hexnut

Waiting for glue to dry - added cross and trestle trees to Fore Mast.
Futtock shroud attachment eyebolts and holes drilled in cross trees. Attempting to form eyes in .013 wire, pass through holes in cross trees then secure (somehow) to eyebolts on mast. Keeping wire straight will prove a challenge.
Added white paint to mast top and when that dries will see how the wire rigging goes.
 
Clearly another coat of paint and some fine sanding is required.

After looking at the hull with the top band planked and taking some measurements I decided to try a few rows of full size planks to see how things went.
 
I got five more rows done and noticed things getting a little close at the bow so I started to taper the planks forward of about station 5.
 
Here is what it looks like with 17 rows completed.
 
I am going to do a few more from the top and then start with the garboard strake and work up.

While waiting for Santa to arrive I managed to get band 1 of the stbd side completed. Going forward I will use my proportional dividers rather than trying to match tick marks on the hull. I also made up a simple jig to assist in cutting the planks to size. Given where I am now it might have been a better idea to start with 1/8" rather than 3/32" planks. Even though 1/8" would be 12" at scale it seems that the max width is only "in play" in fairly short sections.

Alternating between hull planking and spars.
 
Have the three booms completed with sheet block (3/16" Triple) and an eyebolt at the end for the topping lift.
 
I suppose the topping lift lines might be just fastened around the boom with an eye but an eyebolt will make things easier and they might have been that way also.
 
I am going to add the holes in the jaws for the belaying pins for the topsail lines even though I have not decided yet whether to include those lines in the model.
 

For the starboard side I am following the more conventional approach that is outlined in several places (including here:http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/Framing_and_Planking/Lining Off your hull for planking).
The starting point is determining the number of rows of planking required. At the widest point (which is a bit forward of amidships due to the rising bulwarks) it is 3 1/2" which will take 38 planks 3/32" each. So the total, number of planks is 38. Two (the top two) bands of 9 and two bands of 10 (bottom two - based on an eyeball estimate of which are the widest of the four).
 
Now to determine the plank widths at each "bulkhead" (which is this case is every other station line).
 
I decided to only do one band at a time, starting with the top one. This way I have a known starting point for the next band - I am not sure I can "hit the marks" every time so I need some "wiggle room" about exactly where the next band will start.
 
After marking the plank widths I got the top row of the upper band in place. Based on measurements the planks are full width until about the fourth station then taper to about 2/3 the width amidships and just over half at the stern. At the bow I am just butting the planks into the ones sticking out from the other side. This will have to be cleaned up later and the hole for the bowsprit fits in here too somewhere.
 
 

Back from cruise (weather was pretty rough last two days - of seven so overall pretty nice).
 
Just as I was going out the door I got the planking on the port side finished. Not the best job I ever did. I ended up with a bunch (see blue circles below) of dropped planks in the middle where the two belts came together and had to use a few 1/8" wide planks to avoid other issues. I was just "laying planks" and tapering where it seemed "right" as I moved along. Probably not the best approach but I wanted to see just how difficult the planking would be. (On Endeavour this approach worked perfectly - the only tapered planks were the last ones on each side but you only get that lucky once a lifetime I think - too bad I was not gambling at the time.)
 
The stern is still a work in progress. I do not plan on doing anything more there until both sides are done and I see where the laser cut transom piece "fits in".
 
For the stbd side I am going to proceed in a more conventional manner, laying out planking bands and calculating plank widths as I go along. More or less what you would do for a POB hull. Not sure it is going to look all that much better than the port side once both are sanded and a few small areas patched but we shall see.
 
My major intend with planking over the solid hull is to get as much of the planking to show through the paint as I can without any grievous errors in the planking showing as well. Probably will not know how well I accomplished that goal until much later.
 
I plan to sand (lightly) the hull (both sides) starting with 100 grit and going to 220 and 320 before I put on the primer. What I do after that will probably depend on how it looks after the primer.
 
I gave some thought to colors while on the cruise and since I already have two models with black hulls (Bluenose and Ben Latham) and two dark green (Niagara and Pride of Baltimore) I think I am going to paint this hull a medium gray (with anti-fouling red below the waterline). I think I will do the cabin roofs in a lighter gray and the bulwarks in white. I just got the wood to plank the decks in cherry and probably will do the main rail in cherry as well.
 

Like many, Christmas holidays are not really conducive to assembling models ...
But this church continues to build slowly with the guard tower and the belfry: 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work in progress before sanding and joints on the tower and bell tower.
The bell tower was split in 2 to be able to work the openings a bit.
The apse is finished.
Soon, I will attack the roofs ...

Some photos of the stained glass windows in the apse, and the front rose window (not glued yet):








The side tower under construction:




And the future together with the cloister, modified in its structure compared to the initial plan:

The suite with a completed facade:






 

The following :





In addition, here is the final support of the village proposed by the kit: I will surely not use it at the end, another idea is already in progress to make the supports, but it will serve me to place the elements and the walls between buildings ... A sort of shipyard in fact!



Finally, I planned to make a little richer in the constructions than the rough stone representation, with nothing for the openings of windows, doors, bell tower, etc ... A little brick will not do any harm (to create very small, small!):

 
 
I only spent 10 or 15 more hours there: each stone takes time to adjust!
Afterwards, you have to sand, scrape, make the main joints, clean, wash, etc ... I have not yet definitively chosen what appearance I will give to the whole: all the full joints or leave a little "day" between the stones.

All this may seem a bit wobbly from time to time, but I am convinced that it will only make once in place, clean joints, aged, vegetated, in its environment on a base!

So...
I started something completely different.

Years ago (around twenty!), I subscribed to a Del Prado collection (when it still existed ...). I never had time to do this thing, and I quietly locked it in boxes all this time.
Today, to change things a bit, I brought out all this stuff, and I plan to move forward a little.

It is a medieval fortified village from the Middle Ages to be built in mini brick, stone by stone. As usual with collection publishers, Del Prado had entered into a partnership with a kit manufacturer which still exists : Aedes Ars. Some of you may know.
They design all kinds of reconstituted stone kits of monuments, houses, castles, etc.
 
It is a long, tedious job, with each stone to be adjusted. And personally, I'm new to the field ... We'll see!
That said, I won't be able to prevent myself from personalizing a little...
 
 
 

 
At the end of the construction of each element, the whole must constitute a village; it is planned to make it a global diorama. I'll do it a little differently ... But we're not there yet!
In parallel, I will certainly also start a boat to change my mind from time to time. I will present it to you later. 😉
 
The first building will be the church of this village.
The work has started: we have to organize, cut, correct, strengthen the cardboard structure (I mounted the cardboard 20 years ago, it had collapsed a bit, we had to take off parts to put them back more late) ... ☺️
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving "rearward", with the atomic engine thrusters and the rear spine: 

The rear rod/tube needs to be cut off exactly 11 mm, to rest on the internal rib of the central thruster. inside that long spine, we will have to pass two wires for the various lights as will be explained later on. You could avoid cutting it and it will be alright. In my case, an LED and its wiring will be installed to the right of the tube, in that little cavity. This will simulate the reactors firing to propel the vessel during its long journey to Jupiter.
 
The picture below shows the antennae unit (left), the four rear bay holders and the atomic engines block (before gluing).

The rear tube is now glued to the antennae unit (coupler) with Cyanoacrylate glue. Don't put too much glue, be sure about what you do or use a slow curing glue. I had just enough time to push it to the mark on the rod, before the glue took over... It was a close call.
 
Below picture shows after gluing: 

Perfect alignment must be obtained to have an antennae vertical with the engine block. I used a small bubble level as well as my eyes for making sure it is correctly aligned: 

There is a tiny bit of rotational flexibility in the spine but not much actually. Finally, a coat of Vallejo primer is applied on the rear spine: 

Yves

I have added still another aluminum tube around the brass tube. Over killing? probably, but now the rods are very secure and perfectly straight. I suspect that the main spine will not sag at all, when the vessel is supported on each end. Tubes are glued with epoxy two components glue: 

And here is our spine assembly with the first two bay holders: 

Yves
 

As I mentioned in the introduction of the Blog, I will be using the model as part of a celestial art piece. As such I will not be using the traditional way offered by Moebius, to display the kit. Moebius offers three stands under the living area (sphere), Earth antennae module and the propulsion block. The long model rests on these three rather flimsy stands to be displayed horizontally on a flat surface. My model is going to be "suspended" on the side and I wish to only have stands on the propulsion module and near the living quarters. In addition, I wish to provide some kind of illumination on the thrusters and on the main deck. Therefore, we have to rethink a little bit the kit and stiffen it considerably.
 
In the Moebius kit, the two spines (realized by two metallic tubes of 4 mm) are connected inside the Earth antennae module: 

The piece of tube in charge of the coupling (as provided in the kit), is way too short and not tight enough. As a result, the two rods are sagging and not straight. It is okay if you go with the three stands approach of the kit. However, if you plan to have support only on both ends of the vessel, the spine will sag and look more like an arch. So, we need to stiffen it up.
 
The following picture shows what I have in mind: 

The top piece of tube is what Moebius provides in the kit. Then we have the two rods of 4 mm each. The brass tube I decided to use offers an additional inch of support on both sides and fits very tightly on the 4 mm rods. When lining up everything, the spine is straight and sturdy. The brass tube is #129 3/16 x 0.014 made by K&S Engineering and can be found in almost all Hobby Shops.
 
The two adjacent modules have to be gently enlarged to accommodate the extra diameter of the brass tube. This is done first with a bit of 4.5 mm and then fine-tuned with a round file (I do not have a 4.8 mm bit which would have been perfect. The coupling is very tight and will hopefully provide us with a "straight" vessel.
 
Yves
 

Folks,
 
This is the beginning of another project I have been trying to realize for a while. I recently got the kit from Free-Time Hobbies in Georgia, as they were having a very interesting sale.

Like many of you, I watched the 2001 A Space Odyssey movie, in 1969 when it came out, fresh from the genius of Stanley Kubrick. I was just 10 years old and that movie created a life lasting impression on me. For many years, only resin kits of the various space crafts were available. Then Moebius decided to create a series of 1/144 based kits to satisfy the 2001 enthusiasts. XD-1 Discovery is the latest kit produced in 1/144 scale, not counting the enormous EVA 1/8 Pod kit that was recently released:

The enormous Deep Space Exploration vessel driven by a psychotic HAL 9000 en route to the vicinity of Jupiter, has always attracted me and when the opportunity to build that magnificent model presented itself, I jumped on it. There are multiple videos and Blogs on the Internet of very talented modelers who have completed this beautiful model. I am not planning to even come closer to their talents. Instead, I will use the model in a different way to produce a piece of art made of mixed-medias as they call it in the artistic realms. I will provide more details when we get to that stage. 
 
In the meantime, let's take a look at the kit: 

The box is very dense and literally crammed with parts: 

Lots of the parts are the same as we have to build multiple bays arranged along the spine of the vessel. The instructions booklet is simple but carefully written and clearly organized: 



On the Photo-Etched side, a few additional kits are available: one for the PODs bay and one for the main control deck. Not planning to represent the POD bay opened, I only purchased the Main Deck set from Para Grafix. Notice that even though the focus of the set is on the living area, it also provides the thrusters grills on the Propulsion Block  

Yves

Carronades installed finally...
 
Initially I thought I might be able to use blocks for the side tackles and attempted to fashion some from a wooden toothpick.
 

Well, that didn't work... Shattered as soon as I sliced it off...

 
So I decided to use thread to rig the carriage instead and then insert a false styrene block later.

Happy with the result, but it was a pain "slackening" the thread. 

Been a busy Christmas so haven't paid much attention to the Victory.
 
Did a little painting to start, especially the modded deck rails, footrails and bow area.
 


 
 
Continuing on, I finally got around to making the support for the Marine's walk (yet another mod) out of scrap 1mm styrene strips. Looks a little like a wishing bone...
 

 
Next mod was to reposition the locating lug underneath the bowspirit which connects to the spritsail yard.
 


A little dry run, no cementing till later when I revisit this.
 

 
Got a bunch of eyebolts and blocks etc from the good Radimir from the Czech republic .... Finally I can start pimpin' the Victory as Dafi would say!
 

 
Next step, I thought I'd do a better effort on the carronades this time, and although the eyebolts are a little large for this scale, what the heck I went ahead anyway just to try it out ...

 

 
Now just waiting for my styrene "pretend blocks" to dry so I can start work on the side tackles... Till next time!

 
 
 

Goodbye old blocky stubs and hello 1mm stubs!
 
Before...

 
After! (Pls ignore glue damage... For now)

Carved the curvy strip from a C rod and found it bended more easily without breaking. No lighter in sight so opted not to melt strips which could have been another option.

 
Cheers
 
 
 

Wasn't happy with the way I'd constructed the footrails near the skid beam edge as it looked almost comically large in scale.
 
Decided to rip out the footrails and use 1mm evergreen rods instead.
 
Then I filed off the glue (should have used cement instead) on the bottom rails which I decided to retain.

After measuring the rails, I cut a length of 1mm rod to size.

Here's a little secret... My first attempt was a shocker. Used C strips as that was all I had. This time I vowed to do a better job rather than taking shortcuts...

Cemented the vertical rods and this was the result (below)

A little bit of cement....
 

 
Hooray! 

Next... I want to replace the stub supports on the rails alongside the belfry once I pickup 1mm square rods tomorrow!
 

Mods and more mods....
 
Started my night by adding stubs to the footrails adjacent to the belfry. In hindsight I should have got 1mm square strips for better scaling.


Next, time to take a deep breath and break off the end standards on the poop deck.

 
Filed them down and repositioned them closer together with glue. Filled the holes with putty. 


I cut a section of a C strip join the 2 end standards

Now I am really regretting not fitting the decks to the hull properly with greater care earlier in the build.
 
The poop deck is flapping loose and I may have to putty the edges to the hull as a fix later
 
 
 
Last step, continuing the deck rail fittings, i fashioned 2 kevels out of 1.5mm strips.

1 more set of kevels to go, but my stomach is grumbling now...
 
 
 

Hi all, after a short (ish) sojourn I am back at the modelling desk; a long list of 'honey please do' jobs and continued research (on the rigging) interrupted by the festive season is my excuse
 
The following shows the additional work that has been done.  The progress photo (before fitting the circular skylights) shows the broadside gun carriages loosely sited in their future position.   I cannot progress these until we finish printing the 3D barrels but unfortunately my mate helping me with that, has a few health issues and that must take priority.  I have the trunnion caps, tackles and breeching ropes ready to go once we are in a position to print the guns.  the pivot gun slide has also been made and all the pieces for the carriage which sits on top have been cut but not yet assembled.
 
    
 
The circular skylights were made from turned acrylic rod (8mm) and PE which I drew up and I had etched here in Melbourne.  The photos show the 'prototype skylight which has since been cleaned up a little more.  Al (alpayed on this forum - building the Danmark) turned these for me as I was doing something wrong and the rod kept melting on me.  These formed the base with the spigot being used as the locating pins and a small hole was drilled in the top while still in the lathe to accept a brass pin.  This pin is intended to represent a small rod and cover in the actual item that could be raised to allow ventilation through the skylight.  The sides were photo etched with the brass vertical bars etched deeper so that when the top and bottom were painted to represent the wooden parts, it looked like the bars were recessed.  The side were rolled and formed on a dowel then silver soldered for strength before painting. 
 
The conical part represents the bars over the top but at this scale it proved simply too difficult to include the wooden framing.  Overall I think they came out ok, but I am tempted to redo the tops as I could not get the 'exact' diameter of the formed cone to sit on top of the side pieces.  to the eye it looks fine, but a close inspection, especially through the camera shows they are not sitting uniformly on top of the side pieces.
 
cheers, and a very happy, healthy and safe 2020
 
Pat
 
    
 

What, with one thing and another, it's been a while, but at last here's an update on the 'Meteor'. The internal planking is finally finished and has been rough sanded - a big milestone in my mind.  Next job is to plank the stern and then get the external planking done before finishing off the inside of the hull.
 
John
 

The first section of internal planking is now on and treenailed.  As usual with my planking, it looks a real 'dog's breakfast' prior to clean-up.  I was going to clean up this first section and add the deck clamp before doing the upper section of planking, but I've now decided to continue with the planking and clean it all up in one go.
 
I have some commitments coming up that will keep me away from the museum for the next few weeks, so the next update might be a while.
 
John
 

The internal planking creeps slowly ahead - more slowly than usual of late as we've had school holidays here and the museum has been full of families - which is great, except that I don't get much done between talking to people!  Now that the kids are back at school it might go a tiny bit faster.
 
John