Hello Gang!
Bet you're all wondering where I got off to, eh! Well, I've been very busy, as I'm sure you all are! and haven't had much if any time to work on poor Cleo! But, now, with the SMA Convention coming up next weekend (last wknd in April) on the Queen Mary, I've been more motivated to find some time to work on her to get her all dressed up for the show. I REALLY wanted to get the inner half of the bowsprit and at least the lower mast section installed before the show. I'm not sure I'll be able to get that far, but I'm getting a little farther along, anyway.
I've added the pinrails and the ships bell at the edge of the fordeck:
Here's a close up:
I know what you're going to ask....Yes, the bell is made of paper. I wadded up a little chunk of tissue paper with a few drops of white glue spread around on it, then just pushed, prodded, rolled, pinched and generally coaxed it into a bell-like shape. The rest is just a fun little paint job!
I managed to get the first section of the Bowsprit rolled, too.
It wasn't too difficult, I just rolled up about a quarter sheet of bond paper, cut to a little longer than the finish size of the part. The toughest part was to get the proper taper as called out for in the instructions. I had to re-roll it several times to continually tighten up the roll, and to adjust the taper, once I was satisfied, a little glue to hold it all together, then a final jacket of a nice clean layer of paper and it was finished.
I'm not satisfied with the color just yet...still a little too white....I want to get it closer to the color of the deck, but that shouldn't bee too much of a problem.
Here's a parting shot from the aft/starbord side. By the by, I also FINALLY build a small stand for her....wouldn't do to have her shown cradled in a chunk of foam!
Well, hope you all remebered ole Cleo....she's been AWOL for a little while, but definitely NOT forsaken....I'll be posting more pics soon! I'll try to get some shots from the SMA (Ship Modelers Assoc.) Convention, too...I'm SURE there will be some AWESOME ships there!
P.S. Just got and watched the DVD of Master and Commander! The ship could BE Cleopatra, there are THAT MANY similarities! WAY cool!
See you all soon!
Max
Master and Commander, HMS Cleopatra
Paper Navy of the Bear Flag Republic