hexnut

Good evening everyone
 
progressing with the railings and netting also the stations on the bridge roof are nearly complete
 
have stained half the netting with a Flory wash to see the difference as i tone the white primer down
 

Good evening everyone, yep two posts in one day and LOL i have still got 12 working days left
 
put everything on that i have made up for a photo tonight, so i can start to work out how i am going to achieve making her look like a working boat, next month should be back to the hull and do some catch up work with that, i would say she is about 50% built now, but then on top of that there is all the clutter to be made
the bridge walkway railings still need to be adjusted, as they form the handles on the steps leading down 

Good morning everyone
 
made the other side walkway this morning, and put the netting over the rai;ing set that sits on top of the cod oil house, then put a matt white primer over it all
 
nothing is in its final position yet, an still needs more work to make it look presentable

 

A few month ago I acquired a KKMoon K4 3W miniature desk-top laser-cutter and it has proven to be a useful investment. Therefore, I would like to share a few operational insights, though you can find a variety of ‘test’ videos and the like on the Internet.
As with many Chinese products of this kind, it comes in various guises and configurations that may be mechanically identical or not. The traders’ descriptions are often somewhat haphazard and also suffer from translation issues. I am not sure, whether KKMoon is a trader or a manufacturer, their Web-site does not actually list these laser-cutters.
Prices between the different offers on the Internet marketing platforms can vary as much as 30%. However, I paid just over 100€, shipping included.

Image of the laser-cutter as advertised
 
 
 
The stated main specification of the machine I bought are
 
 
- Size: about 155 mm x 166 mm x 143mm
- Weight: ca. 600 g
- Laser Power: 3 W (3000 mW) – blue = xxx nm wavelength
- Engraving Area: about 80 mm x 80 mm (3.1" x 3.1")
- Engraving Depth: about 1 mm /0.04" (Adjustable in the range of 0-1 mm)
- Mechanical resolution: 0.05 mm = 512 dpi
- Supporting System: for Windows XP / 7/8/10 and MacOS 10.10 or later
- Supporting Image Format: JPEG / JPG / PNG / BMP
- Connectivity: Micro USB B to USB A (cable included)
- Frame Material: ABS
 
 
The laser-cutting system consists of three main components that determine its capabilities: the mechanics, the control board, and the software.
 
 
Mechanics
 
The mechanical resolution of 512 dpi is not that brilliant, if you compare this with modern scanners or printers, but then mechanics have their price.
The 3 W diode laser has an adjustable focal point.
 
 
Control Board
 
I know next to nothing about electronics and commercial products, such as the control board that is being used in this machine. It would be particularly interesting to know, whether the board could be driven by other types of software. Perhaps someone from the Forum community has insights into this.
 
 
Driver
 
The software consists of two components, the driver and the cutting software itself. The driver is a standard piece of software under MS Windows and either comes with your MS Windows configuration or can be downloaded from the software producer’s Web-site. The driver runs under MS Windows XP/7/8/10. I am using an oldish mini-laptop with MS Windows XP on it. The driver unfortunately does not run under MS Windows emulation Parallels under MacOS 10.7.1, nor under the iOS for the iPad pro. The cutting software, however, seems to run in Parallels under MacOS 10.7.1. It should also run under MacOS 10.10 and higher, but I could not test this.
 
 
Cutting software
 
The cutting software is a very simple piece and is based on bit-image processing. In other words, the image is processed line by line from the top down and whenever a black pixel is encountered, the laser flashes. As noted above, the software can handle JPEG-, JPG-, PNG-, and BMP-files, but not TIFF. Images of up 1600 x 1600 pixels can be processed.
There are three variables that can be adjusted to control the cutting process: the laser power in %, the cutting depth in 0.01 mm increments, and contrast (0 to 256). It is obvious, what the power adjustment does and I assume the cutting depth is determined by the length of the laser pulse. The cutting speed cannot be adjusted explicitly. What influence the contrast setting has is not completely clear to me, as the screen appearance of the image changes, even when I use a 0/1 b/w bit image. In practice, however, it does change the width of the cutting traces.
The image to be cut can be freely moved around the cutting area of 80 mm x 80 mm on the screen.
 

Screenshot of the cutting software user interface
 
Set-up
 
The machine is mobile and in principle does not require any special set-up apart from a flat surface. However, any energy penetrating the material cut will be taken up by the surface on which the machine stands. This means that the material has to be fire-proof. I happened to have a piece of roof-slate at hand, which turned out to be very useful for the purpose. Pieces of marble or tiles would do as well.
The laser beam needs to be focused onto the material to be cut. The machine comes with a piece of black cardboard for the purpose, but this is thicker than many of the materials to be cut. It is better to focus the beam on the material in question. The laser spot is very bright, making it difficult to see, whether its size is minimal. I found it useful to illuminate the cutting area with a strong table lamp so that the contrast is reduced during focus setting.
The material to be cut needs to lie absolutely flat. I have been thinking of making some clamping rails or similar. It turned out that short tabs of cellotape are quite sufficient for the purpose. The small pieces of material are just taped down at each corner onto the slate.
 
 
Cutting times
 
I did not make systematic tests, but the examples shown here took about 10 minutes to cut. I would estimate that covering the full 80 mm x 80 mm cutting area would take in the order of about one hour.
 
 

Steering wheels cut from 0.15 mm thick Canson paper (120 g/m2) (cutting area about 40 mm x 40 mm)
 
 
 
Capabilities
 
Whether a material can be cut by laser depends on a number of properties of the material in question. First of all the material must be either combustible or it must be able to be evaporated. The material must be capable to absorb enough energy to reach its combustion point or its evaporation temperature. Whether a material can absorb enough energy depends in turn on a number of factors.
A key factor is its albedo, in other words, how well the material reflects or absorbs light. Bright and shiny materials reflect most of the light, as do white and light coloured materials. Hence they are not absorbing enough energy. Conversely, dark and in particular black materials absorb most of the light that is shot at them.
Another factor that determines how much energy is needed to combust or evaporate it is its volumetric density. Compact materials with no pores contain more mass per volume than porous materials and hence need more energy per volume to combust or evaporate. The volumetric heat conductivity is also important. If the material conducts heat well, the energy transmitted may become dissipated before it reaches the flash-point or the boiling-point.
While in theory virtually all materials could be cut with a laser, in practice the available laser may just not be powerful enough.
In practical terms this means that it is not possible to cut metal and transparent or translucent materials with this small laser. The 3 W laser just does not impart sufficient energy to melt and evaporate metals. Not surprising though. Plexiglas or tracing paper let all or too much of the light pass and therefore cannot be cut.
Bakelite paper has a high evaporation temperature and is translucent. It can be cut through in thicknesses of up to 0.1 mm, but edges become charred. A strategy can be to only cut part through and then brake off the part along the cutting. This works only for simple shapes with straight edges and not too small parts.
 
 
 

As set of doors (ca. 11 mm high) cut from 0.1 mm bakelite paper
 
White polystyrene is too reflective and is only lightly engraved, if at all. I did not have black polystyrene at hand to try this out.
 
I would abstain from cutting PVC due to the generation of toxic and corrosive combustion products.
 
I have not tried ABS or Lexan, but would expect similar issues as for polystyrene.
 
Celluloid might cut well, if you have a coloured variety. Transparent celluloid, including drafting films such as Ultraphane, will not work. The high flammability of celluloid may be an issue.
 
White paper works moderately well due to its high reflectivity. An important factor is also its weighing and seizing. Weighing with barite or titanium oxide makes it more difficult to cut, as both materials are refractory. A seizing with glue or plastic polymers increases the volumetric density and therefore make the paper more difficult to cut.
Coloured papers and cardboard work best, but thicknesses above 0.5 mm become more difficult to cut. The deeper the cut the more charring of the edges will occur, loosing precision in size and reducing the minimum size of features that can be cut.
I have not had the opportunity to cut wood, but I would expect that low-density woods cut better and then hardwoods. The size limitations are likely to be similar to those of cardboard.
 
Cork should cut reasonably well, but I have not tried it myself.
 
 
Drafting for cutting
 
As for any other ‘machining’ operation, the ‘tool’ diameter is an important consideration. The effective diameter of the well-focused laser-beam is in the order of 0.1 mm. These leads to the rounding of internal corners in this order of magnitude, but the actual rounding depends also on the size of the opening to be cut. Smaller openings may have a more perceptible rounding than larger ones.
In practice, the charring of the edges leads to slightly larger openings than those drawn. Thus the diameter of e.g. holes needs to be drawn 0.1 mm less than required. Similarly, slots should be chosen 0.1 mm narrower than the nominal width.
The laser sends a pulse for each black pixel encountered. When converting vector drawings into bit images, the question arises of the actual size of the parts that appear white in the final image to be used in the laser-cutter. This may depend on the line thickness chosen and the kind of drafting program. I found that I needed to experiment with the cutting parameters (power setting and contrast) and in some cases needed to redraft (parts of) the drawings in order to arrive at the correct size. Several iterations may be needed to arrive at the correct size. This also depends on the material, thicker material requiring more adjustments.
Every part that is black in the drawing will be burned. In order to reduce the laser time and the fumes generated, it is good practice to fill in any empty space. While this would be good practice in photo-etching too in order to safe etching fluid, often this is not done. However, when converting drawings for laser-cutting it is a good idea to fill in the empty spaces.
I use a 2D CAD system for drafting (EazyDraw™). This program allows the drawing to be exported into picture formats such as JPG. The resolution for this step has to be chosen so that the final part has the correct size for a resolution of 512 dpi or 202 pixels per centimetre. This means that a part that is 1 cm long should be 202 pixels wide in the JPG etc. file. In order to reduce the area to be burned, I usually import the image into Adobe Photoshop Elements™ and whiten all the respective areas. Sometimes is also convenient to draw the parts in solid black, which then necessitates their inversion in Photoshop. I typically export the drawings at 1024 dpi and then reduce the image in Photoshop to the desired width in the number of pixels as calculated for 512 dpi after the post-processing has been done. This allows me to ascertain that the drawing has the desired size. In this way it is also easy to produce cutting designs in various scales from the original drawing.
As the cutting happens on a flat surface and there is no mechanical interaction with the material, the cut pieces do not move from their place during the cutting process. Therefore, retaining tabs, as you would need in photo-etching, are not needed and the parts can be completely cut out. This avoids the problem of distortion during separation from the fret, particularly of very small parts.
 
 

A typical JPG-image as used for the cutting process (size around 35 mm x 30 mm)
 
 
 
Safety
 
Lasers are dangerous for the eyes and you are advised to consult the respective guidance on laser safety.
The laser-cutter comes with a green protective glass on one side. I also bought a pair of green safety-glasses for adjusting the laser focus, as viewing the focal point through the shielding glass is inconvenient.
The combustion fumes of certain materials can be a nuisance, noxious, or carcinogenic. In any case they are smelly. As noted above, it is wise to reduce the areas to be burned in order to minimise the amount of combustion products. For certain materials some kind of forced aeration may be needed, or you need to set up the laser-cutter outside.
Some materials may also be a fire hazard. However, none of the materials I worked with seem to have been problematic in this sense. There would not be enough mass to sustain a serious fire, but a fire-proof base is important.
In any case: never leave the machine running unobserved !
On the Internet you can see people, who have encased their cutters and added forced ventilation to it. Whether such arrangement is warranted, depends really on how intensively you use it. In my case it just runs occasionally for a few minutes at a time.
 
 
Conclusions
 
This technique cannot fully replace photo-etching to produce small, complex and delicate parts, but is is a versatile ad hoc option requiring little preparation in comparison. The cost of materials is minimal and therefore that of trial and error. There are no chemicals to manage safely, but fumes can be an issue.
There is no equivalent to the ‘surface etching’ process, parts are strictly two-dimensional. As in photo-etching, there is, however, the possibility to build up parts from several layers.
Metal surfaces and its edges can be made very smooth. Achieving the same effect with paper or cardboard is difficult, even when treated with wood-filler to produce some sort of compound material that can be sanded. In some applications that surface roughness does not matter or may be even desirable.
The mechanical resolution of 512 dpi and the diameter of 0.1 mm of the laser-beam impose limitations to the minimum size of parts that can be produced. Laser-cutting with such small desk-top machine cannot compete with commercial etching processes using high-resolution masks.
In scratch-building, when parts need to be developed as the building goes on this kind of laser-cutting certainly is a useful ad hoc and flexible process.

I managed to make some time to work on the Bremen Cog this week.
 
On other Shipyard kits, the frames are all covered with a first layer of "planking", what a lot of people call "skin". On this kit, only the lower part of the hull is covered. On the upper part, there are only stiffeners.

 
I already test fit the internal floor and walls and assembled the longitudinal beams that will support the main deck. Not sure why so much interior is present. There is only one small hath on deck, and even if it's left open, you wouldn't be able to see more than just the area around the mast. I actually took this photo before adding the hull stiffeners or lower hull covering.

 
I started painting using the paints included in the kit in the mixture described in the instructions. It's actually something of a two step process, as you first have to paint the parts with the light colored paint. It's simply labeled 03 on the jar, but the manufacturer, Renesans, says it's Naples Yellow.  I found that it works best to thin it down and then paint the paper with it and let it dry for at least 24 hours. 

 
I didn't do such a great job with the paint job on the interior. It was my test/practice area and isn't going to be very visible anyone, so I wasn't too worried about it. In the instructions, the builder clearly painted all the laser-etched nail heads. I didn't think I was going to be able to do these, but I ended up giving it a shot later on. Only thing was that I didn't decide to paint the nail heads until I had completed the interior area.

In the last photo, you can see that the nail heads turned out okay. At least I thought so. It took a little time, but wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I just had to use a very fine brush and dab. 
 
 

Here the first mistake I made on this model. There are tabs along the edge of parts 37, 38, and 39. It wasn't very clear to me, but these tabs are supposed to be glued to the outside of the inner keel piece. I needed to correct this by adding just a little thickness to the edge of the inner keel piece, so i cut strips of excess card stock and glued them into place. The photos show just the first strip.

 

 
Finally, here are some shots of the first of the planking.

That puts me somewhere on page 11 of the instructions. A long ways to go, but I ran across someone else's build log on a paper modeler's forum and was inspired by their build and the fact that it took them only a little more than a month to complete it. I can't imagine my build will be so quick, but it's nice to know it's possible.
 
Next time I post a build update, I should have the main hull planking completed.
 
Clare
 
 

Hi VTHokiEE, looking over this kit, I don't see anything that you have to cut out, except for the flags. Everything else is laser-cut, so you just have to cut the tiny tabs that hold each part to the sheet. 
 
If you really like lighthouses, then some of the Shipyard lighthouse kits will give you some good experience with the laser-cut kits, but I don't really think it's necessary. I did build their Crowdy Head lighthouse kit, which was a pretty neat kit though.
 

Very quick build, and you do get a good taste of what the Shipyard kits are like.
 
Clare
 
 

Chris, are you going to build the kit, or just do a review? Hope you build it. I'd love to see it going together.
 
As for the Bremen Cog review, I'm thinking there is enough there to tell people what they want to know. 
 
One thing I'll add here, and as a disclaimer I should point out that this is kind of a plug for a company that I do some work for, but I kind of talked the owner of Ages of Sail into carrying the two laser-cut cog kits, plus a big order for their new wooden kit.  So if anyone is considering building any of these, please consider buying from Ages of Sail!
 
Now, on to the build...
 
To start with, I used a scalpel to cut the needed parts from the laser-cut sheet. The instructions show a double-edged razor blade, but that seems a little dangerous. The scalpel works quite well.

It is interesting that they laser-cut scarf joints. They look great, but they will get covered over later in the build. At this stage, I used simple Elmer's wood glue for these parts. It allows me some adjustment of the parts before the glue sets. In the photo above, it's a bit hard to tell, but the bow end is on the left side.
 

The next step was to fit all the bulkheads and hull stiffeners into place. All the parts slip easily into place and no glue was used at this stage – I wanted to test fit everything first. Plus, I love how quickly the hull takes shape at this early stage.
 


As you can probably see, once I was happy that I got everything into the correct places, I started adding glue to the joints. The close spacing of the bulkheads already gives the model a very solid feel, though the bulkheads at the ands are very delicate and they will buckle very easily, so a lot of care is needed in handling it yet.
 
The above photo doesn't show the vertical stiffeners that are added next. There are two on either side of the keel. You can see the slots for them in the bottom of the bulkheads. There is also a piece that is added to the outer edge of the lower bulkheads. You can see the notches for them in the edge of the bulkheads below the lower deck. You'll see this in later photos.
 

With the bulkheads all glued into place, you'll notice an interior space taking shape. This will be deal with in my next post. This takes me into page 6 of the 52-page kit instructions.
 
The instructions here discuss their method of painting to give the model a wood-like appearance.
 
Clare
 
 

1:64 Zulu Fishing Boat - KIT PREVIEW
Vanguard Models
**Coming soon**
 

 
Vanguard Models are currently around 2 months (give or take) from releasing two new kits which are suitable for both beginner and expert alike, but of course engineered to help those who want to try their hand at modelling a ship/boat in timber. Both models are in 1:64 and both are working vessels; fishing boats. These are the Zulu and Fifie class of vessel which tended to operate around the south-eastern coast of Scotland, mainly as herring fishers. If you know Chris's style of design, then you'll see it here in this preview kit I have for the Zulu. 
 
This is a preview only and isn't designed to be a review. It's simply to show you the basic box contents before Chris finishes the kit. Firstly, it isn't a finished-boxed product, being sent to me in a regular shipper box. It also has no instructions and no plans at this stage, and rigging blocks/cord/sails will be with me later. My own build which Chris wants to use for a box-art photo, will be made using his prototype photos that I'm currently editing for his instruction manual. Sails will be provided as an extra, should the modeller want them. Many don't use sails, so you'll not pay for something you won't use when you buy the initial kit. Despite the model also being pitched at newcomers and novices, no poor quality materials have been used. You get pear in this kit, with an option to buy with a maple deck instead of lime.
 
The Zulu contains:
 
2 x 3mm MDF sheets 3 x 1mm pear sheets 1 x 2mm pear sheet 1 x 3mm pear sheet 1 x 2mm acetate sheet 1 x 0.8mm ply (single part) 1 x 0.7mm maple or lime wood laser cut/engraved deck (lime is standard) 1 x 0.4mm PE sheet Timber strip Metal tubing  
Not seen in this photo are the rigging blocks and cord, and the optional sails.
 
MDF Sheets
One thing you'll note here is that Vanguard Models are now using laser engraving on their parts, so everything is pre-numbered and there are also bevelling lines so you can roughly shape bulkheads before assembly to the false keel. Final shaping can be done later. 






 
 
1mm pear sheets
These are very nice indeed. Timber quality is excellent, and I love the pink hues of this stuff. Note that the bulwarks (supplied in halves) have the positions engraved on them for the timberheads. The first two lower planks are also included to take the guesswork out of those shapes near the keel. A rabbet has also been cleverly engineered into the design, and you won't need to cut or chisel a single thing to create it! The rabbet will help those second planks sit snugly into position.






 
 
2mm pear sheet


 
 
3mm pear sheet



 
2mm acetate sheet
All models from this company have clear acetate stands supplied with them, and this includes these two fishing boats. These just push together with no need for adhesive, although you could, if you wanted to, drop a little PVA into the slot as it will dry clear. The acetate is covered in a blue plastic film which you first peel off, as seen here. A benefit of a clear stand is that it won't hinder the view of the completed hull!

 
 
0.8mm ply (single part) and 0.7mm maple deck
All kits, as standard, will be supplied with an engraved lime wood deck. The kit which I've been sent has the maple option. As you can see, it does look really neat, and the engraving is excellent, including proper trunnels instead of just dots. This deck will sit atop the ply one seen here, but only when the hull is built (and painted).



 
 
Strip wood and tube
Three bundles of materials are supplied with this kit, all of high quality. The alloy tubes are for the flues. Materials are 1x5mm limewood for first planking, 1x4mm pear for second planking, and walnut for the rest (dowels, half round strip and 1x1mm strip)





 
 
Photo Etch & errata
A reasonable size PE sheet is included, manufactured from 0.4mm brass. Brass nails are the excellent Amati ones with no malformed heads or points etc. Probably the best I've ever used.




 
As I say, this isn't a complete kit. It needs the rig, blocks, optional sails, instructions, plans and a box, but it should give you a good idea about how the finished product will look.
 
Here's a photo of the prototype, so far.
 

 
 
 

She's got legs and knows how to use them.
 

 
 

I am impressed at the quality of your painting and the vast collection of jars that you have. Truly impressive.
What are the ones in the center, saying Acrylic on the glass?
 
Yves

Suffered a bit of a setback today as while I was handling the Avenger model, butter-fingered it, then watched it fall from chest-high to land smack down on the ceramic tile floor. It broke away both horizontal stabilizers as well as the rudder separated from the vertical stabilizer. In addition, I lost two rocket mounts and had to scratch build two replacements. It could have been worse...lots worse, so I am thankful the damage was minimal considering how far it fell and the hard floor it landed on.
In the photos, I am dry fitting the underwing components and the bomb bay doors. Note the aircraft has two radar array antennae on each side of the wings. Didn't realize the Avenger was radar equipped until I built this model. There are still numerous detail items to add as well as decals and paint details. I might leave the rockets off, but have not decided yet.
 

This is truly a BIG bird..... You did a superb job at painting it.
 
Yves

Here, I've highly reduced intermediate blue paint to apply to the navy blue to give the effect of sun bleached/salt stained panels and add some depth to the model. Intermediate blue mixed 1 part paint to 10 parts reducer, then misted lightly over various panels.
 

Got the wing roots masked, then the tops of the wings got painted. Photos shown are with masks attached, then masks removed.
 

Next will mask the fuselage at the upper wing root, and then paint the tops of wings navy blue. This will complete the basic tri color camo scheme, but there are some details to paint and add before decals and weathering.
 

Looking fine craig,   how long do you do you keep the masks on before removing them?
 
OC.

The tri-color US Navy scheme requires a lot of masking. Would be nice if there was a pre cut paint mask available. In hindsight, I could have cut my own paint masks much easier if I had done that before starting construction, using my kit parts as a pattern. Next time.
Getting closer to the finish line now.
 

 

The paint racks came from a vendor on Etsy. He laser cuts MDF material and you assemble them yourself. Very simple and well fitting, cheap. They are made to fit the small Tamiya size bottles or you can buy them to fit the smaller Vallejo style bottles.
 
Here, I've attached the wings to the fuselage and am slowly adding the necessary parts so that I can begin painting the model. Soon.
 

Finally completed the painting of our house last week, but this week got started on our detached garage. This morning, visited an outlet called, Habitat for Humanity, where they sell new and used home/building construction materials for charity fund raising. They have excellent bargains on a large variety of useful items. I picked up a brand new solid core door for my garage for a measly $45...my kind of deal. Brought it home and installed it and painted it, then pressure washed our garage in preparation of painting. Tomorrow we may get rain so I could get more modeling time in if I'm lucky.
 
Here's what I've been doing in between other chores. Wing construction. The wings have some working features built in including a wing fold mechanism, working flaps and ailerons, machine gun and ammo box/chute details, removable gun access covers. I don't care much for working features on my models, but will probably pose my flaps as dropped. I am picturing the wing fold mechanism just so you can see it but plan to glue the wings in the extended position. Photo etch strips cover the gaps where the wings close together. In the photos, you can see one of the strips in position with the others to be added.
The Avenger wings have a massive chord length, likely meaning they give lots of lift for heavy bomb loads.
 
  

A dry fit of the bomb bay doors before moving on to another step. Will leave the doors off until the end. One less thing to work around when masking and painting the overall aircraft, and one less thing to knock off or break.
 

The Avenger model comes with a set of bi-fold bomb bay doors. The doors are enhanced with a fully photo etch lined inner door detail provided stock in the kit.

 
Often, modelers ask what type of glue to use for photo etch. While CA glue has it's place in the scheme of things, my personal favorite most of the time is acrylic glue. Why? *The slower drying time gives plenty of latitude for positioning the part without it inadvertently adhering too soon. *It dries completely clear with no fogging. *It dries very thin without a buildup. *It cleans up with water. *It's a more flexible bond, not brittle like CA. I can easily clean up any excess glue with a paint brush wetted with water to eliminate any sign of the glue on the finished model.

 
Another question modelers often ask, what is the best primer for photo etch? My choice is Mr Metal Primer. *It is a solvent based primer, and completely transparent. *It adheres very well to photo etch and mostly eliminates the chance of the finished paint color peeling away from the photo etch. *It can be brushed onto delicate photo etch parts and is self leveling. *Dries quickly. *Since it has no color pigments, it will not obliterate the fine surface details that photo etch is meant to provide.

 
The kit provides pre shaped bomb bay hinges for the doors to attach in a bi-fold fashion.
 

With this aircraft and many other WW2 US aircraft, you want the inner canopy frame colored zinc chromate. To achieve this, the canopy is first painted (on the outside) with zinc chromate. After the z.c. is dry, then a coat of the exterior color is painted on the canopy frame, in this case navy blue. 
Twice I glued on and subsequently knocked off the photo etched turret gun sight. Finally decided to wait until just before the turret glass was installed to glue it on for the last time.  
I have finally arrived at the time to join the fuselage halves.
 

How do you remove the masks  after painting  - I assume a blade would be no good due to scratching the  canopy parts.
 
OC.

I was able to get quite a bit of work accomplished with Jenny. I went back in on the lower hull and with a stiff brush and added Green Grunge weathering powder from Bragdon Enterprises. I then sprayed the hull with a coat of Testors Dullcoat to seal the powder.
    I repainted the hatch covers to a light greyish white and glued the covers to the deck. I added a bit more 'grunge' to the deck with some brushed on graphite dust and then flicked some water-downed red onto deck and hatches. I think she is looking like a working shrimp boat similar to the movie version. 
     In the movie, the life preservers are hung high on the side of cabins. I removed the square frame and the glue pin from the back of the preservers. I added some line and a rope coil (which hides the original placement hole on the cabin's bulkhead) and glued into place. 
     I put together the winch assembly. The instructions are really vague on the placement of end parts so be careful. If fitted incorrectly, the winch will sit too low and interfere with the main hatch. Painted assembly and the wound some line around the pulleys that will go to the stabilizers rigging and glued into place.
     Glued the aft wheel assembly to the deck. I drilled hole into the deck where the center steering column glues into for extra support.  

Today I worked on putting together my parts for the aft steering column. This was created strictly for filming Forest at the wheel. The figure came with the kit. The control box and U shaped frame was made with Evergreen plastic. I drilled hole in control box to allow me to place a wire through and bent the handles with a fine pliers. Used Elmer glue blob to create the round knobs on controls. The wheel is a spare part from a pirate kit. I cut off the extended handles and remove 4 of the inside rods of wheel. I also drilled holes into the bottom of U frame so I can insert a wire for more support when glued to the deck.