Hi y’all. Well, Dicky is about as ready as I can make her. I was going to use the kit decals and turn of of the sixes into a 3, so I could replicate Dickey’s number 136, which belonged to another Flower class corvette. Didn’t turn out great, so I got some 3/4 inch vinyl lettering in the closest font I could find. I had to paint the letters but it looks good. I also did the fwd railings, same as the aft with brass stanchions and copper wire. She needs rigging and a couple small details, but for the most part she’s done. Y’all wish me luck, this one has me a little nervous…
Cash

Hi y’all. Nothing really exciting today. I assembled the anchors but I had the shafts laid over at about a 60 degree angle. The hole for the anchors in the bow is rather large, so I cut thin pieces of plasticard that would cover the hole from the inside, made a hole for the shaft, painted the outboard side of the plasticard to match the hull. Once I glued the anchors in place I slid the plasticard over the shaft and glued to the inside of the hull, sealing the hole. I cut the shafts down and gave the area a good coat of epoxy and also epoxied over the edges of the porthole glazing I installed earlier. I’m a little paranoid about water intrusion with this boat. I also added side rails and a fwd stop to the battery floor. Last thing today was get a weight of the boat with battery installed and fwd deck and aft house in place. She’s a tad over 2 pounds. Now, the ballast will probably be permanent in this boat, so I want to get it very close once I start that procedure, bearing in mind I still have to add a few small details after permanently installing the fwd deck and superstructure. Anyway, next step is the ballast check in the upstairs “test tank”
Cash

Hi y’all, got a bit more done this past weekend. Most of the details that are left really can’t be done until the fwd deck assembly is glued down permanently, so I set about finishing her up under decks. I glazed the hull portholes fwd like I did the aft, using thin clear styrene glued over the holes as one. It’s watertight, and I plan to add a little “insurance “ before the deck is installed permanently, but just to be sure, I glazed the holes from the outside using a large drop of thick CA per hole. I accomplished this by laying Dicky on her side, and using an applicator, carefully added a drop to each porthole, and let it dry with no accelerator. Once that was done to my satisfaction I made up the coaming. Nothing new here, used 2 mm plasticard. I also added a wall aft to keep any water that somehow gets on the deck from going forward, seeping past the bulkheads the aft cabin slides into and into the hull. Not on my watch!!
Last thing was the battery floor. I used a piece of 1/8 balsa just forward of the hull joint and epoxied that to the hull bottom. I then poked it with a pin all over and soaked it with thin ca. once dry it got a light sanding. I then took a piece of plasticard, added spacers to the bottom aft of the hull joint, then epoxied it to the floor, hull join and the wood I laid down, giving me a nice flat surface. I need to add rails and a fwd stop so the battery can be slid in home. It’s secured by one piece of Velcro aft. This will simplify removing and installing the battery, since most of the battery floor ended up under the fwd deck. The procedure will be to put the battery in at an angle, slide to the fwd stop, then press down at the back end to secure. To remove lift the back of the battery clear of the Velcro and pull straight aft and out.
Anyway, I need to mount the anchors and block off their fwd holes to waterproof, triple check every thing inside and make sure all the hull portholes stay sealed, then it’s ballast time.
Cash

Hi y’all. Spent some time yesterday and today on Dicky. I painted up and detailed the funnel, including the guy wires. I had to make a change to the aft most wire attachment at deck level, as they are supposed to terminate at the fwd part of the aft house, which will be removable for battery access as well as maintainance. So, I tied them off at the aft corner stanchions. Best place I could find considering the circumstances. Once that was done, I built up the mast. I was concerned about using the plastic unit in the kit, as I was worried about it getting broken in transit or launch/recovery. The kit has some plastic parts that are more “springy” than brittle, the mast is made of the former. However, there’s a long ladder that is attached to the aft side of the mast. I have a stash of fittings and parts from kits I’ve built, I also peruse eBay and RC groups for lot jobs of fittings and parts to add to my stash. I have several of the old Robbe ladder strips that are thin brass. It’s a little wider than the kit ladder, but it looks the part and will add a small amount of protection in case of a mast accident.
Today, I corrected Dicky. I had built the liferaft mounts as per the kit. But, if you look at the Sackville, or some of the stills of Dicky from Greyhound, you’ll see that Dicky carries hers aft and double stacked. So I removed both mounts, cleaned up and touched up where they were previously mounted, and mounted them aft. I used brass wire to reinforce the modification, and used some unused parts to make the vertical grate the rafts are attached to. Not perfectly scale in any case, but looks the part. I then built up the lifeboats and added them and the davits. Now, the Sackville looks to have deleted the lifeboats entirely and uses 2 more sets of liferafts in place of the lifeboats, and I might follow suit one day, but I think she’s looking the part.
I’m at the stage where I need to build up a hatch coaming, battery floor, and glaze the hull portholes and add the anchors, making sure everything is sealed up inside. Then, before I glue down the fwd deck assembly, she needs a ballast check with the deck taped on. After that it’s a few details and then the……..rigging. Not looking forward to that!!
Cash

Hi y’all. This weekend I finished up the forward house and bridge, and started working the aft house. I had to make a change or two. There is an upper structure that contains the radar. I think. Anyway, it’s supposed to have a railing on the platform. I tried using the kit plastic stanchions with thin copper wire, I didn’t like how it was going so I pulled that off and tried using cut brass wire and the same copper wire for the rails…I didn’t like that either. I have some brass stanchions but they are earmarked for the aft house railing and the forward deck rails, I wouldn’t have enough to do the job if I used any for this structure, so I made up a bulwarks out of plasticard and left it at that. There’s also a few fragile details that I either omitted or modified as they would get snapped off in normal handling.
The aft cabin and funnel support came next. I did use some of my stanchions and copper wire for the railing, came out ok. I couldn’t find brass wire locally to fit the stancions, so I made due with copper, but since the copper wire is on a roll it was harder to work with, and just not quite as nice as brass. I went ahead and glued the funnel body together so I coul sand and primer it. It’s next on my to-do list.
She’s coming along yall!
Cash

Hi everybody. I almost have the forward house completed. I made a few mistakes, fixed most of them. I’m also “picking and choosing” what small details I’m using or omitting. Anyway, the fwd house and most details are in place, the top of the house is installed and the walls are up, and the side supports are in. The roof of the lower part of the house is the deck for the bridge. I still have to build up some details such as the binnacle, both guns, and the like. I have yet to glue the deck to the hull, as all houses and details save for the fwd railings will be installed on the deck, then the deck will be placed on the ship temporarily while I set up the ballast during the final tub test. She’s starting to take shape now!!
Cash

Hi y’all. Got a bit more done this weekend. I started building up the forward house. It’s all fairly straightforward, one thing I did not do was use the kit windows, as I was not even going to attempt installing close to 18 separate panes without getting glue on them. I used I strip of clear plastic per panel and called it a day. There’s a walkway of sorts that’s glued in place, ladders, a walkway railing and what looks like a shelter of some sort. I used the supplied rail stanchions but used brass for the rail. I checked the fit in the deck and looks good. Now, I have to build up myriad chests, lockers, hatches and other detail parts and glue them in place, then I’ll see to the house roof, bridge and gun mounts.
Cash

Hi y’all. Started on the fwd deck detail pieces Saturday, did the gun that day and the mount today. Most of the deck was detail parts, including the anchor winch. Nothing earthshaking there, just assemble the parts, paint and install. The kit comes with anchor chain that’s black, so there’s at least ONE part I don’t have to paint!! Anyway, the chain is supposed to com from holes in the winch and then go into the holes for the anchor. I ended up using thin clear plastic on the underside of the deck covering those holes, then cut holes just big enough to drop the chain thru and then glue in place. I don’t like having open holes in my deck I don’t car how much freeboard I have. Once I had all that made up I build the gun.
Today was the gun platform. Now, there’s a few things going on here. First thing, you have little ammo carriers that each hold one shell. The ammo carrier and shell are molded as one piece, and there’s 30 something of them. The parts are painted the same color as some of the upper deck parts, which is a combo of 30 percent gray and 70 percent white. I’m using Tamiya USAF Insignia White, which has a touch of gray in it. However, the shells need to be bronze, and I have some bronze enamel for doing that kind of work. However, detail painting at this scale is not my strong suit. But, I did my best. Those are glued in a “track” molded into the gun platform. Then the fun begins. The railing on the platform is interesting, as it is not circular to match the gun platform, but goes in a straight line from upright to upright. AND, the builder is supposed to cut the uprights and the rail from very thin plastic styrene rod that’s included in the kit, then glue them together to make the safety rail. Nope. First thing styrene rod in that kit isn’t like plastic t or evergreen rod, it’s stiffer but much more brittle. Also,I’m not going to take that much time building a detail that I know I’m going to break at some point, so I bent small brass wire to the correct shape for upright to upright, using the holes in the platform as a guide, the made the uprights by using tiny brass cotter pins from my stash. I glued the assembly together, painted and installed. I then went to mount the platform. Now, I had read that the early Snowberry kits had some parts fit issues, and that’s correct. I’ve ran across a few, but nothing as egregious as the platform mount. There are marked depressions in the deck for the mount on the deck and on the platform. The platform to mount fit was perfect, however, the mount to deck was not, I had to cut away a bit off each leg to git it to fit properly. Once installed I mounted the gun assembly. Need to do some touch up and tweaking but that’s essentially done. Now, I get to start the deckhouses.
Cash

Hi y’all. Had a little time this weekend tos get the aft section of the boat fitted out. First thin I had to do was build a new rear ladder. The original plastic part broke as I was handling the wheel house to work on it, should have saw that coming. Luckily I have several strips of the old Robbe cut to length brass ladder which is almost the same width as the stock part. I cut a piece to length, soldered a piece of brass wire on the backside and then bent that up into railing, once test fit the assembly was painted and installed. I also built up the port and starboard depth charge launchers. Today I built up the depth charge racks. This was a challenge, as the parts are extremely fragile, and the instructions are not the best, as there’s a picture of the parts with arrows going to the mating surfaces, but you can’t tell if the horizontal parts go on the inside or top of the rails. I noticed my mistake when I had the first rail and upper track glued irrevocably, irreversibly together. So I tweaked and hid what I could, and it turned out…okay. The second rack came out better. Once assembled I loaded a few charges in each rack, painted and installed.
That pretty well finishes the aft deck. I still need to make my coamings for the wheel house but that will come later. Middle of this week I’m going to start the fwd deck and house construction.
Cash
PS. I’m adding a pic of the paint I used for the light blue of the camouflage….it’s Sonic Blue vintage guitar lacquer!!😁

Pics!!😀