Masterclasses > FAIREY SWORDSMAN - A PLAN FOR BEGINNERS
THE FAIREY SWORDSMAN - A PLAN FOR BEGINNERS by Bluebird
John W E:
Then I turned the hull over, and supported it – so it was standing upright. Once I was happy that the prop shaft was running true to the centre of the hull, I sealed around the outside of the prop shaft with masking tape, to stop any epoxy running out through the hold.
I mixed some Epoxy adhesive. The epoxy I use has a working time of approximately 30 minutes. I poured it in around the prop shaft and the keel; on this particular model there is a good 2mm clearance all the way around the prop shaft – through the keel. So, this allows a good seepage of epoxy around the prop shaft and the keel. This was set aside and allowed to harden, thus ensuring that the prop shaft did not move.
Once the epoxy has set, the next stage is to turn the hull over and remove the temporary wedge between the hull and prop shaft & the masking tape.
The next stage is to fair in with a fillet of car body filler, around the area where the prop shaft comes through the hull. Once this had all been sanded in and the bare hull has had light sand again, we move on to the next stage.
John W E:
Where I have not had the article that comes from Model Boats to go with this plan, to help me along with build sequences. I do have the article on finishing the hull which came from the draughtsman who drew the plans up.
In this article it says ‘After finishing sanding with 180 and 320 finishing paper – give the whole model a coat with sanding sealer. This is thinned down 50/50’. That means 50% cellulose dope and 50% sanding sealer. Rub down then with 320 grit finishing paper. Then, ‘Cover the hull sides, bottom panels and the transom with lightweight tissue as separate panels’. These are applied with the dope and sand ‘n sealer mix.
I put four coats of sand ‘n sealer on top of the tissue mat. I allowed it to dry for 24 hours – with a final rub down with wet ‘n dry then proceeded to the next stage.
John W E:
I built a stand for the model and I used very soft foam rudder to line the edges of the stand where the hull sits on. The reason for this is, I have found that Liteply damages quite easily. Also now we have the tissue on, I did not want a situation where I would damage the hull by just sitting it on the bench. I obtained the shape for the ‘V’s that the hull sits in, using the profile from the frames.
Once I had built the stand, I then moved on to the next stage, which was marking off and fitting the rudder.
The rudder was a commercial item; and this is the closest size I could get to the drawing without making a rudder myself, or, I could have tried cutting a larger commercially manufactured rudder down to shape and size.
The procedure for fitting the rudder: Take the measurement from the drawing – from the end of the transom to the centre of the rudder shaft and mark this onto the hull. I drilled a ‘pilot hole’ of 2mm through the hull & through the keel. Checking that the drill was square in both directions, vertical, the pilot hole was then opened up in size to take the rudder mounting tube.
The next stage was to do a dry run, assembling the rudder tube and the rudder itself through the keel. This ensures that the rudder lined up and that everything was square. The only modifications I had to do at this stage was to make a little more clearance around the transom stern post to allow correct movement of the rudder tiller arm. With this not being the correct rudder as in plan, the rudder shaft is slightly shorter. After I was satisfied with the set up I removed the rudder and rudder tube, mixed a little bit Epoxy resin, smeared it in the rudder hole in the hull and then placed the rudder tube back.
Tip here: when gluing the rudder tube into the hull it pays you to smear a little bit of grease in the hole of the rudder tube and ensure that you get no grease whatsoever on the outside. This prevents any Epoxy gumming up the hole and getting into the works.
John W E:
This was set aside and left to dry and I then moved on to the next stage of the build, which is the cabin and also the rear cockpit. On the plans, the cabin sides are marked out, along with the corresponding frames. As before, I traced all parts required from the plan for this assembly and transferred them to the correct thickness Liteply. (I didn’t really I dropped a ‘bollock’ it should have been 3mm and I used 2mm oops).
Little tip here: When cutting out the windows, before you actually cut the complete item out of the Plywood, cut the windows out firstly, working from the edges of the windows in over to the centre of the windows when cutting. This prevents the top layer of ply from splitting – well it did for me O0 .
Once we have cut and rough sanded all the parts required, I proceeded in gluing and clamping one side of the cabin in place to the hull. I then glued the centre cabin former to the side of the cabin on the inside, and I also added a fillet of 1/8 square timber to keep it square. I then proceeded to add the 2nd former to the cabin side. Once the glue had set, I fitted the opposite side to the cabin to the deck and also to the two formers. Checking that they were both square with one another and both parallel. I allowed this to dry and then proceeded in fitting the front cabin window in.
Prior to fitting this, I chamfered the bottom of the window where it comes into contact with the deck. When I was satisfied with the fit, I glued and clamped it.
John W E:
Whilst it was setting, I moved on to build the cockpit floor. This again is all drawn out of the plan for you, and just requires tracing and cutting from the correct material this time! (This is where, for the first time, I am deviating from the plan slightly – not because of a better build procedure or a better plan procedure, but, the liteply I am working with is slightly warped/twisted. To counteract this, I glued for strips at right angles on the outside of the cockpit floor, thus eliminating some of the distortion in the plywood.
I then proceeded to fit the inner flange that supports the hatch to the cockpit floor. I have included a photograph of the procedure I used to cut the angles at the back and it consists of a scrap piece of wood which has two parallel sides, first of all the piece of timber you want the angle cutting on is offered up to the adjacent piece of timber that you want to mate it to. Then the scrap piece of wood that has two parallel sides is laid over the top so that it is in contact with the material that you are going to transfer the angle from. You then draw your line onto the piece which you are going to cut, using the parallel sides of the scrap piece of timber and this gives you your angle to cut.
When the glue has dried on the sub assembly of the cockpit floor, it can be offered into position inside of the hull for any finer adjustments. It locates into 3 slots in the forward bulkhead and sits across the aft bulkhead. This is glued in first and then the rear transom vertical bulkhead is glued in afterwards.
You will see a photograph where I have a batten going across the back of the hull, which is clamping and pulling up the cockpit floor to mate with the transom inner bulkhead. This I did because there was still some distortion left in my plywood.
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