BLACK VIKING

The Big Reveal!
 
All done! Believe it or not, quite a few fiddly bits 'n' pieces were added between today's update and the last one: exhaust pipes, two venturies, control horns, actuator rods, control cables, fuel line, and pitot tube. I am really quite pleased with how this turned out. Again, much of the credit must go to the excellent design. There were no "mystery parts" left over or construction sequences that weren't apparent in the diagrams -- truly a great kit and one to recommend without reservation. So, on to the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And as a bonus, here's a family portrait of the Tiger Moth and three of her biplane sisters (clockwise from lower left: Fiat CR.42 Falco, CWL WZ.X, Polikarpov Po-2). Gotta love those Zweideckern!
 

 
Cheers!

I didn't make as much progress as i hoped. I had to deal with the pre Christmas tradition of plugging in the tree lights and finding two strings didn't work. After trying to remember where the spare bulbs and mini-fuses were and it just seemed easier to go to Walmart.
I started building up the assemblies that I plan to paint before putting them together.
The wheels are a two part assembly which I was initially going to keep apart to paint but the inner includes some of the tyre so I put them together. The kit has six wheels, two spares which have different inners to mount on the car. 

The instructions need a little thought in places, the part numbering is off in several places but the shapes are hard to confuse.

The underside is quite nice and went together well although cleaning up of most pieces is necessary. The fit is then good. The building of the rear lockers is interesting. The flat square, lower centre is scored underneath and then folded over the U shape piece to create a box as seen lowest centre. I've not seen that before.
I have come across two curiosities so far. 

The running boards (the rectangles with brackets) if fitted where the instructions indicate will foul the rear wheels. They need to be installed to overlap the back of the front wheel arch and then they match the box art and old photos.
The four wheels are all the same but if you look at the rear hubs they are bigger than the front ones and the wheels do not fit. I haven't thought my way through a solution yet. If I had discovered the issue before installing the rear axle, I could have got a bit rough with a file around the hub diameter. I may see if I can remove it again without too much distress.
The SDF MMGB were at Kharkur Murr in 1934 as part of a British presence to stop the Italians from getting any ideas about encroaching into British controlled Egypt from Libya. Further down the wadi from the rock memorial are the remains of stone huts used by the troops. The MMGB were part of the force present during this period but mostly used Thorneycrofts

The SDF were responsible for a huge but largely unknown logistics operation supplying Khufra oasis after the Free French captured it from the Italians. The Khufra convoys drove 1200 kms from Wadi Halfa on the Nile across the desert to Khufra. The convoy tracks are still visible in the sand today and a few abandoned trucks are still there too. This is the background I will be modelling my car to. The Rolls and Ford patrol cars were used as escorts to the trucks

The single round petrol can provided by the kit will be discarded in favour of some home made square tins (flimsies) that were used extensively at that time and are still widely found in the area

 

Thanks for looking in
Alan
 

Keep in mind we did moderate that that topic.   And what you cant see,   is that we did speak to those who treated the OP badly.  There is and will be no tolerance for belittling other members.   We have hundreds of members who may not be experts or they may even be beginners.   To call what they have posted as a tip or suggestion "trash"   is not something we want to condone at MSW.  We have many new builders who are proud of what they have done.  They want to share their methods and work.  It may not be perfect or masterful.  But they dont deserve to be treated badly.  And you wonder why new folks dont stick around.   Its because of people like those members who bashed the guy.  I counted six.  And I must say if those six experts suddenly vanished from the site...it would be less impactful then the scores of new builders alienated and poorly treated by them. 
 
These so called experts who love to pontificate (you know who they are)  will not be allowed to treat other members like dirt.   They have been formally warned.   If they continue...they will be banned.  The OP of that topic was NOT banned.   Nor was the topic removed.  It was being cleaned up and pruned of the nasty remarks other members were making.    Such as the one below.  Who would actually have the balls to to post THIS!!!   ...on another persons topic no less.   They should be ashamed of themselves.  As if they are so perfect.   
 
Pompous posters who love to pontificate on their wealth of knowledge be warned....do not treat folks this way.  There is a way to teach and educate without being a bully.  You guys are certainly NOT mentor material.  You get three strikes.....if the behavior continues...you are out.  The bully below says the member wasted his time.   You know what wasted my time...cleaning up the hate you decided to post all over someone elses topic.   That was a waste of my time.   Sending you a private message and issuing warnings to the folks who think they are "genius" masters who everyone should kiss up to....that was a waste of my time.
 
found the video a total waste of time. So what's to respect in the effort to make it and why do you care whether the poster "is getting pleasure in his task?" I know I may be criticized for being "insensitive," but I don't respect the efforts people put into posting useless, let alone erroneous, "how-to-do-it" videos on the internet and I could care less whether the people who post such drivel are getting pleasure from it. They waste everybody else's time. Who has the bandwidth to waste on junk content?
 
And here is the kicker.....non of the so -called MASTER builders in their INFINITE WISDOM of all things...posted a better method...or the correct historical reference.  They made ZERO attempt to politely state that there may be a better way or a more historically accurate way.   No attempt to teach or mentor.  They just bashed the guy and went on long Rants...like this one I am now forced to write about how so many people dont know as much as they do and yet post on You tube and the internet all this bad wrong information.....making society more stupid.
 
18 posts by expert bullies were pruned from that topic leaving just two replies.   All 18 had no value other than to belittle.   Shameful.   Talk about a waste of time reading those.   The replies of the bullies had no value what so ever.  Except of course maybe to allow the bullies to hear themselves claim omnipotent dominance of all things in the Universe. 

Hi all,
Here are some updated images of work on the quarter deck bulkhead. A lot of “artistic” license here – Purists will be annoyed lol… Historical images do indicate most likely 4 forward mounted cannons – yup, I get that. Note last 4 images FYI….
 
I chose to allow for two, per an early drawing intended to illustrate proposed decorations – and those two won’t be mounted either (as they won’t be at the forecastle either when it’s time to add carriages to all of the upper decks.
 
The visual intentions are for the side carriages to be rotated between the two openings (forward and sides) that are very near to each other on each side (see instruction guide image – much too crowded) I did add the recoil ropes purposefully.
 
I could have, instead, just added two central cannon openings, then installed railings on each side of bulkhead, but I was determined to find a good location for the SotS crest that came from Amati bits, and I like how this sort of matches the look of the centrally mounted bell at the forecastle.
 
Now onto the next area – I very much appreciate your visits, likes – thanks indeed.
 

Allen; Do you have a build log - could not locate one for your build?
 
Minor update some quarter deck and upper hull bronze installations. Need to start seriously thinking about the stern, galleries and balconies. Plan on scratch building that entire area (except for the window framings (kit provided bits are excellent!)
 
PS: The bronze bits are actually much "warmer" looking - iPhone doesn't seem to "see" that - Yea I could play around with the images in iPhotos or in Preview with my Imac ---no biggies
 
Enjoy your holiday weekend (if you celebrate that holiday)
 
Cheers,
 

Thanks to all for likes and comments! 
The detachable transom had crossed my mind.... maybe in a future adaptation! 
 
Flying Bridge 
 
Lets go up onto the flying bridge...
 

 
 

 
Flying bridge controls now complete, including searchlight. 
Shark hunting takes patience, and Hooper's game remains unfinished on the deck.
Took some liberties with the wooden box that appears under the flying deck console. Figure it might have been Quint’s old Navy trunk, so decorated accordingly. USS CA-35 is the identifier for the Indianapolis.
Flying Bridge also finished with navigation lights foghorn and lifebuoys; shark jaws, grab rails, cowl vents, harpoons and flying gaffs.
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
(‘Stop playing with yourself Hooper!’) 
 

Thank you, gents. It's certainly been a learning experience. Odd though it may be, it's the corbels that give me most satisfaction. These are so very tiny and it took me many, many attempts to find a way of making them that didn't have them literally breaking apart as soon as I touched them. These would probably have been better done as decals (it's on the 'to learn' list).
 
 
 

 
Funny how each stage presents it's own set of problems. I'm still learning how to glue better, so I have time to make adjustments, no overspill etc without having to sit there holding the pieces together for 20 minutes. I'm even more so learning how to paint, air-brushing in particular. I can do broad sweeps, body shop style, but not yet fine lines and all that.
 
Which kind of brings me on to the glazing. I'm still experimenting with this. For a while I've had in mind to have a 'bottle-glass' effect, not so much for reasons of historical accuracy but because I think it would add texture and character to the stern. You kind of want the viewer to dwell on the stern, be drawn in and I think bottle glass will make the stern more interesting. I've found a nice 'beginners error' consequence of over-spraying translucent, printed resin with clear gloss enamel. If you lay down too much enamel in one go, it puddles and dries in a bottle glass shape. My ongoing experimentation is around how to 'shape' that puddling. It's probably as easy as dragging the puddle with a cocktail stick. Another idea that came to me this morning is to try heat - remember how acetate would deform and bubble if you put a lighter under it (or was that just me being me!).
 

 
 As you can see, below, I've got a more defined trophy of arms now, which I'll paint once the mood takes me. The strange finish you see here is grey primer on the top but black on the underside, because I know from an earlier attempt that this object is way too small in real life to be able to get the paints into every nook and cranny without smudging, so the black bottom will hopefully prevent any flecks of grey still showing and merge the trophy into the stern. At some point I'll probably also try Daniels idea, that it should just be a crown rather than fleur-de-lys, though I do like the FDL.
 
In case anyone is struggling, as I did, with meshmixer, the fix was incredibly simple - I had to first make the object solid in meshmixer, that's all. After that, you can sculpt to your hearts content. Until I discovered this, all I ever seemed to achieve was a complete mess of polygons, vertexs and other things I neither understand nor care about 🙂
 
I want to try out Rhino 3D now, see if it's a better tool than F360. While I like F360 a lot, it has issues that can make it hugely frustrating and I certainly wouldn't want to use it for another project of this complexity unless there was nothing better (for me) out there. I'm also thinking I might change horses model-wise, for a while, take a look at my Cutty Sark, start thinking through what I want to do with that before even starting on it.
 
 

Dear all,
I started to 'furnish' the model with the last bits and for me, this means progressing at a more glacial pace than my usual with very small progress at every step. Here, I rebuilt the arched frame that is located inside the canopy and which was provided as an obvious solid piece in the kit.
 

 
This is how it looks once painted and glued inside the canopy. I find that this is a little improvement which is easy to implement.
 

 
Then, it was the turn of the landing gears and wheels which were treated with panel liner to let their nice details to pop out:
 

 
Followed by doors and other little details:
 

 

 
Landing gears are not completed yet (oleo jacks still missing), but the MiG can finally stands on its own legs now:
 

 
Well, the model is an hopeless tail sitter and its final equilibrium will be decided by fraction of grams of the addition of the last details, despite the amount of lead that I added in the gun compartment (and the omission of the jet engine).
 

 
 
A detail of the Eduard's cannon muzzle which is a nice addition. All the muzzles were brushed with graphite powder to give a bit of shine to their metallic paint:
 

 
Another riddle: the main antenna mast doesn't have any pin to get securely fixed to the smooth and curved fuselage skin (it is supposed to get positioned below the oval panel pictured just below the canopy edge) . A simple butt glued join with such a small contact area is clearly not adequate and I will have to find a better way to glue it.
 

 
That is all for now,
thanks for watching and kind regards,
Dan.
 

HMCS Iroquois Tribal class Destroyer on Convoy duty. 16" X 11" watercolour.

CAM Ship Empire Heath launch’s her 'Hurricat' which then shot down the Fw200 Condor 
w/c 11” X 8”

Indeed, 
But a little slow. In 1982, my first job was at General Motors, assembling Opel cars.
Production was faster  (but then there were more people on the Opel assembly line than now at my Weasel assembly line 😉).
There were once 2 Opel factories, one is now a cinema and the other has been completely demolished. 👎
 
Well, the Weasels have wheels. One also has the sprocket and idler wheels.

Now i make the tracks.
Never made them myself. So it will be trail and error until it works out...
i need 10 tracks

 
 

good morning everyone
 
the forward torpedo compartment is coming to an end, just a few things that are in paint, but i am unable to fit for now until i decide how to set the build up in its final setting
 
 
right for me its silly time
i want to do something with this build that  i have not seen before, or found on the net
 
as discussed she only has one engine in the kit, which is a port side inboard , which has some hull framework underneath it
there is no stbd engine or frame work under the diesel to support it either, 
 
i want to build a stbd side engine from the port side, using it as a doner unit  the port one can be cloaked in covers whist welding work is carried out
 
reason for doing this
because i want to, as the kit does not represent the confined space they endured 
 
how am i going to do this?
I dont know, but i mess it up im up a creek without a paddle
 
both engines are symmetrical  as in both sides have the controls inboard, which also means the blocks are different as well
i am going to start with the superstructure first whilst i get my head around the best way to do this
 
 
 
 

the boocks are the same but above that everything is 180 degs out

All I can say is wow fantastic work 👏 

Excellent work FF - looks absolutely real!  Thanks for tip on the fly tying clips. I want a handful of those.
 
Gary

Exceptional realism 👏👏👏 !!!

Nisha and Erycina are now in stock:
 
Nisha – Brixham ‘Mumble Bee’ – VANGUARD MODELS
 
Erycina – Plymouth Trawler – VANGUARD MODELS
 
I waited until I have all the kit ingredients for the kits here with me, but optional pre made sail sets are still to come.
 
 

All I can say is wow fantastic work 👏 

All I can say is wow fantastic work 👏 

Aft Deck
 
‘Yeah, that's real fine expensive gear you brought out here, Mr. Hooper. 'Course I don't know what that bastard shark's gonna do with it, might eat it I suppose. Seen one eat a rockin' chair one time’.
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 
Some details...
 
'Why don't you come down here and chum some of this stuff?'

 
'Little rabbit goes round the tree, in the hole, out of the hole, round the tree again...  '  
 

 

 
"Hey, Hooper! Maybe You're A Big Yahoo In The Lab, But Out Here You're Just Supercargo!"
 

 
'Come on Chief, this isn't no boy scouts picnic! I see you got your rubbers! Ha Ha!'
 

 

I both amazing and a feast for the eyes the amount of detail you're packing into this model.  

I'm working on the decks of the quarterdeck and quarterdeck. Deck flooring maple + pink pear, I'm trying to place a ladder on the afterdeck. I replaced the chicken coop, the one that I threw away from Deagostini, I made myself. And besides, I will place it not on the foredeck, but on the afterdeck.  

Thanks Keith,
Thanks Gary!
 
Well I'm nearly ready to post some pics of the completed sections as I do them... just finishing bulk production of rigging fixtures, and working through a long list of snags. Shouldn't be long now.
 
As I was painting the turnbuckles (btw thanks to Tom Lauria for his excellent tutorial on  making these), I thought the gig we fly tyers use might be of interest. We use these when varnishing the heads of trout flies.

 
Just search for 'spring loaded fly -tying clips' on e-bay or similar if you want to make one. They are very handy.
 
Back to the U bolt and D bolt production lines...
 

 

 
 
 
 

Thanks for all the thumbs up friends, and your patience. It's been very busy in the props department... and just about everything made now, and beginning to put it all together. These last few items are very time consuming, a bit like building a house, the last bit takes the longest.
 
I'll be posting the finished areas one by one over the next few days, but here's a hint of some of the work in progress....
 
Prop and rudder..

 
Shark cage...

 

 
Fighting chair installed with the big Fenwick 670 130lb shark rod, and the huge Penn Senator 16-0 reel. Must have weighed a ton. There is one on e-bay now, starting price £740 ($1000). These reels hold 1000 yards of 130 lb line. The rods, when they come up for sale, go for even more. The Jaws shark was 25 ft, 3 tons or 6000lbs in weight. It would have wrecked even this heavyweight tackle in seconds. This picture shows the shark in scale to the boat.

 

 
The Penn reel spool was loaded with 30 denier spider thread (said to be the thinnest fly-tying thread made). It is roughly equivalent in diameter to the 130 lb main line on the big Penn reel. I got 50 yards spooled up which at 1:20 is 1000 yards; spot on! That fish would have snapped this like cotton.
 

 
Quick check that it will take the strain...

 
Yep, that should do it...
Finished rod.


 
..and a few more getting their roller rings for the rack behind the door...
 

 
Shackles for the rigging. My eyes are still not recovered from this session!

 
Also lots of tiny details for completeness, like the inclinometer in the cabin...

 
More to follow soon.
 

Quick shot of the finished windscreens.
 

More work on the crewmen. Here's more progress on the second windlass-man. Note he's wearing a "hoodie".

 
 

 
    
 

 

 

 
And beginning the first crewman hauling in the anchor. (I'm using the windlass man as a handle to hold the anchorman as I work on him. When both are complete I'll separate them.)
 
    
 

 
     
 
 
Steven