HMY Britannia 1893 by malmoerik - Mamoli - Scale 1: 64

[Keith_W]

To fix the gaps on your deck planking, try filling the gaps with thinned down PVA, then sanding the decks down with fine grade sandpaper. The dust will fill in the gaps pretty nicely. 

 

As for the gloss finish, I am no expert at applying gloss finishes to wood. I used to be able to get an incredible gloss on my car models - I would paint it with a gloss colour paint, then sand it down until there is absolutely no gloss left (helps pick out any pits and defects in the painting). Then I would spray it again with clear gloss, then sand it back with extremely fine grit paper (up to 10,000 grit, only available in model shops), then finish with a light coat of carnauba car wax. 

[malmoerik]

Hi guys, thanks for your advice.

Regarding the deck, I'll try out both your tips. If nothing else for practice. If it doesn't turn out good enough I'll just order new planks and build the deck separately and mount it afterwards. That way I'll build two "half-moons" and will for sure be able to sand a straight line.

 

Painting the hull is definitely more work. I thought I did wet-sand down the varnished hull before applying paint (grade 800), and it _was_ smooth as silk until I painted it. My dad told me he used some kind of sticky cloth that absorbed all grains of dust, like waxing a lady's leg if you see what I mean... 

 

Cheers

[Sailor1234567890]

If you're removing planks down the centre of the boat, try a king plank instead when you re lay the deck. Adds that little bit of realism.

[malmoerik]

What's a king plank? A wider plank?

[Sailor1234567890]

It's a centre plank down the middle of the boat. The rest of the planks would have been nibbled into it. It may be too late to try it. Google it though. You'll find plenty of references to it. If you haven't already that is.

[malmoerik]

In the last picture I posted the hull was painted and looked ready. I wasn't happy with the result. There was a contour along the waterline, the golden line along the deck was too thick and the finish wasn't great. 

Now it's as good as it gets with me handling the brushes. 

I used a laser to mark the contour of the waterline at the aft. It looks weird but when viewed from the side it's perfect.

 

I'm building the a new deck that I will mount on top of the old one, with a 4mm mahogany King's plank in the middle. I built another deck out of walnut but the planks had so different colours that I threw it away.

 

The small houses are a bit tricky. First it's the frames that are joined at 45 degree angels. Get one plank slightly too long and it looks awful. Drill one hole slightly off center and it looks awful. I decided to manufacture the pieces in one batch so that they are identical (by drilling through 30 planks at once). Seems to have worked, will start over soon.

 

By the way, sorry for poor quality of the pictures.

 

[Mike Y]

Wow! Really like the look of it, with a proper waterline. And a houses

 

With such a clean and glossy finish, how do you protect it from scratches while working on a deck details?

[Keith_W]

Looks like you found out how to apply a gloss finish after all! What method did you use? She looks great!

[malmoerik]

@Keith: I painted the waterline next to the black area, not on top, thus avoiding a contour. Then I wet-sanded and applied a few layers of varnish. Gently stirring the varnish instead of shaking it, using a rather soft brush and applying the varnish with few strokes was my methodology.

I over-diluted the black paint and the red one didn't cover properly so it's not perfect...

One more thing. Sharp edges (between the hull sides or at the aft) gives a realistic impression. I therefore painted one side at the time, masking the other. Painting all at once makes everything soft and rounded.

 

@Mike: not sure yet. I won't put masking tape directly on the paint though.

[malmoerik]

Deck is ready, third and final try!

The first deck, pictures in earlier posts, didn't look good because I wasn't careful enough. Gaps between the planks, joins with king plank not perfect etc.

 

The second deck was of walnut wood and looked awful because the wood came from different batches (no pictures) and I threw it away.

 

But now I'm happy - at last.

 

I coated it with sanding filler by the way. 

[OScaler1]

I've just started the Mamoli Britannia kit and am ready to start t he planking. Your pics were a help and I will start from the top (bottom in the pics). I've planked two models before this but every planking job is an experience. Your bow planking solution was interesting. Wish me luck!

 

OScaler1

[malmoerik]

Hi Osaler1

Thanks. It's been a lot of work, I haven't posted any pictures in ages. Getting the brass bars straight on the houses almost had me give the whole thing up. I ended up re-building them from scratch, slightly bigger than according to the plans. And this time I didn't drill any holes for the brass bars because I couldn't manage to get them at equal distances, neither in the X not in the Y dimension so to speak. Instead I just dipped the brass bars in super glue and put them in place using a pair of tweezers. Maybe you're better at it?!

I have now started with the mast, it's gonna big  a big ship once ready, have you checked out the no 8 plan which is 1:1 of the whole ship?!

Cheers

 

Erik