davyboy

cont...
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

cont...
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Hello,
many thanks für the nice comments.
In between, I will still show you how the portholes of the ventilation hatches are constructed.
The glass body with a diameter of 1.3 mm were punched out with a specially prepared punch pliers from an acrylic glass plate.
Then they were glued with Micro Kristal Klear in a brass tube piece.
The brass tube piece has an outside diameter of 2.5 mm.

 
See you soon ..
 
 

Hi Mark,
thanks for your kind words.
 
Here is a little update, with other metal fittings for the outboard walls of the French corvette.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
This can happen sometimes.

 
Here's a look into my sorting box with various fittings.
In this case also the support for the anchor and the boat davits are seen.

 
Here you can see a scupper valves.

 
The eye bolts to mount outboard.

 
Drilling the bolt holes with a diameter of 0.3 mm drill is a very delicate affair. For one of these fittings 8 holes are to be performed.

 
Finally, an overview.

 

Hello friends,
new photos of the construction progress the BHR.
Karl  
 
 
T e i l   51

Saturday, September 20, 2014  
Today I completed to cut the bulkheads, a small job because only few of them were missing. Below the images of the dry test that sounds pretty good, having no problems at all at this time. 
Then I did other tasks, little stuff, but I'll explain in detail in a future post. 
Regards, Jack.Aubrey.

01 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/P1090964_zps101e0520.jpg

 
02 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/P1090962_zps10a620cd.jpg

 
03 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/P1090960_zps3fd9ec32.jpg

 
04 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/P1090965_zps284caef9.jpg

 
05 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/P1090963_zpsd56f545f.jpg

 

I'm pretty new here but how old is the hinge in the 1st picture?
 
It looks to me like a few strokes of a round file on the hinges in the second picture would give you the correct "shape" and from the second picture it looks like the "new" hinges might age to the right color.
 
Just throwing it out there.

Your kidding right? Getting glue off your fingers? That is what ship modeling is all about. I wouldn't know how it felt to NOT have glue on my finger tips hahahahahaha.
 
Mike

That was a completely new challenge in ship building for me. Painting the city view on the hollow bottom section of the rear of the ship:
 

 
The next step will be finishing the four figurines that will come on top. A lot of carving there..
 

Best,
Michiel

Hello everyone, and thank you again for your kind words and comments on my efforts.
 
Today I spend some time in figuring what to do with the deck railing.  According to the drawing there are about 36 stanchions on each side but that seems to get a little crowded so I decided to whittle it down to 29 per side.  Now I have to check if I have enough 1 mm brass tubing for all of them.  I'll do that Sunday and may have to place an order via internet, my local hardware store doesn't stock this small diameter tubing.
 
I then decided to make two straps for loading torpedoes so I can hang one in the forward gantry for display purposes and of course - - - picture taking.  The O19 model will just not be complete without showing how the torpedoes are loaded into the boat.
 
I also finished the fourth torpedo that'll be used for display on the board with a mine.  Oh yeah, I still want to make a spare anchor for the display board too.  
 
I carved a small opening in the aft side of the aft deck for the white nav light.  I don't have a small clear plastic rod to simulate a lamp but used a piece of a toothpick an then glued a clear plastic window over the end.
 
It's all these piddly little things that take up a lot of time.  If I have to order some more 1 mm brass tubes for the railing then I can try to make a start with the dingy, who knows.
 
Okay, here are just a few pics of today's efforts.
 

This pic is for Ian - - so he can now look at it and not get night mares from staring at the business end of the launcher   
 

I wanted to have one torpedo hanging in the loading gantry for display purposes so I made a pair of straps.  I may have to remake them longer to double wrap them around the torpedo.  In any case. I used the hem of an old worn out hanky.  I soaked it with nail polish and some light brown paint then wrapped it around the fourth torpedo I was making and glued the ends together with nail polish. I then made an oval eye to go through the strap ends.  The next two pics show the torpedo hanging in the loading gantry, all I need now is a few crew members wrestling that baby into the loading tube.
 

I'll have to take another look at an actual photo where they are loading one of these babies and see what kind of cabling or chains they have used.
 

 
Cheers,

Hello everyone,
 
This morning I mowed the front yard and the temps were already 95 F [that's 35 C] at 10 o'clock.  That and the BCGI stuff in my bod really tuckered me out in not time flat.  Took several breaks and drank a lot of water.  I also dragged a dead tree out of the swale next to our house [that's a sloot for yun Dutchies ], it bothered Gwen a lot being there.  Actually it's my neighbor's but she's a nice lady.
 
After having a light lunch, one slice of California sprouted grain braid and a salad, I was rested enough to mozie on into the HOT garage and do some work.  I opened the doors and turned the fan on full blast, not too bad, tolerable - - - for me.  Gwen asked - how can you work in this oven - Hmmmm, is the Creator trying to tell me something - - - better get used to the heat, you bum, for that HOT place down belo - - -    Actually, I love it when the temps are over 80 F, below that I have to wear a sweater  .
 
Well, I have finally done it - - - the O19 has now officially received her name!            
 
Sooooh - - -I decided to cut the mustard and install the decals Remco made for me.  They worked out great except for those for the con.  The grey was too far off color that I decided to cut each individual number out and attach them separately on the con.  That was a struggle and may not have been worth the effort.  I have one more set and could replace the ones I have put on the con and just VERY carefully paint the right grey over over the errant parts.
 
But let my try first to doctor these up and play with it, perhaps a waste of time but so what, where else do I have to go.  I'll use my finest drawing pen with India ink for the out line, it's water proof, and shape the letters, if needed.
I'll do a Nenad and do a test run first with some scrap left-over decal stuff and see how that blends in.  I still have my test piece I used to send color pics to Remco for the decals.
 
I think that the green matches really good and may not even need touching up.
 
I also ordered a package of 1 mm brass tubes for the railing.  That could arrive in Palm Coast hopefully this Friday.  If not, then we'll have to wait.  I can then work on te flags - - - another fun project to try.  I'll use a very old worn out hanky, it's nice and thin.  I'll try acrylic paint that I used for my artwork and see how that works out.  
 
I could also pre-drill the railing stanchions holes to 3 mm depth, then I don't have to do them when the tubes arrive.   Hmmmm, what else - - - oh yeah, the dingy.  
 
Here are a few pics of my efforts for today.  
 

I couldn't resist taking a shot of the torpedo actually going into the loading tube to the forward torpedo room.  This is the last one being loaded and pretty soon we are ready for bear.  Watch out all yuns with your big ships with lots of cannons    Let's see, Kevin is loading depth charges and Dave is getting a "pinger."  Ooooooooh, I scared now - - - not.   
 

This shows the O19 marking and the load numbers on the port bow.
 

This shows the load numbers on the stern.  Yes, I used a measuring device to have the bow and stern numbers come out even.
 

O19 decal attached to the starboard side of the con.  Yes, it needs some dressing or doctoring.
 

O19 decal attached to the port side of the con.  Here too, some doctoring is necessary but I'll do some paint blending tests first over the errant color over some scrap decal pieces.  If that works out fine then I'll replace these here. 
 
Cheers,  
 
 

Hi there,

and here the further implementation of the details for the
channel and the chain plates.
The sample section is now complete.
The now proven details I build further on the overall model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had an opportunity to get into the man cave and do a bit on my project. The first image is a couple of custom tools I needed to make to work inside of the bottle to start measuring it up for the wooden seas and clearances etc.
 

 
Next is a close up of the fiddle tool made from INCONEL ERNiCr-3 Tungsten Inert Gas (tig filler rod). This stuff is bullet proof and perfect as it has virtually no flex.
 

 
Next is my flexible template tool made from some brass rod and a clip which came from the head phones of my BlackBerry cell phone. Perfect for slipping templates into the bottle.
 

 
Next I show the filler rod tool being used to remove some water from the bottle. Final clean up will take place at the end of the build before the seas and ship is placed in the bottle.
 

 
Next up I have my templates and I show my hand tool with a piece of razor blade for cutting out the templates.
 

 
Finally I show my Douglas Fir which will be cut and formed for the seas and then carved with waves/swells/wake etc. It has to go into the bottle in 4 interlocking pieces. This is going to be fun!
 

 
I also acquired some special dental bits from my Dentist to use to carve the seas with my Dremel tool. More to come ... Jeff
 

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages - - gather around and let me tell you a story - - - - - the Eureka moment has arrived        the torpedo launcher compartment doors have been installed, the launcher has been tested for proper functioning (except the firing tests    )  and the paint touch-up is completed!  Champaign for everyone or a lighter refreshment for those who abstain 
 
Yep, this morning I glued the starboard door in place and while waiting for the glue to cure I started making another torpedo.  After lunch I tried the door and it worked just fine.  then I put the launcher in its place and tested the rotation of it over both doors on both sides.  I lucked out - - - again!  It worked as advertised!  I'm a happy camper!
 
I immediately started masking the port and starboard sides to spray paint the combat areas.  I put four coats of paint over everything to make it blend in with the existing paint.  It's looking pretty good, even close up. 
 
I guess I'll have to make a pair of boat hooks to help in closing the doors - - - i can hardly leave the strings on the doors now, could I ???
 
Okay, what's next on the agenda?  Well, there is the dingy yet to make but I think I'll be making the flags and the ensign first and install the O19 decals and the load marking decals.  Then install the antenna cables and could call the model completed.  
Hmmm, the dingy, well - - it could be on back order - - - but no, I'll make it too but as the final project as a separate model.  Hmmm - - - another build log?????  Perhaps not    There's a lot of thinking involved here, I'm an aircraft fixer / maker - - not a dingy maker    Oh well, we'll see what happens.
 
Here are a few pics of today's effort.  The first four pics are to demonstrate that the launcher really rotates freely over the opened doors.
 

This shows the torpedo launcher pinned into place and in the process of rotating inside into its stowed position and also for eventual reloading - port side.  
 

This shows the torpedo launcher in the process of rotating towards the front of the boat - port side. 
 

This shows the torpedo launcher in the process of rotating towards the front of the boat - starboard side. 
 

This shows the torpedo launcher in the process of rotating towards the aft inside into its stowed position and / or for reloading - starboard side. 
 

Here I have masked enough of the boat to touch-up paint the parts that needed paint.  I masked at the hard edges as much as possible to prevent a blending problem.  The few areas I left unmasked blended in okay, perhaps some whet sanding with 800 grit paper or just some "Bonami" or "Comet" scouring powder will do the trick if I see where it would improve the paint job.  
 

Here is the O19 with the masking paper and tape removed after the painting is completed.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  We are getting close now, eh whot?  
 
Cheers,

Thanks everyone for visiting and your likes, it's really appreciated.
 
I had a semi good night last night and feel 95 % better then yesterday, almost my old self again 
 
The temp in the garage was tolerable today, still in the low 90's but the fan cooled it somewhat, at least that's we imagine   Actually the temp outside was 96 F and I guess it must have been at least 105 F inside the garage.  I guess you can't blame me for knocking off early yesterday.    
 
First thing I did was to remove the Rube Goldberg clamping rig and checked the launcher for fit, seems okay.
 
Next I cut eight pieces of card stock for both doors and made a sharp crease in them for the hinge part and glued them to the back of the doors.
 
While the glue was curing I continued work on the two torpedoes for the launcher, which I completed in between the door work.  After the glue of the card hinges had cured enough I trimmed the loose ends and painted the backside of the doors dark grey to match the interior.
 
By this time it was 12:30 and figured I may as well glue the port door on before knocking off for lunch. So I did and the glue is now curing overnight.  I'll test it first thing in the morning with the launcher inside to see how it works - - - keeping fingers crossed.  I didn't make a picture of the door being glued on, it's the same view is in a recent post.
 
Then I'll turn the build dock around and install the starboard door with another fit try.  If everything works then I'll start masking off the hull and deck so I can spray paint the green on.  Oh goody goody gumdrops, we are coming close to completing the launcher project.  Wish me luck folks.
 
Here are few pics from my archive of today's work.
 

A close-up shot of that added disc to the stationary launcher rotation plate.  The interior still needs touching up with the dark grey paint.  I took this pic right after I removed the clamping rig.
 

Here you see the card hinges ready to be glued to the backside of the door, port in this case.
 

Here I have glued them in place and as soon as the glue has cured I can trim the bottom part.
 

I also painted the backside of the doors because the interior can still be seen when I remove the deck hatches over the launcher compartment. 
 

This shows one of the launcher torpedoes in the building progress.  I have laid out the parts to attach  the little propeller - - the prop, spacer and pin.  I had the fins already glued on yesterday.  After the props are installed on both torpedoes I can paint them flat black.  You can see the next one on top left of the pic.
 

Here I have finished both torpedoes and shoved then inside the launcher tubes for the picture.  next to the launcher is a torpedo I made some time ago and may make a few more for spares.  It looks quite convincing to me, just a dab of red paint for the fuse striker button 
 
Cheers.

Thanks everyone for visiting and your likes!!
 
Today was not as productive as I would have liked it.  First of all it was my fourth visit at the Urology Clinic for the BCGI treatment and for some reason the side effects are much more bothersome.  In addition the temp in the garage was over 96 F and even with the doors open and the fan going full blast it was still HOT.  I was just moving hot air.  I like it hot but when you have a splitting headache, tired and drowsy feeling it's no longer fun.
 
In any case, the port door worked as advertised but - - - when I tried to install the launcher it would not go in.  That extra disc I glued on the bottom was too much.  So I "un-glued" it and cemented it to the fixed rotating plate that sits on top of the pressure hull.
I should have done that in the first place, domkop me        But - - - all that time was not lost because I could now sand this disc to about 1 mm thickness that would have been more difficult by doing it in my hand or inside the boat.
 
I removed the door so I can glue the card hinges to it and permanently affix it to the bottom stringer below the door opening.  I'm going to be positive in that the launcher will fit okay, after all, I did try it.
 
While the glue was curing I started to model two torpedoes for the launcher.  I made three propellers from some thin brass shim material and the fins for one.  Hopefully I can finish these two torpedoes tomorrow, or whenever.
 
So you see that I was not letting the discomfort get in te way until later in the afternoon.
 
Here are two pics that show how I jury rigged a clamping system to clam the thin spacer disk.
 

Perhaps not clear by what I'm doing here, the next pic shows better.  I used a piece of brass tubing to center the disk over the existing turning plate.  Dabbed some TiteBond on it and then two small oak blocks I had laying around from making the VOC ship hull planking jigs.  Then two wooden sicks on top of the oak blocks and used wedged between them and the top of the door opening.  
 

You get a better idea with this picture.  This clamping rig is nice and tight and the disc should be well cemented.
 
Cheers,

Hello everyone and thanks to all for dropping by and your like votes.
 
I did manage a few hours in the shipyard today.  Did some futz'n with the doors to make them fit a little nicer. Then I figured that to be on the sage side I added a thin disc of wood under the launcher plate to raise it up a hair for a little more clearance over the folded doors.
 
I decided to glue two strips of card stock to the port door for the trial hinges and when the glue had dried enough during lunch I glued the door in place.  Then it was time to go with Gwen for some grocery shopping.  I needed some more ingredients for a few dishes I want to make - - - asparagus with a Brie sauce - - how's that sound???
 
We'll have to wait till tomorrow for the results of how the door works and that the launcher can still rotate over it.  We'll keep our fingers crossed.
 
I also started to make two more torpedoes to put inside the launcher.
 
I only made on picture for my archive but will make a few more when I'm glueing the final hinges to the door.
 

Not much to see but this is the port door being held in place with some string and a weight.  I put the card strips just to the inside of the "handhold" like thingies.  Everything looks kinda rough yet but I'm happy that I didn't do more damage to the deck sides.  Spray-paint touch up will fix all that  and no one will ever know what we had to go through - - - other then all yuns following my build   
 
Cheers, 
 
 

Photo of World Championship-2014 in Bulgaria: Here and subsequent pages
http://forum.modelsworld.ru/topic12028start270.htmll

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 79 –Middle Deck Framing continued
 
The middle deck framing continues.  The first picture shows the opening for the large water tank being framed.
 

 
The header between beams 16 and 20 has been installed and the half beam at 18 fitted temporarily.  The large 6000 gal fresh water tank will fill most of the space in this opening from its base in the hold to just under the main deck beams.
 
 In the next picture the hanging knee and the pillar under the half beam are in place and the half beam is ready to be installed.
 

 
The smaller 2000-gallon water tank will come up to just below this deck .  Its top will fit in the currently unframed opening between beams 16 and fourteen in the upper right of this picture.
 
In the next picture the pillar under the starboard half beam is being fitted for size.
 

 
The next picture shows this area looking down and aft.  The paired pillars on either side of the tank opening can be seen in this picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the extent of framing aft of midship completed to date.  One full beam and two pairs of half beams remain to be fitted – then the lodging knees and ledges.
 

 
Some of the lodging knees have been fitted at the aft end of the deck.  The last picture shows the stern view opening.  As mentioned earlier, this one shows only the space between the middle and lower decks.
 

 
The exposed ends of the frames have been fairly well squared off in this picture, but there is still finish sanding, etc to be done.  The outsides of the frames have been faired, but final sanding and finishing cannot be done until many more simulated bolts are installed.  Those in the picture are bolts for the deck clamps and for the heavy internal bilge ceiling.  Bolts for deck knees have not been installed yet.
 
 
 Ed

Thanks. Vivian.
 Here are some pictures of the main hatch. I tried to keep in mind the practicalities of a hatch which would have to be manhandled by a brace of sailors. The overall shape is that seen on the Mataro Nao. The individual sections of the hatch could be lifted by two men. Bear in mind that the overall scale of the model is approximately 1:64.
Cheers, Dick

Life has got busy, and I got a new boss at work, however I found a bit of time to move my project forward. BTW my new boss is awesome! What an answer to prayer as the old boss was a professional bully. So here we are cutting up some cedar and Douglas fir.
 

 
I put a 7" 100 tooth fine blade for finish cuts and it worked beautifully. Also a bonus was the cut off pieces for detail work later on with deck pieces, structures etc.
 

 
I used an awl and a paint stick as a push stick to eliminate any risk to a hand injury. Also hearing protection, a face shield, and dust mask (N-95 respirator) was in order.
 

 
The fir cut beautifully however cedar has a natural oil in in so henceforth a little discoloration. On the blade is the oil oxidizing. I love the smell of cedar as it's almost aromatic.
 

 
I decided my clipper would fly a little less sail and be in a moderate sea with the intent of rounding the Horn. I wanted some action and she'll have a slight list as she tacks into the wind.
 

 
Sails furled or gasketed are as follows: Flying Jib. Fore Mast - Royal and Upper Top Gallant. Main mast - Royal. Mizzen - Royal. Jigger - Royal and Course. And the Spanker with Royal, Upper Top Gallant, and Course. Rarely did a clipper ever fly everything unless the ocean was totally void of wind. In fact, the Captain of the Preussen claimed there was so much wind resistance from all of the rigging, yards, and masts that she could sail with every sail furled and stowed with a moderate wind!
 
Sail Plans come from Mr. Underhill's book and the rest from the Internet. I used a printer to reduce to the appropriate scale, and an absolute must conversion tool is at www.craigcentral.com and mdmetric.com. I glued up the cedar in two sections so I can start the carving of the hull. I will use Lloyd McCaffery's technique for hull construction (page 57) and his sea carving and painting technique found on page 124 of his book. Of course I'll tweak the technique to suit my artistic needs. I bought his book exclusively for the aforementioned details. Below is a shot of the plans being developed. My motto think and plan ahead here!
 

 

 
The next shot I show the two half's of the hull gluing up on the bench. I purposely did it this way. The center here where the two pieces are glued is the natural waterline. Also when the two half's of the hull are glued together then I have an instant center line of which to mark reference points. locate masts, etc.
 

 
I'll post more in a couple of weeks.
Respectfully,
 
Jeff
 
 
 
 
 

The tops have been fitted to the lower masts,and the lower masts have been stepped into the hull.
Next I will add the shrouds to the lower masts, and then possibly tie the ratlines to each mast, as I go along, so as to break up the most tedious part of any build.
 
Lower Masts

 

 

 

 

Thanks again to all who dropped in and clicked on like, it's much appreciated.
 
Well, as I mentioned to Pete in my previous post, I ran into a snag with not having enough space between the launcher and the doors when they are in the open position.
I miss 1.5 mm!  Even a gnat's eye lash would be too much so I have to do some thinking in how to solve this problem AND make the doors work on hinges.
 
I think that I have to remove the three pieces of deck frames and then also the stringer where the side deck panel is glued to.  This may involve removing the portion below the door opening, that way I have better access to the sides to remove small portions of the stringer so that I can glue a new but thinner stringer it its place.  
 
The door must hinge in such a way to allow it to fold even with the bottom of the door opening.  The paper hinge must be glued straight down from the back of the door to the back of the stringer, that way it will do that.  
I'll most likely have to remove the lower stop strips on the doors and perhaps even shaving some off to make it a tad thinner.  
 
I may have to make some more plywood or if I can carefully cut the small part below the door opening I may even be able to reuse it.  A little filler in the seam and a fresh coat of paint will do the trick.
 
This is actually not a redo but more a re-engineering project.
 
Okay, I made two pics to show yuns what I see and how to best tackle this minor problem.
 

I have annotated the photo so you can follow my reasoning.  First I must remove the three left over pieces of the deck framing.  Next i must either make the stringer thinner with a rotary saw blade or cut-off disc or just remove it.  I'll most likely have to remove the section of side panel below the door opening and install a new but thinner stringer.  The thickness of the side panel with stringer must be the same as the total thickness of the door.
The portion I marked as door stops must also be removed, that's an easy one.
The way the door is situated on this photo is exactly where it should be and with the plan I have right now it should work. 
 

This shows how the launcher rotates nicely with the door flush with the lower sill of the opening.  Now I have to get to work and make it work.  I must remember taking a few pics of the surgery and hopefully a successful completion.
 
Cheers, 

Antony and Dave – you are flattering me (it feels good, I admit). There is really no big story to tell; I’ve spent the last few weeks preparing parts and pieces (and sometimes throwing them away again). I spent many hours with the serving machine I’ve made earlier. Here an example: The sling for the stay sail, which will go around the mast after the stays and the hanger for the square yard, shown on the right. The stay sail halliard has already been bent on.
 

 
The next great challenge will be the fitting of all the parts in the crosstrees, where it is already crowded. This is mainly because I just “shrunk” the masts to fit Sherbourne’s small hull, when the shrouds and stays (which are not yet here) do not shrink to the same proportions…
 
 
 
My biggest mistake so far was that I glued on the cap before bending on the shrouds. That made the job unnecessarily challenging.But now that I’ve put together all the prepared lines, I see there is some progress.
 
 
 
Still missing are the main and preventer stays with their mice – another thing that lets me believe that Petersson’s model has a very much younger rigging added later: There the main stay is simply spliced together. 
Cheers,
Gregor

Hello everyone and welcome to my shipyard.
 
My dear bride Gwen left this morning 0545 for Coraopolis, PA to visit with our daughter Marianne and grandson Troy Nelson.  Yep, he was also named after the great Admiral Lord Nelson.
 
In any case, my plan of mowing the front lawn had to be postponed because the grass was way too wet, we had an early rain this morning.  Well, that didn't really break my heart so I did some very productive work on the O19.
 
Instead of etching and painting the torpedo launcher I decided to start with the surgery on the torpedo launcher deck openings.  I needed to place the launcher inside several times for fitting purposes and that way the paint would be damaged.
 
I already knew that I had to remove some slivers of the bottom and top of side plating and the fore and aft parts of the opening so I just had to cut that away, VERY carefully, sliver at a time.  Checking with the launcher, marking where more of the plating needed to be removed.  Obviously I had to do this on both sides and also try to make it  even out.  
 
Not only the side plating was involved but also the framing materia insidel had to be cut back to allow room for the doors and the hinges.  For this I used a rotary file in my Poxxon had tool. This was slow going because the rotary file is for metal and cuts wood very slooooowly.  This is good though because I didn't want to remove a lot of wood at the same time and not damage the inside of the side plating.
 
After many, many times installing and removing the launcher for trying the fit I was satisfied with it.  I can now rotate the launcher into any direction and remove it for a show and tell
 
Now it was time to prep the launcher and paint it.  I had some acid and brushed a diluted mix over the poor thing and let it sit for a while.  Then washed it all of in hot running water and carefully hand toweled it semi dry, then put it outside in the sun.  Yeah, the sun came out and the grass was drying real nice so I planned on mowing right after lunch.
 
But before lunch I finally paint the launcher!  What a difference that made!  It looks really very nice all dolled up in a fresh coat of medium dark grey.
 
Now that the launcher is finished and the torpedo door openings are cut to size I started to make some plywood   I need two pieces for the door openings and don't want to spend an extra $15 dollars for a sheet, just for two small pieces???  Yeah, yeah, yeah, cheap Dutchman    No, just frugal and practical 
 
I had some nice ⅜ thick maple finished plywood and cut three pieces of 1 X 4 ½ inches from it.  Now I had to remove the nice maple veneer from the junk cores.  I placed each piece on it's side against the fence of my bandsaw that was adjusted to just inside the veneer and turned the saw on.  I very slowly and carefully pushed the pieces through.  And yes, I had an extra block of wood on the outside as a guid.
I managed all three pieces without losing any fingers, lucked out again  
 
Now I had to remove the rests of the core and used a sharp wood chisel and sandpaper.  The glue will be removed with acetone and a scraper.
I managed doing only one of the six pieces but hey, I'm having fun and again, it's a challenge to me, seeing if I can do it.
 
I don't recommend anybody doing this crazy stunt, it's better to spend the 15 bucks and safe a trip to the hospital emergency room - - - says he with a straight face after taking a chance of loosing life and limb  Well, crazy or not but I do know my tools and have confidence in my ability.  As noted already, I did have a block of wood on the outside of the piece as an extra guide though.
 
I'll show the pics in a follow-up post.
 
Okay, enough of my banter and it's time for a few pics.  I also took a few on the plywood project.
 

This shows the start of reworking the port side.  The biggest problem was grinding wood away from the lower side support structure inside without damaging the remaining side deck plating.  I really didn't want to replace all that too.
 

After many fit checks with the launcher inside I was finally satisfied with the way the launcher fit and rotated.  The following three pics show the different positions.
 

 

 

 

The painted torpedo launcher (uh oh, small divot in the paint, needs a touch-up)
 

 
Cheers,