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PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 6:30 am 
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Well,

Bought the Merit 1:200 Hornet when it came to the market. To me the hull looked like a strange combination of a container ship with square mid section and almost credible looking bow and stern of Yorktown class carrier. Pondered for a while about the possibility to correct the Merit hull but that would have been more difficult than scratch building. So now the plan is to build the hull from scratch below hangar deck and the use the kit parts from hangar deck up. Merit hangar deck compares relatively well to the drawing even if the forward part is a bit too wide and the stern slightly too narrow. Merit flight deck is probably a tad too short and the stern lift is about 2 cm too far forward compared to the plans I have. However, I believe it should be possible to build an good model using a combination of scratch lower hull and kit parts.

Building the hull is going to take a while due to a mistaken assumption of the strength of plastic. I had planned to build the hull from two layers of 0,75 plastic card strips. However, given the length and width of the hull this proved out to be too flexible structure. Now I have decided to use 2 mm thick plastic strips between the bulkheads and then coat the hull with 1 mm thick strips. Finally the hull plating will be added from thin plastic "paper". This is going to take a while so it may take some time before an update of the process.

If anyone has compared the Merit Hornet to scale drawings it would be nice to hear about the findings. I only have Yorktown plans and compared to those apart of the hull the kit seems to be pretty close to the drawings. There is the problem with the aft lift and the length of the flight deck but neither is too obvious.

Attachment:
File comment: Forward part of the Merit hangar deck is a bit too wide
Hornet2.jpg
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Attachment:
File comment: And the stern is a bit too narrow and slightly off shape
Hornet3.jpg
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Attachment:
File comment: Contours of the Hornet hull
Hornet4.jpg
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Attachment:
File comment: Covering the hull is going to take some time
Hornet5.jpg
Hornet5.jpg [ 159.32 KiB | Viewed 3482 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: This is more or less the flat part of the ship belly
Hornet6.jpg
Hornet6.jpg [ 169.56 KiB | Viewed 3482 times ]


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 5:50 am 
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Attachment:
File comment: Hull taking shape...
Hornet8.jpg
Hornet8.jpg [ 173.27 KiB | Viewed 3343 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: A bit of progress but still along way to go.
Hornet7.jpg
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 10:32 am 
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VERY interesting and ambitious! As someone who's spent way too much time trying to fix Trumpy's 1/200 hulls, I can feel your pain... though Hornet is worth doing the extra work to make it right. :big_grin:

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 1:55 pm 
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Channell wrote:
VERY interesting and ambitious! As someone who's spent way too much time trying to fix Trumpy's 1/200 hulls, I can feel your pain... though Hornet is worth doing the extra work to make it right. :big_grin:


Agreed, quite the ambitious project, though in point of fact, it's something that could pave the way for useful scratch-building skills in bigger scales. Totally worth it, though; one can only wonder why Trumpy keeps screwing things like this up.

Will be following with interest! :thumbs_up_1: :cool_1:

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On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:20 pm 
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Thought about doing the same to mine but I also thought of cutting off the very bottom of the hull and scoring a lot of horizontal lines with a Dremel and seeing if I could shape a correct hull while still using the kit hull. Your idea is probably better and I don't have the kahunas to ruin a expensive piece of plastic. Looking forward to more progress updates.


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:42 am 
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Thanks for the comments! I just hope that the hangar deck fits once the hull is ready and the hull support structure is strong enough to prevent the hull from twisting into any direction.

Time to think about the bilge keels. I would like to build a slot or a "box" for them that enables me to attach them first when the hull is otherwise ready. It would be easier to sand the hull to form without the keels.

Attachment:
File comment: Slot for the bilge keel. 2 mm plastic card probably best material to make the keels.
Hornet10.jpg
Hornet10.jpg [ 178.69 KiB | Viewed 3161 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: Progress so far.
Hornet11.jpg
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:23 pm 
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My Alaska, though a waterline model, is made from quite light plastic framing and sheath. What I did was fill much of it with non expanding foam. The resultant structure is (Clintonian emphasis) quite rigid. I have also used plexiglass for structurally important load bearing members with sucess.

Good lock, a friend from years ago had served aboard Hornet the whole year she was in comission.

Cheers. T


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 2:07 am 
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Hello Jaril

woohoo ! a ambitious project !by seeing your latest progress , you seem to master the subject :thumbs_up_1:
great job
cheers
Nicolas

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 Post subject: Bilge keels
PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 4:36 am 
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Filling the hull with foam may be a good idea, thanks for the tip! I had been thinking of pouring some resin into the most strategic parts like the pedestal supports.

Fitted the bilge keels in place during the weekend. About 1/3 of the hull is now covered. Ran out of plastic sticks so time to start the circular saw.
Attachment:
File comment: Support structure for bilge keel in place.
Hornet12.jpg
Hornet12.jpg [ 195.97 KiB | Viewed 2951 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: Slot for the bilge keel. Hope I get the contours nicely sanded around it.
Hornet13.jpg
Hornet13.jpg [ 198.51 KiB | Viewed 2951 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: Bilge keels in place. They have to be cut into shape but I'll do that first when the hull is ready.
Hornet15.jpg
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:59 am 
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Cut 2 mm off the futtocks (is this correct term?) at stern. This makes it easier to retain the correct form as the plastic strips can now be curved without discontinuity points. Have to do the same to the bow.

Attachment:
Hornet17.jpg
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:14 am 
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Brilliant! Very much enjoying this build.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 4:29 am 
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Cutting plastic strips with the circular saw gives pretty rough cutting surface and leads to a lot of filing and sanding. Decided to give a try with a paper cutter. Surprisingly the tool works well up to 2 mm thick plastic card. The curved shape of the blade causes long strips to curve quite a lot but short, about 10 cm in length, stay straight.

Continued to glue strips on the hull. Shape of the stern starts to show. Bow requires long strips but I think I'll manage to cut them with the paper cutter.



Attachment:
File comment: Paper cutter for cutting plastic strips
Hornet18.jpg
Hornet18.jpg [ 180.9 KiB | Viewed 2651 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: First strip to the bow section. Note the curvature and longitudal twist
Hornet20.jpg
Hornet20.jpg [ 189.27 KiB | Viewed 2651 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: Stern being covered
Hornet19.jpg
Hornet19.jpg [ 185.37 KiB | Viewed 2651 times ]


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:05 am 
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You are definitely more ambitious than I am! I cannot wait to see what this build looks like at the end!

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 2:06 am 
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Hopefully not too ambitious :smallsmile: Just noticed yesterday evening that at some point I had somehow damaged the forward part of the hull so that it was not straight any more. Luckily the structure was still flexible enough to allow me to fix the problem but a few strips more glued in place and I would have needed to do a lot of work to correct the problem -not to speak of noticing it first when the hull was ready of course.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:41 am 
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Some progress with the bow. At least it looks pretty straight now. Have to make sure that the curvature of the hull is the same on both sides after I trimmed 2 mm off from the futtocks.
Attachment:
File comment: Red circle shows the weak point of the structure. The weakness shall be remedied when the second layer of strips is glued on top of the first layer.
Hornet22.jpg
Hornet22.jpg [ 189.51 KiB | Viewed 2534 times ]
Attachment:
Hornet23.jpg
Hornet23.jpg [ 196.89 KiB | Viewed 2534 times ]
Attachment:
Hornet21.jpg
Hornet21.jpg [ 189.01 KiB | Viewed 2534 times ]


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 2:02 pm 
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HI Jaril

realy impressive shipyard :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:
cheers
nicolas

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 4:06 am 
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Hi Nicolas,

Shipyard indeed, glad that you can't see what's in the vitrine behind the ship :smallsmile:

Got the bright idea of getting myself a motorized adjustable height table a while back. It has really been worth it's price with this project. Sometimes companies selling office furniture sell second hand tables at a very reasonable price, especially when they have won a tender for a large delivery and large amounts of old furniture has fallen into their hands.

A bit of progress during the weekend but not as much as I would have liked. Lot's of other things that had to be done came on the way.

Attachment:
Hornet24.jpg
Hornet24.jpg [ 194.25 KiB | Viewed 2415 times ]
Attachment:
Hornet25.jpg
Hornet25.jpg [ 191.1 KiB | Viewed 2415 times ]


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 5:56 am 
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Copies of the blueprints arrived yesterday. There were several details that were a bit unclear to me so I decided to get these documents to complement the drawings I already had. Regarding the hull the most important open issues were the shape of the hull under the rudder and the exact position of the armor belt. Answers to both questions are pretty well covered in the blueprints :smallsmile:

Noticed also that I had trimmed the futtocks a bit too much in the middle of the bow on the main deck level. Have to correct the shape using bits of plastic strip that I shall glue on the futtocks.
Attachment:
Hornet26.jpg
Hornet26.jpg [ 160.65 KiB | Viewed 2321 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: Shape of the hull under the rudder and the angle of the propeller shafts.
Hornet27.jpg
Hornet27.jpg [ 198.49 KiB | Viewed 2321 times ]
Attachment:
File comment: A slight problem with the shape. Trimmed a bit too much off from the futtocks in the middle of the bow. The edge of the main (hangar) deck should be a bit curved approximately along the black line in the photo.
Hornet28.jpg
Hornet28.jpg [ 193.02 KiB | Viewed 2321 times ]


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 4:40 am 
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Shape of the bow on the hangar deck level cut into cardboard, futtock positions and numbers marked. Numbers 4 and 5 have now been corrected on both sides. The gap between the cardboard shape and the model is explained by the fact that height of the hull is 3 mm less than the final hull height in order to accommodate for the Merit hangar deck that is 3 mm thick. When the Merit deck is added, 3 mm is added to the hull side height and the layer of 1 mm strips are glued to the hull we should have a perfect match to the card board shape. Just to make sure, I think I'll leave two last strips unglued on both sides for the full length of the hull so that I have some room for trimming when I start fitting the hangar deck in place.

Please note that the cardboard is slightly angled in the photo and thus the futtock positions marked into the cardboard and the ones in the ship hull do not seem to match.

Attachment:
Hornet29.jpg
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 4:19 am 
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Some progress but I guess that this stage is about as interesting as looking at grass grow. I intend to leave the upmost 10 mm of the hull sides uncovered until I can fix the hangar deck in place. This allows some possibility to adjust the hull so that the Merit kit parts from hangar deck up fit into the model.
Attachment:
File comment: This photo shows how much sanding will be needed before the next layer can be glued on.
Hornet30.jpg
Hornet30.jpg [ 177.15 KiB | Viewed 2092 times ]
Attachment:
Hornet32.jpg
Hornet32.jpg [ 189.96 KiB | Viewed 2092 times ]


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