by robertmelvin » Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:22 am
Chap, sounds like you might have a little warpage problem. There are a couple of ways I would consider to solve this. First, try soaking the hull halves in hot (not boiling, just short of that point) for a short time, just enough to impart some flexibility. Once you have the flexibility you need, mate up the two halves and tape them together fitted properly. Let them cool and then remove the tape to see how the fit is.
I'd also suggest that you might consider, either as an alternative to soaking in hot water, or as an adjunct to it, cutting some stock pieces, either fairly thick (say 1mm thick) strips of flat stock, or some bar stock of styrene and glue them at intervals down one side of the hull with epoxy. Once that has set up (I'd use 5 minute epoxy, so the set up time will be pretty short - I'd give it an hour to fully cure out), then mate up the two halves and start from one end start fitting the halves and when you have them fitted as you want, use epoxy to attach the stock to the other side. Hold it until it sets us, maybe 10 minutes. Then move on to the next, working you way up or down the hull. Once you are done, then run a bead of epoxy down the mating seam. That should give you a good, solid bond with a good fit.
While I don't always use epoxy in gluing my hulls, especially in smaller ships like DDs, I do use this technique pretty frequently on larger ships like cruisers, BBs and carriers. Makes a good solid bond that you don't have to worry about giving way on you as you handle the hull during the building process.
Let me know how this works if you try it. Good luck and I hope I've been able to help you with your problem.
Please don't hesitate to let me know if these suggestions don't work for you and if you want, feel free to private message me. I'm always up for trying to help a fellow ship modeler since so many of the good folks here have helped me tremendously since I came back to the hobby a few years ago.
Bob
Chap, sounds like you might have a little warpage problem. There are a couple of ways I would consider to solve this. First, try soaking the hull halves in hot (not boiling, just short of that point) for a short time, just enough to impart some flexibility. Once you have the flexibility you need, mate up the two halves and tape them together fitted properly. Let them cool and then remove the tape to see how the fit is.
I'd also suggest that you might consider, either as an alternative to soaking in hot water, or as an adjunct to it, cutting some stock pieces, either fairly thick (say 1mm thick) strips of flat stock, or some bar stock of styrene and glue them at intervals down one side of the hull with epoxy. Once that has set up (I'd use 5 minute epoxy, so the set up time will be pretty short - I'd give it an hour to fully cure out), then mate up the two halves and start from one end start fitting the halves and when you have them fitted as you want, use epoxy to attach the stock to the other side. Hold it until it sets us, maybe 10 minutes. Then move on to the next, working you way up or down the hull. Once you are done, then run a bead of epoxy down the mating seam. That should give you a good, solid bond with a good fit.
While I don't always use epoxy in gluing my hulls, especially in smaller ships like DDs, I do use this technique pretty frequently on larger ships like cruisers, BBs and carriers. Makes a good solid bond that you don't have to worry about giving way on you as you handle the hull during the building process.
Let me know how this works if you try it. Good luck and I hope I've been able to help you with your problem.
Please don't hesitate to let me know if these suggestions don't work for you and if you want, feel free to private message me. I'm always up for trying to help a fellow ship modeler since so many of the good folks here have helped me tremendously since I came back to the hobby a few years ago.
Bob