BLACK VIKING

Yes!  I just finished posting the video that your First Mate requested.  
 
Apparently I am unable to build anything with greater than a zero margin for error.  The insertion process went pretty well, but it took a while.  The oars and tips of the stem post were scraping along the neck of the bottle as I pushed each half of the hull inside.  I ended up bending a few of the oars but they can be straightened without too much difficulty.  

I got the hull pieces in pretty quickly.  The time consuming part was getting the rigging threads out of the way (while making sure they did not slip into any of the small epoxy blobs) and then lining the hull pieces up and pressing them together.  The whole process took about 10 minutes but felt like an hour!  Long video link below.   
  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqDFXTSlX2s&t=116s
 
 
 

Hi Ian - for the ships of the 1670s and 80s, where the beakhead is more elongated, elevated and Dutch-like, the gammoning tends to be a little more removed from the waterline:
 





Towards the end of the century, though, the head configuration changes, and the beakhead sweeps down closer to the water:
 

Thanks everyone for your interest 
 
A dummy plywood "keelplate" is made.
This showed that the mutual distance between the bulkheads was too great. So everything has been disassembled and the intermediate supports have been made 3mm narrower.
The new arrangement is now in proportion to the keel, stern, stem.

The shape of the front and rear bulkheads don't look right on sight (i think). I used the drawing from the book Anatomy of the ship (AOTS) and It looks if these are "taken" from MR Noblest Shippe (MRNS)
The AOTS scheme has 12 frames.
The MRNS has also detailed  "sections" and frames.

 
That is why the drawing of the sections (MR noblest shippe) has been enlarged by 200%. I spent a few hours at work today at the engineering department...😇
The intention is to make masters with these to check if the shape of the bulkheads matches with the sections.
This will also help to determine the position of the decks more easily. The deck of the cannons is open (a real deck, no holes in the hull with dummy cannons)

@Ondras71 This is indeed going to be a large model.
 
@Veszett Roka
The keel will consist of 3 pieces from 2 different types of wood. The idea is to install it first. 
 
 
 

Then there is this little problem solver. If you are under 6 years old, it's not recommended . Ah! Those were the days

Evening all,    got  some more  time on the bench  with  my  little figures,  I thought my  last Two  55th  Voltiguers deserved some attention  -   just some basic  colours  applied.
 
OC.

Evening all,   I mananged a couple  of hours  on my little  ones  today  -  I  started off  by  making  Two  2nd  Life Guards  from my old  light  cavalry  spru and  gave  then a  primer,   they  will  be sat on my  already made  ex Hussar  horses  that  just need their  facing colours  chsnged.  I also  decided  to dig  out  of  my trash box  a  few  2nd  KGL  that I had  put a side  because  I did not  think they were  molded  well  enough  -  so  I  gave  a  few  primer  and  the others  some  paint,  I did the same  with  Three  more  French  that I decided  to  have a re  make  of  - primed  and  some  basic  paint on  -  faces and hands/belts and  other bits of colour.
 
OC.

The fore topgallant mast shrouds, lanyards and stay are completed and there will be no ratlines, this was quite a fiddly process to say the least to make everything look right at this scale and while I'm not overly happy with results the up close camera shots provide,  the model as a whole does look pretty good to the naked eye. Up next I need to fashion the topmast and topgallant parrals,  topmast shrouds and lanyards. Thanks for looking.
 
Michael D.

Great progress Alan - looking very good.  Even though you've still more work to do on them, shaping the towers and adding the fill already makes a big difference.  And thanks for sharing the Welsh castle photos.  Beautiful countryside.
 
Gary  

I'm working along the next wall and round tower. One more round tower and I reach the part of the wall that is partly covered by the hillside so it doesn't get completely covered in brickwork.
Today has been spent playing with ideas for the lighting and mapping the wire runs in the main structure. The upper floor is complicated and I was thinking about adding the cardboard formers before placing the upper floor in place but I think that might cause problems because I think some of the walls have to be covered in blocks before other walls are added. That part of the build is going to be very interesting.
Today more wall building but I also continued shaping the towers and added a filling mix of sanding dust and diluted white glue to the gateway. This now needs to be rubbed back to bring the blockwork back into view but it already looks better. The arch needs more tidying but I will probably wait until the other side is in place so it can be matched.


Thanks for looking in and all the likes and support
To borrow @mtaylor tag line The wood might be patient but the stones are glacial
Sorry Mark
Alan

I'm still working slowly along the outer walls, The round towers tend to slow things down as most of the blocks require sanding to fit. Only two more round towers to complete on the outer walls.  Today I reached the main gate, The kit has preformed keystone shapes for the arch but they still need a bit of filing. The gateway was quite fiddly and not helped by the limited access caused by the adjacent towers. The stones above the arch are a bit ragged but they will look better after some attention with a sanding dust / glue mix. At least the tiers remained level as they crossed the archway. 

I'm starting to plan out the lighting. That looks like it might be a bit more complicated that I first thought but still very workable as long as its planned in advance.
So work to date

And to break up the tedium of watching the walls slowly grow. This is Dolbadarn Castle in North Wales. A medieval Welsh castle at the head of the pass into the mountains


 
 
 

Thanks for looking in and for all the likes and comments
Alan

Having decided to light the castillo  decided I needed to get a sense of how the model was all going to look as a whole and where the lights would go and how many etc. So I built up the cardboard formers for the mian structure. 


This is the first level. Another level will go on top but the lights will need to be installed before the roof is added. There is plenty of room to cut a hole in the floor for wires to run through. Having not done this before I am not sure how many leds will be needed and whether I should try to build some interior walls to separate some of the lights. I will get a handful and experiment. There is quite a bit of time before we get to that part of the build. I have read a lot of lighting builds having problems with light bleed through. I think it could be possible with this if there are chinks in the blocks in the wrong place so I think I might tape all the joints and then spray the interior with black primer.
I placed the main castle in its approximate place on the base and it shows there will be plenty of room to route the lighting wires and also the amount of landscaping that will be needed


The main castle will have the blocks added as a separate module so I can work on that on my usual bench which will be more comfortable especially if summer has arrived by then.
Meanwhile the walls are creeping forward. I am turning the corner at the next round tower onto the next section of wall. I started sanding the first round tower and its taking shape as the edges of the blocks sand away.
Thanks for looking in and all the likes and helpful comments
Alan
 
 
 

The resin finished curing, so I was able to figure out how much the oars could extend from the hull and still fit inside the bottle.  I got all 30 oars installed and gave it a test.  The tips of the widest oars just slightly scrape the inside neck of the bottle.  Perfect!!

While working on the mast, I realized that my original plan of stepping it into the hull while inside the bottle would be extremely difficult if I wanted to rig shrouds, stays, and braces.  So I went back to a hinged mast which I will affix to one half of the hull before insertion.  I've still got some thinkin' and figurin' to do on the rigging plan because of the split hull.  Not exactly sure how I'll pull that off yet.
 
For the sail, I wanted to display another iconic look of many Viking ships - the Mr. Peppermint jacket sail with red and white stripes.  I cut strips from red shirt fabric and slightly off-white muslin and glued them edge to edge with fabric glue.  I was not sure how sturdy the edge to edge connection would be so I decided to add a hand sewn, modified zig-zag stitch to make them a bit more secure.  I glued a bolt rope around the edges and also added a stitch to help secure it as well.
 



 

 
 
 
 
 
 

I have finished the sails. I have ordered 4 different batches of bitumen, but when mixed with turpentine it was not giving be a nice color... So after last failure I gave up and went to my local grocery store and bought some black tea 😄
 
When I was joining the main sail top and bottom parts it looks like the thread got too tight and most likely I am going to redo it.

Dear all,
I'd like to share with you my next build of the mighty, pugnacious looking Hawker Tempest Mk. V.

The kit is the awesome Eduard new tool, last generation plastic, in its 'Profipac' edition which I got as a gift to myself for the past Christmas. The great artwork displays one of these Tempest decorated with invasion stripes in full action against a German V1 over the British countryside. I could simply not resist getting it (actually I also got a 'Limited Edition' Tempest Mk II also by Eduard, but it will be the subject of a later build). 

The box is packed with high quality parts to which I added few Eduard's aftermarket extras. I find the level of detail of the surfaces fantastic perhaps equaled only by the latest Tamiya models.

 I don't know if, once enlarged 48 times, it would look right, but, for me, it will make a fantastic miniature rendition of a real airframe construction.

The Tempest was a predecessor of the Sea Fury, the model of which I have built some time ago.
I can't wait to start it although, as usual for me, I am afraid it will not be a quick one. I hope it might be of interest to some of you,
best regards,
Dan
 

I have the fore top mast stay completed, I used 3mm and 2.5mm blocks for this, currently working on the spritsail topmast back stay, I failed miserably on my first attempt by piercing a needle through the stay, it took multiple tries to get the spacing to look right which I expected but trying to keep the alignment/angle of the needle as it passes through the stay on a consistent basis proved to be too much of a battle resulting in twisting and thus fouling the crows feet for the fore topmast stay. Plan B I just created a loops around the stay with a simple overhand knots, fed the crows feet through and tightened the knots then adjusted accordingly , once satisfied I put a spot of glue, overall I'm pleased with result with the stay having a slight even upward curve.
 
Michael D.

t's been a while, things have been.. Well, they could have been better. On the build side, I obviously massively underestimated the rethink needed to build the Dutchman closed, been going over the plans several times, changed my mind as to the approach, changed it back after another review, slowing down the actual build to a crawl.
 
In the end the process flow I orginally devised still seemed to be the best: plank and install gun deck, cut gunports, then first planking, then install guns on gun deck. I changed the sequence a bit as I wanted to avoid turning the hull upside down with the guns installed, just in case.
 
Planking the gun deck finished, tested some wood stain sourced locally, and applied to the deck. The result was, well, not what I intended:

Contrary to the samples I tested the stain on, the gun deck has a bit of a satin finish, which I did not want. Also, the colour seemed to move more to the brown than to the grey. This area will be completely covered so I lfet it as is, but my staining solution for the upper decks went right out of the window.
 
I almost threw in the towel there and then. The setback of the stain, the seemingly lower quality of fitting and construction design of the kit itself, which at each step seemed to throw me a curve ball, the continuous re-evaluating of my methods, all of this took a lot of the fun out of building.
 
Decided I needed to take a step back and get some fresh air. Lucklily, there's enough of that around over here :-). Ended up in Tønsberg, south of Oslo, and the oldest town in Norway, going back to the Viking era. Little did I know that this town also held a fully functional replica of the Oseberg longship! It was even open to visit:
 


Needless to say, that little visit brought some of the spirit back and I continued with the build.  First up: planking the hull on the gun deck level. As the curve was significant, reverted to soaking each strip and clamping it into place, so it would keep it's shape after drying.
 

Slow but steady progress,  eventually I reached the point I could use the part Occre provides for the closed port side of the ship to draw a template of the gun ports on paper and transfer them to the hull
 

Then, after reviewing my build process again, started on the garboard plank. I hit an issue here, as in previous builds the bulkheads would reach the edge of the keel, planking the bow was relatively easy. For one reason or another Occre decided to not follow that practice and design the bulkheads so the planks are level with the keel edge. That left me in a bit of a situation, as I could not see how to use the supports on the bow to attach te garboard. Decided to split up the plank, partly install this, then another strip, and use the third strip to cover bow to stern, allowing me to attach the front parts of strips 1 and 2 to the full strip.
 


That went better than expected, continued working on planking the hull until complete:
 




Some sanding still needed, but overall the shape is there. While pondering the placement of the guns on the gun deck, I noticed 2 guns were dummies. Decided to order the 12 remaining dummies to make up a fake gun deck, as I'm trying to make sure the hull can be moved safely back to my home country at the end of my assignment, and the fake gun barrels can be added at the end of the build. Bought some 4mm plywood, cut it to size and drilled the holes, ready to be fitted now.
 

 
Then, on to the bow. After fitting the required pieces, saw that some part of the bow was still uncovered, so decided to add a piece to the tip of the bow, cutting it from some spare wood. After sanding the curvature came out right
 


After a lot of testing and doubting, decided on the colors for deck and hull. Went for Vallejo Medium grey for the deck, German panzer Grey for the hull, as black seemed a bit too dark for my liking. Repainted the bulkheads from black to Grey, and did my first drybrushing:
 

Gave the doors a bit of extra detail with some surplus strips, inpired by the build log of Fubarelf. After that, I painted the deck, glued the superstructure pieces to the frame and added some details on the edges for the upper decks. Also made the helmsman's cover, ready to be drybrushed as well
 


 
Next up: drybrushing and varnishing the decks, and then planking the inside of the bulwarks. As they make a bit of a warp decided to plank only up to the top of the gunports off boat, and finishing the job after they've been installed. Wish me luck!

I was quite ready to do some easy stuff after those dang shields, so I hit the oars and rowing benches.  The oars are made from .5mm brass rods.  I cut 30 of them into 5/8” lengths and smashed the ends down with some pliers for the paddles.  Then I painted them a shade of brown.  I drilled holes for the oars in the hull between each shield at a downward angle so the oars will point towards the water.  I won’t install the oars into the hull until I get my water in the bottle and see how much room I have to work with (i.e. how far to let them stick out towards the water).
 


 
Next up were the rowing benches.  I took a 1mm x 1mm walnut strip, cut it into 3/16” long pieces, beveled one edge to match the curving angle of the gunwale, and glued into place.  I also added the mast step.  It is glued to one half of the hull and overlaps the other.
 


 
Finally, I added epoxy resin water to the bottle.  It looks like I got sloppy and drizzled resin in the neck of the bottle.  For once, however, that was on purpose.  Since the bottle will be tilted a bit towards the Kraken’s mouth (as if he’s trying to drink the ship out of the bottle) I thought it would look better to have a little water in the neck.
 
It will take a couple of days for the resin to dry, so now I will begin work on the mast, yard, and sail.
 

 

Evening!
 
I thought this a good time to do an update as the stern is more or less complete. I've just got to add the stern gunport eyebolts and hinges, plus the lanterns which are now under paint.
 
First job here is to fit the glazing panels which come pre-cut. These just pop into place and the PE window frames are painted and pushed into the recesses. These push in snugly, and a little varnish was run around them to 'glue' them into place. Note that you can have any stern window (except the quarter-rears) positioned either open or closed. I opted to leave two windows open.

 
 
 
The columns are now singled out for some ochre paint and these are then glued between the windows. Minimal trimming is needed with these.


 
 
 
Instead of PE for the quarter shingles, a small sheet of pre-cut Laser-Board is included. these are longer than they need to be and are just trimmed and glued into place with a few dits of CA gel. These will then be painted in black to make them uniform (not seen here).


 
 
 
Again, instead of PE, the stern decor is laser-engraved into a sheet of PolyBak. These are finer than PE and have much nicer fidelity. All parts are carefully removed, attached to some de-tacked tape and then airbrushed in yellow ochre paint. Each part is then applied to the relevant engraved area on the ship's stern. For the ship name, a waterslide decal is included.


 
 
Until later!

A small update of what I've been up to, working on the fore shroud lanyards, have the main stay and lanyard rigged along with the main mast tackles, the main topmast, top gallant and fore top gallant masts are just set in place for the overall shot, while far from perfect I think things are looking fairly good scale wise.
 
Michael D.

So I guess that professional golfer John Daly styling would not be accepted?

 

Concerning post #49

I think that something like this has been developed, but his aim would be a little iffy.

... and even, if he wasn't barefoot, leaning onto the ladder with the bare forearms isn't such a survival idea either 😲

Yes, the pool is full of water, and yes, he is barefoot!
 

I fear that someone trying one these things today in an industrial plant would be facing some serious threats to his/her employment.

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