Thursday April 26th, 2012
 
I continue to post images of the work done for the ship boats . . here I introduce you the large boat with more details applied that some time ago. I don't think it is worth to comment the images. 
 
There are still many details to finish. such as the rudder, oars, etc. and after some painting in selected areas. Then some reels of rope, a couple of buckets or casks and the boat should be considered complete.
 
01 P1080151.jpg


02 P1080152.jpg


03 P1080153.jpg


04 P1080154.jpg

Thuesday May 3rd, 2012
 
Here are the new elements I prepared in these last days: the oars for the first boat and a kind of boarding ladder that is positioned in number of two in the front side of the forecastle. Regarding this last element the instructions where for me unsatisfactory so I decided to use a different method.
 
Boarding ladders: here below are shown the instructions suppplied. As i said this method, given the small size of these elements, makes things very difficult to achieve the goal to have all of them equal and correcly positioned. I used an alternate way that I show here.
 
---
Full Size: http://i46.servimg.com/u/f46/12/86/14/83/090-re10.jpg
 
First of all I made a special strip of wood made by the union of two different strips (4 x 1 and 2 x 2) glued together. Later I prepared a small table of veneer (mahogany), then I cut 10 steps (obtained previously) and I fixed them on the veneer all at the same distance. The day after, by using the table saw I cut a couple of ladders of the right width (8mm) and the boarding ladders were ready to be fixed in the proper place . . another way to use the table saw and another experience: I surely will use the same method when I will have to build the "true" boarding ladders on the two sides of the ship. 
 
01 P1080171.jpg

 
Oars: the raw materials are toothpicks, some strips of beechywood (0,5mm depth) properly shaped and paper. The oars are painted with the same colours of its boat. The total number of these oars should be 10 but I didn't build all of them: I made only four . . too much work . .  
 
02 P1080174.jpg


03 P1080175.jpg

 
Cheers, Jack.Aubrey.

Thursday May 10, 2012
 
Tired of chasing the construction of the boats, I took a couple of "sabbatical" days and I enjoyed it to mount some superstructures in the bow and stern area. I had already prepared them long time ago. . in short, a slight deviation from the usual routine of last recent times.
 
Attached are some pictures of the superstructures under discussion. Unfortunately, the red color is not very "photogenic", as I have explained a bit of posts back.
 
01 P1080179.jpg


02 P1080177.jpg


03 P1080178.jpg


04 P1080184.jpg


05 P1080185.jpg

 
Kind regards, Jack.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012
 
Two photographs to show the "big" boat practically finished. Probably when I'll have finished the little, too, I'll build a couple of buckets that I will place on the bottom.
 
01 P1080220.jpg


02 P1080222.jpg

 
I promised not to publish images of the "small" boat, until it was over, as in fact it would be a duplication of the construction process almost like the "great" boat, but I remembered that I missed an important step regarding the emptying process of the internal side of the hull, when the same was being detached from the building slip.
 
So I go further now to fill the gap showing the "small" with the third planking terminated with the interior emptied and ready for next steps.
 
03 P1080223.jpg


04 P1080224.jpg

 
Kind regards, Jack.Aubrey.

Saturday, May 26, 2012
 
Today I returned to work with the guns. I'm at a stage of the assembly of the guns that I define "intermediate", there is still a lot of work to do but the more critical activities and requiring precision can be considered concluded.
 
In practice, all trucks have been fixed to the deck below by means of a brass pin that runs through the base of the truck and slips into a hole in the deck. The whole thing is secured with four drops of Attack Gel under each wheel and also the pin is glued to both the truck and the deck. . the pin head can be seen in the images in high resolution.
 
01 P1080236.jpg


02 P1080237.jpg


03 P1080238.jpg

 
Sincerely, Jack.Aubrey.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
 

Yet another small step forward. .

 
01 P1080244.jpg


02 P1080245.jpg

 
In my opinion the curls of rope made ​​in this way, although technically sound, are still lower in fact of realism as to how I made on the Santisima Trinidad's cross section . . only problem that it took an incredible amount of time, while this method was faster . .
 
03 Santisima Trinidad/P1070589.jpg

Tuesday, May 29, 2012, afternoon. . finished.
 
During the early afternoon, taken by a fit for modeling, I threw in the assembly of gun barrels. Operation seemingly simple and fast if it were not for the preparation of the recoil rope: the two ends of the rope are linked to an eyebolt, at an equal distance for all the guns since they are all positioned not ready for firing, the eyebolts are then inserted in a pre-drilled hole in the internal side of the handrail (?) and secured with a drop of cyano.
 
The gun barrels are also glued to the gun trucks with a couple of drops of Attack Gel.
 
I am considering whether to apply a strip of carborundum black sandpaper over the two pins on the side of the gun barrels, where they are cradled in the truck, but I don't know if it's worth or not. This because these details will most probably remain invisible when I'll mount above the gangways (?). But the fact of knowing that they are there. . . even if you do not see them, it must probably mean something to a modeller.
 
01 P1080247.jpg


02 P1080248.jpg


03 P1080249.jpg


04 P1080248R.jpg


05 P1080249R.jpg

 
Finally, to be able to say 100% finished, I have to apply a coat of black paint in the thickness of the gunports of these twelve guns, an operation that normally would have to be done right before, but I forgot it !!
 
At this point I'm very happy because this was a job that was blocking other works on the hull, and that took me a long period of  time to complete.

Sunday, June 3, 2012 - Gangways
 
As I wrote earlier I installed the gangways above the guns; they were ready some time ago. I set them in place with a particularly sophisticated bonding so that we can safely say that they are proof of "catastrophic events".
 
The guns you see in these images are placed as if they were fixed, in the reality they are only positioned due to the well-known incident, I put them in place for photographic needs only.
 
I'm considering putting some columns below the gangways, I'll see what to do later, probably after having repaired again the barrels of the guns.
 
I connected the two "mini" wales of the forecastle and stern area so that now they seem as one single piece. . 
 
01 P1080250.jpg


02 P1080251.jpg


03 P1080252.jpg


04 P1080253.jpg


05 P1080255.jpg

 
Finally, I apologize for the mess in this picture, but I shot the photos in the lab and unfortunately there is a bit of mess on the working  table. . .
 
See you next time, Jack.Aubrey

Monday, June 11, 2012
 
In these past days I focused myself on the study, the material collection and the initial operations planning for the tasks related to the building of the complex poop of this ship, more in detail I studied how to prepare and mount the three galleries.
 
The material provided by De Agostini for these tasks is quite dissimilar in quality: some pieces are of good quality, while others are less if not worse. . it is a constant problem in these partworks: often between an issue and the next the quality of a similar piece is totally different. In this case there are only two possibilities: 1) to request De Agostini to re-ship the whole issue (losing roughly three weeks) or 2) rebuilding the wrong/bad piece with a better material. In my case, however, the quality is not as important because all the "bad" pieces will later be hidden.
 
Once mounted the floor of the lower and middle galleries I had to adapt them to the shape of the hull so that they fit perfectly in their final position . . evaluate it, change eventually a bit and try again. . until the piece is OK.
 
Then I proceeded to plank the top of the floor with strips similar to those used for the decks, I remember that decks on this model are in beechwood. 
 
To fix the floor I used the vinyl glue but, for safety, I also put in place four pins of metal.
 
01 P1080263R.jpg


02 P1080265R.jpg

 
This gallery should be aligned with the fourth wale (from the bottom) and, thanks to the inexistent drawings and to the instructions where you were not told to take a particular care, I discovered that, to maintain the ideal sheer of the wale, the floor appears to be in a higher position of a few millimeters than it should be. . . The picture below shows this gap. Obviously at this point the remaining two galleries will also be located higher with possible implications not currently quantifiable. However I was expecting similar situations. In due time I will see how to manage the problem. 
 
03 P1080266.jpg

 
Finally, a personal interpretation of the positioning of the ladder to access the "higher" deck (I do not know how to call it exactly): in that position, I thought to locate a door. But now I can't put in front of the door a staircase. . (again, some drawings of the model would certainly have helped).
So I thought to correct the error by moving the ladder back and here explained the need of this small platform added now and protruding.
 
I imagine the reactions of the "purists", in this case being them totally right, but these  situations are recurrent with these partworks . . linked with other amenities such as instructions sometimes lacking of clarity and the chronic absence of drawings.
 
About drawings: if I can imagine and understand why drawings are not published for these kind of kits, from another point of view it would be enough some sketches, of proper size, showing particulars or even prospective views similar to the one in the Soleil Royal model plans from Panart (Mantua) and more precisely the table No. 4. Such views cannot be used as plans themselves, then would meet the needs of the publisher, but they would be incredibly useful to the modelers . . 
 
04 P1080267.jpg

 
After these amazing discussion on materials and plans, I greet you and wish you a good day. Jack.Aubrey