HMVS Cerberus 1870 by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - Paper Shipwright - 1:250 - CARD

[CDW]

Thanks for mentioning the GPM model of the Bismarck. I looked it up and bookmarked the company. They offer some very interesting models, though I need to start with an appropriate model for a beginner using paper. Never tried it at all before, you you and Slog have convinced me it is a part of the hobby I need to try at least once. 

[Dan Vadas]

18 minutes ago, CDW said:

you and Slog have convinced me it is a part of the hobby I need to try at least once. 

Good stuff, it's a ton of fun .

 

We'll see just HOW MUCH fun after I've successfully (or not ) cut out the next part - the Ship's Wheel. Apart from the round centre, all the white sections will need to be cut out. The paper is doubled-over 160gsm. See you this evening with an update :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Definitely not a section to start on after a visit to the pub, Danny!  I bet you're going to use a new blade for that little lot!

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

1 hour ago, Jim Lad said:

Definitely not a section to start on after a visit to the pub, Danny!  I bet you're going to use a new blade for that little lot!

I think you're right John. Fortunately, I haven't had a drink in weeks - hundreds of cups of tea though . I reckon I might go through half a dozen blades - the CA has turned the paper into plastic .

 

  Danny

[maaaslo]

So, By the end of next week HMVS Cerverus will be finished, right?

[Dan Vadas]

4 hours ago, maaaslo said:

So, By the end of next week HMVS Cerverus will be finished, right?

I think so, perhaps, but I won't be starting Bismarck until she's done. One at a time, and I always finish my models .

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The madness continues . I've finished and fitted the Ship's Wheel. I did a "cheat" on the cutouts in the spokes by drilling them. To the eye they look fine, giving the "impression" of spokes. I could have spent more time rounding the ends of the spokes, but where do you stop? :

 

 

What are the odds? Just as I was chopping out the waste between two of the spokes a fly flew up my nose. Arrrrgh . I cut a longer spoke for easier handling and CA'd it back on :

 

 

The paper tube shaft is the smallest I've done so far, wrapped around a 0.4mm drill bit :

 

 

Fitted to the ship :

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

My first attempt at building a Ship's Boat turned out rather well. I had no idea how it would have to fold as the instructions told me NOTHING . I cut out the hull from a spare thin sheet and soon got the idea - very simple and a fairly good design .

 

 

I made a work platform by carving out a piece of balsa to hold the very slippery customer :

 

 

The completed boat. Only 5 more to go :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Coming along nicely, Danny.

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John.

 

Cutting the seats out took a while, but well worth the effort. The flat printed interior looked very ordinary :

 

 

All the boats completed and touched up with acrylic :

 

 

I made the two Cranes as per the instructions, stiffening the doubled paper with CA and cutting them out. This operation took about 1.5 hours for the two. Despite my best efforts they didn't turn out perfectly but they are acceptable :

 

 

 I have 12 Davits to make which are similar to the cranes. I came up with a better idea of making them but still using paper. I laminated 3 strips together with PVA and placed them into a jig to dry. I'll trim them to size later. It only takes a couple of minutes to make one now :

 

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Clever, Danny.  I don't think I'd have thought of using a jig with card.

 

John

[Dan Vadas]

5 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Clever, Danny.  I don't think I'd have thought of using a jig with card.

John, it's mainly for letting the PVA dry which takes about half an hour before the piece no longer springs back. Once dry it holds it's shape beautifully.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Well I've about had enough of trying to deal with GPM about my up-coming Bismarck. I put my order in for it on the 17th, checked my bank account and the transaction was marked as "Pending" for about 10 days, and then it disappeared altogether. The money never left my account, so I can only presume that the order won't be filled

 

I've sent an Email to Halinski to see if they can do any better. On their Site the Bismarck is marked as "Out of Print" in one version, but on another page under "Wrapped Kits with Laser" it shows as being available. We'll see .

 

  Danny

[Captain Slog]

Hi Danny,

 

Thats disappointing was just thinking you should get it in the next day or two. Have you tried contacting GPM, although they aren't the most responsive to e-mails. They normally send an email confirming when it was shipped within a day or so which I am guessing you haven't received. 

 

Your work on the ships boats is looking good. 

 

Cheers

Slog

[Dan Vadas]

55 minutes ago, Captain Slog said:

Thats disappointing was just thinking you should get it in the next day or two.

So was I Slog .

 

55 minutes ago, Captain Slog said:

Have you tried contacting GPM, although they aren't the most responsive to e-mails.

I will shortly, but as you say I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a reply.

 

1 hour ago, Captain Slog said:

They normally send an email confirming when it was shipped within a day or so which I am guessing you haven't received

They sent an Order Confirmation. Where it says "Payment Status" (highlighted) it translates to "Not Paid", even though I did send the payment via Credit Card with the order :

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

I've finished all the davits. They were a lot easier and turned out much better than trying to cut out the kit ones :

 

 

I wasn't overly impressed with the kit's simple davit block and tackle arrangement, it looks a bit tacky. I'm going to rig the tackle "properly", so I've made "impressions" of blocks for the davits and also the boats. Here are the kit ones :

 

 

And these are mine, complete with the "blocks". The holes in the blocks are #80 (0.35mm) :

 

The "blocks" on one of the boats :

 

 

  Danny

[Eddie]

Nicely done mate.    

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Eddie .

 

I bought a sheet of generic Railings in 1:250 scale which I painted before cutting anything off. These replace the awful printed kit railings :

 

 

These are the smallest PE I've used to date, 0.15mm thick, and the railings are the same width. The piece of wire next to the offcut is 0.5mm, which looks huge in comparison :

 

 

The railings have 3 bars, so I cut off the lower one. Then I marked and drilled 0.35mm (#80 which is my smallest drill bit) holes for the legs to go into. I've drilled all 3 decks, a job which would have been MUCH easier while the decks were off the ship but I only got the railings a couple of days ago. All the holes so far have lined up perfectly, which was a bit of a nice surprise . Another surprise was that the spacings for the posts nearly ALL fit each deck with a post right in the corner - what were the odds of THAT happening ? I'm quite happy with the way they've turned out so far, the job while fiddly is a bit easier than I was expecting. The hardest part is actually finding the holes :

 

 

One deck down, two to go.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Fitting the Davits. After all my work earlier remaking the Davit Brackets to get the "fingers" on their ends right I finished up having to cut them off, because my Mk2 Davits were a fair bit wider and would no longer fit in the slots :

 

 

The first 4 davits fitted to the starboard side. I think they will be a success . As you can see in the pics below I've also fitted the Breast Deck Railings :

 

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

As I'm going to rig the tackles for the boats I needed a Cleat on each davit to tie off the line. I cut these from 80gsm CA stiffened paper. They scale out to about 12", which may be a bit large but should look OK once the rope coils go over them. I left a tag to glue it to the back side of the davit :

 

 

  Danny

[RGL]

You are on fire with this build!

[Mirabell61]

Good work Danny !

 

as the card models are most in a rather small scale, in my opinion these are much more difficult to make, require utmost attention and precise joining, glueing and fitting. You are doing an excellent job !

 

Nils

[Dan Vadas]

On 31/05/2017 at 3:31 PM, RGL said:

You are on fire with this build!

Hmm ... a scary thought seeing as I'm building a paper model . Thanks Greg and Nils.

 

I've made all the Bollards. Four of these, the Towing Bollards, are rectangular (1.4 x 1.0mm) and made wholly from paper. The other 9 probably disqualify this as being a Card build, as I made the round bits from wooden dowel instead of trying to roll the 17 0.8mm diameter pieces from paper . I'll let them dry thoroughly before painting them matt black:

 

 

To try to prevent losing the tiny pieces as I was cutting them I built a "dam". It worked too, I didn't lose one :

 

 

  Danny

[BANYAN]

I get home from holidays and you have nearly completed a build in 4 weeks - nice going Dan

 

cheers

 

Pat

[ccoyle]

Disqualification? Oh, indeed no. Short-cuts are encouraged in card modeling.

[Captain Slog]

7 hours ago, Dan Vad said:

 

 wooden dowel

 

 

I think that's acceptable, wood is just paper ore after all. 

 

Enjoying following your progress.

 

Cheers

Slog

[popeye the sailor]

neat idea on the dam........when I cut stuff that small,  I usually point it at the wall or something.   it's unnerving to see and hear the admiral duck and dodge flying shrapnel       making freehand cuts must be a lot harder with paper.......I do it a lot with the wood flat stock I use,  a real bother when one goes out of the line    great job Danny!

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Pat, Chris, Slog and Popeye. Your comments are always appreciated .

 

News on the Bismarck front - not good, it won't be happening anytime soon. Halinski's model is out of print at the moment (they are revising it and it will take some time before it's a goer again).

 

However, I just bought a (relatively) easier model from them - IJN Amatsukaze, a Japanese WW2 destroyer which will get my skills up a lot more before I tackle the big monster . I bought this kit because it's one of the few that ARE currently available, and it also comes with Laser-cut hull formers. I also got a set of lathe-turned gun barrels to suit the ship. All up cost was $USD67 (inc Shipping) which is a tad over $AUD90.00. That's pretty reasonable I think.

 

I'll probably have to source some PE ladders, railings, AA guns etc from SOMEWHERE. GPM have them, but I'm over trying to deal with them .

 

A Build Log of her will be started as soon as I get the kit .

 

  Danny

[Canute]

Dan, what scale is the new ship? Gold Medal Models, http://www.goldmm.com/  may cover it and should be available in OZ.

[Dan Vadas]

5 hours ago, Canute said:

Dan, what scale is the new ship? Gold Medal Models, http://www.goldmm.com/  may cover it and should be available in OZ.

It's 1:200 scale Ken. I found their Railing/Ladder set, the price ($USD50.00 plus shipping) is in the stratospheric bracket but it looks like a very detailed set. They have a Link to a distributor in Hong Kong that look like they have a more realistic approach to pricing . Of course, the link to their Australian distributor doesn't work .

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

  Danny