old stuff

[Michael Mash]

You mention: "The model has held up pretty well over the years. Since then quite a few sailing ship models have been built and a great deal has been learned."

Question: Did you mean that you have built quite a few "wooden" sail ship models?
It looks to me like your Black Prince has held up very well. Nice work.

Mike

[Don Boose]

Due to family holiday activities, I missed your last three posts in this thread, Ray.

I very much enjoyed reading the back story and seeing the images of your workshop. The Nakajima G8N Renzan loosely nestled in a box with other models [178/3r] caught my eye in particular.

I am envious of your productivity, skill, and talent, as well as the way you have maintained your work and display space. My own basement is rather a cobwebbed disaster and most of my models are still in their boxes.

Black Prince is a wonderful model!

Many thanks for sharing all this with us.

Don

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

This is evidently one of Yoavs early designs. It was built around 2013. Does eleven years count as old stuff? Who cares. The model is a very poor build of a French S. O. 4050 Vautour IIA. That's because the tremors were just getting a hold and I had no idea of what was happening. It was a very frustrating experience, but it got built and still exists. The build may be poor, but the kit was well designed if not quite up to the standards of later models.

The Vautour was first encountered as a Heller kit around 1957 or 1958, when I was in the teens. It was a handsome machine. The kit cost ninety eight cents at that time and was a very tough build for not so good results. The prices asked for the same kit today are outrageous. This card kit is way superior to that model.

Photo 1r is a frontal view. The stabilizer is askew, but reparable. The fillets around the engines could be way better, but not by yours truly. Photo2r is an over head shot, which looks somewhat better. Photo 3r is from the side and you can see that, if properly built conveys an accurate fuselage. Photo 4r is from the rear. You can see the accuracy of the camouflage and markings. The outrigger gear below the nacelle has buckled from handling, but could be repaired. Photo 5r is a nose view showing the main gear details. The port side outrigger is intact. Photo 6r shows the bottom view. The stabilizer has been repaired and the out riggers straightened out. The outrigger wells had to be very shallow to avoid the engines. The shading of the light gray underside shows the texture near the control surfaces as well as weathering of the airframe. That effect would be quite a challenge for an airbrush on a plastic model.

Usually a copy of a downloaded kit is kept in the computer so a spare can be printed in case parts get messed up. But, alas it was not the case with this model. Never the less this is a handsome replica of an early successful ground attack machine, which survived in active Israeli service until the early 1970s.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

To respond to a question that Mike asked I went looking around in some old photographs. There are a lot of them. Here are two. Haven't found a picture of the completed America. There are photos of a Constitution around somewhere, but they haven't shown up. The Susquehanna, which was hiding under the Princeton project, was built around 2003 and would be a subject for a very long thread. There are lots of photos of that build.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Most of this week was spent on rethinking the side plates and finishing the cleaning and resizing of the flight deck plates.

If the front sides and stern sides were close to correct, it was going to force redoing of sections two and three. Both front plates were transferred to a single sheet and checked for alignment. Placing them top to top showed errors, which were corrected. The same procedure was used for the stern. Both were printed out on paper and dry fitted to the model. Being satisfied with that, all of the side plates were carefully stripped from the frame.

Photo r1 shows the frame after the sides were removed. Bits of card remain, but will be picked off with fine nosed tweezers. Photo r2 shows the other side. Photo r3 shows the revised stern plates, pre curved, aligned and ready for attachment. Photo r4 shows the starboard stern plate glued in place. It fits well. Photo r5 shows both plates glued in place. Photo r6 shows the port bow plate glued. Photo r7 shows both bow plates in place. All the apertures are hollowed out and the deck edge is a clean fit. The last photo shows the hull with the flight deck drawing at the side. It is too long by a couple of inches. that all will have to be reduced. The flight deck length has to be correct before any corrections to the beam can be addressed.

All in all progress is satisfactory. It is beginning to look like a ship. The deck to plate fit is really rewarding. Now, on to the flight deck.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Oops! sorry about that, sent CV-23 update to the wrong thread.

Regards. rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Here's the real old stuff.

Over the years an enormous number of photos have been taken. Many are still on file, but uncatalogued. They probably will never be. But, every now and then I'll stumble on a project while looking for something else. Here is a project stated in December of 2002.

Three Fly Model card kits were purchased from a vendor at a Downeastcon competition, a B-25 in 1/33 scale, USS Augusta and USS California in 1/200 scale. Only the California was started.

Photo cal 1 was taken in early 2003. It was an enormous full hull model. The lower hull had been built, but discarded since waterline models were preferred. Photo cal 2 shows the side plates on, the superstructure started and the four main turrets ready form mounting. photo cal 3 shows the turrets and second level deck aboard. The detail work hasn't been started. and the main guns haven't been set for elevation. Photo cal 4 shows a top view. The USS California was extensively rebuilt after Pearl Harbor. It emerged from the yards an almost unrecognizable ship. Notice the enormous bulge visible forward. Photo cal 5 shows considerable work on the superstructure and the five inch turrets mounted. Notice the splinter camouflage. Photo cal 6 shows the other side.

At this point in the project the question occurred, "Do I really want to do all the work required to finish this monster and where am I going to put it anyway?" Well, fortune stepped in, a friend expressed interest in it. It wound up being somewhat gleefully offered and accepted.

I have no idea what eventually became of it. The other two kits, Photos cal 7 and 8, are in storage and will probably never be started, but every now and then they get hauled out and examined. Almost got started on the B-25, but sanity stepped in and called things to a halt. Every now and then I look at CV-23 and have no idea where that is going to go either. But, it keeps an old man active in mind and body, somewhat. There's something to be said for that.

Regards, rjccjr

[Don Boose]

That iteration of California was, to my eye, a good-looking ship with the torpedo bulges, the rebuilt superstructure, and the blue 1944 camouflage.

Don

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Sometime back in the 1980s, shortly after the Black Prince was finished another Mamoli kit was started.There were only six pictures which have shown up so far. This is the schooner yacht America, kit MV 26 in 1/66 scale. Why that particular scale? "Beats me Ralph." It is about thirty one inches long and twenty three inches high. Now a days, it can be purchased for between $180 to $200. At the time this was built this was priced at eighty nine dollars. Same kit, same dry wood, and same strange instructions, Italian and Italian English. It's a challenge trying to figure out what the instructions mean.

There is abundant research material available to turn this into a fairly decent representation of the yacht.

Photo 1r shows the deck planking in place along with the hatch way and cockpit insert lying on top. You can see that the model is on a builders cradle while under construction. Photo 2r shows those parts inserted into the deck. Photo 3r shows the plank on bulkhead hull inverted. The inner planking had been filled with gesso and sanded smooth. The kit had a bag of peculiar green dyed pieces of wood to simulate hull coppering. It really didn't seem very effective. The stern planking had not been trimmed. Photo 4r gives a view of the rudder well. Photo 5r shows the kit much further along. The deck furniture is in place. The masts, bow sprit and lower boom are in place. The hull is finished and painted. The sides above the waterline were painted with gloss black enamel. Those little green blocks were sanded very thin, painted a copper color, then over sprayed with a faint green tint. Photo 6r shows the anchor attached in stowed position, the dead eyes ready for the stays to be attached and the forward lower boom attached. The rudder and tiller are attached.

Research showed that the rigging plan of the kit was not the same as photographs of the yacht in the water, So, the model was rigged according to the photos. Actually the model came out quite well by the time it was finished, but no photos survive to prove it. It took up a lot of space in the shop and later found a home with a family member. Building plank on bulkhead ship models was fun, but it was also a lot of work not to mention very time consuming.

Two more photos just turned up. Photo 7r shows the model complete and fully rigged, except for flags and pennants. The revision of the green parts below the waterline worked well. Notice the black color of standing rigging and manila for running rigging. The last photo shows the finished model on display at some long forgotten show. The picture was shot through a display case and is somewhat distorted, but it is still a handsome beast.

Regards rjccjr

[Don Boose]

A trim vessel. I enjoyed seeing these images.

Don