Phoenix by Moreplovac - FINISHED - Master Korabel - 1/72 - Russian Brigantine

moreplovac · September 21, 2020

2 hours ago, DPK said:

Looks like you made some mistake: the toptimbers on the quarterdeck should be cut our, as I remember. Otherwise you will have wrong qurterdeck bulwark thickness and the gunwale will be too narrow.

Thanks, i will go thru instruction pages to check...

dkuehn · September 21, 2020

I did the same thing and had to go back and remove them.

moreplovac · September 21, 2020

Thanks, will do that.

Cheers

moreplovac · September 23, 2020

During the process of removing cap rails from the frame, i accidentally broke one.... and realized that thickness of them was made by gluing two layers of veneers together...

In all these, a good news was that only one layer was broken so i carefully removed remittance of the broken layer which gives me a an option to glue a good layer to another piece of the veneer of the same size (two layers) ending up with cap rail in three layers thickness.

After gluing there was just a mater of removing one extra veneer layer which was done with assistance of few drops of acetone..

Then cap rails were glued in the position and fixed with rubber bands..

The rest of the cap rails on main deck were installed...

Sanding of all cap rails will be next...

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · September 23, 2020

I corrected pictures, it should be OK now..

moreplovac · September 24, 2020

I bit of a keel work.... covering with veneer, sand, glue....

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Happy modelling.

moreplovac · September 24, 2020

Continue with work on the hull

Blackening of the window decoration is next. Cut, sanded, and a quick bath in blackening solution..

The blackened parts were sanded lightly..

Mounted around windows.

Then more decorating...

I am protecting window and frames with a piece of bounty and a transparent tape. Then i thought about it and replaced scotch tape with painter's yellow tape for delicate surfaces. It looks that scotch tape can pull up veneer parts..

At this moment not quite happy with veneer in layers, mixed feelings....

Managed to get it done, the cap rails are completed.

If this work from home due to Covid continues i am going to finish this build fairly quickly.

Happy modelling...

moreplovac · September 27, 2020

A little bit of a filling is required to make sure all edge lines are as smooth as possible. Here is a need that gap between veneer and wood is filled with a putty and sanded..

Completed. I use wood putty, Elmer's brand but any will do the trick.

A bit of the same corrective surgery is needed around windows as well..

The wale veneer has a bit of a light black shade and it is different than the shade of the rest of black veneer so i decided to paint them in flat black.. Still researching for a decent airbrush-compressor combo (would appreciate feedback from you guys about suggested and good airbrush combo), the painting is done by hand..

There are few spots to correct after but overall satisfied with result. The cap rails were also painted in the same colour.

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · September 29, 2020

Work continues by installing jumbs around gun ports.. There are three wood pieces in the kit for this purpose but i would use a different one that is a bit more wider so it allow more precise sanding and fitting...

Lets start then...

Measuring, cutting with a guillotine, glue, sand...

A bit of a sanding after all...

Happy modelling...

moreplovac · October 1, 2020

The first layer of golden oak was applied to the whole ship... light sanding and a layer of protection varnish is next...

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · October 1, 2020

And the layer of a satin varnish applied to the whole ship...

Leave it dry for a some time and will continue working on deck..

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · October 2, 2020

Work continues by building deck items, companionways, etc.....

Once sides are installed, the whole structure has to be sanded on an angle so the roof can fit properly.

There is a gap between deck and sides i will be covering with a small waterways...

The roof has been installed...

Work on board pin rails is next. Removed from the frames, they have to be cleaned from laser cut burns...

Installed on the ship. They fit very precise with a small adjustments here and there..

I have not installed all of them, not sure why... but started to work on gratings. The instruction shows how many gratings are required (8x5, 8x10, etc).

Gently installing them, no hard pushing... There is no problem if you snap one or two, few extras are included in the package.

Cut to the size, and glue them from all ends.

They are ready for final sanding and assembly..

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · October 3, 2020

Lesson learned.... never blindly trust the instruction sheet.

Made gratings based on instruction dimensions, 8x5 holes as per picture below but actual dimension have to be bigger for at least two more holes, like 10x7..

Not sure was it because of Alvin Lee's guitar riffs or second glass of great french cognac, i finished all needed gratings but did not bother to check the fitting. During assembly phase noticed they are small... Dough..

I managed to make three new out of the remaining (and salvaged) gratings but it was not enough for the whole ship..

Now i have to either make my own or try to find somewhere gratings that fits the size...

In the meantime continue with other ship parts...

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · October 3, 2020

No worries about gratings, will attack them later.

Continue with skylight assembly. Since they are tiny, i decided to mount them on the piece of tape so it is easier to hold. Then glue them while on the tape..

Then to simulate hinges, i cut the small pieces of electrical tape and put them on, following with a layer of varnish to seal the tapes..

During work on skylight i noticed that companionway roof appears to be a bit out of scale.. Removed it, sanded it, added extra support in the middle and installed a new roof..

Now it its time to drill a holes for a pedestal in case i decide not to use a cradle... Two pilot holes are drilled.

Horseshoe were attacked next.

First a bath in blackened solution, rinse and dry...

Then glue to the ship..

The holes thru horseshoe are drilled to match the diameter of kit provided wire (0.5mm) i will use to simulate nails..

I rounded one end of the nail with a milling bit..

and the nail looks like this:

Sorry, not quite focused picture..

And mounted on the ship:

During this process i lost few nails (flew somewhere), but making extras is always a good thing.

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · October 4, 2020

The horseshoes were installed..

Then the work on rudder started. The rudder is built from two pieces, they have to be cleaned from laser burns, glued and sanded. Then the rudder covers (two pieces of vaneer) have to be glued on and rudder shaped in the way that the narrowed part is on the bottom..

While this is drying, i completed the installation of ship name decoration..

First, cut from the frame, sanded it all...

.. short bath in blackening solution and sanded it all..

The windows were protected with a piece of transparent tape before the whole hull was painted black.

Now, decor will go on by gluing it...

It will stay for now and dry..

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · October 5, 2020

Work on rudder and hinges continues..

The rudder has been assembled and sanded to correct shape.

The hinges have been sanded lightly so they can be blackened easier.

Cut and assembled. The will also be soldered a bit to fill out a gap between parts.

A bit more sanding and soldering a pin as well.. then bath of blackening and ready to be put on rudder.

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · October 7, 2020

Pins are all ready; produced in the same way as before.

Some will be used for hinges on the rudder and some will be used for hinges mounted on the ship itself. And there are few extras because these little buggers fly away on its own..

The hinges were glued to the rudder, and pins were cut to the 3mm length and pushed to the rudder. The holes and pins are identical size so pins needs to be pushed into rudder which does not require any glue...

All pins installed. The whole hinges assembly including pins will have to be painted since the blackening was removed during installation process on some rudder areas.

Ready to be mounted on the ship.

Happy modelling...

moreplovac · October 7, 2020

Making few hooks that will be mounted on the ship bow.. three bigger and one small..

The completed one..

Everyone has its own way of making hooks, this is how i mostly doing it..

First, twist it around the required diameter.

Removed from the template..

Cut the excess wire..

Apply soldering paste and soldering flake..

Soldered...

Cleaning with a file...

And few hooks completed.

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · October 8, 2020

The rudder has been installed...

Then crossbar installation took place by first installing a part on the stem aligning it with a hole. The second part is double veneer and the first one i have installed as one piece (both veneer layers at once).

In the middle of gluing the top part dislocated and fall off.. The second part was done differently: first both layers were separated and installed individually. Way easier..

The knee has to be bevelled a bit and soaked in water so it can be easier bend while assembled..

Next, knees have to be filled a bit to be parallel but that is next step..

Happy modelling...

moreplovac · October 9, 2020

It is time to work on hawse holes. The notches in anchor lines are used as a guides to drill holes in the hull..

It's always a scary part when you need to drill a hole thru the hull... hard to fix any mistake.

Hosepipes are shortened to 6mm length so they dont stick out too long from the inner side..

The glue was applied in the opened hole and pipes are mounted in.

To cover the opening on the back, i made few metal covers. First i made rings out of the brass wire, soldered it and flattened them. Then short bath in blackening solution and glue them to the ship.

Maybe next time i play with milling metal covers...

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · October 10, 2020

The notches in pads have to be enlarged and for that i used sanding drums in two sizes. With smaller one you can go all the way until the laser line is completely gone.. then just enlarge it til correct size.

Then you sanded it to correct shape and depth so it will fit nicely under the anchor line pipes..

Several fitting tests are needed in order to get proper shape.

The pads are soaked a bit so they can easily be mounted on the ship taking correct shape (following full curve).

The pads have to stick out of a knee for a bit to accommodate thickness of the brass elements.

The length of the brass elements is shorter for about 3mm and the knee has to be resahped (shortened) the brass fitting will go all the way to the hull. Just test it few times..

Brass elements are glued and mounted...

Now it is time to do some paint touch ups..

Happy modelling.

moreplovac · October 11, 2020

Installing these brass elements was a bit of a challenge because of its size and curvature that has to be achieved. They are small so i could not find the way to use clamps to hold them in place so i used a quick dry glue and by holding it with fingers managed to get it installed.

If you forget to blackened tiny grooves in them like i did, there is a way to do it after... Paint the whole brass element including grooves with black paint, let it dry ans scrap the extra black colour with a piece of soft wood or plastic. The idea is to put the piece as flat as possible so it will remove paint only from area that it can touch...

This is my little scrapper..

The work on channels starts by installing sheer streak...

The "channel' where channels will be installed (:-)) needs to be cleaned of varnish so the channel will fit properly. For this i used a frame were channels were attached to.. Same size...

The channels will be enforced to the hull with pins; pilot holes drilled and pins installed. The pins length is about 6mm.

There are some fittings that have to be done especially to shorten the sheer streak, until channel fits perfectly.

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · October 12, 2020

The channels and sheer streaks have been installed... all channels were installed with pins to make bond a bit stronger. Some fittings is required for sheer streaks but nothing out of ordinary.

Happy modelling...

moreplovac · October 13, 2020

I could not located info about scuppers in instructions but some videos are suggesting installing them as a good addition to the kit. So lets do it.

I did not have enough pipes in adequate diameter so ordered few of the Internet. But that does not stop me from making holes for scuppers. The challenge is to make all six holes at the same level. For that task i made a small template that was used to drill holes in the hull.

It is difficult to hold the template with one hand and drill holes with drill bit. This is the way o held the template in place..

Holes were drilled...

One went a bit lover so some fixing on the outer side will take place later.

All holes drilled and covered in golden oak stain.. they could even stay like this but with pipes it should look much nicer..

While waiting for pipes to arrive, i started to work on catheads. Since we added a layer of veneer for inside cathead knee, i need to expand cathead with the same size veneer.. The layer of veneer was applied to the catheads as well as knees that are mounted on the outer side...

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · October 15, 2020

The gratings have been completed. Cutting, making, sanding, gluing, ...

I have inserted brass pins in completed gratings to make them stand out a bit..

Also, a bit of a repairing had to be done..

I have lost one of the pieces that should be used for one grating so i need to cut it from available material..

Making sure 90 degrees angle is there when you need it..

Before combining pieces into real gratings..

On the ship..

With last one i took a bit different approach as i had to make gratings fit the frame in previous two. This time i fit frames around completed gratings, it is kind of make sense. With completed gratings, i start gluing individual frames.

Sanding to remove laser burns and other stuff...

On the ship, all three..

And with a layer of golden oak stain also applied to the rest of the ship that was missing it..

Happy modelling...

moreplovac · October 16, 2020

Catheads are next starting by gluing the knee for each cathead. I had to add additional layer of veneer to knee and cathead to match the inner size.

I decided not to use underlay for decoration; it will bring the thickness to the decoration which might not quite be pleased for an eye. Decoration is first coloured in black using flat black colour and scraping the rest of it after drying period.

Then it was glued to the ship; again since there is a curve needed, the gluing process is a bit hard since decoration must be kept in place with fingers. Coudl not find the way to use some other holding method..

Then it is cathead' turn...

The brass pin was inserted and sanded...

The second cathead installed the same way..

And a layer of golden oak stain applied to all new parts.. i like this different colour layers achieved by adding an extra veneer layer...

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · October 17, 2020

Work continuing by making eyes and hooks to be mounted on various places on the model..

First cutting small pieces of solder wire lead that will be flattened into flakes by squeezing. The flakes are cut in four pieces and one piece is enough for soldering one hook or eye..

Work in progress... top completed, bottom to be done..

Happy modelling..

moreplovac · October 18, 2020

Hooks and eye bolts have been completed and mounted. The locations for eye bolts are already marked so just a small pilot hole have to be made, then drill the hole and insert the hook and eye bolt..

During eye bolt making process..