Worked on the various poop deck assemblies. There were two major ones, the skylight and the flag locker.
The flag locker.
They aren't too hard to assemble, but you have to follow the instructions carefully. The parts list has a full scale drawing of the shelving. I cut them out and laid them on their respective place as I followed the blue prints.
The cabinet goes to together ok, it may be easier to lay the bottom on some masking tape, glue the edges on to and then tape up, glue the top, add the top piece and wrap the tape all the way around....a method carpenters use when building boxes.
Once it's dry, the shelving will just slide in with a tight fit, no need to glue the shelving prior to installation or in the cabinet. The directions only provide where the 2 outside pieces go and you'll have to suss out where the rest go. Also....remember they are reversed for the other locker.
I painted the cabinet before installing the shelving and I just gave the face of the shelving a good sanding to bring out the natural color. Some builders have painted it white. That would work too, just be careful not to over load your paint brush, there isn't a lot of room to get rid of excess paint.
The plans call for two inner transom knees and then two outside that really only show the base and the tips on top of the locker.
I couldn't tell if the lockers are supposed to sit flush against the stern. They don't naturally unless you sand them...a lot.
I thought I saw a live picture where the two outside knees actually go behind the lockers, so they don't fit flush with the stern. But I can't find it right now.
Either way, mine don't sit flush. The only issue I have is that the tops of the outside knees were way too delicate to cut from the sprue. They crumbled.
I made 3 or 4 copies before getting 2 that were close.
The skylight
This just sucked. Right down the line.
The structure itself went together fine. Once it was glues, I dipped in dark walnut stain to give it a darker, richer texture.
I had spend a good amount of time, sanding this and cleaning out the recesses for all the windows.
I added metal etching to all the window frames and then painted them. I have a good airbrush setup, but haven't used it much on this build. That paints are a bit thick and tend to gum up the brush, no matter what I use to thin it. So far, as long as I've been careful and adding 2-3 coats, the end results have been ok.
That DID NOT happen with these frames. They were just bad. I finally airbrushed the larger fames for the long side walls, and they came out perfect. I left them on the sprue and even have cutting them loose and filing away the nubs, they fit in good.
The tops look bad. Plain and simple. At some point I am going to take the skylight off, pry the frames off and soak in turpentine stripper and redo them.....
I added the 2 kevels and all the cleats and the bracing.
