The Ship Model Forum

The planking is Great!!! I love the special shapes around the gun etc.
This is going to be awesome when finished!

I agree, the deck is superb.



Jef

Shaping up well Steve Your deck lay is neat and clean. I always find the margin planks around the barbette a little tricky and that's at 1:96scale. .
Dave Wooley

Thanks to all for the comments and interest so far.

Nothing really exciting to show this time, just some progress on the deck planking. I am slowly working my way from bow to stern, and have completed most of the foredeck to about halfway along the forward superstructure cabin.

The work is repetitive and time consuming, yet at the same time satisfying and refreshing. I find that much of model building is logistical in nature. You need to decide which component to construct next, what materials it will take to do it, exactly how to do it and how the component will fit in to the model as a whole. Painting and finishing often adds another layer of decision making to the whole process. Thinking, planning and musing can take up much of a modeler�s time (at least this modeler�s time). Deck planking is a large job that, once it has begun, requires one only to sit down and do it, with little contemplation required.

After a section of planking has been put down and the cement has dried, I wet the area using a paint brush soaked in water. This tends to swell the wood somewhat and close up the any gaps in the seams. After the deck has dried I then give it a light sanding just to even up some of the rougher spots and remove any cement that might be on the wood. If you compare the last photo in my previous post with the first one, which is of the same area, you can see the results of this process.
The photo above shows some of the fitment involved around the oddly shaped compartment underneath the port forward twin 4� gun mount.
The last photo illustrates well the staggered nature of the planking run.

It may be time consuming but the overall effect is well worth the effort, excellent job Steve
Dave Wooley

Courage, you made very nice work...

"The work is repetitive and time consuming, yet at the same time satisfying and refreshing"

hmmm...Refreshing...


Take a fresh beer to have more courage.





Jef

Jefgte wrote: Take a fresh beer to have more courage.

Maybe a little red wine, Jef.

Steve Sobieralski wrote:

Jefgte wrote: Take a fresh beer to have more courage.

Maybe a little red wine, Jef.

Get a few down you, and then you can build wobbely like us,

ARH wrote: Get a few down you, and then you can build wobbely like us,

I do Ron, believe me I do.

Just some photos on the progress this week, which was mostly continuing work on the deck planking. The forward part of B turret deck was planked to a point just aft of the bridge superstructure and this has been completed. Two of the skylight hatches have also been constructed. The deck around the twin 4� gun mounts was also planked and one of those areas was completed. The gun mount shown was temporarily borrowed from a model of HMS Abdiel I built several years ago.

Outstanding work Steve - I love the planking, it looks awesome!

Great Work Steve. the planking really stands out as a good example of what can be achieved.
Dave Wooley

Superb work Steve!!!


You can drink more red wine but,... after work








Jef

I decided to take a brief break from planking (red wine only goes so far, Jef) and get a start on some of the other small sub-assembly items such as the aircraft crane and torpedo tubes.

The aircraft crane is really a small model in itself. The crane boom was constructed somewhat like a wood airplane model by laying the side of the boom out and building it directly on the plan.





When both of the boom sides were complete I then carefully started gluing the connecting members between them. As soon as several of the connecting members were in place I began adding the diagonals, which greatly increased the rigidity and stability of the structure. Most of the material used is .020� square plastic strip.





After the boom was complete I built the cab, again using .020� square strip as well as .015� sheet. The motors and rollers were built up using various small diameter rods and tubes as well as small discs made with a Waldron punch set. Some additional detail still needs to be added to both the boom and cab.







The ship carried two quadruple sets of torpedo tubes, one set on each side approximately amidships. The tubes themselves were constructed of plastic tubing, cut to the correct length with the under fore part cut away at angle. Banding was added using .010 x .020 plastic strips. Discs for the bases were cut from plastic sheet using a compass knife.





Details such as training mechanisms, air cylinders and crew platforms still need to be added.

Thanks as always for the comments and interest.

Very nice,

Very nice cranes




Jef

Nice planking Steve , your crane and torpedo tubes are looking fantastic.Great work.

regards,

Ludwig

I keep on looking in--lots of very fine work taking place here--good stuff-the planking excercise shows true stoicism!



JIM B

Very Nicely done, on all of it.

Not a lot to show this week. I�ve been continuing with the deck planking, but I won�t bore you with more photos of that right now.

I�ve started construction of the twin 4 inch secondary gun mounts, again made of various shapes and thicknesses of plastic. Still some details to be added to the basic structure.
The shield is made of .015 styrene sheet and was quite time consuming to construct. The shape of the shield is somewhat more complex than it loooks and took several attempts to get right.
Still have to build three more.