Fixing generic railings to a sharply sheered bow?

[Ray S]

Hello all!

I have recently been doing a few Japanese 1/700 ships, but do not have specific etch railings for them. Out of the four I built, only one had no sheer towards the bows (IJN Kinu), but the other three did. Try as I might, I abjectly failed to tease the generic straight railings into a shape which followed the sheer.

An example, IJN Kumano

DSCN5708 by Ray Scofield, on Flickr

Can anybody give me any guidance on how to do this? Every time I tried, the stanchions always angled backwards, making the railings look wrong.

I have been able to get things right with Royal Navy ships, but the extreme sheer on Japanese ships has beaten me! IJN Kinu was my only success:

DSCN5944 by Ray Scofield, on Flickr

All the best everyone, take care and have a much better 2021!

Ray

[JIM BAUMANN]

Unless you have ' pre-hsaped'pE railings that are sopecifc to your ship,
the your only altrenative is really to do it in very small short individual sections

( ie 1 stanchion and 2 chain cables only-- joined with other with thinned varnish
or whiite glue.

when you cut them, you need to cut at a very slight angle to allow the
chain rail to follow the side elevation shape of the bow-- exactly like the real thing.
The important thing is to ensure that each stanchion remains UPRIGHT relative to the waterline

Its actually not that hard or tricky
especially as the railings are droopy chain,


==>unlike solid railing , (which can be a continuous curve )

chain or cable - when viewed above, the chain/ chain forms a series of straight facet sections
as chain or cable does not curve laterally


Have a look at this ( elderly ) post--there may be some useful ideas to glean from it!

this link below ( right here at modelwarships.com)

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37612

is useful and still is valid

PE hand-rail affixing methods - the pertinent info is spread over 3 pages

[drasticplastic]

Here's another method that is pretty much hit-or-miss; cut your railing into short lengths, as Jim says. Anchor the lower aft end of the railing section by holding it down with a blade, then pull/stretch the forward top corner with the tip of another blade, or tweezers. Sometimes the stanchions pull forward and remain straight (they will be leaning forward at an angle to the horizontal bars, which is what you want), and sometimes they just distort. That's why you do it in short sections - so if any get ruined, you don't ruin too much. I found this out by accident while I was trying to do something else!

[JIM BAUMANN]

that is what I did on the Normandie on my shallow sloping aft first class steps

It can be hit and miss and the corners don't always pull sweetly

I did use a lot and waste a lot--but end result was OK

trouble with droopy chain--is it might straighten the chain... !

[Ray S]

Jim and Drasticplastic, thank you very much indeed for that guidance, it will be very helpful indeed.

All the best, and have a great New Year!

Ray