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HMAS/m AE2, Scratchbuild


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I have long used automotive 'glazing' or 'knifing' putty as the last step, find it fills shallow marks and feathers very nicely when sanded. 

 

G

 

This is weird, doubled up. 

I have long used automotive 'glazing' or 'knifing' putty as the last step, find it fills shallow marks and feathers very nicely when sanded. 

 

G

 

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A load of bollards

 

Last week I went down to the local haberdashery shop and asked the young lady behind the counter if she had any 1 / 100 scale, World War One, British submarine deck bollards.  'Why yes' she replied 'I have just the thing!'... and so she did. 

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Before I stick the big bits together to make the hull into one solid piece (and we are getting excitingly close to that now) I want to make sure that as much preparation as possible is completed for fitting any details that will go on toward the end of the build. The bollards that run along the middle bit are a good example.

 

Here I am measuring off the location of the very first one.

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And here I am plotting it's position onto the casemate Yes, the 'casemate’I I caught up with my nautical mate today, the one who lent me the plans for this build in the first place, and he was horrified to hear me call this the 'middle bit'. 'The correct term is "Casemate" he said knowledgeably... so now we know!

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Repeat the measuring off process several times.

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Mark up several vertical lines along the casemate at the indicated locations.

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Here they are - one line per bollard.

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Take a razor saw and cut a notch on top of each line.

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Repeat...and check that the bollards will sit correctly in the slot - looking good here.

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Here's what these four look like when the sub's kind of assembled. 

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Here's what the Casemate looks like when all of the slots are cut and all of the bollards are temporarily in place.

IMG_7791

 

This shot gives you a bit of an idea of what I'm aiming for.  None of these are secured yet but once the hull is assembled the slot on the side of wooden Casemate should leave a vertical hole between the casemate and the plastic skinning. One bollard should slip nicely into each of these little holes and then be glued into place.

IMG_7795

 

Of course once this is done for real there will be two lines of bollards and I will use the eye of the needles to thread some ezy-line through.

 

Hopefully all this preparatory work will save some time and headaches later on.

 

Best Regards,

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Of course once this is done for real there will be two lines of bollards and I will use the eye of the needles to thread some ezy-line through.

 

 

Good parallel thinking there but I'm confused.....

Threading line through bollards, could that/should that be stanchions (handrails)

 

Kev

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Oh dear,🙁

 

Yes, I’ve just done some research and they should be stanchions not bollards. Sorry about that. 🙁

 

I’m a strong believer in stanchions. For example, I think we should have stronger stanchions against North Korea rather than just continuing to rail against them.

 

Geddit? - Rail against them! Geddit?😬

 

Yeah I know ... yet more bollards being written in this thread. I would ‘go and get my coat’ but I can’t in this case because Its my build. 😀

 

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Cleats

 

Now I'm pretty sure that I've got my terminology right this time because I've just seen Jaws (for about the tenth time) and variations on 'Tie it off to the cleat Mr Hooper' and 'He can't get away once we tie him to the cleat!' are repeated quite frequently. I suspect that cleats are generally used for mooring the boat rather than capturing and holding 25 foot long Great White Sharks - but if its good enough for Stephen Spielberg then it's good enough for Bandsaw Steve.

 

You might remember when I was making the flood / vent holes nice and deep-looking I left some of the holes untouched, that was because six of them were actually recessed points where cleats were mounted. I couldn't just gouge these holes out because I needed to leave a nice flat surface for the cleat to appear to sit on. 

 

The photo below shows two of these recesses (circled with a red mark) that need a bit of special attention. 

Inked5563838-3x2-940x627_LI ammended

 

This is the one behind the conning tower on the starboard side.  Mark up where the visible hole must sit.

IMG_7773

 

Take the Dremmel tool and fit a circular cutting blade and cut a horizontal base to the recess.

IMG_7777

 

Take a scoop-chisel and remove a scallop from above the floor on the recess (this photo is kind of upside down but I think you get the idea).

IMG_7780

 

Sand out the recess and make sure the base is nice and flat.

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Paint it grey (not black as we don't want this to look as deep as the flood / vent holes) and use the disk grinder again to...

IMG_7818

 

cut a vertical slot on the base of the recess - don't worry too much about the appalling state of the recess at this point, it got cleaned up latter with a bit of filler and another coat of paint.

IMG_7819

 

Last week I went to my local jewellery supply store and asked the young lady if she had any WW1 E-class submarine cleats.  'Why yes!' she replied 'would you like early war or mid-war cleats sir?'

 

The little flat-headed, nail-like, ear-ring thing sitting on the white paper on the left of this photo is just what we need.

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Take it in some long-nosed pliers and squash it as shown below.

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Yielding something like this.

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Now attack the top of it with a bench sander - sorry about the photo it's a particularly poor effort.

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Anyhow - after sanding the top of it flat - I was left with this...

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which fits here...

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And then here...

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Don't worry too much about the apparent excessive height of the upright in this case as most of the upright will be covered by the pressure hull once everything's assembled. The fact that the cleat is sitting on a flat surface is not well captured in this photo but it is - honest.

 

Not long to go now before we can glue all of these disparate bits together into some sort of coherent hull structure. Probably just one more round of preliminary work to go before that happens and I am starting to get impatient so it should be soonish.

 

Best Regards,

Steve

 

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1 hour ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Last week I went to my local jewellery supply store and asked the young lady if she had any WW1 E-class submarine cleats.  'Why yes!' she replied 'would you like early war or mid-war cleats sir?'

 

You have a better class of shop and probably young lady than we have.  Sooo helpful! Such a cunning plan you concocted between you....

 

Kev

 

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On 10/22/2017 at 10:30 AM, longshanks said:

 

On 10/22/2017 at 9:05 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Last week I went to my local jewellery supply store and asked the young lady if she had any WW1 E-class submarine cleats.  'Why yes!' she replied 'would you like early war or mid-war cleats sir?'

 

You have a better class of shop and probably young lady than we have.  Sooo helpful! Such a cunning plan you concocted between you....

 

Kev

 

 

I was just thinking the same thing myself.  If that haberdasherererers assistant didn't keep a load of vintage naval memorabilia around, she'd probably think you were a right weirdo. Or had ulterior motives... 

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You should try it out sometime - just start asking randomly chosen young ladies to show you either their cleats, bollards or stanchions. You might be surprised by the response 🤔 so far I’ve had nothing but success.👍😬

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39 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

You might be surprised by the response

I'm sure that's against the law in the UK ....

 

At the very least I can see Employers, Husbands, Boyfriends etc. etc lining up to discuss their response :chair:

 

Kev

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Anchor Locker - again

 

As you might recall my first attempt at making the anchor locker on this submarine was undermined by my complete failure to research this part of the boat.  Having filled the previously made, completely incorrect holes with automotive bog I am now ready to try again.

 

Mark up the two relevant areas on the port bow. Note that the large irregular shaped locker is only on the port side - as clearly shown in period photos it is completely absent on the starboard side. The small oval shaped area however runs completely through the casemate and is visible on the other side.  My reading of the photos is that the anchor chain passes through this hole - that's how it's going to be modelled in any case.

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Check the position against the pressure hull. Looks OK to me.

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Use the Dremmel tool and associated drill-press to drill a series of small holes right through the casemate to outline the small oval 'chain hole' (or whatever it should be called).

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Five holes makes for a good start.

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Use a fret saw to connect up the small holes.

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Use a rat's tail file to clean up the resulting hole.

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Leaving this - which is still a bit ragged actually. I subsequently rolled up some fairly coarse sandpaper and smoothed this out a bit into a more smooth oval. The interior of the hole has subsequently also been painted grey.

IMG_7839

 

Onto the main locker.  Set the drill press so that it only drills to a point about 2/3 of the way through the casemate.

IMG_7841

 

Drill a series of closely-spaced holes, all to the same depth.  This looks a bit like a wasp's nest at the moment!

IMG_7844

 

As I am a cheapskate and have not bought any additional fittings beyond those that came with the Dremmel tool, I am here just using the drill bit as a 'sort-of router'. Just holding the spinning drill bit in one place and moving the workpiece under it so that all of the individual holes all join up into one big hole.

IMG_7855

 

Subsequent to that step I cleaned up the rather ragged hole with some careful chisel work and a bit of sandpaper and then painted the interior of the locker black. Here it's still shiny as the paint is wet - and you can see surface imperfections due to the reflections,  but once the paint dried it was nice and matt and now it looks OK. Once I stick an anchor and some chain in there it'll be fine.

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Whew! Anchor locker done.

IMG_7867

 

I think we can start sticking this thing together.  I've been looking forward to this!

 

Best Regards,

Steve

 

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nice lockers.

will the young lady at the haberdashery store be delving into her supply of WWI anchors to help you out again ? or do they have those at anchors dot com?

 

 

7 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

I've been looking forward to this!

 

 us too

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Hendie, really? 

Obviously for anchors you have to go to the beading supply store.  Haberdashery stores don’t do anchors! What are you thinking?😜

 

If all goes well - might have another update tomorrow. 👍

 

 

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Let's Stick Together.

 

OK - here comes the compulsory Roxy Music reference for this thread.

 

In 1976 Bryan Ferry, usually the lead singer of Roxy Music but on this occasion pursuing his solo career, released the hit single 'Let's Stick Together'.  In the music video he was ably assisted by Jerry Hall who was almost wearing a leopard skin leotard.  At the time the two were engaged, but they broke up when Jerry realised that after marrying Bryan she would be required to change her name to 'Jerry Ferry'. Sadly they failed to 'Stick Together'. Let's see if the main components of my submarine can do any better...

 

The first things to get 'stuck together' is the casemate and the plastic sheeting with all those flood / vent holes and so forth.   

IMG_7872

 

But wood to plastic often does not bond well so I have decided to make some holes through the plastic so that when the time comes to stick the pressure hull to the casemate there will be at least some spots where the glue will attach 'wood to wood'.  I was going to cut some elongate slots as marked on the plastic but decided it was easier to just punch some holes.

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Now whack some brush-on superglue at the bow end of the plastic sheeting.

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Attach the sheeting to the bow and check the alignment of the rest of the sheet with the dowelling and all of the underlying details that must be visible when the sheet is fixed. Do this quickly as the super-glue goes off fast and there is limited 'wriggle time'.

IMG_7881

 

Once you are sure everything is aligned, clamp the bow sheeting tightly in position.

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Then start applying superglue bit-by-bit to the rest of the sheeting and roll the sheet into position along the length of the casemate. Try to keep the glue clear of the pre-cut vertical slots where the stanchions will be mounted. If you clag these up with glue, fitting them later on will become a chore.  

IMG_7887

 

Once the sheet is all glued and laid into positon, clamp the work and let it dry for an hour or so. I find it's a good idea to give glue more time than is supposedly required, just to give it time to really set hard. 

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Remove the clamps and inspect the work. Trim off any small excess amounts of plastic and repeat the procedure on the other side.

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Once the other side is on securely, sand and clean up any visible rough edges.

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And here we go - an exploded view of the project to date.  It looks awfully like something from Battlestar Galactica...perhaps each of my threads should get a Battlestar reference as well as a nod to Roxy.

IMG_7899

 

Next time the pressure hull and the saddle tanks go on. Should be exciting! :D

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

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I remember sitting in a cafe in Bathgate listening to that song many many years ago (obviously).   I must admit I do like early Roxy, but find their later stuff very mushy, and way too commercial/middle of the road. 

 

I am looking forward to seeing all the technically named bits being scrunched together and then all the detailing work to follow

 

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Lets Stick a Bit More Together

 

Well - logically enough am just carrying on from the last one really...

 

I sometimes use more than one glue type on a single job - in this case Liquid nails and PVA. Liquid nails for it's final strength and PVA for it's relatively high rigidity, it sets firmer than liquid nails, and also has a shorter gripping and drying time.

IMG_7905 

 

Here I've put the liquid nails on the holes in the plastic to ensure strong wood-to-wood adhesion between the casemate and the pressure hull. The plastic sheet is likely to be a source of weakness between these two major structures. I smeared some PVA about soon after.

IMG_7907

 

Then I assembled the thing using the guiding dowels to ensure correct alignment, stuck the entire thing in the vice and locked it all up with clamps. I then let it sit for 24 hours. As I mentioned in the last posting - I like to let glue sit undisturbed for a long time if possible.

IMG_7910

 

While it was all 'locked up' I checked that the stanchions could still slide into their little holes - which for the most part they could, but I had to clear some glue out of a few of them before it went hard.

IMG_7912

 

After 24 hours in the clamp I had this.  Nice and secure!

IMG_7924

 

The next step was a bit simpler. Nice simple wood-to-wood contact and a large surface area. So I just used PVA in this case.

IMG_7925

 

Again - slap the thing together and clamp it up for 24 hours.  This time I've glued the dowels in place - they are there forever now...

IMG_7928

 

A day later and I can swipe the sticky-out bit off the end of each dowel with a coping saw - good riddance. 

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Leaving this.  I'd better like it, because it ain't coming apart now!  :D

IMG_7940

 

That's a good milestone for this project I think. I was getting a bit sick of dealing with 'bits' of a submarine and always seeing those dowels hanging out the side making it look like it was some sort of deranged rowing boat.

She looks a bit rough at this point but, as you all know, there's filling and sanding to come soon - I reckon it'll tidy up alright.

 

Thanks for all the attention and comments this project's getting. It really helps keep me focused knowing someone somewhere is interested and watching.

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

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