Building of the USS Blunderbuss - 28mm aeronef

[Grimm]

that is a very interesting post I realy love it and it give me a lot of new Ideas .
Thank you Ray

Grimm

[Mad Carew Snr]

Fantastic piece of work

And I thought I was the only mad person - So nice to find that I am not alone...

[Ray Rivers]

GRIMM.. I gave YOU ideas... 

Mad Carew Snr.. Yes, I am totally mad... but I have good company around these parts... 

So a bit more progress...

Added an HLBS Eagle to the prow as a figurehead:



And I completed the aft structure:



This is where my smokestack and funnels will be going.  So I have gathered some bits together....



And we'll see how it comes out!

[Bullshott]

Great idea to fit an eagle on the prow. This is coming together nicely.

[Ray Rivers]

Thanks mate.

Those eagles are really nice.

I bought three of them and figure sooner or later I'll find something to do with them.

[argsilverson]

brilliant idea with the eagle!

I see you have some rockets there, are spare parts or there is any pack/kit you have used for...

[Ray Rivers]

I have a number of old plastic kits I scavenge for parts.  But to be quite honest, I don't remember where the rocket came from.

[Westfalia Chris]

I have a number of old plastic kits I scavenge for parts.  But to be quite honest, I don't remember where the rocket came from.

If I may interject, the rocket in this picture:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/lavaslair/BB26.jpg

is the old Hunter-Killer-Missile from the GW plastic imperial vehicle accessory sprue, sold from ca. 1995 to ca. 2005, when they replaced it in the Imperial Guard kits with a new one (the Space Marines already had got a new accessory sprue in 2000 with the Land Raider).

@Topic

Looks great, although I cannot fight the impression that there´s something amiss at the stern. Somehow, the shape reminds me of this incarnation of the "Nautilus":



Any plans for that, apart from the propulsion apparatus which will need to be added, anyway? I´m not sure it is perfectly necessary, and maybe I´ve overlooked a comment of yours on a previous page, if so, sorry.

[Ray Rivers]

is the old Hunter-Killer-Missile from the GW plastic imperial vehicle accessory sprue, sold from ca. 1995 to ca. 2005

That makes sense, I have an old GW Rhino in my bits box.

Looks great, although I cannot fight the impression that there´s something amiss at the stern.

Haven't really thought about that portion in great depth to be quite honest.  The ship is suppose to be a "gunboat" and at present the plan is to put two screws at the back end.

I guess I could put some sort of tail, but I really don't want it to get to large.  Have to give it some more thought.

[Ray Rivers]

This mornings trials and tribulations focused on the smokestack.

The first thing I did was add two strips of M113 tracks to the top of the stack to give it some atmosphere.  The first strip went on fine.  The second strip was a bit more difficult as it had to be cut to fit.  And just as I was making the final check... BOING! the thing flies over my right shoulder to disappear into the black hole that stalks my hobby area.  I searched all over for that thing... but yep, the black hole had eaten yet another piece that escaped my control.     Nevertheless, as usual when such disasters strike, I made another and superglued the snot out of it!   

Next came the ship's whistle.

Now at first I had thought about using the railings from the GW Rhino as tubing leading up to the whistle.  As I chopped it up a bit, it dawned on me that this was going to be too delicate and decided instead to use a wire.  The railings, however, did serve a purpose, and that was as structure to hold the wire in place. 

So... I did some measuring, then cut the railings so a bit of the plastic remained, such that I could hold it when gluing it to my smokestack.  It looked like this:



Once it had dried I then sniped off the excess railing and filed it flat to just leave the round base on which I glued the wire.  While that dried I took the missile and cut a notch out of the warhead.  It looked like this:



Hard to see I know... I blame that on my crap point and shoot!   

I then cut the warhead off the missile, drilled a small hole in the base and mounted it on top of the wire.  And voila!  I now had a whistle attached to my smokestack!



I know it is just a small thing, but when I'm able to actually to do something half well, you get that thrill of accomplishment.   

I think I'm going to be adding some cables to the smokestack from the deck.  Hopefully this time the cables will look a bit better than those on my mast.

Back to work...

[Dewbakuk]

It may be a small thing, but it's the small things that make the differnce between an okay build and a great build. Plus it looks good 

[Malamute]

It may be a small thing, but it's the small things that make the differnce between an okay build and a great build. Plus it looks good 

Couldn't agree more, looking good Ray.

[thejammedgatling]

Keep going Ray..I want to see this one completed.

[Ray Rivers]

Keep going Ray..I want to see this one completed.

Update soon!   

Finished painting the mid superstructure and laid down the planks there as well.  Am working on final fitting of the smokestack and funnels on the aft section and am redoing the rigging on the mast.

Had a chaotic day yesterday... life intervenes!   

Probably an update tomorrow!

[Rabbitz]

Cant wait to see how it all comes together.   What Nationality is it for,   British?