HMS Granado 1742 by Jeff - CAF Model - 1/48

[JeffT]

This will be my build log for the CAF Model HMS Granado, 1/48 scale. I've always wanted to build a true plank on frame and thought this would be a good place to start. This is to be more of a side project so there won't be rapid progress. I'll open the box this weekend and post some pictures of what's inside as a start.

[JeffT]

Oh...and I'll also mention that I won't be building the split hull option.

[gjdale]

This should be an interesting project Jeff. I’ve grabbed a front row seat.

[mtaylor]

Count me in.  I'm curious to see it.

[Beef Wellington]

Glad to see more CAF models appearing in logs...count me in for this one.  Looks like a great kit.

[JeffT]

Thanks for following! I just popped open the box, no pictures yet though. I did however notice that there are no plans, frame diagrams or instructions in the box so I sent Tom a message to sort that out.

[JeffT]

I couldn't help myself. The box is open so I took some pictures. This is part 1 for the kit so it has all the parts necessary to finish the framing. At least I think so. I don't really know what I'm looking at yet since I don't have the plans. Tom did respond and everything will be in the mail shortly. There are two boxes. One contains the parts for the ship and the other is the parts for the build jig. Most parts are laser cut and they look very good. There are a few parts that are CNC cut I think. The keel parts are somewhere in there too I think, 6B maybe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HardeeHarHar]

Hey Jeff,

Super stoked you are starting a build log for this kit.  I have it on the shelf (mine came with instructions 😃), where it is waiting for me to finish the Caldercraft 1/64 Granado kit I am in the middle of building.  I thought it would be interesting to also do the CAF Model plank on frame and include the split hull to show the details of the boat better, but the split hull approach does appear to increase the complexity of the build exponentially (and that is hard to imagine).  Since I am a rank amateur builder (as is clearly apparent from my current Granado build log), I'll be watching your build log with great interest and encouragement!  I'll be one of the peeps in the front row taking notes.

Best regards,

Brian

[BobG]

I'm onboard for this one too, Jeff. These CAF models a truly intriguing. 

[JeffT]

Glad to hear that Bob.

[JeffT]

I know what your saying Brian. I don't think I have the skills to pull of the split hull so I think its best for me to not do so..

[JeffT]

It took me a little while to get started but finally have a small update. I received the missing instructions and plans from CAF so all is good there.

 

I started to put the keel together and started to build the cradle.

 

The thin wood parts for the cradle were significantly warped so I needed to find a way to deal with that. I opted to get a nice straight piece of wood shelving from Lowes and nailed the lower parts to the board and then nailed 3 cradle parts on top down on top of that. Takes a little more space for storage but it worked as planned. I'm a little worried that the warping may be a problem throughout the cradle parts.

 

 

The keel assemble was pretty straight forward. There are 3 sections for the keel. They are CNC cut and have a pretty nice fit. Some cleanup is required as expected to get a nice fit.

 

 

 

 

How I did it.

 

 

And the assembled keel in place.

 

 

Up next is assembling the stem and stern deadwood. A little worried about messing this up so a few deep breaths to start.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

[markjay]

I'd like to watch this build Jeff, I'm pulling up a seat.

[JeffT]

Glad to see you here Mark.

[hamilton]

An exciting start - I just ordered this kit, but probably won't be starting it for a while. Will be nice to watch your work here in the meanwhile!

hamilton

[JeffT]

Thanks for looking in hamilton. Looking forward to seeing your build someday.

[JeffT]

I've got most of the stem, stern and keel done now. This was pretty challenging since there were a lot of parts involved. One thing I need to get better at is sanding the edges of the parts cleanly. I seem to end up with a crowned edge or an edge with more off one side than the other. I'm going to have to come up with a way to make sure I get a nice clean edge, especially on surfacers that are glued together. I ended up having to fill a few gaps. I'm sanding manually so that's part of the problem. The laser cut parts have quite a bit of laser burn which is also ridged so its tough.

 

Anyway here are some pics of my current progress.

 

This is the upper part of the stem not glued yet. Its hard to tell from the picture but these are all built up from 3 layers. This is to accommodate the option to split the hull. I'm not building that option so will have these seams visible.

 

 

Some parts of the stem assembled

 

 

And done. The part you see sitting there is positioned approximately where its to be glued but I'm not 100% sure exactly of the position, so its not glued yet. There are steps that go here also for the forward frames but again not sure of the exact position so I haven't glued them on. Something I'm going to have to figure out. Something tells me the position of these parts is critical. You can also see there is a lot of color variation in the parts.

 

 

The parts of the stem after removal from the sheet. These are CNC cut (all but one part) and there's some cleanup to do.

 

 

After cleanup

 

 

The overall

 

 

 

[JeffT]

Finally an update. I said this would be slow and I wasn't kidding. I've started to cut out the frame parts in preparation for assembly. There are 2 types of frames; single layer, double layer and triple layer. Here are some pictures to show an example of each. There are 53 total frames to build. This will take some time. I cut up the frame drawing to separate each frame drawing and then made a copy of them all.

 

This is a single frame. Not much to say here other than its unique method of assembly. As you can see there is quite a bit of laser burn to clean up. I'm going to need to come up with a very cautious way of doing that. When its time to assemble I'll put some double sided tape on the plan to hold the pieces in place in order to make sure all the parts are lined up correctly.

Here are a couple of examples of a double layer frame. This first one is frame 10. The parts are marked a and b to eliminate confusion. a is the front facing layer I think and b aft facing. I need to be sure I have that right.

Note the handy bevel lines. I need to be sure I glue these together in the correct orientation. I think the bevel lines on the a-layer should face forward and the bevel lines on the b-layer face aft. I hope I'm right. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The a-layer faces front and the b-layer faces aft. That's clear on the profile drawing.

Also note the bevel line on the mating surface of part10b3 where it attaches to part b2. Those two mating surfaces need to be beveled before joining together. I'll need to brush up my beveling skills, they're not good. I'm also debating on whether I should prebevel or bevel after the frames are glued on during the fairing process. Either way, the bevel lines need to disappear. Or should this be done before the layers are glued together? These frames have steps also. There some spacers supplied in the kit to help with that. Its important to get that right. The steps can be seen on the plans so that's helpful.

This one is frame 17. I'm a bit puzzled by the bevel lines here as its only on 4 parts so not sure how to proceed. I'm assuming there is just some minor beveling needed so may just let that go until its on the model.

 

 

And finally a triple layer frame. The next 3 pics are frame 19. No beveling needed here apparently. Not too difficult , just make a sandwich, a on top of b on top of c. These frames also have steps but it will be a little easier to deal with since the middle layer b provides a flat surface to glue the other two layers to.

 

 

I'm cutting all the parts out and storing in sandwich bags so none of the parts get mixed up. I did mark each part on pencil with its part number also.

 

 

[ir3]

Hi Jeff,

 

I just started my Granado and in response to your December 19th, 2021, post, I am also finding that getting the glue joints perfectly square is quite difficult. I am in awe of the modelers that get these joint perfect. I am hoping the stem pieces are the most difficult and the job will get easier as time goes by. Thanks for doing the build thread. It will be very helpful.

[JeffT]

7 hours ago, ir3 said:

Hi Jeff,

 

I just started my Granado and in response to your December 19th, 2021, post, I am also finding that getting the glue joints perfectly square is quite difficult. I am in awe of the modelers that get these joint perfect. I am hoping the stem pieces are the most difficult and the job will get easier as time goes by. Thanks for doing the build thread. It will be very helpful.

I think its just technique and practice. I think over time we'll get better at it 🙂

[HardeeHarHar]

20 hours ago, ir3 said:

Hi Jeff,

 

I just started my Granado and in response to your December 19th, 2021, post, I am also finding that getting the glue joints perfectly square is quite difficult. I am in awe of the modelers that get these joint perfect. I am hoping the stem pieces are the most difficult and the job will get easier as time goes by. Thanks for doing the build thread. It will be very helpful.

I have this kit on the shelf (at least I have part 1 and 2), as I am currently finishing the Caldercraft Granado.  I was thinking it would be cool to do the CAF Model blown up in the three sections as a companion piece.  Due to the perceived level of difficulty, I am hoping that everyone who does this model will start a build log so others (like me) can learn from the experience of others.  So @ir3, I humbly encourage you to share your work with a build log 😃 

Best regards,

BT

[JeffT]

I agree BT. I would like to see some more build logs of the CAF Granado too.

[ir3]

I will be happy to start a build log. I am just about finished with the build, up through step 7. Once that is finished, I will start posting.

[hamilton]

Hi Jeff:

 

Just catching up on your progress here - this seems like a very challenging build even without the split hull option!

hamilton

[JeffT]

1 minute ago, hamilton said:

Hi Jeff:

 

Just catching up on your progress here - this seems like a very challenging build even without the split hull option!

hamilton

Its testing my skills even though I don't have to cut out the parts myself

[ir3]

Hi Jeff,

 

Could you check something for me. When I removed parts from 8A I failed to identify 8A-1 and 8A-2. Once I removed them I noticed that they are different. I have no idea which is which. Two are quite thick and the other two are thin and very fragile. I started a build log. Lots to learn.

 

[JeffT]

32 minutes ago, ir3 said:

Hi Jeff,

 

Could you check something for me. When I removed parts from 8A I failed to identify 8A-1 and 8A-2. Once I removed them I noticed that they are different. I have no idea which is which. Two are quite thick and the other two are thin and very fragile. I started a build log. Lots to learn.

 

I'll take a look when I get home tonight.

[yvesvidal]

Great model. I am currently building the Bellona from CAF Model and can see the similarities between the two kits (Bellona is POB, not POF).

Apparently, the instructions are better in your kit than they are in the Bellona.

 

Tom is excellent and answers very quickly to all your needs and request for help. He is a great asset to this company.

 

Yves

[JeffT]

16 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

Great model. I am currently building the Bellona from CAF Model and can see the similarities between the two kits (Bellona is POB, not POF).

Apparently, the instructions are better in your kit than they are in the Bellona.

 

Tom is excellent and answers very quickly to all your needs and request for help. He is a great asset to this company.

 

Yves

Thanks for looking in. I've seen your build and its an impressive model. i agree on Tom, he has been great 

[JeffT]

I finally got around to starting work on the frames. I decided to start building frames starting near the middle, so I started with frame 25.

As you can see frame 25 is 3 layers, A, B and C, A is the forward layer. A and C are both stepped. I'm not sure what the little bits are at the bottom steps.

The instructions would have you start with layer c using shims to prop it up, as shown here with frame 27. This may be necessary for two layers frames when both layers have steps,

or maybe not, we'll see, but not on the 3 layer frames.

The above method didn't make sense to me. Since the middle layer b is not stepped, I decided to start there. I'm using double sided tape to hold the frame parts in the correct position aligned on the plan.

There is no glue used on this layer to hold the individual frame parts together, just the tape holds the parts in position.

There is quite a bit of cleanup to do on the areas where the frames will be joined together. Lots of laser burn and of course the laser cuts at an angle. This is an example of the cleanup that needs to be done,

The parts wont mate properly until its done. This is the hard part for me, cleaning these surfaces up without making a mess of them. Luckily, this is on layer B and wont be visible after assembly.

I used mini files for this.

I'm using this sander to sand the ends of the parts. Its totally manual, so I have strict control of how much is taken off and making sure the end of the part stays true.

 

Then I glued layer A on top of layer B.

Once that dried, I flipped it over and glued layer C onto the other side of layer B. Some frames will need bevels but not this one. 

I probably will only do what beveling is necessary to fit the frame into the jig and finish the fairing on the model.

Frame 25 complete.

There are 53 frames so a bit of work is left to build all the frames, it took me several hours to do this one.

 

Thanks for looking.