Hello all again !
...back from Holiday (this year within the UK = a 'staycation' )
-- and progress is moving slowly onwards towards completion ( ish! )
I had spent quite a few hours completing the water
lots of small highlights with differing shades of white
etc etc
so needed some tangible works ... !
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Masts and yards;
Having extensively ( maybe obsessively ! ) studied the photos,
I was not entirely happy with the shape of the kits brass masts,
as their taper was constant from its base and a exaggerated narrowing at the top .
I also felt they were too thick at the base--and in addition there was
-for my liking--insufficient ' tail ' to the mast ( to be installed into the solid resin cast superstructure )
to counteract the cumulative rigging tension .
Therefore I made my own - parallel for the first 1/3 of its length- with a lot of tail ! )
-using some Albion Alloys brass tubing,
with stainless steel wire cemented inside on the lower portion,
and a Master Models 1/350 Yard arm shortened and installed to give a more gradual shape to the the top taper .
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The kit supplied brass yard arms - whilst the lengths scaled well-- they were alas rather too substantial when viewing photos
and were replaced with items from Master Models
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The methodology of attaching the yard arms- according to the instructions--whilst structurally sound
alas bore no resemblance to the real thing
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I was fortunate to have this photo which showed the bracing gussets on the lower fwd yard;
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I made my gussets with strips of stretched sprue, which were then in-filled with CA glue
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I assembled the aft mast with a finely tapered ensign gaff as per photos.
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The fwd mast had a look-out on its fwd face --which in the early version of the ship was open with just a roof,
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After the refit a more personnel-friendly fully enclosed version was installed
The kit supplied item was a good shape and quite well done ...
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==> was post refit only ! As a result I made my own lookout using paper
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The photos show an external ladder on each mast, however when scaled down this almost vanished from view,
so rather than attach a way over-scale ( even with my finest ) PE ladder to the mast ,
I attached a very thin copper wire to the relevant mast side,
-- which will have a gentle highlight/ shadow done to give the impression of the outer ladder vertical
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The Fore-deck cargo cranes were made using the cast kit parts,
which are pretty close in appearance and dimensions
The masts were cast from a 3-D print ( I think) --so they needed some work to remove all the printing steps to smooth.
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The ' lamp shades ' are a bit over-scale -but pleasing to the eye.
I added my own lamps underneath made of white glue drop-lets
( also over-scale but ditto above...!
)
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I added a ( VERY ) small strip of stainless PE to the underside of eh crane booms to stabilise the resin and also create the impression of taper.
The real crane booms were actually an inverted hollow U shape
( making these would have been an ideal application for PE ... !)
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When at rest, the booms were supported on a hinged centre post with hinged side-members and a aft support.
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I made these with different thickness wires- glued in situ
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The Builders plate was proudly ( and prominently !! ) fitted below the elongated centre bridge window
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I made mine using an anonymous ( ie no idea here it came from ! ) aircraft instrument decal cut down to get the desired effect.
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The supports for the large illuminated signs between the funnels
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were made of thin stretched tinned copper wire
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I had tried pre-painting the wire-
but it kept getting chipped when manipulating with tweezers;
so resorted to installing the wire and then painting.
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More progress soon!
JIM B