The first cannon! Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the unpainted building process, but here are a few images of the painting process.

Cannon mount in ochre. Only the light shading has been done at this point.


Barrel and wheels added. Highlighting completed on the mount.


You'll notice that it sits slightly off my custom cutting pad (an A4 notepad). This is due to the rear axle holes being drilled too high in the supplied parts. I tried to alter it myself, but there's only so much wood to drill.

I've added some black paint to all black parts, but will redo the barrel as I'm now in possession of Capt Stedders' wonderful Cannon Crest Stamp.

You can also see from the cannon that the barrel was miscast, meaning that the ring at the back is at a 45 degree angle instead of being upright. I considered removing it a fashioning my own, but decided that I'd do too much damage to the barrel itself.

Thanks Willz! I think I need to work on the wheels though, as all photos I've seen show them as being a beige colour.

Currently working on my shiny white launch, though the carronade images will be up next.

Thanks Capt Stedders, and no worries on the plug!

I was thinking - I could probably saw the back end off very carefully, wouldn't necessarily need to snip it off? Then rotate and reattach...

You could..

But that sounds like a lot of hard work compared to simply snapping the bit off (they do come off quite easily) and glueing it back on in a more appropriate spot.

Entirely down to you.

A pity though that the honourable Chinese workers seem to have a different idea of what a right angle is to the way that we understand it.

That's communism for you.

The launch - part 2

I started painting the launch by adding the shading component, in this case Vallejo Flat Brown:


Once this had dried, and I was happy with the consistency in the shading areas, I painted the ochre. This is a 50/50 mix of Goldbrown and Yellow Ochre:


After a few light coats, I realised that a lot of the ochre was ending up in the crevasses courtesy of capillary action. This is not what I wanted. So rather than take my time carefully running a fine brush between the cracks to darken them, I "went nuclear" and flooded most of the interior of the launch in very watered down Flat Brown. Unfortunately this meant that it looked like it had been sunk in sewage, which I knew would happen. I soaked up as much of it using kitchen towel, then waited for the whole thing to dry out before reapplying the Victory ochre mix:


When I was happy once more with the ochre, I added some Vallejo Beige to the Victory ochre mix and highlighted all edges. I then proceeded to measure, cut and paint the interior boards:


I'm not sure I used the right parts for this, as the boards seem a lot wider than the magazine showed. So much so, that I didn't get in as many boards as the mag, and the outer ones I had to cut to fit the ribbing. Not very accurate, but they fit at least:


I bent and painted the thwart supports Victory ochre prior to fitting. Again, I wasn't sure I was using the right bits for them, so ended up using extra planking sections. Once again, thank you for supplying so many extra - they're life savers! I applied PVA to all the ribs that the supports would touch, then used my Kustom Bilt clamps to hold them in place until they were dry:


The duckboards were next, and I chose to go the magazine way for fitting these. To get the black for the duckboards and exterior, I made a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Black and German Cam Black Brown. This meant that it wouldn't be too stark once next to the white and ochre. While I waited for the duckboards to dry, and masked up the exterior of the launch and applied the Victory black mix. Unfortunately my masking never works as planned, and I always end up with leakage:


Still, I managed to get it parallel:


I've since cleaned up the bits that made they're way past the masking, but I'd love to hear any tips for perfect masking prior to working on the actual Victory! Once the duckboards looked black from as many angles as possible (the damned brass kept flashing through), I fixed both pieces to their respective ends with PVA, and not too much either:


That wraps up this part of the launch!

Thanks for the masking tip willz, I shall try that in future!

Thanks Tiswas! I'll be posting another launch update later on this week as I've made substantial progress.

Thanks farrabass! Just trying to keep mine as brutally honest as people so that it can assist anyone reading it from making the same mistakes as me! For instance, the thwart support I fitted shouldn't be a piece of planking, as it mounts the thwarts too high. Having a heck of a job getting the supports in place for the windlass.

Another nice job there, I'd say the colour of the rope works well, must remember.
Well done.
TIS

Re your query about masking tape. I use Tamiya masking tape, available from model shops. You can get it in different widths. It's not cheap but you get a perfect straight line everytime. Hope this helps.