glbarlow

My Proxxon mill doubles as a drill press for my limited needs, it also works as a spindle sander. But if I find table specie for a drill press this looks like a nice option, thanks for sharing. 

Nice, I’ll use this technique for the quarterdeck guns. This should work great with a lighter look on those rails. 

Nice, I’ll use this technique for the quarterdeck guns. This should work great with a lighter look on those rails. 

My Proxxon mill doubles as a drill press for my limited needs, it also works as a spindle sander. But if I find table specie for a drill press this looks like a nice option, thanks for sharing. 

My Proxxon mill doubles as a drill press for my limited needs, it also works as a spindle sander. But if I find table specie for a drill press this looks like a nice option, thanks for sharing. 

Nice, I’ll use this technique for the quarterdeck guns. This should work great with a lighter look on those rails. 

Nice, I’ll use this technique for the quarterdeck guns. This should work great with a lighter look on those rails. 

Today I installed the QG door frames,

these are simple, but require a little work, there’s a lot of business going on in the back so some parts need to be trimmed but your saw will make quick work of this.
I started at the upper gun deck and worked my way down.

the outboard stern frame has a ledge cut in it for all the door frames to rest on, they also slot into frame 25, no modification should be required on the upper most and lowest frames.
Make sure that the notches face each other as seen below

The frame marked “GD upper” requires a little trim in order to clear the stern frame jig, I just
marked it and ran it through the saw and cut off about 1/16”

the same applies to the frame marked “lower” as It has a slight interference with the upper frame support jig

I did the same here as well, I just trimmed off about 1/16” on the table saw and glued it in place

with all four pieces in I just ran some scrap AYC through the saw to 1/4 x 3/16”. Take a measurement and adjust your saw to cut them at the right angle, then cut to the right length. I cut all 4 the same and they fit right in the slots.


Next I will cover the main frame support that will hold all those pesky frames in place while I build all the gun ports and plank the upper parts of the model.
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
JJ
 

I always use Bob Smith Industries CA Medium Insta-cure purple bottle for planking. Not because I have to use CA but because I want to. 
 
Never direct from the bottle, from thin CA applicators also from Bob Smith. 

I always use Bob Smith Industries CA Medium Insta-cure purple bottle for planking. Not because I have to use CA but because I want to. 
 
Never direct from the bottle, from thin CA applicators also from Bob Smith. 

The NRG Merchantman Half Hull project is now complete. Excellent tool for developing planking skills. Highly recommend! More to come on my Winnie build journey.
 

The jigs and alignment designs are really clever, and we all gotta love those large rubber bands.  Your nice work continues, well, nicely.  Not just the build but the designing aspect, a talent that is well beyond me but one I admire. 

The jigs and alignment designs are really clever, and we all gotta love those large rubber bands.  Your nice work continues, well, nicely.  Not just the build but the designing aspect, a talent that is well beyond me but one I admire. 

Well deserved success, glad things are going well!  I hope Surprise stays on your radar. 

The jigs and alignment designs are really clever, and we all gotta love those large rubber bands.  Your nice work continues, well, nicely.  Not just the build but the designing aspect, a talent that is well beyond me but one I admire. 

The jigs and alignment designs are really clever, and we all gotta love those large rubber bands.  Your nice work continues, well, nicely.  Not just the build but the designing aspect, a talent that is well beyond me but one I admire. 

Not at all, that makes it all the more impressive. 

What a process doing this all from scratch. Amazing work.

The jigs and alignment designs are really clever, and we all gotta love those large rubber bands.  Your nice work continues, well, nicely.  Not just the build but the designing aspect, a talent that is well beyond me but one I admire. 

The jigs and alignment designs are really clever, and we all gotta love those large rubber bands.  Your nice work continues, well, nicely.  Not just the build but the designing aspect, a talent that is well beyond me but one I admire. 

I finished assembling the stern jig yesterday and began installing the stern frames, you can see below the two pieces that fit in the main jig to align all the frames
First you install the lower piece, it should fit pretty snug, so very little glue necessary,
just make sure it’s pushed all the way in and even on both sides.

the same goes for the top piece as well, snug and pushed in all the way, just a little glue necessary.

Once you have the jig fully assembled you can begin to install the stern frames. I began with the inboard frames and worked my way out. Be sure to test fit the frames into their slots before you try and push them in otherwise they will break, I sanded them gently to reduce the thickness just slightly so I had a good fit but not too tight. Do not modify the jig, its
designed to hold the frame exactly where it needs to be, so just keep it snug.
.
 

once you are happy with the fit in the jig and frames 25/24, go ahead and glue the frame down. Do not glue it to the jig! There are other pieces that will hold these all together permanently. You will have to use a small piece of scrap wood to gently push the middle two frames in from above.

Finally the most outboard frame can be fit and installed. You can see below that it just drops right in next to the MDF frame and it’s the last open slot on frames 24-25. It should sit about 1/32” below the outboard edge of the last MDF frame.

The frame should fit nicely into its jig, check to make sure both sides look even. Once everything looks good glue both outboard frames in position on frames 24 and 25 only. 
The frames can be secured with rubber bands while drying, there will also be some transverse structure going in to permanently tie them all together which I will cover next.
Below you can see the frames installed and rubber bands everywhere! 

This is a very delicate operation so take your time, it will pay dividends. It’s actually very simple, the jig does all the hard work. The jig will press down tight between frames 23-25, make sure it’s sitting down correctly and you shouldn’t have any problems. I just lightly glued it down as it will be removed after planking is complete.
 
JJ

Nice looking Flirt, well done. The number one rule of modeling is time to build is not a qualifier, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re enjoying yourself.
 
The .1mm thread looks fine as ratlines, definitely don’t want anything thicker. 

Thank you for the comments and the answers to my question!
 
@Thukydides, what a great resource! At first I could not make sense of your numbers, until I realised that the 5in and 1in were circumferences! That will indeed give only around 8 mm i diameter, which is really quite thin! It also fits well with @chris watton's comment that the actual thread size is slightly larger than 0.1 mm. I was never actually in doubt that the kit is correctly designed, I just couldn't understand how thin these ratlines were - it is so great to have the creator of the kit explain, so thank you for that. And thanks @glbarlow, it is clear that 0.1 mm is  good fit, it is just much thinner than I thought (based on no experience 😅). And I totally agree, the time spent matters not at all, as long as it is fun time - and it is! I just can't help gathering this kind of data for my own amusement and though perhaps other newcomers to the hobby might be interested.
I don't think I shall keep this kind of track on hours spent on future projects.
 
TJM

Nice looking Flirt, well done. The number one rule of modeling is time to build is not a qualifier, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re enjoying yourself.
 
The .1mm thread looks fine as ratlines, definitely don’t want anything thicker. 

Nice looking Flirt, well done. The number one rule of modeling is time to build is not a qualifier, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re enjoying yourself.
 
The .1mm thread looks fine as ratlines, definitely don’t want anything thicker.