The Ship Model Forum

That is looking very sharp--the strakes are crisp!

JB

Thanks for the comments Jim.

The next challenge on the hull was to drill the hole for the anchor hawse pipe at the front of the bow. The position of the hole was marked on the deck and were it exits on the bow and using a 6mm drill a pilot hole was carefully drilled first through the deck at an approximate angle towards the bow. Then a second pilot hole from the bow towards the deck was drilled in the same manner. With the two holes meeting up in the middle the hole was then opened out with an 8mm drill followed by a 9mm drill to create a tunnel from the deck to the bow through the solid balsa sections of the bow. After bit of filing with a large round file to ensure the tunnel was on the centre line of the hull it was big enough to slide a 9mm OD brass tube down. The tube was cut slightly oversize and glued in place. Some filler was applied and sanded back on both the deck and bow to finish off the edges of the pipe.

To form the bulwarks around the bow at the inclined angle required a template was made from cereal box cardboard. A strip was cut and taped in place round the edge of the deck at the required angle and marked with a soft pencil. This gave the bottom cutting line of the bulwark. The cardboard was cut out and placed on the deck to check it fitted correctly. A small amount of trimming here and there and the template was then placed onto a sheet of 0.8mm thick plastic sheet and drawn around to give the required shape. The plastic was cut and shaped to the lines drawn and test fitted on the bow. Along the bottom edge a slight angle was sanded to give a better joint with the deck. Once happy with the fit the section was glued in place using Tamiya Extra Thin Liquid Cement as it easily runs along the joint. This was left to set overnight. With the bow section set the anchor recesses could be made. First a cardboard template was made to get the angles correct and then transferred to a sheet of plastic and cut out. The end of the bow bulwark was trimmed to the correct angle and the first section of the recess glued in place. Then the first section on the other side was worked on and glued in place to allow the other side to set before adding anymore sections. This process was repeated for the second and third sections to complete the anchor recesses. Down each side of the bulwarks are nine wash ports so the positions of these were marked onto the deck as taken from the plan. To make it easier to construct the side bulwarks I decided to divide them into three sections each containing three wash ports. More cardboard was used to get the correct curve of the deck and transferred on to the plastic sheet. This was then cut out and shaped to fit on to the deck at the correct angle. Once happy with the fit the wash port locations were marked out on the plastic and then filed to shape with a round file for the corners and finished with a flat file along the top edge. The bulwark section was then glued in place and left to set whilst working on the other side of the hull. At this moment the bulwarks are not cut to the correct height but have been marked and the excess will be removed later.

Using the same techniques as described using card templates to get the correct curve of the deck and incline of the bulwark the last section around the stern were made and fitted to the hull. These sections were then marked with the height of the bulwark to match the rest. Using a shape knife the excess plastic and scoring the plastic above the mark line the excess plastic was easily removed and then with a small sanding block the remaining was removed down to the line. To check the height all round a simple gauge was made from plastic sheet that could be run around the edge of the deck to indicate where there were any high points. A little sanding in a few places was needed to ensure the top of the bulwarks were parallel with the deck.

looking very neat !!


JIM B ( on holiday in germany! )

With the bulwarks now fitted the next stage was to fit the numerous stanchions on the inside. Using various reference photos the position of each was marked out on the deck. To obtain the angle of each stanchion relative to the deck a simple adjustable tool was made from plastic sheet which was placed against the upright bulwark. The tool was then transferred to a jig, also made from plastic sheet and the angle marked onto a strip of plastic. The angle was then cut and the back edge marked with a set square and also cut. The stanchion was then glued in place with liquid cement. The whole procedure was then repeated for the next one and so on.

With all the bulwark stanchions in place on both sides the top rail was added using strips of 3.2mm wide x 1mm thick plastic starting with the two anchor wells and working towards the rear. Around the bow the strip wouldn�t bend to such an acute curve so this section was cut from 1mm thick sheet to the required shape.

With the bulwark top rail glued in place it was initially sanded back with some medium grit wet and dry paper. Next two equal parts of milliput epoxy resin putty were mixed together and applied along the joint and smoothed out using some water to form a thick paste and allowed to set overnight. Using three grades of wet and dry paper from rough through to fine, the hardened milliput was sanded to form a smooth joint along the top rail.

Nice looking shapes on the bow!

JIM B

This is a great build. Some of my upcoming projects will be tugs and your build here with the bulwark details will help immensely.

Thanks for posting and I will keep on watching.

James

Just a bit of an update showing the installation of one of the bulwark hawser that I desgined, modelled and had 3D printed from Shapeways.

thats a great result-


- neat and seamless

JIM B

The next step in the construction of the model was to fit the deck coaming around the opening. Using 6.4mm x 6.4mm, that�s � inch in old money, Evergreen plastic angle which I glued with cyano to the underside of the plywood deck giving a 4mm lip all round.

It is now time to start work on the main superstructure so it was back to the PC to setup and print out the basic shapes of the two sides and rear. The print out were then roughly cut out and glued to some cereal box cardboard using some Evostick contact adhesive to ensure the paper did not expand or shrink. Once applied to the cardboard the side pieces and front deck were cut out and using 3M tape stuck together to check the line along the deck and coaming. These cardboard shapes are to be the templates I will use to make the actual sides using plasticard.

Amazing craftsmanship! Everything seamlessly fits together!

Regards,
Aop

Great job! Very crisp building. I do wonder how much time you have spent on this model already? Any idea how many hours? And do you have to redo many things? Or is it going right from the first time on most occasions?

To answer your question, I started the build in September 2016 but how many hours it has taken i have never calculated. I tend to do an hour here and an hour there when I can. I do a lot of planning so things tend to go right first time but sometimes I do make a mistake and have to start again no matter how much planning I do.

Continuing on with the basic card templates complete the next stage was to start using them to mark out on to 1mm thick plastic sheet and cut them out. The rear sides were cut first and then the windows were cut out, three on each side, only to check the drawings and find the port side had only two. The mistaken third window was filled using some plasticard and the gaps filled with some car body filler and once set sanded back. The rear panel was cut out and then the two windows cut out also.

its starting to look shippy!

Very sharp and crisp!
JB

With the two sides and rear cut out the next step was to cut out the roof section from the plan. Now the pieces could be glued together with poly cement and strips of plastic positioned at the joints to strengthen them. With the rear of the superstructure complete the front section could be started using the card templates previously made. These were placed on the plastic sheet and taped in position and cut out. Then the windows and door openings were roughly cut out and filed to shape. The front top deck and front bulkhead were made from the card templates and then cemented together with 4mm square plastic sections in the corners to support the joints.

Good clean work