An American Spy Ship?

[rtfoe]

After the rest I tackled the ship again...

Made those little funnels protruding out of the smoke stack with wire bent and edges flattened with a diamond burr chucked into a motor tool. I guess I have to replace the outer two with thinner gauge wire as they're slightly out of scale.



Then I decided to detail the Captains launch which Greg said was secured just in front of the main deck house. Reference pictures of it were obscured by the crane lifts but i could see that it had like a motorboat windshield so I got some PE from the base of a depth charge rack and twisted it into shape.



Then right under my nose was a picture of the captains launch...teach me next time to read captions properly.



So I made corrections and this is it...best I could do with me thick fingers...



That's enough eye strain for now so I went ahead with drawing up the plans for the masts with my tried and tested method of scaling the broadside image of the Oxford to 7" length and converting to centimeters. Saved the file into a thumbdrive and will visit the stationery shop down the road for a print out....my printer/scanners run out of ink.

Cheers,
Richard

[Wouter]

Oh, that is very cool mate, the little boat reminds me a bit of the scratchwork of Marijn Van Gils' Amagi diorama.

Cheers

[rtfoe]

Thanks Wouter, I must take a look at Marijn Van Gils' Amagi diorama.

Cheers,
Richard

[boatman]

Thanks Wouter, I must take a look at Marijn Van Gils' Amagi diorama.

Cheers,
Richard

HI Richard i know this captains launch is tiny an this is not critisuim of your work but i think you just need to put some small dots on where the small windows are on the white bit of s/s then it will look right but fab work
chris

[rtfoe]

HI Richard i know this captains launch is tiny an this is not critisuim of your work but i think you just need to put some small dots on where the small windows are on the white bit of s/s then it will look right but fab work
chris

Hi Chris, thanks for the comment. Actually the boat hasn't been painted yet and am aware the windows will need to be painted in. There's a possibility of drilling them out with my tiny burr but I won't chance that for fear of ruining it. The back of the boat still needs some PE support railings.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Using my tried and tested method...hopefully the masts turn out ok. First I matched the measurements to the kit...then only proceed.



Cheers,
Richard.

[wotan]

Richard

Congratulations on a really interesting and skillfully built project. I am watching each update as it comes and admiring your handiwork. BTW has the captain's launch not got the corners of the front cabin cut at an angle? It looks like it would make a more sleek shape.

John

[rtfoe]

Thanks John, you may be right there. From the top angle it needs tapering in.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Taking your suggestion John, I sliced the front cabin and added the railing at the rear...



The launch dry fitted onto the position on the deck just in front of the deck-house.



Will detail paint it later.

Cheers,
Richard

[boatman]

SPLENDID JOB Richard :thumb2: but how big is it ? half an inch ?
chris

[rtfoe]

Hi Chris, slightly more than half an inch. Thank you kindly.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

I was going to use the kit lifeboat davits when I noticed they looked different from the reference I had. I realised that with the refurbishing, the davits were replaced with the later types that had the boats ride down the rails when deployed.

These were provided in the kit which were the WW2 variant...



To make the new davits I sandwiched plastic sheet, traced the shape with a pencil and cut them with jewelers saw...



To keep the sheets together I bonded the unused section with CA, chucked it in a vise and proceeded with the sawing. I gave a bit of margin and thinned the edges individually.



I shortened the them to fit the required height. Later it will be cleaned up with fine sanding paper.



Here's a reference of what it should look like...The arms will be scratched in later with the boat.



Good thing I got this out of the way as I was beating my brains out on how to fabricate those davits.

Cheers,
Richard

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Better and better. Clever way to cut out a few at a time.
Jim

[boatman]

HI Richard yea clever idea thats how i made my hinge mountin for my hangar doors on tiger tape them altogeather an cut out an drill out the hinges holes an you have done a bueaty of a job well done as they are very tiny
chris

[scottie3158]

Richard,
Sorry mate I'm late to the party. Some lovely scratchery going on.