hexnut

I am continuing to work the deck furniture as I am having trouble staying motivated working on the masts.
 
I did get the transom installed. After rereading the instructions and careful study of the limited drawings I think the transom is supposed to extend up so the top of the transom piece is even with the top of the taffrail waterway. For whatever reason, probably my not shaping the stern correctly, the provided transom is too short to cover both the taffrail waterway and the stern planking. So the taffrail waterway will run on top of the transom and then the taffrail bottom rail on top of the waterway. I am guessing no one will notice.
 
Anyway, here is the hull with the primer painted forward deck house and the in-process after deck house along with the completed lifeboat.

The forward deck house assembly is complete except for the stove exhaust (I think).
 
The side view on Sheet 3 seems to show a sliding hatch but it does not show on the plan views on sheet 3 or 1 so I guess there is not one.
 
Here is the fwd deck house after the primer coat.

I finally have one thing "done".
 
Here is the lifeboat in its cradle and lashed down on the deck approximately where it will be on the finished model.
 
For those interested this is the 2 1/8" boat kit from Model Shipways with HO scale 1" X 8" boards from Northeastern Scale Lumber glued on the solid hull to get the clinker "look".

Yes I did  . Thanks for the replies guys  .
 
Speaking of problems - I found a doozy. A long time ago, when I was building the front bogie, I made this drum-like piece which turns out to be part of the steering mechanism :

This is the only diagram of this part - nothing in further diagrams to show how it fits, so at the time I put it aside with the thought it may become more obvious later in the build. Unfortunately it should have been fitted much earlier before I'd fitted the main axles and wheels, as the front axle is supposed to go through the middle of it. How to fix the problem?
 
I approached the dilemma with the thought in mind of leaving it off altogether if I couldn't work out a solution. There was no way I could easily remove the axle as it was attached to the wheels with CA glue - impossible to remove without causing major damage to already fitted parts. In addition the crank and a few other parts would also have to come off.
 
I came up with the idea of splitting the drum in half and slipping it over the axle. If the idea didn't work then I'd have had to leave it off, but at least I wouldn't have damaged anything else. The sequence below shows how I did it. First pic is of the axle it had to fit around and the seemingly impossible place it was in :

Removing the two hexagonal ends was fairly easy, as I hadn't scraped off the clear coat. A single-edge razor blade did the trick :


After cleaning everything up the three pieces went on relatively easily :

All done  :

Danny

More forward progress since the last post. The workshop was cold today and rain poured down all day. The sort of day it would have been better to stay in bed.
 
I got fed up with drilling holes so got the paint can out. The rest of the deck holes can come along later.
 
The deck has been given 4 coats of clear poly and in consequence has darkened up significantly. The next photo is taken mid way through the 1st coat. 

The next sequence shows the deck at the end of the 4th coat. More coats still required.
 

I also had a go at the deck bosses for the bulwark reinforcing struts. 100 of these bosses are required - more on that topic in a later post.
I decided it was time to mate the deck with the hull. The deck has to follow the convex shape of the frames while taking on a slightly concave shape fore and aft. I had checked the deck flexibility while planking so I was fairly sure it would bend without breaking or cracking. I also knew that I would need a lot of pressure to hold it in place while fixing. To apply the pressure at the deck edges I manufactured a set of hold down beams with spreaders at the deck edges  The pressure was applied by many elastic bands. Liberally applied PVA glue was used to secure the deck.

Eberhard - could you use porthole eyebrows - 2 for each porthole.
 
I bought these more than 30 years ago - and they do have rivets.

2 together

Size

Any good? - how many do you need?

Today I went off on a bit of a tangent. You may recall from earlier that I had simulated scuppers on the outside of the bulwarks. Photo below:-
I needed to create the matching feature on the inside of the bulwark as per the next photo.

The rim needs to be quite shallow - circa .007" thick. Plasticard seemed to be the sensible choice. I wanted all the rims to be identical so I contrived the following production method:-
 
I started by cutting the plasticard into a series of oblongs.

And these I stuck together using double sided sellotape.

I then went to the milll and drilled the internal corners of the scupper before removing the centre with a 2mm end mill.

I then cut the external profile on the table saw.

I then shaped the external corners with fine sandpaper before soaking in terps to separate.

I will simulate the hinges with thin plastic rod.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I'm still doing holes - this time various penetrations in the bulwarks.
You may recall that I had predrilled the plywood backing to the bulwarks so all I needed to do was extend the penetration trough the mahogany planks. Mindful of the possibility of splintering I drilled small holes from the plywood (inboard) side and then opened the holes with a file from the outboard side. The tape on the outboard side is in preparation for painting the inner bulwarks white.
 
The bulwark penetrations on Germania have reinforcing (anti chafing) rings around the edges. These rings look identical when viewed from both inboard and outboard.

I scaled the rings (2 sizes) from a combination of plan detail and photographs and then had a root through my "bits stock" until I found some eyelets which were pretty much spot on. My plan was to remove much of the neck of the eyelets and inset the shortened rolled over ends from both sides of the bulwarks. The neck needed to be shortened by more than half - to a length of .050". I needed to do this accurately and also needed to clamp the eyelets while cutting. The following sketch shows the cutting jig / clamp I made.

I cut the jig out of a piece of .5" x 1" bar. The webs are .050" thick one each for the smaller and larger eyelets.

With the eyelets in place the jig is held in the vice clamping the eyelets and allowing them to be cut and filed to length. 


I test installed the eyelets which turned out both neat and realistic, the butt joint being virtually invisible.

I now have all the eyelets cut awaiting installation later.

Yes Eberhard - you have to have done it to know how something as simple as a hawser pipe can turn out so tricky. All those compound angles make ones head ache.
Hopefully so John.
 
I wanted to get away from holes and I ended up doing even bigger ones. On the rear deck are 3 hatches. When I built Altair I somehow missed the deck hatches and when I realised it was too late to rectify. 
I carefully marked out the locations after establishing the positions from photographs. It took a bit of interpretation but I'm fairly sure about the result. 
Having marked the positions I drilled holes at the corners and widened these with a round file - the corners of the hatches have a circular profile. I then cut the sides carefully with a craft knife (supressing the worry that I would slip and wreck the deck).



I then laid up planks on a ply base and cut this up to form hatches. To create the definition at the edges of the hatches I glued black paper strips around the edge before insertion. The hatches are inserted in the next photo but not glued.

I then cut the notches to take the simulated hinges - to be installed at a later date. I then glued the hatches in place and sanded them back flush with the deck.

There are two further small hatches at the bow but I have only scant information on their shape and size. Only fragments of them appear on my photos. I think I will leave them out.
 

If you get tired of working on your model, build a mini-rocket. 😎
 
 

Seeing the F-15E along side of the Rafale gives a striking visual of the size of this aircraft...enormous.
 
 

There was a mistake with the kit much earlier in the build, which means that the cab/boiler/bunker won't go on properly. The section below is 1.5mm too deep (I cut it right  ) so I had to remove it using a combination of scalpel and Isocol and fixed the problem :


It took me a couple of days to fit the sand pipes, all 24 of them. I still need to do the very bottoms of them, which I'll do a bit later in the build :

I made up some brackets to anchor the pipes above the wheels and keep them in position :

A couple more views of the pipes :


The last major sub-assemblies are the two water tanks alongside the boilers. Here's one of them during assembly of the framework :

After skinning the water tanks there came the job of gluing on the rivets - all 1,840 of them. I've had problems with the rivets coming off on the cab and coal bunker due to the clear coat on the kit, but I think I found the solution after a bit of experimenting. Isopropyl Alcohol removes the clear coat without harming the printed finish  :



Some lifting lugs. I'm going to re-do the four I did earlier on the coal bunker to match these as the others look too thin (0.3mm as compared to 0.5mm wire and a different shade of red as well) :


One of the tanks sitting in place. More work needs doing to it before I can do the final fitting :



Danny

The roof is lined on the inside as well. I pre-formed it before gluing it on. There are 8 air vents in the top section :




The coal bunker has now been fitted to the cab, and the cab roof as well. It sounds easy when you say it quickly  :


 

Next job will be to fit the entire boiler/cab/coal bunker unit to the chassis.
 
Danny

Thanks for the comments guys, and also to all those who "Liked" my posts  .
 
I've done all the cab detailing that I'm going to do. A few of these parts will be a bit difficult to see when the cab is completed, but the pics are proof that they are in there  .
 
This triple valve is made from brass tubing and styrene rod. The handwheels are laser-cut paper :





Two scratchbuilt switch panels :


Now I could fit the sides. The fit was perfect  :



Some final pics of the cab interior before things get harder to see :

 



Danny

The coal bunker has also been made. I'll fit this to the cab after I've done a bit more detailing to the controls :




The ladders and lights :




The completed coal bunker :



Danny

More plumbing fitted :


I've also fitted the cab to the boilers and added a temporary support under the front of the boiler while work continues :



Danny
 

No, I won't be ripping anything out  . I have used those pics and the website they came from to enhance my model a bit, so thanks for posting them  . I'm leaving the lubrication pipes where they are as they don't interfere with anything else. I won't be going to the extent that the other guy did - he's used some 3D printed fittings which I can't get for a few weeks (but I ordered some). Most of the difference with our models is that he's painted his, which I won't be doing.
 
I've made the two sides of the cab. Here's my procedure for glazing the windows :






And the completed sides :



Danny

i found this for you:
https://papermodels.pl/thread-10114.html

All good now, I fixed it. Just a slip of the pen originally  .
 
"what did they supply for the plumbing.........your use of the metal rod is a better alternative"
They don't supply anything for plumbing, but metal rod or wire is specified in the instructions. Most of these have a diagram you can follow, plus the size of wire.
 
Thanks everyone else for the comments. This is a most enjoyable model to build from a good publisher. The kit has a few small problems, but which kit doesn't? Nothing I haven't been able to work around.
 
Danny

Exquisite build of an exquisite model!  Congratulations!
Just wanted to make sure your plate reads "CEGIELSKI" and not "CEGIEISKI", as below. (It is a well known Polish locomotive manufacturer, even today.)

I've just spent about 4 hours cutting and fitting four windows. I've sandwiched some 0.25mm clear acrylic between the outer frame and the wall by cutting the hole in the lamination piece 0.5mm larger than the skin piece. They turned out perfect :




Danny

Thanks Caroline  .
 
Now I could fit the two forward sections of the boilers together. The join is behind one of the black "real" joining strips. They lined up perfectly  :



The next step will be the start of the cabin.
 
Danny

Thanks for dropping in again guys  .
 
"It might be possible with a bit of trickery to make the model work on air."
Michael, none of my models are "powered" by anything more than my hand or fingers. I'm not about to start now   . Electric (battery) power would be the only option I would consider, but I'm way past the stage of installing anything like that.
 
The sandboxes and safety valves on top of the boilers. These have domed tops which came out well thanks in part to the preparation work I did. The rounded part of the extra card infill was first cut almost to shape with a scalpel (right) before final sanding with a sanding stick (left) :

At a quick glance the ends of the tabs on the skins looked straight - they weren't  :

The boxes fitted to the two boiler sections :


This next piece - the compressor - took me two full days to make. There are 28 separate sections in the fins alone :

A jig made alignment a little easier :

The glued fin section before any final finishing :

Some of the fins were very slightly larger or smaller than others (I'm talking 0.2mm at worst) but the differences were noticeable so I cut and filed them all to the same size :

It still needed a bit of cleaning up with a tapered piece of wood :


The finished compressor :



The start of thousands of 0.8mm rivets :

 
Danny

Hopefully I can remember how to take one on my old camera - it's been about 10 years since I last did  .
 
The firebox. There were laser-cut support frames for this and the boilers. I added some extra 10mm wide strips that just touch inside the sides to prevent any crushing, and also to stabilise the whole unit :


The cabin end has a rolled edge. I filled in the rounded part to give me something to work to :

Filling in that edge really helped a lot to make a nice even roll without any "wobbles". The lighting makes it look a bit uneven in the pics - in reality it's turned out close to perfect  . I glued each tab one at a time to give me time to push it into place properly :

The slots between four of the tabs wasn't drawn correctly, and I finished up with gaps in them when I glued it up. I filled the gaps with some scrap paper. They are nearly impossible to pick with the naked eye :



The skin was a beautiful fit, no adjustment necessary :


The ash box was a rather fiddly thing to glue up, but I'm more than happy with the result :

I glued some tapered card around the inside of the edges to stop any bowing while gluing the ash box to the fire box :

The result was pretty good  :

Danny

Getting the crank mechanisms to actually work took some thought, as the kit makes no provision for this - it's simply all glued together.
 
I made every joint moveable (too many actually - the valve control mechanism is separate from the drive cranks and didn't really need doing) by punching and pinning every one. Most joints are held together with paper "nuts" which are the only parts of the joints that are glued. Here is the slide for the upper shaft which also needs to pivot :



Some close-ups of all the right-hand side crank mechanisms :




With everything now in place the crank movement has really improved. It will get close to perfect once the drive wheels actually touch down - at the moment they are in mid-air as they don't have a flange like the other wheels.
 
I've started making the boilers. More progress updates will follow as I have something to show.
 
Cheers, Danny