Flower Class Corvette

1
November 30, 2015
Original eyebrows on model kit.
2
November 29, 2015
Portside aft porthole scuttles removed and sanded
3
November 29, 2015
Portside eyebrows removed and sanded with course sanding stick. Will polish with medium, fine, and ultra fine to smooth. Looks better already
4
November 30, 2015
9” Scuttle sheet from GLS. Provided laminate sheet for the glass as well. Will add these after the other heavy mods - removing keel, adding beam supports, installing propeller and rudder.
5
November 29, 2015
Drilled out damage ruder and propeller shaft remains. Will need to do some filling
6
November 30, 2015
Metal propller from GLS
7
November 30, 2015
GLS Propeller and Rudder test fit. Will need some adjustment, filling, alignment, oboy!
8
November 29, 2015
Cutting down the keel. Plans show the keel not visible on real ships
9
November 29, 2015
Lots of plastic to take off of the keel. May try a scroll saw to cut out chunks, then sand flush. Any suggestions?
10
November 30, 2015
11
January 16, 2016
Worked on the Carley Floats tonight. Started Soldering. The floor started out as 4 pieces of photo etch.
12
January 16, 2016
After tinning and Soldering it looked like this.
13
January 16, 2016
With one of the oars.
14
January 16, 2016
The floor is just fitted into the float for now.
15
January 16, 2016
Another shot.
16
January 16, 2016
Comparison with the two-piece kit float. The GLS floats are much better. Next, paint and texture the float, tie the ropes, and fasten the floor to the ropes.
17
January 28, 2016
This is a Carley Float stand that was used on Snowberry and later ships. Since I am doing Bluebell, I won't need it, but put it together to practice soldering. I am really having fun with this.
18
January 28, 2016
Along side the Carley Float.
19
January 28, 2016
Another view
20
January 28, 2016
This gives an idea of what it would look like.
21
January 28, 2016
Another angle. I will build the rest of the stand and do the other set as well, just to practice. It's getting easier.
22
January 28, 2016
The float and the beginnings of the wheelhouse breakwater assembly. The breakwaters was folded and the seams soldered.
23
January 28, 2016
Got the propeller soldered onto the shaft and tube for a sleeve to hold the shaft
24
January 28, 2016
Starting to get a feel for how things will fit.
25
January 28, 2016
She is starting to give some hints as to what she will start looking like.
26
January 28, 2016
Breakwater just place on the deck at this point. Eventually it will be soldered onto the deck. Lots of things to do first.

Comments

29 November 2015, 21:07

Urban Gardini
This is a build well worth following! Pass the popcorn mate...

29 November 2015, 22:08

MAC FELSING
It's gonna take a lot of popcorn. I travel during the week. Looking forward to making some noticeable progress over the Christmas time frame. It's also going to take a lot of patience. All of the JDParkins kits add thousands of parts. It will require dusting off or acquiring new skills - soldering for one. This will give me a chance to get good at it. Thinking about getting a resistance soldering system to handle smaller pieces, etc.

30 November 2015, 01:25

Łukasz Gliński
Fully agree w/Urban, I'll follow as well

30 November 2015, 10:25

Urban Gardini
The Matchbox Flower was THE kit that I dreamed to build when I was young. I will probably never even get it now but I like to see how others build theirs. As for soldering, have you given any thought on trying soldering paste (complete with soft solder and flux) that you just spread out in place and then add heat with a blowtorch lighter or a Dremel gas operated soldering pen without even touching the PE.

30 November 2015, 15:05

Christian Bruer
Count me in, one of my favorite class of ships. Mmhhh, reminds me to go back and finish my scale 1/350 Flower and Revell will release a scale 144 next month!

30 November 2015, 17:52

MAC FELSING
Did some more work over the holidays. A lot of studying and found some great reference sites. Got more of the keel taken off. Got some brass tubing and brass rod to use for the propeller. Found a great reference site for soldering models paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/index.html. Got rid of the very thick stem and added a strip of .020 by .040 styrene strip to simulate the steel stem of the corvettes. That's looking a lot better. Will start soldering soon once I get hull in better shape. Will post some more pictures when I have a little more to show.

5 January 2016, 05:22

Łukasz Gliński
@Christian: regarding that 1/144 Revell news - is it confirmed?

5 January 2016, 13:08

Marc Schimmler
You will need a long breath for that one (did it myself).
I will watch it 🙂

5 January 2016, 14:11

Christian Bruer
Well Lukasz, it is listed as new since 2015. First announcement was for October 2015, than they changed it to January 2016 and now I noticed they changed it again to March 2016. I guess we'll have to wait for untill the Toy Fair in Nuremberg at the end of February 2016.

@Mac, looking forward to your progress🙂

5 January 2016, 19:28

Łukasz Gliński
Thanks for the info, Christian

5 January 2016, 20:09

MAC FELSING
Thanks Christian, me too!

6 January 2016, 05:15

MAC FELSING
Had some fun soldering tonight. Assembled the 'floor' of one of the Carley floats and an oar. Having a lot of fun learning how to solder. Added some pics to the album.

16 January 2016, 06:06

Marc Schimmler
that's a fine work

16 January 2016, 08:19

Christian Bruer
Looks promising. Curios how the floats will look once finished.

17 January 2016, 13:10

MAC FELSING
I'll keep you posted. I am going to try to mimic the canvas wrap finish (will try a couple of things, including fine cloth strips or tissue to give the surface a little texture. The kit comes with one size of thread. In looking at some of the images It looks like there were different sizes of rope used, with a lot of variance. I will be making 4 floats for the Bluebell, but I also have a couple of square Carley Float kits I may practice on.

17 January 2016, 21:25

MAC FELSING
Added a few more pics. Been practicing soldering on parts that I won't be using. I'm decided to build Bluebell, so won't need some of the Carly float stands. I started working on those stands to practice soldering. Got the top part done. Next is the bottom of the stand. Then seal and paint to see how it looks. Also soldered the brass shaft onto the propeller. Took a couple tries to get it balanced. Then just a couple of picks to see what it is starting to look like. I am about confident enough to be able to solder the thin side strips onto the deck. Will be a little tricky.

28 January 2016, 03:46

Album info

Build of the original Matchbox version of this kit, using all of the J.D Parkins GLS photoetch. Had started the build several years ago, with hull, propeller, and bracing. Several moves, damage, including snapped off propeller and rudder. Restarting the project. Acquired "The Flower Class Corvette Aggasiz recently. Following D.J. Parkins comments about removing the keel, sanding off the eyebrows over the portals and replacing them with PE. Replacing the broken propeller and rudder with GLS Resin and metal parts. Fun to be working on this again.

Flower Class Corvette

26 images

1:72

On hold

1:72 Flower Class Corvette (Matchbox PK-901)

1:72 Corvette Deck & Fittings Set (David J. Parkins GLSA-72-001)

1:72 Corvette Bridge Set (David J. Parkins GLSA-72-002)

1:72 Corvette Funnel and Mast Set (David J. Parkins GLSA-72-003)

1:72 16' Dinghy and Storage (David J. Parkins GLSA-72-011)

1:72 9" Scuttle Set (David J. Parkins GLSA-72-016)

1:72 Splinter Padding (David J. Parkins GLSA-72-017)

12+

HMCS Snowberry (K166)

Royal Canadian Navy - Marine royale canadienne (1910-now)
HMCS Snowberry K166
1941 - North Atlantic

All albums

View all albums »