JSGerson

If you have to magnify the images this much to see the difference, the average person from a foot away, won't. The choice to fabricate new lids for to accommodate the smaller diameter guns is yours as captain. Yes, I believe it may help create the illusion that all of the guns are the same diameter, but is it worth the effort, that is is your decision. I guess that depends on how finicky you are. Overall, your model looks great!
 
Jon

If you have to magnify the images this much to see the difference, the average person from a foot away, won't. The choice to fabricate new lids for to accommodate the smaller diameter guns is yours as captain. Yes, I believe it may help create the illusion that all of the guns are the same diameter, but is it worth the effort, that is is your decision. I guess that depends on how finicky you are. Overall, your model looks great!
 
Jon

If you have to magnify the images this much to see the difference, the average person from a foot away, won't. The choice to fabricate new lids for to accommodate the smaller diameter guns is yours as captain. Yes, I believe it may help create the illusion that all of the guns are the same diameter, but is it worth the effort, that is is your decision. I guess that depends on how finicky you are. Overall, your model looks great!
 
Jon

I have a Byrnes saw (an absolute must), a Byrnes thickness sander (hardly used), a disk sander, a 20 year old Dremel drill press stand (horizontal and vertical positions only - no 45 degree), a 50 year old Dremel scroll saw (noisy as hell and lots of vibrations), a corded Dremel-like tool,  a cordless variable speed Dremel tool, and a small wood lathe (hardly used). But, I don't have a drum sander, router, or belt sander. So I've use the Dremel drill press, as a disk sander, a router, and as a drill press. I make do with what I have. At 78 years old, I'm not investing in more stuff, so I have to make do with what I have.
 
If I had a belt sander (which I have no experience with) wouldn't it be prone to sanding a flat edge? The use of the "drum sander" allowed me to  maintained the camber. Whether I could have done that with a belt sander as easily, I don't know.
 
Jon

Just a tip: DO NOT throw anything away. For instance, When I removed the horizontal braces (beams) from the bulkheads, because I was anticipating the fabrication of the gun deck and more realistic positioning of the beams based on the US Navy plans, I marked which bulkhead they came from and kept them. They were subsequently used when I put in the new spar deck beams because they had the proper deck camber, which I  also traced onto the additional newly fabricated beams. Sometimes you need to reproduce the shape of something, you might be able to use the precut shell to reproduce a replacement part or a matching curve/shape of something.
 
Jon

To assemble the parts, I had two choices, glue them or silver solder them. The best way to assemble them with strength was to solder. If I was inept enough in this endeavor, hopefully I could fall back and use either CA glue or epoxy.
 
Ideally in soldering, you want the joints to be mechanically strong on their own, and the solder just holds the pieces rigid. In this case that wasn’t possible. The solder had to do all the work. Just inserting the rod into the cut hole in the tube wouldn’t work. If the rod was inserted completely, it would prevent the joint from being threaded onto the railing. During the solder process a length of 1/32” rod was inserted into the tube to act as a “stop” for the 1/32” stanchion rod. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be soldered in place as it needed to be removed after the soldering process. As it turned out, of the first five attempts, two got soldered in place and had to be discarded. I found that if I used 1/32” brass rod as the “stop,” it was a 50-50 chance it would get stuck. However, when I switched to music wire for the “stop,” I had no problems.
In the photos below:
 
1 – 1/32” brass rod inserted into tube to act as a “stop” (later music wire)
2 & 3 – Brass stanchion rod held in place for soldering
4 – Silver Solder paste applied to joint
5 – Soldered joint formed after heat with mini torch
6 – 1/32” brass rod “stop” removed. Competed soldered joint before cleaning the component up
 
The last photo shows the joints strung onto the circular railing. The deck fasteners, rail closure, and final positioning of the stanchions will have to wait until the deck planking is installed.

I wanted to create stanchion/connecting joints from brass rods and tubes. This meant confronting my old nemesis, drilling holes in brass. And this was especially difficult as I wanted to do this on a curved surface of a tube. The hard part was biting into the brass with the drill bit, so I skipped that part! Instead, I cut halfway through into the tube with my miter handsaw, just exposing the interior of the tube. Then with a fine drill, that cut was opened into a small round hole, and with a 1/32” drill bit, it was widened to accept the 1/32” rod. The ends were trimmed a bit to shorten and center the drilled hole into the tube (not shown in the picture below). Finally, 1/16” length pieces of the tube were cut off creating the deck fasteners.

To be consistent with the companion ways, the rail and stanchions were made of 0.032” brass rod with the connecting joints and deck fasteners made from 1/16” brass tube. The brass rod was wrapped around my work bench peg insert which just happened to be ¾” diameter bending it to the initial shape of the circular railing.

Captain Skylight Railing
I could not find any US Navy plans for the hand railing surrounding the Captain’s Skylight, so I referred back to the MS kit plans. There, I measured the dimensions as follows: the railing is ¾” in diameter and 3/8” high off the deck (scale). The skylight sits on what the plans identifies as a square metal plate, imbedded flush with the deck. The composition of the plate material is hidden and therefore will not be fabricated but the area will be just painted black to get the flush effect. From the photos, it appears that the plate is coated with some sort of tar material, so I assume this was a form of a waterproofing seal for the skylight. BTW, the US Navy plans for the skylight do not show the plate.

OK, so I rushed my initial response to you Mustafa because I was pressed for time. You are correct, there are no clear diagrams/instructions on how to fabricated the channels on the MS plans. That is a major shortcoming of the kit. So, I resorted to providing you an excerpt from Robert Hunt's practicum, pictures from the Mamoli plans, and actual US Navy plans.
 
Per the practicum:
Practicum photos below
 
Mamoli  (scale 1:93) scans below




Mamoli 01.pdf Mamoli 02.pdf Mamoli 03.pdf

OK, so I rushed my initial response to you Mustafa because I was pressed for time. You are correct, there are no clear diagrams/instructions on how to fabricated the channels on the MS plans. That is a major shortcoming of the kit. So, I resorted to providing you an excerpt from Robert Hunt's practicum, pictures from the Mamoli plans, and actual US Navy plans.
 
Per the practicum:
Practicum photos below
 
Mamoli  (scale 1:93) scans below




Mamoli 01.pdf Mamoli 02.pdf Mamoli 03.pdf

To assemble the parts, I had two choices, glue them or silver solder them. The best way to assemble them with strength was to solder. If I was inept enough in this endeavor, hopefully I could fall back and use either CA glue or epoxy.
 
Ideally in soldering, you want the joints to be mechanically strong on their own, and the solder just holds the pieces rigid. In this case that wasn’t possible. The solder had to do all the work. Just inserting the rod into the cut hole in the tube wouldn’t work. If the rod was inserted completely, it would prevent the joint from being threaded onto the railing. During the solder process a length of 1/32” rod was inserted into the tube to act as a “stop” for the 1/32” stanchion rod. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be soldered in place as it needed to be removed after the soldering process. As it turned out, of the first five attempts, two got soldered in place and had to be discarded. I found that if I used 1/32” brass rod as the “stop,” it was a 50-50 chance it would get stuck. However, when I switched to music wire for the “stop,” I had no problems.
In the photos below:
 
1 – 1/32” brass rod inserted into tube to act as a “stop” (later music wire)
2 & 3 – Brass stanchion rod held in place for soldering
4 – Silver Solder paste applied to joint
5 – Soldered joint formed after heat with mini torch
6 – 1/32” brass rod “stop” removed. Competed soldered joint before cleaning the component up
 
The last photo shows the joints strung onto the circular railing. The deck fasteners, rail closure, and final positioning of the stanchions will have to wait until the deck planking is installed.

OK, so I rushed my initial response to you Mustafa because I was pressed for time. You are correct, there are no clear diagrams/instructions on how to fabricated the channels on the MS plans. That is a major shortcoming of the kit. So, I resorted to providing you an excerpt from Robert Hunt's practicum, pictures from the Mamoli plans, and actual US Navy plans.
 
Per the practicum:
Practicum photos below
 
Mamoli  (scale 1:93) scans below




Mamoli 01.pdf Mamoli 02.pdf Mamoli 03.pdf

It seems the quest for detail is a curse or talent that is in my family. My mother's family had artists and woodworkers and she passed the painting talent on to my sister. I didn't get any artistic skills other than studying and getting a degree in Civil Engineering though I never practiced that skill. But it seems I like visual detail. Below are a few of the items my sister created. These are NOT photographs, but paintings.

OK, so I rushed my initial response to you Mustafa because I was pressed for time. You are correct, there are no clear diagrams/instructions on how to fabricated the channels on the MS plans. That is a major shortcoming of the kit. So, I resorted to providing you an excerpt from Robert Hunt's practicum, pictures from the Mamoli plans, and actual US Navy plans.
 
Per the practicum:
Practicum photos below
 
Mamoli  (scale 1:93) scans below




Mamoli 01.pdf Mamoli 02.pdf Mamoli 03.pdf

It seems the quest for detail is a curse or talent that is in my family. My mother's family had artists and woodworkers and she passed the painting talent on to my sister. I didn't get any artistic skills other than studying and getting a degree in Civil Engineering though I never practiced that skill. But it seems I like visual detail. Below are a few of the items my sister created. These are NOT photographs, but paintings.

To assemble the parts, I had two choices, glue them or silver solder them. The best way to assemble them with strength was to solder. If I was inept enough in this endeavor, hopefully I could fall back and use either CA glue or epoxy.
 
Ideally in soldering, you want the joints to be mechanically strong on their own, and the solder just holds the pieces rigid. In this case that wasn’t possible. The solder had to do all the work. Just inserting the rod into the cut hole in the tube wouldn’t work. If the rod was inserted completely, it would prevent the joint from being threaded onto the railing. During the solder process a length of 1/32” rod was inserted into the tube to act as a “stop” for the 1/32” stanchion rod. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be soldered in place as it needed to be removed after the soldering process. As it turned out, of the first five attempts, two got soldered in place and had to be discarded. I found that if I used 1/32” brass rod as the “stop,” it was a 50-50 chance it would get stuck. However, when I switched to music wire for the “stop,” I had no problems.
In the photos below:
 
1 – 1/32” brass rod inserted into tube to act as a “stop” (later music wire)
2 & 3 – Brass stanchion rod held in place for soldering
4 – Silver Solder paste applied to joint
5 – Soldered joint formed after heat with mini torch
6 – 1/32” brass rod “stop” removed. Competed soldered joint before cleaning the component up
 
The last photo shows the joints strung onto the circular railing. The deck fasteners, rail closure, and final positioning of the stanchions will have to wait until the deck planking is installed.

Per the note on sheet 4 above the gun per 3rd from front, it states "for channels & chain plate see details SE: sheets 7 & 8. At the bottom of those referenced sheets you will see the details.
 
Jon

OK, so I rushed my initial response to you Mustafa because I was pressed for time. You are correct, there are no clear diagrams/instructions on how to fabricated the channels on the MS plans. That is a major shortcoming of the kit. So, I resorted to providing you an excerpt from Robert Hunt's practicum, pictures from the Mamoli plans, and actual US Navy plans.
 
Per the practicum:
Practicum photos below
 
Mamoli  (scale 1:93) scans below




Mamoli 01.pdf Mamoli 02.pdf Mamoli 03.pdf

OK, so I rushed my initial response to you Mustafa because I was pressed for time. You are correct, there are no clear diagrams/instructions on how to fabricated the channels on the MS plans. That is a major shortcoming of the kit. So, I resorted to providing you an excerpt from Robert Hunt's practicum, pictures from the Mamoli plans, and actual US Navy plans.
 
Per the practicum:
Practicum photos below
 
Mamoli  (scale 1:93) scans below




Mamoli 01.pdf Mamoli 02.pdf Mamoli 03.pdf

Yes, I'm pretty much in awe of my sister too.
 
Jon

It seems the quest for detail is a curse or talent that is in my family. My mother's family had artists and woodworkers and she passed the painting talent on to my sister. I didn't get any artistic skills other than studying and getting a degree in Civil Engineering though I never practiced that skill. But it seems I like visual detail. Below are a few of the items my sister created. These are NOT photographs, but paintings.

To assemble the parts, I had two choices, glue them or silver solder them. The best way to assemble them with strength was to solder. If I was inept enough in this endeavor, hopefully I could fall back and use either CA glue or epoxy.
 
Ideally in soldering, you want the joints to be mechanically strong on their own, and the solder just holds the pieces rigid. In this case that wasn’t possible. The solder had to do all the work. Just inserting the rod into the cut hole in the tube wouldn’t work. If the rod was inserted completely, it would prevent the joint from being threaded onto the railing. During the solder process a length of 1/32” rod was inserted into the tube to act as a “stop” for the 1/32” stanchion rod. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be soldered in place as it needed to be removed after the soldering process. As it turned out, of the first five attempts, two got soldered in place and had to be discarded. I found that if I used 1/32” brass rod as the “stop,” it was a 50-50 chance it would get stuck. However, when I switched to music wire for the “stop,” I had no problems.
In the photos below:
 
1 – 1/32” brass rod inserted into tube to act as a “stop” (later music wire)
2 & 3 – Brass stanchion rod held in place for soldering
4 – Silver Solder paste applied to joint
5 – Soldered joint formed after heat with mini torch
6 – 1/32” brass rod “stop” removed. Competed soldered joint before cleaning the component up
 
The last photo shows the joints strung onto the circular railing. The deck fasteners, rail closure, and final positioning of the stanchions will have to wait until the deck planking is installed.

I wanted to create stanchion/connecting joints from brass rods and tubes. This meant confronting my old nemesis, drilling holes in brass. And this was especially difficult as I wanted to do this on a curved surface of a tube. The hard part was biting into the brass with the drill bit, so I skipped that part! Instead, I cut halfway through into the tube with my miter handsaw, just exposing the interior of the tube. Then with a fine drill, that cut was opened into a small round hole, and with a 1/32” drill bit, it was widened to accept the 1/32” rod. The ends were trimmed a bit to shorten and center the drilled hole into the tube (not shown in the picture below). Finally, 1/16” length pieces of the tube were cut off creating the deck fasteners.

To be consistent with the companion ways, the rail and stanchions were made of 0.032” brass rod with the connecting joints and deck fasteners made from 1/16” brass tube. The brass rod was wrapped around my work bench peg insert which just happened to be ¾” diameter bending it to the initial shape of the circular railing.