BLACK VIKING

Good afternoon everyone (at least, it's afternoon where I am), thanks for all the likes and comment!
 
A bit of progress to report! The cockpit and interior components went together well, and fitted into their proper locations without any issues. Big difference from my Skua build, no guessing, everything fits positively.
 
After a bit of dry brushing with some silver to simulate worn paint, I added the rear bulkhead along with the pilot's seat as well as the instrument panel (with the rudder pedals). This was then followed by the radiator/oil cooler core in the chin.
 

 
You can see the little alignment tab for the radiator core. The bulkhead slid into a slot on the cockpit side. As there is now a fair degree of resin parts in the cockpit, CA glue was needed to secure everything. I dry fit the other fuselage half to ensure everything dried in the correct position.
 

 
A quick last look at the instrument panel before everything is buttoned up. I then took my first two deviations from the kit instructions. After assembling the fuselage (which fit wonderfully, and only needs a bit of fine sanding along the seams), the next step calls for the installation of the wing. The instructions would have you assemble the wing halves before adding them to the airplane. I attempted this in a dry-fit and found the things weren't going to work that way. I found it was easier to add the top of the wing to the fuselage first, then add the lower half of the wing after the upper has dried.
 

 
Another testament to the improvements being made at SH, there are no gaps in the wing roots to speak of. The joint is obvious right not because of the overspray from earlier, but they should look better once there's a proper coat of paint on. Another deviation was how the propellor will eventually mount. SH seems to have a thing against spinning props for some reason. I, for one, prefer the spin-y bits to spin. a bit of  1/16" styrene rod, along with some 1/8" tubing (to act as a backing plate) and I should be able to mount the propellor to that to enable it to spin freely.
 
The lower half of the wing was then added (don't forget to add the little clear part for the landing light!)
 

 
It slotted in nicely and only a little tape was needed to secure it while the glue dried. There is a small gap at the leading edge of the wing (this is the first one I've found!):
 

 
A little bit of filler and some sanding should have that nicely tidied up (there's another small gap on the other side in the same location). The intake for the chin fairing was added just before adding the wings.
 
The last bit of work done to date was to add the rudder and horizontal stabilizers.
 

 
These all fit nicely, in keeping with the kit quality experienced so far. There's not too much left to add before paint starts flying. Hopefully for my next update, there will be some colour!
 
Andy
 

Here is another photo I took while in London. Adm Nelson’s tomb is located in St Paul’s Cathedral. 

Managed to do a bit of the mahogany layer on bottom over the summer
 
going about it in a strange way likely but I find the flat bottom quite different to the usual ship hull 
 
9I also had an idea to add the engine and have the compartment open
spent time looking at Chris Craft engines from the late 1930’s 
seems to be inline 6 usually
 
I searched for 3D inline 6 engines and found a few sinam printing sample parts to see if they will work
gone back to my Morgan for a change of pace for now 
 
 

Before continuing with the forecastle, a few smaller items were added first.

And yes, a hole was also drilled through the planking

In this cabin on the starboard side, a hole was made through the hull here.   so there is also one provided on the port side

On each side, 3 standards were placed as a basis for the channel and rigging rail

Next some extra parts (exact name?)

And the basis for the port side channel, made from 3 parts

 

Now first check whether the standing rigging of the fore mast has space in relation to the forecastle.
No, so version 2 of the cardboard forecastle (right)

My first impression of this channel.
The right side should be narrower and would function as a rigging rail
The schrouds (6) will be placed in the middle
And the left side should also be narrower so that one of the two anchors can be attached there.
Ideas, comments on this are always welcome

To install the futtock shrouds, I clamped the eye of the first shroud to the top, the tied the futtock shroud near the highest ratline, then lashed it.  For the next two I pinned them to an index card to get the heights right.  I messed up a little by pulling the shroud a bit too much when tying off the futtocks which helped caused the dead eyes to not be quite even. 
 

 

 
The next step was to create the top shrouds.  These were pretty straight forward.  Rather than tying the lines to the topmast head, I looped and lashed them.
 

 

 
Attaching them to the bottom, I made a loop and clamped the loop down to add weight for tension and to free up my hands to do the first lashing.
 

 
I used the loop to rig the dead eyes.  I was able to do this on the futtock shroud dead eyes without much of a problem, but for some reason the dead eyes on the top shrouds didn't want to cooperate.  Once the loop was around the dead eye the lashing could be slid down and the rigging tightened.
 

 
The three dead eyes attached.  They are a little uneven, but I thought it would correct for the futtock shroud being a bit off. 
 

 
lanyards were rigged next.  As can be seen, not quite level.
 

 
As a side note, this little threading tool was the best dollar ever spent.
 

Had to get my finished HMS Victory out of the case and do a big correction. Doing this before I start my next project the OcCre Endeavour. I have no idea why I did it, but it was pointed out to me during the time I was building the Le Soleil Royal that I incorrectly rigged white ratlines on both ships. Again I have no idea why I thought that was correct when it is obviously not. I made the correction on the Soleil Royal as I continued the build. Now that is is finished I am going back to my Victory and making the same correction by carefully painting each ratline with a small brush and black Panel Line Accent Color. 
 
I must admit now that I have it out of the case I am tempted to design a diorama for it since it will be displayed with the Soleil Royal that is in a diorama. 🤔

Once the shrouds are tightened, the futtock staves could be fixed for good. Fortunately, I had only tacked them on so far, as the position was visibly out of line after the shrouds had been tensioned.

The last status was this:



To align the futtock staves, I placed crosspieces on the protrusions of the two staves and was thus able to adjust them well.



Then the futtock staves and the shrouds were knotted together and the overhang cut off.



It is amazing how much these futtock staves contribute to the stability of the shrouds, even in a model.

XXXDAn  

Once I have completed Harpy production (seems to be going on forerver, so many bits...), I can then sink my teeth into Surprise designs.

Hello ddp; thanks for commenting!
 
You're right, as a teen I missed the two 4" gun casements on the forward shelter deck for some reason. They're on my drawings.
 
After looking over the drawings I think I will be building complete new superstructures. According to a 3D rendering in the Naval Encyclopedia the aft shelter deck is supported by posts around its inner edges leaving what is beneath it as an opening. Difficult to pick out in  to tell in my drawing but now that I look again I see that it is so. The rendering also shows the aft  SL towers added after 1916 but oddly still with smaller twin SL's instead of larger singles as I have seen in other drawings. On the other hand, this same 3D rendering shows four 4" guns on the weather deck level on the forward superstructure and an open shelter deck, as well as the central funnel being round not oval, so how much can I trust it? On yet another hand, it shows another deck between the two forward funnels with some boats stowed on it. My drawings show no such thing but there is a photo in the Naval Encyclopedia entry "Loading Shells Aboard 1917" which does show a boat stowed above the weather deck on some kind of beam but no deck.
 
I'm hoping for clarity when my two book orders arrive.  ddp, it seems you may be familiar with this ship; can you comment on any of the above?
 
Yes the model is about 56" long.
 
As a teen I didn't worry too much about u/w details other than getting the hull lines correct. I think bilge keels would be too exposed and fragile for an R/C model which will be handled and carried around. The two props she does have are over-scale but again not visible when in water.
 
Rendering from the Naval Encyclopedia:



Loading shells 1917 - note the boat stowed high on beams. It's not stated which ship this is, Lion, Queen Mary, or Princess Royal, which all differed slightly.

Coal scuttle - what a job!  And no masks! I wondered what these actually looked like; they're exactly like manhole covers and are just small shaded circles on my drawing.

04 My transit of the NW Passage 
 
I won’t try to tell the whole story but will at least include a few images of my tracing the route of the Franklin Expedition through the  NW Passage this August/September.
 
1.     here is copy of the total route we took. The trip is managed extremely well by Adventure Canada...  
Greenland
We started from the airport 100 miles up the fiord at Kangerlussuak.  Ports of call included the towns of Sisimiut and Ilulissat.  We also had a stop on Disko Island.  We know that the two vessels HMS Erebus and HMS Terror took on supplies from a supply vessel at Disko Island, a common port of call for whalers and other explorers before heading either north to Melville Sound or straight across Davis Strait. 
 
2      On shore at Disko Island, we were with our geologist, as he explained another episode in the evolution of the arctic. He turned out to be a critical part of this story.  
Baffin and Devon Islands
3     We crossed the Davis straight and landed at Pond Inlet.  This town is there for a former airbase, now an airport, at the north end of Baffin Island, as well as the large Iron mine in the region. This view is the Pond Inlet overview looking north toward Bylot Island.  
4      here is the NE corner of Baffin Island.  This location is often mentioned as a rendezvous site for the Franklin follow up exploration fleets, whaling fleets etc.  
5     We rounded Bylot island to enter Lancaster sound and reached Dundas Harbour.  Dundas Harbour is where in the 1920’s RCMP officers were stationed, so that Devon Island would be considered occupied. They did not do well as two were dead when the replacement vessel returned three years later.    
6     Running to the west, we stopped at Beechey Island.   Beechey Island is the known last winter encampment of the Franklin expedition.  Here are the graves of three of their members and one for a rescue party sailor who died years later.  
7     As one of our team leaders suggested, only a British admiral would have considered that this nice, protected harbor would be a great place to winter.    One would be frozen in for 9-10 months where there was no vegetation nor food of any kind.  There were polar bears that were hunting seals out on the ice, and that was it.    
8     Several years later, a wrecked schooner at the north end of Beechey Island was demolished and used to build a Cache by Hudson Bay Company and called Northumberland house. It was intended both for any Franklin rescue/ searchers or others in need.    
Franklin’s route 
 
9    we ran into sea ice traveling west from Beechey Island. We enjoyed a wonderful sunset zodiac outing with great photo ops.    
10    here is the map showing the mystery of the southern route taken by Franklin from Beechey Island .   The Peel sound was often full of Ice as was the Bellot strait. The mystery is how to get to the point NW of King Williams Island, the point of Franklin’s final capture by old sea ice. There are many theories of what route was taken after leaving Beechey Island.   
One thing I learned is a study now underway by Parks Canada and the geological institute in Ottawa.  The annual diving now taking place on HMS Erebus is focused on the damaged side of the hull that is slowly being crushed and is slowly collapsing.   It is the naval officer's cabins being searched now, because the scientific officer's  cabins are in good shape, and will be explored in later years.  There are only about two weeks of diving each summer, so time is of the essence. 
 
What was found in these naval officer cabins is a surprise; it is a collection of 16 rock samples.  These samples are being analyzed. Let’s wait for the actual scientists to publish their findings, but the short version is this tale.    The geologist on our cruise is the geologist doing this study.  He can take a rock sample and identify which coastline of which island is the source.  Thus if the sailors collected souvenirs along the way that is a way to trace the route….hold that thought.
 
The ice this year was different than the last few years.  The tour normally travels south down Prince Regent Inlet and through the Bellot Strait.   This year we went up around the sea ice we encountered and sailed down the Peel Sound into the Franklin Strait.  
11.    On the way, we landed at Prescott Island just off the east coast of Prince of Wales Island. It as a first time ever landing by Adventure Canada, our Expedition team.    
12.    Not only were there hundreds of Beluga whales there, but we also found a distinct red rock.  Our geologist cut out samples for the study. [ obviously he is allowed to do so…smile] He also predicted that this new sample will match one of the 16 samples that he knows well…….wow.  we were there when he found it! I can’t wait for the next Parks Canada publication on their progress.  
The tour then made two transits of the Bellot strait. 
 
13.                    Here is the monument showing the northernmost point of continental North America, halfway through Bellot Strait.  Yes it is further north than Alaska!  
The finding of Franklin’s route
14      Later that afternoon we were cruising along headed for Cambridge Bay on the south shore of Victoria Island and we crossed the straight where HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were [pinched] stuck.  We saw no ice whatsoever! What was great was in mid afternoon, we saw a fogbow….how appropriate.  
The tour ended in Coppermine, now Kugluktuk.  A place of much history, but for another day.  I look forward to getting back into this build.  More house guests just left, so maybe next week.
 
Cheers 
Jon
 

A-A-A-A-AND . . . .FINISHED!!!!

Steven

Thank you Ken, I know some of the kits and own two or three, but never cared about the story behind. I like the designs from Kow Yokoyama and wanted to build some of these kits, since I saw the old Nitto boxes, when I was young, but couldn´t afford the hefty prices then.
I like the scale and the possibility to go freestyling with detailing and painting as there exist no real examples, naturally.
I use these kits as a canvas for my ideas. Once I built an AmmoKnight of the same scale, only to incorporate a, at least to me, new painting technique in dabbing on numerous layers of paint and liked it. 







Cheers Rob

Well, some days later, it´s about time to actually do something with my planned Kampfanzug. 
I built up arms and legs and parts of the body, which is only fit loosely, to determine, how to line up the extremities for later positioning.
The fit of the kit is very good so far and the limbs are connected via vinyl elements to keep everything moveable. I got two different left hands to choose from, but found this one perfect, to hold the squeezed empty PE-bottle.



I have to plan the painting of the interior and figure - ahem - the remains of it, to be precise and started to mask the side windows, which unfortunately have to be mounted at a very early stage. That said, many parts are intersecting and depending on the right sequence to be build in.

The outer side of the windows is protruding, so I adhered a double layer of Tamiya kabuki tape onto it, sharpened the contour with a fingernail and cut around with a fresh blade. One layer was left on the outside, the other went onto the inside of the opposite pane and vice versa. Inside and outside masking done.

 

Cheers Rob

So today I received the collection of Punch magazine from July to December 1918 (it’s the original prints). If you weren’t aware it was a satirical magazine. I’ve included a few photos. My plan is to have this as part of my display for the dio

Hot on the heels of my Trial build, I'm starting a log for my next build, @chris watton's latest kit the Gun-Brig Adder.  Though I will be building it as one of the others in the Acute class - Sparkler!  
 
The Admiral and my daughter looked through the list of fifteen names available in the class and said "Make it as Sparkler!" so this is what was decided and I mentioned this on Chris's Vanguard news and updates thread a while back, little did I know someone was was taking note and I received a lovely surprise inside the box when I opened it and it contained a custom nameplate emblazoned with the name "Sparkler" 😁 .  Thanks again Chris! 
 
I won't do an unboxing as such as there are already three other Adder logs on the go by @DB789, @ECK & @Glenn-UK so I will try to avoid repetition.  I will however try to build on what I learned on building Trial and will be adding sails again.  The scene I want to have a go at recreating is of the Brig hove-to and handling a boat.  There are some wonderful drawings and sketches available as references; a few below to give you a flavour of my ambitions for this kit (whether I get there time will tell! 😉)  The last two are taken from E. W. Petrejus's book "Modelling the  Brig of War "IRENE" " (one of my favourite refrences.)
 
Enhancements planned and bought so far include pear blocks from Vanguard and an 18ft. cutter, I also think @BenD at Ropes of Scale will be getting an order for more of his fine products....
 
Updates in due course for those interested. 👋

A small update, but one worth posting for me. Back on track with the Mayflower build. It is full speed ahead as I work on the interior planking of the bulwark templates and redo the metal work for the door handles. The first planks on the templates are basswood, as they will not be seen on the model. The remaining planks will be cherry. 
 
I had a small surgery in the last few months, but mainly I have been procrastinating on this metalwork. It’s good to be back. I ordered a cheap optivisor and some thin CA glue. Hopefully it will be easier to work with than the medium CA that I have. 
Steve

It’s been far too long since I last posted an update. The model didn’t make it to this year’s village show, but there’s always next year. The photo below shows the current state of play - please excuse all the loose ends etc which will be tidied up in time. The tiny deadeyes were a particular problem, even after stiffening the thread with glue, and sometimes in desperation using a very tiny drill to enlarge the holes. One major difference in appearance from what seems to be the common approach is that I have used black rather than pale thread for the deadeye lanyards. My argument is that it’s unlikely that the lanyards would have been constantly adjusted - it would have made sense, surely, to use tarred rope for them. Steel suggested that lanyards should be ‘well greased’,which is not all that helpful. I don’t think that contemporary paintings show light-coloured lanyards.I think that a dark brown might well have been more accurate, but I like the look of black.

The current state of play
The question of sails or no sails has been on my mind. It seems on the face of it somewhat odd to have a model of a sailing ship with no sails, though obviously there are innumerable precedents for that. I have seen photos of fine models spoiled to my mind by their sails bellied-out, with heavily-marked seams. I have tried various solutions in the past. Some 65 years ago I bought the finest cloth I could find in Elliston & Cavell’s department store in Oxford, to the puzzlement of the sales assistant. I avoided hemming it, for sewn hems look horribly out of scale. Instead, I glued the bolt rope to the edges of the sails, which worked fine, and looks as good now as it did then. The seams for the individual cloths making up the sail were simply marked in pencil, a practice I think some still follow. The trouble is that they do just look like pencil lines, and be warned - it looks from one of my models from the late 1950s as if they  do fade in time. Nor do I think the lines should be dark. Steel says that the twine used to sew them should be of beeswax with a 1/6th part of turpentine, which suggests to me that they were quite pale.
 

Cloth sails, on a small model built c. 1960
Recently I tried a very different tack, for a very small model of PS Britannia. I used kitchen foil, folded and then unfolded to mark the seams, and then painted. I’d used foil for flags previously, and it worked fine, with the only problems being that the sails have no translucency at all, and of course hang stiffly. I don’t think it would well on anything more than a miniature model.
 

Kitchen foil sails on a tiny model
Then I tried another way for a model of the celebrated ship drawn by Matthew Baker(see photo above), often thought questionably to have been the Revenge, and equally questionably identified as the Elizabeth Jonas by the Science Museum. I’d read about the use of ‘Modelspan’ (which sounds like the tissue I used in the 1950’s for KeilKraft aircraft models), but instead of buying some, I tried the kind of tissue used for nose-blowing. Soaked in a very dilute mixture of paint and glue, this worked reasonably well for furled sails. So, for this Agamemnon model, I considered kitchen foil, but in the end bought some tissue paper intended for model aircraft, coloured it with dilute paint, and used it for furled sails (well, one furled sail so far). Much tidying up to do, of course.
 

OK, I now have a price for the Harpy. I wanted it to be less than £400, but I cannot due to the sheer amount of materials in each kit (24 separate laser cut sheets and 3 PE sheets), plus the time taken to produce each kit. So the price is:
 
VM/17     HM Brig Harpy    (November release)             £425 
VM/17/XL     HM Brig Harpy (PE copper and machined blocks)      £490 
 
I am expecting a very large shipment of PE copper next week (45kg worth), so PE copper options will be back for Indy and Speedy too, with Speedy having a dedicated sheet for rudder and keel copper plate, as well as the standard sheets, and also Indy and Harpy will have a small sheet for the rudder patterns. This is the first time in over two years I have been able to order the copper PE.

Mmmmm, beefy!
 

 

Update #1
started doing the sides, boy this part was stuff especially the curving part of the sticks (if that is what it is called)
hopefully the filing of the bow and stern to round them, was pretty tough to determine how much to file and not to file too much

final reveal
Halfords Grey Primer for everywhere
Halfords black stain for chassis
Halfords S9-070 Beige - body work
Halfords British Racing Green - crane, wheels
green stuff World for the Chrome
 
i give the kit 7/10, for quality, very heavy tabs attach parts to sprues
i give 3/10 for my attempt to build it
 
 
pain to get the glass in place on the front of the cab
i never dealt with seam lines properly
to much not allowing primer to dry propely before adding top coat
 
an enjoyable week, with a finished kit 
 
 
 
 

Objection your honor! Not Ship-Shape! Not Bristol Fashion!

Somehow I remembered that the free ends of the deadeye lanyards were tied up that high. I searched for a while to see what reference I had for the high-tie - but I couldn't find anything that had got me there. The old section model didn't look like that either. That's why I got protest elsewhere, which I had nothing to counter except for: Demolition!



Fortunately, I only use very little glue thanks to my fine glue nozzles 🙂

It was still a fiddle to get the stuff out of the rope. But now it actually looks much neater.

XXXDAn

This help?

The lanyard is hitched in the space between the bight of the shroud and the upper deadeye.  That's what basically ties it off.  the remaining is given a few wraps around the shroud, and the tail seized to it just to do something with the loose end.  There's good chance of a lanyard breaking or being cut on a warship, and having that excess can save time in repair, not to mention the method of taking up tension on them requires a bit of length to set up.
 
I'm sure Victory was kept very prim and proper, being an admiral was aboard
At least you didn't do this...

 

Working on the engine. I question whether the real 14 Bis could have supported the Antoinette engine with the flimsy bracket arrangement modeled in the kit.  Mine couldn’t support the model engine for sure.   I had to glue the kit engine to the firewall and put in the brackets after the glue had dried.  Also, using the plan’s placement for engine mounts I found that the drive shaft would not line up with the propeller.  It took a lot of fiddling to get everything lined up and I think the engine is still a tad crooked.  

The standards, channel en extra supports on the port side are ready
 

Next, standards,channels, etc. at the bow area.
Almost nothing remains of the original.  So, first i do test setups before building.
 
step one, 3 extra standards and a wale