finished the cabin skylight with a couple of alterations, the 2 top halfs of the skylight were solid pices of wood and did not look right to me so cut out the centers and then added some bits of copper wire and a piece of clear plastic for windows then stained and varnished it all.I know i wont be able to see into a cabin but i think it was worth the trouble to improve the look of it, the plans just show it drawn on.
well think im happy with the wheelhouse now new done any kind of weathering before so just tried to do a little bit of salt water weathering on the wheelhouse door and added a handle for the belt drive for the winch instead of the wooden wheel the kit gives,may attempt to do a bit of rusting on the wheelhouse casing but not sure yet, but if it goes wrong i can always paint it out again.
thanks guys for the input as it all helps been a first for alot of things ie weathering and proper planking as the last time i did this model the deck was printed with the planks already and i have enjoyed doing things my own way and learning by my mistakes.This is my attempt at weathering the hull,only problem iv'e had upto now with that is the wife does not like it so the usual comments flying around lol.
just realised you are from grimsby,get yourself down to the docks and look at the boats lol,its a bit heavy on the bow,maybe look at where the metal touch`s the wood and rustify that bit
thats some cool pics there,but do you see what i mean about where the steel is about the rusting on the wood?and on one it looks like pitch thats been used to seal the wood of the hull(fascinating),or maybe its me who`s just being picky lol
cheers lads for the comments still not 100% sure on the weathering as it is the first time i have ever attempted anything like that so it may change a couple of times till im happy with it, the wife does not like it at all says it spoils the model still what do women know lol.
Since buying this kit i must say that i have really enjoyed constructing it and think i will have it finnished when i come home again next time, even tho it's been many years since i last did anything like this i am glad that i did. The challenges of building a wooden plank on frame kit are numerous but to me this has been part of the enjoyment of building this model.
Billings instruction manual leaves alot to be desired i must say with quite a few things left open for interpritation but this has been an asset to me in some ways and allowed me to make my own changes as i go and one or two of the fittings have been altered to make my model that is unique to me, i have seen a number of variations of the same kit around the web and all look fantastic, i suppose it's because the basic hull design of these ships has been the same for over 40 years and they could be adapted for a number of different fishing operations and over my career saw many changes to them and it is a kit that i would recomend to anybody.
finished making the changes to the winch so that it now looks like a seine winch instead of a trawl winch been a fiddly job but it's done now painted and weathered it, pictures a bit blurry looks like batteries need changing.
thank you very much gents i have a few more pics to put up and those will be the last for this trip as away to aberdeen again on tuesday to join my ship for another 4 weeks
well thats all the deck boards and stanchions put in started to add some of the ropes as well and made up the anchor pellets, these are 2 large bladders that are connected to the anchor wire at various distances the reason for these is to keep the wire afloat and they also mark where the anchor gear is leading because the anchor gear is all stretched out about a quarter mile in lenght the weight of it would sink the dhan buoy that is attached to the end and so you would not be able to find your gear, anyway that is the reason for the 2 balls.
Here are a couple of pics
View attachment 46767View attachment 46768 you can see in the first pic 1 of them is different these where the old fashioned type used in the 60's made from aluminium, heavy and hard to handle when the ship was pitching and rolling.
View attachment 46769View attachment 46770View attachment 46771View attachment 46772 i think the pitching for the deck has turned out alot better now things are being put into place, when the decks on these ships were pitched with tar it was done from a hot bucket using a ladle to just pour it on as quickly as they could and so over the years the pitching looses the nice neat look it had when first built.