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| Hop to it, Lieutenant Boddington! |
Being a single father, one has to set aside meaningless trivialities from time to time. There is laundry to be done, a day job, cooking, washing the car, making the bed, feeding the cat (and the kids!) and the list goes on and on. Sometimes it can be hard to prioritise.
Consequently, I have managed to do quite a lot on HMSW Gargantua in the last few days!
First up: Her chinny-chin-chin.
When I last posted, I was still working on rivets, etc. on the underside of the head. Now, 87 rivets and some paint later, it's looking pretty solid!
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| Top Left: Detailing nears completion. Top Right and Bottom Left: Green Stuff finishes the piston surrounds. Bottom Right: The finished paint-job. |
But the bulk of the work recently has been in finishing that first leg. I.E.; the feet had to be designed, built, painted...
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| Top: Caster with and without wheel. Bottom: Bits of cogs and plastic complete the basic shape. I also filled the hollow caster with clay to make it heavy. This will help balance the model. |
After a couple of test designs I wasn't happy with (many thanks to my son, Anthony, for pointing out the not-good-enough factors) I finally hit on an idea that suited.
I found some old plastic casters in my bits box. With the wheels pulled out, they were a perfect fit - a really good start to a mechanical foot.
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| Left: Foot and unpainted lower-leg. Right: Green Stuff and 90 rivets finish the structure. |
After a bit of plasticy-greenstuffy-rivetty-clayey stuff and nonsense, the first foot came out all right!
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| The finished and painted foot. |
I'll let you be the judge...
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| The foot in place. Finally, the ham-string piston was added (Right) |
Only three more legs to go!
For those who are keeping count, the first leg has 174 rivets and the foot has 90. That's 264 per leg! This means that on completion of the remaining three legs, I will have added a further 792 rivets... Hmmm. Wish I hadn't just worked that out!
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| Foot, Piston, hoses, etc on the whole model. She's surprisingly sturdy! |
Anyway, my total rivet count now stands at 2,526. Any predictions for the final figure? The end is getting close!
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| Intimidation shot! Scared yet? |
All The Best!
For crying out sake man!! Have you any idea what you are doing?? Over 2,500 rivets so far and about 1,000 more to come. You must dream about rivets!! Fantastic work all the same Colonel. Looking great.
ReplyDeleteNow there's a beast! =O Good gravy, those feet could stomp entire platoons into paté! I would not like to contemplate the final rivet count, but I'm looking forward to the moment you post photos of the finished work.
ReplyDeleteRodger & A.J. - Thanks for sticking around so far! It has now been three months since I started the beast... I had no idea it would be quite such an undertaking.
ReplyDeleteThere are still many small details to do, but I hope to have her finished soon. The crew have been ordered (British Navy from Copplestone Castings) and my adversaries are arming themselves as we speak! Huzzah!
so tired of the smell of glue...
Bloody Fantastic work old boy! Cant wait to see the mechanical beastie giving Her Majesty's foes and bit of what For eh?
ReplyDeleteYours in a white wine sauce,
Paul
Continued great work Colonel.
ReplyDeleteI think when you finish this project though you may need an appointment with the OCD therapist ;-) I am sure you will be counting rivetts in your sleep by now?
Seriously, you efforts are all the more laudable, from your opening paragraph in this post - How on earth we manage to be so productive hobby-wise, and hold down a job, and maintain family and domestic bliss, often astounds me!
Keep up the all round good work!
Thanks Paul and Scott!
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, the day I just had at work... the smell of glue and going insane counting tiny rivets is a wonderful holiday by comparison!
As my dear old Uncle Rupert was wont to say "The worst day wargaming is still better than the best day at work"
ReplyDeleteI'm more of a tit man myself, actually Ive been called a bit of as tit on numerous occasions, but I must say your mechanical leg is looking quite the thing old boy.
Ooh, Sir!
ReplyDeleteAnd I haven't even started work on my rear entrance yet!
(Mops tea from the keyboard...)
ReplyDeleteSorry, A.J.! I hate to see a nice cuppa go to waste!
ReplyDeleteWe'll aren't you the clever devil! Mental, clearly, but clever none the less. No seriously, this is more & more amazing every time I see it. The feet are brilliant.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to guess the final number of rivets correctly would I win some kind of delicious chocolate fish?...
...Or is that just a red herring?
Hey Colonel,
ReplyDeleteI am doing a new posting on my blog and would like your permission to use a couple of pictures of Leadwood. Proper credit will be listed.
Please respond to ryderscalm0508@att.net
Thanks!
skyking
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ReplyDelete