Funnels Near Completion

Today sees the completion of the funnels, now with the extra 1mm added to the bases, funnels glued in place and the exhaust steam pipes inserted.  After a quick bit of filling and a light touch of wet and dry to clean up the marks left by the supports...

Fitting Masts & Funnels

With the decking complete it is time now to start marking up the placement of the four funnels and the two masts. For the masts I felt they would be better built from brass rods, as this will ensure there is no warping or movement once the model is...

Fitting the Decking

Now the paintwork is complete its time to start fitting the wooden decking. This job to about 2 hours as I needed to check the fit of all section prior to removing the protective film on the rear of the wooden sheets.  Once the self adhesive started to bond...

Final Paintwork On the Hull

Today sees the final stages of the hull paintwork, after leaving it to cure overnight I started by rubbing down any small areas of paintwork that were sightly uneven with a dry rough cloth.  This helps to reduce and over spray areas and helps remove any dust. Thinking about...

Hull Painting

Today see the completion of the spray work on the hull, with the top coats being applied. After a roll of masking tape to allow for the boot-topping line to be applied between the light grey upper part of the hull and the red anti fouling.  The boot-topping is...

Shadow painting

Now the funnel blocks and funnels are designed and sent to the printer to create the parts (a total print time of 6 hours) I thought I would take some time out to start putting the shadow effects onto the hull.  Now I know that you will be thinking...

3D Funnels and bases

Today saw the completion of the CAD drawing for the funnels and their bases, whilst these are basic structures all of the additional fittings will be added when these have been printed.  The fitting will include the four revolving vents per block, brass etch ladder sets to access the...

3D Printing Starts

Today is a little more relaxing as I started test printing some of the 3D parts, mainly the main gun turrets and barrels along with all the fittings for the the rear deck.  After some parts needing minor modification I can see we are getting closer to highly detailed...

Portholes are finished!

Today sees the completion of around 100 portholes being fixed to the hull, which took over 20 hours as every one had an individual eyebrow.  In addition some of the portholes needed grills or bars to be added, as these were in areas that needed protection such as the...

Port Hole Update

After a little bit of finishing work to the paintwork on the hull I then moved to the next job which is the fitting of 100 port holes.  The brass etch is 0.2mm thick and very soft so extra care is needed not to damage these small parts, as...