looking good. Looking forward to the updates!

Thanks Russell.

Sorry for the very late reply but I have a good excuse.. I wasn't here..

Cheers
Warren

Thanks Michael.

The ropes are the PIA bit. I still haven't decided on how to attach them.

Cheers
Warren

Thanks Colin.

Welcome Back Warren-hope the cruise was enjoyable!

Thanks Russell.

I really like cruising normally but I got a virus the weekend before we left and I wasn't feeling well even before I boarded. But on the bright side I list 3 kg on the trip..

Anyway, I stopped vacillating and decided to make a start on these floater baskets' rope wrapping. This is going to be the most difficult and slow process of the whole build I think. The rest of the ship will probably be finished well before I finish these four carley floats. First up I glued one end of the twine to the raft..





Then I will put spots all along the length and let them dry until I can mate the ends. I think I should have done this before putting the slats in but we shall see.

While waiting for the glue to dry I put the ship's wheel in place on its mount..



The mount is a 3D printed item and it came out very rough as you can see. It looks worse in this photo but I am not sure why this resin was used rather than the one that gives a smooth finish. It will be very hard to see once it is in place anyway.

Then I started on the second dinghy. I painted the interior in dark wood brown then decided to remove the ends of the floor slat assembly rather than try to bend it in one piece which led to much swearing and cursing last time. So here is the one piece turned into three..



That's it for now. I have to go to work unfortunately..

Cheers
Warren

Warren,

Welcome back, glad to see your corvette back in the list of updated blogs.

Those liferafts do look like they are challenging. Can't wait to see how they turn out.

Dave

Hi Warren
Did you fall off the end of the earth. I'm waiting for your next post. So get back to it.
Please
Thank you!

Hi Warren,

great to have you back and progressing with your Flower!!

I had a forced time out for myself as well...the nasty thing called work

I'm curious to see what you are doing with the carley float, I don't quite get the idea yet, but I am sure that will change soon

Cheers,
Jan

So challenging I have left them for the moment to try and reduce the amount of sub assemblies I have lying around.

Cheers
Warren

No sir. I can faithfully report that we did not sail off the end of the world enroute to New Caledonia.

I am back for better or worse.

:)

Thanks Jan.

I am not sure exactly which way the floats are progressing either so I have put them aside for a bit. There is so much to do on the rest of the model I am sure I can do all that and get back to those floats later as they can be added very easily.

Cheers
Warren
Captain Float-Avoider

Well, it is time for another update.

I have done a little more on the floats, but I am not happy with the way it is coming out..



It is fine and dandy to be gluing the 'rope' in place but there is no way I can make the vertical pieces look even close to scale, and nothing annoys me more than having big, chunky out of scale bits.

Next up is a view of one of the lifeboat chocks that have four pieces that need to be laminated together..



I have seen how good most GLS resin stuff is and I think that rather than laminating lots of flat, brass bits together it may be better to do one resin bit.. but I have no idea how hard that would be so I suppose I will just use the brass bits and be happy... and stop whinging..

After getting a bit disillusioned with the damn floats, and all my public clamoring for more updates (brush the tickets off yourself Warren ) I decided to reduce the amount of sub-assemblies lying around the shipyard and get them onto the hull. After rescuing the hull from the 'shelf of doom' (echoee creepy voice) I started adding bits and bobs. The first was the bridge deck and it proved to be an instant problem..



I read later in the instructions for the plastic model that those side supports for the bridge needed trimming 'as necessary' and that wnet for the PE bits as well. First off I tried gluing the supports under the deck and then putting it all in place, but the supports ended up being at least 4 mm too high for the job and the deck wouldn't settle on the top of the wheel house without much force being used. That told me that as soon as I removed the force it would pop off again. so I removed the supports, epoxied the deck in place and started trimming the supports. Much cutting and lots of swearing later I had the supports cut down to size, lots of girders popped of the CAed one but the supports and seck were in place.

Hints for the uninitiated, trim the supports BEFORE you go soldering/gluing them together. It will save much angst later.



Oh and one other thing, I must have done something very wrong in a former life as my supports went no where near lining up with the holes in the deck where they were supposed to sit. I have no idea why.

The Oerlikon stand proved to be bothersome as well as I couldn't get the base to sit on their supports with the supports glued in place. SO I removed two of the supports and glued them to the base THEN glued the base to the remaining two supports on the deck. More than one way to skin a feline..

Here is another piccy showing the supports in place,and the non-aligned holes..



Next I decided to work from the centre outwards on the deck and started gluing the pipe railing in place. This was easy with 0/4mm brass tube I had lying around from my piplane turnbuckle days.



With those in place I decided to add a few pieces of splinter padding.





Then yet another problem reared its very ugly head, I have not got enough of the 3ft pipe rail stanchions! Argh!! I bought an extra pack just in case the ones supplied with the deck kit were not sufficient but it seems I have either misplaced four of them or I just miscounted. Anyway I will have to order another pack next week. Until they arrive I have more than enough other parts to attach, and those painful floats to finish.. and the depth charges and racking, and the lifeboats.. Will this build go into its second year?

Stay tuned for further developments in the Flower Saga...

Cheers
Warren

Warren
I'm so glad I didn't have to put out an APB out on you. Thanks for taking the lead on this build. I'm learning from your mistakes, (although the mistakes are built into the GLS brass). I think I have to order another bridge set myself. The instructions could use improvements. Especially with two different ships mentioned throughout.
My hedgehog came out perfect. But the bridge is a bit difficult. I may paint it first then see how it looks.
Anyway welcome back. And don't give up the ship!

Glad to be of assistance (I think!)

OK. Here is another assembly not mentioned in the GLS instructions, and I can't say I have seen it in any photos, but I am putting it in anyway. See that gap at the top. As I found later it shouldn't be there. Luckily the item was jsut sitting there at the time and I did a dry fit with the funnel assembly..



And here is the 'fettled' assembly.. notice the gap has gone..



And finally I got the funnel etc in position..



I then dry fitted the chocks and they fit so well I immediately attached them..



And this is about where I am up too..



Still haven't ordered the extra stanchions...

Cheers
Warren

Just awesome work Warren!
And as a non-paying spectator I don't mind if it slides on a little longer

cheers
Michael

Amazing stuff Warren!

Excellent build !

Warren,

Amazing work and script of your progress. I know your efforts are helping quite a few other builders avoid the same pitfalls. I am always inspired by reading how you tackle each problem that your faced with. While I am not building the Corvette I know the steps you take will help me in my future builds. Helps prevent frustration and the occasional flinging of plastic against a wall.

She is looking great coming together, cant wait to see more.

thanks for sharing this experience.

Dave

Great update Warren!!

Looks like we decided to put together some sub-assemblies pretty much at the same time - but I was lucky, the Trumpi-stuff went together quite smoothly. Actually, a lot smoother than I had expected.

With all those sub-assemblies added, your Flower looks really great - though I can feel your pain when the structures underneath the bridge would not fit. But you recovered greatly from that!

And as was stated before - I don't mid if you go into the second year always a pleasure to watch your progress!!

Cheers,
Jan

Please excuse the blanket reply but the blog seems to be expanding exponentially at the moment. :-)

Did some experimenting with silly little things yesterday afternoon but they should help in the long run.

Have to wait for a few things to arrive I ordered yesterday, but not the syanchions yet. I still live in hope of finding some, but it doesn't help when the carpet monster eats one..

Ahoy Warren

I am enjoying how all the sub-assemblies are coming together.

Great looking progress.

Cheers


Sean

Thanks Sean.

Sometimes this site can be VERY annoying..

I just lost an entry because the stoopid emoticons didn't work properly and when I backspaced to get rid of the extras the page refreshed and the blog disappeared.. Not typing it in all over again.

I really think it is time for an upgrade to this part of the site Jim.

Here is another small update..

Continued on the ropes on the floats.. yeah I know not all carley floats have the ropes on them, but the picture I have of the Snowberry has them and until I get upset with them I will continue. First the inner one if in place..

[ig]http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo184/warreni21/flower%20b6_1.jpg[/img]

Then the bottom one has been commenced..



Next up I painted the fret from the Depth Charges Set..



Lots of bending etc there. I forgot I will be doing some soldering with this fret so they will need painting again. Oh well.

Then I continued with the second dinghy..



And just for fun I thought I would do one of the kits plastic liferafts just to see how good it could look..



This photo makes it look like I am a hopeless painter (which I am) but each of those dashed squares on the mat is 5mm on a side so this is a pretty tight macro shot.

That's it for now.

Cheers
Warren

Hi Warren, yep, macro lenses sure are a double edged sword aren't they?

But looking good all the same!