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Martian

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Martian last won the day on September 7 2024

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About Martian

  • Birthday 12/13/1961

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Poole, Dorset, on the Planet Wibble
  • Interests
    Models, Classic cars, History, Archeology, Music

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  1. Thanks Loren but remember, even Martians are human; if that makes sense, which it probably doesn't! Martian 👽
  2. Like I believe I mentioned on my Great Eastern thread, I can be easily distracted and it was while I was searching for parts that I could incorporate into that build that I stumbles across this: This was the first submarine built by the builder of the steam submarine Resurgam after it was lost in a storm off the North Welsh coast in 1880. Garrett needed strong financial backing to develop his designs and found this in the Nordenfelt arms company. In 1885 this was the first fruit of that collaboration and was sold to the Greek government. the results of trials with the submarine proved to be unsatisfactory and the vessel never entered service with the Greek navy, being ultimately scrapped in 1904. This kit would sit well within my collection of 1/144 scale pioneer submarines, especially my model of the Resurgam. One can easily see the similarity in the two designs: The kit was 3D printed to order and was just over a week from being printed in Greece to landing on the Martian bench, it even arrived a day earlier than expected, there's service for you! The build has proceeded apace and just three days have seen the parts cleaned up, the telescopic funnel corrected, a mast scratch built from Albion Alloys' slide fit brass tubing and control arms for the rudder built from the same, the kit parts being far too flimsy. A new set of hydroplanes has been fashioned from Plastic stock as one of the kit items had not printed out properly and it was deemed easier to scratch build a new pair than try and repair the kit part.. Next up is to make a new pair of davits, this thing could carry a small dinghy for the crew, and an ext ernal ship's wheel. I can't see this thing taking that long to complete (famous last words!) And will help fill in the time while I wait for some more bits for the Great Eastern to dock at Martian Towers. Thanks for looking. Martian 👽 PS: For those interested in the history of this vessel following its rejection by the Greek Navy, I have been informed by @general melchett that, following this rejection, the submarine was briefly hired by a Greek cousin of Captain Darling, one Stavros Moussakas Darlikis, for an eventually abortive raid on the Palace of Westminster's stationary cupboard, in order to steal back the famous Elgin Paperclip Collection, previously brought to this country by General Elgin Bruce Hogmanay Melchett, 7th Earl of Much Snivelling, at the start of the 19th century, in a shady deal involving a pair of Baldrick's ancestors' trousers, a thingy shaped turnip and a flagon of Purple Shredded Sporran. The mission apparently failed when it was discovered that the submarine would not run on second hand goat effluent; Darlikis being too tight fisted to pay for the best five star stuff.
  3. So, yesterday the base having arrived, I was able to get both it and the hull measured up and drilled and was able to, albeit temporarily, mount the beast for the first time. This was a great morale boost as i had been making a list of things left to do before painting could begin and that list was longer than I had imagined. Finish cleaning up paddle wheels (mahoosive task), sort out stern catheads and associated ports. add gun ports and tweak bow catheads ready for when the etched hooks and pulleys that I finally managed to source arrive. The stern hawser pipes also need better definition. I ha begun to realise that all the work that shows an immediate result visually has been done and that we are getting down to an awful lot of fine detail work. This is where I am probably going to needs you all to encourage me to keep going as It is going to be a long slog. I have invested a considerable amount of money in all the extra bits and pieces for this build; like the real ship, she is running well over budget, so failure to complete is not really an option. Thanks for looking. Martian 👽
  4. Just picked upon this Heather, Gill and I are so sorry for your loss. Martian 👽
  5. Thanks Terry, I briefly thought that but then I realised that one of them is attached to chain coming from the hawser pipe. The chain would need to be over three miles long to fulfill this purpose in certain parts of the Atlantic. The original picture also portrays a grapnel being lowered from the bow to drag for the broken cable and this is exactly how the recovery of the cable is described in contemporary reports. The Great Eastern had somewhat unconventional anchors called "Trotman Patent Anchors" which partially fold up when hoisted to allow them to lay more closely along the ship's side than the traditional Admiralty pattern anchors. they can look somewhat curious when viewed from certain angles and this is what seems to have confused the artist. A shame really as the rest of the print is very accurate. Another problem sorting this particular facet of the build has been that we are trying to interpret slightly fuzzy photos of black painted anchors against a black hull and often we are not even sure as to what period in the ship's history we are looking at. Other than that we are reliant on contemporary engravings, which, in the main, seem to be quite accurate but do not always portray the area of the ship that we are interested in. If you want to build the kit as the cable layer, fill your boots; the cable across the Atlantic was massive news and was well covered at the time, resulting in quite a few really good engravings of the cable laying equipment. A few weeks ago, I would have said that there was no way I would build a second kit and do the cable layer but, having defeated a lot of the kit's problems, if it were released at a sensible price, I might well have a bash. It would be interesting to be able to compare the models side by side. Next problem; where to find four ship's cannons in 1/350 or 1/400 scale? Somewhat surprisingly the Great Eastern was armed with four Dahlgren cannons. Quite who the various operators of the ship thought was going to take her on, armed or unarmed beats me but there you go: Martian 👽
  6. I quote Mrs Martian: "Why is he such a stirrer? I mean he looks such a nice man, so harmless." I'm staying out of this one! Sir Coward de Martian 👽
  7. I have now mentioned your cunning plan to Mrs Martian, I'm not sure if it's a good sign or not but she put on a "smile" and has invited you over for a little "chat". I am hoping that the rack she ordered second hand off of EvilBay is merely a courtesy detail. Martian 👽
  8. Thanks Stuart, I think we are slowly getting there. Thanks Terry, I shall run your splendid idea past the Memsahib, making quite sure that you get the credit for it. Martian 👽
  9. Very nice! Martian 👽
  10. You promised not to show that portrait of @general melchett's prehistoric ancestor Tyrannus Godzilla Hogmanay Melchett at the Regimental Reunion Ball, resplendant in Battle Y-Fronts. We do not have enough therapists to deal with the ensuing mass trauma amongst our membership. Concerned of Mars 👽
  11. What have I been up to the last few days? I hear you ask. Well, adding to @Brandy's concerns, I have been sorting out the catheads as part of my efforts to get the anchors right. I began by enlarging the holes in the existing kit parts, taking very great care not to break them. I then inserted small lengths of .40 'thou plastic rod in the holes at the halfway marks to represent rollers, over which the anchor chains can pass: Revell supply some brass chain in the kit for the anchor chains but this looks way over scale to me. I therefore had a rummage in my supply of ship parts and came up with a length of pre-blackened chain that looked much more to scale. I the second picture you can see how the chain exits the hawser pipe, passes over the roller, and passes back through the hole in the cat head. In this way, when the chain is wound in,the anchor is drawn up to the level of the upper deck: I had been wondering how the anchors were got into the horizontal position ready for securing but then I came across a photo showing a series of ports in the hull, clearly for this purpose. Of course, I couldn't resist opening these up in the model's hull. No! I shall not be super-detailing the interior of the ship. I might, just might mind you add a small section of deck behind some of the holes in order to show a crew figure in them. All this took a seemingly inordinate amount of time to accomplish but I pleased with the result. All I need to do now is to repeat the exercise on the stern. I think I will give the open ports a miss though and show them shut. Further digging has shown that the kit anchor parts are reasonably accurate after all, the picture of the odd looking anchors that I posted, turns out to be an artist's misinterpretation, due to their appearance when stowed. Best get the local 3D print chap to run me off some more anchor parts. In other news, the pedestals for the base have arrived here at Martian Towers and the base itself is expected imminently. This means I can start painting operations and not have to handle the model, which should help avoid breakages. In consultation with such eminent personages as @general melchett and more importantly, Mrs Martian who thinks it a cunning plan, I have decided to try and build at least one of my larger ship kits each year and have a dedicated shelf in the house to display the Martian "Ship of the year" model. Can I stick to this? Only time can tell and I am a somewhat easily distracted Alien at the best of times; ooh! is that a new Airfix surprise release 1/24 scale TSR2 I see before me? Thanks for looking. Distraite of Mars 👽
  12. As is usually the case with me; because you weren't paying attention. Fortunately Mrs Martian has the local vet on standby for derrick, bulwark and other potentially painful operations. Martian 👽
  13. Thanks Mark. There's no secret at all really. what you are seeing is a number of sub-assemblies dry fitted together. Not even the decks have been glued on yet. I find it easier to work this way, partly because small parts are less likely to get lost, particularly with this kit where dozens of small parts were floating round in the bag, having detached themselves from their sprues and also because by modelling room is only 6 x 6 feet square and I can either have it set up for painting or for building, not both. Martian 👽
  14. I think I must be loosing the plot. (Silence the rabble in the cheap seats.) I was thinking that nobody seemed very interested in my post on the modifications to the ship's masts and yards. I mentioned that this was a bit odd to Mrs Martian who, sagely, pointed out that she hadn't taken the necessary pictures yetand Ihad not actuallywritten the post! So, twenty four hours later than planned, here is what I have been up to on the masts and yards. I will go through these two at a time from bow to stern and keep with the names of the week for them, in the same way that they were referred to at the time the ship was in existence. Beginning with Monday and Tuesday masts, I decided that the derrick as supplied by Revell for Monday mast is too long so this got shortened by about 30%. I intend to get as much detail on the masts before I fit them to the ship for ease of handling. With this in mind, I began by adding some etched brass pulleys and wires from a PE set that I bought for this build. What I do lack however is a hook assembly for the derrick, not sure how I am going to get round that one yet. There also seems to be a small top just above the jib, so this got added. On Tuesday mast I opened out a hole in the platform for the lifts for the masts to pass through. I have also begun cutting back the attachments for all the yards on the kit so that the lifts can pass more easily to the deck. I'm not overly worried if these break as, on reflection, I think I can do a better job myself if necessary: Wednesday mast just needed the extra holes opening out on its platform, but there was a lot mor work involved with Thursday mast. Revell supply the kit with no yards for this mast and although this might be correct for the ship in its later cable laying role, some pictures of her when she began life as a passenger ship show that she sometimes sported a couple of yards on this mast. The topmost yard is easy to miss as in some pictures it has been lowered to a position just above the main yard on this mast. The thick sprues that the kit parts came on, well, those that had not detached themselves in the box, came in handy here and a whirl of alien tentacles soon saw the sprue turned into a couple of extra yard arms. The platform on this mast also had the extra holes opened up: Friday mast just needed a small platform scratch building and Saturday mast needed no modification at this stage of proceedings: Our final picture shows the current state of play with the build. I am pondering how I am going to make a couple of capstans next. Thanks for looking. Martian 👽
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