Sea Installer by Javelin - FINISHED - 1/2000 - BOTTLE

[Javelin]

Hi guys, 

 

thanks for the all encouragement. Considering point A and B, I knew what to do first! Fix those legs. I used a 0.3mm copper wire pin through a 0.5mm hole, in order to avoid pushing too hard on those tiny legs. This time around, I enlarged one hole to 0.6mm, so I could insert the pin easily in that one. I then used my tweezers on both sides of the hinge to push the pin through. This way the pin is really squeezed in the remaining 0.5mm holes and stuck, even without glue. 

It wasn't what I call a walk in the park, but at least it went better. Some remaining issues though. 1 is the starboard aft leg is twisted, you can see the foot pointing sideways. the reason is of course the dangly-leg-syndrome. Since the legs rotate when bent, they are rotated when deploying as well. I thought it would be easy to fix that, but somehow it really doesn't want to rotate anymore. Of course it doesn't help that the vessel is still not fixed, on the other side, once it is fixed, the leg is difficult to reach, since the front leg is in the way... 

Another issue appears to be the accomodation. It went on quite well, going in sideways, turning around onside the bottle, but then it seemed like it didn't really sit down on the hull, the glue didn't catch either. So I'll have to remove it again and fix in back once the ship is fixed inside. 

The bottom isn't really flat with all the sand and edges, so she's quite prone to topple over when moving around inside the bottle. 

 

In the end, she's at least inside that bottle. This time there is no real way back except breaking the bottle... 

[Glen McGuire]

If you did not tell us about the issues, we would not notice them.  In fact, I'm not sure I see any as it is.  It's in the bottle, standing up on all 4 legs, crane towering over everything, and looking fantastic!  Superb work!!  

[Knocklouder]

Way to go man. That is amazing, from start to when it is in the bottle its been fun. Congratulation.   

Edited April 4, 2023 by Knocklouder
typos of course

[Keith Black]

 I agree with Glen, I can't see anything amiss even having been told so and where to look. i think it looks great.

[Javelin]

Thanks guys, 

 

I've needed to fix those issues, since I did see them. This was in itself quite a challenge. As I feared the accomodation block was indeed loose. Luckily I noticed it and I could remove it without any damage (but indeed no marks of glue on deck, so it didn't sit properly). 

 

During handling for twisting that leg, she toppled over, luckily without much damage. Only the wobbly crane was loose, I left it where it was, since there was no real damage. After a lot of effort I did succeed in getting that foot twisted in the right direction. 

I then put the vessel in my preferred position. I then viewed from the top and marked out the position of the four legs with a removable black marker on top of the bottle. 

I then moved her out of the way (as far as possible) and put some acrylic-sand mixture straight below those black markings. I then placed the vessel back in position so all 4 feet rested on the drops of mixture. During that manipulation, she toppled again, falling on the gel mixture. Luckily not much was on the vessel and I tried to scrape some off with a piece of brass wire (handy tool really). 

I also placed the monopile next to the vessel using the same acrylic mixture. 

After drying I noticed some gaps underneath both portside feet, so I went in again with the angled brass wire tool with additional drops of acrylic-sand to fill up those gaps as much as possible. 

She's now quite steady, but I want to steady her out further with epoxy before trying to fix the crane and accomodation. 

 

At the same time I did some epoxy testing and I've started on the proposed hub. You can see the bottle cap inside the styrene cover (not glued). The initial idea was to cover this with 0.5mm sheet following templates between each set of ribs. Then it dawned on me that you can't bend a surface in two directions at once. So I'm working in basically the same way as I do for hulls, filling up the ribs as much as I can with styrene and then I'll cover it with Milliput. This way will also be easier to get the holes correctly. 

 

The "ribs" aren't evenly spaced as I have made 3 wider openings for the holes. That's also the reason there are more ribs. I wanted to just have 4, but with 3 evenly spaced holes, I'd always have interference of at least 1 hole with a rib. So I decided to go for 6 and space them around my planned holes. 

 

Here is a picture of the test bottle with epoxy. I also added the Uni Caenis and Uni 8/0 to the mix, to see if they weren't going to be eaten by the epoxy and to see what they would look like in epoxy. The colour is a bit too bright, so I'll add a drop of pigment more. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Javelin
Added picture of test bottle

[Javelin]

Thanks for the likes. 

 

Here's an update on the project. Reached a major milestone now. 

So the "hub" is progressing. Here you can see the blade entrance holes in place. I'll build up a cylindrical edge from the hole in this straight plate outwards. I will then continue filling some spaces with scrap styrene in order to use less filler. Eventually I'll add the filler and sand it to shape. 

Here is the inside, which tightly fits around the bottle cap, with the three "light holes" visible. 

 

Not entirely convinced of the size though. The hub looks a little too large. It looked ok on my drawing, but then the bottle I drew was actually too long compared to the real one. Somewhat afraid the hub will take too much attention... On the other side, I did decide to complete it, if not for this project, perhaps I'll use it on another in the future. Too much fun not to complete it. 

 

And then the milestone, I completed the model itself. In the above picture you could already see I poured the epoxy. After some minor setbacks, like losing one of the small blue cranes etc. I did manage to complete it. I was not very happy with the crane missing hooks and I tested some CA on the small threads, but none wanted to stay straight. Eventually I decided to put the hooks in the uppermost position, basically on the boom itself. At least it's something... 

The etched sign on the back is not very visible on the pics with a white background, so I'll take some with a better background later on. 

 

Time to continue the hub and the support now. 

[Javelin]

I slowly continued work. Built the base, as this would give a better view on the complete picture. 

It's built up of a skeleton of styrene ribs using 2mm and 1.5mm thickness. This skeleton was mounted on a base plate and later on a 0.5mm thick sheet was wrapper around that. I first made a paper template for that sleeve. 

 

I broadened the initial design a bit, to give more support. The heavy glass bottom plate of the bottle is somewhat compensated by the weight of the hub, so the base can be placed more forward on the bottle. 

 

The hub was then further built up with the cylindrical holes and yesterday with two-component epoxy filler. Unfortunately I ran out of filler in the end (the positive side of this, is that for the first time in ages I actually used up a package of this filler before it turned bad 😁). Next up is the first sanding and then I'll order new filler and touch-up (and complete), the filler layer where necessary. 

After the sanding I'll see if I use a coat of spray filler or just go for regular primer followed by satin white. 

As I'm going into a busy period, this will go in hibernation for a while. 

 

 

In below picture you can see something I didn't pay enough attention to. Through the hole you can see a rather large piece of the rib around the bottle neck. I wish I had made those ribs less sturdy and visible. Since they are 2mm thick, it's a bit late to decently correct that. On the positive side, I dropped the hub on the floor during filling and it didn't have a scratch... 

 

 

[Glen McGuire]

It looks amazing!!  So cool!!

[Auger]

Personally, I like this look. I think it’s elegant and draws ones eye more to the model. It’s fine, it’s clear and it’s clean. It also shows the path in which you had to work; it’s impressive.

Just my 2 cent comment.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Auger

[mtaylor]

Looking good, IMO.   If the rib bugs you, consider painting the inside of the cap black.  It'll pretty much hide that rib.

[Javelin]

Thanks Auger, your opinion is much appreciated as I, myself, am also still undecided. The hub is heavy, and does draw a lot of attention away from the model. I might go the middle road, keeping the stand, but leaving off the hub.

I'll perhaps put the model's details (vessel name and scale) on the front of the stand later on. In any case I'll attempt to complete the hub. 

[Roger Pellett]

I like stand but no hub.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Roger Pellett

[Auger]

On 4/27/2023 at 5:37 PM, Javelin said:

Thanks Auger, your opinion is much appreciated as I, myself, am also still undecided. The hub is heavy, and does draw a lot of attention away from the model. I might go the middle road, keeping the stand, but leaving off the hub.

I'll perhaps put the model's details (vessel name and scale) on the front of the stand later on. In any case I'll attempt to complete the hub. 

Totally do what you’ve set out to do. If you don’t like the hub in the end, just take it off!

[GrandpaPhil]

Very cool!

[Javelin]

Finally gotten around to finishing this one. 

 

The cap was a bit damaged, so I gave it, along with the base, a couple of coats of spray putty, followed by a satin white coat, resembling the colour of these windmill bases. 

Since the cap looked somewhat like a hub, I played around with the idea of putting the 3 openings or at least base plates for the windmill blades on it, however I didn't do that. It would probably still take some attention from the ship. 

I decided to cut some vinyl lettering and logo for the base, since the ship itself lacks the name (of course!). It's a slimmed down version of the original idea, but I think it gives more attention to the ship itself. 

 

So I consider this build finished!

 

[Mirabell61]

thats a real little gem Javelin,

 

Nils

[Knocklouder]

Congratulations, the ship looks really awesome.   

[Glen McGuire]

Excellent work, Javelin!  She looks superb with the water and sea floor.  Very well done!!

[Keith Black]

Very unique and very well done. It was a pleasure following along. 

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Well done!

[Ian_Grant]

Totally missed this build until now.  Very cool!!  Well done!!

[mtaylor]

An incredible build, Javlin of something one seldom sees modeled.