You're right about the guns Pete.
I especially like the 'Ha ha fooled ya' gun right forward, that shoots higher than the attacking pilot thinks it's going to 😮
If it's any consolation Nerys I found several bent 20mm cannon barrels on my Graf Spee.
Sometime 🙄 I'll replace 'em with brass wire.
😎

Well Nerys, got to say, that the detail work on your LST is excellent, the guns in their tubs forward look very intricate, and love the landing craft on their davits, 👍👍👍Brill

Cneers, Pete

You're right Nerys,
Can't see flour or recognise a halogen cooker.
Probably wouldn't if one jumped up and bit me 😮😭
I do use a 300W halogen lamp to speed dry and harden paint sometimes though.
Suspect that the flour is hiding in the brown jar with the large cork stopper.
Reminds me of a large jar of Moutarde that I bought in a market in Strasbourg a few years ago. 😋😋 Same type of jar.
Very pleased to 'hear' that you are apparently feeling perkier now 👍👍👍
I trust that you immediately stopped taking the culprit medication and reported the effects to your Quack pronto.
Looking forward to your paint basting job immensely 😀
Stay safe you amazing duo.
All the best, Doug 😎
BTW: I cook in my household as well. Not exactly cordon bleu!
Sometimes more like cordon noir! 🌪️😭
Your Gaucho Pie turned out pretty well though 👍 thanks to excellent instructions. Gonna make it again when I can find some more corned beef, not very common over here 🤔
OSB? Is that what we called chip board back in my day?
BTW 2: I suppose you use the flour to add to epoxy to make filler and then use the halogen cooker to harden it off quicker. Very tasty 😝😁

Well done Alice. Its about time your talents were praised.
Cheers Colin and Caroline.

Doug, you missed out on the jar of flour and the halogen cooker. We cook in this household. Pity you couldn't see more of the table, it was made specially to suit my height, so is the right height for me to sit at it, is on castors and was built in good old 18mm ply, none of this OSB junk, when Alice rebuilt our kitchen.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi Nerys the LST is coming nicely.Hope your not thinking about throwing in the kitchen sink.Glad to see the build results.
Rick

Nerys.
Well done.
After all the problems both with the kit itself and your health I think you have done remarkably well.👍👍👍

On a lighter note which should provoke some light hearted comments and possibly me to eat my words,if it goes pear shaped for England.
“Looking forward to winning against Wales at Rugby on Saturday”🤣😂😆
Regards Bill.

So far so good Nerys 👍
I like the innovative tools as well;
Cheese / vedge grater for shaping balsa hull blocks I presume,
and rolling pin (Carrara marble? Très posh!) for flattening decks and bending planks? 😁
Happy painting, splosh it on Ma'am 😀
Will you be using Pastry Brushes? 😉 Good deal for some here
https://www.amazon.com/MIFASOO-Silicone-Resistant-Marinades-Barbecue/dp/B07M6L8GMX?ref_=ws_cp_84eecbf90c49f7472f09_p_1_i_p
Oh no! Slapped wrist again 😔
Cheers, Doug 😎

Nerys, considering the problems with the kit and your health l think you have made great progress. Hats off to you my dear lady.
Cheers Colin.

Looking good Nerys! You are obviously feeling better👍👍
Nothing like a kitchen table😊

Some photos of the LST. Unpainted and unrailed at this stage. Sorry, we should have cleared the kitchen table.

Nerys

I thought it was time for a project progress report.
The LST has reached a stage where I have banished it from the workbench to await a fine, rain and wind free day when Alice could take it outside and take aim with the spray can. Of course, my nemesis had to have the last word, in moving, one of the small landing craft in davits fell off together with a gun.
Auxiliary barge is showing good progress, hull is all but finished and has reached the painting stage. Last night I did the decks, the outside of the rail and the wheelhouse and hatch covers.
The camper van is too showing progress, Alice is working on the galley units etc. The fridge and the cooker are installed as is the framework for the sink, work is now proceeding on other lockers and worktop. We need another piece of worktop, so are going out to get it today.
Photos will be produced in due course.

Cheers, Nerys

Thank you Pete for that kind offer, as you say, a pity we do not live closer. I must say, I admire your tenacity to have built six of Deans warships. Perhaps your abilities encompass using plastics and suitable adhesives, wheras mine are too hidebound in good old wood. Alice is going to have a go at the stanchions, she is a very competent solderer having repaired old fashioned radios since she was about sixteen. We'll just have to see what happens.
Again, many thanks.

Cheers, Nerys

It's a pity we are not that little bit closer to each other Nerys, I would gladly offer to solder up your railings and any other items, as I'm quite proficient after doing six deans warships, as they say 'the more you do something, the better you become', I'm sure Alice could do them if she was given a little more time, why don't you glue the stations and rail with CA, then when you first get to sail her, you can break them as I usually do😁

Cheers, Pete

Hi Martin,

There are a few bits and pieces I need to tidy up, then I'll do a couple of pics. I want Alice to solder the mast array for me for one thing. Would be nice if she could do all the stanchions around the deck, but I'm afraid it would hold up production on the camper for too long. She says she'll have a go at it. I know, with the state of my fingers I can't do it., so we'll see.

Cheers, Nerys.

Hi Nerys,
It would be really nice to see some more photos of your progress.

Martin555.

I have reached a point with the LST that I cannot be bothered to try and find where the last remaining odd bits of plastic and metal are supposed to go and I'm sure it won't matter in the overall plan. I've built a model LST, will put the number of my father's ship on her, so I feel I have done my duty. Well, I say, have built, there are a few things to do. a little bit of filling to finish. I saw Alice reel in horror when she saw what the rails and stantions were like which she offered to solder for me. I'd like her to solder up the mast assembly, so that I can fit that. Then, if we ever have a fine, not too cold day, I'd like her to take it outside and spray.
Then, perhaps, one fine day Mr Drakeford, our first minister will email me and say "Why don't you go and sail that LST today, Nerys" You do know that the pigs around here have wings.

Cheers Nerys

I have!

Ask Alice...🤷‍♀️

I am at the stage of going through the two trays of metal(?) and plastic fittings. I am at the end of the first tray and find that there are six items listed in the guide that I cannot find where to put them. Their numbers do not appear on the plan. I'm beginning to think, so what!, the decks are so cluttered with funny little bits of unrecognisable plastic that I'm sure if my father is looking down upon me, he's not going to be saying 'where are the fan cowls' or that locker shouldn't be there, he's more likely to be saying something about being unsafe to be trying to get round on decks that cluttered.

Nerys

Hurray for Alice!

Do you know Martin, making the guns of wood would have been the next stage, I had started planning how to make them but decided to use the supplied 'things' even if incomplete. So several do not have the shields on them and the ones that should have two barrels only have one. I'd given up the one sided struggle with the glue by that time.

The other suggestion came from Alice. Don't fit the guns, let her be an LST that's come out of military service and is acting as a car ferry between outlying islands. I'm not sure if that wasn't the best solution. Then she could have been painted nicely and not just in varying shades of grey

Hi Nerys,
Sorry to hear you are still struggling with the guns.
I bet you will make your own using bits of wire and wood.

Martin555.

I'm continuing to struggle with trying to stick the guns together with little improvement despite having two new adhesives to try. Tonight, I was with extreme difficulty getting the bits of gun stuck together, leave them for a few hours to set. Pick them up and they fall to pieces, Also finding the gun barrels breaking, consequently the gun layout is quite unlike that envisaged by Mr Dean. Alice had a go at the guns and despite having far more useable fingers than mine, didn't fare much better. On the other hand have fitted many other bits and pieces of deck furniture without anything going wrong. I'm having a concerted effort whenever I'm feeling up to it to get finished.

Cheers, Nerys

Good for you Nerys use the best resource you have.
Rick

Doug, I don't envy you trying to put nine pieces of a gun together, I'm finding three to be more than my clumsy arthritic fingers can cope with. As far as soldering the brass stanchions and wire all round the ship and bits of the bridge, I'm not even going to attempt it, I'm handing over to Alice for that one, her ability with soldering and her fingers that can still do things like that far outway anything I can try.

Nerys

Thanks Ian, I had realised that as I was having no luck at all with any of the glues that I had bought specifically for this kit. Building in wood, all I normally have around are a good wood glue and some cheap epoxy and that's good enough. As I said in another post. I have ordered some Loctite Super Glue Perfect Pen as that seemed from the blurb the most suitable. Hope I'm right this time.

Cheers Nerys

Hi Nerys,
Remember there are superglues and superglues. It is better to pay a little bit extra for a superglue such as loctite or the Deluxe Range as they have specific glues to 'stick this to that' Same as Araldite with their glues and Pratley here in SA.
I always try and research the glue I need to use then you get down to the ones you trust,👍👍

Have been following your build blog Nerys, and one thing I forgot to mention is, when assembling any white metal parts, make Shure you either give them a clean with a fine wire brush ( a suede brush is what I use) or a soft garnet paper, and give them a wipe with thinners or similar, again I use Isopropyl, you will find that they glue together much easier with a good quality superglue, I use Powerbond ( link below).
All bits on my warships have stayed on after many years, hope this helps a little.
http://www.powerbonduk.com/product-details.html
Cheers, Pete

Doug, I can't find the VM120 anywhere, the best I've come up with is Loctite Super Glue Perfect Pen. Do,you think there's any chance of that working. I've tried ordinary super glue which was semi successful and I've tried araldite which was useless.

Cheers, Nerys

No Nerys.
I meant the VM 120 CA glue as in the Demo video.
One part, no mixing, and in a handy applicator bottle.👍
One of the many versions of Loctite may do as well.
Check out some of the demos and links on the search page link I posted.
BTW For things that size, brass photo etch which are too small to solder, I use a 'normal' CA.
Like for the little chap in the pic; a Vickers 4 barrel MG at 1:600 !!
That little gun is made of 9 parts🤓🤔🤕
Airfix 'clump' alongside for comparison.
Bon chance🤞
Doug 😎

Ty Araldite, I think I have seen one around for metal. Also Loctite everybodies go-to

Hi Doug, are you talking about the epoxy metal, two part glue? I can imagine it working very well but for the fiddly little bits in the kit, I think even mixing tiny amounts, it would go off before one could use it all, The bits, I'm making the guns at the moment and they are really fiddly, three pieces for something about 10mm high. It's more than my fingers could bear. I tried to make up a lattice tower last night, it was for mounting a DF or something. Not much luck gluing it with super glue but Alice had the idea of wiring it together with fuse wire and that seems to be working.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi Nerys,
You do seem to be getting into some 'sticky' situations with that kit😮
This VM 120 stuff seems to be the accepted bee's knees for that sort of job👍
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=ca+glue+for+metal
Haven't tried it yet myself, no need thus far, but you never know😉😉
Keep well, both of youse!
Cheers, Doug 😎

Somehow, I've reached the stage of making up various bits and pieces like the guns, from the imitation metal supplied. I thought that superglue would do the job of sticking, but it's not very efficient and doesn't really stick well. Once again, when it comes to adhesives, a plea for help. What should I be using ?

Cheers, Nerys

Agree with Doug,
The pipe weld sticks quickly
Regards
Ianh

Why not Nerys?
AB is only a long and unpronounceable additive to the 'S' - Styrene😉
Apply with a small brush - and don't get all stuck up!!🤗😁
As I recall the solvents evaporate faster than with 'standard' kit polyS cement.
So speed and accuracy is required!!
All the best, Doug 😎

As an experiment I purchased a jar of Evo-Stik pipe weld cement, £6.99 for 250 ml. I tried sticking some bits of waste from the LST build together and it did, just as well as the polycement. It says it's for PVC and ABS pipes and fittings, I would add LST kits. Cheap alternative?

Cheers, Nerys

Good going! Your turrets look great.

A little story about gun turrets; back in 1955, travelling aboard a former troop transport vessel, it was the one place out on deck our parents felt safe having my brother and me play. They knew we would not fall overboard while playing in the empty round turrets. We were 7& 5 back then, we had a good crossing from N.Y. to Plymouth.

Looking very nice so far Nerys👍👍

JB

Hi Nerys.
Considering all of the problems you have had so far
She is starting to look like a boat now well done.
Keep up the good work.

Martin555.

Hi Rick, what happened was that she was beached on a very high spring tide and what you see is what happened when the tide went out. Pleased to say, she kedged off successfully on the next high water.

Cheers, Nerys

She’s coming along nicely Nerys..keep soldiering on! BTW, I used CA, Stabilit and epoxy when I built my Dean PBR, I scuffed the plastic at each joint.
Cash

Hi Nerys The LST is come nicely but I think you need some pool cleaner for the water starting to look a little green. LOL
Rick

Thank you that information Doug, Alice wanted to know as with her scientific mind, she is investigating the adhesive situation. Full information later if her suspicions hold up.


Nerys

Few pictures of the LST as she is at the moment. I must admit I cheated with the gun places. I couldn't face trying to stick a strip of plastic around a plastic disk, so Alice found me some waterpipe which was more or less the right size. To me it was somewhat easier, but I expect the scale purists won't approve. Still a lot of heartache to go!.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi Nerys,
It is HIPs = High Impact Polystyrene.
Cheers, Doug 😎

Hi there,
I build lots of Dean's kits and I think the sheet is basically plasticard. I use Revell contacta professional and especially Tamiya extra thin and have good results.

Happy Building...

I know i'm showing my ignorance here, but, can somebody tell me please what the actual plastic that is used by Deans (and no doubt others) for the laser cut/etched strips/sheets of plastic material?
Many thanks,

Nerys

Many thanks for all your advice. I had some Humbrol poly cement. For some reason I didn't think that was the right glue to use. Had a go and it seems to be better, but I am definitely not a builder of plastic boats by choice.

Nerys