Niagara by lb0190 - Model Shipways - 1/64

[augie]

Join the Club!

[texxn5]

Glad it worked Larry. You can do the same finish technique on lots of things, brass, steel, copper, plastics, acrylics, and so on.

[texxn5]

Hi Larry, hope you're happy with how your brass polished up. You might want to check my Proxxon website I am running a Daily Special which is a polishing kit for a Rotary Tool. Not sure if you need something like this, but it works great for a lot of polishing needs other than model ships too. Just wanted to let you know.

 

link: http://www.proxxontoolsdiscount.com/store/c14/DAILY_SPECIAL.html

 

John

[lb0190]

Hi John,

The brass sanded down very easy using my 1" belt sander and it polished up fine. I've seen your daily specials and thought the prices were very good - better than any other place I looked at. I'm in good shape for polishing items but thank you for keeping me in mind. I'm happy to hear your new venture is starting out so well. I hope it does not impact your ship building time or enjoying retirement.

[texxn5]

Hi Larry, thanks for the input. Your question the other day, prompted me to offer the polish kit at a good price for anyone who is in need of them. Glad the method worked out for you and you are satisfied with the results. Yes, the new venture is doing well so far. It will take me less time to maintain it than it did to build it (website) especially since I've never built a website before - had a good sized learning curve. That will definitely give me more time in the shipyard. As for retirement - I'm glad to keep busy doing something that at least keeps the mind working let's me preserve the few brain cells I still have...I hope you and your family have a very Blessed Thanksgiving,

Be safe,

John

[lb0190]

Thank you John. I hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving! While I'm at it, I hope the holidays are are a joyful and blessed time for all of my MSW friends and families.

[lb0190]

Between family holiday visits and such, I manged to get a little time in the shop (aka garage). I think I now have the needed detail items on the hull exterior. I added the ladder rungs, sheaves and the stern staff block as well as blocks for the stern boat gripes. I also tried to simulate how the gun port eyebolts were held in place with nuts showing on the exterior hull. I assumed the nuts were square and ~2” which at scale is 0.031. I found some square PVC sock at that size and just needed to make @80 of them close to the same thickness. I made a simple jig to slice off pieces that could be glued in place. Once they were on the hull, they looked too thick but the glue held on well enough to allow sanding. I still need to clean some residual material hanging from them so they look square.

 

I think I'm ready to prime and paint the hull, but I thought I had better check the gunport height with an assembled carronade to make sure I do not need to sand them higher before I paint.

 

I started to work on one carronade and then realized the amount of work involved so I decided I might as well form an assembly line and work on all of them at the same time. I attempted to sand off the mold split lines from each cast piece. I also noticed a yellowish coating which I polished off with a wire brush on my rotary tool. One of the pictures shows one carronade polished next to one that is not polished.The wood sled parts needed the normal sanding to get rid of the laser burn and attach points. Next I'll airbrush Model Expo primer on the white metal parts and wood sled parts followed by light sanding as needed. If everything looks good at that point, it's time to spray color followed by Model Expo clear satin which I hope is tough enough to provide protection from scratches.  You can see I used toothpicks lightly glued to the parts awaiting the airbrush. I was shorted one carronade but it's my fault for not doing a bag count much earlier in the build. Model Expo is great about replacing missing or broken parts. 

[augie]

Aren't multiple guns a riot?  You'll feel like Henry Ford by the time they're done.   Doing the same out here!

[lb0190]

Hey Augie. Yes they are! In addition to the main four or five parts there is an additional seven to nine parts per gun, to make, paint and install which does not include the rigging had. I'm anxious to get the hull painted, top rail in place and furniture installed so it look like a real ship... I may get there before the end of the year.

[augie]

Take your time.  We'll have a party for Christmas and fire a few broadsides at one another!

[texxn5]

Looks nice Larry, good to see you back in the shipyard. Henry Ford for sure on the assembly line technique.

[lb0190]

Thanks John. That milling machine combo you had on sale sure looked nice. Right now I'm working on getting my first ham radio. Modeling tools are a close second. I sure wish that one day my list of money to burn was as long as my want list...  

 

All of the above parts have been primer coated.

Edited December 2, 2014 by lb0190

[Sjors]

Hi Larry,

 

I see that you also find that forrest where they have cannons......

And you have no faith in the glue that you take nuts on the hull ?????? 

 

Sjors

[lb0190]

Hi Sjors,

Yes, lots of cannon trees. I started painting a few of them today. My confidence level of using water based acrylic on metal is not too high. Hopefully it will adhere ok.

[popeye the sailor]

nice progress Larry,  the eye bolt washers are a nice touch    I see your doing the 'cannon conga' too!    sweet!

[lb0190]

Thanks Popeye. I just finished air brushing the second coat on the carronades. The airbrush worked out pretty good and Model Expo's Cannon Black paint looks like a good color. Each gun may have a very small spot that was missed due to all of the raised areas on the gun. A small brush just barely wet should clean up the missed spots fairly easy. The Admiral is heading north for a week, so hopefully I'll have a little more time in the shipyard over the next few days.

Edited December 4, 2014 by lb0190

[texxn5]

Hi Larry. Looking good and now you have a production line. Yeah that MF 70 mill package is nice. We all strive for that one. Sorry you couldn't take advantage of the sale maybe later.

John

[lb0190]

The cannon work is interesting and tedious. I'm debating on buying some of Chuck's rope, hooks and block to dress them up a bit. The blocks that came with the kit look pretty rough and his hooks would look much better than anything I could make. I still need to paint the carronade wheels black and add the metal work.Sorry about the sideways photo - first time I used the iPad to Take and add photos.

 

Photo replaced using conventional digital camera

Edited December 7, 2014 by lb0190

[augie]

Chuck's hooks are great strapped to blocks.  I'm sure his rope and blocks are excellent from what I've heard.  You might want to make a mock up of your complete gun mounting to be sure you order the hooks/blocks in the sizes small enough to give you room to rig the gun tackles.

[lb0190]

That sounds like an excellent plan Augie. I need to replace the above photo. It looks low res and I cannot rotate the sideways shot.

[lb0190]

I did enough carronade work to verify the gun-port opening height is tall enough. I just need to be careful in how I glue the guns to the slide so the barrels do not point upward too much. My missing carronade also arrived from Model Expo - once again very quick customer service. 

 

I drilled the mount holes and did a trial mount and it looks like I need to countersink the mount screws a little deeper in the mount board so they get more bite into the center keel. It also looks like bow sits a bit low by @1/8" or a little more, requiring me to raise the fwd mount post with a brass spacer or countersink the aft mount more, maybe both.

 

I made some wood plugs for the gunport and sweep ports so I can airbrush the hull exterior. The thought of taping up 42 openings just sounded like a painful process - I hope the plugs work OK. I considered placing a wrap of tape around the plugs to prevent bleed through but I'll play that by ear and see how it goes. First coat I applied was a very thin coat of primer. Once it sits overnight I'll give it a lite sanding with steel wool and then mark the waterline. My paint scheme plan is below. Let me know if it sounds like I'm heading in the wrong direction.

 

In order to get a nice waterline stripe I thought, lets airbrush that color first, making sure the painted surface is lightly wider than needed. Once that is dry, I will apply paint tape that's the correct width of the water line and apply more tape on top of it to block off the colors above and below the waterline when needed. Once the colors above and below are on I'll pull the tape and hopefully have a nice sharp waterline stripe. Do you see any potential issues doing it this way?

 

 

[jct]

Your plan for your water line is sound, one AB tip I can pass along...after you have your waterline color laid down and taped off, shoot another light coat of the same color over the tape, any bleed that is going to take place will happen here, with the same color, so when you lay down you next color it stays were you want it, used this technique on plastic lots of times works like a charm,,,see no reason why it wont work on wood as well.

J

[patrickmil]

Hey Larry, your Niagara has really come along. I'm anxious to see some paint on your hull now. jct's masking technique works every time and is a great solution to bleed-through. As always, your work is very precise and a pleasure to watch.

[lb0190]

Hi JCT & Patrick,

 

Thanks for looking in and for the advice as well as support. I would not have thought of over spraying the masking tape - THANKS. I'm also ready to see some color on that dull looking and scarred hull. I hope I can lay thin enough coat(s) to where the plank seams are still visible. Patrick, your Niagara along with others, is an inspiration for me as I slowly build. If the original builders were as slow as I am, they would have had her ready in time for Desert Storm.

[SkerryAmp]

Larry, things look great so far - I don't think you will be disappointed at all if you go with Chuck's stuff.  I have his lines and hooks and they are great!

[lb0190]

Hi Adam,

Thank you for the compliment and your opinion on Chuck's lines and hooks. I think I will give them a try.

[lb0190]

I managed to get some painting completed since my last post. The bad news is my painting ability has not improved.  I have a lot of touch up work to do where the tape bled as well as a few misses, plus I need to paint the gun/sweep port end boards red. I'm really getting to dislike the macro lens on my camera, it shows way too many faults. Maybe I can find a camera with a fault filter...    I'll post the clean up photos once I spend a few days working on the above issues.

 

If you look close you can see the narrow tape thats on top of the light green paint, hopefully protecting the waterline stripe as I paint above and below the line.

 

Tape...

 

More Tape

 

Results

 

Some issues to dress up

 

I'll re-tape to try and get a better edge...

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2014 by lb0190

[patrickmil]

Great colors Larry! Are you using Tamiya tape? I've also seen people have a lot of luck with preventing bleed by using a wax tape.

[lb0190]

Hi Patrick,

 

I'm used several brands of tape - probably a mistake...  The thin tape I used to define the water line was purchased at the local hobby store, initially purchased to simulated metal bands on my Washburn tug. I do not recall the brand but it does appear to have a wax surface. I recall I had to sand the top surface and prime it before paint would adhere. This is the tape that seeped even though I rolled the edges and over-sprayed the tape once it was in place. I also used a yellow Tamiya tape in some areas which worked fine plus a blue painters tape to cover large areas which worked fine. 

 

Since my posting I corrected some of the seepage by re-taping the water line, carefully scraping off a lot of the black paint on top of the light green line and repainting the light green. I used the Tamiya tape for this step without issue. Based on this recovery step I believe other than a few hours of work, I can get the waterline fixed to my satisfaction. Lesson learned no. 3,466 for this build...  

 

 

[Sjors]

Larry,

 

I'm using only Tamiya tape.

It's the best tape that you can use for this kind of work.

They have different sizes .

Don't make mistake 3,467 and go get that tape !!!!!!!!

For the rest, your paint job is better then mine !!!!!!

 

Sjors