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rvchima

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Everything posted by rvchima

  1. rvchima
    TBlack - Thank you for remembering the names of the margin plank and the nibbing. Once you figure them out they are actually easier to cut and fit than long, narrow curved pieces. BobG - I've already started removing the primer. After I brush on a little paint thinner and wait 5 minutes it comes off fairly painlessly. I'm still not sure what to use next. Thanks for letting me know about the link for the Anteo. It should be fixed. Ian - No, I didn't know to wash the hull. I do now.
  2. rvchima
    Help - Primer Not Sticking! Yesterday I sprayed the hull with Rustoleum 2x Ultracover flat gray primer. After several hours I moved the hull to its cradle for some touch up work, and soon noticed that the primer was scraping off. I let it sit all night but it still scrapes off easily with a fingernail. The Rustoleum can says that it does not work well on polyethelene, but I think GRP is usually a polyester resin. The can also says that best adhesion on plastics is achieved in 5-7 days. Should I try to remove the paint with mineral spirits, or should I wait 5-7 days and hope for the best? Rod
  3. rvchima
    Deck Planking, 87 hours I bought some cherry strips 0.5 x 5 x 1000 mm from agesofsail.com and used them to plank over the plywood deck overlay supplied with the kit. I used some cherry veneer for the curved pieces and they came out slightly darker. I filled the entire surface with Timbermate wood filler in white oak, sanded, stained with Watco natural, and applied several coats of Minwax Polycrylic clear semi gloss. The entire job took about 20 hours over 3 days, and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I love the way that the planks are stepped into the curved edges. There's a term for that but I don't remember what it is. Does anyone know?
  4. rvchima
    Bulwarks and Hull Details, 48 hours The inside of the GRP hull is rough. The instructions suggest smoothing it with some random resin., but I used Rmay's suggestion on rcgroups.com (see link above) and lined the bulwarks with 0.5 mm styrene with a 1 mm strip along the deck. I had to leave room for the side ports. The rivets are made with Tulip fabric paint, another idea from Rmay on rcgroups.com. The container has a thin nozzle that is perfect for dabbing rivets. The paint is very thick and drys quickly with a distinct, raised feel. They look a little sloppy but should be fine when painted. Finally, my 65 mm Raboesch propellers came today. They are just outstanding and certainly make the business end of this tug look nice.
  5. rvchima
    I am happy to know that there are some Caldercraft fans out there. I love cutting wood so I am having some doubts about building this kit, but I also think that it will turn into a handsome model.
  6. rvchima
    Prop Tubes Installed, Interior Framing Completed 1 month, 28 hours Step 1 - Install the A-frames, rudder support, and prop tubes. The white metal parts required a lot of cleanup. The instructions are vague and the supplied bolts didn't fit. Thank goodness for those other build logs. Step 2 - Build some supports for the sub-deck. The instructions basically say to superglue the deck in place and seal the perimeter with resin. So far I have done everything the same way that the RC builders have done. I spent several hours yesterday building a cradle to hold the model while I work on it. I'll build a nicer stand for display. The model is too big to turn easily on my bench, but the cradle helps. Here the sub-deck, printed deck, and superstructure are installed temporarily to check the fit.
  7. rvchima
    What's in the Box The BIG model comes in a BIG box, almost as big as the ARF airplane models for sale at the hobby store. Most of the box is for the GRP hull and superstructure. There is one page of plans at the wrong scale, and a slim instruction manual with only a few illustrations. All of the build logs on rcgroups.com agree that the plans are poor and the instructions are terrible. I've already consulted those other build logs several times to see how to build things. More on that later. There are several sheets of high-quality laser-cut ply. The deck planking is printed nicely but I plan to plank the deck. There is a quantity of dowels, strip wood, and wire and tubing. The kit includes two good prop shafts but no props. I just ordered those. A single screw version of the kit is also available. Finally, the kit contains about 600 well-made white metal parts, package for each major assembly. I'm not too fond of working with Glass Reinforced Plastic or of cleaning up white metal castings. What have I gotten myself into?
  8. rvchima
    I've made several ship models in the last 10 years. My best work was on the HM Bark Endeavour by Caldercraft, but the model that gets the most compliments is my Anteo Harbour tug. I've been wanting to build another tug for a while and settled on the Marie Felling by Caldercraft. They offer a couple of other tug kits but they are nearly impossible to find at the moment, so I settled on the Marie Felling. This is a BIG model, 43.5" long. It has a Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) hull and superstructure and is clearly made for RC. I just build for the fun of building, and will build this as a static model. Here's a photo of the GRP hull next to my Anteo. MSW has no build logs for Caldercraft tugs or the like, so I hope that this will give the readers some information about this. There are three good build logs on https://www.rcgroups.com, all of RC equipped models of course. Here are links if you're interested. Marie Felling by Longbike Marie Felling by Rmay Marie Felling by Kaskazi
  9. rvchima
    I'm afraid that I don't know anything about powered boats. My model is strictly for display. Somewhere else on MSW I posted that some of the planking on the Anteo cracked with changes in humidity. A little disappointing for a display model, but you would probably have use glass fiber over an operating model. Rod
  10. rvchima
    Matt, Thank you for the information about attaching the rudder. After a lot of searching online I found this photo of the rudder for the Ottar Viking ship replica in Roskilde, Denmark. It looks like you got the attachment right. I just attached my rudder and ran into the same problem that you did - once the deck is planked there is no way to attach the rudder pivot rope inside. I simply folded the rope in half, pushed it into the pivot button, and put a small nail through the button from the side to catch the rope. The third small line on your rudder would be for raising the rudder in shallow water or when beaching the ship. After removing the upper rope (leather band on the Ottar) and steering handle the rudder could be pivoted upwards. You made the right choice with the Amati kit. The Billings kit is 1:25 scale and is just too big. It's going to take up a lot of space in my house, and it doesn't have that much interesting detail for such a large model. Thanks again for the help. Rod
  11. rvchima
    Hi Matt, Congratulations on a beautiful model! Did you really complete it in less than 2 months, or was that just when you posted to your log? I am building the Billings Osberg kit and your log has been a big help to me. I have really been puzzling over the attachment of the rudder. Everything I've seen shows a leather strap around the top, which would allow the rudder to turn, but a pin through the blade and hull which would prevent it from turning. You used a rope between the blade and hull, which makes sense. Did the Amati instructions show that or did you find another reference? Many thanks. Rod
  12. rvchima
    Jack, I don't know if you're still out there, but I just wanted to thank you for your awesome build log on the Billings Oseberg Viking Ship. I am just starting on the same, and have gone through your log completely and taken notes on everything that I will need to address. You said that you built your model for The Admiral. My wife writes young adult fantasy novels (search for Cinda Chima on Amazon). Her next book is about Viking witches, so she definitely needs a Viking longboat. The book won't be out for a year so I have plenty of time. Thanks again for all the work that you put into your log, and congratulations on a beautiful model. Regards, Rod Chima
  13. rvchima
    Fun with Photoshop Aerial view of the Prinz Eugen. Those red markings are just screaming to the Luftwaffe, "I'm German. Don't bomb me!" Dazzle camouflage in the fog. Which way is he going?
  14. rvchima
    Q: What's Black and White and Red All Over? A: The Prinz Eugen in it's 1941 Baltic Camouflage! My Prinz Eugen model is complete! I've been very busy since my last post. Here's what I've done. Finished and attached all 8 ship's boats. Attached all the superstructure components. Attached dozens of smaller plastic components. Built some custom vents that go around the B turret, and found and attached a ship's bell. Rigged miles of antenna wires with EZ line. Here are some photos of the completed model. You can barely see some of the vent shafts around the second turret. Here are some of the 8 boats and the Arado 196 on the catapult. The ship's bell is hanging on the rear mast. I would not like to see this view in person! The Pontos props were worth their weight in gold. That's about how much the accessory kit cost anyway. And see, I really did install the aft anchor. The stern looks a lot like the bow. I rigged the antenna lines with EZ line. It's an elastic polymer thread that supposedly can stretch up to 7x it's original length. You can get it on Amazon but it's a lot cheaper on eBay from Burbank House of Hobbies. I bought the thick, 0.5 mm material but it still seems quite thin. I rigged the triple antennas first using tiny PE Delta-shaped fittings from the Pontos kit, but I ended up throwing out two complete antennas before I got it right. The line tends to curl so it was hard to control while gluing it to the fitting. The instructions say to use a fresh bottle of thin CA, but I had a large bottle that I'd been nursing for a couple of years. I pulled a new bottle out of my freezer and man, what a difference! I found that I if I licked the EZ line it would stick to a piece of wax paper. Then I dipped the PE part in the new CA and touched it to the line. Voila, instant attachment. The only trouble with the EZ line is that the lead wires from the antennas to the ship tend to bend the antennas. In a couple of places I used thread for the antennas to help keep them straight. I am concerned that the rigging might become brittle with age. Please let me know if you've had any long-term experience with EZ line. The Aeronaut plans were pretty worthless for rigging. One side view shows some rigging but you can't tell if you're seeing a single antenna or several side-by-side. Instead, I used The German Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen by Waldemar Goralski for most of the rigging. To be honest, I took some liberties with the rigging and left out a few lead wires. You'd never do this with thread rigging! I made a nice base out of quarter-sawn white oak. I bought the brass pedstals from Bluejacket Shipcrafters. The model should probably be in a case but you can only have so many big cases laying around your house. I'll probably put the model on top of a bookcase somewhere.
  15. rvchima
    I am truly amazed - I had no idea that kits like this existed. Your meticulous work is just perfect, and it's only taken 14 months so far. I'll follow along to see the finished model.
  16. rvchima
    Toy Boats The Prinz Eugen carried 8 small boats on board, and the Aeronaut kit had ready-made plastic models of each. In fact my kit had 9 boats, but I think that one was a mistake. You should always wash plastic parts before painting to clean off any residual mold release. I think I'll just play with the boats like this for a while. So far I have completely ignored the ships boats. When I looked at the plans I found that 6 of them were on racks on deck 2, right where my railings were. So time to construct some racks and deconstruct some railings. This rack holds 2 boats. This rack holds 1 boat. The boats look pretty dirty close up. That was another good reason to wash them. Those racks are duplicated on each side, accounting for 6/8 boats. The remaining 2 boats hang from davits. As usual, there is nothing in the kit for the davits so I soldered a pair up out of brass. Spent a few hours today painting toy boats.
  17. rvchima
    Railings The Aeronaut kit came with 14 pieces of prefab railings, each 250 mm long. I knew that would not be enough but I wasn't sure how much I would need, so I avoided using it for miscellaneous railings. The 14 pieces circled the 1st deck completely and finished the second deck with inches to spare. One deck to go. A couple of stores in England sell the prefab railings but I was in a hurry, so I made my own using the brass stanchions and music wire included in the kit. I decided to use a shorter double railing on the 3rd deck, so I cut the 3-hole stanchions down a notch and sanded them smooth. I made this jig to solder the railings together.
  18. rvchima
    Dazzling I bit the bullet and painted the dazzle camouflage. It took a full day to mask and paint each of the diagonal stripes. I stacked all the components with 3-M double-sided tape to hold them in alignment. I made a skinny pencil by gluing a bit of pencil lead in a 1mm brass tube. Then I used a thin ruler and my skinny pencil to mark the diagonal. Very difficult to keep the pencil perpendicular to the ruler as it stepped over each layer of the superstructure. Lots of Tamiya masking tape and several hours later I was ready to paint each stripe - by hand. I also painted the tops of the turrets red. They were painted red briefly for recognition by German aircraft. I didn't realize that this overview photo was so grainy until now. I'll try to get a better image later. Here are some other shots that look better. Forward superstructure Funnel Aft superstructure and mast Aft end with painted turrets All the components are stacked temporarily in position. I have been adding railings to the second and third levels. More on that in the next post.
  19. rvchima
    Hi Yves, Welcome to the build log. It's a little short on detail but I wanted to get some information out there about the Aeronaut kits. And thank you for the the welcome to Asheville. Our son lives in Apex so I am very familiar with the Raleigh area. I am always interested in finding new shops, shows, or museums related to aircraft or ships. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Rod
  20. rvchima
    Oops, I Put the Platform on Backwards I've been standing the mast on top of the plans for a month and just realized that I installed the lower platform backwards. So how to fix it? I broke off 3 triangular gussets on the bottom, then gently twisted the platform until it broke loose. Cleaned up the glue, rotated the platform, glued everything back together, and touched up the paint. 15 minutes tops. And while I was fixing things I installed the rear anchor. Well, you can't see the anchor, but it's there.
  21. rvchima
    Catapult and Arado 196 Floatplane I spent a full day building the brass aircraft stand that comes with the Pontos detail kit. They actually give you enough parts to build 4 of them although you only need 1. Good thing because I screwed up 2 1/2 of them before I settled on this one. Then I built the catapult (from scratch) and the Arado 196 floatplane (came with the Aeronaut kit). Hey! what happened to my aircraft stand? The real catapult rail is about 15 m long and the catapult launch speed is 130 km/hr. I did some quick calculations that show that the pilot would pull 4.3 g's at takeoff, about the same as an F-18 pilot on a modern carrier. Must have been quite a ride!
  22. rvchima
    Bob, 1. Put a coat of primer on everything. Sand and touch up as necessary. 2. Paint the white stripe at the waterline. When it's good and dry, mask it off with high quality modelers masking tape. I like the Tamiya brand. Rub the edges thoroughly with a toothpick, then paint both edges of the tape with white to seal it. 3. Mask off above the waterline and paint the green below. If you're very confident of your airbrush skills you could skip the masking part, but I wouldn't. 4. Mask off the green, remove the tape above the water line, and paint the black. 5. Say a little prayer and remove the tape. Rod
  23. rvchima
    Nelson, Could you post a photo of your porthole? I'd love to see it. Rod
  24. rvchima
    References Since the Aeronaut plans show very little detail, I've searched online for anything I could find on the Prinz Eugen. Ironically, the main thing that comes up is this scantly-clad anime character named Prinz Eugen, from a side-scrolling shoot-em-up game called Azur Lane. It's set in an alternate timeline of WWII where the characters are anthropomorphic versions of WWII warships. Enough said about that. The German Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen by Waldemar Goralski is the best reference I could find for the model builder. It has 27 pages of detailed B&W line drawings of every part of the ship. The Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen, also by Waldemar Goralski, has an eight-page history of the ship and about 80 pages of color images of various parts of the ship. Mr. Goralski must have an amazing CAD model of the ship. It takes a while to find the view that you need, but the images can be very helpful. The last 8-10 pages are 3-D images that require Red-Blue glasses. They're fun but less useful for reference. Admiral Hipper Class Cruisers by Steve Backer has a little bit of everything - history, B&W photos, reviews of plastic models, photos of completed models, and camouflage patterns for 5 ships. 64 pages. This is the book that got me searching for a photo-etched detail kit. Warship Pictorial Kriegsmarine Prinz Eugen by Steve Wiper has a brief history of the ship and 74 pages of interesting B&W photos. Heavy Cruisers of the Admiral Hipper Class by Gerhard Koop and Klaus-Peter Schmolke is more of a reference book. At 205 pages it has a chapter on each of the five Admiral Hipper class ships, with technical specs, photos, and a few detail drawings.
  25. rvchima
    Not at all! The photos are fascinating. Is that you sitting between the props?

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