king derelict

Looking at the sections where the epoxy failed I didn't do a good job of running a continuous seam of glue around the connector. I'm being a bit more careful during the reassembly. I've also upgraded to a stronger epoxy. I actually got it because it has a longer working time. The fifteen minute epoxy I was using was setting up in under ten minutes maybe because the house is warm. I extensively clamp the first hull section to the connector on the first side of each section. The second side is harder and I can only get a couple of the clamps into place. So far that has seemed to be enough to maintain the shape Thanks for the helpful input. This is a whole new way of working for me Alan

Thanks OC I think its going to work out okay and it is giving me an opportunity to improve the gaps at the joints. The hull connectors provide an overlapping strip across each joint in the hull sections. To be fair I was being quite rough with the hull and I expected to find I had broken something serious. In "normal" usage I think the epoxy will be fine. Thanks Alan

Oh wot a smashin' Sunday! I was working on tidying up one of the worst joints in the hull at the mid section and was getting a bit medieval with the chisel forgetting that the hull wasn't really supported properly along its length. There was a very nasty cracking sound and a clatter and >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Picking up the pieces it showed that the joints had failed at the epoxy glue. All the PLA parts were fine except for the dodgy ledges for the deck in section 7 which had now detached extensively. I completely separated the partly debonded elements of the aft half and started cleaning up the pieces. The epoxy had done a reasonable job of gluing the sections; I should not have got so carried away. While I am cleaning the old epoxy off I am also using the plastic chisels to work on the joint edges (which is actually easier section by section) and dry fitting frequently to check the progress. I think it will be possible to get a closer fit second time round and then only have minimal clean up once assembled. This should prevent further brutalising of the assembled hull and we can return to some progress, Two more deck sections have been printed in amongst the days activities. Thanks for stopping by Alan

I'm preheating to 65C and printing at 63C. maybe that's a little too warm but I got to those values while suffering from bed adhesion problems. Maybe I am running it too hot. Thanks for the suggestion. Alan

Some delicate stuff there

The courtyard now looks very realistic; worn and dirty. Excellent job. A few tufts of weeds here and there, the corners and edge of the duck pond might be in order to break up the rigid stonework. I saw an engraving on line of La Haye Sainte supposedly done just after the battle. It showed a tree in the courtyard but it also didn't show an trace of the loopholes in the walls so it may be suspect. Its looking great Alan

In amongst the Saturday errands I started cleaning up the joints in the hull. As stated earlier the PLA plastic is not nice to work with. I found the best tool so far to trim the remains of the brim and fair the two sides of the joint is a set of MicroMark plastic chisels. They are nice and sharp (so far) and shave the PLA off quite well. It still requires a lot of effort but it is possible to get a neat result. I'm working this in short sessions as I'm finding it easy to get a bit frustrated and careless. I started adding the Vallejo filler to the gaps as I work along the hull. The chisels, scraper and the edge of a scalpel blade are being used As you can see this hull is challenging my work space and may need to be moved to the work bench in the garage The first two deck pieces have been printed and the third one is in progress I added the corner brims to stop the decks attempting to warp or curl upwards. This is available as a plug in to Cura downloaded from the Marketplace option in the program. It adds the circles seen at each corner and stops the corners lifting. It reduces material use and time as well as after print clean up when you don't need a full print. This explains it all Some of the options are different in my version of Cura but it is essentially the same and seems to work well. I may try to work a 1/700 ship as light relief between sessions on the corvette. I'm not sure how that will work out. I may just print parts for a few weeks and build when Florida cools down a bit and the garage becomes a reasonable environment again. I had initially thought of building this as the fictional Compass Rose (from the book The Cruel Sea of course) but she was an early corvette and this looks like a later version. Plenty of time for decisions. Now I need to order more filament. Thanks for looking and helping. Alan

Thanks for the very helpful input from everyone regarding priming the hull. I already have gesso (Liquitex) from a previous project and I will get some automotive primer and run some tests on bits of print samples. I have put two layers of thinned gesso on one piece. The first layer was actually too thin and almost ran off the piece. The second layer is closer to the 25% water mix and is drying nicely without brush marks. Thanks for all the useful comments Alan

Thanks OC. She is the timid one of the pair. She is probably worrying about being launched out onto the lake in the hull for sea trials - and the alligator Alan

The post delivered good things today. The sable brushes and the Army Painter dry brushes. They were about a fifth of the cost of the Artis Opus ones. They look nice; I'll see how much I use them and if they look like a regular part of the kit I might upgrade. Have a great weekend Alan

I joined the last sections of the hull this morning and set it aside to let the epoxy cure to full strength before starting to clean up the joints. Thank you for all the suggestions for filler and surfacing techniques. Have a great weekend Alan

Thank you for that. I bought some gesso for my Penelope diorama and slapped it on rather liberally and regretted it. Luckily it was being covered in resin but it took a long time to dry. I think experimentation is key here. Thank you for your input; its very helpful Alan

Thanks OC. I've liked the Vallejo putty in other applications. Looks like I have a full armoury now. Alan

Thanks Bill I just ordered some micro balloons on your suggestion. I'll experiment to find the best solution. Thanks again Alan

Looking very good OC. Looking quite peaceful now; the calm before the storm Alan

I knew there was going to be a reason I shouldn't have thrown those early failed prints away. 😄 A test piece is definitely a good idea Alan

The gesso is a great idea. Thank you very much for the suggestion. sanding looked like it would be messy and tedious. Its bad enough cleaning up the brim lines. Alan

Thank you Lou. Its quite a thrill to see the hull assembled. The gesso is a great idea. I even have some in hand from the Penelope diorama. Alan

Thanks Yves, I will give that a try Alan

Thanks OC. Putting the hull sections together was an exciting moment. I do make 3D beer, but so far without squirting it out of the printer. The latest batch of ginger beer has just been bottled. Alan

Thank you Yves. You have been a huge help getting me to where I am now. I have a small lake behind my house which also has frogs, turtles and also an occasional visiting alligator. So I'm still undecided. I need to price out the RC equipment and see if that influences a decision. I foresee several days of sanding and fairing of the hull to get it tidy. I'm reluctant to use any form of rotary tool sander because of the low melting point of the plastic. I am going to need some putty for some of the less than perfect joins. I only have the Vallejo plastic putty which my work but I would be grateful if anyone has any better suggestions for filling the thin gaps between a few of the hull sections and a few print gaps. Thanks Alan

Thanks Craig Its still a huge learning experience and the printer continues to throw up surprises. At least the levelling seems to be working out now that I have a routine and upgraded the bed springs. Alan

Thanks Egilman; seeing the hull come together has justified the aggravation of getting the initial prints to work. Good Luck with the new printer. Its a whole new world - or an enormous rabbit hole. Alan

It's a hard block inside the jar so I think it's going to last a long time. I rough cleaned the brushes with water to get most of the paint off, wiped them on a paper towel and then wiped them on the surface of the block until I got a lather and then shaped them with my fingers to make a point. I think it will be a good routine to get into. Alan

Well. it was time to blow the dust off this build now that the Geisenau is safely in a display case. I trimmed the brims off the hull sections and hull connectors, at this point concentrating on the inside faces of the hull and the outer surfaces of the connectors to get best fit of the hull sections. The connectors are a tight fit in the bow and stern so any imperfections need to be shaved off. This PLA plastic is evil to work with. It is very hard to sand or cut with a knife. The brims actually were easier to remove by peeling the majority off by hand and then scraping the remaining lip down and finally sanding. I only did a rough job on the exterior surfaces because I want to try to get the interface between the two sections as good as possible. Now that I am working on the hull sections I can see the imperfections in the printing. The rib has printed with gaps on one section and the port hole brow is distorted in the same piece On another section the port holes themselves are only partly printed and the weld lines are missing in places There is generally quite a lot of plastic fluff on teh exterior surface details which I have been gentlt sanding off The ledge that engages with the hull connectors and I assume sets the decks printed with gaps and detached from the hull on completion of the print Looking at Yves hull, it looks a lot neater. Its interesting that the same machine using the same settings and the same filament printing the same files can produce differing results. The lack of repeatability is something I am still trying to come to terms with and improve on. I removed the support from the rudder well by running a drill down the support and the torque was sufficient to tear the support cleanly out of the shaft. That's a tools you don't often see on the work bench in 1/700 land I glued the connectors into the relevant hull sections after carefully dry fitting and checking that I had the hull sections all oriented correctly and the hull connectors also the right way round. I marked them all before separating them to glue. The MEK solvent rather scared me, not helped by reading the MSDS sheet for it. My work area is not easy to ventilate as much as I think would be necessary. I decided to use 5 minute two part epoxy, mixing a fresh small batch for each connector. It seems to be holding well so far although I don't like epoxy glue too much. I find it difficult to use neatly and having been born with the messy gene i seem to transfer sticky patches everywhere, usually the unmixed resin so it doesn't even set and remains sticky forever. I swabbed the work surface off with alcohol at the end of the session. Most of the hull has been assembled. The sections went together well with little gap between sections and generally looking like a clean up of the interfaces and some light filling will produce a good hull. The connectors seem to have worked well it setting the sections in position to give a straight hull. The captain is checking progress and wondering where the stern is I was so engrossed in Geisenau that I didn't print the deck pieces so they will now be started. I'm still undecided about making it an RC model. Thanks for looking Alan