Zvezda Medieval Ship Thomas

[Big Jake]

Last

 

[Big Jake]

Last of the deck sections sanded, scribed and washed, I dry fitted the hull section together to see how they will sit in the stations. I found if I scribe the caulk line before I sanded, it was MUCH easier to see them

I realized that I forgot to paint the underside of the crow's nest platform - what's another 2 days in the build.

 

[Big Jake]

Test fitted main deck and started filling the ejector pin marks. If I could find the right sized punch, I'd punch some thin plastic sheet and simply fill that way and sand flush. Each one is a separate number and slightly different, so I'll leave them on the tree for now. I'll remove them just prior to sanding and will mount them to a backer board with their numbers. One other thing I'll do is rake a fine tooth saw over the pits to give them a light woodgrain effect, so they won't be so smooth.

 

[Big Jake]

Not a lot done this evening, just removing parts from the trees, prepping, sanding and cataloging. I'll add some fine-tooth saw scratches to the front and sides to give a little bit of detail, so they won't seem so plain.

 

[Big Jake]

Drilled out the pilot holes for the pedestals and screws, the blue Timiya low speed drill is what you need to drill deep slow so as not to melt the plastic. I had to remove a bit of the inner brace so I could access the nut. I got the rib tops fitted and detailed and ready for painting. Got the deck undersides painted. Painted the mast and other fittings.

 

[Big Jake]

Detailed and cleaned up most of the last parts, I was able to camouflage most of the pin marks by scribing some lines, area was too tight to get any sanding and filling done. Base is stained with its first coat. I removed the molded hatch rings they were too small to detail paint. Will replace them with metal rings and eyebolts. I also wanted to share a trick/tip on holding your airbrush bottles, I drilled the appropriate sized hole to hold the airbrush bottles while handling other things.

 

[Big Jake]

One thing I can't figure out is the kit I have is missing the small boat. Id the make two different kits? this one has parts for both the Thomas and a standard Kogge, but no boat, oars, sail or mast, I wonder why. These pictures were found on the web from other builds.

 

[Big Jake]

Question for the Gurus, in looking at the rigging plans, I noticed there is nothing in regard to a means to get to the crows nest, I figured Zvezda just did not add it on the plans, but they had to have a rope ladder or did they simply rope climb - which really makes no sense. Your thoughts?

 

[Big Jake]

Moving right along....
I was finally was able to pick up a few bottles of Testors 'Rubber' paint - as compared to Floquil Roof Brown, its much darker and fits the 10-12th century hull coatings vs. plain black. Its contrasts well against the Floquil Rail Brown, which most of all the rest of the parts are painted. Because this is not a War Ship, it will not be painted with bright colors, but more muted tones.

One thing that I don't understand is why does Testors still produce the small 1/4oz. square bottles (I'm not complaining, saved me from mixing), but not the older 1/2oz. bottles.

I had to make the hatch eyebolt pull rings, will look better than the factory molded ones.

 

[Big Jake]

Chipping away a little each night. The homemade hatch rings came out great, much more detail to scale than the molded ones and look more natural than the uniform look they had before. At the mainmast base, there are 2 U-bolts that are used to secure the halyard lifts for the yard, I won't trust the plastic ones, so I made these from wire and bent to secure, I'll add a drop of ACC to secure as well. I made up the mast woolings this evening as well.

 

[Big Jake]

Next comes the hunt for the more correct heart shaped tackle, I can't for the life of me use what the kit provided, while nice, with such small amount of rigging I have no problem with replacing the molded one. Also, would the ships use for merchant trade have any shield on them at all? If not, I'll plug the holes.

 

[Big Jake]

I found this while searching for the correct blocks I'm trying to get it ordered to the US. https://www.hismodel.com/en/kogga-ship-lanovi-sada-kladek-pro-lode-typu-kogga/