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

[dgbot]

This is turning into a great tutorial Slog.  I will be remember your build in case I get a Borodino. Do you teach on the side?

David B

Edited October 19, 2016 by dgbot

[Captain Slog]

Thanks for the comment David and all the likes.  The processes can be applied to any card model, I am just picking parts from this build to elaborate on.  I don’t have the patience to teach! LOL

 

 

Continuing with the 3” gun parts.

 

This part must be the gun elevation gear as it has a spindle and hand wheel coming out of it.  This is probably the smallest paper part so far on the build.  I tried a couple of times just cutting them straight out but the paper was just falling apart so I coated both sides with CA glue and it was fine after that; like cutting very thin styrene.

 

The macro shows it a bit boxy looking instead of round but to be honest I was struggling to see it even with the head magnifiers on and once assembled won’t be noticable.

 

 

 

The last bits of paper to cut are all the thin strips so decided to do the ‘iron work’ next as per parts a1 to a6 as detailed in an earlier post.  Most of them are just different lengths of straight wire but part a6 is a curved handle.

 

I soldered a few tubes together of the same diameter as the diagram and used this to bend the annealed 0.3mm wire round to get the correct shape rather than try and bend each piece freehand.

 

Photo shows a part in the jig and another ready to get the legs trimmed to length.  The time finding and soldering the tubes together sped up forming each part immensely.

 

 

 

The handle also has a curve to it as shown in the diagram in the photo above and just happens that the knife handle matches the curve in the diagram.  So it was a matter of laying the wire handle on the knife handle and then using a soft pencil eraser, pressing down to form it.

 

 

 

The rest of the wire parts were cut to length as per the diagram and blackened.  I used my usual technique for blackening which I have done in the past with acceptable results.

 

Firstly I soak the brass parts in hydrochloric acid for 15-20 minutes (although should have left longer in this case) followed with rinsing in water.  The parts are then placed in neat Caseys Brass Black for 4 minutes then rinsed with water again before cleaning of the black powdery residue.

 

The photo shows 1 example of each of the parts a1 to a6 as well as the replacement photo-etch hand wheels and a pair of brackets that need gluing together.

 

 

 

Here is a photo of all the ‘steel’ parts.  Some of them still show areas of brass but I will just touch them up with a black felt tip marker when assembled as really tiny and don’t warrant the whole blackening process again.  Also some of the parts could do with a further cleaning as they still look quite black which suggests they still have some black powdery residue you get with blackening.  Again I will clean them up as I use them.

 

 

 

I also blackened the 3” gun barrels and these came out pretty good.  After blackening and rinsing they were buffed with a soft cloth and I like the colour this leaves although could be a bit darker.  I am going to use the brass barrels as I tried to roll the paper ones and honestly I couldn’t do it.  I might continue trying to roll them for practice but won’t be using them.

 

 

 

I am more or less ready to start assembling the guns although I did run out of 1mm brass rod for the pedestals but have some tube I might try and use

 

Cheers

Slog

[src]

Well done Slog. Those are some small parts indeed. I have had trouble cleaning the powder off of small parts like these in the past, what do you use to clean them? I have though about throwing them in a tumbler with maybe corn starch or something like that but have been concerned I would lose parts.

Sam

[Captain Slog]

 I have had trouble cleaning the powder off of small parts like these in the past, what do you use to clean them? I have though about throwing them in a tumbler with maybe corn starch or something like that but have been concerned I would lose parts.

Sam

Hi Sam,

 

To clean up small parts I lay them on some kitchen roll or a soft cloth and then use an soft paint brush and scrub them with that.  It usually gets off everything but the most stubborn bits.  A stiffer brush can be used for them.

 

Incidentally I tried something similar to your thoughts tonight.  The 0.5mm thick! wire was placed in a container and I put in some suger and gave them a good shake for a while.  It obviously works as the sugar lost its white colour and the powder came off the wire. As I mentioned they still look a bit dark so will need more work to fully clean them.

 

I had a look at rolling the container and it had a nice flowing action in it with the sugar so thinking I will attach it to a drill and turn slowly for a lot longer.

 

With regards to losing parts after I picked out all the obvious pieces I poured in boiling water to dissolve the sugar to see if anything was left behind LOL

 

Cheers

Slog

[src]

Slog. Sweet!!!

[Captain Slog]

Hi,

 

After my previous post I cut out the last of the paper strips which are rolled round the various sizes of wire.  That's everything ready for the final assembly.  

 

For a bit of fun/inspiration but which actually turned into a "oh crap how am I going to put 20 of these together" moment instead I laid out all the parts for one gun assembly. LOL

 

 

 

That's all for this time and it'll probably be a couple of swings before I can work on them again, but at least I have something to look forward to 

 

Oh and I was finally able to find one picture on Google images showing this gun and the pedestal orientation is with the offset hole/vertical face at the front of the gun and the sloping section with the seam at the rear.

 

Cheers

Slog

 

 

[RGL]

Slog, North Star is now producing these in 1/200 with resin and brass but you're all over this, amazing work.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks Greg,

 

I checked them out and they look fantastic and the pictures cleared up an issue I wasn't sure about. You are certainly on top of all this after market gear! Also from the site I learned that they are Canet guns on Meller mounts, great stuff!

 

It gives me alternatives if I mess them up as was thinking if that happens I will just have to close the hatches and not show them.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Captain Slog]

Hi All,

 

It’s been a while since my last post but although still doing FIFO for work my R&Rs are free again so it’s back to working on the 3” casemate guns.  Progress for this swing is working on the sub-assemblies.

 

I think these are recoil shock absorbers/dampeners?  There are 2 per gun for a total of 40.  I first glued the small paper strip the end of the 0.5 brass rod.  Once dry I held the rod in a pin vice and coated the backside of the paper with glue.  Pressing my finger against the paper I rotated the pin vice slowly wrapping the strip on top of its self.  These were pretty simple to do.

 

 

 

The next sub-assembly has a side bracket with what might be sighting rod on it?  I replaced the paper bracket with the photo etch parts.  The photo etch bracket comes in 2 halves which are handed so after shorting into 2 piles I stuck all of the same side on to Tamiya masking tape to hold in position.  The stuck down parts got a dab of CA glue and the other half pressed down to it.

 

The previously formed 0.2mm brass wire was glued on top.  A couple of problems encountered here.  I think the blackening might be interfering with the CA bond as a few of the brackets fell apart easily also a few of the wire parts were difficult to get a good bond.  Also the war of attrition took its toll on the bent wire parts due to pinging off into the ether.  Rather than go to the trouble of making new bent ones I just stuck some spare straight parts I had on instead.  Pretty slack I know but….

 

 

 

Next up is the gun elevation hand wheel.  I think from the plans the 0.2mm spindle is just stuck to the edge of the paper part.  I didn’t think this would be strong enough so actually glued the spindle to the back of the paper part.  The spindle was then gripped with tweezers, dipped in some CA and then pressed to the hand wheel.

 

Again I think the blackening is interfering here as I had a hell of a trouble getting the spindle to stick to the tiny hand wheels.  I have previously make some dual 37mm cannons for my Bismarck build from photo etch and never had problems gluing the tiny bare brass parts together.

 

 

 

Further work done on the pedestals which were detailed in an earlier post.  The small paper strip folds to form the gun mount uprights.  These were easy enough to do; gluing the strip to the end of the swivel and then folding up.  Despite scoring the bend marks some of the bends bunched up in the corners but not a problem as this will be hidden once the barrels and dampeners, from photo 1 above, are in place.

 

 

 

The last sub-assembly are the gun barrels.  I mentioned previously I couldn’t roll the paper barrels satisfactorily so I decided to use the brass barrels bought separately at the same time as the ship.  The barrel and the breech of the brass replacement gun are slightly longer than the paper part.  To get a datum for attaching the paper parts I will align the brass and paper barrels at the change in section diameter for consistently.  The paper part has thin lines printed on them and I will use these as reference for attaching the other parts to the brass barrels.

 

 

 

 

That’s it for this swing.  Next time back will be for 3 weeks Christmas break so hope to get a fair amount done during the holidays.

 

 

Cheers

Slog

[WackoWolf]

Glad your back working on the ship again, will be waiting for more updates. Thanks for sharing.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks Joe and to everyone for the likes.

 

 

Progress continues on the barrel assembly.  Starting from the left of the photo we have the parts necessary to do the assembly.  The barrel, a paper strip to form a band, a side plate to wrap the barrel and finally 2 dampeners?

 

The next barrel along shows the strip wrapped round the barrel; done by gluing one end to the barrel and then gluing and wrapping as detailed in an earlier post.  The next 2 barrels show the side plate attached from a couple of angles.  The 2 thin arms were tacked to the barrels by their ends and then wrapped partially round the barrel.

 

The wrapping of plate showed up the paper issue again with the paper delaminating on the thin arms when the flat plate section started wrapping round.  By modifying the technique I reduced the de-laminating a bit but couldn’t eliminate it.  The last barrel shows the 2 dampeners glued to the underside by their thick ends only but they will be trapped between the pivot uprights so that’s fine.

 

What is missing and I choose to leave off is another dampener rod which should glue to the front collar and go backwards between the 2 thicker dampeners.  These were only 0.2mm rod with a small strip wrapped round them in a similar fashion to the larger ones.  Again I found it impossible to wrap tiny pieces of paper round even tinier pieces of brass.  I can live with it.

 

 

 

All twenty barrels ready for mounting into their pivots.  A few points of note; the side plate attachment were tricky due to the de-laminating problem which also a caused a number of the plates being slightly angled.  The twin dampeners aren’t as neat as I would have liked also but again for what will be seen I am happy with them.

 

A few shiny glue areas are visible up close but once the guns are complete I will reassess and if I think necessary I will spray them all with Matt Cote.

 

 

 

Next up was to mount the barrel assembly into the pivot and then fix the pivot to the pedestal.  I held the pivot in the pin vice and placed a dab of glue to each upright and then placed the barrel between squeezing together once positioned.

 

The pivot and attached barrel were removed from the pin vice and gripped on the paper collar with tweezers and the brass pin coated with glue and reinserted back into the pedestal and using a styrene packer the barrel was set level (hopefully).  Upside down Tamiya tape was used to hold the pedestal down whilst gluing and setting the barrel height.

 

 

 

 

All twenty barrels fixed to the pivot and inserted into the pedestals.  (paint colour test cards from the hardware store are handy for a number of uses, particularly for dispensing blobs of glue on to, to then pick up from with a needle or brush.  I use a lot of old business cards for this also)

 

 

 

With the above completed it was then a matter of attaching the top bracket and rod, the hand wheel /gearbox and then the handle.  The gun looks a lot taller than the scale figure as it is sitting on a blob of blu-tack as the brass barrel makes it very front heavy.

 

 

 

 

Got a confession to make, I did a total of 5 guns to the stage as in photos 5 and 6 but then ended up not continuing to attach the rest of the ancillary parts for the remaining guns as frustration got the better of me with the hand wheels and gun sight continually falling off.  Once I determine the most visible position I will place the more detailed ones there.

 

I am not too concerned with not fully detailing them as will mostly be hidden anyway and this is supposed to be enjoyable, not an exercise in pig headedness, slogging (pun intended) through it.

 

 

Finally at a stage to skin the upper hull.

 

Cheers

Slog

[CDW]

Wow, those guns are drop-dead gorgeous. Outstanding work,Slog. 

I had no idea card models could be built to this level of detail. If I were younger, I would give one of these a go, but alas, my modeling cupboard is full of many more projects than I have time to complete as it is.

 

Cheers!

 

[hof00]

Awesome!!

[RGL]

Fantastic

[gjdale]

Great work Slog. Love the details.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks guys for the nice comments and all the likes, really appreciated.

 

 

If I want to build the ship more or less in the order of the part numbers, then my procrastination has come to an end and it’s time to continue with the upper hull skins.  Not a favourite area based on my lower hull experiences.

 

First up is to finish lining the 6” gun turret alcoves.  These were pretty straight forward although the first instance of tabs has been used.  Not a fan of tabs but these are needed to catch the edges of the longitudinal hull skins.

 

I partially cut through the tab line and of course the top printed areas of the little triangles started coming away; these were then folded back on the score line.  The white dots as explained previously are for the hand rail location and I will cover them further down.

 

The finished part was then progressively rolled round a smooth knife handle until roughly curved to shape.  Surprisingly the 2 parts are handed. 

 

 

 

A finished lining glued in place.  The vertical edges look a bit wavy but should line up straight once the side skins are in place and the edges can be joined.

 

 

 

I started on the starboard upper hull skins and will replace the printed portholes with 2mm photo-etch ones as discussed in a previous post.  The photo shows some of the printed portholes punched out using the sharpened 2mm brass tube method described away back at the beginning of the log.  The holes were then coloured from behind using a PITT artist pen.

 

As mentioned each white dot is a location of a hand rail or step iron to be made up from 0.2mm brass wire.  I first went through each and every dot giving it a prick with the smallest sharpest needle I had for future installation of the 0.2mm wire.  Going over every dot was not as tedious as it sounds and when you see the amount of dots in following photos it was done surprising quick.

 

Also shown a is business card I use under my hand to protect the printed surface as I found when doing activities such as this or cutting etc the corner of my middle finger nail can cause little dents in the paper (even though I bite them back to nothing!).  It also protects the paper from moisture from your hand (not that I have sweaty hands or anything LOL).

 

 

 

Once all the portholes are punched out and coloured I used a paint brush to apply glue round the hole from the rear of part to prevent getting glue on the surface and pressed the 2mm brass porthole in to place from the front.  The photo below shows the rear of the part with the floppy disc glazing glued behind each porthole.

 

 

 

The starboard skins done to date; cut out, edge coloured with the portholes installed and glazed.  There are still several more skins to do for the starboard side.  Also some of the glazing looks black and some look grey; they are all black it’s just reflections depending on the angle of the camera.

 

The cutting out the skins was very time consuming as there is not a single straight line cut along any of the major edges, they all have some degree of curving to take into account the shape of the hull.

 

Similarly some of the straight runs of portholes look slightly off but again once attached to the hull they should line up parallel with the decks.

 

 

 

Just a close up.

 

 

 

Here is a comparison shot between the original printed portholes and the reworked brass ones.  I think replacing them is worth the extra effort. The reflections on some of the glazing spoil the effect a bit. 

 

 

 

The plan now is to get the rest of the starboard and all the port skins to the same stage before the big glue up.

 

Cheers

Slog

[CDW]

Beautiful work as always, Captain.

Do you know what type of ink is used for their printed card parts? The quality of it looks superb. This model kit overall looks to be extraordinary and you are doing it justice.

[CaptainSteve]

Lookin' good, Slog.

Hope you have a great Christmas/New Year's break.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks to everyone for all the likes and comments.

 

Do you know what type of ink is used for their printed card parts? The quality of it looks superb.

Hi DR I wouldn’t have a clue what ink was used.  Since this is a retail kit then I am assume some kind of commercial printing was used.  I have never bothered downloading e-kits for printing at home as I would never be able to print to the quality and on decent paper that the commercial kits are done to; not without a major printer upgrade anyway. But sourcing decent Bristol would then be the next issue.

 

Hope you have a great Christmas/New Year's break.

Thanks Steve hope you have a great Christmas also.

 

 

Since I am still working on the upper skins (each one takes a little over an hour to do) I don’t have anything new to show but thought I would discuss a glue I came across.  As anyone who follows my log knows I am on a constant search to try new, to me, glues.

 

It is Roket Card Glue by Deluxe Materials, a UK company who produce many types of glues and compounds for modellers.  I am not sure where I first saw this glue but sourced a few Australian stockists and decided to give it a try.

 

 

 

The glue is similar to PVA glue but is very thin like skimmed milk.  I have done a few bits and pieces with it and am impressed with its performance so far.  I have attached a link to their YouTube video and can vouch that it will stick to metal.

 

 

I used it to glue the end of a 1mm strip of paper to 0.5mm brass wire and the bond held whilst I bent the paper round the wire.  In fact in some cases the paper delaminated but the bond held.

 

The thinness of it isn’t a problem for me as I dispense a small drop and then use a No.0 or smaller paint brush to apply to the part anyway. I do the same with the woodworkers PVA glue but being a lot thicker this usually sits on the brush and then sits on the paper edge surface.  The thinner Roket glue gets sucked up in to the brush fibres and then coats only the edge of the paper it touches so definitely a lot cleaner joints can be made.

 

So far I have used it so fix the hull skin a couple of posts back as well as to glue in the photo etch portholes and the mylar panels behind them with no issues.

 

Cons?  Well the price is the only one as it is pretty expensive being around A$18 to A$20 for only 50ml considering my usual big brand wood workers PVA I usually use is ~A$7 for 250ml.  Saying that, as I only dispense a drop at a time a little goes a long way. It definitely fits in the less is more class

 

Despite the cost, for the moment at least this has replaced my favoured PVA.  I will keep you up to date of any additional benefits or issues with it as I use it more.

 

If you are still trying to find a glue to suit you then I suggest giving it a try.

 

Cheers

Slog

[ccoyle]

Assuming the kit is offset-printed, the printers probably used a rubber-based ink.

 

About the Rocket glue, have you had any issues with it deforming any parts, as one could expect from a water-based glue?

[Captain Slog]

Hi Chris,

 

I haven't yet but the quantities have been tiny, gluing the photo-etch portholes to the skins and the mylar 'windows' to the backs.  The biggest part and hence most glue used in one hit would be on the hull skins glued on in post #110 above,

 

The glue was brushed on around the perimeter in stages gluing the part to the card frame and along the top edge which is paper to paper with no issues. The top horizontal section of the existing structure was edge glued to the top of the skin again with no issues.

 

I will say that it definitely grips quicker than the PVA I used in the past.  The bond to the mylar was surprising quick and strong; after a light brushed on coating of glue around the port hole and a quick press down on the mylar with the flat of the tweezer handle I doubt I would have gotten it back off without destroying the paper.

 

The interesting test will be on gluing large skins to forms such as decks etc. I will definitely report on its performance as I progress.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Captain Slog]

Hi All,

 

Okay here are all the major upper side skins cut out.  What isn’t shown is a number of smaller closer panels and stern bulkheads which I will do as I need them  Also not shown is a lower belt which I will cover below.

 

Once completed I held some of the skins up to the hull to get a feel for their installation and had an OMG moment as there was no way several of them would fit in their correct locations.  I checked the diagrams and they were no help.

 

After a few head scratching moments and playing around with the skins I realised that the kit designer had really put a lot of thought on the construction of this area.  Some of the skins need to be pushed under the deck above and the subsequent skins overlap these.  This does mean though that the skins will need to be fitted in the order of their part numbers.

 

Once all the skins shown are fitted there is belt that goes right round the bottom of the skins essentially covering up the ‘darts’ removed to allow for contouring to the hull.  This overlapping and belting should be more forgiving with the fitment of the panels unlike the lower hull which every skin had to be perfect.

 

 

 

Working on these panels was time consuming due to most of the cuts being very gentle curves. Give me straight cuts or big curves any day.  I actually enjoyed punching out and fitting all 140+ portholes which was more enjoyable than cutting in this case.  The parts shown in the photo above amounts to 12 hours of work.

 

 

 

Something I didn’t think too closely on but which is now evident in the photo below is how on earth am I going to manhandle and beat the skins into position with the 3” casemate guns poking through their openings without damaging them?!  I will need to think on this more and check to see if it’s possible to squeeze the completed gun assembly through the opening.

 

 

 

 

Now that the bow skin is cut to shape I am now able to finalise the position of the anchor shelf vertical ribs as if you remember there was a bit of a discrepancy in the diagram so I might do this next.

 

To be honest I am a bit nervous of attaching these skins and I think I might hold off and continue on to the next structure as per the part numbering for a bit of an enjoyable break.  Will see how it goes.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Captain Slog]

Hi All,

 

After giving it a bit of thought I decided to do a top side structure for a break from the hull skins and associated works, which go up to parts 14.  The next assembly 15 is a cabin type structure located on the centre line and sits partially under the bridge.

 

 

Here are all the parts laid out ready for trimming and assembly.  A few points to raise straight off the bat, particularly with the laser cut forms.  The 2 largest forms are Part 15 and are the top and base of the structure and as can be seen they are of a different size and shape.

 

Based on the shape of the side and top skins and the assembly diagram this doesn’t make sense.  I double checked the kit template sheet to see if it is just a laser cut form issue but these show the parts being different also.

 

Holding the 2 different forms against the structures final location on deck confirms that the top form in the photo is the correct size and shape and is confirmed by the top skin Part 15c.  Thankfully the wrong sized form is large enough to be cut down to match the correct part.

 

Secondly, not an issue but a reiteration of checking before gluing; parts 15a and 15b are the internal structures and although not evident on first glance the slots on each end are in a different positon.  I only noticed this when the dry run had it all askew.  If I had jumped in and applied glue I could have messed them up.

 

 

 

The wrong size bottom form was cut to match the correct top by holding them together and marking the cuts.  As can be seen on the bottom form the areas with no laser char were what was trimmed off.  After a trial fit again to make sure everything was aligned it was glued together with no issues.  I used the Roket glue here but no discernible difference then my usual PVA.

 

 

 

Something I have touched on previously but not explained is the relationship and butting against of adjacent skins.  Prior to cutting of the skins I wanted to check the relationship of the top and side skins in case I need to take into account any differences when cutting and gluing up.

 

By placing the structure on the top skin, although it doesn’t look it, it is flush with the edge of the form.  This means (and I hope!) that the sides are slightly taller than the form to cover the edge of the top skin.

 

 

 

Doing the same with the side skin it is, thankfully, taller than the form so should cover the top skin edges.

 

 

 

What does this mean and why bother? Well it shows that I can safely cut the parts out to the print lines without concern and also shows that for ease of construction I should place the top skin first (based on the numbering I would have done that first anyway but always best to check).

 

Also I only noticed when the photo was taken that the printed corner and a look at the form confirm that the corners are slightly rounded.  (I had to gently sand these on to the form I had to trim down). Incidentally the front of the structure has sharp square corners.

 

This explains why the side skin didn’t have any bending marks for the corners but does have a little white dash to match the one on the photo above to centre the skin for wrapping round both sides.

 

 

 

Okay with the top skin on another issue with the forms was found.  The rebate has been cut too long as can be seen by the top skin overhanging the edge.  This is also a form issue as the skins all match each other.  This end skin is bent on the sharp square corners so has been has been pre-scored from the backside with the knife and the bends formed initially and trial fitted to the end of the structure.

 

 

 

Once satisfied it fits the front face was glued and then the sides were folded back one side at a time to secure.  Because the forms were too short for the small return as mentioned above I cut some scrap card from the laser cut sheet and glued in to support the outside edge of the small return and can just be seen in the photo.

 

 

 

Moving to the other end this skin didn’t show bend marks but did have a little centre line for alignment.  Remember above, this end of the forms have small radius curves so I held the skin unglued against the ends and then folded the skins back to form the bends.

 

I also cut out the windows and placed some floppy disk glazing from behind and this looks pretty good on larger windows also.

 

 

 

Once I was happy with the bends on the ‘window’ skin I glued up the centre section first.  I have gripped the part between too rulers to apply pressure to the glued surface.  The purpose of the rulers is to spread the pressure because the side skins are only supported on the top and bottom edges by the forms and these is risk of pushing in the middle using fingers only to get a ‘starved cow’ effect.  I suffered from this poor bovine look in my early days of card modelling!

 

 

 

Doors 15f &g cut out and the close up shows they are handed.  The top, bottom and lock side edges were cut out using the usual ruler and knife but for the ‘hinge’ side I used the small ground chisel blade I made for removing windows and square openings as shown away back near the beginning of the log to work round the hinges first and then the straight sides.

 

 

 

The basic structure with the doors attached.  I like the effect of the doors and glazed windows.  Also there are a couple of smaller portholes on the top surface which were replaced with 1.6mm photo-etch using the same method as the hull skins.

 

 

 

Next up will be the skylights (15h) that run down each side.

 

Cheers

Slog

[nancysqueaks]

Hi Slog, I am following your build as a template of methods and ideas, very crisp work indeed.

I am using the Roket glue you mentioned and find it very fast to grab, strong but as yet untested on

large areas.

 

Another product from the same company is Glue n' Gaze, originally for use as a glue on clear plastics. However

it is also used to make clear windows up to about 6mm and works very well. The method used is to slowly

pull the glaze across an opening, translucent at first dries to clear in about 2 minutes or so.

 

 

 

The portholes are very impressive, and I intend to use a similar method, so thanks for all the methodology.

 

Regards, Nick.

 

 

[CDW]

Fantastic work. Looks like a challenge, learning to work with a card/paper medium, and you are mastering it for certain. Very impressive looking model in every respect.

[Captain Slog]

Thanks to everyone for the likes.

 

Hi Nick, I am glad you are getting some ideas from my log.  I have just started using the Roket glue myself so experience is a bit limited but really liking it so far.  Thanks for the heads up on the Glue n’ Glaze.  I have watched some YouTube videos and it looks like it would fit the bill for the bridge windows when I get there.  I see the place I got the Roket glue also stock it so will keep it in mind when I get to that stage.

 

 

Hi DR, thanks for your comment.  I would say it’s more like I am getting to get grips with card modelling! One of the challenges I have found with card modelling is just how much thought needs to go into putting them together, what with incorrectly shaped parts (as the example above) and dealing with diagrams which only show the completed assembly.  They usually don’t show you how they got there.

 

 

The last parts of this structure are some skylights which run down each side.  The top left strip shows 3 porthole options; the printed portholes (which I do like), middle skylight is the 1.6mm GPM portholes which are slightly too big and the right hand sky light shows the small portholes from the Borodino detail set which I forgot about.

 

The detail set ones were a better size for fitting in the limited space but I don’t like working with these. They are so much thinner than the 1.6mm GPM ones and difficult to handle.  The bottom strip shows all the skylights punched out and the portholes inserted with mylar glazing.  The mylar had to be trimmed very close to the portholes so it didn’t go past the hatches.  The port-holing (?) was done prior to cutting out as the parts are pretty small and to prevent the punching operation distorting the sides.

 

 

 

The complete skylights are pretty simple only having 4 parts; the body and 3 hatches.  The fold lines were carried through to the backside and scored ready for folding.  The 2 ends were folded inwards and the top down and then glued up.  Here the glued up body is sitting on the end on a square so I could press the hatch down flat for gluing.  The hatches were cut out using the same method as the doors in the previous post.  I glued in the middle hatch first then the 2 outer ones so I didn’t run off the end of one side.

 

 

 

The finished skylights glued into position and that completes Assembly 15. 

 

 

 

Final thoughts? Well firstly this is the kind of structures/components/assemblies I love doing.  I reckon it turned out not to bad and pretty chuffed with it.  It’s a pity about the forms being wrong but this type of thing crops up with card modelling and it wasn’t a show stopper, just annoying.

 

Certainly I could have done better. The main thing that springs to mind is some of the areas where the top and side skins butt against each other aren’t perfect; the side skin popped up proud or dipped down below the top at some areas.

 

You may have noticed a couple of white squares on the top of the structure, well this is for a couple of additional skylights (Part 19) so I thought I may as well do these now to add a bit more detail to the structure.

 

 

 

 

There are a total of 3 No.19 skylights; 2 for the completed structure above and another one for a different part of the build but I decided to do all 3 rather than come back to do one later.  Again not much parts to these; a base, a top and 4 little hatches with portholes.

 

The diagram also shows that I need to add hand rails b2 and b3 round the perimeter of the skylight and these will need to be made up with 0.2mm brass wire.

 

 

 

The steps shown to make the basic skylight.  I did pin prick the handrail holes before cutting anything out for ease of access.  The bases were cut and folded at the bend lines as normal and the ends glued together.  The last step shows the top with the hatches installed as one unit.  I did also try placing the top first and then attaching the hatches.  Both methods have pros and cons but either or is fine.

 

The space for portholes on the little hatches is starting to get tight for space!

 

 

 

Two of the three completed skylights shown next to the handrails required to be made from 0.2mm brass wire.  Rather than try and mess around with tiny little stubs as they show I chose another way to do them, which was easier but still encountered problems as discussed below.

 

 

 

Had a lot of problems doing these.  Firstly the holes I had previous pin pricked had more or less closed up due to handling for the construction and of course the 0.2mm brass wire wasn’t stiff enough to re-open the closed up holes.

 

Secondly I went back to the needle to re-do the holes but without support the needle just pushed the sides in instead of puncturing the paper.  To get round this I headed to the hardware store and picked up a sheet of 2.5mm balsa wood and made smallish 8mm x 6mm (give or take) blocks and glued these inside the skylight.  I was then able to use the needle to re-do the holes.

 

The brass wire was dipped in some CA glue and fed into the holes.  The wire could be pushed quite a ways into the balsa easily enough.  To trim the ends to length I placed a piece of 0.5mm card next to the wire and used nail clippers to trim to length.  I think 0.5mm supports is a reasonable length for working to and visually for the scale as it would relate to 100mm (~ 4”) full size.  Probably still a bit over scale but smaller interferes with constructability (for me anyway).

 

 

 

To do the horizontal handrails I have never encountered so much frustration in all my days!!!  I honestly tried 4 different CA glues, I tried brass wire and 0.2mm elastic rigging thread (saw this used on another website build log to great effect) and finally ended up using good old PVA glue on brass, which I then dabbed the joints for good measure with some Roket card glue.

 

As this was the first time I had done these there were lots of lessons learned.  Main one is to spend the time cutting the handrails to length before gluing for a neater finish, which I did for the shorter end rails.  I glued over length pieces and then trimmed back to the support with the nail clippers again.  Surprisingly the glue joint wasn’t affected by this but couldn’t get right up to the corner because of the glue.  Secondly if cut to final length first the PVA alone would have been fine and I wouldn’t have such bulky joints.

 

The first skylight I did to try out stuff on and not shown here as too embarrassed I painted the handrails with a 00 brush and Tamiya matt black.  Despite thinning it still went on clumpy and of course it is ‘Black’ not like the printed ‘not quite black’ of the paper so stands out.  For the 2 skylights in the photo I used a cheap hard block of black water colour and used this as it went on smoother with only the odd lump but also I knew it would dry out a more subdued black better in keeping with the paper colour.

 

 

 

Lastly here are a couple of shots with Structure 15 and the additional skylights 19 on top, in their place of residency on the hull.  To say it was a tight fit under the ‘bridge’ is an understatement.  In fact it was so tight it didn’t fit!

 

I know why it didn’t fit as the side skins on the structure actually peep past the form but I didn’t want to trim this as it fits nicely on the deck and more importantly, which I forgot to mention in the log, the end skins have very slight curves cut in them to account for the deck camber.  If I started hacking away at the structure skins I know I would end up with gaps.

 

 

So the only resort and due to access on the bridge was to very gently sand the bottom of the bridge skin with an almost smooth diamond photo-etch file and only sanding on the in stroke towards the printed surface so I didn’t snag and tear out the bottom edge.  After an age doing this the structure slips smoothly in and out like a glove LOL

 

 

 

 

 

Well that’s one structure and some skylights knocked off the list.  I will probably have a break for a day or 2 before getting on with something else.  I really enjoyed doing this and will most likely make a start on structure 16, which is very similar but also has a funnel.   I know ,I know the hull won’t skin itself but I still don’t feel ready for the challenge of that yet!

 

Cheers

Slog

 

[hof00]

Just Awesome Sir!!

[RGL]

Well played sir

[gjdale]

Looks great Slog. Had you considered soldering the handrail pieces together before applying to the skylights? Was just thinking you could do this, leave the "legs" a bit longer and then trim them to length prior to fitting. Might save some aggro with trying to glue them together?

[Panama Port]

Incredible detail Slog. Still amazing what can come out a piece of paper in the hands of a skilled craftsman.

 

Marv