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[nhp651]

sorry, Dave.....only the outer surface will be prepped.several layers of sanding sealer before the printed deck goes on and then the printed deck will be given a coat of stain to match the colours of the decks that I have from the photos of the actual boats.then will give a couple of coats of clear satin varnish.
neil.

[nhp651]

today, I spent most of the day cleaning up all the decks and sanding them



Then I trimmed the main decks around the cockpits on all three boats as well as making supports to fit under the cockpit main/sub deck assemblies so that I can eventually have some substance thick enough to glue the combings too, to hold the cabins in place.



Each boat different, needed a different solution to the problem...........oh the brain aches this evening. lol.

I also filled any gaps between the tops of the cockpit walls and the underside of the sub decks for a neat finish eventually.

[nhp651]

Now that the combing supports under deck have been fitted, the actual combings for each boat can be cut out and fitted.

These are an integral part of keeping the inside of the boat clear from water, and also for holding the superstructure in place.

Although a little more complicated than most scale craft they are only what anyone would put onto their trawler, cabin cruiser, warship or even  a modern lifeboat to keep the superstructure in place and to stop water getting under that superstructure into the electrics, and as such are  constructed in sections to fit the aquired boat like any set of combings. this set shown are for the Field Marshal and Mrs Smuts which has a combination of two cabins virtually adjoining each other.

They were made from a combination of 6mm ply in two layers for the bow combing and for the mid and rear sections a combination of 1.8mm ply cut with the grain for the straight pieces and across the grain at the stern end of the rear cockpit to facilitate ease of bending around the arched stern piece.

[nhp651]

And here are the two cockpits for the Field Marshal and Mrs Smuts, fitting snugly over the combings.....just have to trim them up now to fit the deck nicely.

[nhp651]

the second lifeboat, the H F Bailey was again, not following the rules of fair play.

the aft cockpit behind the engine room bulkhead was reasonably straight forward with just the bending of the ply onto the rear wall, which was again facilitated easily by using a cut of the 1.8mm ply across the grain of the sheet .

However the foreward part of the rear cabin assembly was not as easy.

because of the slope of the forward engine casing sides, verticla combings would not be an option. So I used two lengths of Obeche timber and sloped a section of this timber to the slope of the engine casing side, leaving a flat flange to but upto the side where the combing wuld normally glue to. I then cut and shaped a piece, labelling it and put it in the box of "odd bits" that will be eventually machined as pieces to put in the kit, and therefore as a pattern for the pieces used, can be copied and manufactured, for ease for the builder.

The front face of this combing could then be made as a normal virtical piece from 3mm ply.

Finally the two curved pieces of 1.8mm ply just forward of the engine room bulkhead were, again made from 1.8mm ply and glued and pinned to the wall of the access hole.

Luckuly, the forward cabin on each of the two boats H F Bailey and Mary Stanford are fixed and therefore don't need combings fitted.

[nhp651]

the final set of combings for the Mary Stanford were put together today.

But before these were made, the cabins were made to fit the sheer of the deck so that the height of the combing above deck could be worked out.

I used my trusty pencil guage to do this. Flatten one face of a short piece of pencil so that it slides around the deck without moving. Then put each piece of superstructure onto the deck in place.You will see gaps between the deck and cabin bottom. Slide the pencil around the cabin (at right angles to the cabin at all times) making a mark on the cabin. This line will be parallel to the deck that it has slid along, and you can now file down to that line. You Might need to do it a second time if the undulations in the cabin base are deeper than the height of the pencil tip from the deck. Repeat the process until the base of the cabin fits nicely without gaps onto the deck.

The rear combings were fitted in exactly the same way as par other two boats, using the cross grain of the timber to make it pliable around the curvature of the stern cockpit wall,finishing the sides with ply cut longitudinally with the grain of the ply.

The fore part of the aft cabin, i.e. the engine casing is just a matter of fitting a normal rectangular set of combings to the long and cross beams of the support structure, and then padding out to make the engine casing a tight but easily removable casing.However I had forgotten to put in the rear deck plate from 6mm ply which then gives support to the full length of the engine casing structure. The fore and aft walls of the access hole also need to be given an extra 6mm thickness to give the combing wall some surface area to glue too. Finally short lengths of 6mm square sprue is glued into the inner four corners of the access area to strengthen the bond of the corners between the combing walls.

The aft cockpit and the engine casing will be left as two seperate units.

The fore cockpit will be fixed and as such doesn't need combings fitting.

[nhp651]

The cabins for the two Watsons were also fitted this morning, using the same pencil guage to get the cabin bases fitting exactly to the sheer line of the deck.
The engine casing of the HF Bailey and the Field Marshal and Mrs Smuts caused a little problem, as (when I moulded it some years ago, rather heavily I must add) the inside corners of the engine casing were rather "rounded" with a goodly use of resin and mat and so the combings on the deck had to be rounded to accomodate this minor hickup........but hey!?.............that's modelling, and little faults  and tribulations with hand made kits will always occur, and certainly doesn't hopefully detract from the overall kit.

Also the engine room bulkhead on both the two watsons had to be sanded down on the top and side edges as the cockpit bases lost a little from the bottom line of grp. This compensated that loss and allowed the cockpit to sit nicely onto the deck.
Perhaps if it does, those modellers should stick to Airfix/Revelle plastic models!

Once fitted it was time to cut out the openings into the cockpits.

To do this, the rims of the cockpit openings were first marked with a pencil line 4mm from the outside edge and then masked off with masking tape to stop the drill bit from straying and sliding across the grp.

The forward cabin of the Field Marshall and Mrs Smuts is in fact using (as it is almost exactly the same shape as the rear cockpit on the Anne Letitia Russell......another kit in the range from metcalf Mouldings) a cockpit from the aforementioned kit, but needs to be cut and modified, which was done this morning.

Not one for using a saw on grp, I drilled the perimeter of the opening on the inside of the line, and then using the side of the drill bit............the flukes, I reamed out the waste grp to form the opening.

This then revealed the cockpit edge as a jagged strip, which will be filed to the masked line for a smooth edge.

[nhp651]

And now, just as a little side line, after working on three hulls/cabins altogether, which can get monotonous at times I decided to get on with a little job that I'd been putting off for a while...not because I didn't want to do it......I enjoy laithe work, but just because it was probably the last fitting that I needed to make, one that I had forgotten I needed, and one which needs moulding in rubber ( a sometimes messy job) and then casting in resin.....and this is the bummer...........I've run out of polyurethane resin and would have to order some, forr a little job, knowing that I probably won't need to use it any more than once, and once open it has a lousy shelf life.....oh well...........just bite the bullet and order a teeny amount.

So what is the fitting ...............it's a pillar and base to hold the forward/reverse wheel for the Field marshall and Mrs Smuts....the other two boats, and the Anne Letitia Russel and the liverpool class lifeboat all have them mounted on the engine room bulkhead on a consol....the FM has them on pillars in the open forward cockpit.

The wheel atop the  pillar is generic with the other boats, so I just needed to turn the pillar and the collar base from brass on my trusty ML7.

Then I mounted them in plastecine in a lego box and poured the first half the mould with RTV30 rubber.......I'll pour the other half tomorrow.............but get this folks.
When you put the second layer of rubber onto the first, you first normally spray the hardened rubber with a release agent wax...........I ran out a couple of months ago, so rang Tiranti's of Reading where I normally get my supplies of rubber and asked for them to send me a new can of spray release agent................"sorry we can't" said Tiranti's......" because of the new laws on  conveying spray cans, we can't send the cans any more".........is this HSE gone mad or what???

[nhp651]

and I have now just removed the plastecine from the mould to reveal the first half of the rubber nicely taken and ready for the second half.........I will use vaseline as a release barrier before pouring the second half of the rubber mould in tomorrow.

[furball]

Have you got some sorry of gadget for turning tapers like that Neil, or are you just doing it by eye?


Lance

[nhp651]

Hi Lance......yes, I just set the tool head up to the angle I need, marked on the base of the tool head in degrees and off I go.

you can see the tool head set at an angle in the first shot, but not the markings for the angles of cut.

It's an old machine, but a good solid one, that sadly I don't use to it's full potential.
neil.

[furball]

I'll have to see if I can make something up for mine (1920's 3 1/2" Drummond M).

Cheers

Lance

[Mk1]

Hi there is a slide for a drummond on ebay in Laths section that I think has degree makings on it mine has

John

[HS93 (RIP)]

this is what it Could look like my older one,(can I come and clean yours lathe that is)

good interesting build Neil keep it going , by the way dont you get any days off ?

peter

[nhp651]

don't keep showing me that, Peter.....makes me feel very inadequate


you can come and clean my laithe any time,
and thanks for the accolade of the build.coming from you, that means a great deal, especially after seeing your beautiful models.
neil.

[Norseman]

Hey Peter

Have you got a special setting on your new camera?
A Swarf Stealth mode perhaps? 

Dave

[nhp651]

And here is my assistant, (13 tomorrow and don't we knowt it......she's been counting down for weeks) splitting the two halves of the mould.....the vaseline worked very well as a release agent, I am happy to say, and the two halves came apart easily., and the second shot os the two halves to the mould ready for cutting and channeling to allow the resin to flow.
the final shot is just for vanity..I cleaned the boat up today, sanding down the hull and bilge skegs, and whilst I was waiting for something or other, ( can't remember now what) I put a couple of fittings and the cabins onto the hull........ahhh what inspiration.

[irishcarguy]

Peter your lathe is disgusting, nothing should be that clean. Neil you are a very talented man, I am enjoying this build & learning a lot too, I just have to come over & visit, so much happens with model boats in U/K. PS - Peter I was just kidding of course, thats how your lathe should look. Neil, now that your daughter is 13 have you bought the shotgun yet ?. Mick B.

[nhp651]

I woudn't be safe with a pop gun, never mind a shotgun

[chris gillespie]

Nice work, thanks for the link.

learning the whole time, combings sheer lines its all good. I had in my mind that the bow deck would be similar to what you have done, i also plan to go down below if i can and have a miniature engine room. If it wasnt for this fact i would have no issue with combings and opening my scuppers. But you have given me the direction to give it a go, if i cant make it work ill seal them up lol

man that is some lathe aswell...... what i could do with that lol

[nhp651]

where abouts in Ayrshire do you live Chris.............do you ever sail at Largs on the prom.........might see you this summer if you do

by the way that beautiful clean green laithe isn't mine........mine's the cruddy rusty old thing covered in dust.....similar model but it get's used, lol (ooops sorry peter),

neil.

[irishcarguy]

Hi Neil I thought the word you needed was abused not used LOL, Mick B.

[nhp651]

yeh...yer probably right there Mick..........

[nhp651]

Now that all the cabins fit onto their combings and the decks reasonably well, it's time to fit the "king plank"....the centre plank on the deck running from stern to bow. It is interupted by the cabind but it is a centre point to which the deck planks are laid.

However on these boat models the kit will be supplied with a printed deck overlay and they will but up to that King plank.

This was made from a strip of 1.8mm ply 10mm wide, just wider than the printed ply planks on the overlays, and was glued down with aliphatic resin glue.

As I had made the original main decks from templates that I had drawn and cut from card, I used these again to make the templates for the overlay decks. They had to be marked and cut down as they have a gap around the combings for the cabins to sit between and also a small space between the edge of the bulwarks and the deck, and so all templates had again to be marked , cut to size and then drawn on to 1.8mm ply before the ply was cut out and finally offered up to the boat for final tweaking.

The will then be marked as per plan in pencil, lightly with all planking and hatch markings, before being given two or three coats of cellulose sanding sealer to seal the markings in.

Once rubbed down with wire wool the markings will be drawn over with black draughting pen and ink as would the planks look after being caulked.

Finally each piece will be photocopied at my friendly print shop, and it will be the photocopies of the deck overlays which will be traced onto draughting paper for making the screen prints for the production deck overlays.........a bit of a long drawn out( excuse the pun) process but aty least I'll know that the overlays will fit to the decks the way they should, if the model is built the way it should be.

The photos shown below in order show the king planks being laid where the deck and cabins allow, the templates for the overlays,the overlays on the FM & Mrs S, and then the overlays of Mary Stanford, Field marshall and Mrs Smuts and H F Bailey, in that order.

[nhp651]

today I've been marking out the planking, filler cap holes, deck lights, bollard bases and the access hatches on the deck overlays.
To get the planks marked off in line running the full length of each boat, I marked the measurements for the planks on a scrap piece of ply, and then laid a 600mm steel rule on a building board.
I could then tape down the piece of timber so that the edge making up to the king plank was fitted snugly to the steel rule( which took the place of the King plank.)
then marking off the plans for measurement, all the small areas were first marked on, and finally the planks marked onto both the bow and stern pieces of overlay. Finally I inserted the centre section of each deck side, and ran the plank lines from these two pieces over the centre piece, thus getting the plank lines running through the whole deck in a good straight line.

All 18 pieces of deck will now be taken off to the print shop tomorrow for photocopying, so that I can eventually trace them onto draughtingpaper for making screen prints for the kits.
Quite a monumental task, it is now 23.45......and I started the process at 14.00 hopurs this afternoon, with a break of 30 minuted for my evening meal...................time for bed said Zebedee...boinggggg