Monday 23 June 2014

Alliance Model Works Steampunk Submarine Build Part 04

It’s been a while since I had a chance to update this kit. I have been dragged into a few other commission jobs, and I am only just now managing to get back to some fun with this one.

I am still finishing off the brass etched parts of the kit, and some of them are proving quite time consuming.

This time however, I am starting off with a couple of small resin detail pieces. These spar headlights are glued to the brass etched struts, at the front of the vessel. I found them really quite difficult to position as the brass is very thin and tends to flex as you touch it.

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Once the lights were in place I moved on to the conning tower ladder.

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This involved folding the two sides to create the hand rails. Very small, but straight forward enough.

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The positioning of the ladder is fairly straightforward, even though there are not locating lugs for it…

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Next we have the propeller. The propeller itself is a single piece of brass, that simply needs to be twisted and glued in place.

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However there are three small “washers” that give it some depth.

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These simply glue on the shaft once the propeller is in place.

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At this point I decided to add the deck mounted harpoon gun. This is a very small resin piece, Although as a one piece casting it was  simple job to glue it in place.

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However, the harpoon was a different matter entirely! This is the smallest part in the entire kit. It is, maybe, 5mm long, and under 1mm wide. It proved tricky to pick up, even with a fine pair of tweezers.

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The hole on the barrel of the harpoon gun was quite large compare to the harpoon itself, so getting it to sit straight in the barrel took two or three attempts. Still, I got there in the end…

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Next up with be the larger tail pieces. These look to be quite challenge, as they are each made up of 4 or 5 pieces.

4 comments:

  1. Wow. This is an incredible piece. Are you using any special tools to work with the brass? It looks extremely difficult to place and work with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Greg,

      No special tools, I'm cutting the brass with a craft knife, folding it with a couple of flat sheets of sprung steel I scrounged up from somewhere and then using cyanoacrylate (superglue) to stick it,

      Delete
  2. How come you didn't paint the model before putting the brass parts in place?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I must admit I'd not considered that. I don't think any of the parts will be too inaccessible. So I will undercoat the whole thing once it's fully assembled. Then paint it.

      Delete

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