Rurik II as in 1913 in 1/700

[moomoon]

For sure your WEM looks superfine, all these small corners must have been a nightmare!

[JIM BAUMANN]

@ Neptune! Yes you can sand the CA infused paper--very very gently!


@ Momoon... good to see you watching!-what are YOU building at the moment?

long time no read of your modelmaking!

meanwhile...

always a sign of progress when the first turret goes on...

All the weather deck railings have now been fitted--with the cables fore and aft being coloured darker grey and each individual stanchion being picked out in hull colour with a fine brush-- a tedious pastime that rewards with the railings not being intrusive - especially when the fore-and-aft-cables have had their downward stroke drybrush (still to come )

The aft conning bridge was another exercise in careful cutting of railings.

I had pared the underside of the deck with a sharp blade until it was near scale thickness and quite flexible....

Photos show this deck to have considerable camber

I therefore over bent the deck downwards somewhat prior to mounting.

The aft superstructure had doors mounted and portholes pierced according to 'hints' in a photo and what was to be seen on the builders model ( courtesy of David J Ross images)

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=44791

The 'dropping bridge wings will now be propped up in gentle compression with the PE gantry-work from underneath until I can achieve the gentle athwartships camber I hope will look right

In the above view can also be seen that I have fitted the 20 x 5 in casemate gun barrels.

These in photo's are really outrageously long !!

especially as the midships battery with its casemate plates open has the guns perpendicular to the hull sides....

I made these of NNT ( schatton ) brass 6 in RN gun barrels snipped down slightly - deeming them to look 'right' despite their 'on-the-face-of-it' apparent oversize

More soon!

JB

[LE BOSCO]

Jim
your work is a refinement rarely equaled,it's a real feast for the eyes
it will be ready for telford? because, I hope to see in real
best regards
Nicolas

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you Nicolas; alas at the present rate of progress of work she is unlikely to be completed for Telford, but I will have a number of my models there and look froward to meeting you!

meanwhile...

I spent an almost unbelievable 5 hours (!!!) installing the under-deck bracing of the aft flying bridge...

( I must be nuts ! )

But there is some mitigation for this lunacy - honest!

The kits PE fret-- although surprisingly comprehensive, is alas not really as fine as I would like.

The under-deck PE bracing supplied for this area at first sight looked easy and convincing....

But...

Study of the photos revealed there to be 3 sets of braces-not two as implied by the instructions and PE parts supplied- and I was unable to see diagonal bracing on the the inner struts...

after offering up the PE parts--and concluding they were just too chunky for my liking--albeit easy to work with...

I knew I had to do it the hard-but right way...


I installed individual verticals in the positions that the photos suggested.-
The outer diagonal braces were made of stretched sprue

The bracing gussets were made of paper triangles, manipulated on the end of a damp paintbrush onto a spot of paint on the vertical strut and then glued on with paint

Was it worth it...? probably....

A swift beer now I think!


JIM B

[LE BOSCO]

hello Jim

I would be has telford on Saturday.It will be a real pleasure to see your models and you ,of course as my spoken English is even worse than that writes,I asked has my friend J. Druel or his son to make the translation!!
You were right to add the triangles of reinforcement,which is already a model of the kind of
best regards
nicolas

[Rob 2]

Five hours Jim, but time well spent. I�m looking forward to seeing your work at Telford again this year.
Rob.

[JIM BAUMANN]

As mentioned previously...

I wanted to show Rurik with her casemates open- mainly because it would give some interest to an otherwise bland hull side--and partly because most photos show these to be open--presumably for the purpose of lower deck ventilation...

The main problem I faced was how to make the half circular hole for the barrel to pass thru in each door half when the casemate doors were shut.

choices...

1)Drilling styrene- easy but material -too thick- and maybe temperature unstable long term

2)Drilling paper--easy but not a clean hole-

3)Punching paper- easy- clean hole but slightly distorted the paper

4)Drilling brass-- harder-- and using a hand-held;d drill was not neat....

5)Adapting a PE part with a hole in it was the way to go...!!!!

WEM Kriegsmarine doors 1/350 to be specific! ( nice and cheap too! )

It was a wasteful process--mainly because of the difficulty of cutting relief etched PE--sometimes the blades would simply 'roll' off... Fortunately there were enough doors on the fret!

Some of these also needed to be curved for the doors on the 'corners'

Collectively this all worked pretty well--with the small half doors remaining closed on some

( I referred to the builders model photos by David J Ross mentioned earlier for the layout of the doors...

For some light relief...(!) I have also made all the platforms...

The mast top platforms were supplied as a nice PE part

To achieve the desired 'thinness' of deck in side elevation, I applied the railings around the outside of the platforms.

The small searchlight platforms were made using my usual method:

1)Form the railing of PE handrail to the correct shape and join.

2)Apply thinned white glue to form a film across the bottom.

3)Varnish the underside ( acts a water barrier to the next layer of glue )

4)when dry apply a second coat of white glue.

White glue dries clear-- paint the UNDERSIDE of the platform for crisp paint colour demarcation...

The clunkiness of the resin parts versus their replacements can be clearly seen

More soon

JB

[ARH]

Very nice Jim, have a good Telford, alass I will not be able to make it.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you Admiral!!

Well I have made some progress on the prominent-but nevertheless less small steps...

all of which took ludicrous amounts of time ( relatively! )

The sternwalk on this vessel was integral to the stern--not hanging over balcony-like as in some RN ships.

The kits PE has the sternwalk mesh and frames--however its all rather clunky....

I tried to improve on it all ...

I used some WEM sternwalk mesh( WW1 BB fret), with the lower rail cut off to lower it.

I had procrastinated for some days as to how I was to make the scalloped ( frilly!) canvas edge to the canopy.

I cut some WEM 1/350 Koenig boat cradle pierced strip in half --it looked great--apart from it would be appropriate to the Combrig 1/350 Kit of Rurik...

ie it was vastly over scale

This made my quest trickier and I needed to think more laterally.
I had used successfully pierced girder on my MN Carnot build
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... index.html

which I had cut from numerous L'Arsenal Liberty ship PE frets

This time I needed to cut the desired pieces form the fret and then cut them in half.... it was successful and pretty true to scale! - albeit the scallop number was not quite right... -- ah well!

Once the frilly edge had been installed I turned attention to the canopy. I wanted to use white glue to simulate the canvas roof--so I needed to make a 'frame' so that the white glue film spanning the area had definite perimeters to reach
to -so that the ' bubble ' would not pop.

Note the cut-out for the ladder going down- as seen on the real ship.

The next photo shows the first layer of glue drying--clear

In this photo the canopy has been painted--however I wanted to get a smoother line--so applied more glue

It will need a bit of tuning still but the photos are around 20 x life size--so please excuse any 'wobbles' ...!


The previously made platforms and rails were installed next- surprisingly fiddly and and some degree of trial and error until it worked in profile and plan view

The compass platform's base was a hollowed out casting from the kit which I opened further and reduced in height.

The stairs going to it are very steep and received a handrail made of stretched sprue.

The searchlight platform had the supporting brackets added of stretched sprue .

work will continue on....


Jim Baumann

[MartinJQuinn]

Gorgeous work Jim. Really innovative ways around issues too!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Progress has been made--albeit slowly as most of the small details are being fabricated from scratch

Notable new additions are the siren( stb) and whistle ( pt) on the fwd funnel-
-along with the pipework that passes through the platform and kinks in at an angle parallel the steam pipe...-- fiddly stuff.

The davits were surprisingly tricky--especially the four aft on the quarterdeck --as the hull features considerable tumblehome in this area .

I got around the issue of fastening these by drilling a small hole for the lower location point--and making the davits of hard brass wire with a very acute 90 Deg bend so that the lower end could be located into the hole.

The( very! ) small triangular gussets were made of paper and the 'knuckle joint( rotating ) was made of a blob of white glue.

Moving onwards naturally to the boats.... Virtually ALL the photos of Rurik I have show the boats to be sheeted over...
I say sheeted deliberately !

In my 1/1 scale life I run a small business that manufactures boatcovers and canopies--that are fitted and do FIT.

The covers seen in the images on the boats are ... err -politely described as 'loosefitting'...

Much harder to make 1/700 poor-fitting sheets/covers than neatly fitted covers!!!
I made mine using wet cigarette paper and white glue.

Making the double-stacked boats look right under canvas was quite challenging.


As the model was in grave danger of looking very dull ( grey!) indeed-- I left one large oar powered boat open, with a gig being half open with the cover gathered to the stb side- this will have a couple of sailors inside--doing something important..!?

The whalers and gigs also--in all photos appear to be covered....

I have still to be convinced that even the sea-boat-slung out on davits--would have had the cover strapped down--as almost all the view show the stb side--I can ( must!) assume the port seaboat whaler to be uncovered...

I ummed and ahhhhd over depicting the vertical reeved ropes on the funnels ( for funnel painting)

Examination of photos brought the decision-- in most photos vertical-lines are faintly discernible.

So as to minimise the visual impact-- I made these of light grey stretched sprue--allowing their cast shadow to give the impression of their presence

A couple of overviews show the boat to looking ' busier'....

No more work on the model until after Telford-- off to pack my boats!


Jim Baumann

[Frank Spahr]

Fine progress, Jim!

Have a safe trip and a most enjoyable weekend wishes

Frank

[Dave Wooley]

Jim a magnificent build . I for one will be very keen to get a real close up look at your Rurik 2 .
Dave Wooley

[Harry @ BFM]

Looks like she is coming along very nicely.

"It was a wasteful process--mainly because of the difficulty of cutting relief etched PE--sometimes the blades would simply 'roll' off..."
JB I use a small scissor on small PE parts works very well, they do not go flying across the room either.

BTW, I forgot to tell you I found some 1mm Micro-Chisel replacement sets(round and flat tips) via our friend Carl M. let me know if you need some.

[mabmanu]

Beau travail .

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you for your kind words Gentlemen!

Following on from the 'post-Telford-modelburnout'....Recent works have been making more canvas covered boats...

twisting and bending numerous crew-figures and deploying them around the ship as seen in photos.
Navigation lightboards( brass strip) and nav lamps( snippets of brass wire) as well as life-buoy holders, boat booms and griping spars as well as small davits etc--all tiny pieces individually --they do nevertheless add to the sum-total of a busy ship.

The funnel cap grilles were supplied as PE-- just too clunky!

I made some finer replacements of tungsten wire and sprue... they look much lighter and are clear of the funnel tops



More soon--top mast's up next!! , then sea, rigging and completion....!

[mabmanu]

comme toujours ... superbe ...

[Stefano Salesi]

as ever, your work is stunning. only thing i can do is ctrl-c ctrl-v to save the thread and to read it every day as a modeling bible.

[J. Soca]

Simply amazing!! ...



Jose

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you for your kind praises!!

The end IS now in sight...!!

The topmasts were the next challenge to surmount.

Ruriks topmasts were very tall spindly affairs...

I WAS tempted to simply make the of parallel thin wire.

BUT... I offered up some suitable stainless steel wire .... but examination of photos confirmed my doubts...

it just looked......... Wrong...!

Tapered masts they had to be. very very thin and fine....

I looked thru my stash of BMK tapered brass and stainless steel masts from Steve Foulkes...

Fine for 1/350... I them a bit needed finer...!

WEAR EYE PROTECTION !!!

So I cut a tapered triangular groove in some Formica topped chipboard with a triangular file.

I then installed some hard brass rod into my variable speed mini-drill.

Spinning this at lowish speed with a diamond speckled flat file removed the material in a controllable manner -the v-groove cut in the chipboard stabilised the loose end of the rod and prevented it spinning out of true.

Finished off with sanding with progressive grades of wet and dry paper.

The results were very very skinny topmasts...

A = BMK tapered mast
B & C are my efforts
D & E are stainless steel masts from Steve Foulkes( for 1/350 )

The previously made platforms were slid over the thin masts successfully and were extensively glued to give stability to the top-mast and main mast juncture

The bow crest was made of some squashed brass and cut with scissors, the fwd flagstaff was made of copper wire with the beginnings of the awning support stanchions to be seen.

The stern has also had flagstaff installed along with the corner anchor stanchions, nav lights aft .

Life rings have now been made of fuse wire would around a small drill shank--these were flattened slightly between two 'Stanley' blades, along with a companionway ladder ( stb only ) made of various WEM items.

The remaining works to be done before the flat coat--before the rigging and the sea painting- comprise of installing some additional boat chocks, straps for the davit slug boats ( stretched sprue-flattened) and some of the larger block and pulley assemblies for the davits and boat boom.

Then flatcoat... rigging... and the sea....

and ... completion..!!