Good morning. I don’t get it, Arlene laughs at me as well but I have no shortcomings
……..Cheers Grant
HMS Blandford 1:48 POF Modelship Dockyard [COMPLETED BUILD]
……..Cheers Grant
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Good morning Grant, I can see that you are as humble as me, if only our wives could see that.Good morning. I don’t get it, Arlene laughs at me as well but I have no shortcomings
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Hello and welcome, again thanks for your support, I’ve really needed needed it over the past few hair wrenching days. As I mentioned I was now going to make up the hawse timbers, these I believe can sometimes prove difficult to get right, in this case for me they were. First as you can see for a tricky part the instruction sheet is pretty inadequate, it just shows a finished part with no indication on how to get there. A jig was provided; this was quite good and made the way that it was to be made up more understandable. The first problem was that there are six timbers each side and these are each numbered, 1 – 6, on the pear sheets there were four pieces for each number, they were to be doubled up to make the timbers, each piece is exactly the same shape but every piece has different taper markings, left, right, inside and outer, they really needed to have been marked a b c d rather than leave you to try and guess which way round they are assembled as these markings dictate the shape needed, a tricky challenge.
Whilst scratching my head over this I knocked and broke off a rib grrr! I managed to replace a section and made a good repair that can’t be seen, so happiness restored. My inner peace must have been disturbed because a few minutes later my next mistake caused me great distress. I picked up the leading rib, the one that the hawse timbers mount onto and started to taper it; I was about half way through when I realised that I’d tapered it the wrong way round. The taper angle was quite acute so there was no way to correct it, I had to turn it around and use the rear of the rib as the front, the taper markings were obviously different so I had to make a guess as to the taper profiles for each side. The front should have been flat but was now stepped so this had to be removed and a new stepped piece made up for the rear, the step inside the bottom that fits the keel now needed re making, much of this was guesswork as until it was fitted I couldn’t know if it would all work out and line up correctly. The modelling gods must have been with me as the rib with timbers attached fitted pretty well, not 100% but looks okay, Nelson wouldn’t notice, but he’s was half blind. I’ve attached photos that I think show each stage of building the hawse timbers rather than describe how, as I’ve run out of words and need a cup of tea.
You'll notice the rain drops on this picture, I'm still banned from sanding in the house.
Whilst scratching my head over this I knocked and broke off a rib grrr! I managed to replace a section and made a good repair that can’t be seen, so happiness restored. My inner peace must have been disturbed because a few minutes later my next mistake caused me great distress. I picked up the leading rib, the one that the hawse timbers mount onto and started to taper it; I was about half way through when I realised that I’d tapered it the wrong way round. The taper angle was quite acute so there was no way to correct it, I had to turn it around and use the rear of the rib as the front, the taper markings were obviously different so I had to make a guess as to the taper profiles for each side. The front should have been flat but was now stepped so this had to be removed and a new stepped piece made up for the rear, the step inside the bottom that fits the keel now needed re making, much of this was guesswork as until it was fitted I couldn’t know if it would all work out and line up correctly. The modelling gods must have been with me as the rib with timbers attached fitted pretty well, not 100% but looks okay, Nelson wouldn’t notice, but he’s was half blind. I’ve attached photos that I think show each stage of building the hawse timbers rather than describe how, as I’ve run out of words and need a cup of tea.
You'll notice the rain drops on this picture, I'm still banned from sanding in the house.
Very good result !!!!
and many thanks for showing us the individual working steps - I think very informative step by step
Do you plan to install some distancers between the frames? So that they are fixed during the later sanding
and many thanks for showing us the individual working steps - I think very informative step by step
Do you plan to install some distancers between the frames? So that they are fixed during the later sanding
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Hi Ewe, Thanks for the thumbs up. Yes, spacers are supplied and will be fitted, hopefully they’ll hold all the ribs in-line Ken
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Hi Ken, I think it has been mentioned already, but be very careful with the frame spacers even if they are the correct thickness,(4mm if I remember right), the addition of adhesive to each spacer causes a growing error that even by half way can amount to a couple of millimetres. Also I found the hawse frames very fragile when assembled so I made some small spacers out of scrap and fixed them near the top. This made the whole assembly far more stable.
Hope this helps. JJ..
WOW! That is a very impressive first attempt Ken. I think I spend several weeks trying to wrap my brain around this step and still ended up patching or remaking parts. That jig is brilliant - I could have used something like that!
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Hi Jack, Thanks for the tip. Your right about the fragile hawse timbers, I left the upper part of the jig attached as Long as possible for that reason, I think I’ll take your advice and brace them as I’m sure I’d break them if I didn’t. Ken
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l used the gap between the ribs right at the point where they come out the jig. This should be the correct width and sand each one so that it just slides in. All need to be sanded slightly and check constantly the ribs are 90 degrees to the jig
I can only affirm what Keef has just posted. While I am building an entirely different model I did also place spacers between frames and you would be surprised how easy it is to force things out of alignment. The spacers have to either be passive or active in a way that IMPROVES alignment of frames.
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Hello again, Just a few pics, except for setting the heights of the timbers which I'll do much later, this is now the finished article, I added the fillers that Jack suggested and sanded it to death for a surface that I was happy with, now for me it's at 95% so I'm delighted.
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Hi Keith, Thank goodness that you posted loads of photos of your go at this part, I poured over them all for quite a while, without these I think I’d still be trying to work it out. Ken
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Hello and welcome again. Progress is being made and for the first time I think that I might eventually end up with a complete model of sorts, though I did have my doubts at times.
I’ve glued the hawse timber section to the keel along with the first three ribs so that I could fair them to shape, I also added the rib spacers to give it some rigidity whilst I sanded as without them the ribs just flexed. Although the hawse timbers with rib one initially looked good it was not the right shape and needed correcting. I previously mentioned that because of my mistake I had to guess the amount and shape of the taper, not wanting to overdo it I had ended up being too conservative, I hadn’t allowed for the concave part of the lower bow so now I had a good deal of sanding to do. I can’t believe just how much sanding it took, my fingers are raw, I think that this build is about 80% sanding, much more than I’d expected, but I think that the result is about ok. The rib fillers are about 2mm too low and will need correcting, a couple of the rib tops are a bit thin, hopefully the handrails will hide these, I also used a small amount of filler on a couple of the spacers, these will be hidden by the planking, so I think all is acceptable. I put the keel and bow section back into the jig where it will now reside for some time and was pleased to see that it conformed quite well to its shape so hopefully nothing will come back and bite me. I found this part of the build quite a challenge and a bit stressful, not what I had expected, I’m sure that I could do it much better if I were to build it again.
I’ve glued the hawse timber section to the keel along with the first three ribs so that I could fair them to shape, I also added the rib spacers to give it some rigidity whilst I sanded as without them the ribs just flexed. Although the hawse timbers with rib one initially looked good it was not the right shape and needed correcting. I previously mentioned that because of my mistake I had to guess the amount and shape of the taper, not wanting to overdo it I had ended up being too conservative, I hadn’t allowed for the concave part of the lower bow so now I had a good deal of sanding to do. I can’t believe just how much sanding it took, my fingers are raw, I think that this build is about 80% sanding, much more than I’d expected, but I think that the result is about ok. The rib fillers are about 2mm too low and will need correcting, a couple of the rib tops are a bit thin, hopefully the handrails will hide these, I also used a small amount of filler on a couple of the spacers, these will be hidden by the planking, so I think all is acceptable. I put the keel and bow section back into the jig where it will now reside for some time and was pleased to see that it conformed quite well to its shape so hopefully nothing will come back and bite me. I found this part of the build quite a challenge and a bit stressful, not what I had expected, I’m sure that I could do it much better if I were to build it again.
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- Dec 16, 2016
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Hello, Thanks for dropping by and of course for all your likes. Now I’m really smoking the good stuff, the build is progressing rapidly and without issues. I managed to raise the rib fillers to their correct height just using small inserts which blend in well and can hardly be noticed and with a final tweak the bow is now done as good as I’m going to get it. I’ve completed another ten ribs which along with all the others are now glued to the keel and I’m pleased to say everything appears to line up nicely. After a first attempt at this type of build I’m saying to myself I wish that I could do that part again because I know that I could do better, but you only get one chance at it, you do your best then have to live with it.
This will be my last post for a few weeks as we’re going on holiday, Mrs Ken thinks that she deserves some time in the sun, who am I to deny her.
Blandford wants to come on holiday too
This will be my last post for a few weeks as we’re going on holiday, Mrs Ken thinks that she deserves some time in the sun, who am I to deny her.
Blandford wants to come on holiday too
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Have a wonderful vacation Ken!
