KeithAug

Good point Bedford.

I have made a bit more progress on the deckhouse.

Firstly I built and attached the skylight pods to either side of the deckhouse.

Of course this meant more skylight windows.

The time had then come to glue the deckhouse roof in place. Not altogether straightforward as a protruding rim exists just below the junction of the roof and wall. I decided to shape the roof to be an exact fit and then remove it and add the protruding rim to the underside of the roof before refitting and gluing.

With the rim attached all round and sanded back to a .040" protrusion the roof was then glued in place with PVA.

The roof has edge rails down both sides as well as running rails for the roof hatch. The former were made from .040" x .100" strip while the runners were .100" x .080" with a .040" x .040" slot to take the hatch. I a bit of care was required as I wanted the hatch to slide.

Hello Pawel

Have you ever considered making a porcupine???????????

Hello Julie

My record break from working on a model is 18 years. It collected dust in a spare room and every time I came across it It reprimanded me for my neglect. The symptoms of my dereliction grew slowly. A day off here and there became the odd week and then month. House maintenance, career, children all consumed my time and my ship became unloved. Occasionally I would blow the dust away and marvel at some item of detail, wondering how I had managed to create it and fearful that my skill would no longer suffice. In the end It became the itch than needed scratching and I resolved to finish it. !8 months later and it was done and everyone that saw it voiced their admiration. While pleased by the comments in the end they didn't really matter, as I had done it for my own pleasure and satisfaction. 

So I come to the point of my ramblings................................ do things you like doing the most and if they change go with the flow. What goes round comes around and you generally get a second chance.

Nice work Bob. I too need to get back to building now the festivities are over.

Hello Julie,

A friend of mine commented that for a 1931 boat the admiralty charts should be in black and white. I replied that I was building Altair as she is now and the yellow, blue, green and black charts were more correct. As for being up to date - not quite - they are from the first decade of the century. Have a happy new year.

Thanks Bob. I knew I borrowed it from somewhere.

John,

Im assuming its stowage for the cooking gas. Cant see what else it might be.

I thought my grating technique was fairly standard - I have borrowed it from somewhere but can't remember quite where. The slicing off of a number of identical gratings seemed fairly obvious but of course is only applicable to long narrow shapes if using a slitting saw.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Thank you John and Merry Christmas to you and all visitors to this build.

Thank you John.

Immediately in front of the deckhouse is a square box which on the plans is referred to as the "gas box". On top of the gas box are stowed 3 demountable gratings. The use of the gratings isn't immediately apparent but I wonder if they form part of the companionway.

I find that small boxlike features are most easily formed on the mill and this is the approach I took with the gas box. By slotting out and inserting the frame features i can get a reasonable representation of the panelling.

The grating construction followed the fairly standard approach taken on other MSW builds. In this instance the gratings are small and I decided that hole sizes of .040" square were as small as I could go and still maintain definition. This scales somewhat larger than on the original.

Planks were thickness sanded to .080" before being slotted .040" deep by .040" wide. They were then glued in a sandwich using PVA. Finally .060 wide gratings were sliced from the sandwich - 3 in total.

Just catching up Mark. The hull looks beautiful. You should be very proud.

Merry Christmas and on behalf of many members, thank you for your dedication to MSW and the encouragement and advice you provide.

Hello Bob

Several years ago i switched to optician prescribed vari-focal lens glasses. These are  made with the focal length is graduated from top to bottom of the lens. The bottom of the lens allowing for close up work and the top of the lens allowing for distance viewing. They work well once you get used to moving your head (rather than your eyes) to view near and far objects. Some people find this more difficult than others and some abandon vari-focals because of it.The ones you are looking at appear to be vary-focal glasses. That said eyes are complex things and its unlikely that you will get an off the shelf product that is a great match for your particular eye.

A couple more deck features have been developed

Just aft of the deckhouse is a rather complicated little structure referred to on plans as the engine hatch.

The hatch is composed of 5 separate elements. On the port side is a sliding hatch leading to a set of ladders. On the starboard side front is a deck hatch and immediately behind this is a skylight (not yet made). To the rear of this is another low hatch. On the deck to the rear of the sliding hatch is a panel for the sailing instruments. The sailing instruments are obviously a retrofit since Altair was originally constructed. The whole of the hatch has the feel of being designed by committee.

Towards the stern is a small structure called the steering hatch. Quite a nice little box.

John / Michael

Thanks for the comments and thanks to others for viewing and liking. It does fell like she is starting to come together.

I find that time flies by and many jobs get in the way of boat building. Never the less I have made a bit more progress. Many of the skylights are now in place (but not yet glued). The mushroom vent for the galley skylight is made and as per the original it opens vertically by means of a screw. Most of the skylights are part finished with the window frames painted with poly, the bodies however are only sanded as yet.

I also assembled and glued the side walls of the deckhouse and fitted the roof (not yet glued). I was pleased with the accuracy with which it came together.

Very nice detail Michael. Must get round to making a 3rd hand.

A little more progress - now most of the windows ready to be mounted within the the outer part of the frames..

The profiling of the skylight frames is quite noticeable and I wanted to reproduce this. The sanding dust is making it look a bit messy.

To get a clear view of the detail needs a bit of experimentation with the light.

Nils,

I'd be interested to know why the ship has a stern anchor. Have you any history on this? Love the aft deck detail.

Thank you Julie. Being patient helps, but a good dose of obsessive compulsive disorder is also an advantage. 

Magic.

Beautifully done Bob.

Nils

At what level of detail do you personally stop? I ask because I find it very difficult to decide and was wondering how others deal with the dilemma. Thanks for all the photos and keep them coming - much to admire and learn here.

Julie

Thats the trouble with rasps, they sometimes develop a mind of their own. You need to reprimand it. The trouble is its probably male and hence prone to flights of fancy. I think cutting back the offending area to get a surface for gluing and then adding a fillet is probably the way to go.

Looking good Julie. What is in your mind for the small section of hull at the top rear of the rudder?

Thank you John. I am awaiting with anticipation the announcement of your next build.

A few more lights completed - but of a different design.