BLACK VIKING

First side of lower wale done.

Lester:  
 
The replies forthcoming may not seem kind, but they will be honest and come from people, more knowledgeable than me, who know from what they speak.  
 
To begin with my two cents worth: The model is pleasant to look at, but it is unrepresentative of any historical vessel.  It resides in the category of 'dust catcher'.  Your work to restore it may give you pleasure, but no amount of work will elevate the model from that category.

Thanks Ken. Standing around having a ciggie rather than running around with rifles
Alan

With the diorama fit on me I brought this out. Its a 1/72 British 8 inch howitzer and limber and FWD truck from WW1. 

At 1/72 its tiny but there are a lot of parts; generally quite well done and some lovely fine detail pieces like the wheels for elevation on the gun. Some very thin rods and its going to be a challenge getting some of them off the sprues without breaking them.

The plan is to have this as a part time build while the Churchill is being finished and the X craft is returning to the table. There should be lots of little sub modules to play with. Today I had planned to just look it over but somehow I got started on the chassis. Its all a bit delicate with steering track rod and prop shafts all as separate pieces. The fit is quite good but there is a bit of thin flash that needs to be trimmed off some of the pieces
Given the many degrees of freedom in aligning everything I was thrilled to have all four wheels touching the ground and the prop shafts at a sensible angle.


As mentioned earlier the idea is to build a small diorama around the kit. There are no figures included in the box so I will have to find some non-aggressive WW1 1/72 British soldiers (kind of just standing around) - and face up to painting them.
Thanks for looking in
Alan
 
 
 
 

With the sand paint dry I masked up for the dark grey. I used tape on teh hull and a mixture of tape and blu=tack for the turret. The Blu=tack deals better with the uneven surfaces of the turret and is easy to mould to shape.


I used Tamiya XF-24 dark grey and I think its about right. 

And with the tape off. Its interesting; the grey is sometimes hard to spot because it looks like shadows on the sand colour. maybe that was the intent to mimic the shadows on desert sand




The tracks will now be installed and the top sections will be glued down. Gun need adding and then its time to weather it up and start the base.
Thanks for looking in and for the helpful comments
Alan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Final Bounce
Based on 'China Clipper' Boeing 314 at Hong Kong. The golden age of Air Travel.
w/c 16" X 11" 

The kit plans call for structural wire bracing along the sides and top of the fuselage. Since the top can not be seen once the inner skins are in place, decided to include it only on the sides.

The kit instrument panel needed some trimming relocating and cutting to fit.

Fuselage formers were added and now it’s ready for the inner skins.

 

The Luggage Rack.
 
I actually began construction of this some time ago but needed to wait for some more black nappa in order complete the task.  This  is quite a complex item The first task is to create the luggage rack itself.  This is then covered with brown leather which would have protected the luggage from dust and stones etc. 
 
First the base frame  on which the luggage rested  is constructed from 2 X 4 mm and 3X 1.5 mm walnut battens:

This is then covered with brown nappa:
 

Now another framework is constructed on the rear of the cabin (presumably to protect the rear wall from damage if heavy items moved during the journey}. This is constructed from 1.5 X 3 mm Sapelly battens.  For vertical battens are glued to the rear wall and then five horizontal battens are nailed to these.

 
The frame of the luggage rack will rest on the 4 X 4 mm beam  which see under this frame.  The base frame is supported by two 3 X 1mm brass straps:
 

Mucjh of this good work will in fact be obscured by the leather cover which come next.  First the sides are covered with a triangular piece of leather.  A triangular piece of brass wire is glued to a square piece of nappa which is folded over and glued to form the triangluar shape:
 

Staps are then attached to two of the sides using brass nails:
 

These straps are wrapped around the brass supports and the lower luggage frame:
 

I found this part quite tricky since the leather needs to be cut to fit the gap quite precisely otherwise unsightly creases will appear.  The next stage is to make a leather cover which is fixed over the rear of the luggage rack.
 
Work on this item continues.
 
John
                
 

Thanks for all the likes and encouragement. I was never going to give up on this - I'd put too much into it. But I'm glad I took a break - it had stopped being fun and had become a chore.
 
So, here's the progress in getting back to where I was before the topgallant yard broke:
 
First I had to replace the parrel truck - I'd had to destroy it to get the yard off. As I hadn't even understood what parrel trucks were when I first built the model, or how they worked, I just made what they looked like to me from pictures. When replacing this one I basically made it the way it had first been made, by wrapping a thread around the ropes that were to hold it to the mast
 

Sail being attached

A loop around the mast to locate the yard and then roll the "parrel truck" around the mast and fix in place with CA.
    
Replacing the controlling ropes - sheets, clewlines, lifts (I had to unglue the bottom of the shrouds for access to the upper top). Tiny pegs used as weights, to tension the ropes.
   
 


 
Adding the lifts

 

And braces

 
And finished, ready to move forward again.
 

 
Steven
 

Last update I think before the big reveal.
 
Enamel "Bomber black" from Colourcoats applied, it has a semi-satin type finish which is fine as the next job is a gloss coat for the decals.
 
So after the gloss coat, all that is needed are the decals, adding the undercarriage and bomb bay doors and finally the props.  I will do some weathering, mostly the "chalky" looking staining from the exhausts on the black, perhaps highlight a few panels lines around the engines, but not much more.  Certainly no need to add "metal" chips to this one!  😁 (well perhaps the odd one on the metal engine cowls / radiator panels....)  Then a final flat coat.
 
Not sure, I think I prefer the "look" of a Mosquito in Daylight camouflage, the black disguises her lines a bit - shock! - do you think that was the purpose for black night bombers? 🤔 😂
 
Thanks all again for the interest, feedback and comments on this build, who knew - one of the best "aircraft" forums is on "Model SHIP World"! 👍

Now that is wonderful, lovely scene, very atmospheric. 👏

Centurion 
C class Empire Flying Boat. 16” X 11”

With 90% of the hull sanding complete I've focused my attention to the channels, with the fore channels completed I wanted to try out my new process to achieve the desired look I'm after.
Base coat is Tamiya flat desert yellow followed a thin wash of Tamiya flat white. up next is a thin wash of burnt umber followed by slightly thinned almost dry brushed raw umber then a thin wash of flat black on the middle gun deck ports, once I spray some dulcoat on it, it should give it a deeper tone. I'm quite pleased thus far with the results. The last picture is taken without flash.
Thanks for looking,
Michael D.

Michael, this is a really fresh approach to an old, old kit!  I love the modifications, and you have really nailed the tone on the PEG-preserved timbers.  I'm really going to enjoy watching this one take shape!

Very beautiful.
The color on the hull looks great.

Ocean Artist
Based on several Ocean Class ships  W/c 16” X11”   

Just a little update.
 
We have listened to some customers, not being sure of skill levels for my kits, so we now have skill labels for each kit:
 
 
 

 
I am hoping this helps some modellers.
 
On the Indy side, this is still progressing. Yesterday I received the photo etched sheets (25kg worth), dowels, first planking and red alder deck planking.

The Starboard fore channel mock up is complete, overall fairly pleased with the result considering the scale.
 
Michael D.


 

Well the seat belts that have been causing me grief have finally capitulated 😅
as can be seen the lower left belt on the back has no detail on it, this is a homemade replacement because the original part went MIA. 
It may be quite a while before I dip my toes in P/E again🤪😂
Thanks for all the likes,  comments and just calling by.
Cheers 

Port Caledonia was a four-masted steel barque built in 1892 by Russell & Co., Greenock 

 
W/C 16" X 11"

Channels and chain plates, this is something I needed to take into consideration since I will not be using the kit supplied ones and that is chain plate bolt locations in the wales. I made the new channels out .040" styrene sheet and used 24g copper wire as dowels to pin them to ship, the chain plates are the same gauge copper wire hammered flat and bent to the necessary angle, I stropped the 1/8" heart dead eye with thread that is run through a hole in the chain plate and glued and the chain plate is pinned to the wale with 24g copper wire. Obviously the objective here is to get all the channels/chain plates built and fitted prior to painting the hull although the channels will remain in place for that phase.
 
Michael D.

The famous test pilot -- nice!

Lt. Eric 'winkle' Brown in his Martlet approaches HMS Audacity.11.5” X 8.5” watercolour. HMS Black Swan in back ground.

The starboard Qtr galleries completed vs out of box port galleries...now I get to do it all over again, oh joy! I will note that none of the modifications are permanently fixed yet as they will be removed during paining process and reattached. Thanks for looking.
Michael D.