BLACK VIKING

More remains to be done but it’s getting closer to conclusion.

Horns, cab running lights, visor added. Baby moon hub covers on rear hubs.
68 Firebird sits along side for size comparison.

She’s got stacks

The spritsail is bent to the yard and furled and the yard attached to the bowsprit, still much fine tuning and rigging left to do but at least it's one less loose piece floating around. 
 
Michael D.
 
 
 
 

A little dry brushing on the chassis before the exhaust stacks go on.

Started the splint camouflage 

Build Log - Day 27 (10th & 11th Dec 2025)
 
Task 46 – Ships Wheel
My time in the shipyard is very limited this week therefore I am tackling some small tasks such as the ships wheel assembly.
 
The ships wheel is made up from 5 PE parts which were glued together, using a 1mm rod to ensure everything was aligned.
 
Next the cable drum assembly, comprising three wooden parts were glued together, once again using a 1mm rod to ensure everything was aligned.
 
I then painted the drum and ship wheel a dark walnut colour, as can be seen below.
 

 
The two end panels have nice some laser-etch lines and I decided, as this is a royal yacht, to embellish these with some paint.
 
In the photo below I have taped the two panels so the centre section can be painted royal blue and the second photo shows the end result, noting I had already added black paint the top section.
 

 
In the next set of photos more tape is used so I could add a red outline to the blue insert.

 
More tape was then added so the external edges of the panels could be painted dark walnut.

 
Test fit of the ship wheel assembly, noting the ship wheel assembly has not been glued together


 
Task 47 – Main Rail Thoughts
Before I glue the main rails in place I thought I would experiment with some different finishes.
 
This is the current natural wood finish. It looks Ok but I think it would look better if it were a bit darker in colour.

 
Gold, look nice but I am not convinced this is the best option but would fit in with the opulence of a royal yacht.

Leather, this looks OK but I am not sure this colour really complements the red and blue.
 
Dark Walnut, again looks OK but I think it is too dark.

Ships lantern:
There were two supplied with the kit. The first one is almost finished. Hinges, door knob yet to install and connecting rod.

An update on progress. Lots left to do. I need a larger garage. 😀

Hi guys...
 
This was coast defense railroad artillery.... And the D-Model designation is Mk I which is the designation of the carriage not the gun itself... The Gun itself is a Mk III to a Mk VI  adapted to the Mk I deep well railroad carriage... 
 
Here is a picture of one in operation in France....

from "THE FIELD ARTILLERY JOURNAL". VOLUME VII NUMBER 2. April-June 1917. THE UNITED STATES FIELD ARTILLERY ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON, D. C. Downloaded from http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/1917/APR_JUN_1917/APR_JUN_1917_FULL_EDITION.pdf This photograph Q 4280 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums.
Photograph of British BL 9.2 inch gun, Mk III* or Mk VI HMS Iron Duke, mounted on Mk I railway truck, in action at Maricourt, France, during the Battle of the Somme Sep. 1916.
 
There were no  Mk I guns produced in 1896 as they were deemed deficient.... Most of these guns were reclamations from the Royal Navy as they replaced them on their capital ships...
 
The Guns had a 10 deg traverse left to right on the mounting any further traverse was accomplished by moving the gun on it's curved track to change it's bearing on target... It's elevation was 28 degrees which was improved to 35 degrees sometime in 1916...
 
All of these guns were scrapped after WWI... The only ones that were saved were the Mk XIII model and those are the ones that served into WWII... They were mounted on a straight back carriage.....

 
Interesting gun....
 
Beautiful model Brother....
 
 

Here are some images of the lower part of the Ram in construction: 
The lower image is a dry fit of the jigging/fixing arrangement prior to application of the solder paste.

Well, today, we made a huge step (for us) forward.
 
We have been so busy, and right now, I can only run one laser machine at a time, as we have no space for another extractor, which we need to run both simultaneously - so have been drowning under work load, and running out of space for the business. We have totally outgrown the repurposed garage for the workshop.
 
With that in mind, we went to look at some proper business units, and I have just put a deposit down for a nice little unit, over 4 times the space I currently have, which we move into in January. I will be able to run both lasers at full pelt, and have much more space to put stuff!
 
I have added some pics of our modest little new unit – we have an option of having something larger as we grow more.
Realistically, we had little choice, as with Surprise imminent, that’s 18 kits we need to find space for, and a 3-bed house and converted garage can no longer cut it….

That should do it 

Surprisingly the aircraft carried its lifting cables externally where all weight is important to lug these around is a strange design decision 🤔 
 
This bit of ugly plastic is the kits version
 

So no self respecting ship builder on here could tolerate that..so made some

That's Better

Base coat down. 

Weathering the railroad track with pigments, then some splatters of oil. I’m happy with how this looks so far. Tomorrow I’ll add it to the base then put ballast around it 

And I’m done, thinking of calling it “the Bollocking” 

All together, the railing are a complete one piece print which are a paint and would have been better off as individual stanchions 

After all these years, this is the very first time I have ever attempted to build a semi tractor model. This one is a re-released, very old mold of the White-Freightliner. It can be built as an SD model (short cab) or as the DD model (extended cab with sleeper). Mine will be built as the extended cab DD model. The first thing I noticed was the troublesome seam created by attaching the sleeper to the cab. Because there is raised rivet detail, it's going to take some work to smooth out the join area, particularly the top. Will probably need to sand off all the rivet detail then replace it with some Archer decal rivets. I didn't have any of those on hand but placed an order for some that should arrive later this week. I used styrene strip stock to reinforce the joint and help keep it in alignment. The strip stock will create some issues when later fitting the interior tub inside the cab, but that can be overcome with a little work. For the time being, I will work on the engine, transmission and frame assemblies. I plan to follow the box art as my painting guide. This re-release does include a nice decal sheet to recreate the graphics as seen on the box.

Another building for you. This is the other "wrong side of the tracks" structure, where the land starts sloping down toward the river and incomes and property values are lower. Intended as a general tavern / store kind of place. You can see the kit's version here: https://www.blairline.com/samsroadhouse/ No photos of construction, because it's a pretty straightforward laser-cut kit and I didn't do anything particularly unique to it. Just some basic weathering.

I didn't use the kit's corrugated metal roofing (see link above), preferring tar paper. Although metal roofing was in use by 1900, my sense is it was far from ubiquitous. I don't have any other buildings I intended to use metal roofing on, and it'd look strange for the only building with such a new-fangled idea to be one of the rougher settings. I also didn't want a super-rusty look as even in the rougher part of town, I want Rocheport to have a well-kept appearance, and I wanted this to look like a relatively recent construction, not a 50-year-old wreck.
 
Notice the outhouse downhill in the back, that was part of the kit. Also part of the kit was a sheet of possible signs. I chose a couple brands that really were produced in St. Louis during this era, Falstaff beer and Star tobacco. The manufacturer's version has this building plastered with signs, but I think that's overkill clutter and like how just a few add some flair while letting the building breathe overall.
 

 
I intentionally chose this one and its partner across the street because they're up on posts, as is common for river-adjacent structures in this region. I used small pieces of crushed limestone to build up support pillars for the wooden posts. This is also pretty common around here in older buildings. Close eyes will notice in the first photo that I need to stick a couple rocks under the front porch posts.  I like how this sticks out over the slope that starts descending down to the river.
 
No paint on this one, it's all pastel weathering. I really wanted this to have a raw-wood look to it. The lower supports are intentionally more reddish to hint that maybe they were built from local Eastern Red Cedar, which is highly rot resistant and very common around here. I've built all of my full-scale outbuildings from it, and it would have been quite easy for someone to harvest in 1900, too. I think the raw wood goes well with the subtle grey of the sharecropper house, and contrasts with the brighter colors of the depot area.
 
And here's a broader view, showing how this frames the street leading from the river landing into town past the east side of the depot. That's the last building for this district; other than trees, other vegetation, and some fencing, that's pretty much how this is intended to look.

Thanks for following along!
 

So the diorama idea so far 

I think this piece is done. New hands arrived today. 

All 'stickered' up. Each foot step was 3 separate decals so I had to apply some wear and chipping before applying them.