Pogoria (JSC, 1/100)

[Siwi]

The other hull side is on, and also the rubbing strips attatched to each side. I found using masking tape to be helpful to hold the long and floppy part in approximately the right position whilst the glue dries on the first section. After getting the prow and the top stuck with PVA I did the stern and all the underside flaps over the base with superglue. Any uneven bits along the deck can be hidden by painting.


Generally things lined up well and there isn't any visible buckling or misalignment. However I do think the formers for the keel at the prow result in an over-thick assembly that it's difficult to get the skin around. If I had known this, I would have sanded and chamfered this to a knife edge before gluing the skins. There is a tiny gap but I think I hide this at a later stage. The brackets need to be painted white, not metal too.



Currently I am working on the front deckhouse, which I am doing some extra detail on by opening up the entrance doors and making a fake staircase to the lower deck.

[shipbuild]

Nice progress.

[Siwi]

The next section in the instructions is the pin racks, but I left those for now as my philosophy is to add fragile parts as late as possible in the build. In fact the section afterwards, the front deckhouse, is in the centre of the model and is needed to mount one of the pin racks so it seems a more sensible order anyway. The instructions also indicate to glue the floor of the deckhouse to the deck first, which makes no sense as it negates having the cutout underneath to get access to glue tabs, so I stuck it to the sides and glued to the deck as a sub-assembly.



This felt like it would never end - there are a deceptively large number of small details to add, plus I decided to glaze the portholes and to open up the doors, which meant putting some extra internal walls. The side door is for the deckhouse itself, which is a sort of meeting room. I made a simple table in there, although it's hardly visible. The centre doors are the stairs down to the lower deck. I wasn't going to cut through the deck and the formers so I used shading and a wire handrail to give the illusion the space goes down. Seeing the light through the portholes on the floor is a good effect when viewed through the open doors!



After that there are ventilation hatches which can be made open or closed, the other door, a roof vent from the galley, electrical box, the sliding roof hatch, and the railings which are included on the lasercut set, plus painting edges.

[Michael Mash]

Nice to see the Pagoria moving along.
Looking good. Hope you are enjoying your marine project.

[Siwi]

The rear deckhouses are complete. Again quite an involved process, with sub-assemblies for the engine control panel, the helm and other features. I did however have to deal with a fit issue in the kit - the side benches are shown to be fitted about 3mm too far forward when compared to the cutouts to recieve them in the deck planking. Stupidly I glued them on to the indicated lines on deckhouse sides without checking and then had to get them off as best I could with the knife. The paper did tear but fortunately not seriously and with them repositioned and a bit of white paint the job is hardly visible. All 'wooden' parts like doors were doubled and the planks scored, this again is hardly visible but nice to know it's there. I also used thicker clear film for the windows as they are larger.
Some paint and varnish was applied to cover the black cut and fold lines and the edges of darker parts.

The wheel is from the lasercut set and the deck gratings are from the real wood accessory pack. The tiny compass at the helm involves a tight cylinder which was done by gluing it around a piece of wire, which also served as a tool to position it. Now Pogoria looks as if she could actually sail (albeit on engine power).


I need to ask the community for some advice on working with wire as there are some parts coming up I won't be able to put off forever. The kit provides templates (a few of which I might actually make from card, like the pin racks) and my plan is to place pins at the corners and bend the wire around these. I think I should probably invest in some finer pliers, as the ones I have are reasonably small (for changing the pins on bicycle disk brake pads) but are too clumsy for some of the tiny pieces I will need to make. I propose to use superglue to attach the parts as my soldering skills are not up to making tidy joins on such thin diameters.

[Siwi]

The last week or so has seen a lot of time making a little - all the tiny details. The central deck has a crowded array of ventilator shafts, skylights and boxes that all need to be assembled, mostly using templates, and often with stacked layers. To get better adhesion I made all the wire stems longer than the templates and drilled some holes in the deck to insert them into. Some of the parts are truly miniscule.



Instead of wire for the front pin rack I cut out the template and made it four layers thick, than used the lasercut top part with the holes drilled. The aerial bases on the transom are now done too.

[herky]

wow great work, Am a fan of JSC ships but never really looked at this one before

[Siwi]

Next, but not strictly following the build order in the instructions, were the Zodiac RIB launches that sit on the deck. I added some extra detailing to one, such as the bands around the edges, and ropes, as well as the lasercut outbaord motors. The other I put under the optional cover supplied, and used paint and varnish to make that a more realistic waterproof material. Some light grey wash was applied to black areas to get a more realistic rubber/plastic surface and a little weathering, as these are likely kept less clean than the ship itself. The boats are edge joined only with no glue tabs which is just about ok when stuck to the base, but I'm glad I added the edging strip. The shape of the outside also seems to be too wide for the transom and ends up being not parallel, which is why the covered boat was not so neat at the bow as I had to deform it to get something like the correct shape. The motor parts do leave a gap at the bottom but I guess the thinking was this won't be seen unless from a very low angle.

[shipbuild]

Beautiful work on details.

[Michael Mash]

Lovely work.
This ship has an interesting variety of sails, based on the photos I have seen.