Good day kind people!
It being England the weather could not last-- and as result I have been busy with a myriad of tiny things on the Normandie
all of which consume many hours.
as built ( as is my model) the ship had the name emblazoned on her upper deck as a large illuminated sign
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The real thing -- close up -- looks like this
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Noteworthy is that the sign is a U shaped box section-- braced longitudinally on the reverse
with light-bulbs arranged to reflect the light within the U-box. The sides and back are painted black.
I decided against the light-bulbs... ( this is 1/700 !!!
)
I had the option of the kit PE lettering ( too simplified, very soft- in brass )
3-D custom printed lettering--correct in that it had fine edges, and was a proper ' U-box'
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or my custom stainless steel relief etched PE lettering
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The problem with the 3D printed lettering was that whilst it was ' correct ' it was dimensionally correct ..
. in 1/700 on the ship it just looked a bit " BIG "
The bracing on the reverse was also a bit heavy for my liking
compromises and preferences...
The stainless PE -although in section -may appear a bit thin when enlarged brutally....
But when offered up to the model ship it had a more delicate appearance
-- and -looking at photos, taken from a distance of the real ship
my perception of the under-size section depth was actually more to my liking
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They all were quite a fiddle to paint, to hold and paint!. I stuck them on to the sticky side of a post it note
( stuck down to the bench with doublesided tape )
and further secured the lettering to the post-note with Tamiya tape -
-so that when running the 00.3 pen along there would be no shifting
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the bracing was added --in much thinner strips of stainless steel PE ( ex PE rigging )
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Much touching up and paring away the paint with a curved edge scalpel blade was needed to get a reasonably acceptable look
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The lettering was installed; the angled supporting props on the inside will be added shortly in situ
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in the meantime I added the funnels... some of which needed ' assistance' to bend to my will
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the vent deck -- surrounding the aft funnel ( non-smoke function ) had a variety of
fiddly and very fine railing .
I found this very helpful schematic on-line of the aft funnel ventilation functions
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I digress--the railings proper were part of my custom PE frets, and being Nickel silver and pretty fine are also very delicate.
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The degree of wasted PE rail caused by mis-bends, accidental bends, wrong cuts, and bent stuff suddenly not fitting, being dropped, lost, pinging its way across the workbench etc in general was frankly of an EPIC scale...
completely disproportionate to what was actually fitted to the model !!!
the designer had added fold-up feet-- which were a little bit large -and
very difficult to bend without damaging or distorting the stanchions.
I elected to cut the away individually and aim for a crisper look.( and making life much harder for adhesive contact !
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The technique that proved most successful( after quite a few failed attempts!!!)
==> was to tack on with matt enamel varnish, and then run a cats whisker ( yes really!)
with a tiny drop of CA glue at the base of the stanchion
Despite the above mentioned wastage--the end result was quite pleasing.
( I have since removed the ( dented !) centrepiece between the steps
the stair rails will be painted silver also next session
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careful observers will have noted that the liferaft stacks at the funnel bases are now all in place.
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whilst dealing with fiddly rails I added the stairways from the aft lamp deck
comparison of kit piece ( with 2 bar rail instead of 4 ).
( after the photo ) -I filled my gaps at the ends of the steps with white glue and painted white to homogenise!
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Thereafter for some light relief and pleasure I added the tannoy loudspeakers aft
( as well as trying to add simulated deck lights.... )
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Its starting to look shippy with funnels in place....
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More soon
JIM B
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