USS Cairo by rcmdrvr - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1:192

[rcmdrvr]

Next steps were to fashion the Torque Rods and Ridge Pole.  Pretty straight forward process.  I drilled small holes in the side of the wheel house and the deck to facilitate fitting the Torque Rods into place.  For the Ridge Pole I cut four 11/16 inch basswood strips and used CA to glue them to the appropriate holes in the deck.  I then CA'd the Ridge Pole to the four strips.  Fairly easy to accomplish.

 

[rcmdrvr]

The next components that needed to be created turned out to be much more difficult that I anticipated and came very close to this model taking a trip to the round file.......the component were the life boats.  I started by bending the the brass wire for the davits to the shape shown on the plans.  I also cut the davit supports from the PE fret and used CA glue to affix then to the underside of the top deck.  This was the first problem encountered.  The CA did not want to adhere to PE to wood.  I finally had to resort to dabbing the wood with accelerator before apply the CA.  This worked but left an unsightly white blob of hardened CA.  Some paint hid most of this.  I then used the davits to locate where holes should be drilled in the hull.  Second problem.  I could not find a very small diameter drill that would penetrate the PE siding.  I finally had to CA a small length of round toothpick to the PE siding and drill thru it.  Not scale for sure but the only way I could think of affixing the forward davits.  The next problem was the thwarts did not fit the boats very well.  Gaps everywhere and I broke some of them trying to position them properly.  Next came the boat falls.  I guess I must be very clumsy but working with these very small and quite fragile PE pieces was very trying.  Then came the almost final straw.  The boats provided in the kits are somewhat wider than the boats drawn on the plans.  They banged up against the hammock structure when attached to the davits.  I ended up having to remove most of what I had just constructed and cut longer davits that placed the boats above the hammock structure and also allowed be to bend them outward at the davit supports.  Again not scale but it worked.  Fortunately I did do something right.  I put together one full boat assembly before I did all four.  This means what I learned rebuilding the one that didn't work well I could apply to the other three.

 

[rcmdrvr]

Well, in the last few night I completed my Cairo.  I pretty much followed the instructions in the final assembly.  I did not use the thread provided to run the lines.  Instead I tried a product called EZ Line.  It was very easy to work with.  Some thoughts on this kit.  First; the small scale made this model somewhat more difficult for me.  Many of the parts and structures were more "fiddly" than I am used to.  The plans were a bit difficult to follow but did contain all the information you need to complete this kit.  The written directions were OK......I had some issues but that is not to say everyone would.  Overall, I ended up with a model I consider to be "satisfactory".  A more experienced modeller would probably get something better.  Also, I want to thank everyone who took the time to comment on this project.  Here are a few shots of the completed model.

 

 

[mtaylor]

Look good from here.  At that scale, I'm surprised any detailing is possible.

[Cathead]

Thanks for writing this up, it's been useful to have some advance knowledge of possible pitfalls as I proceed at my current glacial pace.

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Nice finish!