Profecional masking and painting !!! Woow That prolix work. Congratulations!! I am charmed with this camo!!!!

Regards Daniel

Hi Daniel and thanks for that.
Being a bit slab sided makes it a little easier to camo.
The island will be done seperately after I have finished the flight deck stage.
Cheers
Warren

Sorry about the lack of pictures but taking pictures of painted bits is a bit boring...
Have been busy with the white counter-shading used in various spots and painting lots of life rafts Navy Blue and decks Deck Blue. Now all I have to do is put the painted parts in position and paint the parts that require it in one of the three camo colours.
I was talking to someone today who told me he had trouble attaching the forward flight deck to the hull and had to sand away locating ridges etc. Hopefully I won't have that trouble and the wooden deck should cover the two joins in the deck.

Looking good Warren! That deck edge elevator is really a piece of art!

Great stuff Warren,

Very neat Camo and the etch around the hull & under the elevator is splendid.

Si

Beautiful PE work Mr. Inman,looking very good there
The elevator is magic.
Julian

Thanks for looking everyone and thanks for the compliments.
Must be the camera angle etc that makes that structure under the elevator that look so good.
Cheers guys
Warren

G'day everyone.
Time for an update. It may seem I have been bludging on the modelling front lately, but circumstances keep getting in the way of me making progress with the mighty Tico..

Here is the PE for under the front of the flight deck. The ladders connect with the catwalks that were installed previously (I hope).
And this is the cat walks at the rear of the flight deck.

Before I attached the three piece main deck to the rest of the hull I had to make a small mod to the forward part of the deck to correct a small boo-boo by Trumpeter with CV-14. I started by cutting with the good 'ole razor saw but it quickly got very painfully slow. I then remembered I had bought a set of photo-etch saws for my rotary tool a few years ago and never used them

I opened the pack and was surprised to find there was a holder in the set for the blades as well. The saw made very short work of cutting the plastic and impressed me mightily with the lovely clean cuts after I reduced the speed a bit to stop the cut plastic melting.
Eduard supply this part as a guide to wear you have to cut,

and I applied the rest of the PE to the area after gluing this part in position.

After installing those pieces I decided it was time for the decks to go on. It is so big that I couldn't get it in the viewfinder so the ship looks small.

All clamps on deck!!
And finally..

This is the forward elevator.. I think I may position it a little down with a plane on it and the rails up to protect the crew from falling in the big hole.
That's it for now.
Cheers
Warren

Looking pretty darn good Warren.....Cheers mark

Sweeeeeeeeet.

Nifty work with the circular saws Warren, looks very neat.
Julian

Very tidy surgery Warren.

Those etched circular saw blades are pretty cool too.

Si

Thanks for the compliments Everyone.

For the last few sessions I have been working my way around the flight deck removing the moulded on catwalks and replacing them with the marvellous Eduard etched mesh ones. First of all I snip off the plastic plank, then clean it up with a sharp knife, bend the etch as required and then glue it in position.
The catwalks all have a piece you bend that gives you a good surface to glue to the ships hull.










So as you can see there are a few more railings to install, a bit of clean-up bending and quite a bit of painting. I should really have painted them first but oh well..
Until next time.
Same bat time, same bat forum..

Very nice Warren,

Exceptionally tidy work on the catwalks.

Si

Friend hears!! Great set of instruments whom you have to disposition!!! Similar to my dentist!!! Jajajaj is a joke, Excellent presses!!! Here it is impossible to obtain these things. This one staying to exhibit in the national museum!! Great work!!!

Regards Daniel

Thank you Simon and Daniel. Glad you are still interested in this slow build!
I started preparing the wood deck for application this afternoon and they are ready to go. I am using the Pontos stained deck set. One of the three sheets was a bit of a pain as the cuts had not been made deeply enough and I had to do them all again. The other two were marvellous.
An interesting twist, they suggest you apply some water to the deck before applying the wood, sort of like if you were applying decals. I did it on the two elevators and it seemed to work fine.
Once the deck is on I need to apply all the markings which are supplied by dry-transfers. There is also a sheet of PE to apply but unfortunately it is not painted the correct colour like one of other sets I used recently.
Oh well, will post some more pictures later.
Cheers all
Warren

Can anyone see a problem with the wooden deck?


You pay good money for an upgrade and then it doesn't even fit! I can't be the only one who has used this set and found the problem yet there is nothing on the web about it..
Time for an email to Pontos...