HMS Granado Cross Section by thibaultron - CAF Models - 1/48th - First POF Model

[thibaultron]

My scanner seems to be fine. It measures correctly. Thanks.

[thibaultron]

Part 012

 

I added weights while the glue on the last chocks was drying.

 

 

Here is the frame with all the pieces glued together.

 

 

 

 

The last steps are to trim the chocks flush with the neighboring timbers. As you go up the frame the timbers get smaller as less strength is needed to support the hull. A chock starts out the same thickness as the larger timber, and the end attached to the thinner timber needs to be trimmed to match. I used a combination of a modeling knife to whittle down the bulk of the area, and Rifflers/Modeling/Needle files to remove the rest. Finally I use 400 grit Wet/Dry sandpaper run along the grain of the wood to remove tooling marks.

All these files come in various rough to smooth cutting teeth types. The Rifflers files are used for fine metal finishing, in tight spaces, and are very expensive. The Needle/Modeling files are much cheaper, but generally don’t list the aggressiveness of the cutting teeth. I buy a few different sets from different manufacturers of these files, which hopefully will come with smother and rougher cuts, giving a selection to use in my modeling.  The ones I show below, are a from a very cheap set, but have the right cutting teeth for this job.

 

First I use the knife to cut a Stop Cut across the grain, along the line of the finished edge. The Stop Cut helps prevent the wood splitting past the area you are removing, as you whittle along the grain to shear off the unwanted portion,

 

 

 

The knife may not cut all the way to the bottom the first time, so  press it down several times, and check as you cut, to see if you need to deepen it more. I didn’t want to risk marring the finished surface by using a saw for the cut. On larger pieces a saw may be required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I slowly split off the unwanted area in thin sections.

 

 

 

Note, in the picture below that there is an extraneous laser etched line on the tip of one of the frame timbers. I’ll just have to live with this.

 

 

The files I use to finish the cut are: a 3 sided triangular file, a file with one side flat, and the other slightly rounded (humped), and a flat Safety File (file on the right below). The Safety File has one of the long edges flat with no teeth. This allows you to file an area without cutting into the adjacent finished edge.

 

 

Here is a diagram from the Nicholson “Guide to Files and filing” of a Safe Edge.

 

Finished cut before sanding.

 

 

Finished Frame 7. Note, that I will sand the taper on the inner and outer frame surfaces once I finish all the frames, and can set them up in the Frame Box. I don’t trust my skills at this point to pre-taper them individually.

 

Next time I will start Frame 8

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I’m just catching up; this looks great and I love the detailed log! Rock on!

[thibaultron]

Part 013

 

There is an error in the instructions for Frame 8. As detailed in the review of this kit by James H. The instructions do not show the part numbers for the shims that need to be attached to the plans before you start to assemble the frame over it. The picture below shows the part numbers.

 

 

After mounting the scan of the frame drawing, on the build board, I enlarged the slots in the upper frame piece to mate with the resin spacers inserts, that will used later.

 

 

 

Frame 8 is where the upper and lower frame halves start to have a significant offset, vertically, from one another along the bottom edge of the frames. They still match at the false keel notch. If you look at the false keel, you will see it is also getting taller as we progress further.

 

I progressed as in the previous frame by gluing the lower frame pieces together at the mating edges, and installing the chocks later.

 

 

Using another copy of the frame for reference, I glued the bottom section of the upper frame to the lower frame half, orienting the tips so that they were equally space “Up’ from the lower edge of the bottom of the lower half.

 

After this had set, I placed the rest of the frame pieces in place, along with the resin inserts, so that I could get a feel for how they would fit in place.

 

This is where I ran into a problem. The resin insert on the left hand side, was a little too large! It was too long and I could not get the upper top frame to mate with the neighboring piece, without bringing the outside edges much further in,  from the outside edge of the lower half, than those on the right hand side! It also seemed too thick and caused the tip to not mate with the lower frame, at the top (the bottom too, but more on that problem later). I tried sanding it, but finally gave up, and used a square block held against the lines on the drawing to position it.

 

 

Once satisfied, I glued the other pieces in place.

 

 

Here I found a mistake I had made. When assembling the lower half of the frame I somehow got the vertical spacing between the shim area and the unshimed sections wrong. And there was a gap between the upper and lower frame halves, where the drawing showed them touching.

 

 

I once again used Isopropyl Alcohol to soften the glue joints in this area, and took them apart. In the end I had to use an additional cardstock shim, on top of the supplied shim to get the correct spacing. The lower frame top piece may have been cut a little thinner, causing the gap. I didn’t go back and compare it to the opposite piece to be sure, I was satisfied that they now mated correctly.

 

 

The above picture seems to show the top pieces out of alignment on the right side, but this just an illusion due to the camera angle.

 

With that fixed I moved on to installing the upper half chocks.

 

 

 

 

After these dried, I went back and cut the chocks to match the varying surface levels, as detailed in the previous posts.

 

 

Yes, the frame drawing has mysteriously suddenly morphed into the one for Frame 9! I changed to the next frame before I took this picture. The camera was in the house, when I was cutting the chocks.

[HardeeHarHar]

Thanks for taking the time to provide such detail.  Having the kit on the shelf, I will have to reference your build log if I am to have even a chance with this planned future endeavor.