Hi folks, after seeing the mast lighting from Jugge & my humble self😉
Martin sent me this video of his superb HMS Cottesmore in all her animated glory.

To watch; ignore the Invalid File sign.
Just click on it and then on the Arrow in the miniscule blue box at top left.
Your device should then ask you if you want to view the file or save it.
On a Windows PC it will probably offer you Windows Media Player as default viewer.
Watch in Full Screen mode for best effect; especially of the bridge lighting!👍
Signal lamp is sending a real message "keep away hazards area"
Happy viewing and wondering! Cheers, Doug 😎

Hi Guys,
Well buildwise that is as far as I have got, lots more detail work to be done.
I was a bit stuck as to how to switch on and off the lighting until I came across Arduino.
So I purchased an Arduino PCB and then I looked on utube to see how to program it.
I just picked up enough programming knowledge to be able to switch the lighting on and off in a loop sequence.
There's a lot of really good tutorials about programming the Arduino on utube.
My plan is as I have to fit suppression capacitors to the motors I will remove all of the removable trays and at the same time wire it all differently as when the superstructure is complete it will be very easy to break something off just to switch Cottesmore on and off. I will also learn a bit more programming so that lighting is more controllable.
So that is about it at the moment I hope that this log has not been to boring.
I will update this log from time to time when I get back to working on her.

Martin.

Hi Guys,
This was constructed from plastic card and electrical wire.
The hardest part was hiding the wires from the LED's
There are a total of 27 LED's on this mast in 6 separate circuits.
The ladders are just strips of plastic card drilled out and the rungs are wire,
Everything else was made using small pieces of plastic yogurt pot and ice cream containers.
The anemometer is slightly larger then scale but it actually rotates and the vain dose point towards the wind.
I must admit it was a little tricky to make this mast.

Martin.

Hi Guys,
I thought that today I would post some photos of some deck fittings.
Mostly made from plastic food containers and wood doweling and of course electrical wire.
The fire hoses are just strips of clothing material painted red , and the hose baskets are strips of yogurt pot.
The straps on the decoys are made the same way.
The anchor chains are not exactly to scale but that was all I had.
Sonar cover winch attached to the superstructure made from wood,wire and plastic is only glued to the superstructure and not glued to the deck so that the superstructure can be removed.
Sonar cover is layers of plastic shaped and sanded.

Plastic food containers are good for some of the detail work as you can get it in deferent thickness.

Martin.

Hi Guys,
This section is on the funnel and intakes.
Constructed from plastic card and a bit of electrical wire.
There is not much I can say about the construction really.
Made a basic frame then bent the plastic card around it to form the funnel then made the intake box section, attached it to the funnel.
Cut out the vent areas, made vents glued them in.
Made the hand rails and fitted in place.
The lions were cutout from 0.5mm plastic card shaped and sanded,painted then glued in place.
Fitted deck light LED's
And that's about it.
If you do have any questions about this log then please contact me and I will do my best to answer them.

Martin.

Hi Guys,
As I mentioned the Bridge in my last log I thought that I would cover the Radar on top of the Bridge.
As you may have gathered I quite like working with plastic card, so making the Radar was just a case of gluing some layers of card together and shaping.
To make the Radar turn I modified a standard servo to continually rotate and by adjusting the pot slightly I managed to get it to rotate clockwise one full rotation at a speed of approximately two seconds.
It seemed to be the correct speed, as I have seen on many models the Radars spin like a helicopters rotor blades and to me that is not correct.
The video is 'hidden' in the Invalid File. To view-
Click on the Invalid image,
Then click the Download button, white arrow on blue background at top left.
Windows (App?) offers the choice of View or Save.
View with Media Player or equivalent.
Martin

Hi Guys,
Now on to the Bridge.
Constructed from plastic card I used the baking sheet method to help with the angles, I did not fit the deck head until last as I needed to have red and white LED's and the shaft for the radar, it was then that I noticed that the windows were too small to see much of the interior but big enough to see an empty bridge.
So I had to knock up some sort of bits, most of it was from memory and a photo.
I decided not to be to fussy but put enough in just in case someone was to look in.
Here are a few photos unfortunately I did not take many of the main construction.

Hi Guys,
This part of the log covers the main 30mm gun and mount.
Made from yogurt pots and a BBQ stick and a small piece of brass wire as you can see in the photos. (Before and after)
I modified a standard servo to continually rotate I also glued two micro switches on to the servo body As limit switches plus a couple of diodes, it now rotates approximately 290 degrees (Bridge wing to bridge wing).
The servo is a snug fit in a small box glued in to the hull so if required it can be removed, the gun also can be removed as I have fitted location pins on the servo arm and the gun also has a servo arm fitted to the base that locates directly on to it.
I hope that my explanation makes sense!.
The video is 'hidden' in the Invalid File. To view-
Click on the Invalid image,
Then click the Download button, white arrow on blue background at top left.
Windows (App?) offers the choice of View or Save.
View with Media Player or equivalent.

Hi Guys,
Back again with another instalment to the log.
Whilst still playing around with the plastic card the mezzanine deck was next.
Cut out the deck to shape, and then made the deck support beams these were made from 5mm strips of plastic card glued to form a square.
It was a little tricky but with the aide of one of the wife's knitting needles that fitted nicely in side I was able to get them mostly square.
I had to make this deck so that it was removable that way I could still get at the sweep deck openings, also because I wanted to have white and red lighting I had to come up with a way that they could be powered when the mezzanine deck was fitted.
The solution was to use some PCB Headers that way when I placed the mezzanine deck on it would just plug in.
The wife never did get her knitting needle back as I cut it up into small pieces and used it for the location pins on the deck support pillars (luckily to this day she has still not noticed it missing and when she does I will blame the dog.)
You can see in the photos the PCB Headers and how It comes apart, I was not to fussy about the wiring of the surface mount LED's as when fitted it is difficult to see them.

Hi Guys,
I decided that I would try and get some of the big bits made, so as I had plenty of plastic card the main superstructure was first followed by the bridge then funnel and main mast.
All the above was only roughly assembled so that I could get an idea of how it would look.
The final trimming, filling, and sanding would be done as and when I worked on each assembly.
The way I tend to work on my models is as follows.
Try to make individual modules then work on one module at a time until completed then move on to the next.
The only reason I do this is that at my age I tend to forget bits, and if I were to move about over different parts of the boat I can guarantee that that I would miss something or put something on in the wrong place.
The photos show the rough assembly, I will post the completed assembly's as I get further along with this log.
Whilst I am waffling on I do have a little tip/trick that I use often.
I use tracing paper (baking sheet) I mark out the lines or shape on the paper then put a small drop off plastic glue on the line then position the first part, after a short time the glue sets then I place the next part of the assembly on the sheet and glue that In position.
When the assembly is complete and dry it is just a case of gently removing the baking sheet, then removing the small bits of glue with a scalpel.
You can see this method works well in one of the photos.
(part of the bridge assembly)