one short month or so later....
there has been some tangible progress.... in small bites albeit--
but I am making the methods and solutions up as I go along....
I created the various turrets of ( 15 year old!) styrene tubing of various diameters
==> in the hope that it was stable and had stopped out gassing !
The oval turrets were made by compressing the
in-hot-water pre-heated tubing
and then cooled in a mini-vice ( everything is mini on this ship! )
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the hatches on whalebacks --on the real ship-
unlike the usual practice-
of raised coamings, timber , canvas coverings secured by battens with hammered in wooden wedges....
No Siree !
--that would interfere with clean discharge of any water on the decks....
nope - on these ' wet-deck' ships of minimal resistance-- ....
The hatches were near-Flush
bolted down hatches of steelplate !!
rendering these in miniature was a potential challenge
Fortunately --some generic PE ( l'arsenal ) .....that has been resting in my stash fro many years-( it may come in in handy some day...)
was indeed dimensionally spot -on-- with a subtle bolt pattern relief etched.
This was a real relief!=> repeatable and dead identical !
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the turret decks were overhanging - of various shapes
these were filed to shape out of thin PE brass scrap
These were very hard to hold firmly without damage whilst being filed
I devised a sprung clamp via thick flat headed tweezers
... a bit gawky...-- but effective
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Using the first fwd and aft pairs of uprights,
the lower superstructure deck was testfitted
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then the real work began of getting the uprights perpendicular...
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The upper accommodation block was made , wrapped in white thin vinyl tape for a homogeneous surface,
fitted with a wrap of light brown decal strip and portholes as well as flush fitting doors ( dark brown decal strip)
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when the uprights had been re-re-re-re-adjusted, they were fixed with CA , the deckedegs were faced with a thin stainless steel PE strip
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and the the oversize ( latitude to adjust!!) holes by the uprights
were backfilled with white woodworking glue
( a bit like PVA, but tackier and fasterdrying ) so as to self-level...
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The superstructure block was added on the pre-painted deck
and the upright tubes trimmed off
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as a repeat of the lower deck-- the deck was edged with brass , snipped off and backfilled with white glue
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a tinned copper wire beading was added as per photos of the real ship
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The lower deck had angled diagonal braces on the underside of the deck
Tricky in these small spaces (!! ) to install these evenly, at the same angle and length
without frustration of damage.
so I resorted to a simple solution, not quite as per the real thing -- but...
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looks pretty convincing ( to my eyes....)
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so now the model is taking a bit of shape and is getting to thye fiddly parts
just how I like it!
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