Dear Friends
In a fleeting moment the weekend has come and gone. I know that I said yesterday I was just going to fiddle fart around and even though I took things easy, I still got some work done.
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Looking closely at the instructions, I noticed that there are 9 x supporting beams which needed to be placed as extra support for the deck. If you look at the illustration above, you will see that these beams are marked in blue. Finishing off the deck supporting structure are a further 4 x resin blocks which all have the same height as the supporting beams, thus offering extra support especially where the two deck halves will join in the center of the ship.
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The 9 x deck beams are indicated by the red lines and the four resin support pieces by the yellow ones. Interestingly, the 9 x extra beams are made from Pear wood which I found strange as their function is largely industrial and they will not be seen. Oh well ...
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Another view of the extra deck beams and 4 x resin support pieces.
Before I could place the upper deck bow filler permanently, there was some work that I had wanted to do first as I just thought it would be easier off the ship. It entailed lining the two most forward gunports and lining the cutouts which I presume are meant for the catheads. (See illustration below).
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The completed job still awaiting final sanding and finishing.
Some of you may recall that I said earlier I have not yet started the final sanding of the hull in anticipation of the second planking, because that will be done from the waist downwards. On the picture below, you should get a good indication why.
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Notice the protrusions between the ribs and on the false deck itself which protrude from the ribs. Once the gunport frames have been installed, and sanded flush with the bulwarks, these nobbles will be cut off and the whole waistline sanded smooth, before I will progress to the hull.
Finally, the Admiral and I had a good laugh. I put together the stand quickly and test fitted the ship to that. As I placed it on the work surface, Strider jumped up, gave the Pandora one look and then let me know in no uncertain terms of what he thought of it.
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Didi (literally meaning younger brother) did not pay the Pandora any attention either, but as soon as I placed the WB on the table, they were all attention.
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Strider, in particular, examined the Admiral's rigging carefully.
In any case, my friends, that's me for the weekend. To all those who clicked "Like", followed along, interacted and the like, thank you for a great weekend. Until the next update, I leave you with a stern shot of the lady (all dry-fitted still).
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! Yes, they were not playing around when it came to the resin parts. But, you know, in all fairness, when I look at the Caldercraft/Jotika Victory (maybe the other ones too - I am not going to search for every Victory build now
) and the bigger kits of the Occre, they both use the solid sheeting (the ones with the ready cut-out gunports) on the upper bulwarks over which the second layer of planking is applied. So, whilst not resin, it fulfils the same basic function as the resin pieces on the Pandora. Six of the one, half a dozen of the other? One thing I do know though, I would prefer planking over the wood!
