Hms Alert by Maarten [COMPLETED BUILD]

Maarten

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Yeah my kit came in after exactly 30 days shipping and customs. I had to pay €46,- for VAT and customs clearing but it is well worth it for a box full of goodies.
I will build it next to my RC and already have some ideas of what I will do with it. It won't be a straight out of the box build but what it will be I will show you later during the build.
I started already with removing the saw dust from the milling process. I found it rather easy to remove it by knocking the wooden panels on its side on the workbench. This will remove some 95 % of the saw dust, the rest will be gone when removing the parts.
Tomorrow I will remove the rest of tge saw dust, number the parts and start building the berth.
 
First I cleaned my workbench.
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Then checked if all in the box is complete, which it is.

The additional items below are the interior which are not part of the default kit. The small strips are forming the bulk head beams, the other items the planks and doors.
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As said I removed the sawdust by tapping the billets on the workbench.
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As so can see you tap out the sawdust
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And the result without the need of a dentist tool.
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It took me 1 hour to remove the sawdust in all the billets.
 
This afternoon I could build the berth, as others already explained this build in detail I will only add some comments which maybe help you to speed up the process.

So let start to build this starship enterprise, uhh the berth. Everything is clearly documented in the Chinglish manual but with very clear and detailed drawings. The parts fit together very tight, camfering the butts very slightly helps to fit it more easily.
To fit it I glue it and tap it with a hammer, with a wooden block in between to protect the MDF.
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All the joints I reinforce with some extra glue.
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And after a few hours and a lot of fun my space ship is nearly finished.
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I have seen some who cleaned all the laser char which will be in contact with the hull. Especially around the slots for the frames this is an enormous task to do, so what I did is to treat these parts with shellack, this will bind and seal the laser char and avoid it from spoiling your frames with black spots. Shellack is very thin and penetrates the mdf avoiding changes in the fitting of the frames later in the build. Sealing the top plate is not needed as the frame part here will be glued to the top plate and cut off in the end. Sealing with shellack is therefore not needed and will weaken you glue joint.
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The berth is now finished and took me some 4 hrs. So after day 1 all the saw dust from the milling is removed and the build berth is finished.
 
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IF we have some hours a week.......? Sometimes we have to be happy to have one!
Very good, that you started also your build - I am looking forward to see the next "masterpice" by Maarten
 
Yes the real work starts. Starting with the keel.
The joint I glue with black pva, this made by pva mixed with black ecoline.
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This mixed in a seringe helps to aplicate it in minute quantities.
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Then I spread it to avoid ending up with black pva everywhere.
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Then fitting it together.
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Dry it and remove to overflow of pva by scraping.
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After scraping, finishing will ofcourse follow later. My test piece on top, already oiled to see the final look.
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Now I finish the outer edges to get a perfect fit.
For this I first check my disc sander angle.
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Time for sanding contact surfaces at correct angle of 90 deg.
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Checking the pieces on the drawing I found out the drawing and model are not the same scale. See template vs drawing, no German engineering here. :).
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For the round edge I use my mini spindle sander. This is just my proxxon micro drill in the column drill standard with a cheap sanding drum.
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For flat hand sanding I use multiplex billets fitted with high quality 3M sandpaper in 100, 220 and 320. I fit the paper with double sided tape.
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All the first parts of the stern glued.
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Next time sanding it into shape and then the bow section.
 
Another brief update.
I have scraped and sanded the stern keel part ready for using the template to taper it to its correct size. From top to bottom and fwd to aft reduce its diameter from 5 to 2,5 mm.
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Then I draw a center line and the 2,5 mm diameter.
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Followed by sanding it down along the curved line drawn according the template simply on the sanding disc.
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And the finished result of this inner part of the stern keel section.
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Next is the outer bow keel section.
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All parts easily fit together with some sanding and filing.
 
Next is the inside of the stem, after shaping the contact surfaces with a file these can be glued within the template to ensure the correct shape.
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As two ends have some extra space I added some additional black glue to fill the void.

After scraping and sanding I start with the rabbet. For the stem this is a 45 deg angle of about 1 mm. I sand this on my disc sander at low rpm to have better control over it.
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On the stern the angle is changing from 45 deg in the center to 0 deg at the stern. To create this I scrape the rabbet with a razor blade.
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After also scraping the rabbet to the stem and fwd keel I glue this section with white pva as otherwise the rabbet will fill with black pva which is difficult to remove.20201009_162740.jpg

Same procedure on the stern section with the use of white and black pva depending on the part of the joint.
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Followed by the mid section finishing the keel structure.
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After drying a nice keel with a razor sharp rabbet is the end result.
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