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[steve pickstock]

Moving this one to here - it's more a work in progress.

From Allnightin's plans.

At the "hull - most done" stage. Still very rough at present - a lot of filling and filing still to do. I was looking at these photos and thought the flats either side of the bow ramp look uneven - even though I know they aren't - because I've measured them. The tank deck is going to get a second skin of 0.5mm styrene so I can add panel detail, drains and tie downs and disguise the cutout for the motor spaces. The deck house should have been available for photography but seems to have gone on a world tour of my work bench at present.

Figure is 1/72 from  Imex WW1 set, Sherman Vc Firefly from Hat models, eventually there will be four Cromwells.






The curves around the bow were fun. After much debate I am not going to make the ramp a working one, working very much to the KISS philosophy.







This time the deckhouse with a couple of dodgy types from an MTB aboard.

Was thinking I may redo this deckhouse and there is more to do to it, a pelorus on order from Sirmar - but looking at the pictures - it isn't too bad. Once it is painted will have a serious think about.







Of more concern at the moment is the lack of radio. Last night I fitted the radio gear and the prop shaft couplings and ran it a little to sort out the best fit for the motors. After a short while I switched the TX back on and nothing! This happened fairly late last night so haven't done much, except strip it all out and put it away.

I plan to reassemble it all, change the batteries - using dry cells at present - in both TX and RX (TX says it has sufficient power, but will change the cells anyway. Also disconnect everything and re-connect it.

[steve pickstock]

First up is the bow ramp.

The thing is I am not used to doing this kind of fine work, normally I bash my stuff together out of card or foam core so 20 thou styrene sheet and so on, so all of this is rediscovering stuff I thought I had forgotten.




The bow ramp vaguely masking-taped in place.






I thought long and hard about whether I wanted a working bow ramp or not. A working version would have been nice but it all hinged on a hinge. If I could sort out the hinge I'd leave it working but then only latch it shut. Anything else would have demanded another channel for the radio gear and adaptive surgery to the hull.
So it got glued in place.




More detailing to be done to the surface, needs some cleats adding, etc.

Next up is some fiddly work on the engine room room access - I would not like to have had to squeeze myself in and out of these hatchways, not that there is a lot of room in the engine flats, but access must have been tough in bad weather.

[herrmill]

Interesting subject & excellent work so far. 

[allnightin]

Steve,

To follow our exchange re fittings in the previous thread, you might wish to have a look at the White Ensign Models 1/72nd 20mm Oerlikons.  They do a set of two for £7.05 which are well detailed and a seperate Photo etch fret with the frame, shield and sight.  Although strictly a USN version they are very similar to the RN version and a Mk5 could have had a US fit anyway before being handled over. 

http://www.whiteensignmodels.com/acatalog/index.html?http%3A//www.whiteensignmodels.com/acatalog/catalogbody.html&CatalogBody

Francis Macnaughton

[steve pickstock]

Hello Francis, saw your post last night but after a 7 hour drive back from Surrey in thast heat I was too frazzled to write anything sensible.

Hope you're liking the build, thanks for the links but I ordered some stuff from Sirmar last week, including two of their 20mm guns, and hopefully a couple of rafts. Have said it before abd will say it again, am really enjoying this build, thanks.

[steve pickstock]

Well the ECW Battle of Losely Park out of the way the build goes on.

First up the cover/upper deck, which hides the radio gear.




and this engages latches on the underneath of the deck. I got the idea from mobile phones with which I have had a bit of experience.



Next the deck - the bulkheads for the deck have been added out of .75mm styrene rather than the .5mm that Francis reccomends - it just worked better for me. They will get the supports and seams added to them at the weekend.

The rear section of deck houses the battery box, on/off switch and the motors, so must be removeable. The deck surface also features drain holes which clear water down to a bilge pump and there are tie downs for deck cargo.

So the idea was to make the tie downs functional. The deck itself is 2mm thick, so I was able to burr out a depression. Make three staples and super glue them in place.




This shows the back of them filed flat.


This allows a pair of fine nosed pliers or eventually a purpose made hook to hoik the deck up for access. Those none function holes will get a strip of plastic rod inserted for the tie down.

Last job was the false deck with the cleats on.
This job took all evening. The slight irregularity of the cleats was done on purpose. These things took a battering, so were not spot on.

Anyway this was an evening's work - 28 cleats on the bow door and 16 on the ramp and most of the time spent on laying out. I made a simple jig for cutting the cleats from strip, and started glueing away.





I think that is it until the the weekend.

[steve pickstock]

Okay a bit of a busy weekend - the Snowberry kit arrived, but I still managed to get time for the Landing Craft. Snowberry is the project for next winter.

First off I got the sides for the tank deck finished - adding the detail of the plates from Evergreen strip, this had the added effect of stiffening it up. I did this for the bulheads on the foc'sl deck as well.

I also added the piperails along the top of the bulwarks. Then finished that area off by adding the bracing. I wasn't sure this was right and spent most of Monday thinking about how I would re-do it. Then when I got home on Monday night and compared it with the photographs I figured it looks right so it must be right.





These also show the tank deck which has had the tie downs added as well as the plates for the engine room access fitted.

Finished off the hatches with some wheels from Billing - punched out a fillet from styrene using a rotary punch drilled through and used some one mill rod to make a spindle.



Door to the crew accomadation and the two watertight compartments in the bows.




Lastly the vent cowels - took two out of a Vosper kit and added them to tubes. The thing about the vents is that these are undersize compared with the ones on the original plans but I have a picture that shows all different sizes on vessels of the same class. A band of styrene round the base just finished them off.




Lastly the LCT as it stands at the moment with the deck house fitted and glued in place. Two Avaya(?) Shermans (Model zone have started wacking them out at £3.50 a pop - definitely having some of that!)  and the Firefly. The final deck cargo will be four Hat Cromwells.

[steve pickstock]

Just a quick update today, was busy last week with work and wedding at the weekend.

Added the pillars for the Oerlikons, resin from Sirmar, and worked on the packing tubes for the prop shafts. I'll publish pictures of them when I know they have worked properly - found myself with no cyano-acrylate in the house and had to use regular epoxy.

Anyway ran a tub full and .....







Quite happy with the displacement - unladen. I think there's a slight list to starboard - but I'm going to build a tilt gauge to confirm that, and I think I can fix that when it's ballasted.

[steve pickstock]

A little add-on this week about the packing tubes.

I used some brass tube - slightly wider bore than the M2 rod I'm using for the prop shaft. (Don't ask me the dimensions - I'm not a numbers sort of bloke)

Cut it to size and cleaned out the bore using a fine diamond bit.




Then used a rotary leather punch to cut out some plugs from a sheet of 2mm styrene.



I just showed the end of the tube the CA bottle - just enough to adhere to the styrene and not flood the work area, or gunge up the whole thing.



Inserted one of the plugs and tapped it down till the plastic was flush with the ends of the tube. Then I marked the approximate centre with a sharp point - as much as providing somewhere for the drill bit to bite as anything.




Now I did use a smaller - 1.5mm - bit to make the first hole and then widened it out with a 2mm bit but didn't capture that on these pics.




Ta-DA! One packing tube - ready to filled with grease.
(Actually the clearance on this is very fine and I'm not sure it needs the grease - but I'll run it and see.)
Installed and supported on the boat.




Sorry about the quality of the pictures - I normally use a 5 Megapixel camera phone but that is away for repair and only had my 2 megapixel phone to hand.

[warspite]

 

I do like that - very ingenius

[steve pickstock]

Thank you Warspite.

No pics to day - from this weekend's work - busy weekend and sad because of a funeral.

Anyway progress made this week - motors went in, prop shafts inserted, greased using silicon grease and NOTHING.
Tried turning it over and the motors working hard but revolutions - zero.

Eased some of the holes with a round file - inside bulkhead and external hole for the packing tube, but not the internal bulkhead-hull end of the packing tube - and they turn a dream. So this weeks task is toget them measured and fitted for the props and installed properly.

[steve pickstock]

Well after a couple of weeks of working, travelling, ECW battles, etc an update.

I am now at the fiddly detail stage - where one set of details takes a whole evening to complete and get right. The anchor skegs took two evenings because I wanted the super glue to cure overnight. So here is a summarry of what has been done so far.

1st up a bit of deck furniture.
Photo etched ladders for the flying bridge - there are two more to add to the focs'l, and to the tank deck bulk heads. And two PE companion ways, just aft of the cowl vent risers.
Flying bridge ladder


Companion way and oil filler pipes - the three upright pipes, and the oil tank vents - the two curved ones.


One the focs'l I have added the chain guides and sheaves and - I have no idea what these things are called or, at least, I can't think of it this morning - those things that ropes go through.


Trim boards - I found these on this photo

and built these to simulate them -


That image from LCT 314 - as deck cargo on an LST - landing ship tank - they just rock the LST over to one side and the LCT slides off, has been very useful for this next bit. The anchor and anchor skegs.

The anchor skegs were built on a jig. Measured up and bent to fit the holes in the jig. I used plastic coated iron wire. It bends nicely, is just about the right diameter  and is protected from rusting by the plastic coating.
The skegs on the jig.


The holes from the jig transferred to a piece of thin plastic card card and then a piece of double sided tape on the back of it.



In place on the rear hull of the LCT and drilled through.


The skegs fitted.


Now meet Mr Dremel - my little friend.


Mr Dremel and I cut out the middle section of the curve to allow the anchor cable free movement.


The skegs in place, in relation to the tabs.


And lastly a picture of the LCT as it is at the moment - with a 1/72nd scale Cararama Landie to show the proportions.

[Edward Pinniger]

Looking very good! It's interesting to see a working model built up from styrene sheet like this - landing craft are one of the few subjects where this works well (though the curves at the bow must have been tricky).
I hadn't appreciated before what a shallow draft these craft had - I have a GRA Models 1/144 resin kit of the same type of LCT, which is a waterline static model, but doesn't actually look much shallower than your full-hull model!

[steve pickstock]

Sorry no pics this week.

Edward - this is probably a little deeper than it should be - only 3 or 4 scale inches - due to the fact I used a slightly thicker sheet of styrene - that I had lying around - than that which was reccomended in the plans.
But no - you're right - they don't draw much at all.

Progress so far since the last post. The anchor is done, and the sheaves for the anchor cable are ready to be fitted, once the supporting frame is done. I also moved the trim tabs further down the hull - they just didn't look right.
Also fitted/refitted the sheaves for the bow ramp as one went missing, and it needed two more, on the focs'l.

Last night was spent re-learning to solder.
To make the railings - I was going to use fine scale brass wire soldered and neat. Well all night just to make 1x 12.5mm by 12mm section.
The result was actually quite flimsy, easily bent and I'm not that confident it would like being used in the local pond.
Tonight I will try the same piece using iron cored plastic and plastic rod, see how that goes.

[steve pickstock]

Having said there'd be no pics this week - I got my act together and took some.

First the anchor.



And a close up of the fitting for the wire - which is actually fishing line - the type known as 'leader' - specially toughened so the fish doesn't chew through it and get away. It's quite stiff but will hold it's shape and is very good for 1/72nd scale steel cable.


Right, now this is the rail I made the other night - 3 hours of work and it's flimsy and quite fragile, though I think that's more a result of my soldering than any weakness in the material.


Next to it is the styrene one I knocked up in about 15 minutes - but haven't cleaned up yet, from where it was taped to the sheet of vinyl for positioning.


While the styrene is probably more fragile - more susceptible to being snapped off, it is much more easily fabricated, so I think I'll go down that road.

[steve pickstock]

Small stuff again this time, I'm in the period where the detail is taking most of the time.

I have been working on the are highlight by the red circle in this picture.


This shows the part labelled as A in that picture


Part B and second sheave that goes behind this structure.


And Part C - and what a little sod this was to get right.



This took about four evenings all told. The first efforts were in styrene - easy to cut and shape but a pig to get to go together. So then I switched to aluminium - cut from the bottom of a Pringles' tube. You can see the rejects here.

There is another one like this to - though not as complex - for the second anchor cable sheave. As tricky as it is to work out the precise shape to bend - I definitely think it's the way to go.

Lastly - assembled.

[steve pickstock]

It has been a busy couple of weeks - four since my last update. But I'm at the stage now where little things take time and it seems like no progress is being made - but it is really. At least that's what I tell SWMBO downstairs.

Anyway. The after deck.

in this picture you can see the assembled anchor winch and paraphenalia, including just behind the supports for the anchor pulleys a cable cutter, which one accounts suggests you thump hard with a 14lb persuader and that cuts the anchor cable in time of need. No pictures of that anywhere - best guest from the available information. And a thing for putting a strop on the cable wire. (No - I don't know either  )
You can also see the ammo lockers for the oerlikons, and the first of the deck railings.
And for some reason the aft deck has warped but that will be remedied as will the uneven fairleads.


looking forwards along the starboard side. The braces have been re-done to the correct length, and the man-hole access covers added. There is still some sanding to be done to these. Also the hose storage box has been added.


Facing aft portside same as the starboard - the box is foam making equipment.


my diagram suggests these pieces on the focs'l deck are called chokes for hawsers.

The whole thing has been undercoated in dark grey and will be white eventually with blue camouflage bands.

[herrmill]

My, what navy gray does for any warship model! 

It is really coming along now, & all those hours of time spent on the finer details are really making it shine through.   

Excellent job, Steve!!   

Chuck

[steve pickstock]

As the new year begins I realised that it's over 3 months since I last posted anything about this.

Here are some new pics - partly painted but it shoulod give you a good idea about how much is done and how much remains to be done and how it will looks when she is done.

The masking tape allowed some of the black paint on the underhull to bleed up under the tape, so it will be back with a brush to tidy it up but that is not a major job.
There are still a myriad of little jobs to do, but I felt I had to get some paint on it. This paint will be well weathered and there will be a lot of staining and washing to do.