Borodino by Captain Slog - Dom Bumagi - 1:200 - CARD

[Slowhand]

Think this Is a fascinating build, good to see a warts and all description of your model, sure it will all turn out fine.

[dgbot]

I built the HMS Iron Duke card model about 20 years ago and did the same thing as you and painted the model. It looked much more realistic.

 

Excellent work so far my friend. 

Brian is the model still available and where could I find it?

David B

[Captain Slog]

Hi All,

 

Thanks for all the comments and likes.

 

This is why I build waterline models.   Seriously, though, I'm crossing my fingers for you. Maybe I'll even have a crack at a full hull myself some day.

You may be on to something there Chris!  I would imagine with your experience though lower hulls wouldn’t present too much of a problem.

 

Think this Is a fascinating build, good to see a warts and all description of your model, sure it will all turn out fine.

Thanks for dropping by Slowhand.  There are plenty of warts to see coming up! LOL

 

I built the HMS Iron Duke card model about 20 years ago and did the same thing as you and painted the model. It looked much more realistic.

 

Excellent work so far my friend. 

Thanks for the comment Brian.  I am trying to avoid painting to gain experience trying to be as precise as possible.

 

 

Okay on with the progress.  My lack of painting experience really showed by doing the boot top first as per the previous post.  I am sure the more experienced painters spotted the trouble with doing that.  I had no idea how difficult it would be to cover black with red!  I used Tamiya’s Flat Red acrylic XF-7 mixed at a 2:1 ratio and after spraying coat after coat of paint the black overspray was still showing through.  Also patches of the grey filler putty I used were still evident.

 

A plus point was that the boot top was very sharp and parallel and the red cover was very consistent, which is tricky using a small/medium size airbrush as the spray pattern isn’t that big for a largish hull…but I couldn’t live with it.

 

A trip to the local hobby stored procured a can of Tamiya TS-27 Matt White spray paint and after masking off the upper sections of the hull, blasted on some decent coats of white.  Got to say I find Tamiya’s aerosols very good, giving great coverage and pretty forgiving also.  The white soon covered up the previous red and black airbrushing with a nice smooth even coat.

 

It was back to airbrushing the complete lower hull again with the Red XF-7 and then masking off the 2.5mm boot top although this time I made it 3mm to make sure it covered the previous painting. Then the boot top was airbrushed in with Black XF-1.  After peeling back the masking it turned out pretty good again.  The red though isn’t as even and consistent as the first attempt but it is satisfactory to me.  The lumps and bumps and filled areas are still evident in some sections but again thinking ahead and looking at the ship as a whole it shouldn’t look too out of place.

 

I came to like the bright red paper printing of the hull and the Flat Red isn’t too far off it as can be seen with the unpainted rudder.  I will paint and fit that permanently closer to the end of the build as it is too vulnerable at this stage.  Similarly the props are only temporarily placed for the photos and will leave off to the end also. 

 

 

Here at last is the finished lower hull!  I will give the whole thing a coat of Humbrol Matt Cote for protection and to flatten a couple of shiny areas where I accidentally splashed some thinners on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With that saga out of the way I am looking forward to getting back to some real paper modelling again.  Next up will be to line the anchor shelf so I can permanently fit the upper hull section, which will allow the decking, upper hull structures and side hull skins to be fitted.

 

Cheers

Slog

[gjdale]

Paint job looks great Slog. The extra effort was well worthwhile.

[RGL]

That is awesome!

[Panama Port]

Looking good Slog. You are getting it wrestled down.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks for the nice comments guys.  I am pretty happy how it turned out.  As with anything I do, could be better but more than happy enough  for me to move on…speaking of which!

 

Yesterday I brushed on a decent coat of Humbrol Matt Cote which did darken it slightly but still looks good and it removed the couple of shiny patches on the port side.  Also feels a lot safer handling it now.

 

Tonight I had a look at the plans and the 4 lines of translated text about hull assembly and I may have been mistaken about skinning the anchor shelf before placing the top deck on.  After a look I decided to glue the top deck on first for a couple of reasons.  I may damage the skins with the top deck when placing on and there is a curve  at the rear of the shelf which would mean skinning it free hand without the curve in the deck to follow.

 

So its glued up now using my expensive state of the art clamping system LOL

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Slog

[jbshan]

Anything you can beg, borrow, steal or make yourself is proper fodder for clamps.  Those high tech wooden clamps can be easily modified for tight places, and you won't cry rivers if one has to be discarded.  Win, win, in my book.

[Canute]

I use them all the time and modify as needed. Turn a few around so that the thin parts are used as the clamping part. Like some wise man said, you can never have too many clamps.

[Captain Slog]

Anything you can beg, borrow, steal or make yourself is proper fodder for clamps.  Those high tech wooden clamps can be easily modified for tight places, and you won't cry rivers if one has to be discarded.  Win, win, in my book.

Hi Joel, yeah the wooden pegs are great for modifying, have a good few where I rounded the fronts on the disc sander so they can grip right at the front and up to an edge.  The tiny clothes pegs in the previous photo are front the arts and crafts department and great for getting into tight spaces.  The springs in them are surprising strong; sometimes the legs break trying to open them if the grain is wrong.  Another favorite is bulldog clips but need to be careful they don’t dent the surface.

 

I use them all the time and modify as needed. Turn a few around so that the thin parts are used as the clamping part. Like some wise man said, you can never have too many clamps.

Hi Ken, I hadn’t thought about reversing the legs.  That would have come in handy for the previous glue up.

 

 

 

Okay, haven’t done a great deal since the last update so I thought I would take the opportunity to go through some pros and cons of the kit, some things I do/have done and some progress shots.

 

I think I have done enough on the kit to form some opinions on it both good and bad, not forgetting that some of them may be down to my inexperience and may not bother other modellers.

 

Firstly the pros; I reckon the print quality is very good and the parts look well represented.  Secondly the fit of the parts are excellent and any discrepancies would be down to my lack of experience.

 

The photo below is another pro in my book.  The horizontal and vertical rows of white dots are the positions of the horizontal hand rails and vertical step irons.  The reason I like this is because other kits have hand rails and step irons printed on which if left look very flat and if fabricated and installed means there is a strange ‘shadow’ or ‘mirroring’ due to the printing underneath.

 

I guess if you didn’t want to install the iron work in this kit then you would be left with white dots to deal with but I want to do the iron work so works for me.  The kit supplies templates for all the iron work as well which is good so takes out any guess work.

 

 

 

Now for some cons and I have touched on these briefly in the past.  Firstly I don’t like the paper; it delaminates too easily during folding and rolling. Sometimes even free hand cutting despite a new blade sometimes has other issues.

 

As a comparison the brief work I did on the Bismarck didn’t give me any cause for concern and the great deal of work done on Orliks Mazur made me realise how fantastic their paper is for all types of work performed.  I would say the Borodino has the worst of the three.

 

Another con I mentioned previously is the tight placement of parts on the sheets.  I don't mean the closeness of the same part but with unrelated parts.  Some parts are about 0.5mm to 1mm apart which I find frustrating as I like to rough cut out the part I want to work on so it can be maneuvered easier for final precision cutting.  I can’t be only person who does this as I assumed it would be how everyone does it.

 

The close parts placement wouldn’t be so bad if the paper as mentioned above was better as trying to split the parts leaves very little waste to trim off later which the paper doesn’t like doing very much.

 

I believe this is a tactic to reduce the numbers of parts sheets required for the kit; pack them in as close as possible to save space.  If they include just one more sheet to catch the overspill of spacing the parts out they could also have included another of my cons and that is the lack of solid colour swatches or blocks of print for the predominate colours.  Other kits I have use empty spare space to provide solid blocks of print so you can use this to make replacement parts or to add extra bits and pieces in the model colours.

 

The photo shows how close the parts placements are in a lot of cases.

 

 

 

Finally my last issue is the lack of folding info for parts which are mirrored and folded together to provide colour and detail on both sides of the part.  I mentioned this when doing the prop blades which weren’t a problem due to solid colours but in the photo below the wheels are a case in point of trying to mirror them accurately.  Even if the line in the ‘fold part’ legend was extended down between the parts there would be no issue.

 

 

 

Okay no more whinging; I am enjoying the kit immensely and will concentrate on making it to the best of my abilities although I will continue to point out any good things I come across.

 

 

 

Okay here are all the decks rough cut out.  In the photo I include how I store the parts sheets.  I use 2 plastic document folders.  One is for storing the complete sheets.  As parts are rough cut out for working on other parts get freed from the sheet and these parts are stored in the second folder.  I take care to keep the same part together with the part number so no confusion later.

 

I also replace parts sheets back in the folders immediately once I have gotten off them what I need to reduce the chances of them getting damaged by lying about on the work surface.

 

 

 

Another thing I want to point out which may not be obvious is to do with the cutting mat.  I have used this one for many years and is in reasonable condition as I don’t abuse it but the surface is becoming quite worn and I found recently when cutting out parts, particularly free hand the blade sometimes wandered as it was tracking in cuts in the mat below.

 

Well turn it over and you have a brand new mat.  The backside material is identical to the front side the only difference being it won’t have any printed lines and or dots on it but it works the same.  Double the bang for your buck. If I get another 8 years out of it I will be happy LOL

 

 

 

All the decks cut out and placed on the ship.  They are NOT glued down yet for a few reasons.  Firstly they show up that I still need to do some fairing work on the upper hull sections.  Also I want to check the relationship between the decks and black hull skins as they may need to go down in a particular order such as butting against over going under or over the side skins etc.

 

The part numbers suggest that they can go down now but sometimes prudent not to rely on the numbering alone for construction order as sometimes can seem very arbitrary with little relationship.

 

 

 

 

Next up is cutting out the side skins and replacing port holes.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Jeff-E]

Hi Slog,

 

Looking good, decks look great.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks Jeff for the comment and to all for the likes.

 

 

Okay here we go with some more progress and a few other bits and pieces.  Due to limited modelling time I am squeezing in bits and pieces where I can but still keeping to the general flow of the plans and are all hull related.  The temptation to jump to more exciting parts such as gun turrets and the superstructures is strong though!

 

 

First up the photo etch ports holes for the hull side skins.  I counted all the larger portholes, which I will use 2mm GPM ones and came to a figure of 144.  There are also a number of smaller 1.6mm portholes which I haven’t cut out yet but will use GPM ones again.

 

The problem was how to hold them for cleaning up the 2 tangs left when freed from the PE fret.  I initially tried tweezers but regardless how tight I held them the shiny brass against shiny tweezers meant they just spun round.  I tried using the smooth part of the jaws of some pliers but they were big and awkward and risked crushing the tiny brass.

 

I needed something small and grippy and ended up using a clothes peg where I had sanded down the nose so the jaws at the front were flush and sanded the sides so the porthole was accessible from both sides with the file. 

 

The photo shows all 144, 2mm portholes cut out and cleaned up except for the last one which is in the holder.  It was so easy to use and the spring pressure alone was enough to grip the ring securely for filing so I didn’t suffer any finger fatigue gripping the peg.

 

 

 

Also clothes pegs have a tendency for the legs to move laterally when opening and closing so I glued on a couple of strips of spare decking planks I had to each side of one leg so the jaws remain aligned when opening and closing.

 

 

 

After cleaning up 144 portholes I had a look at the photo-etch detail set specifically for the Borodino and low and behold there were 144 large ports holes!  I actually think I like these better as the ring is wider and will show up more and look more in keeping with the Victorian era of these ships.

 

Unfortunately the PE of the detail set is so much thinner than the GPM stuff which means that they will not fill the thickness of the paper and have space behind them and the floppy disc windows and I guess more susceptible to damage during handling.  The biggest issue though is I have no way of neatly making the holes for them as they are ever so slightly wider than the GPM portholes.  The GPM rings fit nicely into holes left from the 2mm brass tube punch I use.  So although nicer (IMHO) I won’t use them and will stick with the GPM ones.

 

The photo shows the printed portholes with the detail set one on the left and the GPM one on the right.  The difference doesn’t seem so pronounced in the photo compared to in the hand.  Rows of them would have looked nicer though.

 

 

 

 

I am trying Swann Morton scalpel blades for the 1^st time (kind of).  I have exclusively used Excel blades for my modelling but since my stock was dwindling I decided to order a box of 100 from an Australian on-line store I found with the cheapest price.  (I don’t do eBay) They didn’t have 100 Excel No.11 boxes in stock but noticed a box of 100 Swann Morton scalpel No.11 blades for the same price and for an extra tenner got the No. 3 handle as well.

 

I know there is a segment of the modelling community who swear by them saying they are sharper and last longer than the typical modelling blade.  They are certainly a bit thinner than the Excel blades and although I can’t determine their longevity yet I didn’t notice any significant difference in cutting out parts which at this point is minimal anyway so hard to judge.

 

 

 

A little anecdote; many many years ago when I was probably a pre-teen my old man did Napoleonic war gaming (so did I to a certain extent) and I remember he had several of the distinctive Swann Morton knife handles and different blades lying around.  I don’t remember seeing any other type of hobby or craft knife.  What I do remember though was the seemingly deadly, thumb nail puncturing, finger slashing act of changing their blades!!!  So was a bit apprehensive of fitting the 1^st blade.  Turns out following the instructions and using a pair of needle nose pliers fitting and removing them is, well child’s play LOL

 

Thinking back I am surprised I survived to reach adulthood unscathed what with the molten lead for casting armies of 25mm soldiers, changing scalpel blades with fingers and other modelling hazards lying about in his war gaming den!

 

 

I went to glue down the top foredeck so I could get going with the anchor shelves when I noticed there are a few hatches to cut.  It appears to be universal in card modelling that any openings to be removed are marked with either a scissors symbol or W (for waste I guess).

 

The usual method is to just cut them out with knife.  You would start by placing the knife point in to the corner and working out from there.  I don’t like doing this for a couple of reasons.  Firstly I am not ambidextrous so I am only comfortable doing half the cuts.  The other half I find awkward trying to get orientated.  Secondly I don’t like this for small openings to be cut out as I find it inaccurate.  It’s okay if only doing large holes (for me).

 

My method for cutting out small holes is to use my Dremel to grind old worn blades into a chisel the width of the side to be cut.  This way the corners are all the same and hopefully a lot cleaner than doing it the usual method.  The blades are held in knife handles as usual and pressed vertically down to make the cut

 

The time taken to grind the blades to width is well worth it for clean holes and especially where you have multiple holes the same size, the time saving can be immense.  (I started doing this when I had 5 holes to cut in 160+ tank track links).

 

Important note: I have found when doing a row of holes such as ship bridge windows or for the example in the photo below where there is only a thin bar separating each window the order of cuts is important.  Do all the cuts with the thin piece between them first then do the top and bottom cuts to release the waste.  The reason for this is that the waste is still in place which supports the thin piece to be left during cutting.

 

If you cut out in the other order, once the waste is removed the thin section is no longer supported and can be bent out of shape when the ‘chisel’ blade makes the cut of the next window.  Hope that makes sense. In the photo I did all the long cuts first followed by the short ones to release the waste.

 

 

 

With the holes in the deck done it was glued down and ready for working on the anchor shelves.  Shown in the photo is all the parts to make up the anchor shelves with the exception of the side hull skins as these fold over to fill in between the vertical blades.  I refer you to parts 4dR and 4dL; these were beasts to cut out and fold to form the boxes/supports for where I believe the anchor cranes are located.

 

 

 

The vertical blades in the photo are marked with the laser cut form number against which they are fitted to.  The shelf is constructed by fixing these vertical blades against the forms.  As can be seen they stick up past the forms, the darker print being what will be exposed once the side hull skins fold over between them to sit on the tops of the forms.

 

 

 

I have progressed as far as I want to with the starboard anchor shelf and I will do the port one next to the same state.  I am going to hold off further progress here until the side skin is attached so I can work out what sides the vertical blades fit to as there appears to be discrepancies with some numbering and positions in the assembly diagram.

 

The crane support area (4dR) can be seen all bent up and fitted against 4eR.  This was a real tough bit to do and isn’t perfect as had some misalignment issues.  Incidentally the part 4dR isn’t shown or numbered in the diagram and was a real head scratch it work out all the folds.  

 

 

 

 

Overall I had some alignment issues (my fault) some of which have been tweaked out and others will wait to see how they affect the side skins.  Still, pretty happy with how they are going.

 

Cheers

Slog

Edited September 17, 2016 by Captain Slog

[ccoyle]

Hey, Slog!

 

The W is for wyciąć, Polish for 'cut out'.

 

Have you ever thought about investing in a Japanese screw punch?

[Captain Slog]

Hey, Slog!

 

The W is for wyciąć, Polish for 'cut out'.

 

Have you ever thought about investing in a Japanese screw punch?

Ah, that makes more sense!

 

I did look into getting a screw punch previously but had a hard time finding the genuine ones.  I came across some screw punches pertaining to be Japanese but weren't and pretty poor quality and the branded ones aimed at scrap bookers were terrible and limited in cutter sizes.

 

If I remember correctly I think it was Lee Valley in the states who sold genuine ones and even got an e-mail quote on shipping but they didn't stock all the cutters.  I also found a Japanese store which specialises in shipping genuine Japanese goods overseas and they stocked the punch and all the cutting tips but didn't place an order as the store was an unknown quantity to me.

 

I probably have the details saved on the computer somewhere.

 

Cheers

Slog 

[CDW]

Captain Slog

 

For the card stock models, I'll bet those scalpel blades are going to be great. I don't like using them too much on my wooden models because the blades are thinner as you noted. I still use both the standard No. 11 model blades and I also use the scalpels for lighter work. It just seems to me they will be ideal for a card stock model.

By the way, your model is looking fabulous. I have a few card stock models and am trying to soak in the ins and outs before I attempt to build one.

[src]

Slog,

I am laughing, I ordered the same handle and blades the other day, the blades were in my mail box when I got home last night.

Really enjoying watching you work through all this. Japanese screw punches!?!?!? Just looked on Google, those look great, I wonder how they would work on thin wood like veneer.

Sam

[gjdale]

Hi Slog,

 

I'd never heard of a Japanese Screw punch before, but a quick consult with Prof. Google brought up this Australian supplier:

 

http://www.cxdaustralia.com.au/product/6168-a-the-original-japanese-screw-punch

 

Looks to be the genuine article. Hope this helps.

[Captain Slog]

 I have a few card stock models and am trying to soak in the ins and outs before I attempt to build one.

Hi DR thanks for the comment.  I would be interested in hearing what card models you have in your stash

 

Slog,

I am laughing, I ordered the same handle and blades the other day, the blades were in my mail box when I got home last night.

Really enjoying watching you work through all this. Japanese screw punches!?!?!? Just looked on Google, those look great, I wonder how they would work on thin wood like veneer.

Sam

Hi Sam, watch your fingers!  Let me know how you rate them, I am still a bit undecided. Not sure how the screw punch would work on veneer, they can cut fairly heavy card stock I believe.

 

Hi Slog,

 

I'd never heard of a Japanese Screw punch before, but a quick consult with Prof. Google brought up this Australian supplier:

 

http://www.cxdaustralia.com.au/product/6168-a-the-original-japanese-screw-punch

 

Looks to be the genuine article. Hope this helps.

Thanks for link Greg, I did another search and quite a few Aussie stockists came up, although some were limited on cutter sizes.  I will probably end up getting one down the track as they cut rear neat holes quickly.

 

 

 

A little more progress but nothing new or exciting.  I worked on the port side shelf and of course the complicated bit was quicker, easier and fitted better the second time around.  As previously mentioned I am stopping there for the anchor shelves for the time being.

 

 

 

 

With the anchor shelves on hold I installed the top, rear deck with nothing of note to report.

 

 

 

Now that the top, front and rear decks were fitted I was finally able to glue in the bridging structure (I wish I knew the correct term for it) that I made away back near the beginning of the build.  The sides of this are covered with the side hull plating.

 

 

 

 

Now that the top decks are installed I will concentrate on the other top side structures which run down the sides of the deck.  The cut outs for these can be seen in the photos and these also are covered by the side hull plating.

 

Cheers

Slog

 

[Captain Slog]

Hi all, moving on to the next hull sub-assembly.  These run down both sides of the deck and hopefully will end up looking like what is shown on the diagram.

 

 

Google translator was a bit iffy but I think these are either the sick bay or maybe just crew bunks but I gather they had beds inside.  Also shown in the photo is a sheet of thinner paper with lots of grey rectangles.  These are supposed to represent canvas curtains/drapes/screens for the windows once they are cut out.

 

You have 2 options here, either place directly over the window opening in single parts or roll each rectangle round a 1.5mm rod to form tubes and then glue the tubes in to represent drawn screens as shown in the diagram.  Me being me, I have opted to go with the rolled tube method as I think the effect will be a lot nicer than flat boring grey windows.

 

I am not sure whether these windows were glazed or not but either way I am not putting in ‘glass’ as might interfere with gluing in the ‘curtains’

 

Also in the photo are some laser cuts parts which form the internal base and side supports for the structure.

 

 

 

The laser cut parts cut out and glued into place.  The only thing to take care of here is the orientation of the vertical supports as they aren’t perfect rectangles to account for the slight deck camber.  They also need a quick swipe with sandpaper to knock of the little nibs where they were attached to the card sheet.

 

 

 

Here is the port side structure cut out and commencement of folding and gluing.  The windows were cut out first using the chisel method as previously described.  There were 3 different widths required and I just narrowed down the 2 blades used previously and only needed to grind one other from scratch.

 

I have been using a  Black 199*** Faber Castell PITT artist pen to do the edge colouring but noticed when doing the anchor shelves it was a little too black.  I tried a Cold Grey VI 235*** pen on these parts and I think it is a much better match for the ‘not quite’ black printing.

 

With a piece such as this with multiple bends and folds in different directions I find it helpful to make up a bending plan of attack.  Basically imagine going through the order of bends in turn so as not to fold yourself into a corner so to speak.  In this case I actually rough sketched the part and numbered each bend and fold in order.

 

Even doing this I made a mistake with the long blank strip between the window sections as I bent it the wrong direction and glued it to the small internal curve.  Luckily I only did one of a potential 4 before I thought something wasn’t quite right.  A quick check of the diagram showed my error.  This wouldn’t of happened if I checked the diagram when doing up my plan!  I was lucky in that I sliced the joint apart without too much problems.

 

 

 

Both structures bent and glued up and shown next to the supports after a trial fit.  The starboard ® (closest to the camera) was the one I accidently bent and glued incorrectly and the curved strip s a little worse for wear but should be okay once glued in place and with the outside curve glued back to back with it.

 

Luckily I test fitted them as I will need to leave space for the vertical supports when fitting the ‘curtains’.  The fit of the parts to the laser cut forms was spot on.

 

 

 

The ‘curtains’ as described earlier are small rectangles of thinner paper rolled round a 1.5mm brass rod.  I cut out a couple of curtains to trial roll and glue to see of any issues.  It turns out the width of the rectangle is near as dammit the circumference of the rod.  Since I didn’t fancy edge gluing 177 tiny tubes of thin paper I decided to leave a bit extra on one side when doing the mass cutting out.

 

The little extra material left on meant I can lap and glue the ends quicker and easier.  Turns out I still didn’t leave enough extra and was still a pain to roll and glue.  I checked a rectangle against the window opening and could still have enough length to cover the window if I turned it on the long side and rolled this. The overlap is small and will be placed at the back so won’t be seen and not big enough to change the diameter on the 2 sides which touch the other tubes.

 

The photo shows the total 177 parts but I only rolled enough curtain pleats ready for hanging in the sick bay LOL  The rest are for the similar structure further back.

 

 

 

With the sides all glued up it was time for the haberdashery.  The part was held down flat to the cutting mat with a ruler and a couple of clothes peg so the curtains went in flat.  On the left I used a piece of scrap laser cut board as a spacer for the vertical support.  I also used another piece of scrap on the outside so the mini clothes peg didn’t damage the surface.  I had to hang the part over the mat due to the shape.

 

A dab of glue was placed on both ends and sides of adjacent curtain and the next tube dropped in making sure the seam was to the back.

 

 

 

A finished row of curtains.  On the back side I brushed glue between the touching tubes and then along the bottoms of the tubes where they touch the wall.  I decided to only do the main row of curtains off the hull and will do the returns once it is glued in place due to the lack of room trying to glue to the vertical supports.

 

I like the effect of the pleats and look a bit nicer than a flat grey strip; saying that I doubt much of it, if any will be visible once the boats etc go over them.

 

 

 

The structures glued in place and the remaining pleats added to the returns.  As mentioned the fit of these were spot on.  I haven’t glued the curved sections to the deck yet as waiting until the outside curve is placed before doing that.  I also haven’t glued the top horizontal end to the bridging structure as again waiting until the outer skin is placed so I can tweak the height if necessary.

 

 

 

 

Next up will be another pair of structures very similar to these but smaller and fit aft.

 

Cheers

Slog

[gjdale]

Great work Slog! Really enjoying watching this come together.

[WackoWolf]

Been following along and enjoy your work, Thank you for sharing. Keep the post and pictures coming.

[src]

Agreeing with the others, great work. All those tubes for curtains, I think my head would have exploded!

 

We both bought the same scalpel handle a couple of weeks ago, I finally received mine, I havent found much use for it yet, but I can see where it would be very helpful cutting out all this card. Figuring out how to insert the blade was fun, thankfully we have the interwebs.

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your build.

Sam

[Panama Port]

Very nice Slog. Good choice, the pleats look great.

[Captain Slog]

Hi guys, thanks for all the nice comments and the likes.

 

Sam, I have been using the Swann Morton (SM) knife for quite a bit now and on the whole my findings are quite favourable.  What I like in particular is that I find it easier to cut the edges of the paper square.

 

Believe it or not even with thin paper it is possible to put a bevel on the edges due to the angle the blade has been ground to and this needs taking in to account when cutting.  With the Excel blades I found it hard to consistently cut square edges.  I think the angle of the blade grind on the SM blades may be different which may suit me better or perhaps the flat handle gives a better visual cue on the cutting angle.

 

I still reach for the Excel knife now and then, particularly for doing a rotating chopping cut as they have a deeper heel at the back to rotate the blade on.

 

 

Okay on with the last 2 rear side structures.  I won’t go into detail as they are essentially the same structure as shown in the last post except shorter.  In the photo there are small square supports (Parts 8c) which I haven’t done yet as these glue to the top to support the boat deck I believe.  These will be too vulnerable to place just yet.

 

 

 

The finished structure in place.  I actually like the space where the sailor is standing as there are doors here in the hull sides which lead to external stairways down to the lower deck.  The nice completed example I have seen of this kit has the doors open which looks good and will do the same.

 

 

 

I will probably do the 3” casemate guns next as they are number 10 on the plans (so must be needed shortly) and I believe they will need to be installed before the hull skins go on as I don’t think the openings are large enough to manipulate the guns into position from the outside.

 

After that there should be nothing left to do prior to skinning the hull.

 

Cheers

Slog

Edited September 26, 2016 by Captain Slog

[Captain Slog]

Hi all, I will be doing FIFO again for work starting next week, flying in and out of Darwin so my snail’s pace build will become even slower.  The roster is 10 & 4 so updates will be fewer but it’s only for 2 or 3 months.

 

I have started the 3” guns but will also take this opportunity to use them as an example to detail some of the ins and outs of what to expect if new to card modelling.  Hopefully it will be interesting for some of you.

 

 

Okay, the 3” casemate guns.  There are a total of 20 of these; 6 down each side of the hull and 4 each on the bow and stern.  The large sheet below the diagram and all the thin lines to the right are printed on thin paper.  The remaining parts are printed on the standard kit paper.

 

This is a good example of the typical numbering system used in card models.  All publishers I have seen use numbers and letters in a similar fashion to identify the parts and assemblies.

 

Looking at the diagram in the photo below the 3” gun assembly is number 10.  All associated paper parts use the assembly number followed by a letter to identify the unique part.  As the gun assembly is 10, the first part (the gun mount base plate) is 10 and the second part (the pedestal) is 10a and so on and in this case goes up to letter l (L) for a total of 13 parts in this case. (12 letters plus the original number 10) All component parts are lower case.  Sometimes upper case is used for assemblies.

 

The 1^st part numbered of an assembly is usually the part which would be glued to another assembly so starting the numbering with the base plate makes sense as this is what would attach to something else.  It also likely that the parts are numbered in the desired assembly order but don’t rely on this as sometimes they are just arbitrary or perhaps not in the most logical order.

 

 

 

The eagle eyed among you will notice a typical card model issue with typo’s in the numbering…there are 3 different components all numbered as 10e!!! Not only that, but the thin strip parts f & g are also incorrectly labelled.  By studying the diagram and the shape of the parts the correct 10e was determined.  I needed to study the dimensions and number of the wire parts and through a process of elimination corrected the thin parts f, g and e. I also question the legend accuracy as I think they should be wrapped not rolled.

 

I have circled part 10k and 10l in red (a side plate and hand wheel) as a reminder that these are supplied on the photo-etch detail set.

 

The above photo only has one example of showing the relationship of parts but if you look at the base plates, part 10 (top right) it has 10a written in it, which shows that part 10a fits to this one.  This example is pretty self-explanatory from the diagram but if there are a lot of similar sized shapes beside each other or multiple layers of components then it makes more sense.

 

Some models also change the colour of where to place parts.  The dark green vehicle I am building uses a lighter green where the part has to be fitted to as well as the part number in red.  This helps stand out if anything is missing as the different colours draws you eye to it.

 

Part 10c (the thick reversed L ) is the gun barrels and the legend next to the number shows that these need to be tightly rolled into a cylinder.  Incidentally I have placed one of the brass barrels next them.  I will roll the paper ones for experience but will probably use the brass.  Surprising they are quite a bit longer.

 

 

 

Using Google Translator the Russian text below the diagram translates to “it is recommended to study in detail the bow and stern gun casemates, gun casemates located in the middle can be simplified”.

 

Okay I am sure it isn’t a perfect translation but it is good enough to suggest to me that bow and stern guns should be fully detailed (because more visible?) and the side guns can be more basic (less visible due to location?)  I will build all guns to the detail shown in the diagram because that’s how I roll LOL

 

All pretty simple and obvious.  I find though it takes a bit of time to get into synch or the same mindset with the designer’s process as each has little idiosyncrasies

 

 

 

This assembly also has additional details to be made by the builder using different thicknesses of wire and these have the letter first followed by the number; in this case a1 to a6.  To make these components you would refer to the applicable part number detailed somewhere in the plans or cover sheet.  This will provide the shape of the part printed to size and shape as well as the diameter of wire to use and the number of required.

 

 

 

Here is a shot showing about 2/3rds of all the metal work details to be made with wire and added to the model.  I think this is one of this kits big plus points in the amount of extras that can be added.  The GPM Bismarck only detailed a couple of jack staffs.  I will try and use generic railings, ladders and stairs where I can though.

 

The bulk of the components use 0.2mm and 0.3mm which I will cover below.  There is also a number of items which utilise 0.5mm and 0.8mm but this size is easily obtained locally for me.

 

 

 

For the wire components I am using brass wire I bought from Orlik in Poland a few years ago.  I bought 2 rolls each of 0.1mm, 0.15mm, 0.2mm, 0.25mm and 0.3mm.  They come in 10m rolls so should have plenty to last a while.  They were pretty cheap in themselves but should only be ordered when buying other items to negate the extortionate postage from Poland to Australia.  A good excuse to buy some more kits lol. Since then I have found Australian sources of similar brass wire but the cost is about the same or more for less meterage.

 

Surprisingly the wire is very stiff, which will be good for any short straight lengths.  Trying to bend tight curves causes the wire to snap but it does become soft and pliable with annealing and can then be shaped as desired.

 

 

 

 

Starting with the base plates (part 10); which being small discs were cut out using the wedge slicing technique previously described for the propeller blades.  The edges were coloured using the cold grey pen as usual.

 

The pedestal (10a) looks like a truncated cone as shown by the diagram but the part has a flat edge along the bottom which suggests when rolled will not be a perfect cone shape.  So I made up one to check and indeed the centre hole is off to one side.  The diagram doesn’t show this offset that I can see so now the question is what side points to the front of the gun?  This shows another card model issue where the diagram differs slightly from the physical part.

 

 

 

Part 10b is the gun mount swivel I guess you would call it and is printed on the thin paper.  There appears to be a couple of things wrong here also unless I am totally misinterpreting something.  Firstly the legend says to wrap the part round a 1mm rod to form.  As can be seen by the 1mm brass rod placed on the parts the wide section is barely wide enough to form round the 1mm. In fact I couldn’t get the edges to meet so choose to modify it a bit.

 

The other issue is that the hole left in the pedestal top was about a 1mm anyway so even if I could wrap the vertical section round it, the thin paper part would likely deform trying to get it into the hole.

 

This shows another paper model issue where the design should work in an ideal world but in reality and based on the modellers experience or physical properties of the medium it just isn’t possible.

 

I decided to modify it a little bit by removing the lower section and discarding and just permanently wrapping and gluing the thin horizontal section to the 1mm brass rod as can be seen at the left, below the figure.  The brass was then trimmed to length and placed in the hole in the pedestal as shown to the right.

 

I will not glue this in until the guns are finished as I can raise the height if required and spin the gun round once I determine what side the offset hole should be in.  An additional benefit is that it gives it a wee bit more weight and stiffens it up somewhat.

 

 

 

That’s about it for a few weeks.  I will still be able to access MSW just not do any modelling.

 

Cheers

Slog

[gjdale]

Another interesting update Slog. Safe travels and we'll look forward to resumption of play in due course.

[CaptainSteve]

Awesome (and intricate) work, Slog .... and great news on the new job !!

[S.Coleman]

Good work. Nicely done. I know exactly what you mean as I used to be a FIFO for 6 years. Worked in Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman, Yandi and Cloudbreak. I used to lie there at nights figuring out my next more for when I got home. I like the accuracy and neatness of your build.

[Panama Port]

Gotta hate it when work gets in the way of modelling. Safe travels.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks guys for the comments and well wishes, appreciated.

 

Scott, we appear to have similar experiences.  Did close to 7 years FIFO including Area C twice, Newman Hub, Marillana (beside Yandi), Marandoo, Karratha (built the GRV camp and then closed out Pluto), Karara (that was DIDO until we built the airstrip) all good memories then 3 ½ years metro.  I actually started my Endeavour build as something to occupy myself whilst on R&R which is a bit of a worry as that’s 10 years give or take now!

 

Panama Port, unfortunately a necessary evil.  As my mum says “I wish I was born rich instead of good looking” LOL

 

 

Okay got back in last night and did a bit of modelling this morning.  I thought I would cover a few more snippets using part 10d as example.  This is a plate which partially wraps round the gun barrel as per the diagram in a previous post.

 

The parts were cut in to 2 strips of ten parts each.  Rather than edge colour little parts individually do your edge colouring progressively for ease of handling.  The 2 strips were cut along the final bottom edges so took the opportunity to edge colour the whole strip edge.  Also as part of the backside will be visible, colour the whole area as shown in the top strip, rather than individual parts again.

 

The bottom strip is a good example of planning the order of your cuts.  The section needing protecting here is the thin sticking up part as this is only about 0.5mm wide.  By doing all the vertical cuts 1^st the part is prevented from deforming by the white waste material all round it.

 

 

 

Okay with all the vertical cuts made, I separated the pieces into the individual parts and again thinking of protecting the sticking up elements I chopped these to length as they have plenty of ‘meat’ each side and finally edge coloured the tops as per the photo. 

 

 

 

With that done it is now a case of removing the last of the waste material.  Firstly the straight horizontal cut was made totally freeing one side.  The curved other side was made by 2 or 3 cuts to have an illusion of a curve totally freeing that side and finally a chop cut to free the centre waste.

 

 

 

They didn’t turn out to bad although a couple of dodgy ones in there, but by the time they are wrapped on to barrels and fully assembled should be good.  I mentioned previously I don’t like the paper in this kit and think the parts may have been a bit sharper with better paper but still happy with them.

 

 

Currently working through all the other little bits and pieces for the guns as time allows.

 

 

Cheers

Slog