theskits62

Back to work this week so only a little bit of progress. After the lifeboat i went back to the main superstructure and started picking off some of the multitude of smaller jobs there. The really fiddly job was adding the steps and handrail. The steps where done using a drilled template to give an even spacing etc. The railings originally were going to be made of 0.2mm copper wire but i was worried about damaging them once fitted so in the end i went for 0.2mm fishing line which won't lose its shape if when i accidentally bump it later. These are done by inserting short lengths of micro brass tube at the end positions and threading the line through running it across small plastic rod struts in between and then back through the tube at the other end. There is a whole mess of glue and knots on the inside which obviously won't be visible. The trickiest part was curving the rail around the front of the superstucture under the wheelhouse. In the end i taped a piece of card curved to shape and that gave the line something to follow. Once the line was glued into place the card was carefully teased out. The only problem with the line is that it seems reluctant to take paint !!

Lovely metalwork going on here. How did you get the shape of those side plates so precise ? I can understand with the roundhouse as there is an axis of symmetry but that sweeping curve ?? Did you use a wooden template and form it around that.

Brilliant, what a great result !!

Thanks David, i am pleased with the way it turned out and tbh i needed the mojo boost, there are times when i think i've bitten off way more than i can chew with this one and many days where at the end of a good 7 hour stint i feel like i've actually gone backwards. Anyway i'm trying to focus on some smaller jobs now before i take the plunge and attempt the main winch and windlass.

Beautiful work, somehow i missed the wip section which i've just been catching up with. Really impressive, well done !!

Superb work on those boats, having just gone through the ordeal of doing one clinkered boat at 1/96th i cannot imagine how you could even contemplate the job at this scale and then pull it off so well. The ribs you're adding must be the width of gnat's whiskers they probably wilt as soon as you remove the lid from the glue. Amazing work !!

Thanks Jeff, yes it certainly felt like it. Thankfully there is only 1 of them to worry about, the thought of doing that again would be too much ! Cheers Brett

Hi Steve, slightly confused, if you're using thicker metal for the outer strakes why do you have an overlap with the inners ? I could understand using the same thickness of metal for all the plates and using spacers to push out the outer strakes so you can have an overlap or using different thicknesses for outer and inner as you are doing and then simply butting adjacent plates against each other. Thanks

The lifeboat is done apart from some brackets and rivets on the stern/rudder but i'm going cross eyed now so breaking off for the day.... You can probably just about make out the clinkering on the inside of the boat here, for some reason its a lot harder on a concave surface and starting from the top is also a bit confusing. Still have to make the tressel and some oars but that will have to wait for another day.

Thanks Louis, that would be a great help.

Thanks, i used loctite 60 second for the paper strips i find it really useful for anything thats not plastic on plastic.

Thanks for the feedback and also the useful vacforming tips. I do tend to block off surplus holes but never thought about the void in the box !!

Nice to see this one moving forward again. Looking great !!

Beautiful work, very much looking forward to seeing the process for metal plating.

Hi Louis - I agree, i was looking at the Agassiz pictures today and it does appear to be a completely different design. It looks like it is rigged to handle the sweeps and the kites rather than just the sweeps. Your input would be really appreciated. I'd love to see how you tackled the job particularly the side you cannot see in the picture. Thankyou

I'm a bit lost for words. Incomprehensible how you can achieve that level of detail on something so wee ! Wonderful - thanks for sharing.

While i'm waiting for my "Anatomy of the Ship - Agassiz" to arrive i thought i'd have a go at the lifeboat. There are oversize plans of this in the appendix of the fantastic "British Naval Trawlers and Drifters" book i mentioned earlier so first step was to try to scale these down to 1/96 scale and make a solid master out of plastic and balsa. I think i included a picture of this before but here it is again... I then used the vacforming box to form a hollow cast of this. I actually made several to cater for cock ups and allow me something to practice clinkering on. With vacforming you cannot achieve a sharp edge, its as if you are pouring toffee over the mold and all the nice sharp lines come out muted so the first step was then to sand away some of the plastic to accenuate the ,curves of the hull lost in the vacforming process. It was for this reason is used slightly thicker card (0.5mm). Once this was done the hull was cut in half with a razor saw and a new stern plate added and filled to give me the line sharp line at the rear. I then mounted each half on plastic card that will eventually form the keel but in the meantime gives me something to hold on to. I imagine the clinker planks would be no more then 15mm thick and scaled down that comes to 0.1mm ish which conveniently is the thickness of printer paper. I then cut out thin strips of paper and carefully built up the planking. Becasue of the small size straight strips seem to work fine, there is enough stretch bend in the paper to give the sweeping curves. Next step is clinker the inside of the hull and add all the ribs and details which i will hopefully do over the weekend.

Welcome aboard, i was in a similar boat when i restarted about 3 years ago after a hiatus of 35 years. I couldn't believe how things had changed. Back in the day if you wanted to detail something up it was plasticard/stretched sprue and paint was always applied by brush (enamels). So seeing the plethora of aftermarket stuff available now was a bit bewildering to start but there is plenty of useful info on the site and everyone is seems happy to help those "returning to the fold" to get up and running again. PLus the quality of the work is quite inspirational and i find it really encourages me to try harder etc. Good luck....

Thats looking great, i like your idea for the bridge of having flat faces on the inside and curved on the outside - very sneaky !!

Phew i can relax now ! Congratulations once again on a beautiful model.

gorgeous, i've been thinking about doing one of these one day, seeing how great this looks i think i need to do some shopping !

That is stunning - hope you're going to put it in a glass case to keep the dust off !!!

That really is a spectacular piece of work. You should rightly feel very proud of your achievement.

Absolutely gorgeous !!

Thanks for that. If you could scan for me that would be much appreciated. I'll also have a look and see if i can find a copy as it sounds like it could be an interesting book...