rvchima

Miscellaneous Small Parts
 

3 missile directors
2 MK 32 torpedo tubes
2 SBROC launchers

2 R2-D2 droids

Dapping tool
 

The instructions said to shape the missile director (radar) dishes with a dapping tool. I Googled "dapping tool" and discovered that my wife had the female part of one in the kitchen, and I had the male part in my bolt drawer. (Please don't tell my wife.)
 

Top Coat
 

I put 3 coats of Krylon Matte finish on everything. Nothing melted or dissolved. Most of the marks on the deck disappeared. I am really glad I did this.

PROPS!
 

Did I tell you that I ordered propellers? The kit has you building your own using Britannia metal hubs, photo-etched brass blades, and gold paint. I didn't bother. Instead I ordered a pair of 1-inch diameter Raboesch brass power props from  The Model Dockyard. They cost about 38 USD including shipping, but worth every D. I honestly think Bluejacket should include these props with the kit, even if they have to increase the price. At least make them available as an option.

Miscellaneous Small Parts
 

3 missile directors
2 MK 32 torpedo tubes
2 SBROC launchers

2 R2-D2 droids

Dapping tool
 

The instructions said to shape the missile director (radar) dishes with a dapping tool. I Googled "dapping tool" and discovered that my wife had the female part of one in the kitchen, and I had the male part in my bolt drawer. (Please don't tell my wife.)
 

Top Coat
 

I put 3 coats of Krylon Matte finish on everything. Nothing melted or dissolved. Most of the marks on the deck disappeared. I am really glad I did this.

Hi Sjors.
Thanks. Of course the kit will contain english manual (unfortunatelly not Dutch ). 
 
Last two days I spend with 3D modeling of archangel Michael figurehead. I will try to print it next week. 
 
Daniel

Hello All,
After longet time I can present some progress. I made some progress on Santisima Trinidad copper sheathing. I use copper tape and 3D printed stamp which is pressed into the tape. I suppose that the kit will also contain just that stamp made from resin-one for starboard and one port side.
Best regards
Daniel

Hello All,
let me inform you about new products. I add into my assortment new Easy kits of WWII warships in 1/1200 scale. There are the kits for someone who want to relax from bigger projects . The models are very easy and fast to build.
 
Please visit our webpages for more info:
http://dusekshipkits.com/yamato
http://dusekshipkits.com/uss-missouri
http://dusekshipkits.com/bismarck
http://dusekshipkits.com/hms-hood
http://dusekshipkits.com/hms-prince-of-wales
http://dusekshipkits.com/hms-rodney
 
Best regards
Daniel Dusek

A little sign of life – unfortunately the “workforce of my shipwright” has been constantly reassigned to other tasks, mostly unimportant things like earning a living . The little time left for ship modeling was used to “clean up” my Syren model. This concerned primarily the gratings. A grating of the Victory in image 1 shows the elements which I wanted to change/include in my Syren build – which meant removing and rebuilding some “prototypes”: the “continuous” grating bars go parallel to the deck planking (my first attempt was perpendicular), there is a nailing pattern, which of course would be barely visible at the Syren scale, and the picture shows a thick smooth metal cover of the hatch edge for reinforcement of the edge and friction reduction for the heavy anker cable. I have seen this last detail the first time in Dirk’s Syren build log and really liked it. Image 2a shows the edge metal reinforcement (milled out of a thick sheet of brass) and the (re)making of the cannon ball racks (image 2b), images 3 – 5 present the self-explanatory building sequence for the ladders (made of pear wood), image 6 depicts the permanently mounted companionway with ladder, and images 7 and 8 show the final gratings.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 

Image 8
 

After the galley stack the binnacle was the next deck furniture in line. I chose a simpler design than what Chuck shows on his Syren plans. It only consists of the basic binnacle elements: the usual box design with 2 compartments for the petroleum lamps on the left and right side and the compass in the middle. For indirect illumination of the compass the light chambers have little windows towards the compass. Sliding doors allow closing off the compass. 2 outside doors give access to the petroleum lamps. The ship’s bell is mounted on top of the binnacle.
 
Image 1 shows the construction of the binnacle box (using a combination of bass- and boxwood) and various components of the binnacle design such as the middle compartment walls with the windows, and the rail for the sliding doors out of boxwood. The windows were made using ‘Testors Clear Part Cement and Window Maker’. The compass (image 2) was built out of a piece of brass tube with the wall thickness turned down to scale proportions and a pear wood kernel turned to appropriate size so that it fit into the brass tube. I selected a compass rose image in the internet, used MS PowerPoint to scale it down to a suitable size, printed it with a Laser printer on white paper, and glued the printed picture on top of the wood kernel in the ‘compass’.  The whole design was finished off with a layer of high gloss clear lacquer to simulate the glass on top of the compass. The finished compass is seen in image 2c. The pixilation of the compass rose is only visible in the macro images shown in the build log; otherwise the overall effect is acceptable. In image 3 different assembly steps of the binnacle can be seen. In image 4 the front molding is mounted and one petroleum lamp is displayed on the binnacle (image 4a) and in its final place in the light compartment (images 4b – d). The kit-provided ship’s bell seemed a bit on the large side. So I made a bell out of brass more in line with Chuck’s plans (image 5). Images 6 and 7 show the assembled bell mounted on the binnacle and the side doors in place. At that scale some of the details look a bit ‘oversized’ in those macro images, but the overall effect of the binnacle in its final place on the Syren deck seems to be fine (images 8 – 10).
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 

Image 8
 

Image 9
 

Image 10
 
 

PROPS!
 

Did I tell you that I ordered propellers? The kit has you building your own using Britannia metal hubs, photo-etched brass blades, and gold paint. I didn't bother. Instead I ordered a pair of 1-inch diameter Raboesch brass power props from  The Model Dockyard. They cost about 38 USD including shipping, but worth every D. I honestly think Bluejacket should include these props with the kit, even if they have to increase the price. At least make them available as an option.

Miscellaneous Small Parts
 

3 missile directors
2 MK 32 torpedo tubes
2 SBROC launchers

2 R2-D2 droids

Dapping tool
 

The instructions said to shape the missile director (radar) dishes with a dapping tool. I Googled "dapping tool" and discovered that my wife had the female part of one in the kitchen, and I had the male part in my bolt drawer. (Please don't tell my wife.)
 

PROPS!
 

Did I tell you that I ordered propellers? The kit has you building your own using Britannia metal hubs, photo-etched brass blades, and gold paint. I didn't bother. Instead I ordered a pair of 1-inch diameter Raboesch brass power props from  The Model Dockyard. They cost about 38 USD including shipping, but worth every D. I honestly think Bluejacket should include these props with the kit, even if they have to increase the price. At least make them available as an option.

Dapping tool
 

The instructions said to shape the missile director (radar) dishes with a dapping tool. I Googled "dapping tool" and discovered that my wife had the female part of one in the kitchen, and I had the male part in my bolt drawer. (Please don't tell my wife.)
 

Miscellaneous Small Parts
 

3 missile directors
2 MK 32 torpedo tubes
2 SBROC launchers

2 R2-D2 droids

Miscellaneous Small Parts
 

3 missile directors
2 MK 32 torpedo tubes
2 SBROC launchers

2 R2-D2 droids

Painting     38 days, 120 hours
 
My previous post about pin striping tape turned out to be a moot question. I was ready to paint and my tape still had not arrived. I painted the top of the hull with Testors Haze gray, masked that off, painted the bottom with Rustoleum Colonial red, masked that off, and painted the waterline with Testors flat black. I kept a couple of samples going to make sure that everything was compatible. The results were perfect. No touch up necessary.
 
Then I masked the hull off and painted the deck with Testors Euro gray.
 

The kit comes with self-adhesive stencils for the Helicopter landing markings. They are a little tricky to apply because when you remove the backing everything flops loose. Nevertheless, they went down OK. I airbrushed maybe 6 light coats of flat white, using a hair dryer between coats.
 

Removing the stencils was pure terror. If I screwed up there was no recourse. But the results looked pretty good.
 

Here's everything stacked up so far. It's starting to look like a real ship!

Harpoon Missile Racks
 

These Harpoon missile racks couldn't have been much harder to build. I spent about 9 hours on the two of them. Each rack has 28 pieces:
6 photo-etched brass frames laminated into 3 double pieces. 4 cast metal tubes that don't fit in the frames without sanding. 2 pieces of brass wire along the bottom. 3 tiny photo-etched brass struts on the bottom. 8 brass pieces for the legs. I glued these together with CA. 1 styrene blast sheild. 4 cast metal feet. Does that add up to 28? I've lost count.
 

They do look pretty good when they're done.
 
 

Masking tape model
 

I've seen ship models made of card, bone, and toothpicks, so I thought it would be fun to make one out of masking tape.
 
Ha ha, only joking. I REALLY did not want to mask off the entire forward superstructure to paint the decks, so I half-masked (half-assed) it and tried to paint it with a brush. I watched every boring video on Youtube about brush painting, and the results still weren't up to my generally low standards. So I bit the bullet and masked the hole thing off.
 

Here's the result after a little retouching. There is very little difference between the Haze gray walls and the Euro gray decks.

Getting Ready to Paint

No need for a fancy jig to mark the waterline. So far I've sprayed the top of the hull Haze gray, masked that off, and sprayed a coat of red on bottom. Photos coming soon.

Superstructure

I've added a lot of detail parts to the superstructure - extensions around the top of the stacks, ladders, antennas, etc. I painted everything Haze gray using the Testors paints that I bought with the kit, and a cheap Badger airbrush. The horizontal deck surfaces on the aft superstructure are painted Euro gray using a brush and a lot of masking tape.
 
Speaking of antennas, the two antennas on the front of the aft superstructure are cast metal pieces that are butt-glued to a photo-etched platform. Well I've broken the platform and antennas off more times than I can remember, so the other day I deconstructed everything, drilled two holes in the platform, glued it back with a 1/32" brace underneath, and epoxied the antennas in the holes. They aren't going anywhere now.
 
Then today when I went to take this photo I broke the single antenna off the front stack. Looks like more deconstruction ahead.

Mast Construction,    32 days, 90 hours

The mast is made from 1/4" square basswood set on the diagonal and swept back 15 degrees. The yards are photo-etched brass reinforced with 1/16" square brass tubes glued with CA.
 

The yard braces are made from 1/32" square brass stock. The instructions said to glue these pieces together, but when it was time to sand them flush they just broke off.  Instead I soldered the main joint with long pieces, cut the braces slightly long with wire cutters, then sanded everything flush on a Proxxon disk sander. My other hobby is stained glass so I've done a lot of soldering.
 

It was hard to hold the mast in my vise because it is set on the diagonal, so I chopped a square hole in a piece of poplar to make a holder.
 
To make the platform braces I spun the brass stock against the sander to make a point that I shoved into the mast. I clipped the other end slightly long, sanded the end to match the platform, and glued both ends with CA. They are super strong.
 
The mast has a zillion tiny photo-etched pieces. I put on my magnifying headset and started snipping, filing, and gluing. The 8 little antennas on the top mast extension are about the size of a grain of rice and were especially hard. It's good that the kit includes lots of spares because several pieces went flying, never to be seen again. The two radar antennas are cast pieces.
 
The mast took about 20 hours to build. It was challenging but actually a lot of fun, and it looks beautiful.