Hi All
I have been asked how I fit the railings and stanchions i.e. what methods I use.
I use several methods - depending on the particular shape/where the railings are going to be fitted.
When I am fitting the railings around the outside of the ship; I tend to mark the spacings of the stanchions onto the deck and then predrill all of the holes by hand, not with a machine, but with a jewellers drill. I then make up a small plywood jig to the correct height of the stanchions and beginning at the middle of hull approx. and working from the centre out to either the bow or stern place each stanchion into the predrilled holes but not gluing them. Then I fit the top rail in first and with this in position through all of the stanchions; with my plywood jig, I set the height of the rail all the way along.
Then with a dab of superglue on a pin, I will then apply it to where the stanchion meets the deck on each rail, holding the rail firmly.
When the glue has dried, I can rectify any of the stanchions which are not sitting vertical. When I am happy I will put the 2nd rail and then the 3rd rail in through the stanchions.
When I have completed the first half I go to the 2nd half of the hull.
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The 2nd method I use - is where say we have 2 right angled bends in the railings; the procedure here is - I will bend the first railing/wire to the correct shape - use that as a pattern to bend the 2nd 2 rails the same shape. Then - feed on the amount of stanchions which are required onto the 3 rails. Next stage is to mark off on the model where the stanchions are to fit and then drill. Then, its a case of 1 at a time fit the stanchions into the correct holes. When I am happy with that - again I set the height of the stanchions with my plywood guage and with a dab of superglue I secure them.
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The 3rd method I use is when there is complicated shape/s. This method I dont usually use that much - however, it is basically - I draw out the plan view of the shape of the railings I require on a piece of A4 paper. This plan is 1:1 scale. This A4 paper is then secured to a piece of plywood of the same size - half a inch thick plywood. Then I mark off the spaces of the stanchions on the plan view and drill holes of the correct diameter for the stanchions. I bend 3 pieces of wire to the correct shape of the plan I have drawn. The next stage is to mount the stanchions onto the wires and then mount the stanchions into the holes that have been drilled into the plywood.
Set the correct height and then with either super glue or solder, secure all of the stanchions to the rails.
I then remove the stanchions and the paper from the board, trying to keep the paper in one piece and where I have drawn the line on the paper trim the paper to about 1/4 of an inch of the line you have drawn. ~Then place this paper template on the superstructure in the position that you want the railings and mark through with a pencil where all the holes are for the stanchions. It is then a case of removing the paper template and drilling through where you have marked. Glue the readymade stanchions in place then.
The other thing I sometimes do is, if you look on a lot of warships present day and old times, some of the railing stanchions have a support leg/s and this I do by using an off cut of railing wire, I flatten one end and bend it to about 30 degrees. Place this on the deck and again the rail I want to support and solder in place. Then trim to length. With havin the wire longer, it is easier to hold whilst soldering.
Last but not least, anyone building a scale model - be careful. Originally, I took the spacings for the railings from the plan which I have (these are the builders plan for HMS Exeter) - on the builders plan the spaces were all even and worked out at about 7 ft between stanchions, but when I scrutinised a lot of photographs I came to realise that there were very few railings which were equally spaced - they all seemed to vary between 3 ft apart (depending on where they were) and 7 ft.
Couple of pics, just to show progress on the railings and stanchions.
aye
John