Thanks Cap.
I promised pictures yesterday - but the only SD card I could find is bust, so it'll be tomorrow at the earliest. Work has diversified (which helps cuts down the "gawd not more planks" factor)...
1/ The rear subdeck aft of the torpedo net shelf has been trimmed to the hull outline, and the space for the margin planks has been cleared. What's great here is that, in removing the ends of the fore and aft planks to make this space, I've been cutting and lifting plank ends that were glued - PVA between limewood and ply - a few days ago, and they are now satisfyingly solid. The wood's coming away, but leaving a thin veneer of ex-plank firmly attached to the ply. Scraping the remaining limewood off has been the only answer. Top marks, modern waterproof PVA!
2/ The cartridge paper plates at the sides of the hull were coated with G4 several months ago. While sanding the edges of the subdeck to fit, my sanding block eventually rubbed against these plates. Normally "sanding" and "paper" is not a good mix, but the resulting smell of warm resin dust - a very GRP-like pong - is fantastic news. The G4 has totally soaked the cartridge paper, and the result is a very tough, resin finish, which is sandable with ease. It is like plasticard. 10/10 for G4!!!
3/ I've finished a small amount of ply work at the starboard forecastle, so I'm ready to plank that area in the next few days. And once that ply work was done, I started adding the superstructure coaming. This is made of 15mm-high strips of plywood, stuck within the hull opening, to leave a 1/16th inch "gutter" for the superstructure base between coaming and margin plank.
While most of the coaming is a set of straight lines, there are a couple of areas of curves - for example, the turn inside of the P and Q turrets. For these, I soaked ply strips in hot water, elastic-banded them around a pot of the right diameter, and (two hours later, after they dried) have cut and glued these on using Evostick. People often seem to rush contact adhesives like this, but if you follow the instructions (let the surfaces dry before lining up and attaching) the stuff is magnificent. Way to go, Evostick!!!
All is good. And it's staring to look like a model boat.
So, naturally, my thoughts are moving forward ... and given the complexity of the shape of the superstructure, along with a need for strength in such a narrow, weirdly-shaped beast, I'm leaning towards making it out of another material. Brass sheet? Any other recommendations?
Regards!
Andy