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! )
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 !
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
Using the first fwd and aft pairs of uprights,
the lower superstructure deck was testfitted
then the real work began of getting the uprights perpendicular...
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)
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
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...
The superstructure block was added on the pre-painted deck
and the upright tubes trimmed off
as a repeat of the lower deck-- the deck was edged with brass , snipped off and backfilled with white glue
a tinned copper wire beading was added as per photos of the real ship
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...
looks pretty convincing ( to my eyes....)
so now the model is taking a bit of shape and is getting to thye fiddly parts
just how I like it!
