black/grey for the purpose.

4570a
I love the planking detail Chris has engraved into the tops, I used a slightly thinner mix of paint in this area so as not to obscure the detail.

4579a
There are five iron bands  spaced equally along the Masthead. For these I used 1mm slices from heat shrink tubing. This gives a subtle shade difference to the painted head.
Atop the iron bands are a series of battens designed to protect the rigging from wear.

4581a
Kit provided pieces are of 0.6mm strips which I found a little thin to notch over the bands. I replaced these with some slightly thicker strip which allowed a shallow notch to be cut.
 
There are eight of these on each masthead; a small detail the top ends should be sniped to follow practice.
Steel also notes that; battens should have rounded edges for the rigging to slide down easily.

4603a
Steel also notes that; The afterside of Mizen masts  in ships, and mainmasts in brigs, to be coppered in the wear of the gaff and boom.
An easy addition using copper tape if so motivated.

4604a

4606a

4607a
I now have the overall size of my model version which will require a cover of 30”L x 9” W x 16” H.
I can get this organised while I continue with the build.
 
B.E.
04/06/2025


 

Finally got all the LEDs done in the hold. Took a little while but its not a race I guess. I had a few redos along the way as I wasn't satisfied with the result. Still need to paint a few exposed wires inside to finish up and in the end, no one will know the wires are there. I am now complete through video 9.
 
I think this is a much cleaner result in the end with a lot less wires to deal with. I was hesitant to do this at first, but now that's it done I'm happy that I did.

The LEDs really add life to the model.

You can see my take on the flour bags here as well.

I had to move a few barrels around (second set up from the bottom of the picture) as there are a couple parts that extend down into that area of the hold from the orlop deck. This isn't addressed until video 11. A good set of plans would have been useful in making that known much sooner.

I'd be "loudly wondering" the same thing. 😏

Trouble is brewing . . .
 
First off, the resin engine is a very, very tight fit. This fact is made worse by the fact that the cowl's diameter decreases as successive rings are added. To get the engine to fit into the first three rings, I had to file off the top halves of the front cylinders' valve covers.
 

 
But it gets worse . . .
 
The engine itself is not the only thing that has to fit into the cowling. There's also the machine gun channels, and as you can see in that first picture, there's no room for them. In this next photo, you can see that cylinder heads more or less completely block the front openings for the guns -- and that's without the channels being installed.
 

 
There's also an air duct that needs to fit in there as well -- don't ask me how.
 
I'm quietly wondering whether this engine isn't actually a 1/32 scale engine rather than 1/33. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

Haven’t been able to do too much work on it lately but slowly it’s come together.
Did the wing rigging and used diluted paint to bring the colour to what’s needed. Paining it did thicken them but it’s ok, also painting the rigging showed the twisting a lot more too which surprised me. 
I am just waiting on the decal paper and then need to make a rego stencil, put on the  elevator and rudder control cables. Which will remain black. And then try to decide if it should get a light oil wash. I’m undecided there yet…
Took a few close up pics, I find they really bring out the little defects. What looks great to the eye can look horribly messy on a photo!
One thing that shows up is the kits flat spot on the wheels don't line up with the ground. So I’ll have to sort that out. 
 

I've made broader progress that I'm not quite ready to write up yet, but here's a narrower update on a minor upgrade. The shape of the tunnel has been bugging me; it seems too squat. It wasn't really obvious to me until I'd finished the bluff, but now I can't un-see it. I think you can see what I mean in the paired photo below. The real one is significantly rectangular; mine is nearly square. Bugs me.
 

So I decided to renovate it. This meant raising the ceiling and narrowing the sides. Starting point:

I used a woodworking tool I had in a drawer, a rotary rasp that chucks into a power drill. It's meant for rough shaping of wood, but boy is it perfect for boring out a tunnel.



Then I filled in the sides with some new plaster.

Gave it a fresh base coat of paint:

And weathered it down:

That's much better. The beauty of this is that I'm modeling the period not long after this tunnel was freshly blasted. So it's actually perfect to have the area right around the portal look a little disrupted and different from the rest of the rock. I didn't weather it quite as much, leaving the color a little fresher. 
 
I'm pretty pleased with how this came out. Just shows it's worth going back and reassessing your work now and then. 
 
I've also been working on the longer bluff line on the other end of town, along the river, but am not quite ready to share that progress yet. Thanks for the fun discussions above, and for all your interest!
 
 
 

Thanks for all the likes and comments, and to those who have just stopped by.
 
Some more progress. The first thing to do was assemble the fore platform, only four parts. It was glued together, then dryfitted, gently sanded, dryfitted etc until it was a good fit into the bow. When I was satisfied it was glued in place.


The two short steps to the platform were added at this point.
 
A longer set of steps were assembled and glued in place.

The companion way fits above these, and making this proved to be a little tricky in places. The parts for it are shown below, with some pieces already glued together.

The more interesting facets of this build were the two doors at the front and the hatch on top.
The instructions say that these can be left closed or open. I chose to have them open.
 
The doors were no particular problem, except for adding the hinges, provided as PE. I glued the doors in the open position then added the hinges (the handles, ring bolts, had been fixed already), but ran into some problems with the PE hinges in trying to get them to fit correctly. I finally used some of the Syren hinges I'd used previously. 
 
The hatch however needed a little more attention. As Blue Ensign said in his log, the hatch needs support in the open position. For the two supports I used some leftover PE, bent into a curve, glued to the underside of the hatch with the lower ends held in place by small eyebolts fastened to the sides of the companion way. Syren hinges were again used.


The guns were assembled over several days, usually while waiting for glue or paint to dry. Assembly  line. Patience is required. 


I didn't add Part 227, described as the "quoin" in the instructions for the long guns. Instead I replaced it with a short piece of 0.6mm fret to represent the bed of the carriage and added two separately made quoins. (The left carriage needs a paint touch up.)

Finally, a word of thanks to Blue Ensign (Maurice), who continues to suggest improvements that can be made to an already superb kit (thanks Chris), some of which are obvious in my build.
 
Cheers.
 
 
 
 

Hi all,
I furnished the interior of the bomb bay and sprayed the exhaust fumes on the nacelles. 


 
In the pictures, the exhaust stains turned out a bit grainy, but I cannot correct them anymore, unfortunately.



 
This time, the airbrush betrayed me.
That's all for now,
Best regards,
Dan
 
 

good evening everyone
 
This week i had to do something about the hull
i had used copper tape, and cleaned them with nail varnish remover, before using an acrylic varnish, but never wore gloves at any time, so i think the oils from my fingers wore everything away
its a shame, as i now have a two tone hull, and made worse by not wanting to do the bow, which is not quite so bad

 
 

Comparison with Martlet Mk.II (Academy 1/48 Wildcat F4F-4 + aftermarket decals)

Hello, and many thanks for your comments and likes
Over the weekend I oiled the outer part of the ship the second time, and today I build the upper part of the Mast Fish.

Starting to add the external planking on the carriage.  Instructions calls to use CA glue due to the fact (I think) that the carriage is curved and easier to lay the planks.   I like using normal wood glue.    I used a side of a soldering iron to bend the end of each plank (to match the curve in the carriage) and then using wood glue and a large rubber band glued the piece in place.   Laying planks on both sides of the carriage, wood glue does dry fast enough so that as you glue each piece, by the time you get to the 4th piece, the 1st piece is dry.   So  you can just keep going around the carriage laying each piece and not have to stop waiting for the glue to dry.    I would highly recommend getting some sort of band to hold the planks in place while the glue dries.   Really helps keeping the curved down for the glue to set up
 

 
Instructions do not call at this time to do it, but I thought it would be a good time to sand down the doors to match the curve in the carriage.   Instructions call to do this in a later step after the carriage has been planked.   Actually I probably should have done this before I starting the external planking.   Anyway, with some 2 sided tape,  a couple spare planks, and some clamps you are able to hold the door pretty close to where it will be in it's final position.   From there you can see the curve of the carriage and sand down the door to match the curve.   Basically looks at what needs to be sanded, remove the door, sand it some and then stick it back in the carriage and look at the curve.   Only take a couple attempts to get the curve in the door to match the carriage.
 

Not a real good shot, but you can see the curve in the door matching the curve in the carriage.   Before I do the final planking on the door, I may have to do some more fine tuning, but this is pretty close.

 
Status at the end of the day.   Again, both sides of the carriage are planked at the same time.   Working my way to the bottom.   Once complete, I will work my way up to the top

 
 

Greetings!
 
It's been a while since my last update but construction continues.  After the sculptamold and docks were placed, I decided to make some of the mini-kits included in the main kit, including the wooden fences (both Foss Landing and the shipyard), the steam box and boiler, canvas rack and the oil drum rack.  For the simulated canvas, I used some leftover silkspan from my sail-making for the Revenge.  The silkspan was first painted with an off white / light tan paint (leftover from some room in the house).
Here is a photo of the white silkspan and the painted final product.

Construction of the canvas rack was a bit fiddly given the very fine wood beams.  The "canvas" was then rolled into a variety of sizes and placed in the rack.


Also pictured above is the oil drum rack.  The hose is a 1 mm brass wire which was annealed to soften it up so I could bend it to the shape seen.
The steam box and boiler were fun to build.  For the box doors, I used some leftover door hinges rather than the paper as suggested in the instructions.  2 mm solder was used for the boiler hose.  The piping leading from a barrel to the boiler valve was interesting to fit.  One suggestion for any future builders - attach the valve at the very end of construction as it is quite fine and will break off at the slightest pressure.

The fences were straightforward however for the Foss Landing retaining wall fence, rather than several sections that step down, I made one longer section that will follow the slope of the brick wall.  Note that several posts are longer so that they can be driven into the base, much like the boundary fence for the shipyard.

The Shipyard fence is a bit different construction with vertical boards glued to horizontal stringers.  This fence is heavily weathered with cracked and missing boards.  I decided to use some of the Foss Landing paper advertising signs for the fence. Below are 2 photos, one with flash which highlights some features of the fence such as the darker bottom where the wood touches the ground.


And lastly, I am starting to think about some of the landscaping around the buildings, fences and bare areas.  I was thinking of using a product called static grass to give an effect of somewhat overgrown grass near the fence.  The grass comes in different sizes and hues.  I'm still experimenting but my thoughts are to have a bit of grass and shrubs near the Foss landing buildings, less so for the shipyard.  Anyway, here is a photo of the Foss landing fence with some taller grass at the fence base.  Shorter static grass can be seen in the foreground.  

 
Next up will be some thoughts on the boat which is undergoing repair at Foss landing and some photos of the first buildings placed on the base
 
Jeff