Hello All,

Thank you for the nice comments regarding my cabinet, much appreciated.

After couple of weeks break, due to holiday, the work carried on.
The bottom side of the plastic cover sheet was fully covered with double sided tape and the fabric fixed onto it.
Then strips of tape applied around the top edge of the sheet to fix the overhanging fabric.
Finally the completed sheet stuck (by magnets & washers) to the bottom of the cabinet to cover the aluminium frame and the LED wiring.
Now it looks nice also from the bottom.

In the meantime also the new power supply arrived, done a quick test,and happily noted that it's now strong enough to cope the current what is taken by the 12V DC motor to move the cabinet up/down for cleaning.

Now I need to go back to work on the electronics, write the code and connect to the mechanics.
1-2 weeks and hopefully it will be all finished.

Then I can have a party...

Dear All,

In the last two weeks I done some serious work on the electronics:

- New PCBA made as the old one didn't have strong enough relays to bear the current flow
- Microcontroller (Arduino Nano) re-programmed
- Electronics wired up to the mechanics
- Upper & lower limiter switches positioned and wired up

The tricky part was to find a way how can I connect electrically the rotating end of the wire rope (taking the voltage down to the LED's) to the stationary electronics.
I ended up with a DIY method... it's a bit dodgy but works like a charm... I wrapped the wire rope with self-adhesive copper strip, stuck the strip to the rolling drum, lead it through underneath the winded rope and wrapped around the unoccupied end of the drum. Then I bent a pair of BBQ skewers and fixed to the frame that they always have a small tension to make the contact on the copper strip. The other end of the skewers connected to the electronics...
I told you... it's cheap, dodgy, but works...

The power supply plugged into a wi-fi smart plug, so it only consumes power when I want it to operate.

And FINALLY.... her majesty, the ship, has been placed inside...

F I N I S H E D !!!!!!!!!!



The LED, the cabinet moving up\down all remote controlled from phone via Wi-Fi (Smart Plug) and Bluetooth (Microcontroller).

Looks amazing... well.. at least for me...

In few weeks time I'll start working on a little diorama with cannons and the figurines, but now I need to take some break...

Just two more photos in her full glory in the dark when only the cabinet LED's are on.

Fantastic result. Looks stunning in its display and your mechanism in the loft is a work of art in its self.

Mark

Hello All,

Bring back this diary to live. :)

If you followed my cross-section diary you know that I finished that one.
So now back to this one with the supplied figurines.

As you know there were 63 figurines shipped in total:
- Admiral Nelson (16)
- Captain Hardy (17)
- Ship's Master Thomas Atkinson (18)
- 3x marines with gun (1-3)
- 2x officers (4-5)
- 5x crewmen (6-10)
- 6 sets of five-man gun crew (standing for the quarter deck, 11-15)
- 4 sets of five-man gun crew (crouching for the gun decks, 19-23)

As I didn't make the cutout on the ship, therefore I don't need all 10 sets of gun crews.
I will make one 32-pounder gun and one 12-pounder gun, so I need only 2 sets of gun crew.

My current ideas are...
- For the gun crews (11-15 and 19-23) I'll make sections of a bulwark with gun port cut out. I have a leftover set of cross section ribs which can be useful for this.
- Regarding the admiral, captain and the ship's master (16-18) I will simply line them up with a small name plate.
- The marines and officers (1-5) will stand behind the gun crews

However I'm clueless at the moment about the five other crewmen (6-10), who are climbing/pulling ropes or leaning forward...

I can't (also don't want to) place them on the ship because it's fully rigged with limited access to the decks.
I'm open for any suggestion of yours regarding this five figures, but also happy to listen ideas for any other figurine placement/display.

Only 15 of the 23 figurines painted at the moment, the other 8 (marines, officers and the 3 named ones) yet to be done.

Hi All,

Let the work begin...

I started to work on the gun deck dioramas...
Luckily I had a set of leftover ribs from the cross-section build (double of issue 121).
I know, I know... the cross section is 1:72 scale while the ship and the figurines are 1:84...
But I think because it's only a small section of the deck the difference of the curvatures won't be noticeable.

I cut sections from the two full ribs at the lower and the upper gun deck level.
There were shorter rib sections, which I also used to have two more sections for the lower gun deck ribs.
However there was no more section for the upper gun deck ribs, so I carved a pair from the fret, copying the existing sections over.

Once they completed I cut deck support beams from the fret and some spare 4x5mm strips.
Carved the ends to match the brackets on the ribs.

The two ribs in the middle will be next to the gun ports for support.
The outer two ribs will be at the edge of the dioramas, however it's not certain yet because the dioramas will be a little bit wider than the space between three gun ports.
I'm planning to display only on gun on each diorama and I not decided yet if I will omit the two adjacent gun ports (like on the 3D model in my previous post) or include them but cut in half vertically at the edge of the diorama.
If I go this way then the outer two ribs will be at the inner frame of the two gun ports on the edges.
I need to do some measurements for the planned diorama width to make me able to decide.

Hello All,

Another day in the lockdown, another few hours spent on the dioramas..

The frame for the upper gun deck section also assembled.
The lower gun deck section planked as well as the bulwark and the hull, only need to fit two strips to cover the bulwark.

Tomorrow will carry on planking the other section.

Hello Guys,

Today update:
- Wales added to the upper gun deck section too
- Knees carved and fitted
- Both deck sections stained painted
- Started to work on the two cannons will be placed into the sections.
Weirdly I had to swap the middle trapezoid shaped base between the 12 and 32-pounder guns. The one for the 12-pounder was too wide for it and the one for the 32-pounder was too narrow for the related guns, so I simply swapped them. Now there is a nice fit for both gun barrels on their carriages.