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Richard Dunn

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Everything posted by Richard Dunn

  1. Richard Dunn
    I want to recommend this product as well, its industrial grade CA and from what I have seen its superior to the ZAP and other brands I have used, not to mention a lot cheaper due to bottle size, I have had an open 2oz bottle for 2 years and its still as good as new and by god does it stick. https://starbond.com/ I am considering using the medium thick rubberised one for gluing plates to hull as I can hold them in place for 40 seconds and its done. The thin one I have is instant bond, I mean a fraction of a second.
  2. Richard Dunn
    I have figured out why I have an uneasy feeling preventing me from moving on, ,over the last 3 days I have been priming all the plating and superstructure cladding with hi build primer, as was contemplating the tin canning effect an felt it was still too heavy, I have discovered that 3 good coats of high build is enough followed by using a curved cabinet scraper to remove tiny amount between frames, so just a little and others down to the ply but the effect is much more subtle and I am far happier with his now. This is a scraper ,its used to finish wood instead of sandpaper and is sharped by rubbing a burr onto the edge which acts as a hooked cutting edge. In guitar building we use scrapers as the surface does not have clogged pores in the wood, it keeps them nice and open for grain filling prior to varnish, sandpaper fills the pores with tiny fibres of torn wood. many old school craftsman use these still as they can produce shavings when done right, although in this case its paint so .... so right now my job is scrapping, sanding with 240 and applying final primer coats to all the plates on the topsides and superstructure and then once glazing is glued in bonding the plates to the hull for good, then as I get seams happening I can start applying weld beads, this will no doubt take a few weeks but at the end she will look like a grey primed real ship with all the little details of her plate work in place, namely the curtain plates (upstands around deck edges). First things first I have to get the first few plates in EXACTLY the right place, luckily I had the CNC pen in the seams on the play as they were cut but most of it has been sanded off, should have enough points to get it right, I will tape 9 plates together off the model and then place them on with double sided tape and remove and glue as I go This is how it will look as next stage is complete including the darker grey primer over he seams to help me keep track of what is done and what's not.
  3. Richard Dunn
    Already purchased all the profiles I need in bulk, but round or square it will get squashed when rolled over while soft with a fine serrated roller. If Davies Garner bought his Titanic model down here it would melt in a week, not kidding either. It makes model building a little more expensive but we do what we must, .5mm ply 1200 x 1200 is $100 per sheet. I have so far used 10 sheets of .5mm and 6 sheets of 2mm.
  4. Richard Dunn
    Thanks guys but this is not about making and gluing plates to the hull its about gluing the .5mm styrene rod into the groove in the .5mm ply. While people bought it up though I will write a bit about styrene panels as it stands In Northern Australia, IT does NOT work and it's a massive waste of time, I envy you fellows who have cooler climates but for us the glue simply lets go when heated up and the styrene deforms and pulls away or goes brittle, I had a previous model I was building have this happen and pulled it all off again, this is exactly why I use .5mm ply and not styrene. Its not something you would think of if you don't have 30-40 degree temps to worry about. I actually bought a whole pack of styrene, meaning 50 sheets of 900mm x 1200 mm years ago for this model and have since given it away. The only thing robust enough is wood on ply or vice versa and epoxy or in some cases aliphatic (Titebond). I appreciate the help on that but I have already had experience with plates and even considered metal plating but again because of the temps the expansion becomes an issue. I should point out I am a furniture builder by trade and although I stopped many years ago I have had lots experience with laminating tops with contact glue the tops made commercially use a industrial grade contact (usually red or yellowin colour) not the stuff you buy at hardware stores and its applied very thinly with sprayguns but even that will let go if heated enough, like leaving it in a hot garage. Here is an example below, notice the deck peeled back on aft superstructure on model on rack in background
  5. Richard Dunn
    To get back on track, I find myself at a milestone and paralysed by fear. I am ready to start the plating of the superstructure and hull but for some some strange reason I can't bring myself to start gluing them to model , I am worried I might have missed something maybe. It's a weird thing but I think once I do start I will move quickly as it will transform the model as all the plates are pre primed in grey and once glued on weld beads will be glued into edges and rolled in. I need to experiment with a glue to bond .5mm styrene rod into the v groove.. I am open to suggestions for this as this is something I know you guys will all have done. if I use styrene glue it will soften the rod and enable it to be rolled with fine serrated roller to get the weld bead look at the same time as pushing it into the grove nicely and of course then primed with airbrush ready for top-coating. Another idea that springs to mind is to soften rod and roll into place and once hardened again run a runny Super glue along bead to bond it in? Once rolled it will flatten the rod and widen it a bit, and by varying pressure a bit I can get the varying width look a bit.
  6. Richard Dunn
    Totally agree, we have 1 phone we use for emergencies as you said (wifes), and I do work in high tech jobs as well, VR and Computer graphics/animation and all that, my wife is a programmer. I do have to say though that we both taught Game Dev at 1st year UNI level for several years and took 236 students through this 4 year course and in that time the damage to most students communication ability we witnessed due to texting and phones is just scary. We even used to get reports written with large amounts of texting shorthand in it ,needless it was a fail as literacy was a key component.
  7. Richard Dunn
    I don't even have a mobile phone.
  8. Richard Dunn
    Hmmm you could be right, personally I wish Likes were not a thing, I prefer to actually communicate...but then I am old school.
  9. Richard Dunn
    Every few months I search the web for new photos that might have surfaced that people have posted of the ship, Isn't it annoying when people do because they think it will interest people and yet when you contact them they ignore you...I mean we modellers have more use than most for such images... It drives me nuts!.
  10. Richard Dunn
    Having a beer on the Wahine. Here is a shot I took for my father because I have just found my favourite beer in Australia after 20 years! but it puts the size in perspective.
  11. Richard Dunn
    I had not worked it out yet, I have worked out the following though total weight 195kgs Model weight 60-70kgs Batteries 28.5kgs x 2 = 57kgs Tank weight over2 tanks 36.5 kgs in trim Free ballast lead ingots 32 kgs The Bow tank is a massive 25.6 L/kgs and is an entire section between bulkheads, however the stern trim tank is only 11L as it is centreline based and has to fit between the prop shafts, I cant see any way of making it bigger and as I write this I realise I can make it bigger by stepping the tank out over the shafts once above them as long as tank can be removed if needed to get to shafts. Guys how far from motors is ok to avoid interference for the RC gear and speed controllers? Motors are in own compartment defined by Bulkheads up to waterline.
  12. Richard Dunn
    So after some research and advice from pump people I have arrived at this arrangement, I have 2 trim ballast tanks in the bow and stern of about 8 Litres each (not sure yet) but they will fill via seacock in bottom of hull of 10mm diameter and are controlled by electric ball valves. The inlets will be using the turbo alternator intakes in real ship as they have large enough openings and also grates over them to filter water and being within double bottom are nice and low down. The pumps are to be used to empty the tanks only, I was going to get 4 pumps and pump water in but hey what's the point, a 10mm hose will fill 4 litres in a short enough period and with the seacock being 150mm underwater at start it will have enough pressure to fill quickly, even with no pressure really. The pumps are pressure controlled so when the discharge seacock is opened it will activate the pump and pump out the tank. So basically each tanks has 2 electric valves and one pump in its arrangement. This is the valve at the shell. https://www.baccarastore.com.au/1/2-1-BSP-UPVC-Electric-Actuated-Ball-Valve-2-Wires-with-MO-and-Visual-Indicator And this is the pump. http://www.seaflo.com/en-us/product/detail/601.html Any thoughts or warnings?
  13. Richard Dunn
    If I did and in areas where I might need to around lateral thrusters I use a carving gouge and a guitar makers palm plane used for carving violins etc, in fact I used that to do most of hull as it really hacks away the wood. Finished up with disc sander on a grinder.
  14. Richard Dunn
    Ian I have thought long and hard about the benefits of carving the inside vs leaving it stepped, I have come to the decision to leave it stepped as long as its light enough to turn and work on my own, currently I can lift one end of the hull with one finger and lift and turn it with ease, I think it's about 8-9kgs. The thickness does not change if carved or not but to answer your question, the overlap of the planks is 16mm with the bottom flatter areas about 25mm but its not constant as it changes gradually (see image 16 & 17 on page one you can see the overlap marked on patterns). The thinnest part is at the other edge of the very bottom plank due to the rise of floor, the bottom plank is only 11mm thick at edge and 18.7mm full thickness at keel so the solution is to attach beams to the inside of the bottom at the level of the second plank , this will counter any tendancy for the flat of bottom to warp or cup over the midship portion of the model as well as provide extra strength for the batteries etc to sit on I may glass the bottom inside as well. I really wish I had thought of this technique of using multiple parts for each layer years ago, the use of timber is so efficient and so little wood was needed to make this, it's far more efficient than the Kirby technique which still relies on full length planks. if I had had to get planks for this hull full length and full half breadth the timber, even pine was going to cost about $2000 as the wide boards are so expensive and needed to be dressed externally by a joiner as I don't have the machinery to go that wide. This was built with standard dressed timber from Bunnings. Incidentally the whole carved part is underwater except top 20mm and sheer of course but by looking at this mass and you can see the displaced weight of 195kgs hence pumping ballast trim tanks.
  15. Richard Dunn
    Hull roughed out and 60% of one side sanded and filled ready for glass. Template accuracy. Actual templates are cut on CNC from plans
  16. Richard Dunn
    Exactly like that, thank you, so the term was diaphragm pump, now I will find a smaller version, thankyou!.
  17. Richard Dunn
    Hoping someone can point me right direction, I need a pump that can suck water in and spit it out based on a switch, that runs off 12v and is not submerged, but has pipes in and out, what am I looking for for this? This is for ballast. Only dealing with 10 L max
  18. Richard Dunn
    Well I have finally been able to step away from our major landscaping work and start back on model. The thrusters are on their way from UK and I need to get the hull carved so for last 2 days that's what I have been doing. It's been 15 years since I did some serious carving with chisels and planes and boy oh boy are my hands feeling it, all the callouses are gone and I have nothing but blisters to show for it. Carving shown within the final 1mm tolerance ready for aggressive sanding.
  19. Richard Dunn
    Been busy doing landscaping, and I might add ripped off to the tune of 15 grand in the process...anyway I have some movement in the bow and stern thrusters being made by Simon Higgins of Prop Shop in the UK. Very Verry happy chappy. they are true to scale of the real thing by the way
  20. Richard Dunn
    Yeah but keep in mind this is the 60's and tech was not as good as it is now....I guess but lots of old ships have this when framed in this way (transversely), when you look at the way modern ships are framed, which is longitudinally the spaces unsupported are much smaller and form a grid of sharp peaks, a whole different look. But yeah she was bad for it and that's why I hope you can see why the model has to have this detail. I know lots of people are horrified I am but if its one right I think it will look awesome, in some light..that's the key. it needs to be seen in some light and not others and will be hard to see on the white and most pronounced on the dark bronze green hull/ Although its a working model I will be doing the whole hull to not just above the waterline, having the framing plan for every prefab and shell expansion it can be done exactly. Like this but the older ones are quite lumpy due to the bigger unsupported area, as seen here on Wahine's side panels and bow.
  21. Richard Dunn
    Thanks, yeah you can see the actual effect here and on the first one its very apparent because the sun is directly in front of ship so the light highlights the extent of it, I was not comfortable making it as pronounced as it should be and do not want to risk getting marked down in competition for it making the model ugly.
  22. Richard Dunn
    Ok so I snapped a few shots of one of the plates while the primer was wet so you can see the effect. here you can see some of the acrylic glazing glued in with gorilla glue, film still in place As I said its subtle and understated
  23. Richard Dunn
    OK so this was too heavy handed and I need to halve the depth of the effect.
  24. Richard Dunn
    Well I think I have found the key to tin canning plating. The results are very very good. I have done tests with a number of fillers and I came to use selleys plastibond.....as usual, incidentally my father used this on his museum models to surface the bread and butter hulls he did for his models in 1967 and they have not cracked one bit to this day as they are still on display in the Otago Museum. So make a scraper like this from thin steel, in this case high carbon flexible steel, I used diamond stone to file the shapes. as you can see here 4 frames are in this scraper with the depth of the effect only .5-.6mm deep which is almost too much!! I need to allow for sanding which will knock it down a bit and also the high build primer which will fill the hollows a bit, all that will lesson the effect, I want it to be subtle, and only visible in certain light. Then apply...very quickly the filler to the pencil lines and drag the scraper along a clamped straight edge. Note also the grain in the finnish ply is so fine it does not need filling. another reason it's worth the extra money. Make sure you have a flat surface underneath like a tile and be very careful to mix the filler clean, any crap in it will cause drag marks. the result is this. because the plasti-bond is greenish you can see the effect works and the taper off in shape here. Once dry sand and randomise how heavily from frame to frame and round some ridge lines more than other and the result is what you see here..................,when the paint is dry I will show you. Time taken per plate 5 mins
  25. Richard Dunn
    Haha, Keith I work full time still and work on this from 2.30- 630 every day and weekends, but the CNC makes quick work of the build as everything is pre-cut and fits. Also being a furniture maker and guitar builder means I have the experience to work quickly and have the gear to. It does not feel quick to me trust me, and don't forget to that you guys have not seen the 4 months sitting on the computer modelling all this, that was the real build.

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