Nantucket Light Ship by Fright - FINISHED - Lindberg - 1:95 scale - PLASTIC

[Fright]

I finished installing the navigational lights to the main cabin. I also finished installing my beacon lights to the towers. Here's the test run. Forward beacon tower is shown in picture.

[Jack12477]

Nice job, Robert. Looks impressive

[Fright]

Jack - Thank you and I certainly appreciate the kind words. I'm having fun putting this ship together and that old adage is true: "Practice makes Progress". Another good lesson I've learned with modeling is 'patience' !!! Good Holidays to you and loved ones 🥂

[popeye the sailor]

the lighting looks very good Robert      gonna look great when you gt the deck fitted together!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

[Fright]

Popeye - thanks! The lighting came out better than I expected. I have installed (3) 1.8mm warm lights for the three main cabins. For the engine room skylight, I will use either a 1.8 or 3mm  warm light to illuminate a few of the interior portholes along with the skylight itself. My next step is to start randomly blocking out many of the portholes on the hull as well as backing a few with yellow transparent film. Once I finish with that I can connect up all of the wiring and install the deck to the hull.

[Fright]

Final test run of lights before installing deck into the hull. Only the pilot house and two beacon towers are glued to the deck. The one light below deck will illuminate the engine room skylight and random interior portholes covered with yellow transparency film. All other portholes have been blacked out. Prop and rudder will be added today. I used tin foil stripes that were painted with flat black to cover both anchor openings to prevent light leakage. The same will be done to prop and rudder. 

 

 

[Fright]

Update on my beacon towers. I am a little irritated and confused with Lindberg and their 8 page instructions. I started to notice that their were some 'extra' parts on the sprues that are not listed or shown on the directions. I started to look at photos of the real ship and of model builds and that's when I found the answers to my confusion. At least two of the pieces are rings that attach inside of the tower's beacon light cages. Three other pieces are for the radar unit atop the aft tower. The radar unit was installed towards the end of WWll. 

Lindberg needs to update the instruction sheets and show accurate directions for using the parts given to one supplied in the kit !!! 🤬 

 

I went ahead and decided to include the radar unit to my model. I had to cut a little off the bottom of the four vertical rails and sand and about a 45 degree angle to get this unit to fit into the aft tower. 

[popeye the sailor]

good you caught it early........    beacon looks good   

[Fright]

My Micro Set and Micro Sol arrived so I thought I'd get the ship's name on the hull. I masked off the lower two-thirds of hull and sprayed the upper hull with a clear coat. Once dried, I cut out each individual letter and applied to the hull. It went rather quickly and I will spray a coat of Dullcoat over everything once the decals are completely dry.

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

wow!  looks real nice Robert   

[Fright]

Finally, with the help of the Mrs., I was able to install the deck into the ship's hull BUT, not without a major blunder on my part. I was so proud that I finished soldering all of the wires that I forgot to feed them through the bottom of the hull. That certainly put a smile on my wife's face!!! After removing the deck and redoing the wiring, we finally re-installed the deck to the hull. I had only a slight gap at one spot between the deck and hull, but it was resolved by using some CA glue and tying some string around the hull until the glue dried.  Now i can move on to gluing all of the pieces to the deck, along with the rigging and then create my water effect in the frame.

Two photos taken in our bathroom to see how the ship looks like with it's lights.

 

[Canute]

Nicely done, Robert.

[CPDDET]

Very nice. The lighting is a great touch.

[Fright]

Many thanks! Ken - I'll be following along on you Longboat build. That is my next wooden kit after this one. I can use any pointers and tips that I can get on planking.  CPDDET - your hull on the Bluenose looks fantastic - especially with the light stain that you applied! 

[CPDDET]

Just so I'm not misleading you. I used a clear satin wipe on poly. No stain in it but it did change the color of the planks.

 

Thanks for the compliment!

[Canute]

Robert, that build is on hiatus. Maybe another Ken? I'm currently thrashing on SMS Seydlitz with COG and RGL.

[Old Collingwood]

Loverly work Robert,   all the best to you and yours for xmas.

 

OC.

[Fright]

I was able to get some more work done on the deck fittings over the weekend. I ran out of my Spar paint and still had a few bollards, cleats and fairleads to paint, so I mixed some Acorn Brown and Straw colored acrylic paint until I came really close to a match with the spar. Next up will be adding the three boats and davits to the deck and then on to the rigging.

 

[popeye the sailor]

look'in good Robert........very clean and well done!   

[Fright]

I was able to get a little time to do some further work on two of the three smaller boats that attach to the davits on the deck. I chose not to use the pre-fab tackle that came with the kit, but to make my own. I drilled fine holes thru the top of the davits and also into the bow and stern of the boats. I made small eye rings out of 30 gauge wire and glued these into the holes made in the boats. I used pliers to attach my wire around the blocks that were to be used. I glued the davits and boats into place on deck and then finished by running my tan thread thru the blocks to connect the boats to their davits. 

 

Could anyone help me with identifying the names of these boats? The largest one has a motor and prop with rudder. Would this be considered a whaleboat and /or a launch? Second largest has no motor. The third is very small hull - would this be a dingy? I read countless articles on the Nantucket and could find no mention of these boats.

[popeye the sailor]

that's some darn nice work there..........looks really good  

[Fright]

These are some pictures of current status. Rigging is on and once I receive my order of EZ Line, I will finish adding the radio wires to the beacon towers. Flags for the bow and stern are coming. My next step now is to start creating my ocean effect for the ship's base. This will be my 1st attempt at a diorama so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! 

 

[Fright]

Huzzah! Flags are now mounted on the bow and stern. Many thanks to my wife, who works with miniatures, for reducing and printing my US Navy Jack and American flag. Note: the Jack flag's dimension are 0.5"x 0.625" - not 0.64" as written on my paper in one of the pictures.

 

[Fright]

I was able to get quite a bit of work accomplished on my model over the weekend. I installed the four radio wires between the beacon towers using rust-colored EZ line (a little hard to see in the 1st picture). This is pretty amazing line. I then glued my ship to the base and set about creating my ocean effect using a tub of plaster of Paris that my wife had in her hobby stash. I poured three layers and allowed each one enough time to dry. Once dried, I broke out my acrylic paints to lay down a base coat. I used two different colors of blue, a bluish grey and a little green for my mix. My wife also reduced and printed out a red small craft advisory flag so I can have it flying from one of the forward beacon lines. All of this needs to thoroughly dry before I can use my Vallejo Atlantic Blue gel to create my swells. I will then add some white caps here and there and finish with a coat or two of Liquitex Gloss varnish. Getting close to the end now. 

Edited March 5, 2019 by Fright

[CDW]

Outstanding work on this venerable old kit. 

Just found your build log tonight. Will read through it from start to finish.

[Fright]

CDW - Thank you,kind sir, for dropping in. My log is not as detailed as are many on this site and I find I tell myself, 'I'll take more pictures' with every new kit that I have started. With the help of looking at a lot of pictures of lightships; purchasing and reading "The Lightships of Cape Cod" by Frederic L. Thompson;  visiting several build logs from websites; I improved on my painting skills as well as learning basic lighting and diorama skills which are my    1st attempt. I'm pretty happy with how she has turned out. She's still not complete but getting close! 

    In hindsight, I would have liked to improve on the beacon tower light structure. It seems too open and plain. I may try to create some kind of light covers that look like fresnel housing to cover the LED flashing lights, if I can fit them into the already assembled light cage. I wish Lindberg (and other companies) would improve on their directions instead of using a number system. My personal gripe.

   Another slight error is the direction of the anchored ship as opposed to the direction of the swells. I didn't realize it until I came back to start painting the base coat and all was dry. Oh well, I'll just tell people the wind has suddenly changed! 

   Thanks to sites such as MSW for opening up a world of talent and information by so many who are kind enough to share their knowledge !!!

 

  On a side note, my wife and I are planning to visit Ocala and Tampa area possibly in June. We're trying to relocate to be with an hour drive to an ocean. Landlocked here in Atlanta and miss our seafood

 

Edited March 5, 2019 by Fright

[Fright]

I have reached an end with my journey on working with this model. Total work time was about 6 months. I had my 1st lesson in using LED lighting and in creating my water effects for the base. I certainly wish to thank those for following along and providing some helpful advice along the way. On to my next ship! 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

You shoul do a pirate ship next.

 

OC.

[Fright]

OC - LOL I would love to build the Pearl someday. I had planned to start work on the Model Shipways Bounty Launch but I have become interested in the Civil War while doing research on my great-great grandfather, who was a private in the 15th Michigan Volunteer Infantry and was captured in Resaca and sent to Andersonville Prison, where he was released in a prisoner exchange and returned to duty and marched to Savannah. I'm thinking of trying to build a version of the Sultana Steamboat from Lindberg's Robert E. Lee kit. I also have a Harriett Lane steamboat waiting on my shelf. Decisions, decisions! LOL

[Tigersteve]

Nicely done!

Steve