And another slice....
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The two small stubs of brass tube at the front are the tops of support columns that land on the deck under. Because of Albion's telescopic sections, I can add just enough length to allow the support structure to be fixed. When final assembly occurs it should be easy to add extensions using a smaller inner tube for alignment (yes, Albion's tube diameters are that precise). I didn't want the full length items at this stage due to the risk of my accidentally breaking them off.
Good news is that the work will be visible when assembled.
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I also had a 'secret ingredient' turn up this week that let me experiment with turret top rivets. I have seen EJ Foeth's work on this using rivet wheels (aka pounce wheels). I'm avoiding this approach because a) I suck at using rivet wheels, b) I couldn't think of how I could get the precision on corners and curves etc because c) I suck at using rivet wheels.
Note that Mr Foeth also informed me that the Barham turrets were probably not riveted but then he also sent me a picture of another ship which I think had the same mark of turret that did have rivets. I decided to add them anyway for experimentation purpose as they could always be removed later (I am able to do this - remember the foghorn platform on the funnel I experimented with?)
Spoiler. The end result looks like this:
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So the experiment mostly worked. Definitely a step up from the original kit part:
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How's it done? Here's the secret ingredient:
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Yes, it's mild lunacy to contemplate this.
0.2mm Scales out to about 2 3/4" real life. I don't know how big the rivet heads actually were but it seems reasonable (it also sets a personal best for smallest part I've ever handled). There's 2500 in that jar so the carpet monster can munch away.
My plan was to develop the rooftop plates into true flat size, add the rivet position centers, print on paper and use a fine needle to make depressions that the solder balls would fall into. Then I would magically fix them in place.
Here's some key points:
-Developing the plates to be accurate when attached to the turret was a pain requiring numerous attempts.
-Piercing the depressions was probably the hardest part as a very high level of precision is required to keep the rivet runs looking as straight as possible.
-Placing the solder balls was actually very easy (if you can see them - luckily they're very shiny which helps) as they are readily drawn to a statically charged needle tip
-Fixing them was equally easy once you realise that a) CA is not the answer, b) Mr Surfacer heavily thinned with laquer thinner can be brushed onto untreated paper without warping it and c) solder balls like attaching themselves to liquid even more than they do the needle. Put a small drop of Mr Surfacer in/around a depression, pop the solder ball into the liquid and use the end of a slightly blunted wood toothpick (hardened with CA) to push it into the depression. Next. Next. next etc. At the end, let everything dry and then give all of them a gentle wash with thinned Mr Surfacer to fix them a bit more.
-I chose to fix the solder balls before cutting out the roof plates. The base plate for the range finder was pierced, cut-out and fixed to the roof before adding the balls.
-If some of the balls look too proud they can be flattened slightly with the toothpick due to their being soft.
Please note that the use of the word 'easy' is of course relative; it really means that it was less extremely difficult than I thought it would be.
It seems to be quite a tolerant process as the pictures are the first attempt, it's not the one of many that looked OK. It's straightforward to remove and replace individual balls if they are too errant (with finesse obviously). The next step will be to try and make a resin casting; I really don't want to repeat this 4 times.
Note that solder balls are available on smaller sizes (0.1mm) for the truly adventurous. I'm not going there....