Ray S

I agree, the paintwork from this side of the screen looks good. Hope the rest goes well for you! Ray

Hello all, hope you are having a good weekend! I have been trying Plan C first as regards the first lifeboat, namely the laminated card option. This one was laminated from 3 pieces of 40thou card, which I had cut almost to size fore/aft - side/side. I cut out the plan view of the lifeboat from a spare copy of the plan and PVA'd it to the laminate stack. A few minutes later the glue had set, and I set too with a coarse sanding stick and some good lighting. Having done one side, I thought it would be easier to get rid of the majority of the plastic at the front end by sawing it off rather than sanding. Once I had done that, the sanding stick finished the main job, then I tried to introduce the curve of the lower hull as best I could. When I was happy with that, I fitted a 'keel' with some rod, which I glued with liquid poly along the flat of the hull first. When that had dried for 20 minutes or so, I thought I would be clever, and curve the rod up at the bow and CA it in place, followed by a drop of accelerator. The rod snapped and did not stick! Off came the rest of the rod with a bit of persuasion from a scalpel, and I glued another strip with liquid poly and left it straight(ish) Much later on, I tried liquid poly to get the curve stuck on the bow this time, but again it would not stick, but this time I added a touch of CA with no accelerator this time, held the rod in place with a scalpel, and a couple of minutes later it had set properly, then I put some masking tape on to make sure. Tomorrow I will try and pop some tissue over the top of the lifeboat to make it look like it is covered. Thanks to Lashenden and his links to SS Robin, I can see that in all probability the lifeboats were fitted on chocks/blocks, so the fact that the boat will be solid will not be a problem for my davits-to-be. This is, in keeping with previous updates, a small one, but I am still hopeful that this will be finished in time for the end of this group build. Oh yes, do you want to read something really funny/stupid? I will tell you anyway! The foremast for my SS Ophir is made from 2mm brass rod. I have a twist drill and a set of drill bits which range from .4mm to 2mm, but I could only fit the 1mm bit as the largest. So, I went into my local model shop this morning and showed the gentleman behind the counter my problem. He took the twist drill, undid the end, turned the clamp around, and said 'It will fit now - these have reversible clamps so you can use any bits up to 3mm'. I thought (and said) that this must have been one of the most stupid questions he had had to contend with! I have only had the drill for about 8 years and never knew... On that note, I will quietly retire for the evening. See you soon! Ray

Hello Ross, it is the Flyhawk one. I got it from Dawngrocerystores (in China) on E-bay. It arrived within a week, and I was not stung for import duty or Parcel Force delivery charges either. I am trying to pluck up courage to start it! Hope this helps, Ray

A very nice start there. I have this and the upgrade set in the stash, and I must say they look truly stunning. My hope is they do the WW2 HMS Gloucester, it is about time one of that class was available... Looking forward to seeing your progress. Ray

Hello all again. Once more, it is a story of small bits. On the plans for SS Ophir, it shows a cable reel on the forecastle, so I used an etch one I had spare. It is 1/350 scale, but seems the right size when laid up against the plans (it is poorly shown in side-view, but highly visible in plan view). I used some plastic rod for the drum, and I had wrapped some fishing line around the rod first then CA'd it to the rod, so now it looks like there is some cable on the reel too There are two anchor chains on board, so I needed to get them painted up. I have devised a jig for helping with this fiddly task: It is just a pair of holes drilled through some sprue, and short lengths of brass rod CA'd into them. They are strong enough to hold the chain under tension whilst brush painting them. The chain itself is 27 links-per-inch brass chain from Langley Miniatures, and is good stuff. Later pictures will show I still did not get the chains painted quite right...Anyway, here they are in position; they just lay over the winch, then feed down into the holes down to the chain locker. I was unable to wrap them round the spindle as I hoped. I have also started to add the support struts to the flying bridge. these were just some .5mm rod trimmed to size, PVA'd into place then once all were aligned, CA'd Finally so far I have added some railings to the forecastle, this time from a ship built at the same time as Ophir, HMS Dreadnough. Again, they are 1/350 scale, and are a little bit too low I think. I may well remove them (they are only PVA'd in place at the moment so should come off okay, then I may scratchbuild a replacement set, assuming I can drill stanchion holes accurately (no guarantee on that!). Anyway, here she is at the moment, and just for a change, I took a couple from the starboard side! I have started on the lifeboats, at the moment I have laminated three lots of 40thou card, 2 with 4 laminations, 1 with three. I will try and carve/sand out lifeboat shapes, then try to create a tarpaulin for each one so the boat itself is covered, as shown in many pictures. I do not think I will be able to create the planking effects though, so please forgive me! If these fail, I will try carving wood. The injection moulded lifeboats shown in my opening post were 1/350 scale Russian boats. they are the right lengths, but are not wide enough, so I do not think I could get away with them. Once these are done, I can see about the davits, and then also the support struts for the aft deckhouse, as they need to be aligned with the davits, which need positioning correctly for the boats. I can see more painting that needs tidying up! This is it for now, thanks for looking again, all the best, Ray

Hello all again. A tale of little things today. A couple of evenings ago, I decided to add some more (2) ladders to Ophir. First was easy, it was a normal inclined ladder, and it fitted well (from the boat deck up to the flying bridge) - I had left a gap for it which turned out to be a little too wide, so I was careful to centralise it so it does not show too bad or look odd. Second was a vertical ladder attached to the rear of the aft deckhouse. This needed the frames bending by 90 degrees, then four incredibly small tags to be bent 90 degrees each to act as tabs for fitting to the cabin sides and roof. Yeah, right! I am still not sure how I managed to get them done, but it worked, and the ladder was (almost) the right size. That was a bit of luck I must say! There was about 1/10mm gap at the top where the tabs did not quite touch the boat deck, so if I had not managed to make the bends, it would have been perfect. The following evening, I decided to try and make the first winch. I looked and looked at the plans, decided it was complicated, and came to a compromise. I sliced up thirteen bits of rod and tube: (for the eagle eyed, I trimmed two more after the picture was taken), glued them together, and ended up with: I was right pleased with this I must say, so today I painted it up in a grey, H164. I made up a mount for it, drilled out some 2mm holes in the forecastle for the anchor chains to go into later, and dry fitted the winch to the mount. Yuck! I now realised it was way off centre, not symmetric at all, and looked awful. I now realised I could have made it with only 8 bits of plastic, and so I did another one today. Compare: On quite a few pictures of winches (assorted), there are large bell-like bits on the outsides, which often have a red centre, so I used larger tube than on the original, and filed out the extreme ends to allow a bit of red paint inside. I know this is not perfect, but I think it is better than the original, and it shows how you can think clearer when you are not tired. I should hopefully be able to wrap one loop of chain around the spindle, then feed it into the holes down to the chain locker. This evening I will spend some time re-touching the paintwork that was affected by the white spraying from a wee while ago, and from handling issues. My good lady and I went into town today, and I came back (with kind-hearted blessings) with a little box of joy: The box took me by surprise (well, it did not really, as I had seen it in the shop for quite a while, it was like a siren calling 'Buy me! Buy me!'), so I succumbed today. to put the box size into perspective: That is it for now, I have another ship to look at! All the best, Ray

Yes, well done on an epic build here. I know a few who probably would have seen if the model was aerodynamic, or needed a wall to stop its flight. Hopefully your trials and tribulations (along with others) will help the rest of us who have these in the stash, I have two versions and am tempted to give them a go soon You do have a really tidy model there now. All the best, Ray

Hello all! An exciting day today, as finally I glued on the funnel, along with the four ventilators, and a galley stovepipe I knocked up yesterday afternoon. This did not appear on the plans (not that I could see anyway), but does appear in the three photographs of the refitted SS Ophir. It is odd how the two front ventilators do not look straight, but it is the rake of the funnel that does that. I am glad a bit of the cabin interior shows up with the flash photographs (albeit wrong!). This lot can all set now, then tomorrow, with luck I can start adding the supports for the flying bridge and the boat deck (which I wrongly called a roof yesterday). I also need to try and figure out where the funnel stays go on the flying bridge. On the plans (for the unmodified bridge), the lines go about half way to the front of the bridge, but I have put seating there, following guidance on the plans, but I broke the rule 'PLAN AHEAD'. Woops! You would have thought that after about 50 years of modelling I would have learnt. The seats may well have to come out! I am now getting ever closer to having to try and build three winches, two anchors and three lifeboats! The boats I hope to make by whittling wood to shape, then trying to plunge-mould them. Two of the boats are the same pattern/size, the other is a smaller one so at least I will only have to make two. I hope I have better luck than when I tried to mould the ventilators, but at least I had a backup plan. Do any of you think I may be better trying to form them out of Miliput rather than wood? This will be something I have never tried properly before. Detailing the interior should be no problem, especially if I decide to cover them! Thanks for looking, Ray

This is looking good! Plenty of great photo's and tips for this kit. Thanks for going into such detail. Ray

Hello all, I have had a bit more time than I thought I would have on this this weekend. I have finally added the lid to the rear deckhouse, it seems to have glued down and cured the slight curve that had appeared on the roof. (The funnel is still only dry fitted). The cargo hatches are also glued in now too, and I tried to ensure they were lined up properly. The skylights are passable I think, they look better on the ship rather than in the photographs. There is a bit of irregularity in the panel sizes, and a hint of white which will not come off. I have started the two larger ventilators, and started painting the smaller ones. Checking in the reference book, the Zillah Shipping Line had brown ventilators with either red or blue interiors to them, I have gone for the more common red, never having seen or read about blue openings. Finally, I was able to add a couple of very small pieces of rod to the light housings, painted silver then coated with clear red/green. That is it for now, Ray

Col, thanks for that. The white does look a lot better now. I had a look at my attempted ventilators this afternoon and picked the best pair to try and finish. I have ended up with these so far: They have not turned out too bad. I used 3mm rod for the horizontal section, and 2mm for the vertical. I used a round file on the top of the vertical rod to create a curve to fit the other bit into, doused it in liquid poly last night then put some CA around the joint this morning, hoping that would create a nice solid joint for this afternoon's work. I used a sanding stick and file to round off the back of the ventilator, then three different drill sizes to create the opening, followed by craft knife blades to widen the opening, then a conical grinding tool (hand-held) to try and smooth it off, then a burr in a variable speed drill to finish it off and try and get the edges as thin as possible. I will try and deepen the vent tomorrow (rugby calls tonight), then it will be trimming the stems to size to shorten them considerably. These are the smaller of two pairs I need to do, but I think I have cracked this bit! They should look fine painted buff (or cream) or brown outside and red inside I learnt something yesterday evening too. I was typing up yesterday's report and my Broadband went off, (my modem/router is right next to me and I saw the lights blinking and changing colour), and last time that happened I had just written up a big update for this build. When the BB comes back on, I did not realise that my log in to BM gets cancelled, so I hit 'Preview Post' and lost the lot! This time, I had a brainwave. Now, anyone who knows me will realise that me having a brainwave concerning a computer is, shall we say, rare! Anyway, yesterday once the lights came back on, I highlighted all the text on my reply, pressed 'Control C', closed down Britmodeller, re-opened it and logged back in, hit reply then 'Control V' and it worked! I did not lose the reply. I was delighted! Maybe I know a bit more about these contraptions that I think! On that note, I will say Ta-ra, and thanks for looking in again. Ray

Hello all! I repainted the cargo well deck, via Halford's spraycan of white primer. After I masked the rest of the ship off, it looked like a Christmas cracker - I had wrapped clingfilm around the ends and pegged them off, and used masking tape on the outsides of the well deck. I am glad I did it, the result is shown here - it is much better than previously: Thanks to Lashenden and his post linking to SS Robin, I was well chuffed (can I say that?) to see the stanchions I had made were not far out compared to one of the photographs of Robin. It had fewer in the cargo deck, without the plates on the deck that were illustrated in my book. They did have little support struts about half way up though. In the meantime I have been playing the 'taper the brass rod' game for the fore mast, I used a file and rolled the 3mm rod on the work surface whilst running the file across the rod. It worked reasonably well, but I think I may still need to put a bit more taper to it. I had made one from plastic rod, just by running a blade along the rod and continually rolling the rod, and apart from being swamped in plastic shavings, it went very well, I got it thinner at the top, but it was not as strong. I have also started trying to solve the ventilator problem, namely how to make them. I had read on another site that pushing a small ball through heated plastic, then cutting the bulge out before attaching to a suitable rod was a good way, so I tried that. I had no suitable sized 'balls', so sanded the end of a larger brass rod to a hemisphere was tried, but I found great difficulty getting consistent results. I trimmed out two that were close, glued it to some rod, and retired to have a think. I came up with the idea of fitting some larger diameter tube or rod to the stem, the fill/drill/shape out as required. The glue is setting now, so I will post an update when I have done what is needed. I did look on a number of model accessory sites to see if ventilators were available in white metal or resin, but they were not the right size, and maybe it would be cheating in a scratch build! I will post more when I get chance, I will be busy over the next couple of days. Cheers, Ray

That is a great Poem Lashenden! I have done a few small bits and pieces over the last week or so. First up, I put some detailing into the cabin: a ship's wheel (which when I looked closer at the plans is in the wrong place - it looks like it should be at the aft of the cabin, linked to a drive chain at the rear) but I am going to leave it this time, not much will be seen in the closed area. I also put in a binnacle shaped thing, a chart table, and a clock on the wall showing 11.45. I have had problems in the past creating skylights, so this time I made them from clear sheet and cut out small rectangles of masking tape, then attached the set to some doubled over masking tape ready for spraying white primer. I made up three sets altogether. The skylights fit on the top of the aft deckhouse. I had made that up from 20thou card, fitted the framing in place, and added side frames too. All this ended up creating a curved deck. It curves upwards a bit, it looks more dramatic in real life It should glue down straight though (he says fingers crossed). Anyway, here are the skylights in place, and with the first coat of paint to give a wooden effect (since coated with thinned clear Tamiya paint). The masks still need removing, then I will see if it worked. I painted the insides of the skylights Humbrol H67 Tank Grey. I have added 13 stanchions each side to the cargo deck/hull sides. These have been taken from a diagram in my reference book, and I hope I read it properly. They may be fitted too far into the deck, if so, please forgive me! This shot also shows something I need to address - the white paintwork. It had looked okay for quite a while, but now I see tons of brush streaks, so I am going to mask up the entire ship and spray the cargo deck in Halford's white primer. That should do the trick. The flying bridge is now fitted properly, and the Port/Starboard lights painted in (I will try and fit a teeny-weeny bit of rod both sides to look like a lamp at the rear of the fittings). Finally I have put this shot in for two reasons - 1: to show the quality of the White Ensign photo-etch inclined ladder, and 2: to show I think I need to clean the camera a bit because of various blemishes in the shot which are not there in real life! I am now off to try and make some ventilators and the masts. That is it, thanks for looking, Ray

Cliff that is a wonderful finish to this build. Brilliant, and from here there is no way I can see that it is an old kit. Regards, Ray

Kev, thanks for that link, and I promise I will call the 'bollards' bitts in future! There are turnbuckles on the GMM etch set I mentioned previously, so now I know how to use them, thanks immensely for that link. Thank you bhouse for those lovely comments. I agree, Britmodeller is something special. I have learnt so much over the few years I have been with this forum. I always do my best to try and learn, after all, if a modeller has taken the trouble to give some advice, it is the least I can do! I am not sure about it being a winner though, but I hopefully will improve when I do a second one later. Lashenden, that is another great link, and you have really helped me out with a couple of detail bits - the big winch type thing looks well detailed and I was struggling with trying to interpret the plans for that, and also for guidance with the lifeboat fittings - it has given a clue as to their support. Oh yes, SS Robin looks a fine ship, and the shot of her being lifted by crane -well that was amazing! Anyway, I have tried to represent the openings outboard of the bitts (see Kev I remembered). This was going to be a delicate operation, as I had already glued the bitts and their base plates in position. I used some masking tape to get the depth of the gunwhale to the deck then transferred that to the outside of the hull. I then chain drilled through (carefully) trying to miss the bitts. I caught one with the drill and it seemed like I had bent it (no real issue) so I tried to straighten it with some tweezers. The whole assembly came off the deck in one piece! Result I thought. I prized the others off and all parted company with the deck neatly, so I put them to one side and had a much easier time sorting out the other openings. I have tried to make them oval, but they may be oversized a bit. It was a simple job to reposition the bitts when done. I hope it does not look too rough, but now I know what to look for on the next scratchbuild I will do better next time. Well that is it for now, thanks for looking and helping out. All the best everyone, Ray

Murdo, this is just the sort of help I need! Thank you so much for pointing that out for me. I think I will be able to get the holes drilled out, and also for the 4 sets that will go on the cargo deck. There are areas marked on the plans roughly where the bollards go, but I misinterpreted them, so you have set me back on the straight and narrow... Anyway, today's update: I have done very little construction these last couple of days, but I had a bit of time today to get some painting done, I have painted the loading hatches, I had no idea on colours, but the book gave a description of paintwork in general, and mentioned that at least some Shipping Lines used red for the hatches, so that is what I went for. I first up painted the two assemblies in Revell Middle Grey acrylics, then, gave it a coat or four of Light Grey for the hold itself. I found that painting the darker grey acted like a pre-shade and gives a slightly worn look to the lighter grey. I used Humbrol's H60 Red for the hatches themselves. I have also cut out a hole up on the Boat deck to accept the funnel, which I made out of some plastic tube that just happened to be spot on size wise. I have given it a funnel grating from .10mm rod, with a capper which originally was a coaling scuttle for HMS Dreadnought in 1/350 scale, but looks ok perched on top of the funnel. There is a strengthening strip around the funnel at the base of the black section where the funnel stays will fit. That was made from .2 thou round rod that had been curved using a paintbrush handle pulled along the rod. As usual, the cabin, boat deck and funnel are just dry fitted, and the funnel still has some masking tape on it. It may be a while before I can post some more, I have a busy few evenings coming up after work. I do have one question: on the plan, there is some rigging from the foremast which is like the sailing ships, with ratlines. Any ideas where they would fit on the hull anyone? I have some very tiny etched parts which were from GMM's set for the Russian ships Borodino and Varyag, and they were to tie down rigging - I was thinking of fitting them to the cargo deck and running the vertical lines down to them but am not sure: Don't forget, any advice is always appreciated, especially if it stops me making a boo-boo! All the best, Ray

Hi Cliff, good question. I loved building up the hull and general superstructure, but at the moment the sense of achievement when I have finished something smaller and complex is quite a feeling. Murdo, thank you for your 'prompting!' I have been remiss in not posting for a few days. Please accept my apologies! I now have a few updates for your perusal. First up, I fitted four sets of bollards to the rear raised deck. These had been painted on a peg, and thankfully I managed to prize them off the masking tape without ruining them. I fixed them with liquid poly, straight onto the underlying paintwork: Then it was time to start on the cabin on the flying bridge. I looked again at the original photos I linked to early on in the build thread, and something had not looked right. One of the photographs, whilst it is Ophir, must be from an earlier period in her life, as the bridge looks really different to the other three pics. There is a covered cabin in the three, but not in the one. I suppose she was modified, perhaps during one of her Navy secondments. The plans showed no cabin. So I decided to go with a cabin for this version. This involved windows. Another area where I have difficulties. What to do? Well, I thought about it a bit (hence the lack of updates) and eventually decided to cut them out of the plastic sheet side walls. Some of the better modellers out there have used photoetch ladders to produce their windows, but I did not have anything in stock suitable, so I drew out the window positions onto the walls, then chain-drilled a load of little holes, then carefully trimmed them out to squares with a new scalpel blade, ensuring I missed my fingertips this time. The photos showed that the window arrangement was 'handed', so I marked on the inside which was was towards to bow. There is a bigger blank section at the aft end of the wall compared tp the front. I have also made up the flying bridge, I have used plain card rather than grooved for the deck. I managed to get the edges reasonably square, and was able to add the beading trim to finish it off in line with the pictures. I have also made up a control stick for a ships wheel to go inside the cabin, and will also see if I can rustle up a table and some other bits and bobs to furnish the cabin with a bit more 'stuff' as you should hopefully be able to see through the windows when all is done. I remembered AFTER I had finished the cabin that they needed a way to get in, I had forgotten the door! I made one up and fitted it to the rear starboard wall, as that is where the plans show a ladder from the boat deck, which I think is the proper name for the 'roof' that I will mention shortly. I still need to re-open the window aperture. Last night I started on the rear deckhouse roofing and got the part sanded out, then today I managed to put the vertical parts on which hang below the roof. I there are also three skylights to fit to the roof, another area where I have struggled, but I had a plan in mind for this attempt. I have made up the largest of the three, but not put the skylights themselves on. I am going to use clear card, then mask the 8 glazed sections then paint it, and fit that rather than trying to make frames then glazing them. I am not sure what colour the cargo deck should be, there is no mention of it in the book, so I have made a 'best guess' and painted it white, but I have deliberately made it a patchy white. I am going to have to learn how to 'weather' this, as I rarely weather my models, but a coastal steamer would not be gleaming. I will probably use Tamiya weathering sets, I have dabbled a bit in the past but not on anything too important. Anyway, here she is, with the deckhouse roof and flying bridge just dry fitted. Thanks for looking and the advice (and question!), and for your keenness to see more Murdo! That is the first time anyone has said that sort of thing with one of my builds. It made my day! See you soon, Ray

Hello all. Quite a lot of small stuff done to SS Ophir these last few days. First up was some colour, in the form of lifebelts: I had some plastic tube in stock, it was 3.2mm and seemed to fit correctly. I trimmed the end off the rod with a razor blade held vertically, then stuck 8 of these down onto some double sided tape attached to a stick. While I was at it, I used some thicker black Contrail rod, which also had a proportionally wider middle, and cut a few discs of that, which will be destined to become spare tyres for protecting the hull sides when in harbour. The photos show at least one over the side of the ship over the gunwhale. I have given the wooden deck a bit of colour too. I had painted the main colour as Revells Light Grey, and today I used some Humbrol 93 Desert Yellow enamel dry brushed over the planking, giving just a hint of a brownish faded colour, with the grey still predominant: Then it was time for some more titchy stuff. I had got some White Ensign 1/200 Photo etch for the ladders, so I made up two of these short ladders: I painted them with a light grey acrylic to act as a base coat, the gave them a coat of Humbrol 164 for the treads and gloss white for the handrails. These are somewhat easier to work with than their 1/700 cousins... There are 13 stanchions on either side of the cargo deck, these are metal bars which go from the deck to a point on the inside of the hull side, and the diagrams I have show they are fitted to a plate on the deck. Getting consistent spacing is another failing of mine, so I used a sticky 'tape measure' - I used some Tamiya tape, and marked on directly from the plans the spacing. I drew across the tape with a pen, then cut the tape lengthways, and placed them in position, the fitted the plates with a dab of CA applied with a bit of fishing line, the plates were fitted by using a damp blunt cocktail stick, which picked the bits up easily. They are still not quite straight though!: I have also made up 10 sets of double bollards, 10thou card for the base and .9mm round rod for the bollards. To make sure the bollards were the same size, I taped some Tamiya tape to the edge of my cutting mat, and held the completed set at the edge (the lip on the base hooked over the edge of the mat) and used the razor blade to trim to length. They were painted Revell Middle Grey for the base and Tar Black for the bollards. Finally, here is the ship as she looks now: Thanks for looking, and the lovely comments again. All the best, til next time Ray

Hi Chrish, this has gone on the back burner for the time being I am afraid. I have an idea in mind for an experiment with the NMF. It involves Mr Hobby Mr Metal Color paint. The idea is to shake like mad the paint jar, use an OLD brush (which has seen better days and is splayed out), then load the brush with paint from the LID only, then vigorously rub it onto UNPRIMED plastic in smallish areas at a time. When dry, it can then be buffed. I got the idea from http://www.essmc.org...tal_Finish.html I hope the link works. I tried this out with a Lightning nose ring and it worked a treat, see http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234970309-airfix-172-f2a-92-sqn/page-2(go to reply28) but I was going to use this build to see it it worked for the whole plane. I used Humbrol Metalcote spray for the main finish on that build. Cheers, Ray

Thanks for that tip Kev, I have given it a go. I used some of my Tamiya tape, which just happened to be the right size for the plating sections. I used strips of it to form the gaps, and then popped down two or three pieces to follow the curve of the hull fore and aft. I also put some tape down where the 'anti-rubbing strakes' (I think) go: Then a quick spray of Halford's finest grey primer or three and I ended up with: A giant humbug! It looked quite neat like this, but somewhat unrealistic. I added the strakes along the hull sides and around the transom, I used some larger diameter half-round rod for this. I found fitting the side ones was okay, using the glue-a-bit-then-some-more method I had learnt the other day, but the bit around the aft area was more tricky, despite being able to bend the rod with my trusty probe. I must take a picture of it so you know what I mean - it is something my Grandfather gave me over 40 years ago, and it gets used for tons of things! I could see the ridge/edge that Kev had mentioned, but proof was in the painting as they say, so I brush painted some Revell Antracite acrylic which had been suitably watered down, and after two coats I had this: This really highlighted the 'plating', and I am pleased to say that it has worked a treat, the edges are visible, but in a subtle way, definitely not 'in your face', so a huge thanks to Kev. I have learnt plenty from you so far! One thing I did notice was the difference in texture between the primed area and the non-primed area. There is some graininess on the primed bit, and it highlights the plating just a hint more, but next time I will probably give an extra coat of primer when I have removed the masking tape, or sand the surface down with micromesh or similar. I have also painted the wooden decks with some of Revell's Hellgrau 371, this will end up with a thin wash of a brown enamel to try and make it look like weathered wood. Last night I also made up a second hold hatch, which will go towards the bow end of the cargo deck. Today I have given the hull and decks a third coat of paint. The grotty waterline should hopefully vanish when I fit this to a seascape - the filler has crumbled a bit where I did not get the plastic hull base quite right on the join to the hull. That is it for now, thanks for looking and all the comments and tips, it is really appreciated. Cheers, Ray

Holy smoke, that is amazing! Well found Kev Ray

Hello all. You know I said I was going to stick a couple of pieces of card to the raised bow? Well, as I was looking at the pictures, I noticed what appears to be 'beading' along the top of the hull. It is very noticeable (now I have seen it), so I ummed and arred as to whether to try and replicate it or not. The problem was that it followed the sharp curves at the front and rear of the cargo deck. I tried to bend my half-round rod over a probe I use, but it kept flipping over to the flat side and putting the bend on the wrong axis. This was after putting the beading successfully round the after deck, so I was committed. Then I hit on an idea I had read about in mags and here on BM, glue it in stages! A dab of liquid poly, place the rod, hold it in place with a scalpel (carefully), then glue a bit further on and force it into the curve, and bingo, it was done! In real life there does not seem to be much discrepancy between the beading and the hull sides, but it doesn't half show up in the last picture! You can see the modified washplates here reaching deck level now, so the cargo deck will not fill up in heavy seas, unlike my first attempt. I did manage to fit what I had originally intended too: They just need a bit of cleaning up, and further inspection of the photo's showed there was a hole in these things, so I will drill that out once the glue has set properly, and hope they do not snap off! It is amazing how much you find out when you are doing something like this, I know I never see everything first, second or third look! (see the wash plates for proof!). I know I still have plenty to add to the outside of the hull. There appears to be plating, which I may add with the thinned plastic sheet I can find (currently 10thou), plenty of port holes (or scuttles) and some more thicker 'beading' aft and amidships. I think I am going to call that it for the day now. Have a good weekend, Ray

Hello Kev, the wash ports have been adjusted to deck level, thanks for pointing that out! If I had thought about it, it was obvious, wasn't it! On the other point, this is the guillotine I bought: It was made by Tonic-Studios in China, and it seems ok. My Dad had a guillotine which was brilliant - it was a block of wood, with a square grid embossed on it, and a straight up and down lever which did the chopping. You could really see any marks you put on paper/photographs/card etc so were guaranteed a perfect cut. Sadly, over time the blade warped and ended up curved so I never ended up with a straight cut. It also had no finger protection, but in those days we all had common sense so was not required. It also aided the visibility of marks for alignment. This one has a limited lift on the cutter, but does have protection, it is spring assisted, and cushioned too, so you do get a really good clamp on the paper. I am still getting used to cutting with it, and my first two cuts (for the rear cabin sides of Ophir ended up slightly out of true. I had measured 12mm for the heights, but ended up at 12mm one end and 11.5mm at the other). Close, but I need to be more accurate. The packaging only mentioned about card/paper trimming, and the good folks in the shop were not too sure if it would do plastic card, so they suggested I took some in and tried it. It worked, and so far I have tried 20thou and 30thou, which it has cut easily. I will try 40thou in the future. So far I am glad I got it. I got it from a stationer in Ross-on-Wye, Colemans. I had excellent service from them, and I have used them loads of times. Anyway, this morning I finished off the vertical walls of the rear cabin, and thankfully noticed a third doorway at the aft end of the port side, which lead to the bath (according to the plans!) and also found the position of a Jacobs Ladder for the rear of the cabin. I have just got to put a couple of bits of card at the raised bow area, then can spray the ship with some primer. I have popped some masking tape where the hold hatches will go to make gluing better, it would be awkward painting it if I fitted it now. Finally, here is the back end, I think it is as close as I can get, I will use balsa as a core in future builds as Kev suggested, as using filler gives a lot of work. I find sanding to shape is not a strong point of mine, so balsa may well be the way to go. I will get some more done this afternoon. Thanks for looking and the advice again Cheers, Ray

Just what do these manufacturers think they are doing? Here we are, stashes as big as a planet, all set for when we retire, and now saving up for said retirement. And these people keep on issuing kits that we just have to buy! It goes on and on! I mean, just HOW are we supposed to prepare for the future if such temptation is put in your way? Oh, did I say 'good on yer, AModel, keep up the good work'? What will be next I wonder? Cheers, Ray. PS Good on Hannants too for saying they will do some transfer sheets too, that of course means we will need to buy extra kits too...

An amazing build Warren, it is great to see how you get over issues. The consistency of your etch work is brilliant. Cheers, Ray