Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[david48]

Just been fitting the RIBs on to the cradles ,in hind sight I wish I had fitted the cradles ot the RIBs and the fitted them into the deck ,reason the cradle shape is a bad match to the RIBs s.  and keeping them square is a bit fiddly . Thanks Stan the Rader scanners are fitted and work .
David

[Mark T]

Would be great to see some photo's David     I've started the superstructure and I seem to have been soldering railings for hours and hours 

[Mark T]

At last I'm really glad to say that david48 has managed to send some photo's over to me of his Fairmount build     So here they are - Nice build David 

[Mark T]

The winches are now fitted and I'm really pleased with the way they came out 








Upwards and onwards so I've started building the superstructure.  Firstly I had to modify the deck that the whole structure sits on as earlier in the build I had modified the front hole in the hull (Crikey that a tongue twister  ).  I reduced the aperture by gluing some scraps into the hole





And then reproduced the same inverted coaming as I did on the rear lower deck.  This was slightly tricky as the deck is not flat it has a slight slope on it








I used cling film to stop the whole thing sticking to the deck whilst the epoxy dried








And once tidied up a bit this is how the coaming came out.  It fits nice and snug and hopefully with a bit of Vaseline applied it will keep the worst of the water out








I'm managing to get a bit more time on my build now and I'll post some more up later  - Thanks for looking 

[Mark T]

Next job was to start work on the railings.  I used my favourite way of making these by using jig.  I have found that not only is its easier to get the right shape I like the way I can paint all of the railings at the same time without any paint going onto the parts that need gluing onto the deck.  I tacked the deck to a piece of wood and drilled all of the holes through onto it.





Which then let me mark out the railings shape.





Then I just started putting it all together using nails fixed into the board to make the bends as accurate as possible.





The ones I have done have so far turned out ok and I'll keep adding to this board until I have all of the railings finished








I have now started building the upper superstructure and one thing I have to say about billings kits is just how well they fit together














While I have plenty of access I gave the inside a nice couple of coats of finishing epoxy





And finally the deck is glued in place





I've got a lot of forward planning to do now as I want to get all of the wiring etc as neat as possible as the build continues


Cheers Mark

[david48]

Hi Mark , things are looking very good , I've just finished fitting the top reels what I failed to relies the deck camber made them tip outwards slightly so had to make up tapered fillets to set them upright , if you want I can seed you some self adhesive copper strip I bought a roll to run round inside the superstructure as a negative rail so I could reduce the amount of wire .if you have not made your cranes yet I have just discovered that the boom rests are to short , that might be me as I made up a hydraulic ram so it could be a fraction longer the the build book.
I will send you some more pics tomorrow please feel free to post them
David

[Mark T]

Yes I know what you mean about the winches sitting at an angle due to the deck camber.  I got around this by sanding the bases at a slight angle to offset this problem.  It worked great but I then glued one of them on slightly twisted     I still haven't sorted this out as it will take a lot to put the deck paint right.  I may just leave it!  Thanks for the offer of the tape - I'm not sure yet how I'm going to do the wiring but if I need some I'll let you know 

[Capt Podge]

That looks like a great way to do the stanchions / handrails. I'll have to attempt that myself when I reach that stage. 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 

[Mark T]

A bit of an update 
I have carried on marking out the next level of railings to make things easier with the making and painting of them.  I'll make them later today








Now this is the point where I have decided to move away from the recommended construction sequence of the superstructure.  The instructions say that you simply carry on building upwards but this would make painting,glazing and wiring the inside of the bridge very difficult.  So I have decided to build upwards but to make each part removable which will hopefully make the overall build easier for me.  So instead of gluing the bridge roof supports into the lower deck I have glued them into the bridge roof and then simply work backwards.





Which is then placed on the lower deck dry with no glue





I then used the same process with the next level making it so that it would slide together with no glue











It all seemed to work okay so far and I didn't have any problems until I started putting the bridge side walls in place!

[Mark T]

I realised that to fit the bridge side walls I should have chamfered the bridge roof to accept the angled side walls.  Now that the roof supports were in place this was going to be difficult.  So if you are building this boat make sure that you chamfer the roof before gluing anything together.  I think the pictures will explain better








Once I had sorted this issue out I started fitting the bridge walls which have many angles that require sanding to get a good fit








I really enjoyed doing this part - Just loads of patience and it all comes together nicely 

















Next I tacked it all together with small drops of cyano and hoped that my plan of it all coming apart would work - It did!! 








I've now brushed aliphatic resin into all of the joints and I'm leaving it all to dry.  I really hope that this method will make the build much easier.  Only time will tell.


Thanks for looking  - Mark

[bobhall]

Thanks for the update Mark.  I can assure you finishing the superstructure when in one piece is difficult, to put it mildly.  I believe you have hit on a great solution and wish I had thought of it.  You have achieved an excellent fit all round and fitting windows and painting will be so much easier.  Even the pipework should be simpler. I would start the superstructure again using your method if I could obtain the relevant plywood parts.  Oh well that's not likely so I will have to soldier on. Great work!! Bob

[bfgstew]

Hi Mark,

This is coming along nicely, I really like your method of setting the stanchion rails, you should drop a patent on it.....
Lots of ideas and building methods to help me with the build of my Granit.

Regards

Stewart

[Mark T]

Hi Bob - well so far so good the structures do go back together ok so I'm very pleased about that.  I did however get one corner wrong mainly due to the way I have decided to construct it.  And what a pain it has become to put right     I must have filled it about 10 times now but its starting to come right now.  I think taking time to get the joints as accurate as possible pays dividends.


Hi Stewart - I've been watching your build of Granit and I thought how similar the hull layout looked to the Fairmount.  Yours should be a great build and I'll be watching.

[david48]

As you have found out it's a pain all the angles that's how I made mine ,have you kept all the cut outs and the stuff left from the laser cut sheets . I used the piece out of the top bridge deck and put a bit of detail and it is some where to fix the motor for the radars . Don't do what I did glazed then paint ,I learned by my mistake .Canopy 500 works fine for the fixing the glazing. Are you going to route the pipe work for the monitors as the book or flexi pipe and just have the ones on the drawing as dummy's .thers not a lot of room through the railing ,but you  might have already found this out .
I came home from Warwick to 4 tons of firewood in long logs so it will be a bit before I get back to the build its all to cut and split in to 10" lengths ,not complaining it free .
Keep up the good work .
David

[Brian60]

I came home from Warwick to 4 tons of firewood in long logs so it will be a bit before I get back to the build its all to cut and split in to 10" lengths ,not complaining it free .
Keep up the good work .
David

Wish I could get it for free. Yes I live in Spain but it gets every bit as cold as the UK here in the countryside! We got 3 tonnes delivered last week. It's a 100€ a tonne here So I hope this will keep the log burner happy until March, can't afford much more at that price.

[Mark T]

Hi David - Yes I was going to paint first and then glaze.  I've got some glue that's called Canopy but I'm not sure if it's the right stuff, I'll have a look when I get home on Friday.  As for the pipe work I am going to make dummy pipes as per the drawings and use the lobster back method as you recommend.  Hopefully I will supply water to the fire monitors but passing brass pipes straight through the bridge. Good luck shifting all of that wood!

[bfgstew]

Hi Stewart - I've been watching your build of Granit and I thought how similar the hull layout looked to the Fairmount.  Yours should be a great build and I'll be watching.

Similar but the Granit is slightly older, designated UT702 type hull (if I remember correctly) not sure on the Fairmount though?
Don't be holding your breath though on my build, this is going to take a while!!!!!!

I did spy on your recent upload some nice engineering blocks, ideal for making sure everything is nicely square, plus good weights, where did you get them from if I may ask?

Cheers

Stewart

[Mark T]

Same here Stewart I'm a very slow builder as you can tell!  The blocks are called 1-2-3 engineering blocks as that is their size in inches. Put a search in Ebay and you'll find some there 😀

[bfgstew]

Cheers mate, just found some, a snip @ £24 for a pair or £24.50 for a pair in a wooden box, hmmmmm which one?.......................

[Mark T]

A bit more progress this weekend  - Firstly I had to sort out the one corner that I just could not get right when I glued the bridge together.  Thank goodness for filler is all I can say 





Next was another move away from the kit.  On the real ship quite a prominent feature is the rail that runs around the bridge.  I decided to have a go at this and used the full size plans that are supplied with the model to make things easier.  It wasn't the easiest thing to do but it seemed to come out ok.











I couldn't go all of the way around as the fire monitor supply pipes go over the top of the bridge.  I did try and bend the rail to incorporate these but I just could not do it.  In the end I simply left a gap but I think once its all painted it will be ok.


Then for my big error    I soldered the rail up only to realise that i needed to remove it to finish sanding and filling the bridge.  I managed to remove it in the end but what a pain it was.  So once removed I airbrushed 3 coats to Eze - Kote before reinstalling the rail and finishing with a few coats of primer











Not to bad a finish for a first coat.  It still needs some work before it gets its top colours.  I'll paint the inside white first before painting the outside.


I've got a few things to work out now such as how many LED's to use to light the inside of the bridge.  I'm hoping that two will be enough?  I've also looked at what glue I've got for the windows and its called Canopy 560 - does anyone know if this glue is ok?  Also I'm not sure whether or not to use the supplied acetate for the windows or swap it for something else.  Any advice would be very welcome.


Thanks for looking - Mark

[jarvo]

HI Mark


Your comment about the Canopy glue, the RC airplane boys use that and similar type to fit there cockpit canopies, great stuff as there glazing is right in your face!!!!


You also mentioned the LED's you are fitting, i have just bought a set of coloured leds from home bargines, 100 for £4.99, they just need to be un-raveled, Blue, red, green, yellow and white,


Hope this helps


Mark

[Mark T]

Thanks for letting me know about the glue Mark thats great!  As for the LED's I'm using 12v micro LED's from the component shop as they come ready wired and the whole boat is running on 12v just to make life easier for me.  It sounds like you have got yourself a real bargain there though 

[irishcarguy]

First off you are making a first class job of everything you have done as has David. It is great to watch the progress you are both making. I have not made any attempt on my Alpine yet, I just can't do the things I need to do using my left hand that was just second nature before having the stroke. I hope to cut thin slide glass for the glazing & gluing it on from the inside, that way the rough edges of the glass hopefully won't show. I have done most of my Smit Nederland with slide glass & it was much more difficult because the glass had to fit in the frame to look right(done before the stroke). I am not sure that I can cut it now though. I used a Dremel with a diamond disc & it worked well when I got the hang of it, the hard part was grinding the edges to fit as close as possible. I clamped the glass to the bench on a very flat piece of ply as close to the edge as I could. I broke quite a few to start, but after a bit of practice my breakage was about  3/% to 4%, WEAR GOGGLES AT ALL TIMES WHILE doing it. I hope this might solve your glazing job. Keep up the good work, you are doing a great job of it. Mick B.     

[irishcarguy]

Just a short question Dave, will the piping above the windows spray too with the monitors, & did you use copper pipe ?. Mick B.

[david48]

Hi Mike good to hear from you ,I was just about to tell Mark about you slide idea , I wish I had used something more  durable . If you can find something Mark give it a go, the reason I say this is it scratches real easy my top has been made a long time and now it's out of its box my shed gets a bit dusty ,I have been using a brush and it still shows small scratch marks ,as ever things are coming on fine .Have you had any thoughts about the lettering on the cranes yet , I had some made up at Warwick at great cost but not really happy thy are self adhesive and on a rough clear film . Just another thought I wish I had made my superstructure hinge on the front a like a wagon cab it's a bit late for me but you might be able to the reason I say this is when the mast and all the rest of the fitting are one its all is a bit delicate.
Keep up the good work
David