Hr.Ms. De Ruyter by amateur - Scaldis/JSC - 1:250 - CARD

[Piet]

PE still possible eh Jan Superstructure look good, even with the printed details. That'll require some delicate painting, looks like.

 

Cheers,

[amateur]

No , apart from edgepainting, there will be no painting involved. Ah, well, the laser cut cardboard requires some paint

 

Jan

Edited January 29, 2018 by amateur

[amateur]

Today I did the nxt part of the superstructure. It was not a complete succes, but I don't know where I went wrong. The forward part of the superstructure( on which a gunturret will be installed) consist of a wall, with a false deck.

that one posed no problems

then a deck is build upon that, with some minor parts below. And no, those didn't fit into their assignd places. Doorst, windows, everuthing is interfering....

But the forward railng did fit quite nicely..

not to Dan's standards, but I am pretty contend with it.

 

but then....it just didn't fit to th main structure.it is 2mm too low (the deck does not cover the white area in front of the main structure, and the horizontal oine should run level around the whole structure. Yeah....tell me where the error is

besdes,the 2 mil gap between tower and railing should not be there,. But is is, and it won't go. strange both parts (tower and forward gun position) went together without problem. I guess they didn't pay attendtion enough in their prototype build....)

 

Jan

 

[Dan Vadas]

1 hour ago, amateur said:

I guess they didn't pay attendtion enough in their prototype build

That would be my guess too, there seems to be quite a lot of this in your kit . I'd say the problem was with the funnel base.

 

There are two ways you can fix it.

1. If there is any extra printed grey card supplied you could cut a couple of wedge-shaped pieces to fill the gap. It won't be perfect, but at least it will be better than having a large gap. If there's no extra printed stuff use some plain card and paint the area.

2. The better way would be to cut a wedge out of the funnel base (on each side) and glue back rogether. This would bring the white squares (part #86) back into alignment, as well as correcting the angle where the two assemblies meet. See pic below :

 

  Danny

[amateur]

Hi Dan,

 

I contemplated option 2, but discarded it for several reasons. 

1 the deck ontop of the forward building fits very nice against the conning tower, it would make a large adaptionto get that one fixed, and Idon’t know the margins there: on this deck a gun will be mounted.

2 despite the small misalignment in the sides (apart from the whole constructionbeing too wide), the margin I have lenghtwise is smaller than the gap. Shortening will create another problem.

3 the gap is more pronounced on this side, and less on the other.

 

So filling it will be. ,(I have some lefftovers from the hull, and a nice square of ‘reserve grey’)

 

Jan

[amateur]

After some contemplating (at work, shouldn't do that )

I discovered what the problem is: the conning tower is slightly too wide, and that also applies to that forward structure.

But I tried to get the forward building into the white area painted on the deck. That makes the wall slightly non-vertical, resulting in a gap on the upper side.

 

Have to think whether a total repair does more harm than good, compared to the fix (version 2) Danny described above. (Quite a lot of tabs on the underside  )

 

Jan

 

 

[Dan Vadas]

7 hours ago, amateur said:

Have to think whether a total repair does more harm than good, compared to the fix (version 2) Danny described above. (Quite a lot of tabs on the underside  )

Is the funnel already glued to the deck? That would make the job a bit more difficult . Not impossible though.

 

  Danny

[amateur]

Yep, I did what all beginners do: follow the manual: Glue part to deck, next build the forward structure, glue to deck, adjust the connecting tabs and glue.

 

As the deck isn't completely flat, the very slight pressure of my fingers was enough for the gap to hide. Once the parts were glued together, it showed its real size.....

I have some spare grey, so I will check what I can do. Not before next weekend, though....

 

Jan

[Dan Vadas]

Dry fit, dry fit and dry fit again when you have the next section ready to fit before reaching for the glue, to make sure the sections will align properly.

 

Also, fit as much to each section as you can before gluing the assembly to the deck. It's usually a lot easier to fit guns etc while it's on the workbench and not attached to the main deck.

 

  Danny

[amateur]

that's what I thought once the harm was done :).

 

[amateur]

Finally...had some time to work on De Ruyter again.

 

I decided for a fix of the sides of the conning tower. First remove the offending parts

next, cut a triangle from the spare grey that is included (I put a second layer on the backside. Had some problem with that, as my printer/scanner does some weird things with the color. Dark grey turns into a very light grey 🤔

aThe black line was done with a pencil after the piece was fitter. (I discovered a second problem with the forward structure but that is for later to solve).

Scaldis does two sided print, but does not always succeed in getting the colour at the correct spot  some paint is needed 

 

 

Last both sides of the tower are some boxes. I decided to do something drastic: remove all tabs

it turned out that these little boxes are far easier without tabs than with. Makes a man think.....

Next was the first platform on the tower.

again, although cutting at the outside of the lines, it turned out that both parts did not completely match. Hopefully The hole in the upper side matches the conning tower, if not, we need a fix again (no spare for this colour....)

 

and finally, I decided to give myself a (rather expensive) present.

Boy, does that make cutting portholes easier...:)

they even get perfectly round

 

more tomorrow (or some other time)

 

have a nice weekend,

 

Jan

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by amateur

[Dan Vadas]

1 hour ago, amateur said:

I decided to do something drastic: remove all tabs

My first card model used Tabs, my last two didn't. I found the first one a lot harder to do. NO tabs is definitely easier, especially on small parts. I usually add extra card, folded, to give something bigger to glue to on the inside of a join.

 

1 hour ago, amateur said:

I decided to give myself a (rather expensive) present

Now that you've bought the punch set you'll wonder how you managed without it for so long - a very good buy . I also have the larger set, and use them both a lot .

 

  Danny

[amateur]

After some weeks without cardboard, I did some parts of the Ruyter today.

First, the foreard railing of the bridge. Warned by a buildlog on a German forum, The part needed some surgery,  the middle part about one and a half milimeters too wide.

(And yes, i need roo work far more precise, too much white too be seen, especially when photographed in macro  )

 

Here the railing is complete, and the bridge testfitted. Not too bad, it  needs a handrail on top, but I need daylight too cut and edgepaint.

Instead of the next level of the conning tower, I decided to do the nedt part of the superstructure.

I copied the partsheet (my printer did awfull things with the colour...), and cut the top of the superstructure, dounbled it with thick cardboard, and used it as a base: that way the curved wall comes out correct, and I have some gluing base to attach it to the not so flat deck.

 

(for size comparison: the porthole-lids are about 1,5 milimeters)

 

I already cut and glued the deck that comes on top of this and the next part of the superstructure. But as it is under some weight, it can't be photographed (actually, it is not very interesting  )

 

perhaps more tomorrow.

 

Jan

[Dan Vadas]

Jan, did you know that you can use Sanding Sticks to get a good finish to the rounded edges (take off the high spots), the same as you would do with wood? I use 360 grit on mine. Do a bit of practise with one first on some scrap to work out the technique. Also experiment with different grits to see which suits you best. You'd be surprised how coarse a grit you can use .

 

  Danny

[Piet]

Nice progress Jan.

 

Cheers,

[amateur]

De Ruyter has been collecting some dust over the summer, but today I finally managed to soend some time on him.

 

First I did the railing on the upper platform

again, JSC did some overlength on a not so usefull place:

The railing has to disassembled in three parts to get a reasonable fit.

Now it is drying, for attaing the toprail needs to be done when the part is really drie (and therefore:rigid)

 

Next was the middle deck house: I did the lower part some time ago, now I did the fullel-base. Whatever I did: the marks on the side wouldn't line up with those on the deck. Also the indent on the forward side of the deck was not large enough: the whole structure therfore stood to far aft. I made it larger, hoping there are no unexpected side-effects of the surgery:)

 

 

Finally I started the aft deckhouse (the base for the anti-aircraft battery.)

The idea is the same as for the other deckhouses: a white core, deck glued on top, walls glued around. Sounds simple, and it works reasonably well (apart for the top-layer of the card that tends to come loose at the edges.... Also, the back wall is a bit on the low side. Hopefully the gun-platform will hide the gap.

And now it is drying under some pressure, as it tried to warp.....

 

and finally, todays lesson:

always check the back of your scrap card before using it as cutting mat

Jan

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by amateur

[ccoyle]

Oh, if only I had a dollar for every bone-headed mistake I've made with my card models!

[amateur]

Yeah, we would be rich by now

 

Jan

[amateur]

Tonight Idid some work on the funnel.

the result is OK, but the designer of this kit, really should have double-checked his measurements.....

Oh, and his instructions

theinstruction was 'wrap around the deck' 

Ok, but the additional width, should that be below, above, or equally devided? 

I decided for 'below'. Hope I will not regrett in the future of the build.

 

next came the funnel. Although rounded, there is no base-plate provided. No idea how the designer thinks you can either form or attach the thing.

I used a copy I made of the deck on which it willbe attached as former.

the top-side has holes in it, but I was not sure whether or not you can see the white inside of the funnel. I put a small black paper below the holes. (In the meantime I discovered that this was not necessary)

 

On top of this comes a rim, with a second plate with two holes in it.

This rim is way, waytoo large, itdoesn't even touch the funnel when laid on top, and the top-part is justnot fitting. Ineeded to shorten it by almost half a centimeter toget it fitting on the funnel. The fit with the topplate is a bit lousy, but some white glue and black paint will solve that issue.

 

next will be a rather strange contraption around the funnel (added to increase draft of the funnel, as the machines couldn't get to full power)

 

again you can see that the backside print is off by almost 1.5 milimeter in two directions. Again, some paint willbe needed. This part will be curved around a small deck, that willbe fited around the funnel (on the previous pic, you can see the downward sloping line that indicates the position of this deck. 

 

And now, just for fun, all parts loosely stacked together.

I like the profile of the ship

 

Jan

 

[amateur]

Little time today, so small parts.

funnel was finished, and some small platforms around the conning tower are done (almost).

tomorrows funpart: roll to make a column of max 2 milimietre wide at the top, and three and a half at the lower end.

fun: the cardbord is almost .3 milimeters thick.

 

 suggestions are welcome.

 

Jan

[Dan Vadas]

5 hours ago, amateur said:

tomorrows funpart: roll to make a column of max 2 milimietre wide at the top, and three and a half at the lower end.

fun: the cardbord is almost .3 milimeters thick.

Note the icon next to the part. This means you roll the piece as tightly as possible, starting from "zero" to the required diameter. This would be almost impossible with anything thicker than 0.25mm paper. You may need to re-print the part on thinner paper.

 

Rolling a piece from a "zero" diameter is also nearly impossible, but the method I found works really well for any parts that are 8-10mm longer or less (see below). I ground the end of the eye off a large needle, leaving a kind of 2-pronged fork. The needle is fitted into a thin-type Xacto knife holder. The paper is inserted into the eye, with about 1.5mm hanging out. Next begin by rolling the holder for two turns until it holds the paper tightly. Apply a thin bead of PVA for 20-30mm to the paper and continue rolling. Apply PVA to the rest of the paper and roll until the piece is done. Remove the part and gently squeeze it round if needed (it will be more oval shaped at first).

 

It takes a bit of practise but I can make a rolled cylinder in about 1 minute, depending on the finished diameter.

 

Note : longer pieces can be done using this method, but it's more difficult. Find the needle with the longest eye you can get to make the tool. My needle has a finished eye (after grinding) of only 3mm, but there are no doubt larger needles out there.

 

To get a better idea of what I'm talking about click THIS LINK to see the post in my HMS Hood build where I show how I do it.

 

Danny

[amateur]

I'll try.

 

problem with reprimt is that my scanner/printer does completely change the dolour. Just rolling white paper, and painting afterward is perhaps the easiest way bto go. The funny thing is: even when you get the thing rolled to instructions, the resulting tube is just way too thick. I don't understand the designer: he should have been aware of paper thickness.....

 

Jan

[Dan Vadas]

1 hour ago, amateur said:

I don't understand the designer: he should have been aware of paper thickness

Better kits, like Halinski, DO take the paper thickness into consideration .

 

Danny

[amateur]

But they don't do Dutch ships

 

Jan

[amateur]

All yesterday's tiny parts (and some more) fitted together on the conning tower

 

the tower needs two additional platforms for the searchlightd (right and left side, 2where the two parts of the tower meet) with a massive column below to give it additional support)

 

I also put the deckhouse in place, with some weight on it to get it dirmly stuck to the deck

 

no time the coming days, so I guess this is all for this week

 

Jan

[amateur]

Just to share a smaal discovery: those things are not pillars under the searchlights....

I was looking at some pics, and realised you can see 'through' the position where that pillar should be. So: there is none. 

 

then I checked the original drawing and realised whhat these are: these are the mechanism to turn the lights from the bridgedeck.

 

How they turn the foreard light, I dont know. There is something on that little deck, but again: not a pillar.

On this draing youcan also see that the forward windows of the bridge-deck are positioned too low in the kit: their underside should be level with the railing. (They are not....)

 

Jan

 

[amateur]

Yesterday I did the searchlight platforms (almost)

After some considerations, and as suggested by a rather experienced cardboard builder on a german card-forum, I decided to do some surgery: first the inner column, and next the second layer on the bottom end.

the column turned out slightly too thick, but acceptable.

The second layer went OK, but I think the whole part is slightly too long. Some surgery needed on final fitting...

Next I startedthe second platform. It was not untilthis picture that I discovered a small mistake: again some surgery is needed. Only question remaining: on which side ? Time will tell 

 

Jan

 

 

[amateur]

Today, I made a serious mistake.....

I went to see a model exhibition. (No pics, forgot the camera)

 

they had also some sales over there.

 

 

In my current building speed this will get me almost till my retirement

 

Jan

[FingerSticker]

Keep going, Jan. You're on the right track!

 

I don't recall having all the issues that you described. But I tackled the camouflage version and I believe that they were a special print from JSC for Scaldis and that Scaldis gave JSC a lot of feedback about the model. Perhaps they made some changes to the newer version but didn't touch the grey version? I remember reading somewhere that they used a better quality card for printing.

 

The only other thing I can recommend is to do the railings as soon as you can. Once the sections are glued to the deck they can be a royal pain to position correctly.

 

And do not give up hope! You are definitely showing her who's the boss!

 

Adrie.

 

P.S. I remember buying the Zwarte Zee in 1/200 scale. Way, way, way too small for me!!!! So good luck with your purchases! And perhaps consider the purchase of a pair of bionic eyes!!!!

😉

[amateur]

I had the camouflage in my hands today. That one is compeltely redesigned compared to the grey one: other parts (more, actually), and other constructions. 

Iguess the issues with the camouflage version are others than with the grey version.

 

with respect to the railings: I have the laser cut set, but that one is made for the camouflage version, so the numbering is a bit of a puzzle.....

 

Jan