Next up for the lower superstructure are the doors - there are four inner doors and four outer doors with dog clips. Two of the outer doors also have a viewing port. I think the inner doors are meant to represent the frames that the doors would be mounted on.
Anyway, the doors have now been made. Used the originals, clamped to my new ones, as a guide to drill the holes for the dog clips.
The old clips are still ok so I've set them aside, on masking tape, until the painting is done.
The next dilemma is the drip canopies above the doors - what to make them from and how to attach them ? - opted for using the original brass strip, just a case of scraping the old paint off, cyanoed 2 mild steel pins to each one, job done.
Now for the Nav lamp boxes. These are made from 5 separate parts, a bit fiddly but got there in the end.
Another bit of fiddly work is the vent covers x 2 for each side.
These were made from scrap bits of plasticard, rather awkward to get the corners rounded off but managed ok.
Grab rails next. These are already soldered up and painted so just needed to make sure they lined up ok with the holes I'd drilled earlier.
Last of all, holes drilled for ships bell and for'd bull horn.
So, the doors, canopies and vent covers were welded in place - remainder removed until after paint jobs.
(sorry, no photo's taken - I'll get some shots next time I'm in the workshop)
Now I needed to buy another sheet of 2mm plasticard - the scraps I've got in stock are not of sufficient dimension for the next part of the build - the wheelhouse.
Off we went and picked up a full sheet (2 metre HIPS) the cost of which, inc vat = £8.95 which I think is reasonable.
Made a start with cutting a piece for the wheelhouse floor. I'm using the old fittings for internals therefore needed to mark out the positions then mask off ready for painting...now comes another awkward part - stripping out the window glass and frames in order to get accurate templates.
Started with the rear bulkhead and used a blunt jewellers screwdriver to tease the acetate windows away. These all came away with gentle persuasion followed by rubbing off old glue with the MK1 thumbnail.
There was no way of getting the old frames out intact so they were broken out in bits and the remnants filed away from the cut outs.
So far, so good.
Now, the old bulkhead was clamped to the plastic sheet and the shapes pencilled in.
Next, holes were drilled in each of the window frame corners then joined using the Stanley knife. Each corner was then joined diagonally to aid removal.
While trying to manipulate the pieces out I found that the motion caused the plastic to split beyond the window aperture - so, that went into the scrap bin. I've used this method before but that was on thinner plastic which could be cut right through in just a few passes of the knife.
Back to square one we go...
Having marked the new piece, the chain drilling method was used and the centres cut away - now it was down to some slow, laborious filing to final shape.
Got that bit finished eventually - 2 evening sessions !
Stbd side piece was next, again using the chain drilling method - while doing this, a thought occurred to me, what if someone reading this doesn't know what chain drilling is ? (I'd heard the term many a time but, until my middle age, I didn't know what it was)
So, to clarify, I've included a few photographs "just in case".
......and now we're up to date.
Regards,
Ray.
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Topic: Podge's Smit Nederland Rebuild (Read 173295 times)