Well, it's been an interesting 2 days. I've made some progress but it hasn't been without some hiccups and one major disaster. Read on to see how things went a little haywire and how I think I managed to bail myself out and, yes, it's ok to roll your eyes! After today, I may need to rename my build log "A Comedy of Errors and Repairs." 🤣
First off, I added the little door to the sub deck and used a cut off pin for the door knob. Then I gave the deck and door a single coat of satin WOP.
Next up was to add bulkheads 2 and 3 and the 4 bow pattern pieces. The manual suggest beveling these pieces before installing them. I've always just shaped the bulkheads when I fair the hull so I was hesitant to do this but I decided to try it. I used my new Proxxon rotary tool with the Proxxon Flex-Shaft attached to it. I really like this tool. It has a nice variable speed dial and the Flex-Shaft is so much more comfortable to hold rather than the bulky rotary tool itself.
Now here's where I began to get ahead of myself by not thoroughly reading ahead in the instructions. I was relying too much on the great photos in the manual. The first photo below is from the manual and it shows the beveled Bow and Stern Patterns 19, 20, and 21. The second photo is also from the manual and it shows that pattern 19 is placed between bulkhead 2 and 3 and pattern 20 goes between bulkhead 3 and 4.
However, there are 3 arrows in the photo and one of them is pointing to the space forward of bulkhead 2 and 3. I simply assumed that the arrow meant that pattern piece 21 would go there (i.e. 19, 20 and then 21 where the arrow was pointing).
Wrong! Pattern 21 goes between bulkheads 14 and 15 near the stern which is actually shown in the next photo in the manual but I didn't read ahead. The arrow that points to the space ahead of bulkhead 2 should not be in the photo but I could have avoided the error by reading more carefully.
After I realized what I had done, a little bell went off in my head where I thought I had read about this same error somewhere before. So I checked out the other Flirt build logs and, sure enough, Glenn (gbarlow) did exactly the same thing when he was building his Flirt. I had read about it some time ago but had forgotten about it. Hilarious! Glenn and I must think alike! 😂
Here's a photo of pattern 21 wrongly glued ahead of bulkhead 2. It won't cause a problem being there.
Bulkheads 14 and 15 were very loose so I used my machinist blocks to square them up to the false keel.
The very last bulkhead #16 was very loose so I took my time eyeballing it and using a narrow, 90 degree angle square to line it up perpendicular to the false keel. This was a bit tricky but I think I got it squared up pretty well. The tops of bulkheads 14, 15 and 16 also need to be sanded quite a bit so they are level with the top of the false keel. I think I may have needed to sand it even a bit more but it looked and felt level so I stopped. I'm always afraid of sanding too much.
Having glued pattern 21 in the wrong place simply meant that I needed to make a new set from the same parts sheet. I cut the new patterns with my razor saw and glued them in the right place between the stern bulkheads 14 and 15.
I went out of sequence from the manual a little and waited until I had all the bulkheads and patterns installed before I added the deck beams, the upper deck longitudinal support and the stern frame patterns which are very fragile. I took my time with these parts as nearly all of them required some sanding to get them to fit properly and I still managed to snap one of the stern patterns when my elbow hit it while I was adjusting one of the deck beams. The tolerances between the these pieces and the slots are very tight. I was able to carefully glue the stern pattern back together also.
Adding the main deck is when things really began to get crazy! The 2 mm birch plywood main deck is an extremely tight fit. I tried to test fit it but I was afraid I would never be able to get it off in order to glue it down. I tried to check the spacing of the bulkheads and the slots in the in it also as best I could and then proceeded to put glue on all the supports. Even though I used regular PVA for this, I knew I needed to work fairly quickly since there's a lot of notches in the bulkheads to get lined up right and to get the deck to sit down properly.
Try as I might by flexing the deck until I thought it was going to break, I couldn't get it to seat properly and I had a bulge in the middle. So I kept wresting with it by pushing down between the bulkheads. I even tried to get it off but it wasn't cooperating so I just keep at it. Little by little and with a bunch of frightening snaps and pops, it began to seat better but it was still not seated down flush to all of the deck beams and was not all the way into the notches in the bulkheads.
Then disaster struck. I was holding the model in my lap and still working on getting it to seat when it slipped. The stern bumped into my forearm and all of the fragile stern frame patterns broke off! After a few choice words, I realized that if I didn't get the deck to seat properly, the model would pretty much be ruined so I focused my attention on manipulating the deck and finally I got it to seat.
All I can say is that the deck is an astonishingly tight fit and that it was really difficult to finally get it to seat properly. I'm not sure how I could have done it any different given how tight it was. I wonder if anyone else has had this problem?
Now I needed to see if I could repair the stern frame patterns. Fortunately, I was able to correctly match the broken off pieces with their mates when I looked at them closely under magnification. So, little by little with PVA, thin CA and a lot of patience, I was able to get them glued back together and properly aligned...I think! Fingers crossed!🤞
So there you have it folks. Another adventurous day of errors and repairs in Bob's shipyard. You'll certainly be able to learn a lot about "what not to do" here!
So stay tuned, there's probably more bloopers to come! 😂
Thanks for stopping by. Cheers!
