Russian Novgorod.

[785boats]

Any of you guys that know me & have seen some of my builds, know that I like boats that are a bit different. Well here's the most different boat that I have ever seen. Especially for a warship.
So of course, even though I have other unfinished models lying around, I had to make a start on this one. A round Russian gunship from 1873, the Novgorod. That's right...a round gunship

https://www.google.com/search?q=russian+round+warships&rlz=1C1CHBF_enAU890AU890&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=LqeBuQYKiTshLM%252CtWP_l_7PjtM76M%252C%252Fm%2 52F03t912&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQ-ZwNwnAY2LPmy00Qs5rwYQVUTEg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-_omCkorsAhUVOisKHaGcB7IQ_B16BAgTEAM#imgrc=LqeBuQYK iTshLM

What really sparked my interest was a little 1:200 scale kit I saw on ebay. only 150mm ( 6" ) in diamater, but complete with motors props & drive shafts.
I bought the kit with the intent to use it, along with photos & line drawings on the web, to scale up some plans to 1:48 scale which ends up being 640mm in diameter.

The kit arrived the other day so I've taken some measurements and started work on it last night.
The lazer etched wooden decking and the etched brass railings are exquisite.

So I made a start on it last night. I cut a disk for the bottom of the hull from some old scrap 1/16" ply veneer.
Then strengthened it with some 1/4" sq bass wood.

When the hull is all planked, I'll add another disk on top to both strengthen it and to have a base to mount all the gear on to.
I've cut out a template for the ribs. Just need to make the other 15 of them now.

I'm going to notch them out for some 1/8" stringers to run around the hull and then just do some vertical planking over them with some 1/16" ply. Probably 3 stringers on the curve and one around the top where the deck is should do it.

This is going to be the strangest boat I've ever built. It won't be a quick build but it will be interesting.
Cheers.

The hull, deck, brass etchings and the lazer etched wooden decking.
171613

The bits 'n pieces including motors & drive shafts etc.
171614

Adding the bass sticks to the bottom of the hull.
171615

All finished.
171616

The rib template clamped into position for a look see.
171617

[785boats]

After spending a bit of time this afternoon with the fret saw, I managed to cut out and notch all the ribs.
A bit of medium CA glue & they are now all in place.
I'll have to take a drive tomorrow to our local hobby store, to get some 1/8" sq basswood stringers. That's going to cost a pretty penny. I hope they have some.

Ribs all in place.
171618

[srislash]

What an interesting concept. Go man go!!

[Fluid]

Additional information...

https://youtu.be/R5AUGq4Voeg



.

[785boats]

What an interesting concept. Go man go!!

Sure is interesting.

Jay.
Thanks for that link. I had seen it before, but just fast forwarded it to check out the drawings & images.
But now, thanks to you, I actually played the whole thing and absorbed the history & the details.
Now that I've actually started the build, I'll be reading up a bit more on the history & workings of these boats.

[785boats]

The hobbyshop had no 1/8"sq bass or spruce, so I had to settle for some 1.5mm x 6mm planks. I needed to split them in half & laminate two around the ribs.

For the deck level & the next one down I just widened the notches in the ribs & used the 6mm wide planks.
They were easy as the ribs are nearly vertical at those points.
But on the curved sections of the ribs, the strips need to bend up as well as around the hull. The planks didn't want to do that, So I had to halve them to 3mm to get the bend in them.

Here's a couple of pics. Wifey thinks I'm building a UFO.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all.

The top two stringers with the 6mm wine planks laminated.
171620

The first of the 3mm wide stringers laminated.
171621

Overlapping the joints on a curve between the ribs keeps a nicer curve, rather than joining them on a rib, which leaves a distinct angle because of the tension in the wood.
171622

[JestDanny]

Your wifey is right, kind of lol ! UFO = Unidentified Floating Object? very interesting indeed.

[785boats]

I like that description JestDanny.
Yes, interesting indeed.
Not very successful, but interesting.

[fweasel]

Should be able to get that thing on plane with 6S :rockon2:
Interesting build for sure. I've never seen a circular ship before.

[785boats]

Controlling the 6 motors would be the fun part when up on the plane:biggrin:
From what l've read, the thing just used to plough through the waves, and was very hard to control. The rudder was useless & they had to forward & reverse the engines like tank steering. Must have been fun with steam engines.
Cheers.

[785boats]

Well I've made it back home on Friday night from my holiday down to Tasmania. It was great to see the family again.
So yesterday I cut and glued a few planks onto the framework.
They were cut to 15mm at one end and 13mm at the other. Then they needed to be sanded a bit narrower at the smaller end leaving a bowed edge, from about the center of the planks, so that the sides married to each other as they curved around the 90 degree bend.
I also cut them such that the grain of the outside layers of the ply was across the plank, to make them easier to bend around the framework with a lot less tension on them.
I just used thick CA glue to fix them in place. Still picking the dried glue off my finger tips.
To try and make sure that the rim stayed circular, I did two panels opposite each other first. Then a pair at 90 degrees to those two. Then repeated the process for the next 4 panels.
It worked because the rim is still circular.
Here are a few pics.

171727

171728

171729

171730

[785boats]

I finished the planking over the last few evenings.
The drive shafts, props, & the motors/gearboxes have arrived too.
The props were the closest I could find that looked like the original shape. But man they need some serious balancing. Even spinning the shaft in my hand, with a quick twist of the shaft, sets up some serious wobble
The motor/gearboxes will only be spinning at around 340 rpm but 6 of them all vibrating at once won't be good.

The motors.
https://www.banggood.com/Chihai-DC-7_4V-340rpm-550rpm-Reduction-Motor-DC-Geared-Motor-p-1552802.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=CN&ID=513819

The props.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4mm-Shaft-4-Blades-Metal-Propeller-Prop-44mm-55mm-60mm-for-Scale-RC-Boat-Marine/153113660401?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=452958879776&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

The shafts.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4mm-Drive-Shaft-Sleeve-4-Blade-Propeller-Joint-Assemble-Kit-for-RC-Boat-Marine/152756758984?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=452456787562&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2648

The finished hull.
171761


The finished hull with the drives sitting roughly in place.
And yes... I will make sure that the props go on the outside of the hull:biggrin:
171760

[Jesse J]

Ha, I showed my Italian wife and she asked if it was a Parmesan cheese wheel!
Yes definitely put props on the outside. Gear box, or are those six motors?
Ready to see what happens on the other side.

[785boats]

I see her point. If only. Yum!!

171762

Those are 6 motors and gearboxes combined.

[785boats]

A little bit more done on the hull today, It's our 'Australia Day' holiday today, so a bit of free time from work.
I've added a deck ring for the main deck to fit against.
Also did a bit of filling and sanding.
Should get the epoxy glass work done later on today I hope.

Cheers.

171805

171806

[JestDanny]

belated happy Australia Day. this is the first thread I check on when visiting OSE

[785boats]

Thanks Danny.
Despite the virus fears, there were still a lot of celebrations around the country. It was good to see.

[785boats]

A successfull mornings work today I think.
I decided to mock up the deck & the barbette for the guns.

Firstly I decided on the curvature of the deck from various drawings & photos. Couldn't find any exact measurements so, I go by the caveat that if it looks right, it is right.
The diameter of the barbett is listed in the specs of the ship so that was easy to scale out to the 1:48 scale that I am using.

I cut 16 deck formers to be arranged in the spider web arrangement around the barbette.

I cut a couple of discs of 3mm balsa, at 180mm diameter, for templates, And then a strip of 1/16" aircraft ply to wrap around them to form the wall.
I pre-bent the ply around a 4" post in my workshop that holds up the floor above.
No soaking, no amonia, no heat. Just the Uri Geller touch, and mind control.
I always think of the English Wheel when I do this.

So this is where I found out that the ring around the top of the hull is not exactly circular, as I had to trim the notches out on more than a few of the frames to allow the whole thing to sit down flush.
No biggie. An easy fix.

Here are the compulsory visuals.

Cutting the formers.
171838

Bending the ply.
171839

Bent ply ready for glueing to the templates. Very little pressure.
171840

Formers attached To the barbette
171841

Deck frame sitting in place.
171842

[785boats]

A little bit more done to the deck.
I added some cross braces of 5mm balsa to strengthen things up a bit. And to get a good curve & frame for the skin to adhere to.
Now it does look like a spiders webb
I'll lay a skin of 1/16" balsa and then plank it. I have some veneer that I can cut into strips.
I had a couple of sheets of the balsa so I bought a few more and cut some pieces ready for final fitting.
Cheers.

171847

171848

171849

171850

[785boats]

I'm on night shift again for a few days, and I got home from work this morning and decided to put a layer of fiberglass on the hull.
I mixed up enough resin to give the underside of the deck a coat too, to seal the wood and joints.
When the hull is fully cured, I'll give it a sand and apply a finishing coat, and will give the topside of the deck a coat of resin only, to seal and make ready for the planking.
That will just leave the inside of the hull to brush on a coat to seal all the wood in there.

171868

171869

[Jesse J]

Ahoy, the Parmesan boat!
Who ever convinced somebody to actually build this? Ohhh, those Russians!
How many were actually deployed?

[785boats]

Hi Jesse.
Seems rediculous doesn't it.
Only two were built, the Novgorod, and the Popov.
Here's the man responsible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Alexandrovich_Popov
Wierd, I know, but that's why I like building pre WWI ships. Full of innovation of the times.
Cheers.

[785boats]

Finished the fiberglassing and coats of resin on both the hull and deck.
And the deck has been trimmed and sanded to fit the hull.

Spent a lazy Sunday today building up the main cabin and cutting some 5mm wide strips from some veneer I had lying around, for the decks.

The basic frame was made from some 5mm balsa and the sides are from 1/16" aircraft ply. The top will be ply too, but that can wait until tomorrow.
I need some food and it's time to open a nice bottle of Cabernet Merlot.

171882

171883

[785boats]

Well, as we all know, a piece of ply will not bend in both directions. So I decided to cover the roof of the main cabin with pieces of 1/16" balsa like the main deck.
The center of the roof ended up a bit flat so I applied a couple of layers of Auto body blade putty and sanded it to conform with both curves. It's now ready for planking.

I wanted to glue in a floor on top of the framework to mount the motors, shafts, servos, ESC's etc. But I felt the need to add some weight under the floor first.
So I bought a roll of lead flashing and cut some pizza triangles to fit in between the stringers.
I managed to get 3 pieces siliconed into each section. The total weight of the lead is just on 5 pounds. Not any where near enough I know, but it's a start.

So then I cut a disc of 1/8" ply and cut out some notches for the frames to come through.

Here's some pics.

171905

171906

171907

171908

[785boats]

We had a day at the club yesterday, and I put the boat in the water for a ballast test.
It took another 22 pounds of lead (27 pounds in total) and it still wasn't down to the waterline.
That's a heavy boat for a hull that's only 25 and a 1/2" in diameter.

[Jesse J]

Dang bro, that’s coming along! I showed your build to my dad and he too was impressed with your off menu build style!
One thought: I helped a buddy with a big Rc river tug that also required a bunch of weight, and we used removable ballast to make transporting more reasonable. Knowing you, I’m sure you have some creative trick along these lines.
Great progress and I’m really keen to see the puppy in action!

Are you going to add this class to the race schedule this year?

[785boats]

Hi Jesse.

Things always seem to move quickly when you are having fun doing it. And the fact that it is so different to any other boat that I have ever built makes it more interesting too.
There's no trick with the ballast. I will be doing exactly what you guys did, and what I do on some of my other big boats. Blocks of removable lead.

I don't think there will be any takers at the club for this class of racing. I can't walk as slowly as this boat will travel at it's scale speed.

There are many different layouts for this thing & I've opted for one of the earliest versions with the flying bridges, open ships wheel, and lots of planking.
So the planking may be where the fun factor drops a little as the tedium sets in.

I made up a bit of a jig to cut all the planks to 150mm long.
Marked off the 'imaginary' bulkheads across the hull at 30mm (1/5 plank length) and using medium CA, glued the planks down in what is known as a 4 butt pattern.

Here's the start of it.

The layout that I'm going with.
171929

The extremely sophisticated plank cutting jig ( patent pending ).:biggrin:
171930

Progress on the planking.
171931

[785boats]

I got a bit more done on the planking. It's going much more quickly than I thought it would.

171945

171946

[785boats]

I've decided to give the cosmetic surgery a bit of a miss for a while, and get into the engineering side of things.
So this morning I decided to have a go at mounting the motors & drive lines.

After marking out the centerlines of the shafts, I drilled the 6 holes in the hull for them.
Then cut 6 motor mounts from some 30 x 30mm aluminium angle and drilled the mounting holes for the motors. Then mounted the motors.
I also drilled & countersank 4 holes in the base for the epoxy to fill up and create sort of rivets to help keep them in place.

Using a hex flex coupler, from one of my race boats, to keep the shafts in line with the motor shafts, I epoxied the motormount and stuffing tube in place as single units.
I had to cut away parts of the ribs that were sticking up through the floor first though.

Then some epoxy putty was shaped around the stuffing tube where they passed through the hull for extra strength.
After that had all set, I installed the little metal universals that came with the prop shaft/stuffing tube units.

If you think setting up twin drives is fun, try 6 of the blighters.:biggrin:

I just need to epoxy in some ply braces at the motor end of the stuffing tubes to strengthen them up.

You will notice that I've got the props spinning outwards at the tops. Would spinning them inwards give me better handling?:unsure::biggrin:



Here's some pics.

Motor mounts & motor/gearboxes.
171963

Hex flex coupler used to aign the motor & shaft.
171964

All 6 installed.
171965


171966

Those 6 props should stir up a bit of water.
171967

[785boats]

Relaxing day at the club yesterday, with time to sharpen and balance a few of the props.
They are so far out of balance that it is not funny,
They are obviously all out of the same mold because one blade is so much thicker on all 6 props.
Took along 3 boats to play with.


171977


171978


171979


171981


171982


171983

[Johnc]

Question:
Looks like motors, stuffing tubes are going to be below the waterline of the hull, is there going to be a problem with water working it way in and flooding? I know they'll (shafts/Teflon) be greased well and all, but??
As far as props spinning outward or inward i would start inward (most twins are inwards is my thinking) But, it wouldn't be much trouble to change them out and try both ways.
Wish I had the time, patience and tools to start something even near like that.
Any Idea's as far as painting goes?

[785boats]

Hi John.
A good point you raise.
But even though the shafts are below the waterline I don't expect any water in the boat from them.
The shafts are solid stainless steel. There is a sealed stainless steel roller bearing in each end of the shafts.
Plus, I will be packing the stuffing tubes with marine bearing grease (the blue stuff I use on all my flex drives) to totally seal the shafts.
No teflon liners required in this type of setup.

As these props will only be spinning at around 350 revs, I don't think inwards or outwards will make much difference. The boat will only be travelling at a very slow walking pace.
The comment about prop rotation was a bit of tongue in cheek on my part really.

As for painting.
The decks will be clear varnished with a satin finish.
The metalware will be the usual battleship grey.
Red Oxide below the waterline.
From the images I've seen, the armour plating around the edge of the deck and hull seems to be black. So I'll go with that.
I'm undecided on the funnels at this point. Some images show them as a buff/cream, or yellow colour. Some show them as black. I'll decide on that as we get closer to the finish line.
Cheers.
Paul.

[785boats]

Yesterday I decided to add the armour plating ring around the edge of the deck. Not sure if it was actually armour plating, but in the first pic below, there is a band of some sort between the deck and the waterline. I will still be putting those thick plates around the edge of the deck too.

Firstly I had to make & fit the rudder block to the stern? of the ship. Is there a stern on a round ship?

I had left the deck slightly oversize to allow for final fitting.
I wraped two layers of masking tape around the hull then sanded the edge of the deck flush with the tape.
The theory being that after the band had been glued onto the edge of the deck, and then the tape removed, there would be a slight gap all round. It seemed to work.

The band is simply a 20mm wide strip of 1/16" aircraft ply. I had to cut the strip that goes around the rudder block, across the grain, to allow it to bend easily around those bends.
I simply stitch glued the strip every few inches with a drop of medium CA glue. Removed the complete deck and ran a bead of the CA all around the join on the underside. Solid as.
It will be even more solid when the overlapping plates are added around the edge of the deck.

Here are the visuals.

The armour plating band between the deck and the black paint.
171996

Double layer of tape around the hull to create a gap. The band partly done.
171997

All finished & deck removed to apply the bead all round the joint on the underside.
171998

A nice snug fit.
171999

[Jesse J]

Dang bro! You got some tenacity! Looking real good!
I think the question is more about what will reduce performance the least!?!?

[785boats]

Thanks Jesse.
I don't think I will be able to reduce performance at all. It won't have any to start with according to the information on the real one.

I asked the question to a couple of club members on Saturday about the conical coverings over the shafts. And ol' mate Graham suggested funnels. What? I exclaimed. Much too broard an angle. No you dolt, he said. Not the main funnel, but the spout part.
Brilliant.
So on the way home from work today,
I stopped at the local hardware store & found some packs of 4 small varying sized funnels. At only 5 bucks a pack, I bought 4 of them thinking that should cover the different length shafts.
Turns out I needed 2 of the mid sized ones for the longer outboard shafts, and 4 of the next size down for the other shafts.
After a bit of cutting and shaping to fit the contours of the hull, I think I have a good enough representation compared to that photo in my last post.
I've got a lot of funnels left over for future projects. :-)


They aren't glued on yet. I'll do that tomorrow.

172001

172002

172003

[Jesse J]

You could use them to funnel your creative juices!
Very cool Paul!

[785boats]

Well I funneled some of those juices into a bit more work.:smile:
I trimmed the main cabin with some 3mm pcv angle and planked the roof.
Then I decided to make the two main guns. Mainly because they will determine the depth of the floor in the barbette.
I want to set the floor up to rotate so I need a starting depth.
After sketching up some drawings & sizes, I gathered a few bits & bobs to see what would work and ended up using some aluminium tubing, 20mm conduit and some black sprinkler hose.
Just need to finish them off and make up the bases for them now.

172041


172042


172043


172044

[785boats]

A bit of an update on the last week or so.
I made up the carraiges for the guns out of some pvc sheeting. The wheels were punched out of some 3mm ply, and the pivot is just some 5/32" brass rod with some short pieces of aluminium tube for the bushes. All held together with medium CA glue.

So this gave me the measurement required for the base of the barbette with the barrels of the guns just almost resting on the rim.

I glued in the base and then added some columns around the inside of the barbette which allowed me to then add the inner wall of 1/16" ply.

Some drawings & photos show some plates around the edge of the floor in the barbette. So I cut a ring of 3mm ply and cut the sections almost through the ply but just leaving the bottom veneer to hold it all together. After using a small triangle file to widen the cuts I glued the ring into the bottom of the barbette.

It was then, of course, necessary to sit the cannon in place for a look.

The next step is to add the ring to the top of the barbette, and set up the rotating floor for the cannon.

Cheers.
Paul.

172097


172098


172099


172100


172101

[Doug Smock]

Very nice work as usual Paul!:thumbup1:

[785boats]

Thanks Doug.
It's coming along.

A little bit more done over the last couple of weeks.
Made up the basics of the funnels from some 40mm pipe & a couple of plumbing adaptor fittings I had lying around.
The bases are made from a couple of spray paint cans.

I've also tackled the rear bridge deck and the two flying bridges.
All made from a piece of 3mm ply and then planked the same as the hull deck but with only 4mm wide planks this time
I also added a border strip where the stanchions will be drilled in.

It's a rainy Sunday today, so I took the opportunity to mark out all the skylights and drill the holes for them.
I'll paint the eylets the same grey as the superstructure will be, before I glue them in.
I'll also add a disk of clear plastic into them first.

Cheers guys.

The bits for the funnels.
172220

Loosely assembled.
172221

The three bridges.
172222

Marking out the skylights.
172223

Skylights sitting in place for a look.
172224

[785boats]

This week I painted all the armour plates black and glued them around the edge of the deck.
Also built the skylight and rear superstructures. Simply some 3mm ply with some trims added.
A bit of light oak stain for the ply and then a few coats of varnish over the whole thing.
She's slowly taking shape.

A piece of wood taped along the bridge, to keep it level with the top of the barbette, while I measured & cut the ply
to fit the curved deck.
172250

All glued on to the underside of the bridge.
172251

Trims added, plywood stained, and all clear coated.
Skylight made from perspex 0.8mm plywood, and veneer strips, added on top.
All just sitting loosely in place.
172252

Armour plates added to the rim of the deck.
172253

[Johnc]

Oh My word,

Haven't been able to keep up with your progress the last couple of weeks (in a hospital bed, neg on covid, just copd problems)

That is sharp. Looks like you have the decking "varnished"??

If I lived within a few hundred, I would probably take the drive to be there to see the maiden voyage.

I'm so amazed at what people can accomplish with ideas and have the knowledge to follow through.

[Fluid]

Brilliant Paul!






.

[785boats]

Oh My word,

Haven't been able to keep up with your progress the last couple of weeks (in a hospital bed, neg on covid, just copd problems)

That is sharp. Looks like you have the decking "varnished"??

If I lived within a few hundred, I would probably take the drive to be there to see the maiden voyage.

I'm so amazed at what people can accomplish with ideas and have the knowledge to follow through.

Thanks John.
It would be nice to have you visit our club for the maiden. But yeah. A few more miles than just a couple of hundred.:smile:

Yes. The decks are all 'varnished'. I used what I had in the paints store. Cabot's carbothane clear. It's gloss, so I will have to get some satin or matt for the final coat.
A bright shiny gloss finish doesn't look right on an 1873 period warship. At least, not in my opinion.

I have to admit, I had not heard of the term copd, so I had to look it up.
Man, I wish you all the best in your battle with this disease. Sounds like you have a real fight on your hands.

All the best.
Paul.

[785boats]

Brilliant Paul!.

Thanks for the compliment Jay.
This week the plan is to get more into the mechanical/electrical side of things.
Set up the servos & motor to raise/lower, & rotate the cannon. And then set up the ESC's & wiring for the motors.
This one's a bit different to setting up one of our EA Monos, (your P mono) for racing.
It will be the slowest boat in my whole fleet, even though it has 6 motors.:biggrin:

Cheers.
Paul.

[785boats]

A bit of a catch up on the progress.

I worked on getting the motor ESC & servo set up for the rotating platform & the raising of the cannon.
I also had to paint the barbette and the cabin before the final fitout of the cannon.

So I made a bracket from some aluminium angle to mount the motor & ESC onto.
I cut the base out of the barbette and connected the shaft of the platform to the motor/gearbox shaft with a flexible coupler.
A bracket was also fashioned for the servo that will raise & lower the cannon and fixed to the underside of the platform as this needs to rotate with the cannon.

It appears that the original ship would only raise & fire one cannon at a time. So I just connected the rear of them with thread through the floor to the arm on the servo.
When the servo is operated the cross arm would pull the rear of one of them down, raising the barrel. The other thread would just go slack as that side of the arm moved up.
Obviously operating the servo in the other direction would raise the other cannon.

Here's a few pics.

Brackets, servo, motor/gearbox, added to the underside.
172330

Thread passed through the carriage into the barrel of the cannon.
172331

All fitted, and also a 10A ESC for the motor.
172332

All finished.
172333

Front view showing painted cabin also.
172334

[785boats]

Not much to report. Unable to draw very much time from the 'Time Bank' lately. :((
But I've put together the bollards & the air intake cowls.
The bollards are made from some wooden dowel and some pvc sheet.
The cowls were a bit more expensive. But a funny story.
I needed a cowl of 35-37mm with a 16mm riser.
I had the riser in the form of some plastic microjet irrigation tube that had been lying around for donkey's years. Sweet.

But to get the right size & shape for the cowls I headed off to the supermarket with a trusty little 150mm ruler and started measuring the caps on small deoderant sprays, shaving cream packs, ladies personal product type of packs etc. Lord only knows what the other shoppers were thinking when they saw me doing this.
But the ideal candidate ended up being a small Dove, spray moisturiser pack. Perfect in both shape and diameter. Just a bit long, is all, so I only had to cut them down a bit.
So I bought 4 bottles of it for about 2 bucks each, stole the lids, & gave the lidless bottles to wifey to do with them what ever they do with spray moisturiser.

After cutting down the length, I drilled an appropriate size hole in them finishing off the holes with a drum sanding bit in the dremel tool
The pipes were cut to the correct angle & shape and glued into the cowls.
Rosin core solder was used to make a ring around the lip of the cowl and also on the riser just below the cowl as seen in some images of the real boat and other models.
A bit of filler to fair in the pipes to the cowl and then they were painted in grey primer.

Once I cut them to the correct length and angle to match the curve of the deck, I'll paint them in their final colour.

Here's some pics.

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[785boats]

Again, not a lot to show for this weeks efforts.
I've mounted the main bridge and the flying bridges permanently.

To get the two flying bridges level and at right angles to the centerline of the ship. I taped them to a piece of straight wood then marked out the positions of the posts . Then removed the bridges to drill holes through the deck.
The posts were cut from some 4mm carbon fiber tube.
Then everything was epoxied in place with the wood brace still taped to the flying bridges.
The 30 minute epoxy gave me plenty of time to get everything set up straight, square, & level.

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[Jesse J]

Nice Paul! Your work bench looks like mine when I am elbows deep in a build!
What are all the holes for?
And what scale is this again? I think some scale Russians are needed..

[785boats]

Hi Jesse.
About time I had another cleanup on the bench. But when I put everything away, I can never find something when I need it.:biggrin:
All those holes in the decks are for skylights as per the original ship. See the pic below.
I'm just waiting for the eylets that I've ordered to arrive so I can ream the holes out to the right size & fit them.
The scale is 1:48

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[785boats]

Hi guys.
I've still been chipping away at this project when I can find the time.
The most recent developement is the final painting and installation of the smoke stacks and the ventilators.


The eyelets arrived the other day so I installed those too after fitting a piece of clear plastic into them.
I put a drip of CA in the back of the small ones to hold it in place and it gave the plastic a 'frosted' look.
Fortunately, I think they look better than plain clear.
Still have the 6 larger ones to do yet. Also the port holes around the main bridge.
Anyhow, here's a few pics. The camera angles make it look as if things aren't vertical, but they are.
Cheers.
Paul.

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[Jesse J]

Hey Paul, how was maiden voyage! I keep looking for the video.. help?

[785boats]

Sorry man.
No maiden yet. Things have stalled out a bit over the last month or so. Work commitments. And now l'm on holidays down in Tasmania for a couple of weeks.
Should get back to it in a couple of weeks time.
Cheers.

[Jesse J]

Ok, whassup? Need some vid-ee-oh! Cmon mate, you can do it!?!

[Johnc]

Agree with Jesse, been fowling from the beginning of build (12/20 or so)
Hope health is all OK to finish the project

[Johnc]

Haven't heard hide nor hair from ya on the build since last September sometime, Just wondering.
Hope all is well.