Santisima Trinidad by GTM - OcCre - 1:90 - Kit Bashed

[Sjors]

I have to agree with Anja ( otherwise….)

Great looking deck!

 

[GTM]

Next step:

(You might call it cheating) but I’m gluing balsa blocks in some of the bow sections to make sure the planks get a nice curve and to avoid critical  bending/stress points for them, It is probably nothing new for most of you builders on MSW ..

.

 

I started to glue the plywood gun-port strips

These strips are not very flexible.., to make them fit without breaking them I have to soak them with water and clamp them into position and let them dry

 

 

So Instead of occupying the family bad-tub for this task, I got the idea to use an app. 75 cm long pvc-tube with an waterproof bottom plug found in my local construction market

 

Edited March 14, 2013 by GTM

[Sjors]

That's the way to do it Theo, both….balsa and get the wood wet.

And the balsa is not cheating but it works better for the planking.

 

[Garward]

For simplification are flexible levels them it is possible to wet liquid ammonia for about 5 minutes after that even rather thick levels well bend.

[GTM]

Thank you Garward for the ammonia  tip i will certainly keep that in mind (i guess i better have to try this with all the windows open or outdoors )

 

Just about here in the build project my new tool arrived : a table saw FET (37070) from the manufacturer proxxon 

It was a good opportunity to try it out by cutting the gun bases..

 

 

I decided (in deep contrast with my previous build the “Smit Rotterdam”) that I’m not going to use any paint on this model, so I hope that this is the only exception..

 

 

To fit these gun base strips with their bases I needed to modify quite a lot of bulkheads as you will see on the picture

 

 

I discovered that at least some of the gun base strips are too short, according to the instructions/drawing it should also have covered the last bulkhead.

 

[Garward]

Theo wrote: " Thank you Garward for the ammonia  tip i will certainly keep that in mind (i guess i better have to try this with all the windows open or outdoors ) "

 

Or in the open air or in the closed capacity   

[GTM]

Wetting and drying of the gun strips take quite some time, so I planked the quaterdeck in the meantime. and tried to be a bit more carefully when drilling the holes for the treenails.

 

 

I think the doors supplied with the kit are a bit too bulky and out of scale so as an excuse and to try out the capabilities of the FET table saw I made 1mmx2mm strips from scrap wood and i glued cardboard on one side.

 

 

Glued together and with cardboard in between the planks gives the door a slimmer look  

 

 

To give it even more details I have added an (in scale) door handle and hinges 

 

 

an Preview look...

 

[Anja]

Good morning Theo,

 

Nice doors. You did good to change them.

 

Take care,

 

Anja

[Sjors]

Hi Theo,

 

Nice table saw you have there…...

And I see that you are moving a little to the dark side…..

Great doors!

A real improvement!

 

[GTM]

Thank you loyal followers for the comments! all dough I’m not sure that  "moving to the dark side" is a good thing to do ?   

 

Well, after this minor side-step, back to the gundeck strips.

I have glued all of them in place and I must say that these are not a perfect fit as you will see on the picture down below.

The gap between the bottom of the lowest gun strip and the cut-out of the frames is my biggest concern.

 

 

To cover this gap I re-used the scrap wood of the gun strips and it helped me to create the perfect “eliminate-gap-planks”

 

 

 

And here it is glued in place

 

 

I also noticed that most likely some additionally  "re"-alignment is needed for some of the gun-ports..

 

Edited March 17, 2013 by GTM

[Sjors]

Hi Theo,

 

Nice fix on the gaps….

You can go straight with the gun ports when you planking it.

Great job so far.

 

[bgarden]

Indeed nice fix on the gaps!   And looking through your log, your deck planking looks terrific.  Each deck board seems to line up nicely with the cabin walls and the decks above and below.  Are you sure you have enough gun ports there on your ship.  After looking at yours I am so glad that mine only has 18.  But what a nice boat to build keep up the good work. 

 

Brian

[Ship Shape]

Am now a fan, your methods are alittle different from what I am used too, but I do like the results, your testing and then test again dry build before gluing is a pretty neat trick, will give this ago.  I also like the way you keep coming up w/fix's f/the kits short falls.  I also like the doors, small details make or break a great build.  One question, please describe in abit more detail this bee's wax finish you are applying to the decks.  I like the black card trick, my only problem is I can never find it thin enough to suit me.  Look forward to more of your build.

Rick

[john46]

Just read your  buildlog with pleasure. The planking is impressive and the doors are great. Will follow your log with interest.

 

Regards,

John

[GTM]

Thank you all for the encouraging reactions 

 

Rick, down below a picture of the bee-wax i used (something french) and it has an antique tint 

I found it on the internet, but i'm sure you can use any furniture bee-wax available to you, 

Here's the (danish website) link where i found it  ..

 

[GTM]

An major step in the build project, I finished the upper planking on one side of the ship and wanted to save you all for a lot of pictures during this fase so here's the result. 

 

I only slightly have opened op for the gun ports, I will  open them completely after having made sure that they are aligned properly.

After plank 7 I inserted an full stealer on the bow and stern to compensate for the upwards going curves and to align it perfectly with the front deck.

 

 

 

Here are some pictures after roughly sanding, 

I did not sanded the bottom planks too much, this is to prevent rounding edges as they are very vulnerable at his stage.

 

 

 

As I’m not intending to paint the model,  I can’t cover up the holes made by nails/pins and needles so easily.

So I hold the planks in place by clamps and pieces of scrap-wood as an additional tool to hold the planks into place during drying and gluing.

 

Edited March 19, 2013 by GTM

[Anja]

Hello Theo,

 

At this stage the hull is looking good.

And sometimes you have to use your imagination to use whatever is needed to hold those planks in place.

 

I'm looking forward to your progress.

 

Take care

Anja

Edited March 21, 2013 by Anja

[GTM]

The first part of the upper planking on both sides  is finished, basically what I did is the same as on the other side and included the stealers after plank no.7

 

 

 

During the planking, my mind was already focused on the next step.

Included in the kit are Ramin strips for planking of the Bulwarks, but I decided to change these strips for wood of a reddish color, and to limit the amount of different sorts of wood and for availability reasons, I ended up with 1 mm Mahogany sheets.

 

Again a perfect excuse to use the table saw, i'm very pleased with this tool.

I found out that a piece of 3mm thick Plexiglas was so smooth that the blade wouldn’t grab it and it keeps the strips down on the table without losing any fingers

 

 

Here’s some pictures of the progress

 

 

[Sjors]

Wow,

 

That looks great

You did a very good job with the planking.

I also want to buy a saw machine from proxxon…..

Like you thing with the plexiglass.

Can you saw also plexiglass with the saw?

 

[GTM]

Hej Sjors, thanks for your kind words, and yes  the FET table-saw can also cut plexiglass, but in this case you need to change the current blade to an more suitable blade made for cutting plexiglass, 

Right now i use a blade which has very small teeth this for making sure it doesn't destroy the thin wood during cutting .…

 

 

Again thoughts popped up during the planking of the bulwarks, instead of using the provided metal gun-port frames I wanted to give it a try to scratch build these as well.

After thinking about an easy production line, I started to saw the strips in the needed lengths.

By  using several “L” shaped aluminum profiles I made sure to glue the strips in 90 degrees angles 

 

 

 

After this I used the “L” profiles again  to create the perfect square tube 

 

 

I strengthened the corners on the tube with thin CA glue and could cut them more or less easily in the needed lengths without breaking them during this progress

 

 

Here some pictures with the first prototype of a gun-port frame glued in place.

 

 

 

I taped 2 pcs. of 0.8mm and 2 pcs. of 1,5mm drills together with some tape and used this as a tool to sand down the individual ports in the appropriate thickness 

 

 

 

Here are some more pictures of the progress, “I’m pleased with the result” however the only minor detail is the needed quantity : 108 portframes in total …

 

Edited March 28, 2013 by GTM

[Sjors]

That looks very good Theo,

 

And only 108 port frames……piece of cake 

 

Good luck with it!

 

[Kevin]

I like the idea of drill bits being used a a spacer, that could do with going into the jigs topic

[GTM]

Hej Kevin, Sjors

I'm aware that 104 is a "nice" number, unfortunately I have made an calculation error, the actual number is 138.., so right now I wished that the Santisima Trinidad only had 38 canons

I Never thought about putting the drill-bit trick in the jigs topic I might consider doing so.

 

Continuing:

After “A” comes “B”…, Port frames is one thing, the other thing is the gun port lids (correct number -> 104 in total !!).

 

After my decision to scratch build the gun port frames, the next necessary step was to find an “easy” way to manufacturer the gun port lids which again ideally should be able to open and close..

 

The once I have in mind are pretty basic but it will again be a time consuming task.

So I will build these besides and/or during the waiting times of some other time consuming build tasks

Here’s the prototype production line I came up with, but I still need to make some adjustments when I start with the real line.

 

I started to glue strips and cardboard into planks, cut them in length and glued 0,5 thin plank on the back of it.

 

 

 

 

As for the hinges I used 1mm copper strips cut from a copper sheet and bend the turning-point of the hinge by using a 0,8mm drill-bit and a pair of pliers.

After this I cut/filed the strips in length and glued them in position with CA glue, drilled 0,6 mm holes and used the pins of a Pentium III processor to simulate nails on this prototype.

 

 

 

 

The result is very good but unfortunately when producing over 100 of them I would need at least 600 of these Pentium processor nails.

 

As I only have 1 Processor and this one doesn’t have 600 pins, I need to find an alternative for the nails for the hinges

So if anyone has/have found copper nails with a head diameter of 0,8mm, please don’t hesitate and spread the news

 

a few more creative pictures....

 

 

Edited March 31, 2013 by GTM

[Garward]

Video for information: NAVIO SANTISIMA TRINIDAD model construction

Edited March 30, 2013 by Garward

[GTM]

Hej Garward,

Thank you for the link, very inspiring movie to watch.

 

"Finally,."  Status Quo..  

This is the stage where i'm at this very moment in the build project . 

All the frames on one side are mounted and only one more side to go   i couldn't resist to take a few pictures at this stage and to post them. 

 

 

 

"i just had to drill the holes" and dry-fit all the canons. 

...quite impressive... i guess she was very dangerous in her times .

 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2013 by GTM

[Sjors]

That looks fantastic Theo,

 

And very once gunport lid!

Very good job.

Are you putting them all to the ship or are you waiting till you have done the planking ?

 

[GTM]

Thank you very much "commander”  Sjors    

 

Yes, i must admit I used my only one prototype gun-port lid for very good reasons as you might have guessed..

 

and I will wait with gluing the canons until i'm really finished with the hull planking, this was just a peek of what is going to happen in the very near future (i hope..)  

Edited March 31, 2013 by GTM

[Sjors]

Theo,

 

It just looks great!

You are on the right track...

 

[GTM]

At last .. progress..

 

I have been busy with a lot of things, but finally I’m done with the frames on starboard side 

Off course an minor thing is still missing: "all the hatches"

 

underneath a few pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

..the canons are dry fitted..

 

Edited April 15, 2013 by GTM

[Kevin]

can you post a photo for me into the following thread, the reason why is in the opening page

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1589-latest-full-profile-photograph-of-your-build/