Hello All,

Another day gone, filled with lots of precision tasks...

- Orlop beams stained and fitted
- Posts made for the pump well... two of them customised... The three at the back was OK to use the 4x4 strip as advised by the instructions... however it was too wide in both directions for the posts at the front cutout... it would block the door about 1.5mm and would protrude to some of the irregular cutout... So I took some leftover 2x3 strip from the Victory build. This size is just fit nicely in both front corner... stained and fitted them.
- Started to plank the hull of the orlop deck.
- Then I made the four gratings... nothing special, but two tiny details I paid extra attention to... the metal grating wouldn't look nice if the suggested size would be used (16x20), because one edge would be zig-zagged (cut through a row of tiny holes)... So I made it a tiny bit larger and with this I was able to file all four edges smooth to the area between the rows of holes, with the final dimension of 16x20.5... I think that 0.5mm won't bother anyone....
Also, I made the frame separate in order to stain both sides of the frame... I was also worried if I glue the frame to the grating first and then I try to stain it then some of the stain would creep into the tiny holes and will block them....
- Once the glue and stain dried all four gratings glued in place.

Hello All,

Thanks Alan for your nice comment, much appreciated.

- Started to plank the orlop deck by fitting the first strip... Oh no... I forgot to sand the top of the beam supports flush with the beams... The result, the first strip sits tiny bit higher then the others and the second one is on a slight angle... oops, rookie mistake... I didn't remove the glued strip, I was worried that I'll brake off something... So I ended up sanding the top of the strip flush with the rest of the strips... Luckily I realised my error right after the first strip, so on the other side I sanded the supports flush before fitted the first strip. well... almost, the one closest to the grating I wasn't able to sand without damaging the grating... never mind, let's sand the top of the strips...


- On the positive note, because the grating was a tiny fit longer than instructed (see my previous post), the fifth strip was dead flush with the grating, no shaping was required on this or the sixth strip...
You might say it can come from the variation of the width of the strips... well... I don't mind...


- Completed the orlop decking without any further issue, then sanded smooth... well, as much as I could around the gratings...


Turntable side project:
The 1 RPM motor from China arrived.
I found some leftover bearings and pins from my cabinet lift mechanism, they are just the right size to be useful as a roller at the bottom of the turntable.
Now I just need to ask my friend to machine a suitable coupling to connect the motor and the base.

Hello Guys,

Thank you for your great comments.

Here I'm again with another update:
- Orlop deck masked and stained.
- Orlop bulwark pained white.
- Orlop deck pump well assembled and planked with the oak veneer.
- Then inside stained together as well as the door.
- Regarding the bars for the door, I done the same what I done for the door of the pump well in the hold. I turned five tiny bars from toothpicks (approx 0.8mm diameter) to replace the suggested 2mm diameter dowels. It's more realistic to scale.
- The bars fitted to the door window.
- The outer side of the door and the pump well painted white.
- Door glued into pump well, pump well glued onto the deck.
- Strips stained and fitted around it.

Excellent work, you are certainly making it look easy.

Mark

Hello Guys,

Another update on Stage 15:
- Bulwarks on the lower gun deck planked
- Sanded the gun ports to the correct size and lined... this was one of the task what I hated the most in the big ship build, I'm not sure why though ... maybe because it was bloody boring with the 90 something gun ports in total... I didn't like it this time too...
- Bulwark and hull sanded smooth around the gun ports.
- Additional plank fitted to both side.

Excellent work, taking shape very nicely.

Mark

Ahoy Shipmates,

Thanks for the great comments.

My next update is on Stage 14 & 16:

- First of all, I made a test stripe with the various wood stains I ordered from ebay. I just ordered test pots, they are still plenty for about 3-4 ship models...
So I took a spare 2x5mm strip and stained short sections with each colour, additionally I have a regular household walnut stain and a walnut from Admiral paints. There are nine shades in total, plus the dark oak tin I used already on this model, so don't need on the test strip.
This strip will help me to decide which one(s) to use on the shipmen's chests (I don't want all of them the same colour) and on the deck support pillars.
- Next, I made the deck support pillars and decided to stain with the darkest colour, Admiral walnut... then suddenly I was worried.... ... the result on the first pillar was much darker than on the test strip, I guess because of the different type of wood... but having no spare pillars, the only choice left to stain the other three to the same colour... but when I test fitted them to the model they looked quite good for me, showing a good contrast on the dark oak planking... so at the end I was happy with the result.
- Then I made and fitted the hammock support bars.
- Next, I jumped back to Stage 14 to make the shipmen chests... I made a total of 10 in four different shape & size... wow, it required much more 1x3mm strip than expected.
- Then came the great (STUPID... The word I'm looking for is the 'STUPID') idea.... ... being a masochist when talking about modelling, I thought why not make one chest with an open lid showing its content?... Challenge accepted... Nothing to lose, if it's not successful then won't be used... OK, so what could be in a shipman's chest?... Obviously some spare clothes and a bottle of rum ... Let's start with some clothes... I decided that a pair of trousers and a shirt/t-shirt would be suitable, so on a piece of cardboard I drew a shirt which (when folded) would fit in the half width of the biggest chest... Done the same with the trousers for the other half of the chest.... I found some leftover fabric from the Victory build (hammocks in bulwark nets) which has a light yellowy brown colour, just perfect for the shirt... Together with the material for this build hammocks it's painted with diluted PVA to stiffen if before I cut the shape... It will be a properly folded shirt ... I still need to find some fabric for the trousers either blue or dark brown, however as plan B, I still could paint the same hammock fabric to the desired colour... regarding the bottle of rum, I'm planning to turn a tiny bottle from a toothpick using my usual method with a Dremel and a needle file as a lathe...
I'm not sure if this project will be successful but nothing to lose.
- Now waiting for the PVA glue dry, I laid them between two laminated paper and put some weights on them to make them flat.... carry on tomorrow.

Hi All,

After few days of waiting for paint spray to arrive work carried on...

- Started to make the hammocks... very fiddly task, feeling like a surgeon when trying to fold and glue the hammocks with two tweezers .... Five of them made so far.
- Knee support brackets spray painted with two coats of primer and two coats of satin black... wow... what a difference on the paint... during the complete ship build I used the Humbrol acrylic spray paint (150ml, £10-12 per can) and even if same Humbrol primer was used, it was peeling off from the metal even by the smallest touch with the tweezers.... I was struggling a lot.... but now I bought automotive primer and paint (500ml, £6 per can) and it sticks like hell, no issue during handling the parts with tweezers... DON'T use expensive modelling brands, USE cheap automotive paint!!!
- Then the brackets were glued in place... even if it's advised to use superglue for metal parts I used the Glue'n'Glaze because it took some time for each brackets to position correctly, what couldn't be done in a hurry if superglue used.
- Then all the shipmen's chests glued to the orlop deck... The open one placed to the edge towards the rear to show the content of it... As the model will rotate on a turntable both the front and the rear will be visible.

That is very nice work, the extra detail makes all the difference.

Mark