Right. Deck laid
including hatch covers.
Although
the bulwark will increase the freeboard all round, the
hatch to the battery department needs to be a good tight
fit to cope in bad weather. Watertightness can be ensured
by using the elastic type of gasket seal from the tube.
Applying the gasket gel to the bearing surface of the
joint after painting and then placing the painted and
lightly greased (Vaselined ) hatch cover will form a
gasket whilst permitting the cover to be removed and
replaced as required.
When
laying ply decking with inserts such as hatches and
coamings it makes sense to form the opening, shape and
place the insert, pinning hatches lightly in place, then
lay decking between the insert and the the hull edges, in
this way one can obtain the best fit between insert and
the surrounding deck. Working in this fashion, as well as
ensuring a close joint. the ply can be cut accurately to
the hull edge. In most cases prior to painting, hatch
edges will have to be relieved to allow for the thickness
of the paint coats.
Left: Removable
parts must stand heavy handling at the waterside,
stiffeners installed.
Right: Forward
bulkhead and lower structure sides with cooling vents cut
as described in the text
A few
heavy weights serve to locate components whilst the
adhesive hardens when assembling parts that cannot be
clamped together, Square weights used at right angled
joints ensure accuracy.. Offcuts of bar are fine for this
purpose.
Where
adhesive is used adjacent to a part to which no adhesive
should stray ................clingfilm will prevent
adhesion.
Top left:
Commencing fixing the wheelhouse side members to the
level of the inclined front panel.
Top right. Benches
installed, a start is made on the superstructure
upperworks
Lower left: Upper
level of wheelhouse installed all openings rough cut
using dental burrs
Lower right:
Funnel and access to wheelhouse from raised deck.
Dental burrs are ideal for
cutting apertures in up to 3/16" ply. Whilst the
dentist tells me that his drills run at 200,000 r.p.m,
when cutiing ply I find that 5,000 r.p. m ( a speed
within the capability of most 'mini drills' ) is fine.
Where cooling vents are being modelled the expanded
aluminium supplied in motorbody repair kits can provide a
suitable grille material. In this case, as with glazing,
the grille will be fixed after the paint job is complete.
The next step has been to install
the pushposts. These have been remade following research
on the Internet where push posts ar generally taller that
those as the sying goes ' I prepared earlier '.
Top left:
Pushposts installed, firmly screwed to bow, more filler
evident !
Top right.
Bulwarks construction, stern tumblehome to be built in.
Lower left:
Bulwarks stern tumblehome built in. All to be sanded.
Lower right: '
Tools of the trade '
In scratch building, construction
methods must be devised as work proceeds. Having built ' Freelancers
1 & 2 ' I have found it essential to make card
templates for items such as rounded and inclined stern
bulwarks. Card from a cornflakes box is ideal.
Having cut the parallel sides on
the card to bulwark height the template can be lightly
pinned in place then bent and inclined such that the
tumblehome is as required. It is then a simple matter to
mark top and bottom of the template for cutting to
maintain the bulwark height required as well as a being a
good fit on the deck side. The profile of the template
can then be transferred to the ply, ensuring that the
grain of the outer veneers is vertical at the centre of
the bend.
As usual with bends, dampening the
outer veneer will assist in the acheiving the required
shape. It is best to avoid joints in ply at any sort of
rounded corner otherwise alignment and maintenace of line
becomes a problem.
After part glueing has been carried
out and the ply fitted snugly all round the best joint
between parts will be acheived by overlapping the
sections after fixing the bend and whilst the ends are
free of glue cutting the eventual joint with a sharp
blade prior to completing the glueing.
Time for modelmaking has been
scarce recently so here goes with a brief update-
The wheelhouse has been completed
and the rather tedious job of constructing the railings
around the upper deck built insitu. The whole deck and
wheelhouse are removable, the engine room is firmly fixed
to the hull and provides space for fixing fuse, switch,
ESC. etc.
Top left: Railings
installed. These were soldered in place though it would
have been easier to prefab them on a template.
Top right. The
electrical equipmet in place and tested dry.
Lower left: Float
test. At this stage the boat coul be driven and proved to
be responsive to signals.
Lower right: Crane
construction under way ( I love cranes and probably give
them too much prominance, but hey ! It's my model and I
do it my way , as long as there is a prototype somewhere!
Whilst being removable,
the deck above the engine room and the deckhouse were
constructed in place with clingfilm in the joint. This
ensured that the joint was ' Tight ' and the join
invisible.
Radio and controls
installed and tested dry and on the water now for some
equipment.
The boat floats level with battery,
controls and ballast (Cast iron sash weights from the
local hardware shop, well down in the hull ) my deck
construction presents problems with mounting a whip
arial.t I will probably leave the wire on deck as a '
Stray cable '.sometimes there's the a few on a tug.
Top left:
Construction started on the stern winch using plastic
card and domestic pipe.
Top right. Winch
completed, life floats installed awaiting details, mast
commenced.
The winches are based on those seen
on the web, my source of information on just about
everything.
The hull details
for the Springer Class of model are available on Martin
Davis' excellent site www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk . my version of the boat
incorporates a taper towards the bow to improve the
appearance of the hull and is thus is ' Out of class ',
this doesn't bother me as I don't compete as many boat
modellers do.
Page updated 10th March 2010
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