aydingocer

Time to glue the Inner Gundeck Bulwark Patterns, made from pearwood with nice laser details.

Photo 128: I used my Proxxon mini sander to sand inside the frames where the bulwark patterns will fit.

Photo 129: Here I dry-fit the Quarterdeck Beam Spacing Pattern (the part with A-B-C.. marks on the right) temporarily to take a good reference to fit the Gundeck Bulwark Pattern precisely.

Photos 130-133: Photos showing the progress of the front Gundeck Bulwark Patterns. I brushed diluted glue here as well.

I had to scrape below this bulkhead ear a little from under with a narrow file. This was pretty much the only correction I had to make.

Photos 134-135: I am also glad that they sit perfectly in contact with the deck pattern, with no gaps.

Photo 123: I used my coarse sanding belt (in the photo) for sanding them.

Photos 124-127: Bow and Stern Planking Patterns are sanded and glued in their places. I used white wood glue here.

Photo 119: Bow and Stern Planking patterns. 

Photos 120-122: I marked them at the spot where the adjacent bulkheads are at the same level with them and combined the marks with a curvy line. Instructions do not mention where to mark the line but following the photos I had the feeling that's the right way to do.

Photo 118: Status after the Vertical Gun Port Patterns are in place.

Photo 113: Status after Gun Deck Pattern installation.

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Photos 114-116: Vertical Gun Port Patterns. I broke 3 of them removing a bit carelessly from the board. Quite delicate those tiny necks. I fixed them by dropping a tiny drop of thin super glue and letting the paper below also stick to it and enforce. 

Photo 117: Waiting for the brushed glue to dry.

BUILD DAY 7 and 8: 3 hours / Total: 12,5 hours

Today I am logging two days of work, it will be a long set of posts.

Photos 106-108: Sanding the Stern Counter Frames to align flush with the rest of the deck elements at parts like marked in the photo. I used straight piece of wood and ruler during the progress to check.

Photos 109-112: Installing the Gun Deck Pattern, coming in two pieces. I used this pin pusher I bought from Micromark. It grabs the pin perfectly and lets you make small-trip-at-a-time pushes that help you insert the nail more accurately and without risk of bending/twisting it. Recommended.

I nailed it in the center edges and brushed diluted glue from the underside. I am satisfied with the result. There will still sit another layer on top of this, so I hope I will be able to correct the small misalignments visible in the pictures. 

1 minute ago, James H said:

You're not really going to see it at all, unless you have a medical endoscope!

 

Personally, I'd just leave it as it is.

I thought the same about visibility, my main reason for considering was if varnish would be good for protecting the wood. But here I'll stick with your recommendation.

Question: Next step is to install the Upper Gun Deck patterns and this will block accessibility to most of the lower deck pattern. Does the lower deck need any treatment such as varnish before this step? Or shall I just leave it as it is? Any recommendation?

BUILD DAY 6: 2,5 hours / Total: 9,5 hours

Photo 83: Gun Deck Support patterns (2 x #1d) in place.

Photo 84: Gund Deck Support Beams. 

Photo 85: Time to time the parts needed slight sanding, just enough to remove the laser char, in order to fit their sockets.

Photo 96: At some parts I used a right angle until glue is dry to ensure a vertical alignment.

Photo 97: All support beams are in place. By the way I used UHU Hart glue at this stage.

Photo 98: Longitudinal Deck Beams, which will sit on top of the support beams I installed above. They have accurately made slots.

Photo 99: I brushed in diluted wood glue here in all joints. At some parts I used a soft clamp to keep joints completely in place while glue is drying.

Photo 100: Yes! 100th photo of my build log! And this is how my model looks: 

Photo 101: Side view.

Photo 102: Stern counter frames and their spacer. Their locations are clearly labelled on the MDF as inner, mid and outer. 

Photos 103-105: They fit nicely with only slight sanding time to time. I brushed diluted glue, except at parts #28 where I glued directly with UHU Hart.

Note that these frames are not always vertical. They make a slight angle towards the keel. Therefore their horizontal surface is not flush with the bulkhead or the Longitudinal Deck Beams. You'll need to get them level by sanding before moving any further. This is  explained clearly in the instructions.

25 minutes ago, glennard2523 said:

A good start, enjoy the rest of the build

Thanks Glen! I follow your build and I get lots of hints and inspiration from it!

Photos 81-82: Finally coamings followed by the gratings are glued in place.

Photos 77-80: With the help of DSPIAEs and mini files where they won't fit, I sanded the surface and char where necessary. I also dry fit the gratings. You want to glue the frames (coamings) on the deck without the gratings first, so that you can easily align them in their places properly, and only after that, glue the gratings.

Photos 75-76: By the way I use these aluminum sanding boards from DSPIAE for precise sanding most of the time. They have their own self adhesive papers. I bought 180, 280 and 400 grit. I labelled the grits on the back of each board so that I can identify them easily. Very practical and highly recommended. I am not sure if these DSPIAE products are available everywhere and it is a shame because they really manufacture high quality stuff. I order them from a small online hobby shop located in the Netherlands.

Photo 69: Well, a near small-disaster (or a small near-disaster if you will) 🤣. Today I learned to treat pearwood with respect. I had never handled pearwood until now and I didn't know they are so crispy. When I was gluing these two parts together I must have squeezed a bit too much and all of a sudden the whole thing broke into these many pieces! Parts flew all over on the table and on the floor. Luckily I was able to find all the pieces.

In hindsight, I think it happened when I squeezed the assembly from the short edges with my thumb and index finger, where they are the weakest due to the notches, when I was trying to ensure their alignment. 

Photo 70:  I used the plan to locate their places. It was like solving a jigsaw puzzle. The parts in question are #316 and #317.

Photos 71-73: I decided to repair them together in their final assembly rather than restoring each frame individually. It felt easier this way. They will sit on top of each other anyway. I used a grid paper to help position them correctly and used thin super glue to fix first few pieces. Once dry, I used UHU Hart to finish the assembly.

Photo 74: Overall the repair process worked fine, only setting me back for about half an hour. The repaired assembly is second one from the left. Hard to tell from the others if you don't know the story. With a little surface sanding it will look just like as if nothing has happened 😃.

Next, lower deck coamings. 

Photo 67: The part numbers are not marked on the wood in these so I referred to the plan sheets. 

Photo 68: Frames removed and sorted. Those on the bottom row will be glued on top of those on the top row. Sounds easy.... wait until you see my next post 🤣

Photo 66: This is how my hull looks now.

Photos 64-65: Having sufficient support from the port frames, the rectangular piece for protecting ears of Bulkhead #13 is now free to remove and discard. It took a few careful strokes on the two small tabs on just one side of the board and a few back and forth twists to do it.
 

BUILD DAY 5 / 3 hrs / Total: 7 hours

Today I actually spent around 2 hours but I also added 1 hour to my log for yesterday's activity. 

Photos 61-63: Longitudinal Gun Port Frames in place. Overall they fit quite precisely and they stay almost entirely in place without any support. I still needed to peg with a few clamps to prevent small displacements, mostly less than 1mm, while the glue dries. You'll need to use quite low pressure clamps, just enough to hold them in place. Squeeze them a little too much and the frames can easily twist even slightly and lose the correct horizontal position. Not to mention the risk of breaking these delicate parts. In some sensitive parts I tied with a thread to keep them in place like in the photos.

Following the instructions, I did one side first, in my case the port side, waited until glue is dry and then did the other side. I brushed diluted glue in the joints here as well.

I had some free time today and I decided to move on a little while the hull is drying.

Photo 59: So called Longitudinal Gun Port Frames. One lower and one upper for each side, marked conveniently on the parts. As pointed out in the instructions, these are very delicate parts and they should be handled with care. I passed several gentle strokes on the tabs with my X-acto knife on each side of the board to remove them from the MDF sheet.

Photo 60: If you don't believe me when I say they are delicate, check this close shot:

I checked the hull after leaving the brushed glue to dry overnight (as instructed in the manual) and looks like this brush-in-diluted-glue method worked perfectly! Not a single loose joint. Strongly recommended. 💯

Photo 57: I have been hitting my hand to the fragile bulkhead ears when I am moving around. Not a lack of proprioception😄 I hope, but when you are concentrated to a task, you lose sense of your surroundings. So I decided to use a colourful tape to make them more visible, like a "crime scene" fence. 

Photo 58: I have also installed the bow and stern assemblies in place, using the same brush-in gluing method and my hull starts to take a shape now. It will rest now until dry.

12 hours ago, James H said:

Chris did eventually get me to buy a palm sander, and it works well

I am getting one of these "Bosch EasyCurvSander 12". I will share my experinces here.

I

Photos 52-56: Sanding the bow and stern assemblies. I don't really enjoy sanding (does anyone?) and am quite impatient when it comes to sanding, I wish I could hire someone to do this for me 🤣. Realising I am on my own, I read through James' and Chris' recommendations in other build logs in this forum and finally gave it a go. I didn't use any rotary tool, instead I started with very rough sand paper (those they use on belt sanders, that work more like a rasp rather than sandpaper) and gradually proceeded with finer grade paper, testing the curve with planking the strip. I think overall they came out good: symmetrical and in full contact with the planking strips. I don't want to over sand before they are in place on the hull. I can do fine tuning then, if need be. It took about one hour to sand both assemblies.

The 3mm scrap MDF piece below in the middle is to support the two parts #24 while sanding:

Photos 48-49: Installing the lower deck in place. With careful adjustments of the bulkheads it fit in rather easily.

Photos 50-51: Bulkheads and lower deck are all in place and ready for gluing. I followed the method recommended in the manual: Diluted white wood glue around 50-50 with water (about milk consistency) and brushed it at the joints. It will rest overnight to cure properly. That's when I will know if the method has worked for me or not 😄.

Photos 45-47: Gluing the orlop section in place, applying the glue in the right spots. Fits accurately with no problem.

BUILD DAY 4 / 2 hrs / Total: 4 hours

Today I spent time preparing the bulkheads, orlop section and the lower deck.

Photos 39-40: Removed 13 bulkheads carefully from 4mm MDF and dry fitted as instructed. They are not glued just yet.

Photo 41: Lower deck and orlop section. 

Photos 42-44: I scouted ahead in the instruction manual to check what parts of the lower deck openings will be visible once decorated with gratings. According to the manual leftmost and the rightmost opening edges will be visible. I marked them with tape and sanded off the laser char. I won't spend effort on sanding off the char from invisible edges.