Modelik Flower class corvette

Jim Krauzlis

Active Member
cdcoyle said:
The one thing that jumped out at me when I glued the winch to the deck is that the brake handles are positioned at the same height as the top of the superstructure. A sailor would have had to reach over his head to turn them -- don't know how much leverage he would have had (or needed). And the view from back there couldn't have been the greatest, either, so there must have been some sort of signals used for when to brake, or let out cable, etc.

Regards,
Hmmm...I wonder.:???:
Just a suggestion, how about getting a piece of card cut to about scale 5'8" and put it next to the winch on your model to see roughly how a scaled sailor would look height-wise next to those brake handles. I can also suggest that normally a seaman would be working the brakes, winch, etc., at the verbal order of a CPO or Junior Officer in charge of the detail, so the sailor doesn't actually have to see what's going on directly.
Whatever, this is a superb build no matter how you look at it!:grin:

Cheers!
Jim
 

cdcoyle

Member
Downton pump and gallows

Here's the completed 5" Downton pump and the port hinged gallows. The gallows were NOT fun to build. The lesson: long, thin strips of paper alone are OK. Wire alone is OK. Thread alone is OK. Any combination of 2 of the 3 is OK. Long, thin strips of paper, wire, and thread TOGETHER is a royal pain in the patuckus. But they're done, so I'm happy. You can't see it in this shot, but the cable from the gallows is rove through two pulleys on the deck and then wound around a warping drum on the mine sweeping winch. I couldn't find any reference on whether the line should feed from the top of the drum or the bottom. I chose the bottom, as the angle of the line from the last pulley to the drum seemed sensible. I hope that is right. Please don't tell me if I'm wrong. :)

Regards,
 

cdcoyle

Member
not real happy

Here's a partially completed depth charge rack. The charges are loose in the rack for the time being. I'm not terribly pleased with how it has turned out so far, though it is only about half-finished. The problem lies with the way I tried to stiffen the paper -- a must for these fragile latticed parts. I absent-mindedly spray-painted the back sides of the main structural parts, forgetting that this would prevent absorption of CA glue, the technique I usually use for stiffening. I applied the CA anyway, but without the glue soaking into the paper fibers, the effect is not the same. Moreover, when I went to fold the parts along their score lines, they would not bend properly due to the extra gunk slathered on, resulting in less-than-crisp folds.

So...this is the port rack. On the starboard rack I intend to slice apart the sides/top into three separate parts. This should produce cleaner joints when reassembled. The charges themselves can be glued between the two side pieces for extra structural integrity. If this works as I hope it will, I may even try to disassemble the port rack and use the same technique on it.

Bye for now,
 

Jim Krauzlis

Active Member
Well, Chris, that pulley actually is rove...nah, I don't know, but I couldn't resist!:grin: She came out brilliantly, mate!

I can feel your angst over the rack, it really doesn't look so bad but I see the joint problem once you explained it. Funny how we're often our own worst critics at times, huh? I'm looking forward to seeing how the starboard one compares once you alter the assembly process...but that's a really fine job on the port one nonetheless. I love the amount of detail you incorporate in each assembly, making a superb model even better with each step!

Cheers!
Jim
 

cdcoyle

Member
Yeah, Jim, it doesn't look too bad in the picture, but in real life it lacks those crisp edges you would expect on such a piece. I could live with it as it is, but I think I can do better.

My zen for model building comes straight from Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid. There's a scene where he's teaching Ralph Macchio's character (whose name I can't recall) how to create a bonsai. He tells him to picture a bonsai in his mind, adding, "Think tree...only tree. Now, make tree look like picture." Great advice for modelers.

"Think depth charge rack...now, make rack look like picture." :) We'll see how it goes.

Best,
 

Jim Krauzlis

Active Member
Well, keep at it, Chris, until it pleases you...I can think of few models I've built where looking at them later I wasn't reminded of a few things I thought should have been done better. Seems there's always one thing or another (often quite a few) that I thought I should have been done differently.

I think that will always be the case, no matter how long we're at it. I suppose at some point you have to just say to yourself, well, that's as good as it gets this time around, and move on. Not to say don't redo something, that's what's great with paper modeling, you can usually start something anew. Like I said, make the next rack the new way and see how it goes; if it's more pleasing to you, then by all means try it on the first rack again.

Point is, that's part of the build process, isn't it? Keep at it until it you like what you see, but you eventually get to the point where you want to move on and as long as we're reasonably happy with the outcome, that's okay.

You clearly have a great talent and skill for building, your build is superb and watching this ship progress step by step with such nice attention to the little details is very enjoyable to me, as I'm sure it is for you. Let me just say that I love seeing a build thread, rather than a finished piece, because I always learn something by seeing another go through the creative process of putting the sub assemblies together, lots of tricks and techniques I hadn't thought of that produces a better result than I can on my own. I'm seeing loads of such things in this thread, for which I am very thankful that you've taken the time and effort to post your photos and narratives.

I still can't get over how excellent that deck winch came out, just an amazing bit of work! This is an amazing build, my friend!:)

Sorry for the long reply, but I wanted to somehow let you know how much I appreciate this build thread and the updates you treat us to as you go along. I'm looking forward to seeing how the starboard rack comes out.

Cheers!
Jim
 

cdcoyle

Member
Jim Krauzlis said:
I suppose at some point you have to just say to yourself, well, that's as good as it gets this time around, and move on.

Oh, trust me...I've done that plenty of times on this model. :)

I really appreciate all the kind things people have said during this build. They truly are a great source of encouragement.

Don't know how much modeling will get done today. I'm off to do some house painting. :cry:

Regards,
 

Jim Krauzlis

Active Member
What?!? You have a life outside of paper modeling?!?:twisted:

Welcome to my life...so many models, so little time...:cry:

Cheers!
Jim
 

cdcoyle

Member
Turns out it was too cold to paint at the new house. :grin:

I set about 'fixing' the port rack. I used my X-acto to lightly score the fold lines some more, then crimped the parts over the edge of the points on my tweezers. This got the edges to be more square. Adding the 21 vanes considerably stiffened the entire structure. Everything looks pretty good now.

TTFN,
 
M

Mark_1984

This model is incredible. Very well done indeed.
I look forward to seeing more updates :)
 
Excellent work Chris. Good save on the depth charge rack. It didn't look too bad to begin with. :)

Given the choice, I'll take modeling over painting a house anyday. 8)
 

cdcoyle

Member
depth charge racks

Ta-daaaa! This completes Agassiz's armament. One 4" gun, one 2 pdr AA, and 51 (twitch twitch :razz: ) depth charges. The 18 charges in the racks took me 3 hours to build. Notice I decided to go for the recessed charge filler hole plugs (decided to 'go for the gusto' as it were). The first rack was another 3 hours. The second only took half as much time. I didn't cut the rack parts apart completely as I suggested I would do. Rather, I scored them most of the way through and achieved the desired effect (squarer edges).

I feel like I'm now in the 'count down' stage. Only a few sub-assemblies left to go!

Regards,
 

Clashster

Member
Awesome, Chris! This is such a great build thread! Thanks for posting. I know I will be referring back to it when I start my first ship build!

Chris
 

cdcoyle

Member
mine sweeping floats

The as-designed float has a couple of minor problems. The nose doesn't really conform well to the desired shape, and the seams show too much. I cut off the original 'flower petal' nose and replaced it with some filler, sanded to shape, and also sanded down the seams.
 

cdcoyle

Member
A couple of coats of hull red, a few extra parts, a couple of wire additions, and the float (with restraining straps) is complete.

Regards,
 

Fishcarver

Active Member
Chris: Looking GREAT so far. I don't know if you have noticed,but I have definitely your work get progressively better as you have gone along. You started out as an excellent modeller, you are now on the way to becoming a great one. Carry on!!

Your Canadian friend,
Jim
 

cdcoyle

Member
Thanks for your comments, folks. Jim, I've noticed much the same thing...maybe not the 'great modeler' part, but definitely the improving work part. This is easily explained by the fact that I went from DN's Admirable (two stars, maybe?) to this five-star kit with no intermediate tries in between. That's a big jump, and naturally my skills have improved over the seven months I've been working on this so far. So, yes, it's easy to spot areas where I had trouble early on (can we say 'hull'?) and others that have benefited from the skills gained assembling the previous 2,000 parts.

Here are the finished floats in their cradles. Cranes are next!

Regards,
 
Top