Richard44

No worries Mike, it's what I did!

Why not just mark the edges of the bulkheads where the cardinal marks are? File, pencil, whatever...Then you can have chipboard-to-chipboard and not worry about the craft glue. Cheers (looking forward to your build).

Hi Mike, If I were you, I wouldn't attempt to cut out that hatch. Simply lay some thin strips on top of the deck (ie. double plank it) and add the coaming around them. Keep at it Jonas, it does make up into a nice looking model if you survive the instructions etc. I remember just how much frustration I had at times when building that kit. Terrible instructions! Cheers

Hi Jeff, So are the pieces simply butt-joined along the bulkhead? There's no joiner strip? How thick are the bulkheads? I'm watching your very nice build with interest as I'll be back making a card boat sometime in the near future. Cheers

Hi, Another one of the Dutch subs, K XII, was wrecked on Fairlight beach, Sydney Harbour, in June 1949 after breaking its tow. It became a RAN vessel in 1943, but never saw service. It was moored alongside a pier at Manly wharf as a tourist attraction, but was being moved to a more sheltered site during a storm when it broke its tow. I well remember seeing it on the rocks - Fairlight was my local beach. Cheers https://www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/5230854984

Thanks again everybody for just looking, liking or making comments. All very much appreciated. Cheers.

Hi Chuck, Interesting video and yes, he does mention the yard. But says that he will leave it up to us to figure out how to work the sails! Cheers

Well done!

Yes, it does have material that is printed for the sails. I forgot to mention that I wasn’t going to add the sails, though I may do so at some time.

So, onto the final stretch. Firstly the rudder. The rudder itself is two pre-cut pieces, plus the pre-cut tiller. All needed cleaning up but otherwise no issues. There were brass PE straps provided but no actual pintles or gudgeons. I broke one of the straps while bending it into shape, so decided that straps made from black paper would serve and would be indistinguishable from the supplied brass straps at any reasonable viewing distance. Styrene rod was used for the pintles. I also decided that the rudder would need to be pinned to the sternpost as I didn’t think the paper straps would be sufficiently strong to hold it. When the assembled rudder etc was held up to the hull, it looked terrible. There was a large gap between the rudder and the sternpost. So I got rid of the styrene rod and just used the paper straps and the pinned rudder - certainly not prototypical but the end result is fine. And now for the rigging. One mast, one yard, two shrouds, one stay and some running rigging. Can't be too hard. The mast, yard and various blocks ready for installing. The mast and the yard came ready tapered and needed to be rounded and cleaned of char. A file and sandpaper took care of this. The mast was set in place ready for the shrouds. The manual and plans are quite detailed with every line identified but there is a considerable amount of careful perusal required as some things are a little obscure. The supplied cord for the shrouds was wrapped around one of the triangular blocks and seized with thin thread. The excess cord was cut and instant disaster 😬. The cord promptly unravelled.🥴 Not happy ☹️. I tried to seal the cord where I planned to cut it, but no glue that I have would stick to the polyester (I assume that’s what it is). I had some cord left over from another build, slightly undersized (1.0mm) compared to the supplied cord (1.2mm), but close enough. This cord was then used for the shrouds and the forestay. Again, cord I already had was used for the running rigging. No particular issues with this. However once I had most of the rigging done, the yard sort of flopped around with apparently nothing to hold it in place. I found one of Olha's videos that I hadn’t seen before and it showed her lashing the yard to the mast. A careful check of the plans showed on one of them, three thin lines where the yard crossed the mast - the lashing. The shallop is now finished. The extras in the boat, oars, water barrel etc have all been added. A fairly enjoyable build, some headaches on the way, but nothing to kill the build. Thanks to all who looked in, the likes and the comments. Cheers

Hi Robert, You’re making good progress, but no, you won't catch me now 😁, I've finished, see post 🙂. As for the rigging of the yard, I've gone with the details on the plan sheets. I have no idea how the sails would be worked when the boat is tacked, maybe there's someone here who could tell us. Your illustration - have you colourised it? My plans are black and white. Cheers

I came across this website which sells card for models - there may well be other sites as well. https://papermodeling.net/index.php?route=product/category&path=79_86&page=2 Edit. Found another. https://modelik.pl/tektury-astralon-c-101.html Cheers

Didn't know that. But every 3 view I could find showed no sweepback at all. Maybe designed that way but later built with no sweepback as was easier. Edit. A side view in "Jane's All the World Aircraft 1919" (facsimile copy) suggests that there is no sweepback. The root and tip chords are shown for both wings. Unfortunately no wing plan. Cheers

Chris, As usual, I'm thoroughly enjoying your superb build. However, the lower wing seems to have a small amount of sweepback. Is this intentional? Cheers

And happy holidays to you too Allan! I've used Casey Brass Black in the past with mixed success. I've cleaned the brass etc etc, used the solution diluted, but it doesn't always seem to work. I suspect the composition of the brass has something to do with it. Perhaps too much zinc relative to copper. Cheers

Chuck, Here's the close-up. You can see the chain, and if you look carefully, you can see the retaining pins at each end. The leeboard doesn't flap around as much as you might think as the lifting tackle restricts it somewhat. Still, it's definitely not fixed and moves easily if touched. I used paint on the iron work - I've never had much luck with using chemical blackeners. Cheers

Thanks guys, for the discussion about the leeboards. I'm going to go with what the kit suggests, and hang them from chains. The leeboards themselves were easy enough to assemble, all the parts were pre-cut. The iron reinforcing bands needed a little care to position them, but no dramas. The chains though. These are supposed to be made up using the supplied PE. And these bits are tiny! I didn’t like my chances. Sure enough, "ping" and one piece headed into the clutter on the table - found it though. But, a few minutes later "PING" and this time the piece flew off probably with enough speed to embed itself in the wall - never did find it. I had some chain that was close to the size required, except the links were round not flat, but this was what was going to be used. I had managed not to lose the tiny end plates that go through the leeboard and the inboard support, so got those onto short lengths of chain. Before fitting the assemblage onto the boat, I thought that putting the tackle for raising the leeboards in place would be useful to do now. The photo shows the tackle loosely in place and the leeboards with the chains lying on them. The leeboards were fitted in place with the chains passing through them and the inner ends passing through the inboard supports. Tiny retaining pins (supplied PE) were pushed through the end plates to keep everything in place. Now, as the leeboards are basically just hanging off the chains, they are very vulnerable to damage - don't ask 😖 - and the chains are the weakest link 🥴. Sometime later, when repairs had been made and calm restored, I completed rigging the tackle. It looked good. Then I thought I should put the boat onto the display base and promptly found that I hadn't tightened the tackle enough, as a result of which the leeboards hung too low and fouled the base 😬. The tackle would have to be redone. Not a big deal, but a nuisance anyway, and after a few deep breaths, I tackled the tackle to get it right. Cheers

Hi Robert, You're doing well, it's looking good. You'll catch me shortly 🙂. Cheers

Hi Robert, Interesting video. Thanks for that. Not sure of the difference between his two types of leeboards - "normal" and "other". Though it seems from what he was saying his "other" only swings fore-and-aft, whereas his "normal" is free to swing fore-and-aft and also pivot so that it rises near horizontal. The method of rigging the leeboards on the model (and presumably the replica), using a chain that is only fastened to the hull in-board, suggests that this would allow the leeboards to swing in the guy’s "normal" fashion. The chain would be flexible enough to allow this. Cheers

Hi Chuck, You've just managed to comment on exactly the same concerns I have about the leeboards. I don’t think you've missed anything that's shown on the plans. I've been puzzling over them for the last day or two (Olha's video doesn't help at all). I may have them rigged today or tomorrow. Cheers

Thanks for all the views, likes and comments. The basic hull is now finished. And I should have mentioned before that I'm using Tung oil on the model. Splashboards (I think that’s what they are), thole pins, belaying pins around the mast position and the supports and sheaves for the leeboards are all in place. The supports (no idea what they're actually called) for the leeboards, one clean, one not, and two of the four sheaves that are yet to be assembled. Simply a matter of sliding the "wheel" into the housing. There are more belaying pins that go through the knees on the thwarts, but they're not really visible - they are only tiny. They all needed cleaning to get rid of left over bits from the laser cutting. The larger pin on the left goes into the thwart next to the mast. One thing I forgot to do was clean out the lasercut holes in the knees before gluing them in place, so they were now cleaned very carefully with a partly disassembled pin-vise. The supports for the leeboards were a bit of a problem, my fault for not examining the plans closely enough. I initially glued them so their tops were in line with the top of the sheave that is next to them on top of the rail. This can be seen in the above photo. Wrong. Their tops have to be slightly higher as the chain that passes through the support to the leeboard has to clear the top of the sheave (this will be clear once the leeboards are in place). They were therefore de-glued and repositioned. The supports are glued to the frame and notched to go over the stringer that the thwarts rest on. Or, as I did, notch the stringer rather than the support as this was easier. There are also metal wear plates, I'd guess you'd call them, on the rail next to the thole pins, presumably to protect the rail from the oars. These were copper PE and went into position easily except for the two that are next to the leeboard support/sheave. Not enough space, short by a few mm. Can't move the thole pin and can't move the sheave/support, so had to trim the plate. The next stage will be the masting, leeboards, rudder etc etc. Cheers

Good morning. You've already put pieces 128 onto the hull (or at least some of them) - they're the timberheads, and are shown on one of the ply sheets on Sheet 2. Piece 288 is a strip of white metal. Both pieces are identified in the list at the end of the manual. Keep going, you'll have a very nice model when you've finished. Cheers

Thanks for all the comments and the likes. In particular the discussion about whether or not Smith’s shallop was clinker (lapstrake) or carvel built was interesting. However, the kit is clinker so that's what this shallop shall be. 🙂🥴 The caprail has been added. This is in three pieces and the instructions suggest that it be glued together before fitting to the hull. I didn't like this idea so decided that I would fit it piece-by-piece on the hull. I did a dry fit and found, not unexpectedly, that the rail needed a little bending to conform to my hull. Otherwise the fit was near perfect. So the central piece was soaked then bent against a template formed by tracing the outline of the hull, with nails (in a board) to hold the rail in place until it dried. The forward piece of the rail was first glued in place, then the centre piece and finally the aft piece. Cheers

Thanks for that Chuck. Cheers