1/400 Canadian Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (scratch)

[Neptune]

I'll try to log my build here as I progress.

The project started a while back as I was looking for a small, compact ship with bow thruster and conventional propulsion for RC purposes on smaller ponds. The scale should be 1/100 to fit with my other large scale ships.
I also wanted it to be relatively simple since I love to build hulls, but didn't want to get bogged down in infinite details.
AOPS fits all of those criteria. However, there are no plans available of these vessels, so I decided to embark on a journey to make my own.
Luckily they spoiled us with plenty of construction pictures that give at least an idea of the frame shapes. Some interpolation between known object sizes and the ship gave me a good starting point.

After creating the plans, I decided to create quick 1/400 model to evaluate my drawn frames. I did make my drawings in 1/100 and scaled them down.
First the test model had one frame that looked off, but I wasn't sure which 1 of 2 frames was the odd one.
That's where phase one stopped. I needed to look for a way forward without spending too much time on it.

Salvation came when I found some waste insulation board. I decided to cut it up and hot glue it between the frames to get a better view of the frame shapes.

[Neptune]

Next step was finding that odd frame, adjust its shape and trace that new outline. I only glued the blocks on the inside, so I could easily put a piece of paper between the frames and blocks.

I still wasn't very satisfied with this and wanted to build a complete 1/400 version. This hull wasn't foreseen for that and adjusting it would have been really difficult as those blocks were really well glued and I'd need to adjust all frames to accept the parallel sides.

I therefore decided to build a new hull.

[Pieter]

Nice to see you posting on the Picture Post board again. And an interesting ship as well. Have you decided which ship of the class you will be building?