Topic: Seahunter- The Big Refit! (Read 160193 times)

hama · « **Reply #250 on:** September 02, 2015, 07:13:48 pm »

Wow! Fantastic work!! As for pulleys, I used the rubberbands Ken mentioned. My daughter has hundreds of them in different colours. Pardon my sorry excuse for a mast compared to yours but here's a picture of it. You could also try a shop for things for horses, my daughter also had a bag of rubberbands for making braids?? on the mane?? and the tail of the horse. They may be in a different size.
Keep up your excellent work!
Hama

Brian60 · « **Reply #251 on:** September 03, 2015, 08:26:59 am »

Before I post today's selection, Hama that is almost exactly the setup I was going for! You can see in the diagram what I was attempting to do. The reason I have had trouble is the fact the mast itself is only 4mm in diameter so I was working with small stuff!

Brian60 · « **Reply #252 on:** September 03, 2015, 08:29:56 am »

As you can see because the mast is small in diameter I was going to run a 1mm drive shaft close in to the mast but on the outside. I made up the brackets in brass strip to take any strain that plastic couldn't handle.

This is where it all began to go wrong.

Brian60 · « **Reply #253 on:** September 03, 2015, 08:41:48 am »

The 'motor' drive of the radar was made up in 4mm timber with a brass sleeve for a bearing, the shaft going through it and the mast bracket to a pulley wheel, then another pulley wheel close to the mast end with the drive shaft.

The pulley wheels were 3mm in diameter! with a gap of 8mm between the pulleys. Even a loom band of which SWiMBO found a pack in a local shop for me (50 centimos, about 30p) were too large. I cut a section out of one (10mm) and glued the ends together with superglue, it worked! except the band was to thick in section to actually fit the groove in the pulleys.

Another band, section it by 10mm and then very carefully split it lengthways with a sharp scalpel and glue together again, success, it fits the grooves.

The brass bracket was then clad in .5mm plasticard so it looked like a true mount and it all fell into disarray. Once the plasticard was added the bracket became much wider than the diameter of the mast and just looked plain ridiculous and wrong!. I made 4 incarnations of this over the weekend and nothing worked!

So I gave up and decided the mast mounted radar would be static

I would make do with the lower roof mounted one working and not both of them. You can just about make out the mast radar, its the grey bar lower down. During all of this I managed to break off the anemometer I had carefully made at the top of the mast. This was three hemispheres just .5mm in diameter and has really peed me off because it was an age to actually cut and assemble.

Brian60 · « **Reply #254 on:** September 03, 2015, 08:42:55 am »

Hang on surprise coming up shortly but the dog is insisting I play throw the ball, I have her claw marks up my shin! Back in 10 minutes.

Brian60 · « **Reply #255 on:** September 03, 2015, 08:54:37 am »

Interlude over- she gets bored easily

Anyway another impasse, I have been waiting a week for supplies arriving from the UK, so in order to progress I moved on to.......................

THE SUPERSTRUCTURE TA DAAAAA! the moment some have been waiting for.

This is rather a challenge, I have a dozen photos to work from and a set of GA plans. Because its a complicated shape I tried to break it into sections and build a 'box' at a time. It soon became apparent that this would not work.

Brian60 · « **Reply #256 on:** September 03, 2015, 09:00:59 am »

If there is one thing I hate its cutting mitres and only one thing is worse than that and it is compound mitres! This superstructure has compound mitres all over it!

I started with the front 'box' and added the rest on to it a piece at a time, building around the coaming that I had in place. This gave the lower section of the superstructure. All good so far, well no it wasn't. The sides of the superstructure wrap over and across the bridge deck to a depth of 15mm. Hmmmm...

Brian60 · « **Reply #257 on:** September 03, 2015, 09:08:27 am »

So I added the lower bridge decking and then built up the sides over it from aft to front. This now gives the base for the actual bridge deck and bridge itself to be built on. Which is next on the list. As this goes up I am also having to sub divide the internal structure to allow lights in some of the cabins but not them all, so I will end up with something akin to a honeycomb when it is completed.

The green stuff is surface filler. As there are lots of joints in the plasticard, I have sanded as I have gone along and then applied the filler and sanded again. There appears to be lots of green because this model filler (squadron green) is cellulose based and stains the surface of the plastic even though it is sanded away for the most part.

Tug-Kenny RIP · « **Reply #258 on:** September 03, 2015, 10:01:58 am »

Crumbs....... that would try the patience of a saint. looking better by the minute.

Go play with dog again, it does you good.

Cheers

ken

Brian60 · « **Reply #259 on:** September 03, 2015, 02:54:06 pm »

Go back to post 253 and photo 2. I have also added on to the mast all the 3mm led's for the lighting. Only one leg is soldered on to the mast, this is the cathode (-) of each led, I'm using the brass mast as the common ground for them all. The led's are clear glass but are a mixture of white, red in colour once energised. The other legs will be bent and soldered to my enamel coated .2mm wire when it arrives and then can have its final coat of matt black paint all over. The leds I have filed the tops from a dome shape to a flat this will enable paint to partly obscure them so it looks like a casement.

Brian60 · « **Reply #260 on:** September 03, 2015, 02:55:11 pm »

Quote from: Tug---Kenny on September 03, 2015, 10:01:58 am

Crumbs....... that would try the patience of a saint. looking better by the minute.

Go play with dog again, it does you good.

Cheers

ken

Certainly correct Ken, a couple times this week I have felt like giving up on it all.

oldflyer2 · « **Reply #261 on:** September 03, 2015, 03:14:10 pm »

Brian, you are doing an excellent job. The houseworks are coming along fine. I have all that to go through yet and I am not looking forward to it as I haven't worked with plastic at all.

A question ... where do you get the green filler. A quick google search didn't net me much.

Tom

Brian60 · « **Reply #262 on:** September 03, 2015, 06:49:02 pm »

Tom you should be able to pick it up really easy in Canada, its a U.S product for the plastic kit makers, usually available in model shops. Its called Squadron Green and ebay and amazon have tons of links. There is also a Squadron White, much the same stuff except white

The white is supposed to be finer but I can't tell the difference except the white seems to dry up in the tube a lot quicker and becomes useless.

You can also use car body stopper. That is not the normal 2 part body filler, its a fine compound for spreading into sanding marks to level up the surface, both body stopper and squadron products are cellulose based, body stopper for the quantity usually works out a lot cheaper to buy.

oldflyer2 · « **Reply #263 on:** September 03, 2015, 11:23:22 pm »

Thanks Brian. I find that one of my local hobby shops has it or can have it by next week for me. so I have ordered some.

The car body stopper you mentioned is available about 5 minutes from home. Only problem is it comes in a 3lb tub ... nothing smaller. I would never use all that and it would dry out quickly I suspect. Excellent idea though if I needed to use a bunch in a short time (smoothing the inside of a hull or a planked hull).

Cheers

Tom

ballastanksian · « **Reply #264 on:** September 04, 2015, 06:55:45 pm »

Well there's a product I have never seen before! I will get me a tube of that. I saw that Amazon had 'Finnisage' stopper in a kilo tube. Ths sounds more managable £3 for the product and £3 for shipping (UK).

Brian60 · « **Reply #265 on:** September 05, 2015, 12:54:55 pm »

Let's have a few more of the superstructure progress. Now we are up to the complicated bit, all the compound mitres. But first a mistake.

As I began to add the bridge deck to the lower superstructure something looked off, after checking and checking, it was only a view from above that showed the error, I have put an arrow to the corner which is wrong, but as it is easier to take material away rather than add it, I will cut the opposite mitre to the same dimension. Overall it is out by 2mm, this wasn't noticeable until the addition of the bridge deck, you just might be able to see a pencil line I have drawn in ready to make the cut.

The second photo shows roughly in pencil where the internal structures like desks, seats etc are located.

Brian60 · « **Reply #266 on:** September 05, 2015, 01:01:58 pm »

Next up was a stairway to below bridge deck. This is one of those items that will not be seen even by viewing close up via the windows. However if it were just a hole rather than having the stairs it would cast the shadow of a hole and be very noticeable.

Now on to the framing sections. I have carefully cut the windows out of the sides wrongly! I'll elaborate - the front three sides have smaller windows than the side sections after the doorways. Unfortunately I had measured these and used the measurment for the front three sides. Resulting in the windows being too deep. I corrected it by cutting a 4mm strip and adding it to the bottom of the frames.

Brian60 · « **Reply #267 on:** September 05, 2015, 01:11:40 pm »

As I worked my way around the starboard side cutting each frame out of the plastic then cutting the mitres I became increasingly bothered that the uprights didn't look good. This is a result of trying to cut thin uprights, the plastic flexes and moves away from the knife no matter how much pressure you apply to the straight edge, the result is you are left with wonky frames.

In the next updates this will be corrected. I am going to cut out all the uprights then replace them. If I cut one continous strip off the edge of a full sheet of plasticard this will make all the uprights, as the strip has the support of the full sheet behind it the strip remains a constant width.

Brian60 · « **Reply #268 on:** September 05, 2015, 01:15:26 pm »

So just a few of the superstructure in place on the hull before I finish of this part. It is certainly looking more and more the part each day now. I guess if it was the chinese shipyard she originated from the real ship would be complete and handed off to her owners by now!

ballastanksian · « **Reply #269 on:** September 05, 2015, 04:28:33 pm »

For what its worth, I find that you can cut the frames in one piece as long as you cut all the frames out at the same time leaving the oblong waste in until the last moment. The bowing often happens if you cut them out one by one; the waste plastic oblong acts as a support.

I took the liberty of doing a little diagram for cutting windows/apetures in styrene.

It is for a basic rectanguar window/apeture with added section for if you want rounded corners that are quite simple to make.

The markng out diagram is to show that tidiness of drawing is not neccessarily good, as you cannot always guess where the cut is meant to end until you have cut to far with subsequent time spent having to reair the piece you were cutting.

However you cut your windows out, you will have a little tidying up to do around the edges. I found that cutting the uprights separatly means you have to be extra accurate in getting them perpendicular. Its all fun:O) I have made loads of mistakes and it never fails to be a bloomin nuisance especially when an assembly is well progressed. You have to decide wether to make a new assembly or see what you can do to rectify and modify the piece.

Brian60 · « **Reply #270 on:** September 06, 2015, 08:30:30 am »

Thanks Ian, I've never had much success with windows, I'll give your idea a try later today. I'm also setting up my Dremel drill press with a 2mm router bit to have a go at routing them out as well. The windows should have rounded corners, but at the moment its a heck of a lot of work just to get them straight!

Brian60 · « **Reply #271 on:** September 07, 2015, 11:44:02 am »

Well if that wasn't difficult enough I am now at a stage where I have to add along the top all the way around another row of windows but 12mm deep and leaning inwards!

But these photo's show where I am up to at present. I have to sit and ponder the next stage, I have made up all the bridge furniture so far, the chart table, front consoles the two funnel structures and a stairwell, the rear consoles are on the bench. The starboard funnel has a second 'box' to it, this is a toilet

its on the plan so it got added!

I can't glue them down yet as I'm not sure how to proceed. The inner frames need painting, but then its going to be the devils own job to get the glass to stick. The floor of the real ship in my photos is laminate timber, so I need to reproduce that effect, again the consoles won't glue on top of paint. There are holes in the consoles if you look closely, these are for power to the flat screen monitors (yes really) and fibre optic warning lights.

I still have to work out how to make 3 sofa chairs and a couple of pot plants yet

as I said earlier they are in the photo of the bridge I have so.....

So here's the photo's

Brian60 · « **Reply #272 on:** September 07, 2015, 11:48:57 am »

Oh I forgot to add, the funnels have holes in the bottom. The port side will run the cables up to the mast lights etc, the starboard side will take the water pipework for the fire monitors.

Brian60 · « **Reply #273 on:** September 12, 2015, 09:01:52 am »

Well this is where we are at for the week, not a lot!

I made up the bridge consoles and other furniture, the map table, sofa, captains chairs etc.

Brian60 · « **Reply #274 on:** September 12, 2015, 09:10:46 am »

This is where I encountered my first problem. I was going to make the lcd computer screens illuminated with fibre optic strands. In the end I gave up as I couldn't get such a small piece of clear acrylic to stick to the plasticard without marking the acrylic with glue, I even tried canopy glue from the plastic model brigade, The screen just wouldn't transmit enough 'glow' via the fibre optic strands.

I was still using them to make buttons on the consoles coloured though as they could be cut flush with the console surface. Then I found out they were plastic fibre optic the hard way

7 strands in one console, underneath. I gathered them together and slid some shrink tubing over them, then heating lightly the shrink tubing to hold them together, they all melted into a mess. This was how I found out the strands were plastic.

So simulating wood laminate flooring. The deck received a white primer then two base coats as seen in the photo, a solid buff colour and then streaks of a second colour then allowed to dry overnight. The second colour was applied when the first paint was still wettish, so they could be blended together.

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Author Topic: Seahunter- The Big Refit! (Read 160193 times)