B
Bunkerbarge
Guest
Unfortunately my leave has been messed around quite a bit this time hime so I haven't had a lot of time to get to grips with the Ben Ain. I made the most of what i had though and progressed the bridge unit that bit more. Still not quite finished but getting tantalisingly close and not a lot left to do to it now. The temptation is always to rush it a bit as I approach the end of a leave which is the last thing I want to get into. Anyway here is the latest update.
Moving that bit further the decorative strip was glued around the top outside edge of the bulwarks maintaining a consistent distance from the capping rail and then the flying bridge details could be worked on. The binnacle was made in just the same way as the one inside the bridge and finished with a gold paint with an overcoat of Tamiya Clear acrylic “Smoke” to give it an aged patina and the wheel and telegraph were both painted up, assembled and fitted to the flying bridge. The steps up to the flying bridge were fitted in exactly the same way as the ones were made from the main deck to the bridge deck but in the case with these care had to be taken to ensure that they accommodated the camber of the two decks. Another detail item to be reworked was the life belts to be hung on the bridge bulwarks. The white metal ones were good enough but I was concerned again about unnecessary weight and I thought that I could do better anyway. I turned a piece of dowel down to 20mm and then ran a 12mm drill down the centre of it. I parted off 4mm pieces which gave me nice wooden rings that then had to be smoothed over to give an even and flattened ring shape. These were then whipped with fine cord to make the rope work and the grab handles which gave a much more realistic appearance as well as being considerably lighter than the originals. I then made wooden brackets for them all before finally mounting them on the bulwarks and giving then a couple of coats of satin yacht varnish. The life rings were painted with Humbrol matt enamels and the rope was protected with a coat of matt clear varnish.
Further painting around the bridge unit and the fitting of final detailed items such as hand rails, mushroom vents, canvas dodger stanchions and the mast crutch finally completed the bridge unit. The supplied white metal canvas dodger stanchions proved to be a bit on the soft side so they were replaced with brass items and painted white before fitting to the capping rail. All that remained for the bridge unit at this stage was the fitting of one or two figures and some final careful weathering but this will mostly be done when the entire model is completed and the weathering finish will be applied throughout at the same time.
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Moving that bit further the decorative strip was glued around the top outside edge of the bulwarks maintaining a consistent distance from the capping rail and then the flying bridge details could be worked on. The binnacle was made in just the same way as the one inside the bridge and finished with a gold paint with an overcoat of Tamiya Clear acrylic “Smoke” to give it an aged patina and the wheel and telegraph were both painted up, assembled and fitted to the flying bridge. The steps up to the flying bridge were fitted in exactly the same way as the ones were made from the main deck to the bridge deck but in the case with these care had to be taken to ensure that they accommodated the camber of the two decks. Another detail item to be reworked was the life belts to be hung on the bridge bulwarks. The white metal ones were good enough but I was concerned again about unnecessary weight and I thought that I could do better anyway. I turned a piece of dowel down to 20mm and then ran a 12mm drill down the centre of it. I parted off 4mm pieces which gave me nice wooden rings that then had to be smoothed over to give an even and flattened ring shape. These were then whipped with fine cord to make the rope work and the grab handles which gave a much more realistic appearance as well as being considerably lighter than the originals. I then made wooden brackets for them all before finally mounting them on the bulwarks and giving then a couple of coats of satin yacht varnish. The life rings were painted with Humbrol matt enamels and the rope was protected with a coat of matt clear varnish.
Further painting around the bridge unit and the fitting of final detailed items such as hand rails, mushroom vents, canvas dodger stanchions and the mast crutch finally completed the bridge unit. The supplied white metal canvas dodger stanchions proved to be a bit on the soft side so they were replaced with brass items and painted white before fitting to the capping rail. All that remained for the bridge unit at this stage was the fitting of one or two figures and some final careful weathering but this will mostly be done when the entire model is completed and the weathering finish will be applied throughout at the same time.
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