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Martian

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Everything posted by Martian

  1. Thanks Loren, that is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. The positioning of things like hatches and location of some of the equipment naturally differs between the dedicated flying boat and the later amphibian but I would imagine that the stairs were lust repositioned. Unless anyone comes up with anything to contradict the picture,I shall go with that. Thanks Mal. I just take a few measurements, mark them out on some plastic card and then just eyeball the rest. ; The result of having been modelling without a break for over 55 years, I guess. I do think that using either five or ten times magnification spectacles custom made to my optician's prescription has helped a lot though; the smallest of imperfections in fit look enormous under that sort of magnification and consequently that much easier to eliminate.' Goggle-eyed of Mars 👽
  2. I forgot to mention one thing I have the Steve Ginter "Naval Fighters" book on the Mariner and it covers pretty much all you need to know but there is one grey area. It may or may not impact on me as I have yet to decide how far I want to go with this build but does anyone out there know what the stairs from the lower deck to the upper deck looked like?. We all put detail into our builds that we say will never be seen but we know it's there don't we? but these days we have cameras with macro facilities, you can buy pocket endoscopes and there is always the old fashioned cutaway option. Added to which if I decide to open the rear hatches on the model, quite a lot will be seen after all. Or is this just me looking for an excuse to build as much of the boat's structure into the hull? Like @Navy Bird,I am addicted to carving and fettling white styrene and building aero-structures is one of my favourite parts of the hobby. Martian 👽
  3. Although I am still hugely enjoying my Zeppelin builds, I have been hankering to build something else as well for a while. All Zeppelins and no play makes Martian a dull alien and all that. When Minicraft first released their MartinPBM-5A Mariner kit, I really wanted to get my hands on one. However, I could neither afford or justify the £60 plus price tag for the kit. When the model was re-released by Academy for a much more reasonable £30, that was another matter altogether and an example was obtained in short order. We all know that Martian would not be Martian if he didn't do something off the wall with a build and I fancied doing a Royal Netherlands Navy example. Most of the Dutch boats were finished in silver but two were delivered in Dark Sea Blue and these appealed to me.. Despite buying a dedicated book on Dutch Mariners there was not quite enough pictorial references for me to build one to the standard I would like. Dutch decal do a set for the Mariner, so a silver one it will have to be. What I will probably do if this model goes together well is to get another kit and convert it to the utility configuration and make an educated guess on the areas that I lack sufficient information on. There are plenty of redundant parts in the kit for the conversion and I think I can adapt some others, Caracal do a sheet of decals that have some blue US Mariners so I might go down that route. All that however, is in the future and seeing as even I don't have access to a Tardis, let's see what we can do with what we currently have to hand. Anyway Mrs Martian says the model will look good in silver, so a silver Dutch cab it will be. I was going to try and keep this build pretty much oob but some after market stuff seems to have teleported its way into the box and when I went to the Martian Cave this morning, I seem to have opened up the hatches in the bow section. The next thing I knew was that there was whirling of multiple tentacles, flakes of enough white styrene to keep even @Navy Bird happy flying around the room and we had the bulkheads for the two nose compartments detailed and fitted. I know that some people have remarked that there are a number of inaccuracies in the kit but all I really want is a fun build and to end up with something that looks like a Mariner so I don't intend busting a gut over them. I shall just concentrate on the areas of kit building that I enjoy. Thanks for looking. Martian 👽
  4. I have heard that he's a bit of an old fossil but I don't think he's quite that old! Martian 👽
  5. It wasn't too bad although it did hurt a bit when I snapped part of my cross trees off! Watery Eyed of Mars 👽
  6. I promised that I would let you know of any new ideas to make building of the Takom kits easier. One of the things that I have had a bit of trouble with on my past builds of these kits the strength of the attachment of the brass grab rails to the gondolas themselves. On this L.11 build I have tried something a bit different. Instead of gluing the rails to the gondolas from the outside, I have put them in place then flooded where they enter the inside of the gondola parts with CA. This seems to have made for a much stronger bond. I then added the extra stanchions required from the inside and poured in more CA, cutting away any surplus wire when the glue had cured properly. By careful butt fitting of the stanchions to the rails, soldering, with its somewhat difficult clean up given the size of the parts we are talking about here, is unnecessary, the parts are going nowhere. I may add a dab of thin CA to the joints to blend the parts together where they join but probably this will occur anyway when the assembly gets primed with Mr Surfacer. Some new information gave me the impetus/stupidity to try adding the radiator pipes to the radiators. I used fishing wire for this and they can just be made out in the accompanying picture. In other news and to reassure @general melchett, I got a small pair of pliers and straightened out my wonky mast (Fnarr, fnarr, snurf, snurf). Thanks for looking. Martian 👽
  7. Thanks Pete; not sure about the fair winds though as it is curry night at Martian Towers this evening. Martian 👽
  8. I don't think we are allowed to discuss the contents of @general melchett's battle y-fronts here; 🤮 as this is supposed to be a family show. In theory anyway, as any parent who lets their offspring read some of this drivel needs their head testing! Martian (Promoting family values across the Galaxy since err, never really.) 👽
  9. Having got the King Stephen model underway, I decided to bite the bullet and tackle the part of the Royal diorama that has been worrying me. As suggested by @PieterC earlier in this post, I got hold of an example of the 1/700 Fusi Yama (1865) hull from Shapeways as a starting point for the Royal. this part of the build has been a eight pain in the Martian rectum as I have not been any photographs of the Royal. There are at least six different paintings of the incident and none of them can agree what she looked like. The shape, size, colour, rig and number of mast all differ and one painting even shows her as a steamship. The only thing that documentary evidence can agree upon is that she was a sailing ship. Therefore, after nearly driving myself bonkers deciding how to portray her, I settled on the layout you can see in the accompanying pictures: The hull got hacked about so much that it is almost scratch built and the mast and most of the yards were from assorted Master sets. I am going to try and tidy up the cross trees as they look a bit rubbish in macro. I now have to work out how to make some radial davits for this build and the King Stephen diorama and think about what I am ging to use for sails. You can buy sets of 1/700 davits but they are quite expensive and as my ship models that I do are nearly all in larger scales, I can't really justify the cost especially as the amount I have already spent on the two dioramas is really starting to add up now. I have got a Snowman 1/700 Qcumber Class ship started and may either use it as a test piece to experiment with changes I want to make to the kit as there were a few things I did not like about the same firm's P Class kit, or use it for the diorama. We will have to see how it comes along. Either way, I will post some pictures of such changes that I do make to the Snowman kit so that those of you that have the kit have a more enjoyable build. Thanks for looking. Martian 👽
  10. Fantastic news Bill, we extend out Galactic congratulations. Now get on with the Victor! Delighted but Impatient of Mars 👽
  11. CC; is there any truth in the rumour that Mme CC has made you a hangar from the Belgian Air Force for all the kits you are working on? Curious of Mars 👽
  12. That Lynx is something special Bill. Rather Talen of Mars 👽
  13. Loving this build, it takes me back to my Dutch SH-34 build. Martian 👽
  14. Excellent work sofar. Martian 👽
  15. Just caught up with this one Woody. You are turning it into a thing of real beauty. Impressed (very) of Mars👽
  16. Are we surprised? There's desperation for you! Thanks Pieter, It may be a case of the working deck being slightly too long for a drifter. However the resin is very brittle and I am pretty sure that it won't stand up to a "cut and shut" job. I have already had to do numerous repairs to the hull where the resin has shattered and accept that I am going to have to live with the raised foredeck for the same reason. It is only meant to be a representation of the King Stephen in this scale as it is the overall diorama and the story it tells is what really matters here. The 1/144 scale Neomega kit that Mrs Martian got me for Christmas is far more accurate and will appear in the Maritime section of the forums in the not too distant future. Edit: Sorry Pieter, I forgot to mention that the plastic card additions to the hull are indeed to allow for the depth of the sea base of the diorama. Martian 👽
  17. I shall keep my tentacles crossed for you Bill. Martian 👽
  18. .I decided to start the King Stephen diorama by tackling the hardest part first. Chopping up a 1/700 3D printed steam trawler in order to try and make a representation of a steam drifter of the period. Had I chosen to do the diorama in 1/350 scale, my task would have been a whole lot easier but that would have meant trashing a Takom kit for the Zeppelin wreck. Still, I pressed on and here are the results of nearly a whole day's work at the bench. This thing is tiny, about two inches long at most and the close up on my camera is really struggling with it. I will ask Mrs Martian if she can get any better results on her phone camera. Thanks for looking Martian 👽
  19. Where to next indeed? Fret ye not, I have a cunning plan that cannot fail! First up, I came across a series of pictures in the Bundesarchiv of Zeppelin L.11 in camouflage colours. Given that they seem to have been taken at the same time and from all sides, I suspect that the ship was trialing a new scheme. Whatever the reason, a Takom kit has had its hull glued together and flying surfaces and control surfaces prepped. I will just provide pictorial updates as when I do something different on the model. stand by for an update on that front as I have hit on an idea as to how to make the grab rails on the gondolas easier and neater. I have got hold of a 3D printed 1/700 steam trawler and have started to convert kit into the King Stephen drifter fora diorama of her abandoning the crew of the downed L.10 to their fate. I have a couple of Mark 1 Models 1/720 P and Q class hulls and will use one of them for the L.19 wreck. In this scale I think we can live with the slight difference in scale. One thing I would ask is that, out of respect for the victims of this thoroughly unpleasant incident, we keep the usual banter away from discussion of the construction of the diorama. Other than that, the usual highbrow discussion can continue unabated. More soon. Martian 👽
  20. A spanking! a spanking! Mrs Martian (allegedly) 👽
  21. I suspect that Madame CC has long since given up trying to keep track of CC's stash additions. When asked to comment by the Belgium correspondent of the Martian Times, she was quoted as saying "le wibble". Martian 👽
  22. He has indeed, I think the silver option may have to be plan B and perhaps do a second kit as a US Navy boat. It's typical Martian. I always fall for the most awkward subjects. Martian 👽
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