An American Spy Ship?

[tr1ckey66]

Nice work Richard. Good to see you back. Hope the check up is good news.
Cheers
P

[rtfoe]

Thanks Paul, the news is a bit sketchy as my enzyme levels still a bit high. They suspect that one stone escaped and may have lodged in the tube. They are hoping with the larger hole made earlier the stone may pass to the intestine as it is much smaller than the previous. So its monitoring for another week.

Cheers,
Richard

[Andy Belsey]

Hope it does pass and that you can concentrate on recovery. Take care and keep posting when you can.
Andy

[rtfoe]

Thanks Andy, to take my mind off the recovery I will attemp the final rear mast. Got some still shots from the video and it was interesting how the yardarms look from these angles... especially the top most yardarm which turned out like a broad platform.


Then for the bow I will be adding the the christmas tree antenna using part of the kit mast.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

No courage yet to attempt the mast so I decided to give the ship a base coat...



In the reference images I noticed the deck to have a darker tone than the hull and body sides so I mixed a batch of darker grey and sprayed randomly.



Anything that gt an overspray will be touched up with lighter grey using a paint brush. I will add washes and rust and oil stains to the deck later.



The smoke stack was blackened and the mast behind it also painted in black at the same level as the stack.



The white area of the rear deckhouse was masked.



The waterline also was painted black. Now I'll just let it all cure and then I'll coat it with varnish for the weathering and detail painting.
The fourth mast has been removed from the rear deckhouse so it should be done soon.

Cheers,
Richard

[minitnkr]

The paint is really bringing this all together in excellent fashion. Great job. PaulE

[rtfoe]

Thanks Paul...all the scratch modifications can't be seen now...happy and sad at the same time.

Cheers,
Richard

[tr1ckey66]

Looks great Richard
Cheers
P

[rtfoe]

Thanks Paul. It's taken 2 months to get to this point. Quite fast at my speed. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Hope you're continuing to recover from your operation.
Looks great with its coat of paint. Ties everything together.
Jim

[Guest]

Fantastic work Richard :smiling3:.

[rtfoe]

Thanks guys,
I am feeling much better to tackle the work bench. It has given me some time to check references again and realise that by the time of Oxfords modifications the hull also had additions that I thought was always on the liberty ships. These were extraction pipes that ran along the decks of the outer hull. There were also pipe ducks in certain areas. So I spent the next day fitting these items although I had started on the mast.



I had placed stop rings on the mast pole to aid in the attachment of the yard arms before tackling the extraction chute below. These were made with stretched sprue glued at an angle to give the impression that they were bent.



To secure them firmly I pre-drilled so that the glue could bite in.



The pipes were cut lengths of stretched sprue and glued on.



I gave the superstructure a coat of varnish. The mast was initially glued slightly lob sided due to my haste but was soon rectified.



That's it for now. Thanks for looking in and sticking with the build.

Cheers,
Richard

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Glad you're feeling better.
Great progress of the ship. You're really going to town with your research and detailing.

Could you please explain how you stretch sprue. You seem to get such controllable, consistent results. My attempts are rather hit and miss and I end up with loads of rubbish in order to get the bits I want. I must be doing something wrong :rolling:

Jim

[Allen Dewire]

Wow Richard,

I totally missed this one Buddy, but I have read through everything and must say "You are truly and definitely crazy" for doing this build. And at this scale too!!!

Seriously though, so glad to hear you are doing much better and healing up well. A fantastic job with all the details and that makes it even more incredible. So off the eye doctor next??? Take care Richard........

Prost
Allen

[rtfoe]

Thanks Jim and Allen, appreciate the kind remarks.

Jim, as for stretching sprue, the right kind of plastic helps. I found either Airfix or the latest Pitroad sprues were suitable for sprue stretching. The usual thing I do is use my wifes tea light candle and hover the sprue a cm over the candle flame while twisting the sprue to get an even heat distribution over the spot until the sprue bends and droops.
The next move is to decide how thick you want the stretch to be. If you pull instantly you will get a fine stretch...if you wait a few seconds and pull slowly you will get a thicker stretch and if you pull at an even pace you will get a relatively even stretch. I normally pull more than I need and cut sections that are the right thickness that I need.
Allen, yes crazy I am for taking on this build but I was up for a challenge and it is quite therapeutic. Eye doctor appointment will be made soon...my everyday bi-focal glasses aren't doing so well for me lately.

Cheers,
Richard