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Author Topic: ULCC build  (Read 35502 times)

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #75 on: December 14, 2015, 02:39:56 am »

So I've spent a couple of weekends now trying to get the top of the hull sides level - well relatively level, and that's relative to each other. To say that this was causing trouble is an understatement. I tried a number of methods, including passing the hull under a mill - and none of it got really close enough.


Fortunately my father understands these engineering issues and was able to gift a me a dial indicator and stand, nominally for use with my small lathe, but this does also work for anything else once a reference point is established.


I wont go into all the permutations that it took to get this far, but I realised on Saturday afternoon after having sanded off completely another application of bog that I really needed to do this is one attempt and that doing a bit here, a bit there and moving the hull in between was causing the relative heights to change. I think this was because the surface that I was working on was not truly flat and as a result when I moved the hull, as I had to to be able to get the stand and dial indicator to all the places it needed to go meant that it was giving relatively incorrect readings.


Anyway, on Sunday I put the hull on the garage floor and got on with it.









In the last image you can see the X's marked on - these are the points that are now at the correct height (depth). Eventually I got it all done. The side of the hull are now within about a 1/2mm all the way around. Phew...
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #76 on: December 14, 2015, 02:57:41 am »

Going back several months, to when I started doing the pump testing, I kept having to go to the club pond, about 1/2 an hour's drive away. One of the members suggested that I make a tank at home for it so I could test quickly and easily. Well I'm not sure why i hadn't done that, but I bought some wood and some heavy PVC/plastic stuff (used for lining garden ponds) and built one. Initially I bought a length of garden hose with which to drain it, but decided after several uses that a plug and drain would be much easier, so retrofitted a drain and life became (in this regard anyway) much easier.





Amazing what you can achieve WRT updating your build when you are procrastinating at work!
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #77 on: December 22, 2015, 02:26:28 am »

So having achieved regular hull sides I needed to re-incorporate the frames that would shape the curve of the deck. Instead of using plastic this time I decided to use wood. I found some pine strip that someone previously had discarded as offcuts and use those. I used the removable deck section as a template to get the curve right and then using a plane and electric sander got them to shape.


I then located these into the hull by cutting into the side of the hull and glued them in with PVA.








I glued them as one piece right across the top of the ballast tanks as shown in the picture, then cut them away when the glue was dried. The glue has stuck well as I have been able to pick the entire model up by holding on to just two of these.


I also took the opportunity to check that these frames were the right profile. Most were sitting a little high in the centre so I corrected this using a spoke shave.
Next was to sand all the edges of the frames appropriately which took about an hour os this afternoon. When this was done and all was fair I scored the bog ready to accept the glue for the deck.








Current weight is 13.5 Kg's BTW...


Next step is the deck (again).
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #78 on: December 23, 2015, 12:04:47 am »

I was feeling brave this morning...









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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #79 on: December 24, 2015, 07:51:26 am »

24 hours later and the glue is dry - so off comes the tape.


I gave the edges a good sanding then applied the car panel filler that I used previously, sanded again and then used Tamiya plastic filler. I find the Tamiya filler is very good for fine work and fills small holes and so-on very nicely.











And with the removable section sitting in place:








This is MUCH better than it was previously.


Merry XMas to all :)



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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #80 on: January 10, 2016, 10:12:18 pm »

So, back from holiday and finished doing all the necessary stuff that must be done.


Also set up the external test tank - again the kids seem to think it's for swimming in not testing boats, but there we go...


So on to the Deck - everything now fits a lot better than it did, but the removable deck is still sitting a little high in some places along it's length. This I am addressing as I go with Neodymium magnets - standard ferrite magnets just do not have the strength to do the job , and the Neodymium magnets are smaller as well.





You can also see in this image the "U" section aluminium that I have put in place to support the deck. This had to be cut down as the smallest size I could get was 10mm x 10mm and while I was happy with the 10mm width, the 10mm height had to come down significantly. This was a real pain to do as I couldn't figure out a way to do it easily and accurately (I don't have a mill). I ended up using a jigsaw clamped into my bench vice to do the initial cut and them a big file to finish them by hand held in a engineers vice. I decided to cut them down to about 3 - 4mm as I could not get them flat enough by hand, meaning I would need to use some styrene as the finishing face to set the height correctly.


Aluminium glued and screwed in place - along with the facing styrene:








I felt that I need to make a frame up to support the outer vertical sides of this feature, so cut 24 lengths of 1mm x 5mm styrene and glued it in place. Again, accuracy was an issue and I found that I was  a 1/2 mm or more out on some of the initial lengths that I marked and cut by hand. A jig of some sort was the answer, so a very simply one was made up with a small square and a clamp to hold it in place while a chisel was use to cut the styrene:





With all of these in place and some of the outer sides in place (made of 2mm styrene) also glued in:





You may be able to see that the ends of the vertical face against the aluminium extend past the ends of the aluminium - I may remove these. At this point these ends are not glued down to the deck and I am concerned that, as the deck is moved about, they would flex and either break off or separate from the deck. Also the 1mm styrene is probably too thick for this part 0.7mm or 0.5mm may be more appropriate and better fitted when the deck is more rigid.


More as it happens.
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #81 on: January 17, 2016, 05:32:03 am »

During the week I was able to get other other side of the deck done. Just needs fettling a bit. I did chop the ends off as I thought they were a bit vulnerable at this stage.





With that done (and yes I know they are uncovered) I felt it time to start on the super structure.
I hummed and hah'd a bit (as I do) then downloaded Sketchup and drew the Engineering SS up. This took a couple of hours to do, but meant that I was able to calculate dimensions and print views as needed. If I had a 3D printer I could have sent it to that... Alas...
For those that are interested the drawing is here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B209xZxYK7f5QmhCT2dDQ0xnRk0) - you will need to download it and get Sketchup (free) to view what I have done.
If you do download it you will see the dimensions are in metres. I am building to these numbers - but in centimetres, i.e. if it says 5.0M, I'm cutting 5.0 centimetres. This is quite interesting when comparing the height of the SS to the length of the hull...


Some bits of the SS cut out with some printed plans to the rear:





One of the things I've had trouble with is cutting ling thin bits of plastic straight - even with a straight-edge ruler they still seem to go wonky. I think I'm changing the angle of the blade as I draw it down the length of the ruler - I don't think the ruler is moving. If I was cutting something 20 or 30mm wide it would be less of an issue - when it's 5mm then being out by 1/2 or 1mm is a fair bit.  I've also had trouble with getting the width of these long thin strips accurate. Accurate and wrong would be workable - wrong and wonky isn't...
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #82 on: January 19, 2016, 09:08:57 pm »

Starting to assemble some of the pieces:





I added some pieces of styrene at a right angle along the length of some of the walls to correct a curve in the plastic. I also added small right-angle triangle pieces to ensure that assembly was done squarely.








And just for a laugh, here is the view down the hull with the Engineering tower(?) sitting in place:





Another thought is how will I do stanchions and railings at 1:300?
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Alister

Ianlind

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #83 on: January 19, 2016, 10:08:28 pm »

G'day Alister,


For cutting your Styrene you need an Olfa P450 Cutter ( If they are still available).
I've been using one for well over 20 years in my model manufacturing business and it allows you to cut a very straight line, because unlike a craft knife or scalpel, it doesn't actually cut, but shaves out a sliver of plastic as you draw it forward towards you. It's a bit like a plough, but leaves a slight burr on either side of the cut, and this is easily removed by dragging a craft knife blade along the edge which actually de-burrs the edge.
I use it on thicknesses from .3mm to 2.5mm and depending on the thickness, this determines how much pressure you apply to the knife. Generally after the first score on thin sheet you simply bend the sheet backwards from the score line and it snaps quite cleanly, so the idea is not to try and cut right through.
On the very thick material I generally score two or three times with the P450, then cut further with a craft knife before trying to snap the cut.
If you need any more help, drop me a PM as I'm just across the ditch.


Ian
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steve mahoney

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #84 on: January 20, 2016, 04:25:49 am »

Railings at 1/300? Have you thought about brass etched railings?
Have a look at www.ppdltd.com. I've used them for similar stuff.
Try a scalpel with a 10 or 11 blade for your styrene. The score and snap method usually works pretty well.
Steve
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AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #85 on: January 20, 2016, 10:48:46 pm »

Hi Ian and Steve,


thanks both for your replies.


Ian that device looks quite useful - I had a quick Google and it looks like there many of these things around.


Steve - I was mostly thinking along the "how will I build it" line and had only thought a little about photo-etching but hadn't investigated - I'll check out that link you provided. The issue with cutting the plastic is that on a long cut I couldn't guarantee keeping the line straight. It is definitely a "user" issue - I struggle to cut anything straight and square, it's a failing of mine.


Thanks again to both of you.
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Alister

Norseman

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #86 on: January 21, 2016, 05:07:35 am »

http://www.greatart.co.uk/BigDraw/Drawing-Accessories/Scissors-Cutters/Olfa-P-800-Cutter.html is a link for uk members.

Re straight cuts. I made a little cutting board with a raised lip so that when I draw the blade back the drag is resisted and the inch wide steel rule that I cut alongside also remains at 90 degrees to the lip. It works for me but I'm sure there are other ways to do it. Enjoying your build too.

Dave
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AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #87 on: February 09, 2016, 03:29:06 am »

Starting the week of the 25th (well the starting from the 23rd if I counted the weekend) I was on leave looking after the kids before they went back to school. I thought that I should be able to make some progress then.


I started drawing up plans for the bridge/crew areas in Sketchup as I had the engineering spaces. This, due to being a bit more complex, took a bit longer and I had several hours invested in it, when, during the process of deleting some of the guidelines I had put it, I deleted the entire vertical face on one side and discovered that I had skued some of the services on the drawing as well. Correcting this took about two hours and I chose not to correct those items that where mirrored on the other side of the structure, recreating those items that I needed to just the once.


I haven't shared the Sketchup file, but if anyone wants to see it, I'm happy to do so.


So during that week that was about all I did apart from marking up the forward side (face, wall?) of the SS. I also started to cut it. You can see from the photo that I had to use an eraser in a couple of spots and that I used a drill to give me a start on the getting the radii correct on the gussets.





It wasn't until this weekend that I was able to do anything else, and to be honest, I was procrastinating a bit about some of the stuff that I had to do. In anycase, when I got down to it, doing the gussets (for want of a better term) wasn't too bad. Just a case of drilling out with a smaller drill than the diameter I needed and then using a needle file and sandpaper wrapped around a length of tube I shaped them. A mistake was made and that was not putting a gusset on the place where the outside vertical meets the horizontal on each side. I shall have to try to retro fit.
This bit (and the same on the other side):





Also the height of this face is not as high as it should be - I have cut it at this height because this is where the deck goes and I wanted to use a width of plastic that was more suitable to the scale than the 1mm plastic I was using for the structure.


Several of the parts cut out:





These are the front and rear faces, the lower side pieces and a single big piece that goes in to act both as deck above the lower sides and as a support and straightener for the front and rear. Which would have been OK - IF it had actually been square. I ended up re-cutting it...


This shows the assembly of the rear face and the lower side, plus the big deck/support piece. As yo can infer from the photo, the plastic had bowed and I had to glue half of it in place then straighten the bow and glue the other half.


I put a side piece in place and glued it the bits I had together:





The sides are made of two separate faces as there is a recess that runs vertically in between them where there are doors etc. All will become apparent when constructed (I hope!).


And that's where we are.
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Alister

Dreadnought

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #88 on: February 09, 2016, 08:09:17 am »

Very nice :-) :-)) :-)
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Brian60

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #89 on: February 09, 2016, 09:28:20 am »

Some intricate work going on there and you are making a damn good job of it. It looks to be 1mm plasticard, is that going to be robust enough? I used it on my last build and although a larger scale so its a larger structure, I should really have used 2mm as the 1mm is delicate and flimsy.

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #90 on: February 09, 2016, 08:05:45 pm »

Hi Brian,


yes the 1mm is sufficient - the whole structure (minus the mast) is less than 60 deep X 70 high x 115 long - plus the wings of course. It's very robust to the feel. Actually I should point out that it is HIPS - High Impact Polystyrene, so maybe it's little more robust than the usual Evergreen or Plastruct plasticard.
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #91 on: February 19, 2016, 05:46:23 am »

A couple more construction photos.


I have started using 0.25mm pasticard rather than continuing with 1mm for everything - but only for areas that are not structural.





I could try and describe these but it would probably make more sense to show the parts in place - when I get there...


Also some more structural work on the aft/engineering spaces where the 1mm plastic had a curve in it. Solved by more 1mm plastic glued across the curve:




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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #92 on: February 29, 2016, 06:44:38 am »

It has been very hot and humid in Auckland. Unbearably so. And then we went and got kittens and as they aren't allowed outside yet, we can open much to get fresh cool air. So it's been hot. Which has meant not much time in the garage.


So this is all the extra bits assembled in the forward structure:





And:





Once again this was a bit hit and miss. I seem to be able to get things cut to about a 1/2mm in accuracy, but at this scale that sticks out like a sore thumb... I had to true-up the the vertical cuts in the sides of the SS as shown here. That got them to about 6.4mm wide. I had planned on 4mm. So 1 piece of 1mm and 2 pieces of 1/4mm plastic were inserted to bring things back to the right width. And then the pre-cut and glued recess was glued in. You can see in these pics that I have added filler in several places. This is after using the flat faced needle file to smooth things off as best I can. A bit overzealous in some places unfortunately...


Anyway, on the aft structure I put in place a square piece to keep things all nicely lined up:





This sits recessed by a little from the top edge as the top of this needs to sit exactly aligned with the 1st level down from the top of the forward structure. Another "wait and see" explanation I think.


Also, having refilled the external test tank over the weekend I dropped the hull in it to see what happened. Several things happened.
First I discovered that the aft ballast tank still fills slower than the forward tank.
Second I discovered that one of the O-rings on the forward pumps likes to work it's way off when left running for a couple of minutes.
Third I discovered that I still have a leak in the aft tank, but it is very slight.
Fourth, I discovered a new leak, but something I should have fixed already anyway as I created a hole in one of the tubes that runs the wires to the forward pumps...


Onwards and upwards I guess...
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #93 on: March 07, 2016, 07:03:08 am »

One of the small problems I have is trying to decide what order to do things in - I keep thinking of things to do but then stop and think about whether I should do that right now - or not!.


Having gotten as far as I have with the forward structure I felt that I needed to work on the wings. Part of that was establishing the top deck or roof or <pick your name>...


I measured out how that should be from the plans in Sketchup and then drew it out on some 1mm plastic. I allowed some overhang - fortunately.





That's what it looked like.


So I cut it and then trial fitted, got it sorted in my mind and glued it on. Only to remove it immediately when i discovered that the existing construction wasn't as flat as I thought it was... I corrected that then glued it down again.





Then I progressed to:











And that's all for this week.
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #94 on: March 31, 2016, 04:26:30 am »

A month a of busy weekends one way and another.


A made some progress over Easter.














The bridge was relatively simple. A top and bottom piece, shaped with sandpaper to round the corners off. A cross added through the centre and some of the 0.25mm plasticard as the vertical sides. It only ogt complicated when I discovered the glue and then the clamps had caused a little deformation of the sides. I used Tamiya putty to fill this up, but found that softened the plastic as well.


Boxing the diagonal and vertical supports for the bridge started out easy - the pieces that fitted to front were quite simple. But the diagonal behind that running at an angle back to the main structure and then up to the top were not easy (the pieces I am referring to are best seen in the last photo above). Too many angles to get right to make up box sections. I did spend several hours trying to get this right before I gave up and made solid pieces to work from. I used 2 strips of 2mm plastic glued together and a single piece of 0.25mm to get them square. It was just a matter of trimming and fettling to get them fitting correctly from there.


The leak I discovered in the wiring tube I fixed with a section of larger diameter tube. I cut a length, cut down it's length to open it up and fitted it over the existing tube with some araldite all over, in and around.


The slipping O-Ring is fixed (I hope) by taking a small section out of it and joining the two ends with super glue.


TTFN...
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #95 on: April 08, 2016, 03:02:59 am »

Not a huge amount of progress last weekend, but some...


I focused on getting the ladders between decks in place. Not perfect...





I also put the roof (?) on top of the engineering tower and made it look like it would connect to the bridge section. Fortunately, unbelievably almost, the relative heights are exactly where they need to be:





These two pieces really need to be joined togther and that means glueing them to the deck, but given that there are minimal gaps between them I need to get some paint in those hard to reach place first... Which means figuring out the colour to use.
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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #96 on: April 24, 2016, 05:30:21 am »

I glued the railing (except its solid not a rail) on top of the SS:





It's not right and has gone all wonky, so will have to come off and be redone. I'll have to think about how I do that.


I wanted to start doing more work on the deck, so enclosed the raised bits that run along the length:








and also put these in place:





I can only assume these are for trapping spills of oil coming from the main on- and off-load pipes that are located at this point.


Putting the flat tops on the raised section took quite a bit of mucking about. The deck isn't flat and the framework that I built up isn't regular as a result, so there were quite a few gaps that I had to work glue into to get the top stuck down and then fill then up with Tamiya filler.


Each of the triangular supports that sit vertically on each side of the raised section had to be cut and fitted. There are 35 down each side at the moment - there will be 37, so that's a total of, umm, 148 pieces... That was not fun. They are a 5mm x 5mm triangle BTW. Obviously the supports to the centre of the deck are glued to both the deck and the raised section. On the side to the outside of the hull they are only glued to the deck so that I can remove the centre section. Well - I hope they are only glued to the deck...
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Alister

Brian60

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #97 on: April 24, 2016, 08:33:16 am »

I envy you the patience to work at this scale AListair, I really do. My current build is 1/100, the tiny bits like railings are driving me up the wall they are so fiddly and fragile.  Don't forget if you want to take shortcuts, things like your stairs can be had in photo etched sheets, I bought a set as I couldn't cut them from plastic even with my laser cutter. The p.e is available right down to 1/600 scale, but the more popular scales are widely available.

I'm not sure about what you are calling spillways, they could well be. However any pipework fitted to the vessel or indeed the flexi pipes to connect from landside to ship are always fitted with self sealing valves to avoid and accidental environment damage, just a bit of info for you.

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #98 on: May 10, 2016, 04:06:12 am »

Hi Brian,


thanks for your comments, I had a good look via Google for the P.E. stuff and there is some to be had, but not as much or as - lets be honest, cheap - as I was hoping! But I have a plan - not sure yet if it's cunning however :)


Otherwise progress has been slow the last few weeks - other things to do getting in the way.


I've addressed the issue with the bulwark (is that the term??) at the top of the super structure by cutting and fitting a piece of styrene that runs the whole length and sits onthe vertical face. It will need some filler maybe to make it look the part but should work.








The only other significant items are the two storage/work areas up towards the bow of the ship. Small rectangular boxes at this scale made from 1mm styrene.





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Alister

AlisterL

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Re: ULCC build
« Reply #99 on: May 28, 2016, 11:48:46 pm »

Once again, not much progress as I've been busy with other things.


I have, however, drawn up in Sketchup what the top of the engineering tower would look like - the result is this:





Some of this stuff I can make!
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Alister
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