RRS Discovery 1901 by gak1965 - 1:72 - First Scratch Build

[gak1965]

@Canute that makes as much sense as anything I've ever heard, which seems all over the place. I've seen people say that hatches are only on horizontal surfaces and doors on vertical, but in my own experience I've heard people say to "shut the hatch" when referring to a door on a vertical bulkhead. The items on the deck houses open out and are vertical so "door" it is.

 

@KeithAug, thanks!

 

@Rick310, that must've been pretty weird. I wonder if the sailors were creeped out, or if they had the attitude almost everyone does of "well, it couldn't happen to me."

 

Last update on the Discovery for 2025 as we are headed back to DC for the last 2 weeks of the year tomorrow (a little early, as one of our dogs is getting surgery Thursday morning to remove a mast cell tumor). Before turning to the monkey poop, I decided to do some of the deck furniture in the after part of the ship. The two items I worked on were the gratings that the ship's wheel is mounted on, and the well that allowed access to the propeller. The latter is an interesting feature, which in theory meant that they could pull the prop out of the way to prevent damage, and I suppose repair/replace it if damaged. I tried many different ways to make scratch gratings. I can see how to do so, but don't have the tools, and in the end, just broke down and bought the grating strips from ModelExpo. The wheel gratings are just a rectangle sitting on a very thin platform around the edges. It's shown in the photo below.

 

 

The well is more complicated. If you look closely at the plans, you will see that it is an irregular octagon with 5 identical sides and one shorter and two longer sides. The shortest side is the aftmost face of the octagon. Ultimately, I built out a rectangular grating using the ModelExpo strips, cut out the octagon, centering it as best I could and stained it as per below:

 

 

I then took a 1/32" by 3/64" square piece of painted basswood, and wrapped it around the octagonal grating. The painted piece became the part of the lid that fits over the octagonal well. The rest of the well was made for 1/16" by 1/4" basswood, painted white. I cut out each of the well's sides to fit, trimmed the edges to approximately the correct angle to fit, and glued it onto the underside of the well grating, until I had the full octagon. A little touchup and you get the following:

 

 

I then mounted the steering box (black), the well, and the wheel gratings onto the deck. Here are two views. The first from above:

 

 

And the second oblique from the starboard side:

 

 

As always, thanks for looking in. Everyone have a safe holiday season, and a Happy New Year.

 

Regards,

George

[Keith Black]

 Very nice, George. Hope you and yours have a wonderful Holiday and I hope your canine child comes through surgery okay. 

[gak1965]

16 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Very nice, George. Hope you and yours have a wonderful Holiday and I hope your canine child comes through surgery okay. 

The tumor is in our (apparently) Carolina Dog, Annie (seen here guarding (?) the house in Cleveland.

 

 

Her brother Hobbes the coonhound is partially visible is in his characteristic pose as well, which is to say, sleeping. They are both 11. So far the prognosis is good and surgery is usually curative on cutaneous mast cell tumors. Since she will be sedated the vet is going to remove a stye and clean her teeth. Suggesting this was quite reassuring to us since we trust our vet and can't quite imagine her doing the other treatments if she thought the prognosis was poor.

 

Regards,

George

[Jim Lad]

Hope she's home with you again soon, George.

 

John

[Keith Black]

57 minutes ago, gak1965 said:

Suggesting this was quite reassuring to us since we trust our vet and can't quite imagine her doing the other treatments if she thought the prognosis was poor.

 It sounds like Annie will be in good hands. 👍

[Jared]

Wishing you the best for your pet George.  Best wishes for the holidays ahead and for a great 2026.

 

Jared