14.04.2025
 
Chapter 2. The Keel

The chapter will consist of several parts:
2.1 preparation (removal, removal of racks)
2.2 fitting, reworking of defects
2.3 first gluing (parts of false keel and parts of keel)
2.4 profiling, grinding and fitting of frames
2.5 rework (grooves, holes and XVIII)
2.6 lodgements for front and rear frames
 
2.1. Preparing the keel parts
 
As I mentioned earlier, some keel parts are located on plate No.16, the wood of which has been cut in such a way that its grain and texture look very unattractive. So I decided to remake some of the parts using plate No.18, where there was a bit of unused space. I was very lucky that there was just enough room to fit all the necessary parts. Some pieces I won’t remake, since they will be either covered by the frames or hidden inside (marked with “OK”).


Another lucky moment: the parts I want to remake don’t contain any slots for metal components (like rudder hinges), as highlighted in the red circle.
And for those who might find it old-fashioned or unnecessary to remake parts—and at first glance, the wood may seem identical—just take a look at the surface after applying tung oil…
 … I think this view justifies my decision, doesn’t it?
What do you think?
Also, I want to remake these light-colored parts using a darker brown wood… and I have a feeling this won’t be my last remake due to the light tone of the kit’s wood.
I previously mentioned that I would make all keel parts from pearwood (via laser cutting). But this has been postponed for a month, and the second reason is that the pearwood will be much darker than the rest of the kit’s wood. So, I’ll make the keel from pearwood for the second hull, but for the main kit’s hull I’ll go with the plan described above. Seems more logical this way.


 16.04.2025
 
So, we continue...
... all parts of the keel structure are removed from the dies and ready for processing.
As I said before, I will redo 4 details.
I removed it from the raincoats with such a knife and polished the holders with a typewriter, but I have already talked about this in detail in the frames section, I will not repeat myself.
Also, he made all 90 ° angles with a file, since after the cutter they are rounded.
Dry put everything together and looked promising...
Now you need to remove the keel template from the jig and insert the keel parts into this jig to adjust them.
But first, I made the parts I wanted to replace.
 
2.2 Fitting and reworking of defects.
Well, then I began to adjust the details to each other so that they could be easily inserted into the jig. As I understand it, it is better to immediately fit part 1, 2 and 3, then 8 and then only 7.
Then fit 9 and 10 and then 4. And here was the first moment. That the original part 4 was smaller and a gap was formed. And it's good that I began to redo it and performed it more to eliminate this gap.
A gap formed behind during assembly.
I compensated for it a little with a new part 19, but still a small point in the corner between parts 6, 11 and 19 remained. It will practically not be visible, so I think the new part 19 saved the situation.
But the worst situation was in the middle part. Details 10 and 11 do not coincide with the jig (despite the fact that the jig itself coincides with the slipway, I checked). So I need to correct the details themselves.
That is, in fact, parts 10 and 11 coincide with the slipway only at one end.
But due to the fact that they are proportionally shorter by 0.5 mm (each) than necessary. And it would seem that this is not so much, but due to this, the scallops (teeth) to the end of the details do not coincide with the jig. And this difference runs up to 0.5 mm, which in total 1 mm gives the distance between parts 10 and 11.
I do not want to redo such complex details (it is very long and difficult), because I will cut each of these details in the middle. And the middle ones will shift to each other. Thus, all 4 parts correctly become a jig. And the distance in the center will disappear, but two others will appear, which I will later show how I glued together.
This area will be covered by frames and profiled, therefore these joints will be visible minimally. Unfortunately, this is such a lamentable inconsistency, but I think everything will be fine. The main thing is that there is less of this further.
Strange, but I did not notice such problems in the sets that were collected here on the forum. Maybe this problem is only isolated (and I came across)) or this is a problem of those sets that are sold on AliExpress. Has anyone else encountered a similar problem of inconsistent teeth in parts 10 and 11? Or is it me lucky))
Well, now, all the details of the keel and false keel are clearly in place and ready for gluing.


16.04.2025

2.3 First gluing (parts of false keel and parts of keel).
The gluing process is very similar to the gluing of frames. There is a template, and first you need to put in it those details that will not stick and cover everything with cling film. And then putting the parts in the right places, while not forgetting to add glue.
 I indicated the logical order. Then everything is immobilized...
... and here is the finished result before grinding.
The middle part, if it were without defects, was glued together in places where it is indicated - gluing.
But, since I was fixing defective parts, I need to glue two more cuts.
To make it convenient to fix and process the fragment with which I will close the cracks - it is initially significantly larger than it should be.
Well, for reliability - I strengthened the bonding point with a pin. 
After fixing the pieces, I cut them to the right length and drilled a hole for the pin and glued the parts together.
And so I glued the false keel, now it's the turn of the true keel.
But there is one point. There is a different distance between all the parts, and the glue seam from this will also be different. Some glued to black PVA to highlight the seam and more visualize that the part consists of fragments and not monolithic. But if the seam is very thin, that is, the parts fit very well, then even a black PVA will be very invisible in a thin seam. Therefore, I made small chamfers at the edges and thus increased the thickness of the seam without sacrificing strength.
And here's the difference: (in the top photo - a thin seam, in the bottom photo - just as you need).
Well, then according to the old scheme: insulation with cling film...
... and fixation with a load and necessarily on a flat surface.
After the glue solidifies - grinding. All the same method. A sheet of sandpaper 240 is placed on a flat surface and the surface is flattened by such movements. 5.1 mm came out of 5.25 mm.
Well, almost ready-made result (only at the ends need to be polished).
I use Titebond II glue and it's yellow. Therefore, when the tree is covered with oil and it also turns a little yellow, the glue seam will look as harmonious as possible. It is enough to visualize the seams, but at the same time not to be very striking in dark tones.
Well, here is the laid keel against the background of almost ready-made Victory... Soon I will take it... but about that in another thread...
P.S. so far I really like everything, but to be honest... it seemed to me that Alert would be larger... and he's so shallow. Probably everything after Victory will be small)))


19.04.2025
 
2.4 Profiling, grinding and fitting of frames.
Well, no matter what, we continue. And let's start a little with the theory. In order for the lower skin boards to hide behind the part that holds the steering loops, you need to make the false keel thinner from 5 mm to 2.5 mm.
To do this, there is a template in the set, you just need to draw a line.
And then apply them on the ends.
According to the same scheme, you need to apply lines along both the false keel and the true keel.
Here, too, a little theory. Why this groove at all? As shown in the picture above, it is needed so that the ends of the skin boards are inserted into it in front. And the bottom slot is needed so that the lowest skin board is inserted into it. And since the board from the steering wheel to the new goes at different angles, the groove should be appropriate. At the back, the board lies directly on this groove with an edge, and in the middle it twists almost 90 degrees.
And depending on the angle - the groove between the false and true keel will differ for the maximum lay of the end of the board.
To do this, I again apply markings on all surfaces.
It is very important to take into account the fact that from the bottom we will have a transition from the frames to this groove and you need to understand where this edge is.
To do this, I tried on a few frames to check where to put this line.
And taking into account the size of the overall grinding, I drew lines.
And now it remains only to remove everything in between and start with a false keel.
Where a lot of wood can be cut 70% neatly with an engraver.
The rest should be modified manually with sandpaper glued to a flat board.
At the bend, I did as shown below. The main thing here is always to adhere to the correct angle so that the groove is with angles, and not in the form of a semicircle.
The evenness of grinding is easy to check with a blade, and if there is a semicircle, then you can scrape the belly with the same blade.
A good result is when the frame goes into the groove along one line.
But it's easier, of course, to do it on a grinder. But here you need to understand that there will be no room for error. Therefore, the minimum revolutions, we hold with both hands, abrasive no more than 240 and very carefully remove the excess.
And as a result - it turned out like this...

The keel is processed according to almost the same principle. The only thing, as I said, is that the groove is ground from an almost even angle to 45 degrees.
Well, for processing the concave side, I use sandpaper wrapped around the cylinder.
Well, the intermediate result is still without gluing.
In the upper section, the groove from the middle position goes almost only to the keel...
Near the horseshoe - an almost uniform symmetrical groove...
In the middle, the groove gradually disappears on the keel and increases on the false keel, turning into a rear thinning...
This is where the contouring is over and now you still need to do a couple of little things and you can glue both keels together...

 
22.04.2025
 
 2.5 Rework (grooves, holes and XVIII)
 
As I showed above, the BL6 detail needs to be finalized, but... the method that, according to the instructions, is a little more complicated than what I did. Plus, in my method, I was able to eliminate the hole that appeared due to an error in the size of the parts.
I cut some of that detail along the line of the bottom skin board...
... and the result is a slightly larger hole ))) ...
And then I glued a piece of wood to the false keel...
... and after fitting...
... it turned out like this.
The next refinement was the holes for the deadeye stay. Since I was redoing the part, I decided to do the holes correctly. And again a little theory.
In short: the holes should not be exactly in the center of the part, since there is a metal bowsprit holder. And also the holes should not be one after another, since the ropes will then go along the same line and overlap, wedge and grind each other. Therefore, they must go radially at approximately the same distance.
Plus the holes are too big.
On the sampler, I made not only holes and covered with oil, but also made decorative lines.
It is better to make holes starting from a small diameter and raise. Controlling the parallelism and accuracy of the exit from the other side.
I made stripes with a knife.
The top thin line is simply a cut with scalpel (s). The lower one is more complicated. You need to make two cuts (a, b), and then carefully remove the tree between them (c) and you get a larger cut (d).
Well, here's the result:
The third revision was the Latin figures of the ship's draft.
On small ships, these numbers were on the front of the ship on both sides and went parallel to the waterline along the arc of the skin.
To do this, I made a small stencil, calculated the distance between the numbers and drew parallels on which the numbers will be applied. And with the help of a ruler for cutting, he drew an arc. And applied numbers.
Then he cut out their silhouette very carefully with a knife. I recommend cutting each line twice. Above and then below and, as it were, bringing them together. Thus, there will be no risk of drawing a line further than it should be and the section will be of the same thickness.
I used tape to transfer the position to the other side. When peeling it off, it leaves all the markings on itself and then you just need to lean the tape (not with the adhesive side) and put dots on the sides of the lines. And then just draw those lines between points. And since the tape is positioned in the same way as on the other side, the entire markup will be mirrored (the main number cannot be made mirrored))
Then you need to erase the pencil and you're done..
Of the improvements, it remains only to adjust the landing meta for metal parts and you can glue both keels.
 
 
23.04.2025
 
I just have an emotional swing in recent days... And I have good news and bad news.... But more on that later, but for now a bit of refinement...
From what remains to make seats for metal parts.
Front is two horseshoes for our horse)))
Behind - two "hourglasses".
All of them are with holders that had to be bitten off with nippers, adjust the geometry with abrasive and drill holes (since on the horseshoes - they were all not through, I did not touch them yet, but on the "clock" most of them are through, because they were drilled those that were closed).
But naturally, all these details did not fall into place...
Since the milling cutter makes the corners rounded, it was necessary to make them correct geometry, as on parts. I processed the curved lines with boron...
And flat surfaces - with a scalpel. And after that, the "horseshoe" sat tightly in its place.
With the rear part similarly.
It was necessary to sharpen the corners with a scalpel and everything fell into place.
This is the end of the keel job. (P.S. metal parts are deposited back into the cache.) There are 4 more parts that I will do next, but I will not glue it yet, I will leave it in the slipway at the time of assembly.

Well, now the cry of the soul and my emotional swing...
 
Let's start with the bad news!
And won about wood. In short, I have a supply of pears in basically two tones (darker and lighter). And I thought to use it on the second case of Alert. And a couple of days ago I got it to plan to cut into blanks, and there is trouble!! The one that is darker - it is all in knots and it will not be enough for everything in such a condition (there will be a lot of marriage). And the one that is lighter (not only is it a little with a yellow tint, but you want it with brown), but it is also striped and spotty. Like the one that is darker, but it is not so much spotted. In short, this all upset me very much and for a couple of days I was confused. I spent 2 days calculating the material that I have, but I understood that it would suck.
Only the third color pleased me, but I have only one plate and such a color - it will be for things on the deck and I was looking for material on the deck and sides.
The photo above shows transverse stripes that appear under oils (any) like this:
Even bitumen does not save from this banding and spotting. Although the color is just wonderful under bitumen, I checked, it behaves the same on the spots, even through it the spots and stripes are visible. And it turns out that I have all the wood either in knots and with a pronounced structure, or in stripes and spots...
BUT... there is one but... And that's good news.
The person who sold me the Alert set and agreed to me to cut my pears advised me to find a person from whom I bought myself a pear even before the war. He did not remember where, and no matter how I searched the Internet, I could not find this seller. And when I was already desperate and flipping through everything on OLX (local eBay), I accidentally found a pink pear seller who has been selling it for modellers for 15 years. I called him and on Friday I will order 40 50x5000 dies of different thickness of a pink pear of several tones. And since eminent modellers bought from him and he has been doing this for many years, I hope that it will be the perfect pear.
To be honest - it already added motivation... because the last days only about the pear and thought and little engaged in the ship.
So moreover, he is still engaged in 3D milling and in theory, with him I can make a ship hull for the second Alert... and this is another pain that I had before recently, after the person who could help me with this was taken to war.
So, let's hope for the best and that everything will work out as planned.


23.04.2025
 
2.6 Lodgements for front and rear frames.
Finally, the final part of this chapter... several parts and you can collect everything in one lump.
As I mentioned earlier, I will redo the rear lodgements, since those from the set are light.
The plus is that although there are not many on the dies, there is an empty space where you can place the parts. Cut out with a hand jigsaw and refined with files.
The photo is not very visible, but in life the old ones are much lighter and grainy and I do not regret the time spent on processing new ones.
I did the processing with a grinder, but I'll warn you right away... for beginners, I recommend that you definitely practice on the probe, since the manipulation is quite difficult.
It is imperative to set reference lines to see the edges of the parts. Well, here is the result before and after grinding.
Well, it is not unimportant, symmetry and repeatability, since the sides are mirrored and the parts should be the same.
Naturally, the parts are pre-processed and after fixation, they will be ground in place together with the frames. But now I will not fix them. During the assembly process, I will once again adjust everything to each other and adjustments can be made.
I also prepared the details of the BL30.
Cut off the holders and sanded it, but again, I did not contour it like 3 pairs of front frames. There are special stickers for all these parts, but! I do not recommend blindly believing in the accuracy of all these stickers. It is better to do all these manipulations in place during the assembly process so as not to polish too much.
And the last detail was a temporary keel. Its purpose is to replace the real keel at the time of assembly of the case. And after the final grinding of the case (and most likely during the grinding process), it will be removed and the case will be scanned. All this will be necessary so that the hull bulb for the second model is without a keel. And the keel will be made and glued at the time of lining with slats. On this body from the set, a real keel will be installed after the external surfaces of the model are scanned and finally polished. If nothing is clear, then in the future I will talk about it in detail.
The temporary keel was made from fragments of templates (jig) on which there were frames. I glued suitable pieces together with diagonal joints and two layers with just a little grinding gave exactly the same thickness as the keel. In the next chapter, I will show in detail and tell you about this detail...
... in the meantime, we can officially say that chapter 2 is over!
P.S. and finally it will be possible to show the slipway, which is already ready for me and is waiting for publication.
 
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