1:700 BAP Independencia

[MichelB]

Here are the first shots of my commission scratchbuild of the Peruvian ironclad frigate Independencia. She was built in 1864 in England and sunk in action in 1879 during the War of the Pacific between Peru and Chile.

The hull is made sandwich-style: three layers of styrene, Magic SCulp putty to fill it up and then sand, fill, prime, sand, fill, prime, sand, fill ad infinitum. The deck has V-grooving, the smallest I could find. So far, so good, I guess.

[callen]

Very cool Michel!
Please keep up the good work!

[Peter Rathgeb]

Great to see you already started, Michel!

It's coming along great, I look forward to your progress!

Cheers,
Peter

[MichelB]

Disaster! The hull turned out to be 2mm too long, and that is unacceptable in 1:700. So I took the microsaw and starting hacking. That messed up the V-groove, so I had to remove the upper deck. Niiiiiice.... Oh well, we live and learn. She's already been put back together, but the deck will have to be redone.

[noplate]

...it's not the setbacks, it's the ability to bounce back from those setbacks. There, that's my pearl of wisdom for the day. No extra charge.

Seriously, I respect your ability to work accurately in such a small scale. And a commission!

[callen]

I wonder Michel if you might have had better luck sanding the difference off of the bow? But maybe there wasn't enough plastic in the interior to make that work. At any rate I'm sure you'll find a way forward. Keep your chin up! It's going to be good!

[Peter Rathgeb]

Sorry to read about this little drawback - but I see you are in control.

Looking forward to the little jewel you are building.

Cheers,
Peter

[MichelB]

Now, what have we learned, kids? Measure THRICE, cut ONCE.
Don't ask.


Anyway, progress. Hull has been fixed. Now the somewhat complex interplay between the bulwarks and the hull lines. The bulwarks lean back closer to the bow, there were the bowsprit used to be. So there's a complex curvature, interrupted by the gunports. Yeah, real easy.
Here the first parts are up, need more filling to get in line with the hull and with each other. Gun ports will need cleaning up.

[Peter Rathgeb]

It starts to look like Independencia. At least in my eyes.

Great to see her coming along. Have you already ordered the guns?

Cheers,
Peter

[MichelB]

Progress has been made today. The aft overhang was a bit of a trouble, but placing strips of plastic in a sort of crown shape and going ballistic with putty and sanding paper seemed to work. Next step is adding some of the hull details. If all goes well I'll be able to make a first plug tomorrow.

[MichelB]

Progress after a morning's worth of work. The stern window section (what's the word?) has been added, a grueling ordeal of tiny 1,5mm by .5mm snippets of evergreen nudged into their places, with too much glue sticking out and making a rough mess of things. I'm really at my 'detail horizon' here, and the rough surface is exagerrated by the camera. So I'll try to clean it up further.

[Pieter]

Very nice. Are you also going to do Buffel?

[Peter Rathgeb]

Nice work, Michel!

Cheers, Peter

[callen]

Oh Michel!!!

I have a 'true confession' to make.

My very very very first attempt at scratch building was an Ironclad from precisely this era, based on photos of the HMS Iron Duke (1860's era.) It was based on a couple of photos and a painting, since I didn't have any plans to work from. Totally an eyeball 'hey, this looks right' sort of thing. Needless to say it didn't go that well, which is why I've never mentioned it or posted pics and which is why no one has heard about it, but you are seriously whetting my appetite for "Ironclad World" once again! Great job on the Stern Gallery! Keep up the good work and by all means keep us posted!

[callen]

Oh, one other thing... Shouldn't this be over in the Scratch Build Forum????

[MichelB]

Some progress, finally, after some days being busy with non-modelling related stuff (life, and all that). Addition of the lower gunports housing the smaller calibre guns: I used a 1mm strand to space them in the vertical. The ports themselves are 1x1,5mm, a reasonable approximation I feel. Well, next, the port side! I've also been fiddling with deck hatches and such, will show them later. All comments welcome.

[Peter Rathgeb]

Ah, this is coming along great, Michel!

My compliments - I'm looking forward to the next steps!

Cheers,
Peter

[callen]

This is a gem in the making. Coming together very nicely, and reflecting more and more your diligence in getting her right. Excellent job!

[MichelB]

Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement, people. It's not easy to find time for models these days, with a new job looming and the old one winding down and well, 8 hours of work and 3 hours of commute everyday... well, I shan't complain.

A problem: how to do the guiderails for the guns on the deck? These early breachloaders were mounted on these Nazca/Spirograph like circles to place them near the gun ports. How to do those? I've looked at very thin wire, but at that thickness, it doesn't keep the circular shape very well. I may be forced to basically cut out the lines from a print, mindbendingly as that would be. Any ideas?
I have checked my entire stash of photo-etch, no usefull circles found.

[JIM BAUMANN]

>>>> I have checked my entire stash of photo-etch, no usefull circles found. <<<<


L'arsenal do a set of PE circles in various sizes.

OR

you could make a spiral of thin copper wire, cut the spiral into circles and flatten in smooth faced pliers


like this

( from this thread of mine--which will shortly be rescucitated!
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=64591



or these...