Astrolabe by jrozhon - Mantua - Scale 1:50

[bdenley]

I am about to start building the Astrolabe as well I am enjoying your posts. Question: why did you stop planking where your balsa spacers started instead of going all the way to the front keel or back to the stern?

 

Brian

[bdenley]

I am about to start building the Astrolabe as well I am enjoying your posts. Question: why did you stop planking where your balsa spacers started instead of going all the way to the front keel or back to the stern?

Brian

Never mind. I finally understood that your double planked the ship. Great job!

 

Brian

[jrozhon]

Well, it's been a long time and it seems the powers to be changed the forum again.  Hunting season was good and now it is over so I can work on my model.  I finished my deck furniture and installed the pin rails and planked and drilled my channels and installed them as well. I then turned to the gun carriages.  The ones that came with the kit were not very good.  They were made of plywood and had bad looking wheels and axles, so I got some from Syren.  They are a different scale, but were designed for a barrel length of 1 23/32 in. long and my barrels were 1 26/32 in. so they look good and are well made out of boxwood.  The only  problem I had with them is the axles are square and one must round them.  I tried sanding and filing them but it took forever and the 1.6mm size would break very easily.  I solved the problem by using my draw plate and my foredom flex drive.  The key is that one of the short flat sides of the axle must face one of the three jaws to be centered properly.  Then, run it at medium speed and start with a large hole and use progressively smaller holes.  My finished size was 2.4mm and I think it looks a lot better than the 1.6.These carriages are tapered being smaller in front than the back.  The only way I could assemble them was to make a jig to hold the axles and the brackets.  Then add the transom and small strip is placed on top of the rear axle.  Then add the bottom and the quoin, drill out the wheels and you are done.  They give you a piece of wood 3/32x3/32 to fashion the quoin handle.  Good luck!  I bought some belaying pins 6mm long and they worked very well.  See the following pictures.

[S.Coleman]

Those hatches come up great! Same with the rest of the deck furniture. Turning the axles on a drill lathe looks like it's doing wonders. I really like the blue windows on the hatches. You dont see many builds of this ship. Good work. 

[jrozhon]

Well I finally got my guns assembled, blackened, carriages painted, and the breeching ropes installed.  I used the Birchwood Casey Brass Black and it worked quite well.  To make the finish more durable I sprayed everything with a clear flat acrylic top coat.  Even then I need to do some touch up with flat black paint.  I used AEW's design for the breeching ropes.  I seized a small section of line to the center of the breeching that fit around the cascablel.  I used Hurbert Sicard method of zip seizing as described in his web site.  All I did differently was to use a larger drill bite to construct the seizing then you slide them over the doubled line and glue.  Now, I don't know what to do next, the gun port doors, of the side and train tackle. I guess it really does not matter

[jrozhon]

[NoddyonNitrous]

Any update on your project? 

Im now kicking myself for not planking the deck, but I missed the chance before I discovered how to improve on the kit!

[Daniel Filipe]

The model is really nice. Looking good.