HMS Echo by Hamilton - 1:48 - Admiralty Models - cross-section

[hamilton]

After spending a week looking at the lower hatch, I found myself becoming increasingly dissatisfied with it. So today I rebuilt it. The most difficult part of this was prying the old one off the model - I used a micro saw for this and worked very slowly and gently until it came loose. Sanding down the deck framing and re-applying some wipe-on poly made it look fine - a couple of blemishes, but these are hidden by the hatch itself, so not a big deal. The blanks for the partners are obviously just dry fit for now - lots of work to do on those before they're ready to be installed!

 

It's still not perfect, but I think it looks much cleaner than the last one. I had intended to spend today milling the pump shafts, making a mast dummy and starting work on the lower mast partners, but that now is put off to a later time.....

 

I hope to be able to find some time in the workshop this coming week - work is in a very temporary lull until the week after next, when we have our spring break at the university - a time for the kids to go to the beach and the grown-ups to mark mid-term assignments.....fortunately I'll be doing that at my parents place in the woods of eastern Ontario with a decent supply of beer and cookies (obviously not consumed together!).

 

Enjoy the photos and bye for now.

hamilton

 

[hamilton]

Well it's been way longer than I had hoped, but work has been busier than usual and so I haven't been able to clock any time in the workshop until today. The morning saw the completion of the lower deck mast partners. This involved first cutting a dowel to serve as a blank for the main mast, cutting a tenon into the lower part to fit into the step and then dry fitting that to get the position of the mast hole in the partners. I used a combination of round and half-round files as well as the dremel tool for finishing. The hole is not entirely even, but this will not be very visible in the end, so I'm not too concerned.

 

Marking, drilling and filing out the square holes for the chain pump shafts followed a similar process. I already milled a bunch of 11" square stock for the pump shafts and, using two of these, I marked them out on the partners. Small holes were drilled on the drill press and then widened and squared using an assortment of files.

 

The partners were then installed permanently on the deck framing. Next step will be to make the lower deck waterways and spirketing planks, and then lay the deck planking. I'll fully plank the port side and leave part of the deck framing exposed to starboard. During the planking, I'll also have to consider the run of the return shafts of the chain pumps....but that's for later. In the meantime, here are some photos. Enjoy and happy modelling

hamilton

[hamilton]

Managed to get a few more hours in the workshop this afternoon and made/installed the lower deck waterways. These were relatively straightforward, though I had to take time to mill a 3" sheet of boxwood. I then discovered that there is a bit of asymmetry in the frames, as there is a noticeable wasting aft on the port side but this is more subtle on the starboard side - this means that the port side waterway is slightly curved in shape while the starboard side is more or less straight.....this is teaching me a lesson for the next time I try something like this.

 

In any case the waterways were chamfered on the outboards lower edge to fit nicely against the frames, as well as on the outboard upper edge to fit the spirketing (which is next up on the list). The plans show them reducing to 2" to meet the deck planking - I simplified this by chamfering off the inboard upper corner at as oblique an angle as I dared - not perfect and not reflective of actual practice, but.....I'm keeping a list of things that I need to work on more rigorously next time.....

 

Enjoy the photos and bye for now

hamilton