The Ship Model Forum

So a bit more progress tonight. I have stiffened the bow with plywood plates, shaped to the proper profile. The frames have also been been stiffened with some balsa strips. Finally I flipped the hull and began to set the fist layer of 1/16" balsa skin. I'll let this sit over night and then continue with skinning and shaping the frames later.

Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

A bit more work this morning. Using a palm sander I have eased the frame edges into the bow and stern curves. I have also evened out the main deck and forecastle to be level and square to each other. It was a reasonable day outside so I thought I would take a few overall pictures before the frames get covered up.

Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

Impressive.

Scott

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K494 HMCS Arnprior
Royal Canadian Navy

Thanks Scott. Just getting the hang of it. A bit more work today. Soaked some balsa in order to get the planks to form some of the curves. I found this didn't work as well as I didn't have a good set up for keeping the balsa submerged in water. I am thinking in the future I will get some PVC pipe and put hot water into that. Then add the balsa planks and let sit. I'd be interested to know how others tackle curving the balsa. Thankfully the curves weren't too sharp and through excessive use of pins (something seen out of the hellraiser movie) I secured the planks. Initially I used some wax paper between the balsa and the plywood to avoid the water transferring to the frames. Let this dry an hour or so and then reapplied the planks with glue and the infamous pins. It seemed to take the shape ok but had not formed as tightly as I would have liked. I let the long runs of planks follow the curves and will fill in the gaps later with smaller cut balsa.

Thanks
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

A bit more work on the ship. I picked up a 5' sq piece of 3mm baltic birch which was cut into 4 lengthwise pieces. 2 pieces were checked for squareness and a centreline was drawn on the boards. The main, flight and forecastle deck plans were aligned on the centre line and taped in place. Downward stairs were cut from the plan and then the permitter of the deck and stairs were marked in pencil. The plans were then removed. For the main deck there is some camber and sheer so these transition lines are transferred onto the ply. Notice the in-board lines. The next step will be to undercut 1±mm from the plywood so that the deck can be bent to follow the correct sheer and camber for the ship. It's my wife's birthday weekend so construction is being kept to minimum for personal health and safety . Should be able to show a bit more work soon.

Thanks for following.
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

I now have the decks cut. The main deck is slightly oversized so it can be sanded flush with the hull sides. It has also been slightly bent to account for the camber and sheer of the deck. In addition more work on covering the hull with the first layer of balsa.

More to come.
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

More pins. Thankfully the bow is done and the laminated balsa skeg has been installed.

Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

This weekend saw the completion of the first layer of balsa on the hull. I had used some older balsa for this work and found the consistency in the quality was all over the place. Some pieces bent nicely while other cracked and fell apart. I picked up some fresh 1/16' balsa planks for the second layer so that I can get this to form more evenly across the hull. I also test fitted the plywood decks. This really helped to visualize the shape of the ship. I then did a rough sanding of the hull and shaping of the bow and skeg. At this point I can really see the ship emerging from the wood and I am quite happy with the progress.

Thanks for reading.
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

So as real work has eased up this week it has given me a chance to spend a bit more time on the Larsen. This week I added the second layer of balsa. This went on quite well and required little in the way fiddling to get it to fit right. I am now at the point where I need to do a light sand to even out the high points and then I can start to shape the hull a bit closer to the 1:1 version. I have only 2 photos of the ship in dry dock but I have a few others of her sister ships and so I am hoping I have enough to represent the hull faithfully. If by some chance someone out there has better photos, I could definitely make use of these. I am now sourcing some litho plate so I can use this to represent the steel plates of the ship and have ordered the props. Still a bit of work to go, but progressing.

Thanks for following
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

Looking very nice!! Look forward to more updates!!

Aop

_________________
On the way:
--1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Nov 1944

--1/350 scratch-build HMS Lion never built battleship (1938)

And our artworks!

Many thanks Aop Aur. I am hoping that doing weekly posts will keep me on track with the project.

This week there was some work on the finer shaping of the bow and stern. Still more work to do but it is getting closer. When I had the frames routed out of the plywood I also had the corresponding guides / templates made so I could check the outer hull shape. Using these, I am able to sand the hull closer to the real thing. I realized that there was some Irregularities in the forecastle so I added some additional balsa to be sanded to shape later. I epoxied the interior of the hull and underside of the deck plywood. I am hoping to mount the deck to the hull before I leave on my business trip tomorrow.

My propellers also arrived this week. While they were cheaper than some of the other brands I had hopped they wouldn't require as much work as it seems I will need to do. They had rough casting marks that need to be ground down. However when I started to grind the 'bronze' it quickly became apparent this was just a paint or plated finish and that it was in fact cast aluminum. I can work with this but just a bit unexpected and frustrating.

Thanks
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

As I get ready to do the plating of the hull I am hoping that someone can help me in understanding the the shell expansion drawing. Below is the overall fore shell plate expansion drawing and then I used colour to define what I believe is the extent of the plate. I hope that someone can provide some insight or point me to a reference that I can use to understand these drawings a bit more.

Thanks for your help
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

Great updates.

Scott

_________________
K494 HMCS Arnprior
Royal Canadian Navy

Thanks Scott.

A lit more work done this week. Though it doesn't look like much, I now have the decks glued to the hull. The outer shell has a cost of resin applied followed by a coat of Bondo. I also have the litho plate I need thanks to a great printing company I have worked with in the past. I am starting to look forward to finishing the hull and moving onto the superstructure.

Thanks for reading
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

So this week I sanded the Bondo smooth. The material worked well to even out the hull and provided a 'wonderful' aroma to the entire house for which I was asked 'what the $%@! I was doing' .However another lesson learned is to know how much sanding is too much. My poor Ice guard got a beating as I tried in vain to shape it evenly. Thankfully I can build it up again and be more conservative in the future shaping. I applied a coat of primer to help highlight the divots and areas of the hull that have some shape issues. For the most part it is looking good so I have started to mark up the location of the hull plating and started applying the litho. This stuff cuts great and seems to form well to the hull. I know it will be a challenge once I hit the compound curves. I have left some of the cut edges raised on the plate to simulate the welding. Most of the plates will be but jointed except for the 2 lines denoting the transition of the thicker ice belt.

Enjoy,
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

That hull is looking good,Gord.

Scott

_________________
K494 HMCS Arnprior
Royal Canadian Navy

Thanks again Scott. Its my first build so I am learning this as I go.

So I spent a few hours plating the hull. I had started by separating each of the panels and gluing these in place and then realized that it is very difficult to ensure alignment and that as the hull starts to curve more gaps appear between the plates. So I switched to making large patches of plates and scribing the aluminum. This is producing a more consistent result and probably closer to the scale effect for a welded hull. To wrap things up this weekend I started to punch out the anchor pocket.

Thats it for now.
Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

Fantastic job so far. I might be able to help on that shell expansion, but I'd need to get a larger view of it in order to determine each line on it. In normal cases, yard plans, they use broken lines to show the inside framing and thicker lines to show the actual plating edges, it seems to be different on your plan, so a larger view would probably give more leads.

As said, a great job. Those anchor recesses are always difficult, haven't found an easy solution for that either up till now.

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The merchant shipyard

Thank you Neptune for you help on understanding the hull plating. You clearly understand the intricacies of ship building. Your advise has helped quite a bit.
The last few weeks have been busy as we lead up to the holiday season. Thankfully I got some work done on the hull plating. I am finding the compound curves to be very challenging. I have tried using the litho plate as is but found it wouldn't form to the hull very well. I have annealed some panels and this worked better but then I lose the crispness of the plates. I have a feeling this will be my biggest challenge for the entire build. With the pain I have on plating the hull I decided I need an easy win so, I cleaned up the anchor pockets and plated the forecastle and main deck. To finish the anchor pocket I figure I need an anchor to build it around. I have been searching for some options online but I can't say that I am impressed with the offerings out there. I need a hall type anchor around 28mm wide and have 2 options. I am wondering if most on this forum scratch their own anchor and if so what material do you use?

Thanks for reading

Gord

_________________
On the Slip:
CCGS Henry Larsen

On the Drawing Board:
HMCS Kingston
HMCS Magnificent
HMCS Haida

Very nice! I wonder if I could do the same thing for the hull plating of my Lion battleship. Though she is in 1/350 and I have no shell expansion drawings at all! Anyway your hull would look perfect when painted!

Aop

_________________
On the way:
--1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Nov 1944

--1/350 scratch-build HMS Lion never built battleship (1938)

And our artworks!