America by hamilton - FINISHED - Mamoli - 1:66 scale

[hamilton]

Hello there:

 

This is just a placeholder for now, but I hope to dive into Mamoli's America kit in early September, once I've finished the Amati Hannah (in a bottle). I admit, I'll be happy to get back to building at a larger scale!!

 

I've been more of a lurker and very occasional contributor here for the last year, since I finished my HMS Blandford (see link in signature). It has been an extremely busy time at work and though I've kept up with modelling (finishing the Fair Rosamund and now nearly finished the Hannah) there hasn't been much time for the more social side of things.....Hopefully the coming year will be a bit more relaxed (HA!) and I'll be able to maintain this log and be a more active contributor on the forums. 

 

For now, some brief notes on my impressions of the Mamoli America kit.

 

Wood

Not bad. At first I was concerned less with the quality than with the amount supplied. There did not seem to be nearly enough for the double planking and deck planking. But then I read the instructions, which provided some explanation, though not much reassurance.....

 

Metal parts

The mast hoops, mast coats, boom saddles, and many iron bands for masts and spars are supplied as pre-made metal parts. This is a relief for me, since my metal working abilities are non-existent. The parts seem to be well made and well dimensioned and though they look quite similar, the plans clearly identify each one.

 

Plans/Instructions

The plans are clear and complete, which makes the instructions more or less unnecessary except as a (frequently vague) guide to interpreting some of the drawings. 

 

There are a few parts/pieces missing from the kit - one of the blue plastic skylight windows and 4 of the 6 capstan whelps. The whelps I can make from scrap wood I think, but I'll have to replace all the windows....

 

There is also a particular oddity about this kit. The instructions state that the second planking should only go as far down the hull as the waterline, after which the second planking is replaced by small wooden pieces simulating copper plates. To my way of thinking this seems like a very difficult way to approach the planking of the hull, and if anyone who has built this kit can give me guidance here I'd appreciate it! I'm tempted to just apply the second planking to the entire hull. There's not enough material supplied in the kit to accomplish this, but given that the hull is "coppered" and painted it won't make much matter what material I use for the lower part....

 

Anyway, that's it - sorry for the lack of photos. I'll post some a little later

hamilton

[ccoyle]

I've heard of the wooden 'copper' plates before, but never actually seen them.  Seems to me a poor way of doing things.  I'd ditch them and go with copper tape or tiles, in which case you would only need something inexpensive, like basswood, to complete the second planking below the waterline.

 

Cheers!

[hamilton]

Thanks Chris:

 

Great suggestion - happens that I have an extra roll of copper tape lying around......Have to say I was kind of suspicious of these little "tiles", too.....

hamilton

[Kelp]

Hamilton,

 

Copper tape cut to tiles or pre- cut tiles will look much better than the wood tiles and definitely worth doing. 

 

Don

[hamilton]

Thanks for the suggestion Don! But now this issue has been placed on the back burner due to other more near-term concerns.....

 

Though I'm not yet finished the Hannah-in-a-bottle, I spent this evening doing a bit of preliminary work on America. This is my second Mamoli build, and since their fire, I'm assuming it will be my last. The first was the yacht Gretel, which built up into a very nice little model though I recall that the framework needed considerable attention.

 

The same is certainly true of America. The laser cutting is quite good (mostly accurate to the plans) but there is a lot of shimming and trimming to do - most of the trimming will probably be done in the fairing process, but many of the bulkheads require significant shims along either one or both edges. More importantly, the centre keel is significantly off through the stem and in the forward part of the keel. In places along the stem about 1.5mm needs to be added to bring it into line with the drawings. This piece is also slightly bowed - nothing that can't be fixed in assembly. (As a side note, I've always wondered - if the laser cut parts on a kit are found to be quite inaccurate to the plans, does this through the accuracy of the plans into doubt? I suppose you have to take your reference from somewhere....)

 

Anyway, I also test fit the bulkheads to the keel. They were all very loose fitting with a significant amount of play in them.....I'll add thin shims to the fore and aft faces of the bulkheads and the port and starboard sides of the keel to stiffen and straighten them. Between this work and some added brace strips between the bulkheads, the framework should come together nicely. Here are a couple of shots - nothing particularly exciting....

 

 

 

There is, however, one oddity that I've found - a discrepancy between the stern end of the centre keel and two drawings provided by Mamoli in their plan sheets. Here are a couple of pics of the keel piece next to the two drawings in question - you can see the discrepancy.

 

 

 

The drawing showing the profile of the laser cut centre keel shows a part identical to the actual keel piece. But in the profile drawing of the assembled framework there are two discrepancies:

 

1.You see filler blocks 20, 21 and 22 in the profile shot - but also a mysterious white space like some kind of filler block between fillers 21 and 22 and bulkhead 15 - compare this plan view of the stern, where this filler is not indicated (though in the first drawing part 20 fits over this mysterious filler so maybe that's why.....).

 

 

It seems that the mystery filler is there to provide the correct shape of the counter, but it's hard to say.....

 

2. This is less visible from the photos I have (sorry!) but there is also a discrepancy in the shape of the keel in the two drawings. Again, the drawing depicting the profile of the keel part is identical to the part itself, but the framework profile drawing shows a section at the top of the stern post that seems to be cut lower than the part.....

 

In any case, I'll have to work through these puzzles as I assemble the framework - once the bulkheads are made to fit properly I'll see how the stern parts fit in - maybe an answer will come clear then. In the meantime, if anyone has experience building this kit and encountered this issue, I'd love to hear how you navigated it.

 

Thanks a lot for dropping in and any and all feedback is, as usual, gladly accepted!

hamilton

[hamilton]

Hope I'm not inundating the forum with meagre progress, but here's another quick update on America.

 

I spent the evening adjusting the keel edge up through the stem. There's more work to do in and around the bulkhead slots, and it's relatively slow going, so I guess I might have to lay off updating here until some more exciting stuff starts happening....

 

Anyway, these first shots show the areas of the keel that need shimming

 

 

 

 

And here are the shims installed

 

 

 

 

So now the keel edge aligns nicely with the drawing - more adjustments to come....yay!

hamilton

[jonny.amy]

Hamilton,

 

"There is also a particular oddity about this kit. The instructions state that the second planking should only go as far down the hull as the waterline, after which the second planking is replaced by small wooden pieces simulating copper plates. To my way of thinking this seems like a very difficult way to approach the planking of the hull, and if anyone who has built this kit can give me guidance here I'd appreciate it! I'm tempted to just apply the second planking to the entire hull. There's not enough material supplied in the kit to accomplish this, but given that the hull is "coppered" and painted it won't make much matter what material I use for the lower part...."

 

I went in to my local hobby shop and spoke with the owner about a half built Constitution Hull (Possibly a Panart kit from the 1980's) and it had been "Coppered" with wooden strips cut to 12mm in length. The shop keeper told me it was the highest quality kit, and had been built to high standard before the previous owner passed away. He wanted £300 (which is more than the price of the new kit) for the model without the remainder of the kit. My thought process in the shop was very similar to yours (quoted text), but my real concern was the fact the half of the Starboard side of the hull had been "coppered" with these strips (which looked terrible), and I had no idea how long, or what they had been glued on with, so I decided to leave the model with him...

 

Cheers,

Jonny

[hamilton]

Hi Johnny:

 

Yes, I think the wooden "copper" tiles are pretty weird. They come in a really garish green, as well and I'm not confident that the finishing instructions provided would come out in the verdigris that appears on the photo on the kit box....I have a bunch of extra copper tape from a previous build so I'll use that I think. Hope you saved your 300 pounds!

hamilton

[jonny.amy]

I certainly did save myself £300! I doubt the Admiral would have been too pleased if I had bought home another model, I've already been told I have too many!

 

I've not coppered a hull yet, but I imagine using the copper tape is fairly straight forward.

 

Hope all goes well.

 

Cheers

Jonny

[Mirabell61]

Thats a beautiful ship Hamilton,

 

I could`nt withstand in scratch-building it myself once, but had to give away the hull, because it was concipated for RC control and getting too large...

Wish you much fun and success with the build

 

Nils

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Hamilton, you pick the most interesting ships, looks like you've made a nice start there.  I can't even picture wooden copper tiles, any chance of some pictures?

 

BTW - I think its great that you post the mundane pictures, its good for everyone to get an appreciation for the additional work needed to get in going in the direction you want it, and testament to you wanting to get it right!

Edited September 2, 2015 by Beef Wellington

[hamilton]

Jonny - glad to hear it! My Admiral says exactly the same thing! With two on the go and (...let me think...) six on the shelf (!!) the chances of another coming through the door anytime soon are exactly 0! I've coppered a few hulls (Phantom, Kate Cory and Fair Rosamund) and the difficulty/simplicity seems to depend upon the shape and size of the hull, as well as on how true to practice you try to be. There are certainly some excellent examples of coppering on the forums here. It takes a long time and is quite repetitive (which is fine by me if I have some nice music to listen to or some thinking to do). For a very unique approach to weathering copper tiles see Alistair's (aliluke) Pegasus build log 

 

Nils - thanks for dropping by - it is a beautiful ship (and hopefully even my version will be ok). Mamoli's kit certainly has its quirks, but overcoming these is half the fun.

 

Jason - thanks very much indeed - I'm a fan of your builds too - the Snake was really wonderful and I've been enjoying watching your Jason come together from a distance. The Caldercraft Diana is a dream kit of mine, though (apropos of my comment to Jonny) it's unlikely to grace my shelf for a while.....I don't have any pictures of the tiles ready to go, but I'll take one and post it here soon so you can have a gander.....And thanks for the vote of confidence - I have to say I enjoy it greatly when I come across a build log that walks people through the stages of doing something - particularly those often taken-for-granted elements of modelling that beginners may not intuitively understand.

 

Thanks again all - spent tonight "working" on (more like staring at) the Hannah - tried for the first time passing her tentatively through the mouth of the bottle - it's true what many of said - it is too big for the bottle provided with the kit......I'm now considering how to proceed.....

hamilton

[hamilton]

Hi all:

 

In response to Jason's request for a photo of the green wooden "copper" tiles provided with the Mamoli America - here's a pic.

 

 

The instructions say to layer these on one-by-one as you would with the copper tape (but with adhesive), with each tile lapping very slightly over the one aft and with each row up the hull lapping very slightly over the one next closest to the keel. I can't imagine this would result in anything other than a kind of clinkering of the tiles, which doesn't occur with the very thin and pliable copper tape.

 

For finishing Mamoli suggests first layering on a coat of copper paint, then sanding it to let some of the green of the tiles come through, then coating it with green paint and wiping it with a cloth while still wet to achieve a verdigris finish.....

 

Anyway, I guess the world is full of ideas....bye for now

hamilton

[mcpwilk]

"For finishing Mamoli suggests first layering on a coat of copper paint, then sanding it to let some of the green of the tiles come through, then coating it with green paint and wiping it with a cloth while still wet to achieve a verdigris finish....."

 

Weird.

 

Mike

[augie]

I can almost visualize what Mamoli is describing with these tiles and finish.  It might actually look pretty authentic in a weathered/aged sort of way.....after some considerable practice.  But I'd lean toward copper tape and let nature take it's course.  

[hamilton]

Weird indeed, Mike.

 

And hello Augie!! Yes, that's the plan.....looking forward to more copper tiles!

hamilton

[hamilton]

Hello all:

 

Well I guess I'm now officially working on two models at once.....actually, I feel like I'm avoiding the Hannah a little bit....or anyway, I didn't think the last night before the beginning of another school year should be spent redoing her topsail rigging.....maybe once I get back into the rhythm of the semester....

 

In the meantime, there has been some progress on America. I've adjusted and dry fit the first 5 bulkheads. I think I mentioned earlier that all of them had significant play, so it'll be kind of slow going. Here is a shot that shows how much play - this is bulkhead 3, but it's pretty representative.

 

 

As you can see from that photo, bulkhead 1 and 2 are already fitted. The process was very straightforward. I first filed off the laser burn on the inside of the bulkhead and keel slots. I then filed out a bit of the forward section of bulkhead slots 1, 2 and 3 (4 and 5 did not require this, though some of the bulkheads further aft will). This widening might seem counterintuitive, but it's not just that there was wiggle in the fit of the bulkheads - in the cases of bulkheads 1, 2 and 3, the position of the keel slots was slightly aft of where it was marked on the plans. For bulkheads 1 and 5 I had to file the bottom of the slot so the top of the bulkhead was flush with the top of the centre keel. I used a small triangular needle file for this (I preferred it over the square one because it was wider and left less chance of unevenness), while for filing out the forward and aft edges of the keel slots I used a larger flat file. Here are implements at rest and at labour

 

 

 

For bulkheads 2 and 4 I had to add a thin shim at the bottom of the bulkhead slots on the centre keel so that, again, the tops of the bulkheads would be flush with the top of the keel. I trimmed down some crappy deck planking material leftover (unused) from my Fair Rosamund build for all this kind of work. I used CA to fasten it in place and the after a few minutes of letting it set I snapped off the excess and filed it down. Here it is in process

 

 

Because the bulkhead slots on the keel had to move forward this meant shimming them aft. I prefer to put the shims on the bulkheads themselves rather than in the slot on the centre keel. To do this, I simply drew lines up to the top of the bulkheads from the slot, marking out the area in which the shim would be placed. Then I used some of that thin leftover material to make the shim. Here's a shot

 

 

This is bulkhead 1. I test fit it after shimming it and it fit great. But I still needed to put shims in to stabilize it and even it out symmetry wise port and starboard. Here's a shot with bulkhead 1 pushed over towards the port side. The gap is large, though in reality to make it sit symmetrically, gaps half this wide had to be filled on either side - I pushed it over for this shot to give you a sense of what needed to be done.

 

 

These shims are placed on the centre keel running down below the bulkhead slots. They must only be as long as the bulkhead itself, so my process was first to draw extension lines to the rabbet from the bottom of the bulkhead slot and then to mark to the bottom of the bulkhead "arms" (or legs?) so I would know how much area had to be filled with the shim.

 

 

I then cut the shims and installed them on both sides. The keel shims for bulkhead 1 needed only a bit of sanding, but those for the other forward bulkheads needed quite a bit to get the bulkheads to sit snugly. Here's a shot of the portside shim for bulkhead one with a bulb of garlic from our garden for scale comparison.

 

 

And here's bulkhead 1 fit nice and snug on the keel.....

 

 

Repeat four more times tonight (and ten more times on future nights and this part of the build will be done. Here's where I am now....

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed this update....I'll post again once the bulkheads are done and I'm on to the next thing....bye for now

hamilton

[augie]

The time you're investing here will pay off on almost every aspect of the build down the road.

 

Nice looking garlic!

[hamilton]

Thanks Augie - we planted some purple garlic too, which is quite spectacular - both varieties smell wonderful and taste fantastic.

 

I believe I said I wouldn't update this until I was finished adjusting the bulkheads, but in continuing this work this evening I noticed something that I wanted to document, and that will cause a bit of work later on......Here are two photos, one of the port side and the other of the starboard side showing bulkheads 6, 7 and 8 dry fit.

 

 

 

You'll notice that the bottom of bulkhead 7, which should (at mid-ships) be on the same level as bulkhead 6 and 8 is actually significantly higher up, which will create a very unsightly bump in the planking unless corrected....the difference with bulkhead 6 is 1.5mm and with bulkhead 8, 1mm. 6 seems correct, as does 9, but both 7 and 8 will need shimming on the outside. Oddly, though, the laser cut bulkheads seem to match the plans more or less well, so the area that needs shimming might actually be very small....I'll have to see what's what when it comes to fairing the hull, at which time I'll make necessary adjustments to the edges of all the bulkheads.

 

To compare this situation with another similar one I've faced in the past, check out these bulkheads from the Corel Greyhound....can't remember the numbers but you can see they are significantly out of step and required a HUGE amount of extra wood....to call it shimming does not truly describe the situation at all.....

 

 

 

hamilton

[hamilton]

Hello there:

 

The bulkheads are now adjusted to fit snugly on the America's centre keel....it took a bit of time and patience and quite a bit of fiddling to get the positions right, but the essential corrections have been made (though there are more to come before the framework is complete).

 

The trickiest part was fitting the final bulkhead (15). Unlike the others, there is no slot on the keel, just an abutment forward on which the bulkhead sits. I had to very gently deepen the slot on the bulkhead so it fit flush. But I could not shim this part as I did with the other bulkheads, since there is nothing to shim it up against....I added the port and starboard shims on the keel piece and it sits ok, but not as securely as the other bulkheads - this will change later once the stern fillers are attached.

 

Anyway, here are a couple of shots of the bulkheads drift on the keel

 

 

 

 

Of course, once the bulkheads were fit I couldn't help but dry fit the decks.....

 

 

When I first tried this, I noticed that a few of the deck slots were not deep enough, so I filed them out a bit so the deck slides on nicely. I'll have a bit of clean-up and adjustment to do on these pieces too. At the bow, there is a gap between the end of the deck and the stem - easy enough to fill. 

 

 

I'm a little worried about the stern as well. The issue is whether the stern fillers get in the way of the cockpit. It sees as if the area of the cockpit extends very slightly past the aft end of bulkhead 15 - but the stern fillers lie flat against that bulkhead....I'll have to double check everything and see if I need to adjust the filler pieces so as not to impede the cockpit. It's very hard to get a shot, but here's what I'm talking about - please note that the angle of the photo amplifies the problem - it's not this bad in reality....

 

 

Well that's it for now. Next steps are to complete the deck adjustments, mark them up for installing and planking, adding mast mortices, and working out the proper bearding and rabbet lines to set up for planking - once this is done, I'll glue the bulkheads in place along with some support beams and the decks.....

hamilton

 

[augie]

Going back to the overhead photo of the plans, it looks as if the cockpit should indeed extend beyond bulkhead 15.  You'll work out the issue of the stern filler blocks I'm sure.

 

Looking nice!

[hamilton]

Thanks Augie:

 

Thanks for dropping in. Yes - I think it'll just be a matter of shaping the filler blocks to conform to the curve of the cockpit....hard to say how much shaping this will involve until a bit later in the build....

hamilton

[hamilton]

OK - having now said goodbye to the Hannah SiB, I can now focus my attention on America, to which I returned tonight after an absence of over a week. Efforts continue at adjusting the bulkheads. My last work involved shimming the keel and bulkhead faces so that the bulkheads fit snugly on the centre keel. Tonight, I started focusing on the outside edges of the bulkheads, many of which needed shimming to get them to match the drawings. I focused on the forward bulkheads tonight - that is, 1-8, under the fore deck. Of these, only 1, 2 and 5 needed no work. 3, 4 and 6 needed moderate shimming on one edge. 7 and 8 needed significant shimming on both edges. Here's a bit of the process.

 

I first tested each of the bulkheads against the drawings - lining them up to the bulkhead top and keel slot, making sure they were centred. for almost all of them the extensions were really off from the drawings, but since I'm cutting them off, I was only really concerned about the outside edge, which has to hold the planking....

 

 

When I was satisfied that the position was good, I made note of whether the edges needed any kind of adjustment. some require trimming, but nothing of the sort that can't be handled during the fairing process, so I wasn't worrying too much about that. But as I mentioned, a lot of them needed a greater or lesser amount of shimming. Here's bulkhead 8, which ended up being one of the more desperate cases.....

 

 

I used some .5 x 4mm wood left over from the Fair Rosamund planking material (as I may have mentioned) and just glued this to the bulkhead edges (after sanding the wood burn off) with CA.Here's bulkhead 8 again - I ended up having to put another small shim lower down towards the lower end of it and same on the other side.

 

 

This shot obviously shows it before sanding. I used a sanding block and then just sand-paper in hand to soften the edge and get a smooth flow from the bulkhead edge through the shim and then, testing the piece against plans, cleaned up those bits that need more wood removed until I got a good match. Here's a picture of bulkhead 3 sanded and done (note that where you can see the gap from the drawing on the the inside of the keel slot, I have already placed a shim on the keel, so this is corrected for....)

 

 

I think I may also have mentioned earlier that the bulkhead bottoms in mid-ships are uneven - they rise at midships from bulkhead 7 through bulkhead 9 in a way that will really wreak havoc on the planking unless corrected. I took some time to mark the bottoms of the bulkheads from 6-10 to get a sense of how things should flow. The bottom of bulkhead 6 is 4mm above the line of the keel, while that of bulkhead 7 was 7mm, 8 was 6mm, 9 was 6mm and 10 was 5mm. Here's a couple of photos

 

 

 

I figured that 5mm at bulkhead 10 is ok, since that's where things should start to rise towards the stern. But 7, 8, and 9 all needed to be brought down. I haven't touched bulkhead 9 yet (that's for next session, when I get the the aft bulkheads) but with the shimming, I reduced the space at bulkheads 7 and 8 to 5mm. A bit more shimming is required, clearly, to get them level, but I want to wait until after all the bulkheads are dry fit and I can run a test plank along to see how far up the shims need to go. I suspect that they only need to cover a small space at the foot of the bulkhead....

 

The other thing I did this evening to pass time while some glue was drying was to mark up the forward deck - centre line and location of bulkhead tops for when it comes to fixing the deck on the framework - I'll add planking references later. To do this I marked a centre line on the drawing, after taking measurements at several places. The line extended both above and below the drawing so when I laid the piece on top of the plans, I could see where the line should do. I made reference marks at the bow end and aft end, and then connected them. Had to re-do the forward part once to bring things over a bit to starboard, but now all is square....

 

 

Alright - that's it. Not sure when I'll get back to the build - my weeks are filling up rapidly, and it's likely I'll only have 1 night a week if that from now till Christmas......next session will be similar to this one, so I doubt I'll update the log. Once I've got the bulkheads done up to a point and the decks marked up, I'll start putting the framework together so I'll update then. Meanwhile - happy modelling

hamilton

[Beef Wellington]

Nice work Hamilton, nice to have some plans to compare the bulkheads to before installation.

[hamilton]

Hi Jason:

 

Yes, indeed! Just to ask - does Caldercraft not supply patterns of the laser-cut parts? Such a feature is very useful to have - though not all manufacturers include them it seems - Corel, Model Shipways and Mamoli all do (at least for all the kits I've built/ones on the shelf). Of course, I've also read about (on build logs here) situations where the symmetry of the printed bulkhead patterns was off, leading to questions of where one should place one's trust....

 

In Frank Mastini's intro to ship modelling book, he lays out a method of testing symmetry using card stock that I believe I may have tried once (on my Brittany sloop) - but it would be interesting to see what other methods kit builders have for doing this.....

hamilton

[Beef Wellington]

The Snake and Diana Caldercraft kits do not include the bulkhead plans so where there are deviations its hard to know which side is "correct" - if either!.  Its all solveable, but requires and shimming or cutting down to be done once bulkheads are installed and relies much more on the builder to get a feel for the flow of the hull to get a feel for any corrections.  I found this process on Diana to be much more challenging, not because the bulkheads were necessarily any less accurate, but more because small deviations are more noticeable.

[hamilton]

Hi Jason:

 

This is good to know - I have several CC kits on my wish list. The lack of patterns for the bulkheads etc. is not a deal breaker to be sure - especially since it is just as likely that the plans are off as the laser cut parts themselves. I guess with the CC kits you're forced (in a good way) to really attend to the model-as-built. I wonder if lifting lines from a place like an Anatomy of the Ship volume (where one is available as for Diana) would help as a reference - though I suppose once again it's the age old question of accuracy versus workable kit limitations.....

hamilton

[hamilton]

Hello there:

 

Thanks all for the likes! I feel like I'm setting myself the challenge of making each entry here a little more dull than the last.....let's see how this goes....

 

I've finally completed shimming up the outside edges of the bulkheads - completed 9-15 this evening. 12 and 15 didn't need anything and the others needed varying degrees of adjustment, with bulkhead 14 being by far the furthest off from the plans. In any case, they're done! Not content to just do that, however, I decided to squeeze a bit more joy out of my evening by making and installing mast mortices. These were cut from some 1/16" basswood sheeting I had lying around from a previous build. And that, my friends, is it!!! No serious problems, no nagging questions, no great leaps of progress....just a bunch of shims and a couple of mortices.....sorry I can't be more interesting.....here are some photos, though....

hamilton

 

 

 

[hamilton]

So my wife and sons have been away for a couple of days so I've been able to squeeze in a bit more modelling time since I don't have to wash dishes, make lunches, drive people around, sweep floors, change diapers, help with homework, read stories, and give baths but only have my paid job to worry about....

 

Since my last update, I've installed the bulkheads (with brace strips), made a building board with an adjustable clamp, and installed the forward deck. Here are some details.

 

​Part 1: Installing the bulkheads

 

Before installing the bulkheads, I took measurements of the distance between them all and cut brace strips from some scare 1/8 x 1/8" basswood I had lying around. Cutting these was my first experience of using my new mini chop saw and i have to say that little thing is going to save some time and pain - at least it will when I figure out the finer points of using it....of the 28 strips I cut (14 for each side) only 8 actually fit.....I needed to remeasure and recut - fortunately I have a lot of scrap wood, so things eventually worked out....here are a couple of photos.

 

 

 

Bulkhead 15, the aftmost one, has no support behind it so it was a little tricky to install. I placed a small clamp on the sternpost area of the false keel to keep it pushed forward and evened it out (and gave it a bit more forward support) with a couple of my wife's hairbands, which she will never miss.

 

 

Part 2: Making a building board

 

A little while ago I saw that someone on this forum (and I'm truly sorry I can't remember who) had made a building board with an adjustable keel clamp. I though this was a smart idea (and obvious once I'd seen that someone else had thought of it!), so I figured I'd make one for myself. I went and bought two 1" x 3/16" x 24" basswood strips and one 4" x 1/4" x 24" basswood sheet from a local hobby shop. I marked a centre line on the 4 x 1/4" board and then drew a reference line for the stationary part of the clamp 2.5mm out from the centre on one side.

 

I used one of the 1 x 3/16 strips in its full length as the stationary part of the clamp, mounted on the 4 x 1/4 sheet. The mobile part of the clamp I cut down from 24 to 16" and then marked the positions of 5 evenly-spaced slots. I routed out the slots using a cutting tool in my dremel, mounted in the dremel workstation I bought a week or so ago. Here are the results with the very rough cut slots

 

 

I then clamped the fixed 1 x 3/16" strip in position and clamped the movable 1 x 3/16 strip hard up against it and marked the far end of the slots on the 4 x 1/4 board, so I would know where to drill holes. The next three shots show this

 

 

 

 

Once the positions of the holes were marked on the building board, I drilled them out from top to bottom with a regular 1/8" bitt. Once that was done, I drilled them up from bottom to top with a counter-sinking bit. Here's a shot of the bottom of the building board

 

 

Once this was done, I realized that the slots I'd routed in the adjustable clamp were too narrow, so I widened them out with the dremel enough for the bolts to fit through them. I then gave it a test and the bolts fit fine and I could easily move the mobile clamp around and fasten it. I decided to use small screws to fasten the stationary clamp to the building board. I had thought of gluing it but for some reason didn't....Because of the length of screw I was using, I needed to mount small 3/16" thick pads on the stationary clamp at those points where I was going to attach it to the board. You can see them, plus the bolts for the mobile clamp, in this image

 

 

Unfortunately when I put the screws in, these pads split as did the stationary clamp in some places. This was only minor splitting for the most part, but a couple of the pads split entirely in two. I had to double check the straightness of the stationary clamp to ensure that the splitting didn't create any warping and I also had to sand each of the pads flush with the edge of the stationary clamp using a sanding block. Here is a shot of the keel positioned on the building board

 

 

Now I can hear you saying that those bolts are too long and they're going to hit up against the hull planking and the thing's not going to sit properly....yes - you're right! Which is why I'm going to go out tomorrow and buy some shorter bolts to replace these. In any case, I'm pretty happy with the results and now instead of building a new building board for every new model, I can just use this!

 

Part 3: Installing the forward deck

 

The final part of the build to round off this update is the installation of the forward deck, which to be honest was a real pain! I've not had issues with fixing decks to frameworks in the past....but I'm getting ahead of myself....

 

Before installing the deck I wanted to make a pattern of it, so I could properly plan the planking and potentially make a margin/nibbing strake and take patterns for waterways. I traced the deck onto a sheet of graph paper, then laid it on a sheet of bristol paper with carbon paper in between, black side down. I then simply traced the outline of the deck pattern and presto - there is was on the heavier bristol stock, which will act as a template for my decking...

 

 

 

 

Once that was done, I could safely install the deck (I'll make another template in the same way for the aft deck when the time comes....Anyway, normally when I install the sundecks on models, I use stainless steel straight pins to keep the deck in place while the glue sets. In the past I've never had trouble pushing through the sub-deck and into the top edge of keel and bulkheads. But America was being very stubborn and I could not press the pins into it without bending them! At last I resorted to small brass nails, but when I went to look for my tac hammer, it was missing!! One of the boys likely grabbed it for some purpose and I'll find it under someone's bed or behind a bookshelf a few years from now....in the meantime, I ended up using a small hammer to pound in these tiny little nails....absurd!! I ended up bending quite a few of those, too. I don't know whether it's just these Mamoli bulkheads, but they are not easily penetrated!! In the end it got done, but to ensure a good fit, I threw a couple of elastics around the thing....here's a photo

 

 

Part 4: A discovery

 

After installing the forward deck, I put the aft deck back on dry to put the model away and thought I'd just quickly test the fit of the small circular cockpit sub-deck....when I did, I noticed that it did not actually fit down into the depressed area in the centre sections of bulkheads 13, 14 and 15, as it should....here's a shot to illustrate.

 

 

It seemed that the bulkhead edges on the inside of bulkhead 14 stuck out too far instead of being flush with the aft sub deck, as they should be. Here's a shot to explain what I mean

 

 

I laid the cockpit sub-deck in position and marked the inside edges of bulkhead where they cut across the sub-deck. I'll have to trim these edges back in order to properly construct the cockpit....you can kind of see my pencil marks in this photo....

 

 

but that's for another day....Anyway, thanks for dropping by and any and all comments, feedback and suggestions are, as always, welcome!

hamilton

Edited September 29, 2015 by hamilton

[augie]

That's a lot of progress.  You won't be sorry you made that keel clamp !