LA SALAMANDRE, bomb ketch - POF - (CAF-models, 1/48)

Hi Uwe,
just catching up on your build log. Vey impressed with your progress my friend.

regards Brian.
Hallo my friend,
Many thanks for your visit of my log and your kind words.
I am trying to work 1 or 2 hours every day on my ship, if everybody of family is sleeping.
Hope to see you again soon....
 
I am working in a separated room in the cellar, so I can also work with the table saw during the night.
But also the sander and vac are very silent.......when I buy a machine I am looking realy very much at the noise pollution.......also because of me :)
 
More or less all frames are now prepared with fitting notches in the floor timbers towards keel and keelson.
I have sanded and beveled the frames inside and outside only in the areas close to keel and keelson, the rest I plan when all are fixed together to be a stiff and stabile hull structure.
Everything still dry fit, so the frames and keelson are laying only on top of keel.

On these photos you can see the last frames close to the stern
IMG_22741.jpg IMG_22751.jpg IMG_22761.jpg

Total view in both directions
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Wooden walls - like I wrote before: final sanding will be done when the hull is stiff, with this I hope, that the final appearance of the hull surface will be better, due to the fact, that the sanding tools will have every time contact with minimum 2 or 3 frames and not only one, when you sand them separately.....let us see
IMG_22801.jpg IMG_22811.jpg

To be continued.......
 
some short status report.....
I finalized the finetuning works so that the frames are fitting to the keel- and also keelson-elements,
so I removed all the frames out of the jig and temporary stored them as usual as "towers".
Here you can more clearly see what I did with the frames the last week.

The first photo the status some three weeks ago
IMG_1801.JPG

Todays status
IMG_23151.jpg IMG_23161.jpg

THe colour of the timber did not change.....I have to find out the best way to make photos with the most natural appearance of the timber

The next step for (hopefully) tomorrow is the final assembly of the keel elements, the stern is still separate parts
IMG_23071.jpg

IMG_231011.jpg IMG_23111.jpg

to be continued......
 
Today I want to show you some small negative, but still negative quality issues of the kit.
Like mentioned already by ADC and also myself are the thickness of some parts of the keel not accurate.
It is sometimes only some micrometers, but it would be not necessary if the timber sheets would be thickened with a little bit more accuracy.
You can see this at the stern elements marked with black arrows......
A second issue is shown with the white arrows. This element is complete 6mm thick, glued by three elements in sandwich construction. Positive is, that with this sandwich construction, the notches for the feshion pieces are produced.
But it is a mystery, why the outer elements are 2mm too short.........nobody knows.......OK: it is the area where the thickness has to be reduced by 1,5mm for the rabbet, but there is 2mm gap -> means I have to fill this gap with some wood .......
....... so nobody is perfect - also not the Salamandre kit :cool:

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IMG_23191.jpg IMG_231812.jpg
 
Uwe,
these errors are annoying for sure but the builder should have some fun sometimes... Anyhow in percentage terms there don't seem to be too many errors like this in this kit, so at the end they are still of good quality! American and European kit builders should be learning from these manufacturers - but they don't seem to be!
Janos
 
Uwe,
these errors are annoying for sure but the builder should have some fun sometimes... Anyhow in percentage terms there don't seem to be too many errors like this in this kit, so at the end they are still of good quality! American and European kit builders should be learning from these manufacturers - but they don't seem to be!
Janos

I echo your statement Janos. These Chinese kits are still amazing with the extras, that are not included in the high end western world manufacturers.
Greg
 
Thanks for your replies...... and I agree, that these are minor problems and it is making the built more interesting, due to the fact that you have to think first, before you do something.
@ADC : if yours are fitting, there are only two possibilities - I made a mistake, but in this regard I do not think so (in moment), and / or definitely the kit producer is not extreme accurate with the thickness of the timber, and / or there are different stages of kit improvements supplied by the kit producer.
If you check the photos of building logs f.e. on the Chinese web-page showing a different construction with different forms of the stern elements........but no problem - these are first class problems which can be easily solved.....
 
@janos : i agree with you completely. The overall quality is definitive the best available in moment. For the international market the Chinese should only start to make good and more detailed manuals and drawings for the kits
 
Yes, the Chinese manufacturers have to realize that not all of their customers can read Mandarin. At the other hand their customer service does not look bad. I did not buy anything from them but on the basis of others' experience at least Max from ZHL seems to be very responsive.
Janos
 
Yes, the Chinese manufacturers have to realize that not all of their customers can read Mandarin. At the other hand their customer service does not look bad. I did not buy anything from them but on the basis of others' experience at least Max from ZHL seems to be very responsive.
Janos
Yes, correct. The customer service by Max is realy good.
Referring the manuals......I would be happy if there would be something in mandarin written ;) -
 
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