BLACK VIKING

Your moldings turned out great. I really like the profile, makes me want to redo the ones on my Winnie.  She’s looking very good.

Small update for today.
Frank.

The ships stand is ready, currently with a temporary name on it.

the planking above wale 3 went quite smoothly.

But,
The frame of section 1 is strongly bent inwards at the top. And the stem is straight at the top.

This result is an unnatural shape of the hull
So, removing these planks and start again for attempt 2. The advantage of PVA glue is that it softens again if you carefully apply isopropyl alcohol to the glue seams.
The planks can then be removed fairly easily.

Surgery...

Attempt 2 : better

But...
I think I tapered the planks between wale 2 and 3 too much.
Wale 3 currently has no smooth line. I'm considering attempt 3 (this means more redoing)   

Your persistence and attention to detail (and re-doing when you're not satisfied) are a credit to ship modellers everywhere. 
 
And far from the tubby stereotype people have of ships of this period, this hull is elegant and shapely. She's beautiful!
 
Steven 

Thank you .
The "demolition work" has now been completed successfully on both sides. And the (3rd attempt) reconstruction is going in the right direction.
If everything goes according to plan, an update will be released over the weekend

I finally completed the port side railing end using .030"x.030" styrene, I used plastic cement to soften the styrene enough to facilitate bending, also completed the port side fore course sheet, to achieve some slack in the line, adjust the line to the desired slack and put a spot of PVA on that side of the block, I usually use misc size wire or heavy thread as weights and make small adjustments to fine tune the slack you're after until the glue dries and repeat on the other side then you can finish up by pinching the line around block to get a tighter radius,  in this case I was after just a small amount of slack .
 
Michael D.

Thank you for your likes, I little improve my decision about the pedestals😁 and at the third attempt made caryatides. They are not as big as it looks. Sorry for my clumsiness😉
 
Jan

Evening all,    more  progress  with  darkening the  French  jackets  -  going  quite  well  I think,   I have managed  to  take a  few  photos  - 
 
OC.

Done! 

Engine and cowl mated, front cowl rings added.
 

They are ugly looking things, like a block of flats on the water, so no! lol

Great questions Tom.   As far as I know, the wedges were hammered into place but due to their shape and size of the opening they could not fall through even if they got a little loose.  Perhaps they were checked and "reset" on occasion.  The drawing below may help.  It is from The Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War 1650-1850, page 169 by Peter Goodwin, ISBN0-87021-016-5
Allan
 

 
 

Hello everyone and welcome to my construction report.
 
I’m not only a friend of warships but also a Star Wars fan from the very beginning. And when Bandai released this amazing Millennium Falcon model, I was blown away.
This project will depict the famous falcon from Star Wars in a diorama.
He should fly through a halved tube. This is based on some film scenes, where he flies through the interior of the not yet finished Death Star, for example.
I’m really looking forward to the project because I’m going to build a ship that doesn’t plow through water but through space.
 
And these are the ingredients.
 
Bandai really went all out here. There has never been such an accurate and detailed model of the falcon.
 

 
But as always, there is room for improvement
Greenstrawberry offers some good etched part sets for science fiction.
 

 
The Bandai figures in the kit are actually okay.
Their drawback is that they are completely rigid.
The company Falcon 3D Parts from the USA has four good sets for this.
I took this one because I think Luke's pose is great. “It’s not a moon.”
 

 
They also offer much better electronics.
More on this later in the construction report.
 

 
Since I started this kit at the beginning of the year, it's starting again in fast motion.
First, the Mandibles.
 

 
Everything in the kit fits really well. Here is the first time I had to putty.
 

 
It’s amazing the level of detail Bandai has created here.
Everything very delicate.
 

 
With my 3D printer I created this black, inconspicuous part in the middle of the Falkon. This will be the later holder for the threaded rod that holds the model on the diorama.
 

 
Well hidden in the lower weapon bay.
 

 
Continue with the bottom side of the falcon.
All gaps are excellently covered on the ramps.
 

 
The lower part of the falcon is finished and looks very good.
 

 
After priming and pre-shading, the first base coat is on. I chose Vallejo White Gray. Pure white would have been too cold for me.
 

 
The first three panels are painted red. It was quite complicated because I hadn’t thought about installing the flap control later.
 

 
Plate after plate it goes forward. A lot of masking work is required.
The decals are still attached, and let’s start with the panel lining.
 

 
A filter of khaki, blue, gray and green is now applied to the lower half.
 

 
The wash consists of brown and dark gray.
 

 
And secure with clear coat.
 

 
Back to the mandies.
They too have received a wash. The chipping and fading are still missing.
 

 
Let's install it.
 

 
Ok, having fun with chipping.
I can experiment on the underside without fear of messing up the model. You don’t see much of that in the Dio anyway.
But first a fundamental consideration from me.
In chipping the falcon, I leave the template of the original for two reasons.
First of all the color of the chipping spots.
The different colored plates are supposed to give the impression in the film that Han and Chewi are repairing the falcon with all sorts of spare parts that they got from a junkyard. For example with a plate of a red or dark gray painted YT freighter.
So far so good.
However, if paint were to flake off the red replacement part, the original color of the falcon should not appear underneath, but rather the primer of the spaceship from which this plate originally came.
Also, all the other panels painted in the original color of the falcon seem to have almost no scratch marks at all.
So when are all the plates on gammelt?
The next reason is that the chippings taken from the film and adopted by Bandai in the decals are way too coarse for this scale in my opinion. That fits more in 1:35.
So I reinterpret my falcons and this is the first result. Although I still don’t know if I’m really satisfied.
 
Lets go.....
 

 
And then on to fading. On the underside the dirt runs inwards towards the middle, so think again.
I use it very sparingly as it often quickly becomes too much.
 

 
Let’s finish the subpage.
The last streaks of dirt were still missing and I refined the chipping a little.
 

 
This completes the underside of the falcon for now.
 
 
 
 

Same here Druxey...Maybe its just nostalgia but I think I actually prefer my original blocks too.   But in fairness,  I learned so much during the process of trying to perfect block-making over the past year.  I think my original hand-made blocks are even better this time around because of that work.   And you cant beat them for the price.   I dont worry about the strop groove because once the block is stropped you cant see it anyway.   
 
It will take me a little while to make them in all sizes but I am happy report that I have some help this time around.   CNC is very slow....and there is so much more waste in terms of wood use than my old hand-made method as well.  So there are benefits to still making them as well.  This is why in spite of them being made by hand I can offer them up much cheaper.   I outsource the CNC blocks and they can make about 500 blocks max per day at this point.   When I make them by hand I can do around 1200 to 1400 blocks.  How crazy is that?  Especially nice when my son-in-law is making a batch, LOL.
 
Chuck

You can use a tumbler like the Block Buster.
 
I have my own little version  that works better for me..
 


 

I have a pretty good stash of Chuck's blocks so I wouldn't go to the trouble of making the kit blocks work these days.
But there was a time when it was all the kit builder had.
Of course there are some kits like Vanguard, that come with pretty decent blocks. 

Crazy thing...I rarely shop for rigging blocks for obvious reasons.   But I was searching online for info on rigging blocks so I can start making CNC fiddle blocks and Hearts...
 

 
LOL...I came across the typical square blocks which are abominations that come in most commercial kits.   I couldnt believe the price.  They are selling these things for $5.50 per package of 30.
 
It just hit me that my bargain blocks are the same price....I think my bargain blocks are a steal for the price.  I cant believe how out of touch I am when it comes to how much money folks are charging for this stuff.  I thought they were maybe charging $3 for a package.   Crazy stuff.  Anyway....enjoy them while I can offer them.  I should have another size in stock tomorrow some time.
 

 
 
 
 

This  is  what I would call  a  Blue-Black.
 
OC.

Mast wedges under way for the fore and middle masts


And all three complete

As the halyards have to go through the floors of the tops, I've put temporary halyards in so I can locate the supports (equivalent to crosstrees and trestle trees). Note that I've started putting them in on the mizentop.

 
 
I've finally begun planking the hull.
 



Because I couldn't clamp the strakes I had to pin them in place with treenails.

 



Steven

Hi Chuck,
I will list some of inaccuracies or mistakes I found.
When you compare body plan with sheer and half-breadth plan and measure everything this what you get. This is in milimeters. I took that sheer and half-breadth plan are more accurate.
 

One ladder not two.
 


 
Had to add the this for main yard hoisting.
 

Cleats are on wrong places, found out later when started putting the shrouds
 
 
 

 
Absolutely no cleats for fastening all the ropes, also lack of better explanation of how forecastle is constructed.
 
Two different fore stay versions
 
Spritsail is too large, spritsail on the previous picture is better
 

This framing is not in an alignment with other plans, so much correction is need if you want to make admiralty model or just to match visible frames with other plans.
There are some other mistakes I can't remember now, for example anchor is too big for the scale so adjustments are needed. Much care is to be taken studying plans before starting the build. I don't have so much experience so i didn't see all of this in advance. 

I have begun to work on this kit.   As per my usual process, I have two kits going.    My primary kit will be the Vanguard Grecian, but while waiting for glues to set, and for a change of pace, I will work on this kit.   I will build this kit pretty much out of the box with few modifications.     Although I will opt to use other manufacturer's deadeyes, single blocks and belaying pins.     In this kit the deadeyes and single blocks are laser cut on the plywood sheets and would require drilling holes and painting.   The belaying pins would have to be fashioned from wood stock.  
 
As to contents of the kit I would refer people to the YouTube videos which give a very good description of what is inside the kit.     As you can see from the pictures I have placed by SurfacePro computer at my work station as all the instructions are on a disc.    The only paper in the kit are the porthole templates and a guide to the plywood sheets showing where each piece is.    As I have reviewed all the instructions I believe there might be some issues  with not having physical instructions or plans but we will see.
 
The bulkheads, for the most part, consist of 3 pieces.     So far the fit of these pieces has been excellent.      Quality of the wood has also been excellent. 
 
  

That design looks to be taken out of Landstom's book, very nice indeed. Since no lantern was ever recovered and the probability exists that it may never have been installed, we can only speculate what it actually looked like, so I figured I could use some artistic license, still some touch up left to do but I'm a lot more pleased with this rendition, I added some styrene to the vertical grids then created the sculptures from Sculpey clay , for the vents I used paper. Thanks for looking.
 
Michael D.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Spritsail yards and yards for the foremast turned to the lengths in the comment above. Electric drill, sand paper, and calipers does an  excellent job. A little touch of paint on each set helps me not get them mixed up. 

Hi Kirill,
I could very well continue work on the lantern and make it more ornate but still on the fence on whether I want to display it, maybe just the mount. Regarding the brace pendants you are correct about the blocks stropped with a loop but really tough to do with 1.5mm blocks, I needed to simulate them instead and I believe it looks convincing enough at this scale. 
 
Michael D.

Painted and closed up. This is going to need some putty 

Love your new work station Marc. I am sure your artistic genius will continue to grow as you set in that beautiful chair. (Speaking as a fine furniture woodworker).