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drobinson02199

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Everything posted by drobinson02199

  1. Lots more done. Finished the railings on the main deck and cabin deck. Applied all of the decals, which really spiffs up the ship Applied black striping at the waterline. Now what remains is the little Zodiac boat that fits into the rear well -- and that will be it. Regards, David
  2. More deck fittings. The instruction manual says to build the rear railing fixed onto the stern, and then paint it. But my only yellow is spray paint, which I want to match to, so I reverse engineered it to make it removable. See first two pictures. Then painted yellow. Other deck fittings on stern and bow shown below. Regards, David
  3. Lots of deck fittings added: Air vents Whip antennas Radar domes, radio antenna, searchlights Inflatable life rafts; rigid life raft Ammo lockers Flag Regards, David
  4. Thanks, Bob. That's really interesting stuff. Once I have the model completed and have completion pics, I might give them a call. As a USCG alum, are you thinking about building this one at some point in the future? Regards, David
  5. Finished the somewhat complex radar structure. As you can see, it's made up from a combination of styrene tubes and wood dowels. A few construction notes: It's just a bit oversized. That's due to a gap between the instructions and the diagrams. For those who might follow, the thing I didn't do was to resize the basic A-frame (before any bracing) to match the full size template. I cut it to the length specified in the instructions, and that's a bit too long. I then added braces, and only discovered that it was oversized as I got into the detail. Not a big deal. If you follow the instructions, the whole thing would be yellow. But the box art shows the white top, blue radars and silver (e.g. unlit white) sidelights. So I resequenced things to match the box art, which i smore interesting. Regards, David
  6. Thanks, on second look you are absolutely correct. I'll have to repaint. I got my orientation completely screwed up, and I checked and double checked it -- but was just 180 out in my addled brain. Regards, David
  7. Now back from vacation and back to the model. Painted the cabin and mounted some accessories on the sides. Cabin in pictures is dry-fitted to the main hull at this point. Regards, David
  8. This will be my last post for a few weeks as I'm headed out for a vacation. I have added most of the details to the cabin. Everything you see will be painted white, and then black fill inside the portholes. I've placed the cabin where it will go on the boat. The main hull is sitting loose on the stand, which will be painted black when construction is done. The top cabin deck will be gray. The long side rails need a support bracket about halfway down. What's not mounted yet are: large vents, painted gray with black fill, and life rings, painted red (the manual wants orange, but I don't have any orange paint and red will do fine). I will tackle the painting when I get back in late September. Regards, David
  9. Cabin sides on and something called cabin shields mounted. Next step is to add some detail to the cabin sides. Regards, David
  10. Here's the cabin framework. This is upside down, so the cabin roof and deck are lying on the work table. Next step is the cabin sides. Regards, David
  11. Finished painting the hull. This is by far the best waterline I've ever done, and I attribute that to some vinyl masking tape I found on Amazon. Instead of piecing Frog tape to follow the line curve, this stuff just flexes to do it. I also used a tip I got from this site, which is to run a bead of varnish down the edge to seal it. I can give anyone who is interested in the product the Amazon reference -- just send me a message. Regards, David
  12. Finished painting the upper part of the hull white and marked the waterline. Now finishing the bottom fittings before painting the rest of the hull red-brown. An oddity of this kit for someone like me who is building it as a static model (vs. R/C). The rudders and fittings to install them are included in this kit. BUT, the props and shafts are not, although the skegs are. The props are in the "running hardware" accessory kit, which is a cool $134 on top of the $375 I already paid for the model. No way. There's a clear asymmetry in the way parts are supplied with the base kit for a static modeler, and I think I will write Dumas about it. Props and enough to mount them as dummies should be in the base kit. So I went onto Amazon and found some nice brass props for $10 for the pair, used some brass rod from my "spares" supply, and voila . . . what you see. All of this will be painted red-brown so the brass and white skegs will all blend together. Regards, David
  13. The main decks are painted and installed. Lots of touch up needed. You can see holes drilled for gooseneck vents -- also had to drill a hawse hole which is just barely visible in this pic. Regards, David
  14. Boat well installed and deck edging applied. At this point in the construction, things move along pretty fast. We'll see if that continues. Regards, David
  15. Bow deck and bow bulwarks installed. The bulwarks need Bondo to finish the seams, but . . . Bondo really gives off strong vapors. The air handlers for our den and bedroom are in the same area as my workroom. So the Bondo session earlier this week caused some recriminations. I need to set up a temporary workspace in the garage for future Bondo operations. Regards, David
  16. I've now applied Bondo to all of the hull gaps and imperfections -- pictures shown. There are probably some areas needing touch up, but they will become visible when I put the first coat of paint on. The bow curve, made of 4 pieces that come together, was pretty uneven, and I had to sculpt a smooth bow curve out of Bondo. I'm pleased with how that came out. Regards, David
  17. Rough sheeting of the hull is done. I say rough, because as you can see, the sheets don't fit perfectly and there are a lot of gaps. Fortunately, Dumas uses Bondo putty to deal with their styrene, so I'll be doing some sanding and puttying to clean up the hull. One note: sawdust falls to the floor; some gets on you even if you are wearing a work apron, and a vacuum cleaner takes it right off. Styrene seems to be attracted to clothing, and it's hard to get it all off. So I have taken to wearing the painting clothes that I keep near my workbench when I work on the styrene. Regards, David
  18. Bob: I think the frames popped loose perhaps because of the melamine, but also because they are very thin, so any lateral force on the foot is going to twist it a bit and loosen the bond. Yes, I would absolutely glue the frames. It's the best way I can think of to get the frame measurements right, and to get the frames absolutely vertical. And all of that is pretty critical when you start working with the hull sheeting. But I'd pop the frame off before starting the sheeting. Regards, David
  19. Some sequence issues relative to the instruction book sequence. First, to Bob G's point about knocking the feet loose: I used a palm sander to smooth out the hull, and the vibrations popped the hull right off the building board with no damage. The instructions have it staying stuck to the board for the hull sheeting steps. But having it free is good news for a couple of reasons: If you look at the picture below, I'm holding one of the side pieces in place by hand, and as you see, it extends up past the sheer to form a bulkhead at the bow. When the frame was on the building board, the point of the bow was right down on the board, so adding that side piece with the boat stuck to the board would not have worked. Second, as the picture shows, with the side piece extending up past the "feet", if those go on ahead of removing the feet, which is what the instructions say, then sawing off the feet on the forward part of the ship would be really difficult with that bulkhead in the way. So I have taken the feet off now, before installing those mid-boat to bow side sheets. They came off pretty easily. You can also see the rear side sheets already installed. I don't find having the boat off the board to be a problem -- in fact it's a blessing. I have a foam cradle which helps me to hold the boat steady, and because I can now turn the side I'm working on to the most convenient angle, it's much easier than it would be if the hull frame was still attached to the board. Regards, David
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