Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt15

So, I'm literally scared of rigging... It scares me.  I therefore try to keep my technique simple, a single pair of sharp scissors, a single metal tweezer, my hands and superglue.

I then let out a pool of superglue and let it cure a little whilst I unfurl a length of rigging elastic, I'm using mig's here.

Then I use a cocktail stick to put a dot of partially cured glue at the start and end points... The start I then let the rigging rest in the dot of glue and hold with my left hand and then my dominant right hand can move the rigging into place and let it sit at the right tension (or slack) in the end dot of glue.

If I use fresh glue it simply takes too long to cure, partially cured already going and it's just right, but you can end up with thick layer upon layer of it, specially when doing multiple runs - we will look at the stern of my ship in part 16 maybe....

However, for now here are some pictures of the rigging to the signal deck and bridge wing struts.

Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt14

The penultimate post!  Yes we're nearly there with the actual paint and build, we have two pieces to give us the planform of the ship the small pieces are the anchors...

The larger piece is the main mast... which was a bit of a pest.

To get it straight under it's own weight with a single point of glue.

I went with a dot of superglue, which I had led oxidize and cure a touch.

This let it at least sit whilst I then held it with a single finger, whilst it solidified a little more.  And then finally I put a layer of extra fresh superglue with a cocktail stick on the crows nest to just hold it level.

The final touches were then to a little deck furniture.

Next, and this truly scares me, is the final pieces of rigging...

We will get to that in due time.

Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt13

Well, it's been eleven months since I started her, and now it's been nearly eight since I last touched her, but finally, after a tumultuous period I'm back at the model making bench... Working on finishing the Rodney, the first task was to remove the dust which had gathered.  Then to start to fit the out rigger boats.

I took the ship off the weighted base, and the turrets off to dust her.

The waves were the worst thing to dust.

I spotted this section of the deck, behind the middle turret mount needs painting.

The first starboard side boat, the cleats added with poly cement and left to set, then the boat gun with super glue.

Close up of the port-side boats through my new magnifying boom.

And a general look at my work bench.

Highlights are the use of my new magnifying lighting boom... lovely.

Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt12

You may recall my attempt at making flags on foil, well... i tried again...

Laying out foil and picking it to fit the aft flag pole...

I even got the St George cross really nicely done...

It just utterly disintegrated when lifting up from painting...

So I went back to masking tape, and made this HORRID thing... I need to work on this basically... It may take hours.

I then painted all the ships boats with a brown wood, highlighted parts in white and fitted out the main boat deck.

Plus this one dinghy I saw.

I'm not happy about that hull slung boat yet, I did it's internals wood brown, but then the hull white, and whilst handling it into position I put marks in it, the hooks aren't straight, they match the marks in the plastic but I don't like them being pigeon toed like that.  Nothing I can do now though.

I also set the guns to be trained out to port, this is the angle the model will be set at, so we can see the secondary battery port side and the main guns on the base for the first time.

Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt11

 Now I'm going to detail the anchor chains, forecastle and secondary spray shields, this is just lots of lumps and bumps of plastic really, so it's a case of colour, highlight, mask, colour over and over.

Swapping between grey, white, black and skyblue so many times makes you a little bit tired.

But next I needed to add the four capsons to the anchor chain ports, these I gave three strong coats of white to whilst still on the sprue.

I also painted the boat gear and fore cranes black still on the sprue.

A dab of sperglue in each hole and then move and the capsons are in place.

The cranes however I wanted to rig... I found the mig rigging wire too thick, so I asked the wife for a stand of hair... and with patience and superglue.... I rigged each crane still on the sprue.

This took maybe half an hour to fiddle the hair into place, leave it and keep the place draftless to stop anything moving before the glue cured.

Fitting these boat cranes finished off the forecastle.

Next we're going aft.

Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt10

 Today, before I get working I thought I'd sort out the things on my desk... of course with working from home my work space is pulling double duty, but here it is.... 

Yes, that is a coffee and a pint of juice, this is hopefully going to be a nice long uninterrupted modelling session.

First things first, lets review the other three secondary battery casements and get them superglued and we can plan out the rest of the boat deck too....

I do this supergluing by actually decanting the glue onto another surface, the best I've found is the plastic coated card on pakaging, here I'm using an old packet of tablets wrapper, decant and I can dot the glue around with a cocktail stick and touch things.

I use cocktail sticks and bluetac to hold parts for painting...

So they're the three starboard side secondary battery, I give them and the others a first coat after test fitting, they all get the sky blue colour first.

I also give the two unpainted main turrets a coat of grey, then skyblue highlights

Before masking them and adding flash details in darker tones and painting the rooves.

My references here are a little hazy, so I've used artistic license.... She's my ship now.