First post:
The keel,
The most important part of my build.
The keel is the first piece of glueing and some sawdustig that I did on this kit. This was weeks and weeks, if not months and months ago, because I have to scan the kit's keel into my Mac so could do the preparation for the alterations, that I'm planning to do.
These steps, we all know, but maybe, I might help someone who is new to model building.
Who knows I might have an idea or so, that will help the more advanced shipwrights we have here.
![Eek! :eek: :eek:](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png)
The first step in joining the keel together to try to dry mount them together.
![first fitting.jpg first fitting.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19360-daeb753b0571cf21ebc70c75df45b096.jpg?hash=2ut1OwVxzy)
They were slightly too tight, so I got put my favourite sanding plank, my wife's nail sander, and put it to good use.
![Nail files.jpg Nail files.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19362-9603706b455220c393d563936851de5a.jpg?hash=lgNwa0VSIM)
Slowly I progress, taking a few swipes of the sanding stick and try to dry mount them again.
![one more sand.jpg one more sand.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19363-3c4f5fc2470dcfadb802859bf1d4d6d6.jpg?hash=PE9fwkcNz6)
I was carefull to keep the angles the same, by only doing very light passes. I didn't care if this section took me a lot longer, all I wanted was to get it right without taking too much of the plywood.
![now the angle bits.jpg now the angle bits.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19371-7a6e04539b0e1e147a4c61de1f9502f9.jpg?hash=em4EU5sOHh)
NIK
I Think it took my 4 or 5 attempts to get a good fit. As my father always said,
time has no cost, if you are enjoying yourself doing what you love
I put a straight edge under the keel to check if it was level.
![Drie fitting with straight edge.jpg Drie fitting with straight edge.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19375-24ba4bcc8feb41de1aa5e20893a5decc.jpg?hash=JLpLzI_rQd)
Then I used '
CHAIR DOCTOR PRO' (
Thank you Janos for posting this glue in one of your logs) to glue the two pieces together when it was dry mounted. I must say this glue is brilliant, it was sucked into the tiny spaces between the join and I believe that the glue 'swells' up the wood slightly to get a extremely strong join.
![Chair Doctor Pro.jpg Chair Doctor Pro.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19366-1b1653cc46d4de548ec7aced4f2a6f4f.jpg?hash=GxZTzEbU3l)
I place some non stick oven paper over the join and clamped them together with 2 external pieces of wood to make it stay draught.
![Non stick paper.jpg Non stick paper.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19372-d3bcdef16a70430a6078e90fe8dd68b1.jpg?hash=07ze8WpwQw)
After the glue was dry and out of the clamps, I checked it for straighteners by running my eye down the length of the keel. It was straight as an arrow.
![looking down yhe lenght for straightness.jpg looking down yhe lenght for straightness.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19373-2798570372783b8eac4482a7ab5d64bf.jpg?hash=J5hXA3J4O4)
I repeated this process again for the other end and when it was completed I again, but this time the whole keel, was place in clamps for a day or so.
![Clamping Keel togeter while glie dries.jpg Clamping Keel togeter while glie dries.jpg](https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/data/attachments/19/19368-b2a3a87fb3b2c02d2b28bc2d5a2c6a68.jpg?hash=sqOof7OywC)
Now all I have to do now is to scan the keel into my Mac.
![Smile :) :)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png)
Havagooday and thanks for watching
Greg