WOODEN TWO-MASTED SAILING SHIP

It is finally finished. The ghost ship sails away. All the wood work and sail work and rigging and even the forgotten archor are all done.

As I mentioned previously, there were no plans/instructions, and therefore all mast and boom and yard measurements are made up to look proportionately correct first against the hull, and then against the masts and remaining space.

The modeller thinks about sailing away (with a parrot).

WOODEN SAILING SHIP NOW WITH ALL SAILS

This is a progress report on the two-masted sailing ship which was on a two week break in the shipyard as I had far more pressing things to do, and rigging sails scares me.

As I mentioned previously, there were no plans/instructions, and therefore all mast and boom and yard measurements are made up to look proportionately correct first against the hull, and then against the masts and remaining space.

As of today all the sails are in place. I intend to spray paint a very light coat of sepia on the masts/yards/booms/sails as a final colour treatment. I am also considering adding more ratlines using string which has been hardened with CA glue. This is still work-in-progress. 

WOODEN MODEL TWO-MASTED SAILING SHIP

I have no name or even scale for this model. It is between 1:90 and 1:130 scale by my rough estimate. I bought it from AliExpress for a mere $12 shipping included. It arrived in two weeks. Clearly some knock-off small factory in China got hold of the computer file for the kit and burned a bunch of copies. However, the burn image is backwards and there is no reference to the original name. Several of the small delicate parts were so badly laser burned that they disintegrated.

Today is day fifteen (15) of the build. There are two basic problems: 1) there were no plans/instructions; and 2) the laser-cut sheets of wood are plywood instead of solid single type wood. You can only bend plywood in one direction. So this has been a bit of a challenge. The goal here is to make a ghost ship or sort of disney pirates vessels with a lot of crud and dirt and aging. I covered over the gun ports, and added chain-plates and several other parts which were not in the kit. Hull crud is baking soda and crushed pencil shavings. The entire thing has been spray painted with a dirty black, then sanded down (80 grit) to show highlights. It took two weeks to go from flat box to ready-for-sails. This is a work-in-progress which now needs sails.

CENTURION Mk.8. TANK (Airfix)

This is the tiny Airfix OO scale (1:76.2 scale) 1964 kit (#A207V reboxed in 1971) of the British Army's  CENTURION Mk.8. main battle tank showing how it would have looked while serving with the BAOR in late 1966 during an "Active Edge" combat exercise with the 6th Brigade near Soltau Germany against the 'enemy' Canadian Army using the same tank. The Centurion went into British service in 1945 and was replaced by the Chieftan in 1967. The Canadian Army used 347 Centurions until 1975. Some 4423 Centurions were built in 13 basic versions at four different factories: Leyland Motors, Lancashire; the Royal Ordnance Factory ROF Leeds; ROF Royal Arsenal, Woolich London; and Vickers in Elswick.

This was a 48 hours build of an ancient kit bought at a militaria sale for $5.  The paint scheme was achieved using knock-off silly putty as masking. I added a cloth cover to the mantlet as shown on the boxtop. OOB including decals. I have not been able to identify the markings. The rubber tracks were too long, so I trimmed out about 10mm of track and stapled the ends together. The four staples are totally hidden by the skirts. The base is a repurposed marble drinks coaster. The plans in the box extol the virtues of this superb tank by mentioning how well it did in Suez in 1956. Very strange.

Bizarre Centurion fact: An Australian Army Mk 3 Centurion Type K, #169041, was involved in a nuclear weapons test in Australia in 1953 as part of Operation Totem 1. Emplaced only 500 m from ground zero, the tank withstood the 9.1 kt blast while being displaced 1.5 m, and having most large external parts ripped away and the glass ports and lights sandblasted. However, it still worked and was driven away from the test site. Later nicknamed the Atomic Tank, it was used by Australian armoured forces in the war in South Viet Nam, and in May 1969 was damaged by an RPG. Three crew were injured but the tank remained in combat condition. It is now a gate guard and museum piece at the Robertson Barracks in Palmerston, NT, Australia. 169041 is the only tank known to have been used as a target in a nuclear detonation and later used in combat.

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

Centurion Mk.8. British Army main battle tank, circa 1966

using silly putty knock-off for the paint scheme

using silly putty knock-off for the paint scheme

DA VINCI STEAM CANNON (AMT)

This is the unknown scale model from AMT of "Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON" from their Classic Inventions Series. It was a two day build, and a lot of fun. Length overall is about 30 cm. I still do not know how the real design was supposed to work. 

Metallic finish is all Vallejo metalizer acrylics, and the wood is Tamiya acrylics. It is very front heavy due to the length of the barrel. Drawings show the muzzle end being held up by a trestle, so I may add one. I added tiny licks of flame inside the firebox on top of the glowing embers. I also added a liner (drinking straw) inside the barrel as it was obvious it had no interior at the muzzle end. 

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo's sketch for the steam cannon made while he lived in France

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo da Vinci's STEAM CANNON

Leonardo da Vinci's design factory at Amboise Château in France,
which just so happens to be in my spare bathroom