Richard44

So after checking, the deck beams were all glued in place. All carlings were fitted without any problems. The ply sub-deck was then eased into place. A little tricky, but carefully did it. However the deck did not sit quite flush at the stern. You can see in this photo that the deck is bulging slightly. A close inspection showed that there was a problem around the port half of beam 16 (this is in two halves). The deck was popped off and it could be seen that the beam had been seated such that it partly blocked the slot that the deck should have clicked into. I have no idea how this could have happened as the upper surface of the beam was flush with the adjacent beams, so apparently, it was correctly seated. A misalignment somewhere. So, a little bit of surgery to clear the slot and the deck was replaced with it clicking into all the slots. The stem, keel and rudder post were all glued. These three are core pieces and will later be covered with veneer. There is a slight gap between the stem and the keel, but this will be covered by veneer, so nothing needs to be done about it. As B.E. found out, the rudder post needed some trimming to fit over bulkhead 17. Two supports for the prow were glued and pinned. The instructions for this step in the manual are out of sequence (too early) and it could not be done until the stem etc had been fitted. The two ply stern counters were added to the hull, the lower first. The upper needed some trimming to match the curve of the lower where the two met. Cheers

Interesting method of doing the wales/planking B.E. I'll have to have a serious think about it when I get to that stage in my build. Thanks.

Once all the partitions were in place, I dryfitted all the deck beams after sanding the char off the tops. A few needed a touch with a sanding stick to properly seat, but otherwise all was good. There are three beams that cross the sail room. The latter was put in place, not glued, and the fit of the beams checked. The location of the stove relative to the beams fore and aft was also checked. Finally, as this is the last time before the deck is closed off, dowels were used to represent the masts and pump outlets and inserted to make sure their respective mounting holes were clear. The three bitts were similarly checked. The sail room and stove were then glued in place. I too have copied B.E. and put a base under the stove. After finding a downloadable tile pattern that I liked (not as easy as you might think), I fiddled around on the computer to get a 6x3 print that seemed to be of an appropriate size. It was edged with 1x1mm pear. The stove is not glued in place in this photo. Cheers

Next, four formers, two per side, were fitted to the bow, slotting easily over the bulkheads. Again chamfering was done first. Finally a small platform was glued on top to complete the bow structure. Even though chamfering has been done, it is apparent that quite a bit of fairing will have to be done before planking takes place. There are two cabins, one each side, at the stern and these are assembled from mdf. The completed framework for the cabins. The one on the left is obviously not quite right, but that part had not yet been glued, so no problem to correct it. The cabins are slotted into the rear bulkheads, including No17, which is now glued in place. Various pieces which will go to form the walls of the small cabins on the lower deck. There are two parts, 180 and 186, which are not mentioned in the manual. An examination of the plan, Sheet 6, showed where they would go, but they are out of sight and unnecessary for the build so can be left off. However, there is some mismatch between the labelling of the parts on the laser-cut sheet and the plan. Parts 186 and 187 have become interchanged and the plan shows two parts 180. Not a real problem as the various parts only go together one way and the photos in the manual are clear. The kit comes with eyebolts that are supposed to represent door handles. I followed B.E.’s advice though, and bought laser-cut handles and hinges from Syren. Tricky little things to glue. Assembly under way at the bow and the stern. Cheers

After quite a break, I'm back building a wooden (instead of card) ship, specifically Vanguard’s brig-sloop Harpy. To me it's an attractive vessel, only two masts so not too many ratlines, 18 guns only and of a size that I can accommodate. Also of course the designer, Chris Watton, has introduced many innovations to his kits, and it will be interesting to see what awaits. Before buying the kit, I read James's prototype build and thought I can handle that, so the kit was ordered. Two weeks to Australia, which was very good considering that this was over Christmas/New Year. I'm not going to describe the kit's contents as James has done so in detail. So onto the build. The first photo shows the bulkheads and the false keel. Four bulkheads (1,2,3 and 17) needed chamfering before assembly, and this was aided by them having a laser etched line to guide this. Five minutes after that photo and this is the result. Bulkhead 17 is put in place sometime later. All bulkheads fitted onto the false keel with little pressure needed, except for No3, which wouldn't quite go. A gentle pass with a file fixed that, only the char needed removing. Chris’ innovations include not using any glue until quite some way along the build, with various parts being held together with pegs. This was done with the keel doublers, one on each side of the false keel, with the pegs going through all three pieces. The pegs for this were a little tight and needed a gentle touch with a sanding stick before inserting. The ply sub-decks were dry-fitted. The etched decks were also dry-fitted to check. No problem, everything fits together so well. Removal of the dry-fitted decks was easy, but here I deviated from the manual which calls for the ply sub-decks and the etched decks to be laminated before final fitting. But first, longitudinal braces were slotted into place and pegged. I know from experience that laminating two largish pieces of wood (or worse, card) can go horribly wrong if the alignment is not spot on, so after test dry-fitting, I decided to first fit the ply sub-decks to the hull then glue the etched decks to these as alignment would be easier. The fore deck is held in place with pegs and then the etched deck was glued to it. The aft deck needed to be glued in place first as the pegs that should have been used are designed to hold the laminated deck in place, not just the ply sub-deck. Cheers

Morning all. There's no build log for my model of the WW1 German torpedo boat, V108. Various factors conspired against me doing this so all I have is a few photos of the completed model. Chris Coyle presented a tutorial on card building using the V108 as the subject. The designer, Digital Navy, allowed the kit to be freely distributed to MSW members and though it is no longer available on the Digital Navy website it can still be downloaded here. I had built several card models but only waterline models, so I decided to try for a full hull, though Chris in his tutorial only builds a waterline V108. It's still a learning curve for me with card models, but my V108 turned out reasonably well with some new techniques being tried (eg thread railings). Cheers

Probably referring to common white carpenter's glue, PVA, poly vinyl acetate.

I thought that might be the case, but you only find out after you've bought the kit. Whereas Philipp more or less suggests finding out before hand.

How do you do this? I could have easily missed something, but I've looked at the Orel website and at some of the models and couldn’t see any reference as to the designer.

Wow. Very, very different to the Nautilus in the Walt Disney movie. Cheers Edit. Should have added this image.

I'm with Keith on this. Use the existing pieces, but before committing, check how much you need to remove where the pieces aren't quite in alignment - it looks to be about 1mm or so. Dry fit a couple of the frames to see if the reduced height of the keel (assuming you do sand the lower/upper edges of the keel) affects their fit. If it looks like everything will be more or less "off", then a new keel from ply would be the answer. Also, I've noticed that you wrapped everything in cling film while glueing and as you have found out, this can obscure what's happening with the glueing. You only need the cling film if there is a chance of accidentally glueing another piece to the two you are joining. You didn't need to use the cling film that shows in the following images. Cheers

Micha, For what it's worth, I used white PVA (the common one here in Aus is Aquadhere) almost exclusively when building the boat. I may have used CA occasionally. Most of the gluing is easy enough. For the planking, I ran a thin bead of glue along the top edge of a plank, clamped (pegs work well) the next plank to it and wiped off excess glue, moving the clamps as required to do this. Good luck with your build. Edit. I should have added this. The only joints on this boat that will be under any sort of stress are those associated with the planking. The planks are already spiled, and if you fit the planks before gluing, the stresses will be minimal. You do not need a super strong glue. Cheers

Hi Micha, I thought that I would show you a few photos of my Roar Ege. Unfortunately, there is no build log as I built it before joining MSW ☹️. Probably can't help much with questions either 🥴 as the build was quite a while ago. The kit does make into a nice model. Enjoy. Cheers

Hi Jaager, The screws are now metal, but it is fiddly trying to get that sweet spot. I had no trouble with stock moving around, but I was only ever cutting small sectioned wood. It's not perfect, but it worked for me. Cheers

I fastened mine to a board, then fashioned a moveable stop from aluminium (aluminum 😁) angle so that I could cut multiple pieces all the same length. Cheers

Hi Alex, I don't actually live in the Blue Mountains, I live at Gosford. I travel to the BlueM occasionally for bushwalks. That's a great looking model you've got. Cheers

You could look at this tool. I have one and it works very well. https://www.micromark.com/Miter-Rite Cheers

After drinking a bottle of schnapps, I can well understand your confusion - clearly I meant along the bottle, not around it 😁😁 Cheers

Wind the thread gently around a dowel 10 times, measure the length, divide by 10.🙂

Kpfw VI Tiger I ?? 🙂🙂 Cheers

Hi Alex, welcome. What part of the Blue Mountains are you from? I've just done a bushwalk at Lawson. Cheers

Chris, Do you seal in any way the edges of the frames before sanding? I usually wind up with very fuzzy edges and have been thinking of soaking the edges with dilute PVA beforehand - not CA as I don't think PVA will adhere to the frame later when the skin (or whatever) is attached. Thanks. Cheers

Don't know if it would work, but you could try printing by stretching and fastening the silkspan onto a sheet of paper. Laser printer might work better than ink jet.

You could try moistening the frame first - the moisture triggers the CA. One problem may be the wood itself. Some woods are slightly oily and CA doesn't like it. Best of luck.

That’s looking very nice indeed.