Saturday 25 February 2017

Lake Victoria Gunboat - Part Three

So today’s report from the slipway, sees the top deck completed and painted.

The first thing to be completed was the wheelhouse. This was constructed from plasticard and then undercoated it black.

Next I glued a strip of light card around the outside of the top deck sides to smooth out the curvature.

The deck was in danger of looking too bland, so I added some clutter. First was a safety wall around the stairwell – proving that health and safety concerns were addressed. Second I added two sets of storage lockers along the sides, one along the rear of the deck and one in front of the wheelhouse. The whole assembly was then undercoated black.

When the undercoat dried, both the wheelhouse and the main structure was painted with two coats of grey and then weathered with a black wash.

To finish the funnel, the top 10mm of the was painted black.


Finally the wheelhouse was fixed in place.

The portion of the super structure roof that was not covered by the upper deck was covered with thin card, painted various shades of brown and deck grooves drawn on the deck with a pencil. The deck was then varnished to protect the pencil lines.


The superstructure was then glued to the hull and held down with a weight until the glue set. Then the top deck was glued in place.


When all the glue was set I looked at the model and decided it was too dark so I gave the whole thing a light dry brush of very pale grey and a bit of weathering.

I made a small rowboat from off cuts of foam board that was shaped then covered with green stuff, painted white and glued to the stern deck.



All that remains to complete now is the armament, anchors, chains, ropes, bollards and some general deck clutter. This will be added a bit at a time during work on other projects.

10 comments:

  1. This looking great Mark - better than a lot of the commercially available ones you see online that look a bit overdone to me - what figures are you going to use to crew this wonderful vessel?

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    1. I was looking at some of the Perry Sudan Naval brigade, but I have a bit of time to sort it out. I have to build the pom pom gun - the one I had made is too difficult to fix on a naval mounting.

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  2. Looking terrific, Mark! You are a craftsman, no doubt!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. It still needs those little bits to give it life. These will be added in due course.

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  3. Fantastic work, Mark. And doesn't the glass table make a perfect lake?

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    1. Thank Nathan, but he glass table wasn't intended as a water effect...being in the garden it was just the best source for light!

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  4. It looks fabulous. 28mm? If so, some of the Pulp Figures sailor figures would look great on it.

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    1. Thank you Michael. Yes 28mm and some of the Pulp Figures will be crewing this, but I am on a self-imposed spending constraint, so it will have to wait until late March/early April.

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  5. Now that is super cool! Ive always planned on adding something similar for my ACW stuff. Time permitting that is.

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    1. Now that would be interesting. i have often looked at those beautiful models from the Honourable Lead Boilersuit Company and wondered how I could use them...

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