BLACK VIKING

And here we are, the finished Diorama.
 
Thanks for all the comments and likes along the way

Very well done, David, I think this is the first one I have seen fully complete, she looks very nice indeed!

The Ensign has been painted by my daughter Kate and I have rigged it on a separate line. I used steam to set it and tried to impart some feeling of movement to it. I’m not sure if I’ve succeeded or whether I like the way it hangs. I’ll think about it for a while.




 
 
Anyway that was the finishing touch and so my first effort of building a ship from Vanguard Models is complete. I like the way that the basic hull slots together so easily and the laser etched bulwarks and deck add to the simplicity of the build. Trial was fun to do and makes a lovely model
I have already received my next ship, HMS Speedy, from Chris but I’m inclined to lay my own deck and bulwarks on this build. I’ve a few weeks to mull it over while on holiday in Shetland before making a start.
 
Thanks to everyone for looking in and for all the helpful comments and support.
 
David
 

It's  been a while since my last update but work has progressed, albeit very slowly. 
 

I changed my mind (again) about removing the excess ABS, mainly because it would have been impossible to hold the internal stringer/gunwhale(?) in place with it sill there. So I went ahead and removed the excess ABS, and then positioned the stringer/gunwhale and the internal (fake) ribs. I also drilled out the hole for the propellor shaft and cut the access hole for the rudder support strip that extends from the keel. I decided to replace the kit-provided stuffing tube and propellor shaft with some after-market parts from Float-a-Boat in Melbourne (following the lead of Wayne (@a49kid)). At the same time, I ordered some universal joints and a brass propellor to replace the kit-provided plastic one. Unfortunately, with the additional thickness added by planking the entire hull, a propellor of the same size (40mm) will not fit. I’m still deciding as to the exact size that I will use, but it will be either 35mm or, more likely, 30mm.
 
The picture below shows the internal ribs in place along with the stuffing tube and propellor shaft temporarily positioned. I may well need to adjust the length of the stuffing tube/propellor shaft once I’ve got the steam plant sorted.
 

 
Before proceeding further with the hull, I needed to sort out the steam plant and its positioning/securing in the hull. That meant doing a trial run of the plant. I bought this plant from Miniature Steam Models (MSM) over 18 months ago and had not done any final assembly and testing to date. It comes almost fully assembled, requiring only the attachment of the steam line (from boiler to engine) and the gas line from gas tank to boiler. Unfortunately, for some reason the steam line was a few mm too short to be connected. This was very surprising as MSM have a very good reputation for quality. 
 
Anyway, I enlisted the assistance of a fellow Canberra modeler who is something of a guru on all things steam engines. He advised cutting the existing pipe and inserting a short joining section to make up the length required. He also very kindly machined up the required part and silver soldered it in place for me. The result can be seen in the picture below, highlighted by the red circle. We did a short test that proved the join was secure and together we are now conducting some “set-to-work” trials.
 

 
There are still a few other issues to deal with before proceeding with the hull, but I hope to resolve those in the next few days.

Aaaand . . . done. I will post the Big Reveal tomorrow. Time for bed now!
 

 
And one more shot of the one-time adversaries together.
 

 
G'nite!

Morning all, it was the model show yesterday, an enjoyable wander around for a couple of hours. I thought I'd share some pics.
Interestingly I didn't see a single built B-25, I did see quite a lot of Sea Kings though and a lot of Lancasters and Spitfires, no surprise there. 
 
There were some fantastic dio's, a world record attempt at the largest model railway, some amazing railway set ups that must have been a whole project in themselves to get them there and set up. 
 
 

It looks very good to me 
Martyn 

Here you can see the ply pattern clamped and glued in place. No pins were used at all in fixing these. They were first clamped in place and then brush glued. Note there are no kinks in the lower edges at all, all fits nicely. The second pic shows were I am up to, checking the very first iteration of the outer bulwark skin and main wale, just clamped loosly in place to check general fit. The final ones will have engraved detail. Next job is to first plank the hull, which I shall start next week.

It looks very good to me 
Martyn 

It looks very good to me 
Martyn 

It looks very good to me 
Martyn 

It looks very good to me 
Martyn 

It looks very good to me 
Martyn 

So I've decided which plane to make. I really wanted to do a full chrome version and I wasn't taken by the sharks teeth that are okay of the kit to be honest. At the same time I wanted to find an airframe with a history and keep it as accurate as I can. So I'll be making 'That's All Brother' from the 340th BG, I've found this photo on the net.
 

 
And I've also found decals for it
 

 
Here's a link to the history of the squadron for those who are interested. The plane was deployed to the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations during world war 2.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/340th_Flying_Training_Group
 

The ropes on my model are not to scale with respect to the cables. I did it consciously, because I believe that they are a unique decoration of every sailing ship.

Hi Lucien,
Many of us scrap first and second attempts so you are not alone by any means.   One small suggestion, the plug looks to be grooved similar to the method Frolich details in his book The Art of Ship Modeling.  I found this to be troublesome with the frames getting stuck in them at times.  An alternate is to leave the plug smooth and glue tiny spacers where the frames go.  Just need to be sure they are shallower than the frames.   For scantlings of every part of many types of English boats, W.E. May's book Boats of Men of War is a great help.
 
The below is 1:128 scale 31 foot long boat using the plug method so it can be used at least down to that scale.  The last photo is a larger plug (1:48) that shows the spacers. 
 
Allan

I have the second in my new line up of alternative printed resin boats almost ready. This is a 24 and 26 foot launch, complete with windlass and davit.

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!
 

I am happy to remove the word "dead". The rest I leave to the moderator. This is an open forum and disagreement is allowed as long as it is polite so maybe dead wrong is a poor choice of words.
Woodrat
 

One of the things I really enjoy about Steven’s builds is the sheer amount of historical research from primary sources that is done, and the debates that interpreting those sources creates.
 
I have learned a lot from them and it is incredible to see the models take shape that embodies that research.

Before Steven builds something, a lot of research is done in advance.
There is always a lot to learn in his build logs.
And they are great to follow. 

More rigging 🙂
Still a lot to do, also cleaning up and some ropes I want to redo, but here she is, close to seaworthyness 😉
And I really will do some proper photos soon, but you know how it goes, no time cause stays to attach
 
 

Many innocent sheets of material died to bring you these pictures...
 
This is the fifth hull I have made up, with incremental changes with each new version. I usually just remove and replace the parts I change, but there are many interlocking parts with this one, that I felt more comfortable restarting the whole hull assembly with all updated designs, so that I know all fits as they should. This will not be the final form, however, but am comfortable continuing using the hull form (which is final) to get more information for parts that fit onto it.
 
Hull has been sanded, ready to take gunport bulwark template (which are next to design)
 
(This will be thrown away once all info has been garnered from it...)
 

Iron work on the hanging knees in the orlop is done ,I ended up just painting them! , and the 1st gunport is in - the tolerances with this kit are so fine you could fit the gunport's in place without glue and they wouldn't move.
 
Richard