Miniature crafting what a pain and time consuming too.

I decided to put a keel on these 6" craft in order to help build them. it's worked out rather well for me too. More to follow here.

A night off now.

I'm posting these for Dave to have a look at.

I use these to turn on / off certain electrics in my model boats. These are going to be used with this build for the lights - Guns and a few other things too.

Fantastic micro switches well constructed

It seems to me that there are frequently many questions required in getting what you want in model boat building... So is there anyone out there that can help me with the correct hull paint for my build?

LIGHT ADMIRALTY GREY

I've included pictures of the paint required for this and I am struggling to find anything larger that a pathetic 5mm tin!

Any comments will be greatly appreciated too.

I have lost a week of my life with dreaded flu and after seven days I am just starting to feel a little more human. Perhaps I will be back in the building yard soon. in the mean time....

I found this shot of the gun turrets and has provided me with a little more detail which isn't shown on the plan. The main bits for me are the ladder at rear and some side panel plates.

The other photos are also handy for extracting some building information relating to the depth charges and torpedo-tubes.

There has been a slight delay in updating the blog here due to a horrid bout of flu which lasted some two weeks.

So... Today has been the second day back in the workshop and I've nearly completed the two life boats and the small Whaler. I just need to add a bit more filler and a further coat of primer to these before I build the upper cabin detail.

I have been experimenting with the worm motor electrics that will drive the gun turrets and the speed is just a tad too quick running 4.8 Volt. I can't post the video here so I will try and post it in the video section pages.

The whole internal hull cavity has been varnished ready to start fitting power pack platforms etc. I'll post a wiring diagram in due course along with details of the motors, batteries, ESC and Radio Gear.

The two pictures of the worm motor batteries are wired in Series. These are extremely light and sufficient for running two low drain motors. 😊

1/96 th Scale Railings this made me think how I was going to build these and therefore I came up with an idea that has assisted me enormously in making them.

I made a simple jig (prototype) in order to build a small section of railings at the required scale. Marking out the railings on a piece of Hard wood first and then sawing a grove for each of the posts to sit in. This stops them from moving about (Incidentally these posts are NOT the correct thickness but used to test the jig..... The correct wire is on order). I also applied a little strip of tape along the lower section to help keep the in place.

The jig uses tensioning at each end to ensure the 0.5mm wire does not bow/bend. I used elastic bands terminating on small pins. The master board I construct will be completed with a turnbuckle.

Once the wire is in place a little flux helps the solder to bind to the copper wire. I expect I need to practise a little more but I'm pleased with the outcome. Please do watch this space for pictures of the finished jig.

I've included a picture of the worm motors for Dave who was asking where to purchase them... I hope this helps you Dave.

Well underway with the primer paint.

Building the 1/96th scale railings has been made a lot easier using my home brew building jig described here with enough information for others to use. incidentally this started off with a small prototype mentioned on these pages a few days ago.

I started off with a length of hard wood around 20" x 4" 3/4" thick and marked out the guidelines for the railings. The actual length can be of your choice. I used hard wood because it will be a more tolerant in handling the heat. incidentally the pictures show some soft wood the length of the mid section which once wasted can be replace. This is used solely for guides.

I purchased some guitar head screws x6 for around £5 on eBay which are used to tighten the very thin 0.5mm wire when soldering to the posts. The pictures show how I have set this up at the turnbuckle end. There are 3 copper pins to guide the wire and there are some shelf pin supports just to direct the wire in the correct path to the two outside turnbuckles.

It may be worthwhile mentioning at this stage that I incorporated a small block across the wires at each end of the board with M6 bolts and wing nuts to ensure the the wire was pushed nice and flush with the alloy heat plate, and, to help the posts remain still too.

The alloy heat plate requires groves for the post pins to sit in. I used a 'V' file this. This removable part can be constructed for different scale railings too.

The other end (see picture) uses three shelf support pins guided by three copper pins and the wood block explained above which keeps the wire flush on the board. This end is the starting point when laying the thin wire. Just feed one at a time to the guitar screw and tighten (NOT TOO MUCH).

Once you have them all in place you can position the pins. I made a thin slider which I used to lifted up the wire off the alloy heat plate enough to slide the posts to the stopper. it can take a while to position everything, but at least nothing moves once you have it all tight!

The pictures should be enough to make one of these. Not very expensive and certainly a nice simple tool to construct and have available in the workshop.

The next blog contains a very simple little too to cut the 1mm copper wire post all exactly the same length along with some completed railings using this jig.

I hope this is useful.

Continued from the last build blog....

The first picture shows a piece of wood dowel pushed into a length of alloy tube 6mm in this case. I measured the post length I needed for the railing and positioned the dowel and once happy that the wire Imbedded at the correct depth I secured this with tape. Easy now just push the wire into the hole and cut off at end. You can make the posts very quickly.

The second picture shows a small length of completed railing with the coins giving perspective. The jig described in my last post really does work very well.

Incidentally, the alloy heat plate as I call it allows the hot solder to cure quickly allowing enough time to work.

Amendment to jig

The building jig for the 1/96th scale railings is working really well and I'm building one set of railings a day at the moment. Seemingly the more I do the better and easier it becomes.

I've made one minor addition to the jig since my last post and that's a small swivel arm to keep the support block up while feeding and connecting the wire.

I will be producing a detailed building sheet in AutoCAD soon so if anyone would like a copy please send me a private message.

Roy

I spent some time today building (Soldering) the life raft shoot supports and once again at this scale it is tedious work. The pictures explain it all.....

I just need to square and tidy the solder up with a file.

I made some 0.5mm saw cuts in the block of hard wood used to allow the 1mm wire to sit in. I drilled small holes to feed retaining wire through to keep everything from moving around. it took around 15 mins to make one frame from cutting wire, positioning, fluxing and soldering.

There are around ten of these and unfortunately three different sizes!

Keep watching folks