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Steve D

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  1. Mixed update. First, the paint plan didn't work. Tamiya Nato black spray and Tamiya Nato paint don't match. The paint is way more matt and even after varnish. the areas I had touched up stood out. So, I gave up with that and went back to Vallejo paint, as I should have done from the start. Then Vallejo Hull red was way too dark brown (imho), loads of Fire Red later and I'm sort of OK with it. Also, using the mask to spray the draft marks was also a bit of a disaster, the pattern I had didn't match the way Victorian's painted their draft marks. So, all in all, a bit of a bad start to the painting stage really. I'll post on the draft marks later, still worrying that one The hull after painting Meanwhile the Sea Grey for the turtle deck looks OK, thinks that's a keeper. I've also been busy making deck canvas edging strips from 0.2 mm Aluminium, cut into 1.7mm wide strips and indented with a pin wheel to give the impression of fixings, using 3inch lengths which at 12 ft seemed a reasonable stock length for handling and also trying to get that pin wheel to behave on longer lengths with these narrow strips is just a route to insanity. I'll post a couple of pictures once I'm happy with the effect,. The actual canvas arrangement is not obvious so I'm interspersing other stuff while I consider this all To cheer myself up, I made a cleat for the ensign, there will be more of these needed. At least that worked... Then as a distraction, I went back to the forward gun platform planking and tried a version with a margin plank, seems much better, three stage iteration below. The laser reversing burns the wood slightly, hence version 3, I may try one more to see if I can make it better, its hard as the planks converge so the reversing is inevitable. This will be painted, so any final burning will not be obvious (I hope). Anyway, I'm much happier with this So much so, that I remade the capstan platform planks, way better While I was on that platform, I turned my attention to the handrailing. This is permanent round the platform and then run in wire rope to the bow jackstaff. The stanchions here are very low and non -standard @ 28 inches. I didn't have that size but cut down some 20mm stanchions and fitted rings to get the height right, soldering frame shown below. The existing legs on the platform are 1mm thin wall tube so they can take the stanchion pins The curved rail (0.7 mm) was beaten flat at one end and drilled to take the wire rope later before shaping and soldering it in a template Trial assembly, more fettling needed. Note the deck lights on the turtle back polished brass rings. Anyway, it's still all a little rough, but coming together. Lots more detail to go on this turtle deck..... Cheers Steve
  2. Good to see more progress David, just think how, in years to come, you will look at the completed model and think "How on earth did I do that?.... Cheers Steve
  3. Not a build update. Stumbled across this channel on YouTube, amazing graphics, just sharing in case you've not seen these videos Another wasted afternoon beckons..... Cheers Steve
  4. It's only that I was enjoying that one.... Anyway, WOW!!, original drawings, {Holy Grail emoji} and a parental link thrown in, how can you not build it.... Cheers Steve
  5. Excellent job Pascal, I just love the detail work and research you always bring to your projects making them a powerful resource for those following Now, can we get that battleship finished? Cheers Steve
  6. Thanks for the kind comments Stuart, once I get the colours right, I'll post more pictures showing the evolution of my thinking Meanwhile, to answer your question. This is a feature I recently discovered on the flickr picture editor called "Focus". It allows you to select a place and a radius to show in focus while the rest of the image fades out slightly. I thought a lot of my pictures were too fussy (mostly due to the inevitable clutter on my workbench, I try to keep it clear but fail each time....) and the point I was trying to highlight was getting lost. I'm glad it seems to be improving the story telling of the build Cheers Steve
  7. You are right of course Rob, see also that deck picture where the edge strip is clearly shown Canvas deck coverings have many challenges, the edge strips (which I must feature a this scale) not being the only one, or even the hardest! For instance, there are 40 deck lights they need to be perfectly cut round.....Still, I think I'm up for taking it on 🤞 State of play this morning before I top coat below the water-line (this is still red primer) with a few un-painted bits added for effect. Hopefully it will get better from here on. The black I'm using is Tamiya Nato Black which comes in a spray can and is softer than pure black. Grey is still primer Cheers Steve
  8. 3 parts actually. Base and eye silver soldered, horns from a scrap of rectangular hollow section, drilled through and then filed away to create a deep channel section, soft soldered to the base I keep saying brass is easier that plastic Cheers Steve
  9. Ok, last brass component for a while, the forward mooring rope fairlead. I bit like the rear fairleads, this one also has a secondary purpose, it provides an anchor for the bow jackstaff stay Once again these were filed from brass, worked OK. (note my cleaned up anvil, I was shocked how rusty it looked in earlier pictures so cleaned it up, ashamed...) The reason this came before painting, is I wanted it fixed to the bow before painting, this meant making the whole assembly and gluing it in place with the actual jackstaff and stays being removable This might help explain, very fine... I love the fact that in a model just under 4 feet long, I still need to make the jackstaff finial, 2mm dia and 0.8mm thick, finishes it nicely.... Anyway, painting The boat didn't fit in my primer bay First coat of red primer. This just showed up all the flaws in the hull plating, so two rounds of fine surface filler, wet&dry and primer, got me close to acceptable Next I applied grey primer above the waterline, which showed all the flaws in the deck plating, sigh... Note the scuttles are all covered with liquid mask As I write, its awaiting its second coat of grey primer, hopefully with most of those flaws ameliorated, you can see some of this tidy-up in the image below I was about to draw the draft marks for printing when I remembered that 20 years ago, I had etched a brass mask for this style of draft marks. A quick rummage discovered the mask, so I had to give it a try. Not bad for straight primer, this will work with fine brush clean-up, happy with that, no decals needed... I've been debating with myself about colours. Obviously, black features a lot, but the cover image on Lyons book (First Destroyers) features a vessel with pale grey turtledeck, a feature I really like So, back to staring at Havock images and I've convinced myself she also (at least at some point) had the same pale turtledeck. See the distinct tonal difference between the turtleback and the forward bridge extension. Also, even through the illustration I have shows a white sheer line, I can find no such line on any of the 10 pictures I have so its not going on. Lastly, the perennial debate over the colour of the iron deck. The Corticine company did exist, it was founded around 1890 (random fact discovered looking into this. However, I actually think certain sections of the deck, forward of the funnels and after of the boat station probably had some canvas covering as can be seen on this excellent image I just discovered This is certainly an early TBD, it may even be Havock. Further proof comes from the not very reliable evidence of builders models all of which consistently show brown decks with black or dark grey edges, some with actual panels that look like canvas, see last image So, I think this is the direction I will go, I like the idea of canvas panels, will see how I can reproduce the texture Cheers Steve
  10. This is always the main challenge, soldering is easy, set-up is tough as you can see from the gymnastics I go through to hold things in place. This is tougher still when soldering on the model, a step I rarely take, and hate when forced The last lesson when making stuff from scratch (tubing, wire, etc) is solder the joint then cut back the excess part to size. The number of times I've cut the part perfectly, only to realise it can't be held (or it just melts with the torch). I produce a lot of waste.... Cheers Steve
  11. Ha, we've all been there. I always say the model is only as good as its worst component. If you've followed my builds, you will remember all the parts I've ended up remaking later. Such a common theme, I make something early in a build and then later on, decided its not fine enough, so a second or third gets made. I have a drawer full of attempts to remind me not to be so stupid next time, I should look at it more often... That place looks seriously cool, now all I have to do is think of a reason my wife needs to go to Southern California Go Jeff... That Flower is coming along nicely btw Of course Andreas, the brass on aluminium is a cool look, but I'm a ship modeller (or I try to be), not an artist. If I could make anything flawless, I might be tempted, however, there is no chance of that happening in this life Cheers Steve
  12. Jon I'm really no expert, just the sum of 100's of errors... If there is a way to do soldered wrong, I've done it The first rule of soldering is make sure the surfaces are clean. Sand or emery paper will do this, wire brushing with a small wire brush is also good. If you apply heat to cyno, it smokes and leave a residue that will likely spoil the joint. If you are using self-fluxing wire (which I do when not using paste, sold for electricians use) always apply flux as well, it will help the solder run. Apply heat to one side of the joint and solder to the other, solder runs to heat, wonderful to watch, not sure who taught it to do that. If you apply the solder to the heat side, it will run to the iron not the joint, end up taking longer and using too much solder which increase the clean up needed. For really small items, paste is best, it needs so little heat and leaves not over-solder. I use TSC Solder Paint, and I add extra flux to that (Bakers Soldering Fluid), so its the consistency of actual paint. When it dries out, flux will bring it back. This will solder really fast, but make sure it bubbles and flows I also use cyno in some cases for final assembly, but hate myself for doing it. The rule I use is first sub-components use silver solder, then soft wire, then paste, finally cyno if I think more heat will make it all fall apart. The wonderful thing about soldering (even in some cases silver solder) is that heat reverses the process and you can go again.... Hope these tips help. Good luck with that joint Cheers Steve
  13. Thanks Andreas, but I'd rather promote discussion than praise. I'm just doing what I know how to do, as well as I can. If some of this helps keep these more traditional methods alive and encourages others to use more metal in their builds, then I'm a happy person Thanks for the shower of likes, but you don't know until you try. Also, I have a lot of tools, I mean, a lot, 25 years and I'm still buying tools.... Styrene seems to only need a sharp knife, metal takes more investment, but the skill is the same, or even less. Thanks Stuart, but really, not so much. I always dip the parts in water to remove any flux and then clean with wire brushes in my minicraft drill (I do get through quite a lot of those), sometimes fine wire wool as well, . Then normal car primer will produce a very good clean surface for acrylic. I hope my showing all this work helps explain these techniques. After so many years, I take a lot for granted so please ask any question and I will do my best to show and explain Thank you for all the likes and views, I enjoy sharing my work (and mistakes) as much as the actual build process these days More later, watch how primer will transform it Cheers Steve
  14. Thanks Jon, but I hate those close-up pictures, but without them nothing would be clear, warts and all eh! Cheers Steve
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