HMS Surprise 1/48 scale built by neptune

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The hammock cranes were photo etch and very flimsy so I ended up taking a strip of wood that was long enough
and cutting grooves half way through into which I glued the cranes, one side done one to go,

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I then glued another strip of wood on top to securely hold them in place, and then painted it all black,

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Lacing the netting in place,

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both sides attached,

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I made the hammocks out of some folded white cotton sheet,

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Bothe sides done,

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Looking down along the deck,
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Straps soldered, I found it best to leave the straps long, and then apply the heat to the bottom end and let it
travel up the strap then apply the solder to the top end, that way the dead eyes didn't get burnt,


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Then i made a simple little jig and marked where I wanted to drill the hole,


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Then it was just a matter of drilling all the straps the same,


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I then threaded them onto a piece of wire and it was easy to cut them all back to the same size,

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just waiting to be cleaned up,
 
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I cut a piece of brass of the right width and wound the copper strip around it,

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Then I slipped the wire off the brass and using side cutters I cut off a lot of loops of wire,

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some of the wire loops,

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next was to bend them through the dead eye strap,

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and then solder them so the links were still able to move,

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Then the same again with the lower loops,

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after a couple of coats of paint,


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Very good work - very clean and accurate execution.....and real great progress
.....maybe for later:
the hammocks are too "clean" - I imagine that in every single one not washed seamen were sleeping a lot of free shifts o_O
 
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The lanthorns were also missing from the kit, but I had a large and a small Amati
ones so I used those,


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I drilled out the bases to take the support wires,

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And also antiqued them a bit with some black paint,

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Close up view,


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I cut the stern Davitts from some scrap wood I had, I just drilled out the sheaves, and also added the snatch
blocks just in front of the davitts, on this pic you can just make out the twisted copper wire that I used for
some of the decorative trim,


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another couple of views,

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Next up were the anchors, the metal parts were there but not the wood parts, so I cut some from the same
piece of wood that I used for the stern davitts, its Australian Mrtlye, some call it Australian Cherry, it has a
beautiful tight grain and works great, also steams and bends well,

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I used auto tape to make the bands,

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the four anchors before they were painted black,

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a close up view,


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view of the near finished bow sprit assembly, I used a piece of stainless steel for the Jack staff and the
Dolphin striker, much more secure, dont break like the wood ones,

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with all her masts in place,

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Thats a one metre rule stood up behind her just to give some ides of size,


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