Video 10 - (Part 1)
Installing the spars on the deck, then attaching the actual deck. It's been well documented by others that the finger joint approach used by AL is less than ideal. At one point I did consider attaching front right to back right, just to concentrate on getting a good join, but decided in the end that it may not give me enough wiggle room if there are alignment issues. Plus I may break the join bending the whole assemble engaging the small tabs front & rear.
I did employ some rather unusual cantilever techniques to persuade the joints to align flush. The results although not perfect were better than I hoped for.
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I used stain for these parts, intending to use it where AL 42 Dark Red Leather paint was used. However after some experimentation painting two adjacent colours (for example the two colour grates) I found I was getting bleed issues. I really don't want to buy any more paints as I have lots already, so I will mix my own brown colour from my Tamiya supply.
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Loose test fit.
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Everything OK withs masts so far. No doubt the next deck will show any issues.
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Quick peek at some of the rooms in situe.
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After much pushing up and down and wiggling this way and that, I found that if I stood on one leg put my finger in my ear and adopted some less than conventional techniques I could just about manoeuvre the fingers into a decent position.
As you may see from the image above I concentrated on the top 8 or so fingers then flooded the area with diluted wood glue, wiped off the excess and let it dry for a few hours.
Then repeated the process for the remaining fingers. Yes it's a long process but IMHO worth it.
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The deck in place.
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Very happy with the final results.
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The timbers for the inner planking painted white. I used a sample pot of house paint which gives great coverage. Once this is dry and I have a had a beer I will give them a light sand and apply a thin second coat.
Thanks for looking
Tony