DocRob

Totally OT, other than sporting some yellow, but I know you will like it Peter. The Tamiya 1/12 Renault RE20 became available. Mine is already ordered and somewhere in the mail. Cheers Rob

When the manual shows some totals from different angles and claims 'your ship now should look like this', you know you've achieved something. I have to admit, I'm a bit proud of what I built over the last three month. The kit design and good materials help a lot to lead a relative beginner through the build, as does the fantastic manual and the detailed plans. I added the railings for the aft deck, the ladders between the decks and bulwark pollards. With the exception of the ladders, all were airbrushed matte black before assembly. The side railings were difficult to slot in, as the contour of the railing is curved and the material of the pillars is very thin and brittle. I broke two or three while cleaning up the sandwiched railing parts. Somehow I got them slotted and glued with CA, three pillars at a time and broke only one. After dabbing the sweat from my eyebrows, I made more or less the same pics like in the manual. Now it's time for rigging and giving the masts and yards the correct contours, but maybe I'm distracting myself from this and build a small boat to mount on the main deck. This is not part of the kit, but Chris from Vanguard sells these boats which are build planks on spar-frames, as separate kits. I chose the 18ft cutter for DoK. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, I made some little improvements to the kit. like the rigging and other stuff, but what you get is a brilliant kit like it is. The deck details were time consuming, but fun mostly. You can start to imagine walking on the decks of the Duchess of Kingston. Thank you Phil, it's great to have you on board on this fun yachting experience. Cheers Rob

That looks like a perfect finish Peter. The decals will marvel on that surface. BTW: I always liked the LifeColor acrylics. They spray very smooth and issue free. Cheers Rob

Looking great Kevin, but can't help with the Tamiya pastels. I bought three packs lately, but haven't used them since. So naturally, I'm interested in your results and observations. Cheers Rob

Yours is at least rounded a bit, hence the bucket, my JK is only bricks . The design has it's benefits, I rarely need sunglasses, because of the vertical windshield and the car is much cooler inside, than these modern piece of soap formed glass domes. Cheers Rob

Thank you Hubert and Gus, I also had the urge to play a game of snooker, while adding the cannon balls. Not possible on my island though, there are only some lousy pool tables. I thought a lot about how to apply the cannon ball filled triangles and decided to use double sided adhesive tape. Thank you Gary, I thought about some crew members, but haven't found fitting ones. The DoK will be fully masted and rigged, but without sails. There are no sails provided in the kit and I have to admit, mostly cloth sails do not look good and scale wise realistic to my eye. Cheers Rob

Another milestone is accomplished, the deck assemblies were installed completely over the last days. The guns were added, like seen above, now with their cannon ball triangles added and all the belaying pins went into the holes of their banks. I decided against gluing in every single pin, but used some wood varnish instead, brushed on. On to the pics: And some detail shots: Cheers Rob

I like it a lot Kevin and I don't find it has too much contrast. With masks removed and decaling, the eye is more distracted and with a pronouncing weathering all will look good. Cheers Rob

Keep on the good roll with the PE and metal stuff Gary, Your detailing looks supercool and yes, I glued some track links on with no brackets at all , but also tried a more realistic approach once or twice. Cheers Rob

Very nice build. I like the metal finish with the Argentine livery. Great work on that tiny plane. Cheers Rob

I toured a lot of times with a good friend of mine, he on his Harley Sportster and me on my KTM 950 Supermoto. The only thing both bikes had in common, was the fun they made driving. We ate lots of kilometers over the years, on German, Austrian and Czech roads, doing week trips without using highways. Sometimes I went to the north sea in the first warm spring days, only to jump into the ice cold sea and ride back to Berlin, 700 km's a day, only for fun. The KTM was a blade, fast, light, reliable and could go around corners like nothing else and was able to go up to 200 km/h without wobbling, a hard to achieve thing, given the high Supermoto shape of the bike and no wind protection at all. One other prominent feature were the breaks, they did, what they were made for perfectly, even without ABS. Sometimes we exchanged bikes and I learned to steer the Sportster like you described Ernie. To go fast on curvy mountain roads with the Sportster needed a lot of cojones though, as the brakes were a nightmare and the acceleration was downright poor. That meant, no breaking, if it can be avoided, to not have to accelerate that chunk of metal again. Sounds terrible, but wasn't. I never would have changed permanently to a Harley, but it was real fun to drive her, sound and vibrations are absolutely cool and the low center of gravity makes them easy to handle (not the case with yours, I think). Would I have lived in the US, I think, I may had owned a Harley myself, but commuting in Berlin and having lots of bad or curvy roads, other bikes were a better choice. Fond memories as I have promised my wife not to buy a motorcycle on my island, where driving can be really dangerous. Cheers Rob

I can't find these clamps looking too bad, Gary. You are over magnified and sensible . These tiny parts will look great under primer and paint. Nothing wrong with the exhaust straps. They are no more than a welded piece of bent flat iron in reality. Cheers Rob

I second Gus, your Tram starts to come together beautifully. The solution with the floorboards is great, Miniart should have thought about it a bit more. It's hard to see at he pictures, but aren't there any beams under the floor, to form a chassis? I sometimes thought about buying one of the Tram kits myself, but I can't stand repetitive work, if it can be hindered. For the same reason, I skipped the Roden Greyhound bus, as much as I like the design and braveness to produce such a kit. Speaking in wooden ships, I would never do ships bigger than let's say a heavy frigate, certainly no HMS. Victory. Cheers Rob

That sums it up pretty good Hubert. I think, there was a big relief with the introduction of breech loading. The process of fixing, loading, hauling in firing position, aiming, waiting for a good roll of the ship, firing, cleaning, ..., must be laborious and dangerous as well, only added by noise and fume. Not nice, having a leg entangled when a 32 pounder is firing. I left the ropes for pulling the gun to the gun port out, by the way of simplification. In 64 scale, I think this is ok, not even knowing if these cannons ever were fired on the real one. Cheers Rob

Whatever OSHA is, the deck of a sailing boat is no dancehall . I wonder which curses the seamen had in mind for their decadent passengers. Cheers Rob

Thanks Peter, the ladder looks definitely better than before. I considered doing this for the main ladder as well, but you cannot see it, descending into the hull. I'm no expert for cannon rigging, but reading the thread above, Martin provided and other sources, these ropes should be taut. The cannons must always be fixed on a rolling ship, Fire is the worst enemy of a wooden ship, but the second worst is a loose cannon running free on the deck, so I think taut is correct. Cheers Rob

Speaking of full broadsides, it's mighty 12 pounds per side, I finished rigging the guns with simplified version. All guns got their breeching ropes. Then the gun carriages where glued to the deck. As I already prepared the on deck eyebolts for more rigging, I decided for the sake of a busy looking deck, to add some more yarn. I made some tackle ropes from black thread and glued the knots with CA. I decided against a more realistic approach with using blocks, as I don't know if I have enough spares. I like the result, the deck starts to look busy and I'm only beginning to add equipment. I'm very grateful, that I started with the guns. The rigging proved to be fiddly and I needed as much space as possible. Cheers Rob

Thank you Martin, this article is interesting and frightening at the same time. I will study it more closely later. There are so many aspects in rigging, like timeframe, nationality, ..., to consider. I'm new to the subject, the DoK is 1/64 scale and these four pounders are tiny, so I took the liberty to make things a bit easier for me with a faux rigging . Cheers Rob

The hopefully last assemblies for the decks will be the connecting staircases. I glued them together with CA, but decided to refine the parts a bit before. I found the front edge of each stair looked too thick, so I beveled each step with the disc sander and now they appear a bit finer and scale right. Here are both of them, this time with varnish on. I rigged two cannons in half the time, I used up for the first one (the left one). I had to rip out the eyebolts and made the assembly on my work desk, not on the deck. The thread is a bit thinner, but the method is easier to accomplish. In the picture, all knots still remain to be refined, ends cut and of course the eyebolts glued in. I will do that, when all six cannons are rigged this way. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, as you can see in the following post, I simplified the rigging a bit, because, I couldn't make it look equal for the other cannons. I think it will be sufficient as well. Cheers rob

Thank you Gary, to put together the deck equipment is fun, but very time consuming. Until this phase of the build, there was nearly no clean up needed. On deck things are a bit different, lots of char to remove and all amounts to build it in a good sequence to not corner yourself. It also involves some preparations for the fit of the masts and other pats, later. The cannons are nicely made, if you lay out the parts in front of you, they look a bit simple, which changes assembled luckily, with a little help of varnish airbrush and pigments. Cheers Rob

Nice bike Ernie, not my style, but as you said for eating up miles comfortably it's perfect and the looks are just wow, but I doubt, that you can go above 3500 rpm without nose bleeding. There's a more socially accepted variant of helmet. These were worn by German firefighters until the 80's or 90's at least, but not DOT approved. Cheers Rob

No metal barrel Gary, there is a one piece plastic one with slide molded rifling. Not too shabby, but it has a slight mold line. The kit sports Magic Tracks, luckily. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, I read somewhere, that the breech ropes should be three times the length of the barrel. That is the case here, when the rope is finally attached to the barrel. On the other hand, I doubt that these cannons were ever shot. Cheers Rob