Victorian Navy 1887

Albert ought to be finished this weekend.

Then it's the Cerberus' turn.

Albert Progress Update

Stern view over the aft "gun tub".
Port view showing off the newly-clad deck-house and port for the forward 8" BL.

Starboard view showing the newly added bulwark for the aft deck.

As you can see, I have spent the past few days building up the bulwarks and sides of the gun house. Construction of these upper works has been in light card that has been attached with PVA/White Glue and tacked in place with many pins as it has dried. I used 5mm balsa for the upper deck and for a corresponding piece that I attached below it at the lower deck level - this gave me a sufficient thickness of material to pin into and for the glue to grip.

The lower ull was made from a single block of 25mm polystyrene that I cut from a fruit-box with my hot wire cutter and further carved and sanded into shape. After that was done, I gave it a skim of filler to disguise the fact of it's polysturene origins! I'll need to do some more filling to hide the odd gap where the bulwarks meet the hull, too.

I have received some London War room Accessories to dress the hull up with in the form of a few ventilators. I have more on their way some time in the next couple of weeks; hatches, ladders and davits. I have also got a couple of plastc ships boats that look about the right size to hang on the sides.

On we go!

Albert - Progress Shot

Coming along as we can see.

I've attached the decks, stained them and scribed them in.

Model Shipyard - HMVS Albert

I started work last night on the gunboat Albert. Not too much done so far beyond the basic hull being cut from a chunk of polystyrene then decked over. Ive also cut out the top of the gun-house which you can see balanced on top of a couple of match-boxes for height.

The ships horizontal dimensions are something like 1:72 whilst it's vertical dimensions are in the order of about 1:60. I have undertaken this scale compression in order to build a model that I can transport in my luggage when this ship gets transported to Canberra later on this year! The Cerberus, also under construction will probably get similar treatment - the rule of thumb that I am working to is the greater the ship size, the greater the squashing of the ship. The Torpedo boat I completed a few weeks ago is virtually a scale model, for example.