Shazmira

Where she sits right now

Sam, I looked up the masks, and found them available through Walmart (and many other places) with the organic fillters, the description of the product says it is good for paint too??? I was a bit surprised, I though they would cost more than the $35 price tag I saw. I am definitely going to invest in one as soon as I can though!
 
Thank you to everyone for the kind words, and for all the encouragement you gave me along the way.
 
IT IS OFFICIAL! I HAVE COMPLETED MY FIRST BUILD
 
Now, tomorrow I can answer the call of the Syren
 
After, of course, I clean up all the bits and left over pieces from the longboat.
 
I am also looking forward to finishing the running rigging on the SF II, Keith (themadchemist) was very kind and sent me the blocks from his kit since he upgraded to Chuck's, so now I have the parts to finish her off as well!





 
 
 
 

So after all that worry, it turned out the coppering really was not all that difficult. Here she is finished
 

 

 
The rudder
 

 
And all assembled
 

 
Now that I have received my replacement pieces from ME, I can go back and get my deck planked at last!
 

Danny, really?!?! Wow, then there is hope for me yet!!!

Sam, WOW, very clean crisp work. I am duly impressed! I do love the contrasting color  of the wood as well. Hope you start feeling better soon

Sam, I am impressed with your ingenuity and skill. I am not up to the task of building new gun port doors from scratch regardless of how much better they might look than what is provided in the kits. My only concession is to at least paint the provided parts to make them "mine". More power to all the builders such as yourself who bash kits so well. I will continue to follow these so one day...I too can join the bashing!

Sam, your work is looking first class....can't wait to see more!

Sam,
Thank you very much for the reply and the pics that make even more sense of it. I do have some left over boxwood, and a miter saw. I like the wedge shape much better than just using a butt joint at the corners, and I dont know if I am capable of mitering the corners on pieces that fit in an 8mm x 8mm hole. Your way looks great, and if you dont mind I intend to copy it on my build!

Sam, she looks beautiful, can I ask how you lined your gun ports? I believe my dogs have eaten 2 of them (metal) that were provided in the kit, so now I am going to need to find a different way to do the gun ports on my decks.

I don't understand the intricacies of working lines, but that does not stop me from recognizing first rate work and ingenuity!

She looks beautiful Sjors! So is she finished? What is next?

She looks beautiful Sjors! So is she finished? What is next?

I actually discovered Modelers Shipyard http://www.modelshipyard.com.au/
Hobby Mill here in the US was shut down for their winter holiday so I need to get my wood from somewhere else. I found the people at the Shipyard extremely helpful, and they have a wide variety of wood in stock in varying lengths and thicknesses.
They do ship internationally as well, you will pay an extra $30 USD for the shipping, but for me, I chose to do that rather than wait until mid March to begin my build.

She looks beautiful Sjors! So is she finished? What is next?

WOW, clean, crisp and beautiful!!

Mark, long time no "see". Wow you have made some serious progress since I last looked in. She is looking beautiful. Your attention to detail is paying off brilliantly!

Mark, long time no "see". Wow you have made some serious progress since I last looked in. She is looking beautiful. Your attention to detail is paying off brilliantly!

She looks beautiful Sjors! So is she finished? What is next?

She looks beautiful Sjors! So is she finished? What is next?

Mark, long time no "see". Wow you have made some serious progress since I last looked in. She is looking beautiful. Your attention to detail is paying off brilliantly!

Remade my Main Top Gallant. I am much more satisfied with how it fits in with the rest of the mast. I am going to attempt setting the Main mast in place today. Depending on how things go I might try getting the Fore Mast in place also. I hope I am not rushing things, but I am tired of seeing her sit there looking to same every day.
 
A couple of pictures of the new Top Gallant set in place as well as the old one for comparison.
 

 

 
 
 
Here is my first attempt that so irritated the Gremlin set next to the new for comparison. He is much quieter today. I may still lengthen the flag pole a bit, it seems a tad short:

 
I go back on to a 7 day a week schedule again this monday so I dont know how much progress will be made over the next few weeks. Hopefully its only for a short period. Probably going to have lots of time to build after mid March as neither the owner or myself have had any bid requests come to us. I would never ask for work to stop coming in but I am looking forward to some time to breath. This has been going on since October I think.
Sam

Thanks Bug and Carl,  and also to those who hit the "like" button.
 
To complete the Horn Ring, the spokes were silver soldered in place and the whole thing given an initial clean-up. In this picture, the square cross-section of the rim is evident, as is that of the spokes.
 

 
All components of the wheel assembly are now ready for final clean-up and painting / plating.
 
The CutwaterI had previously made a mould to assist in making the cutwater but it turned out to be too small, so another mould was made. In making this mould, I first sprayed the bow with a spray-on / peel-off automotive plastic paint. This gave a nice smooth surface for the mould while ensuring plaster did not get stuck to the surface of the boat. This worked well and the peel-off paint behaved exactly as the manufacture claimed.  I also embedded a couple of dowels in the plaster, with the ends passed through and epoxied into a scrap of 3/4” plywood. This provided a useful “handle” to hold the mould in a vice.
 

 
Paper patterns for the two halves of the cutwater were printed on sticky label paper and attached to a piece of 0.015” thick brass sheet. The brass sheet was itself attached to some thin plywood scrap with double-sided tape and the pieces were rough-cut on the scroll saw and then finish-shaped on the disc sander and spindle sander.
 

 
Following the lead of others in the RC Groups Forum, I embedded a number of 6-32 threaded inserts into the mould, and made some hold-downs from some scrap aluminium flat bar. At this point, I took a slightly different approach to the task of soldering the cutwater halves. I had read of others having problems with having sufficient solder on the internal side of the cutwater, and of course I’d read their solutions as well. I did a little further reading/research on soldering and decided that it might be possible to use the properties of the solder itself to solve this problem. The key point I noted was that solder will always flow towards the heat source. To make use of this, I placed one of the cutwater halves on the mould and then wedged a ribbon of solder “wire” partly under this half before placing the second cutwater half. This meant that the two halves of the cutwater were held in place with the ribbon of solder firmly touching each half. I then painted some flux along the outside of the join, and applied heat from my small butane torch, starting at one end and moving slowly but steadily along as the molten solder wicked through. This worked very well and I should have left well enough alone….. I decided to add a little extra solder in a couple of spots but really only succeeded in adding a few globs of molten solder to the outside faces. Oh well, a little extra clean-up!
 

 
In the next shot, you can see the solder on the internal join – prior to clean-up.
 

 
And finally, here’s a few beauty shots of the completed cutwater after a little clean-up with files and sandpaper.
 

 

 

 
I did a quick test-fit on the actual bow of the boat, and it fits neatly. The cutwater is now ready for plating and final fitting.

Thanks again folks for all the kind comments and the "likes" - they really encourage me to keep striving.
 
A fairly major update today as I've completed manufacturing all the parts for the new steering wheel.
 
Wheel Building continued - the Hubs
 
If I thought that the hard part was over …..
 
The first step was to actually design my hub components. Although Kip had very kindly sent me a copy of his “chook scratchings” from the design process, I needed to make a couple of design changes to suit my slightly different approach (primarily the fact that the steering shaft will thread into the rear hub). I had several exchanges of email with Kip throughout this process and that was a huge help in getting my head around the task. Here is a copy of my own early chook scratchings.
 

 
From here, I decided to make up a set of CAD drawings of each component to further understand what I was attempting to do, and also as a useful check on my own measurements and calculations. Needless to say, there were many changes to both this diagram and the CAD drawings as the manufacturing process got underway – “no plan, no matter how good, survives first contact with the enemy!”
 
Once I had the design principles clearly in my head, the manufacturing process actually went quite smoothly…….for the most part. In fact, it went so well that I forgot to take many progress shots.  In the next picture, I am drilling the banjo spoke holes into what will become the banjo spoke hub. This started as a piece of 5/8” brass rod, that was first bored to leave a wall thickness of 1.5 mm. The banjo spoke holes are all 0.5 mm in diameter and I managed to drill all twelve without breaking the drill bit. Ironically, the drill bit broke just as I was removing it from the mill.
 

 
The manufacturing process required some thought as to how to hold various pieces on the lathe while they were being turned and shaped and fitted to their final dimensions. After a bit of trial and error, I concluded that several mandrels of various key sizes, both solid and centre-bored, were the most useful thing to use. I found that gluing these temporarily with CA to the stock being machined held the piece securely while being worked. The parts were then separated by the judicious application of heat from the MAPP blow torch. Here is a shot of the various mandrels I used – in some cases a combination of two mandrels were required.
 

 
The rear hub was shaped by first cutting a series of steps (staircase effect) and then smoothing with a round file while still on the lathe. The Horn Ring Hub, Trim Piece and Cap piece required a radius on the end. The Radius Cutting attachment for the lathe worked a treat for these parts.
 
The Horn Ring itself is square in section and this was formed by using a 1/16” square brass tube. After first annealing with the MAPP torch, it was bent around the same wooden buck as used for the wheel rim. The buck was first turned down to the appropriate diameter, and I must confess here to having a couple of goes at this before I was satisfied with the size. As the tube is hollow, it allowed me to insert a piece of 0.8 mm brass rod inside and extending across the join. This really helped when silver-soldering the join closed. The piece was then returned to the rotary table on the mill and 0.85 mm holes were drilled at 120 degree intervals for mounting the spokes.
 
The spokes for the horn ring are also square in section and the same brass tube was used for this. By inserting a piece of the 0.8mm brass rod through the pre-drilled hole in the horn ring, right through the length of the spoke, and into the horn ring hub, the hole assembly becomes self-aligning.
 
The horn ring hub itself was probably the most difficult of all of these parts to make and I had three attempts at this before I was finally satisfied.
 
The Cap Piece, as well as having a radius turned on the end, also had a 1/32” slot cut with a slitting saw to receive the Throttle Lever, which itself was cut and filed from a piece of 1/32” brass flat bar.
 
The picture below shows all of these parts, starting with the Wheel Rim and a selection of banjo spokes at the rear, the Horn Ring, Horn Ring Hub and Horn Ring Spokes (temporarily mounted and ready for soldering), and then across the front from left to right are the Rear Hub (note the internal threading to receive the steering column), the Banjo Spoke Hub, the Trim Piece, and the Cap Piece, with the Throttle Lever in the foreground.
 
 

 
Putting some of these components together for the camera, here is a of shot of the Horn Ring assembly mounted on the Banjo Spoke Hub, mounted on the Rear Hub, with a temporary Steering Shaft.
 

 
And lastly, the same assembly with the stainless-steel sleeve that goes over the steering shaft.
 

 
That completes the manufacture of all components for the new steering wheel. The next job will be to solder the Horn Ring assembly together, and then chrome plate the Horn Ring assembly, Cap Piece and Throttle Lever. The other components will be painted an off-white (ivory) colour, and then the whole lot will be finally assembled.
 
Once that is done, I will return attention to making the cutwater….

Thanks again for all the kind comments and all of the "likes".  
 
Another mini-update.......
 
After a further three coats of clear finish, with wet-sanding between coats using 1200 grit paper, I think we are done with the spray-gun at last. I’m quite pleased with the way that it has come up, although the camera can be a little unkind. It looks better to the naked eye! It still needs several hours’ worth of polishing before it’s really done, but here are a few glam shots by way of update.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

A Stand and some Graphics
 
Now that the finish on the hull is approaching a state that I’d like to preserve, I decided that it was time to make a stand. So today that’s what I did. Not sure yet if this will feature as part of the final display but in the meantime, it is quite functional. It is simply made, copying the design in Pat Matthews’ excellent book. The uprights are 16mm dowel, while the cross-braces are 8mm dowel. I finished it off with Vallejo Metal Colour “Chrome” and the Vallejo Metal Varnish (Gloss), all applied via the airbrush. One advantage to using these paints is that they dry almost instantly. A coat of primer, a coat of colour, and a coat of gloss, all applied in quick succession through the afternoon. The contact points have a self-adhesive felt applied for protection.
 

 
Then it was time to apply the graphics. I first gave the entire hull a light wet sand wit 600 grit paper, so the overall look is a bit ho-hum (the gloss will return with the next coat of clear). The graphics are vinyl and come from Callie Graphics in the US. I went there following a recommend of several others over on the RC Groups forum and must say that I’m delighted with both the service and the product. I had a quick email conversation with Callie, sent her a pdf of the general design and told her what they were for.  She quickly came back with some proofs for me; we made one minor change; another set of proofs and we were in business. A few days later the finished product showed up in the mail. I ordered two complete sets and with postage the whole lot cost me less than AUD $20.
 
So now for the big reveal!
 

 
I may have mentioned that this is going to be my wife’s boat, so it is named for her, Georgina. Georgie Gerl (yes, the spelling is correct) is her email “handle”.
 
And of course, one must have the Chris Craft logo and a registration number:
 

 
If you look closely, you will see that the registration number is GE 041282 GD, which is a combination of our initials and the date of our wedding (in non-American date format). I know, I’m just an old romantic…….. The admiral inspected the graphics on completion and has given her seal of approval. 
 
Next up, sealing the graphics under several more coats of clear varnish……………