Panart Gun Deck Section 1/23rd Scale

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Waddya know...
it's Timber Time in The Hellhole!
Howdo Troops and Troopettes!
Well now, this wee turnout is pretty much a result of three factors.
One, after spotting what a fellow modeling maniac going by the name of Moorcat
...yeah I mean you Shawn so your to blame here sunbeam!...
is doing on one of the forums, namely a more than decent turn out of the Frigate U.S.S. Essex...
1799 vintage, American navy...go look it up on Google.
Secondly, I love ships from the age of fighting sail.
Crafted with hand, eye and heart and the only computers used were the grey/pinky mushy ones between people ears.
in short, craftsmanship at it best in naval architectural terms, at least in my opinion.

Third, gimmie an excuse to work with wood and i'm all over it like a rash, simple as that.

Now then, I have built one of these before and you can see the result in the galleries by clicking the link below, should open in a new window.

So to business, now this kit is supposed to represent part of an English fighting vessel of the early 1800's.
Well yes it does and no it don't depending on how deep into detail you wanna go.
i'll be dealing with that as we go along for the freaks of the detail kind.
So here be said kit...

i'll be going through the parts in a roundabout fashion as we waltz our merry way through this here beastie.
Got this devil for about half what they normally go for on that internet auction site we all know and some of us hate but anyway...
Walnut, lime and laser cut plywood make up the bulk of the wood parts, brass and metal castings make the rest of it pretty much with some spools of differing thread.

Now this is not going to be an indepth into the kit/what's in the box side build because i'll be doing a fair amount of modification to this deal.
Again, more on that as we go.
One thing I will mention, like all the kits from the Panart/Mantua/Sergal/Corel stable
They are pretty decent but all seem to suffer from the same traits.
Most of the time you have only just enough material to do the job so mistakes are not easily forgiven.
Also the fit on some bits ranges from a little off to bloody well short of the mark, this one is no exception.

So the main parts of the frame are laser cut ply and by and large, not too badly done.
Here's a shot of two of the pieces that make up one of the frames.

Now the gun truck sides are another matter.
I recall from the first one that three of the sides matched up but one was about 1.5mm off in shape dimensions.
Turns out this one as no different so slapped the four together and got busy with the file.

Not too desperately bad so onward.
The cross beams, also laser cut were easily removed from the sheet but the notches were about 0.5mm too deep.
So into the scrap pile and some leftover veneer was glued into the notches and the main frame assembled with the other parts from the laser cut sheet of plywood as per the destruction sheet with some pin assistance.



Now about the laser cut parts...again...One of the curved uprights was about 0.5mm too thin along the length so into the scrap timber pile
...again...
And a strip was glued along the length and then all parts lined and squared up.







One end dead square, the other just a smidgen out but the one end being so is important and you'll find out later exactly why just the one end is the key.

To digress for a sec, i'll be keeping this and some others I have the ideas for as inbetweeny fill in's for
the rest of the stuff when I need a break from warp nacelles and winged thingies.

And the upcoming things are as follows in no particular order...
Just a rough sketch, half breadth for another section model at 1/24th scale.

Also got meself this in 1/98th scale to fiddle about with...

And even though I will not be getting my teeth into it for a LONG while, just dropped the dosh for this 1/72nd scale lovely from Jotika.

Well it was either this lass or the 1/64th Agamemnon, coin landed heads so Vicky it is...for now...
And that's about the lot for now as things go on.

Next update...at a later date, Go easy gang!

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