Topic: Seahunter- The Big Refit! (Read 160194 times)

Brian60 · « **Reply #150 on:** July 09, 2015, 08:36:09 am »

This is my simple jig for getting evenly spaced holes in the deck edge for the stanchions. Just a couple of pieces of timber glued to an 'L' shape, then drill guide holes the required spacing apart. It can then be used anywhere on the model knowing that all your holes will be the same, both from the edge of the deck and distance between stanchions. Drill the first hole and place a spare drill bit in it, this holds it in place and allows the drilling of the other holes. Once you reach the end, lift the jig away and replace making sure to locate the guide drill bit in your last drilled hole before continuing.

That's it for this week. I am re-doing the crane pillar, or more to the point the access to it. In earlier photo's I had made up a access platform between the deck and the jib control platform. This is correct for the POSH Vantage. However On the POSH Venture this is not there, it actually has just an access ladder attached direct to the pillar and rising all the way to the control platform. Again when referring to photo's and drawings don't take for granted fittings between sister ships will be the same.

Tug-Kenny RIP · « **Reply #151 on:** July 09, 2015, 10:20:10 am »

Hi Brian,

The vertical brass strips could be thinned from 2mm down to 1mm by using a fixed belt sander with fine grit, whilst being held in pliers. The holes have to be drilled first so each side could be reduced to match a thinner hole. I use 6mm single thread electrical copper wire to go through the holes which is 7mm, so there enough metal support left over.

I may be wrong but the height looks a little tall against the crew. I have this problem on my 1:72 scale as well. I figured that 00 gauge folk are actually 1:76 according to real time measurement of their height.

As I mentioned in my blog, I thinks it's best to keep the little folk way from the railings.

cheers

ken

Brian60 · « **Reply #152 on:** July 09, 2015, 12:15:49 pm »

I might give that a try Ken. come to think of it I have a bench mounted disk sander

Those aren't the railings I am going to use, I knocked them up to test for size against my crew. Railings should come in at around 4ft or 16mm in our scale. If you have bought 'OO' scale figures from a railway shop then yes they are 1/76 which means your crew are going to be around 5' 6" tall. No problem for me cos I'm only 5' 7" myself

However if you look at the various plastic soldiers you can buy- my crew are japanese ww2 infantry from revell, they can be chopped about- guns removed from hands etc and they are most definately 1/72nd scale, so come out around 6ft in real life. If you want an easy life for figures though, have a look at the Preiser range.

Tug-Kenny RIP · « **Reply #153 on:** July 09, 2015, 08:32:42 pm »

Yes to that. I have been researching but not yet found suitable characters.

Cheers

ken

Brian60 · « **Reply #154 on:** July 23, 2015, 10:46:24 am »

So what have I accomplished? Well I have finally made up my first length of railing. After not being happy with the first lot of stanchions I made, then trying just round wire for them which just looked wrong, I attempted to get some etched ones from Germany- good price at 14 centimos each (100centimos to 1 euro) I filled out the online order form only to hit the dreaded postage and packing, 29€ to ship from Germany to Spain

SO back to the drawing table

I cut more lengths of brass strip, then using my jig I drilled the holes along a complete length, then I put the length into my desktop vice and draw filed the whole length down to the required thickness. Draw filing is moving the the file in the direction of the arrows in the photo, you hold each end of the file and gently go back and forward. This brought them down to the required thickness, then I cut to length and by inserting a pin through the top most hole I held them together while I filed a locating pin on the bottom ends. Its worked quite well, there are 20 in the photos, I only need another 120 to complete the entire superstructure!

Brian60 · « **Reply #155 on:** July 23, 2015, 10:58:36 am »

So my first piece of handrail is in place and painted. I have the deck supervisor in the photo for scale example at this point. They are a pain to paint, the stanchions and bottom two rails being dark green and then the top rail being white, keeping the green of the grey deck and the white of the green stanchions is quite a laborious task.

I have also redone, the safety first warning decal, I wasn't happy with how it applied the first time. Also on the aft deck surface. first time around I couldn't get the dangerous cargo decals to stick to the rough surface even though it had several clear coats on it already. So I sprayed 3 more coats onto the timber, rubbed it back with 1500 grit wet/dry paper then two more clear coats. The decals have now stuck and have been sealed in place with more clearcoat. There is a mistake with these in my haste to print them off I only realised when applying them that I had spelled Dangerous Cargo when it should be Dangerous Goods- ah well, its staying now!

Jobs for next time, I am making up some bulkhead storage boxes for firehose, breathing apparatus etc. I am re-doing the access ladder to the crane, thats why the paintwork on it looks rough at the moment, also the bulkeads adjacent to it need to have final coat paint added and the deck to wall join neatening up. More railings and the handrails on the companionways to make up. Then on to the twin drum waterfall winch for the winch house.

I have made the decision to complete this part of the build before moving on to the intricate superstructure so that is still a week or two away at the moment. That's all for now.

Tug-Kenny RIP · « **Reply #156 on:** July 23, 2015, 09:05:12 pm »

Lovely railings. I'm glad I didn't use two tone colours on mine. You must have a load of patience. Well done so far.

ken

Brian60 · « **Reply #157 on:** July 24, 2015, 07:40:48 am »

Yes, as you know Ken the handrails are a right nightmare to cut, drill and solder in place. I have given some thought to these and I might try another way of getting the rails level.

I also picked up this tip from a German forum as well. When soldering close to your deck where there may be a problem with melting. Have a bowl of water handy and tear into pieces sheets of toilet tissue, allow it to soak and it turns to pulp, then push a small wodge of the pulp around the base of what you are soldering to absorb excess heat. This can also be used when soldering complex structures like masts.

Tug-Kenny RIP · « **Reply #158 on:** July 24, 2015, 09:22:28 am »

You noticed.

I use the trick of not placing them deep in their slots in the deck before soldering. Start with the top row's soldering and then the middle row etc. Finish with the bottom row. This cuts down on heat distribution. I then hold each one with flat pliers as a strengthener and tap them down to line them up with a persuader.

ken

Brian60 · « **Reply #159 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:26:47 pm »

More cutting, drilling, filing. I've so far made 62 stanchions and quite frankly I am bored of doing them

I have almost got the upper and lower focsl port and starboard completed now. Just 5 more on the port side and the two companionways from upper to lower decks. Like Tug Kenny, here's a few cut and drilled with a pin and toothpick for size comparison.

Also a roll of the brass wire I am using for the rails, available from ebay, this is 0.4mm, I had 1mm for the top rail but although in scale it looked too heavy so I went with 0.4 for them all. Cut a length off and then holding each end in pliers pass through a flame to take the curl out of it, as it cools it remains straight.

Brian60 · « **Reply #160 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:29:42 pm »

The next three are the beginnings of the safety cage to attach to the ladder up to the crane working platform. Formed rings around an 8mm former then attached to the vertical rod. these will be given more shaping and then soldered to the ladder.

Mark T · « **Reply #161 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:34:12 pm »

Nice work Brian - I have to admire your patience with the metal work but the result looks great

Brian60 · « **Reply #162 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:34:59 pm »

The next four photo's are the beginnings of adding the first lot of rails to the lower focsl deck, then the companionway rails and then finally all in place and painted. You can also see the safety cage is now in place on the crane tower, a crewman to show the scale of things. I thought I was being multi ethnic when I painted this guy, trouble is, as the ship is out of the far east (irrespective of its flag) it seems the deck crews are Malays and Singaporeans.

Brian60 · « **Reply #163 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:36:45 pm »

You are correct on the metalwork Mark. Its making me

but my jig does 6 at a time, so I do six, put it aside and do something else.

Brian60 · « **Reply #164 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:39:51 pm »

So more photos to show progress. The one from the cargo deck facing forward shows the port side done and the starboard side not. It also shows the new deck marking decals I made. I wasn't happy with the yellow painted line, so out with Photoshop and make up some yellow and black diagonals and then print onto decal paper.

Brian60 · « **Reply #165 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:41:21 pm »

The starboard companionway from upper to lower focsl deck under construction. Because of the way the rails wrap around three sides of the hole in the deck and then down the ladder, I measured it all out on the bench and then pre bent the rails. I'll then slide on the stanchions and glue those in place before soldering. For these intricate parts, in fact all of these stanchions I have used solder paste.

Brian60 · « **Reply #166 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:49:16 pm »

So the last three photo's for now. Showing the starboard side completed except for the companionway. The gap in the rails is for the mounts for the liferaft containers. The rear part of the upper focsl deck has the jib mounting for the fast rigid inflateable. I'll be concentrating on this and the watefall winch as well as adding extra deck detailing over the next week or so.

Thats all for now.

Oh you may notice the plain timber blocks. This is for the rear of the superstructure. Its not needed but I thought best to put it there just for a bit of extra support- it keeps the rear of the superstructure square.

Martin (Admin) · « **Reply #167 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:51:20 pm »

Love the Logo!

Brian60 · « **Reply #168 on:** July 28, 2015, 08:54:34 pm »

Made for me by one of our members Martin.

Brian60 · « **Reply #169 on:** August 03, 2015, 07:21:30 pm »

Just a little done over the weekend. My son arrived from the UK carrying goodies!

First up was a pair of these ordered from the USA, pipebenders to handle 1/8 and 1/4 brass pipe or their metric equivalent. A couple more standard servo's which aren't worth photo's. Another electronic module from Component Shop (action) and these little boogars.....

Brian60 · « **Reply #170 on:** August 03, 2015, 07:24:57 pm »

I've put the ruler in there for size purposes, they are TINY! What are they? They are of course linear servo's, that is, instead of going round and round like a servo, they push/pull a rod. These have 10mm of movement which is going to be ample to lift and lower my towing pins at the stern of the workdeck. I am going to need to experiment with just how much pressure the can of course take - not much by the look of them. They do something on model helicopters of which I know absolutely nothing, but they will do the job I want.

So at some point in the next week or two hopefully I can get the towing pins working, albeit with the return springs removed depends on the pushing power of those linear servos.

Brian60 · « **Reply #171 on:** August 03, 2015, 07:30:09 pm »

SO here are two more photo's of the final hull with all deck railings now finished and in place. There are 72 of these handmade stanchions and the last week or two they have driven me mad, but they do look good now they are in place. Only another 80 to fit on the superstructure

The bare timber as I mentioned last time is to secure the rear of the superstructure housing which is in fact the crew rest area, as opposed to the recreation area. The first is basically the dirty area where overalls are worn etc for breaks off the deck. The rec area is buried down in the hull under the superstructure and has all those amenities like telly etc - of course I have not been mad enough to build that into the ship,although the portholes will be lit eventually.

Brian60 · « **Reply #172 on:** August 03, 2015, 07:34:30 pm »

Well I spent yesterday building a piece of plastic trash

That is I began work on the FRC jib - fast rescue craft. It took some doing as I was butt jointing plastic, made worse by not having square tube of the correct size. I took U channel and glued a piece of plasticard over the opening to form tube. Then cut everything to the size of the plan I had printed out and by last night I had the basic framework built, as per the photos. But something didn't look right...........

Yes it pivots and works correctly even looks the part, but something was not right............

Brian60 · « **Reply #173 on:** August 03, 2015, 07:42:22 pm »

Plonking it on the upper focsl deck there would be no room for a crewman to pass between the rest room and the framework of the FRC jib. Back to the workbench and do some more measuring, its actually come out at 1/50th scale not 1/72nd

Not sure what has happened but between rescaling it in Photoshop and the laser printer it scaled back up somewhat

So this is now trash and I will begin a new one. Tomorrow's a new day so new plastic will be on the bench. What I will say is Thank God for the internet. Its amazing how much information - in the way of plans and diagrams, that you can download to build miniatures from! This jib came from Palfinger for instance.Next time I hope to have this finished and the liferaft pods made and installed.

Brian60 · « **Reply #174 on:** August 05, 2015, 12:06:35 pm »

Well the new FRC jib is finished and ready to be installed. The first photo's are the old oversize and the new correct one side by side. as you can see there is an appreciable size difference.

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Author Topic: Seahunter- The Big Refit! (Read 160194 times)