AnobiumPunctatum

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

Yes; Christian is absolutely correct: Whenever possible, run the grain along a piece, not across it. Avoid cross-grain! As you had it is weak and prone to snap.

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

I think you are doing more than an outstanding job with this kit beauty or for the ship modeling world. Everyone may know my opinion for that matter! 🙂

I own a small CNC. What has changed is the precision for cutting out parts. So you begin to think about problems, which you not have, if you cut out parts manually. The model is further build by the model builder. The quality depends further on the knowledge and experience of the builder.
I prepare my parts directly from my own reconstruction with the CNC. By all the precision It is not possible for me to build my model in the quality you are showing here. I simply love it.
 
I do not like competitions for my hobby and will never participate in one.
 

That would be so nice but it probably would put the builder at risk of being abused.
 
Anyway....those gratings
 
You will basically get all of the laser cut parts in this chapter.  There are only four hatches with gratings.  They are not very large.   Here are all of the elements needed.  You will get two layers for the jig.   The two layers are glued together to form the jig.
 
You also get a right angle jig which is 3/64" thick.  The thickness is very important.
 
Lets get started.
 

Start with the coamings.   They are laser cut and 1/8" thick.
 
The fore and aft sides are already shaped with the round-up of the deck....or camber as usually described but is an inaccurate term.
 
Use the right angle jig to glue two sides together...dont worry about the laser char just yet.   Then glue the remaining two sides together using the same jig to make a nice right angle.
 

Glue the two right angles together to form the coaming.  Sand the sides clean which are left a bit longer as you can see in order to remove the char and leave a nice bright smooth surface.   Also sand the top sides to clean the char.  You can see the cleaned coaming below.
 
Then you can start working on the grating.  Again just like my other smaller scale grating kits.
 
Insert the laser cut grating strips in the slotted jig.  NO GLUE of course!!!   This is just for alignment.
 
Then start adding the cross battens.  These are glued in position.  They may be too tight as you want a press fit.  So just run the small strips 1/16" x 1/16" through your fingers with some fine sandpaper.  Not much.  Just enough so the battens fit into the slots. see below.  There are seven batten strips and seven laser cut grating strips for three of the hatches.  The fourth is made the same way but is much smaller on the fcastle.
 

When all the strips are glued in position,  remove the grating from the jig.  Snip off the edges as shown below.  Then sand all four edges clean.  Try and not distort the perfect square shape.  In the photo two sides have the ends snipped off.   The smaller hatchway will have fewer battens and more to snip away.  Also sand the top surface clean and smooth.  Once again try and maintain the proper shape with the round-up.  You will know when its all done when the char is cleaned from the laser cut grating strip squares.

The photo below shows the top of the grating and sides all clean and nice and smooth.  It makes a nice grating.  The holes are 1/16" or 2" on the real ship and perfectly in scale.

You should but dont have to sand the bottom side as well.   Here is a look.  The battens are clearly less thick than the grating strips and these are pretty close to actual construction methods.  Or at least the impression of it.
 

And almost done...you will see how nice and tight the grating fits in the coaming.   Dont over sand the edges and you should test the grating in the coaming as you sand the edges.   In fact, the coaming normally has ledges on the port and starboard sides inside the coaming.  These create a ledge that the grating sits on so it doesnt fall through.  You can add those if you like.  But in my case the gratings fit so snug that they were not required.  I simply glued the gratings into the coamings making sure the top of the coaming was flush with the grating.  I sanded it smooth with some 400 grit paper.

The four corners of the coaming are very sharp at this point.  You dont want that.  They should be rounded off.  But they are only rounded off down to the deck level.   That is when you take that same right angle jig and use it.
 
The jig is the same thickness as the planking.   So you can place the coaming into the corner and use a sharp #11 blade to slice away the corner.  Slice it down to the top of the jig only.   You can make a stop cut at the jig level before slicing off the corner.  Then just round off the corner.
 
 
Dont slice off too much.   Just a little bit to round off each corner.
 
To finish it off I drilled three holes with a #76 bit.  I used 20lb black fishing line to simulate the bolts on the top of the coamings.  Three on each side.   They cut flush with the top of the coamings with a sharp blade.
 
All done!!!
 
 
 

I own a small CNC. What has changed is the precision for cutting out parts. So you begin to think about problems, which you not have, if you cut out parts manually. The model is further build by the model builder. The quality depends further on the knowledge and experience of the builder.
I prepare my parts directly from my own reconstruction with the CNC. By all the precision It is not possible for me to build my model in the quality you are showing here. I simply love it.
 
I do not like competitions for my hobby and will never participate in one.
 

Have a look at the wood grain for the chocks. In your pictures it has the wrong direction. You should turn the template by 90 degrees.

It woul be a lot of fun to make a build log of your kit there.
I love your ideas and how open you share your knowledge. Without this I was not able to finish the frame design for my Alert. I also learned a lot to continue with my Sloop Fly. Thanks for that.

It woul be a lot of fun to make a build log of your kit there.
I love your ideas and how open you share your knowledge. Without this I was not able to finish the frame design for my Alert. I also learned a lot to continue with my Sloop Fly. Thanks for that.

It woul be a lot of fun to make a build log of your kit there.
I love your ideas and how open you share your knowledge. Without this I was not able to finish the frame design for my Alert. I also learned a lot to continue with my Sloop Fly. Thanks for that.

Have a look at the wood grain for the chocks. In your pictures it has the wrong direction. You should turn the template by 90 degrees.

It woul be a lot of fun to make a build log of your kit there.
I love your ideas and how open you share your knowledge. Without this I was not able to finish the frame design for my Alert. I also learned a lot to continue with my Sloop Fly. Thanks for that.

It woul be a lot of fun to make a build log of your kit there.
I love your ideas and how open you share your knowledge. Without this I was not able to finish the frame design for my Alert. I also learned a lot to continue with my Sloop Fly. Thanks for that.

It woul be a lot of fun to make a build log of your kit there.
I love your ideas and how open you share your knowledge. Without this I was not able to finish the frame design for my Alert. I also learned a lot to continue with my Sloop Fly. Thanks for that.

Have a look at the wood grain for the chocks. In your pictures it has the wrong direction. You should turn the template by 90 degrees.

So over lunch today I walked up to the local hardware store (located dangerously close to my house) and picked up a tap & die set to resolve the mounting question asked above - thanks again Dave and VTHokiEE! It took about 1 minute to tap the mounting holes I drilled out yesterday and I was very relieved to find that I hadn't drilled the holes out too wide for the 6-32 tap. A small step, but this lightened up a huge area of ignorance for me in terms of this aspect of modelling. Here are some photos, just to liven things up a bit, though they may not be of much intrinsic interest. The second shot is of the tiny puncture made by the awl - hard to get focus on this.....
hamilton

Over the last several days I constructed the building board for the Echo cross-section - a fairly straightforward process, though aligning the mounting holes in the keel with their positions on the building board tested my eyes and patience....I used 3/4" MDF for the board, painted with 3 coats of matte white acrylic, with two 1 x 2 strips for support.
 
To trace the centre line, I first extended the centre line markings on the breadth plan drawing supplied by Admiralty models. I then positioned this drawing centred on the building board and extended the centre line from the plan sheet to the top and bottom of the building board. Once the plan sheet was removed, I could then connect these two short lines, scribe them with a #11 blade and retrace for emphasis. In a way this process was unnecessary, since the plan sheet is fixed to the building board, but having the centre line on the board provided the necessary reference for aligning the plan sheet with the centre line once I was ready to adhere the plans to the board.
 
I ended up threading the holes in the building board as my 6-32" machine screws were not able to fit through the holes as drilled, but fit perfectly once they were properly threaded. I was quite satisfied when the keel assembly fit nice and snug on the mounting screws along the centre line of the board! At this stage, I am considering making some right angle squares since the ones I have are either too large or too small for the scale of the cross-section. I made some right angle squares from 1/8" acrylic sheet a while ago and these might serve - but I have to find them first!! If your workshop is like mine then you know what a challenge this can be!
 
I also cut out the various parts that make up the framing square that slides over the keel assembly to ensure verticality of the frames - but I've yet to complete this stage....once this is done I'll be moving on to the framing, which is both exciting and a little nerve-wracking...Going to spend some time studying the information provided by Admiralty models, sort out the frame components and boxwood sheets appropriately and set up for constructing the frames....
 
Enjoy the photos and bye for now
hamilton
 

I own a small CNC. What has changed is the precision for cutting out parts. So you begin to think about problems, which you not have, if you cut out parts manually. The model is further build by the model builder. The quality depends further on the knowledge and experience of the builder.
I prepare my parts directly from my own reconstruction with the CNC. By all the precision It is not possible for me to build my model in the quality you are showing here. I simply love it.
 
I do not like competitions for my hobby and will never participate in one.
 

You are right, progress goes on, but don't you think it would at least be a good idea to differentiate the various categories, perhaps creating one for CNC models, avoiding penalising handmade models from the outset?
In Croatia, if you remember correctly, there was a judge who evaluated the models exclusively with his little ruler: it was not important to him how the model looked but only whether the measurements were right according to the drawings, nothing else! Does that seem possible to you?
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Thanks for the information. I fully understand your motivation not to make the knees

It is looking really nice. One question: I miss the different knees, especially where the guns are situated. David has shown them in his drawings. Why do you have omitted them?

What a difference some paint makes.   Bulwarks are painted however as usual, I will be applying many more thin coats over the next few weeks as I progress.   
 
Before and after...