1:75 diving support vessel Well Enhancer

[Neptune]

Looking better every day Josse! Sanding and filling is really a pain!!! And you have consider we are doing this out of our own free will!!!

[tweety777]

Another update:

I wanted to have the electrics get to the platform in a different way then over the top of the platform.
Therefore i drilled a hole underneath it to get the electrics through, and then i attached new wires.

Took the boat outside for some filling and sanding.
First i removed the bollards as they were in the way for using the sanding-machine.

Another layer of filler.
This is starting to look better yet.
Later on i'll sand and fill this bit even more, but the hull will also get more work done.

In order to be able to place the still to build anchorwinch (which will be working) i needed something like a hatch to get underneath the foc'sle.
That's why i made this hole in the frontpeakbulkhead.

The new plate for the superstructure under construction.

Windows are being cut out.



And an overall view.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Another update:















Marked the spots that needed more filler.





This part wasn't all to good, but is now being improved.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

I got pics for you!!!

First 2 pics of after the filling and sanding 2 days ago.



Today's the big day!!!!!!!
Well Enhancer has got her primer applied!!!!!!!
Here i'm busy doing just that.











Jobs done for now.

The can had enough paint for only 1,5 layers, so i've emptied it by adding more paint over the blank wood.



The bulwarks first need to be fixed permanently (they frequently break loose) before i can make them really smooth.

And last but not least the foc'sle.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Another update:

New attempt to fix the steering mechanism.
Hopefully this will be reliable.

On request some pics of Tweety aboard the Well Enhancer.

Last photo for this time.

Greetings Josse

[GTDEATH13]

First of all:

WHY ARE NOT YOU WEARING A MASK WHEN USING SPREY PAINTS???

SAFETY FIRST!!!

And we continue with the praise: Nice work, it really improves the hull...

[tweety777]

Hi,

Safety is for the government, they seem to like that very much here in Holland
Maybe i'll put a mask on my next shopping list.

Thanks for the compliment.

Unfortunatly the weather precautions aren't quite good for friday.
They say it'll be raining, so probebly no painting friday, which i don't quite like.
I'll be praying the rain will stay away from here.

Tomorrow i'll apply some more filler as it still isn't fully finished, and after that i'll sand the hull entirely to make it ready for the red paint on the parts that will be underwater.

Greetings Josse

[Capit�o Norbert]

Hi Tweety great great work.
do you pretend adding rust in the model?

[tweety777]

Hi,

I will be adding rust indeed.
It won't be all too much, but there will be rust.
I'll build this ship like she was on her first longer voyage, which was not much more then a year ago.

Greetings Josse

[Capit�o Norbert]

yes i agree you
bellow an image about rust

[tweety777]

Got some good news: yesterday i've tried to fix the steering mechanism, and it works!!!!!!!!!
The glue and nails that attach the gearwheel to the servo's is holding firmly, and as 1 of the servo's allready had a usefull foundation i was able to fix that to the deck, and now the first schottel is operational again!!!!!!
The second one still needs a new foundation, but that will be done today.
Because it's raining from time to time here i can't paint today, so know i'm able to work on the propulsion.
That's the advantage of the bad weather.

Greetings, a very happy Josse

[tweety777]

Another update:

The new set-up of the servo's.

Next saterday the modelbuildingclub of which i'm a member will be at an event nearby, and first i thought i could sail there, but that's only for the "childsboats" (children pay for sailing with them, Graupner Pollux is the base for those boats), and the paintwork isn't finished far enough to go sailing.
Still thinking i would soon go to sail with her i put the bollards back in place.



The adjastment to the transmitter to stop the schottel from getting out of control.
Hopefully this will be enough, but i can't check it out on the shore because i can't see both of the gearwheels.

As i have found a good way to attach a servo to something else i decided to try it out on the crane.
The crane-arm had 2 parts in the wrong place (a side-piece as bottom and a bottom as side-plate), so i've first got those loose to get them in the right place.

Meanwhile i've been looking for a suiteable solution for getting the winch connected to the servo.
In the end the best way to do so appeared to be using a shaft that fits inside the edge on the servo-disk and use a rod to make sure the winch will turn.
While i was soldering the rod to the shaft of the winch i had the servo-disk attached to it as well, but that became to hot so it melted near the rod.

I'd say it's straight.

The crane-arm again without any aids to keep it in shape.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

The glue on the winch is dry now, so i've decided to test the engine (a servo of which i removed the electronics to make it work as a normal engine with reduction-gearbox) and by doing that i've also got the cable hoisted in.

Bought some new primer this morning, as red will look better on grey primer (didn't know that when i bought the first primer), and when i came back i've applied the paint.





That's it for now.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Another update:

The hull has now also got it's first 5-6 layers of red paint.
Hopefully i can tomorrow apply the Tamiya Red Dull paint for the final colour here.





















This is where the engine of the mechanism for turning the crane-arm up and down will come.

Position of the winch.

Greetings, a very happy Josse

[tweety777]

Another update:

After some light sanding and some proper cleaning i've masked the parts that i don't want to paint, and then i've sprayd the Tamiya Red Dull.
I think the resulting colour (with the red paint underneath it) is better then either the Red Dull or the red paint alone would had been.
I think this is just the right colour.





That's it for now.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

A visiter who was looking quite closely to my model found out that most panels of the wheelhouse aren't properly aligned, causing trouble for the bridge-deck to fit.
After having seen some pics of a German modelbuilder who build a slightly similar wheelhouse of brass i decided i would do that too, and replace the old and mis-aligned wheelhouse by a proper brass one.
This is what i've started with.

Here the first parts are cut-out at roughly the right length.

All parts have been cut-out, but still need to be adjasted to eachother.

First parts adjasted to fit onto eachother.
The arrows indicate which corners are ready for soldering.

Done the first half.

Done all corners, and soldered the lot together.
The wooden plate will be used to make everything straight.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

According to a local weatherstation there would be a few dry hours today, so yesterday afternoon i've masked the hull as preparation for the painting.



Cut the first bar out for building sky-wards, but then i couldn't think of a proper solution to fix it for soldering.
In the end it seemes to be best to mount the panels first, and use those for fixing.
The panels will stop underneath the windows as the edges of the windows will be made of square bars.

Crew came in to check if everything is going well.

The inside will be made of Evergreen as the interior will be easier to be glued on it then.
I might place the panels with some hard to reach parts of the interior, but i'm not sure about that yet.

After some last checks i've painted the hull.






Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

Paint is dry, so i went on to the next stage: weathering.
I wanted to finish the weathering before i would apply the sealing, as the paint won't last long on top of the sealing.
The weathering is hardly visible in real, the external flash i've used made it much better visible.

Just look at the pics, they'll say enough:





Verder dan dit ga ik nu nog even niet, aangezien de romp dan omgedraaid moet worden.

Crew standing by for moving her to the completion-dock after highly needed maintance work in the drydock.
Unfortunatly the first thing i need to do after the weathering is completed is filling and sanding the superstructure, but after that it's gonna be fun!!!!!!!

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

As the painting of the hull is almost ready (first the weathering needs to be finished) it's now time to make the superstructure look as good as the hull does.
Here i've replaced a side-panel as the first one was too small.
I'm planning to put in brass bars soon to strengthen the superstructure and for powersupply.

Continued the work on the front side of the superstructure.

Tweety has been on board as well today.

Greetings Josse

[tweety777]

Update:

The escape-route on the front of the superstructure still wasn't finished, so i've made some new parts to complete that.
All i need to do now is fill and sand this, and then it's ready for painting.

At the rear of the main superstructure were still 2 ventilation-shafts to be build, so i've started making those as well.

Ventilation-shaft ready for placing.

Placed the first ventilation-shaft.



Parts for the second ventilation-shaft.

This one needed some help to get on the right place.
These ventilation-shafts are going through the deck underneath them, but those parts are still to be made.

Greetings Josse