Chapter 3. Carcass Assembly​

The chapter will consist of several parts:
3.1 slipway (gluing jigs to assemble the case),
3.2 keel (rework and gluing of keel),
3.3 stern I (gluing the rear of the ship),
3.4 front frames (adjustment and fixation of frames),
3.5 stern II (continued work on the rear part),
3.6 rear frames,
3.7 middle frames.
29.04.25
3.1 Assembly of the Slipway.
I didn't think this stage would be so fast... I collected the slipway in one day. And in one more day he was completely glued together... and it was cool.
To watch something unreal come out of 4.5 plates - it was so exciting. Something has not fascinated me for a long time... but in order. (I did not forget to take pictures of everything and I think my illustrations will help those who will collect this cool kit.
And I'll start right away with a few tips:
I. In order not to breathe dust from burning when laser cutting - use a vacuum cleaner with such a nozzle. she does a good job of cleaning up what then flies in the air.
II. In order for the parts to be better assembled, use a file. And as shown in the photo above: 1- slightly expand the grooves into which the parts will enter (but not much). 2- sharpen the plane that will enter the groove (but again not much, check and then you will understand how much you need to grind), 3- sharpen a little the ends so that the parts do not wedge, 4- the groove for the keel should be the same size as the keel + - 5 mm. This must be done before gluing, otherwise it will then be inconvenient to grind in place.
III. I recommend that you first assemble the entire slipway and only then glue it. And remember that there are parts that need to be fixed NOT using glue!!!
Next, we go according to the instructions...
 
Next, we will analyze a little detail of the amplification for the front and rear structures.
 I repeat, the grooves for the keel should be thick so that the keel of the tad passes tightly, does not wedge and does not dangle. This needs to be checked before gluing.

 Special attention to these side holders. Front and back with identical gluing slots, and they need not to be confused!
 But these columns have their own sides!
Parts 28 and 29 are not the same, so you need to strictly follow the instructions and before gluing - try to put the cover on top to make sure that it passes into your grooves!
I also advise you to slightly expand the slot for the following parts, otherwise, when you spell, the parts may be damaged.
The photo below shows the parts that are fixed WITHOUT glue!
Details 25,26,27 can be unfastened, and 16,17. And when pulling out the case with the upper cover, the parts 15 will be removed together with the case. If they are glued, they will simply jam the case and have to destroy the slipway.
Glued the entire slipway to gel cyanocrylate with an activator. It is possible on PVA, but then it will be necessary to wait a little and hold all the parts together for a long time. CA - allows you to quickly and efficiently glue (necessarily gel) if you use an activator.
I glued everything right at the very end, so all the photos below (like all the upper ones) will also be without glue.
 To connect the bottom with the lid, you need to use shutters, without glue!
And toothed parts are also fixed with special latches, and also without glue.
do not advise you to paint the slipway. I wanted to... but this idea is not very good. The material is poorly painted with aerosol paint. And all this I wanted in order to block the zone of blackness from laser cutting. It will contact the side surfaces of the frames and can paint them. So far I have polished these places with a small file. It doesn't seem to get dirty. But you can try to cover these zones with varnish (I haven't tried it yet), but if after testing from a file the result is 100%, then this will be the right way.
This completes the assembly and in the next post I will show photos of the finished slipway (note: in the photo, the slipway has so far been assembled without glue.)

 Since I am a very practical and provident person, I understood that the slipway for the entire assembly period would stand and fall with dust most of the time... therefore, I bought a suitable cardboard box and will hide the slipway in it.
I pasted tape over it to increase wear resistance, but the look by the box is boring to say the least. And then I remembered that I had a mountain of vinyl stickers left and now they have a use. (Once, many years ago, I bought them for pasting our stowbords with my wife. I quickly did not find my photo, but I will show my wife, and you will understand that I have more than enough stickers)
And since I am a big fan of superhero films, I decided to paste the box with them. Marvel and DS are one love. 


 
  
 02.05.2025
 
3.2 Keel (rework and gluing of vertical stabilizer)
Before gluing frames and other parts to the keel, you need to fit everything in place. But to begin with, I glued a false keel with a temporary one. 
Let me remind you why I did it. Firstly, then it will be easier to grind the case when the keel and sternpost do not interfere (by the way, I will not glue it, I will only temporarily fix it, but it will be removed during grinding). And secondly, I want to scan the hull after the final grinding and then create the basis for the second hull using this scan and then cover it with skin, lay the deck and sides. And only after that glue the keel to this body.
The temporary keel was glued to the clerical PVA, pointwise. And then, when heated, the temporary keel can be peeled off and peeled off the rest of the glue, and then glued after the already permanent one.
The next step will be to create a horizontal stern base.
To do this, there are two stickers and by placing them at the top and bottom, you can create the correct part profile.
You also need to create planes for the 71st frame. It is better to do this not immediately, but by trying on and grinding gradually.
And the edges can not be cut at all and cut at the moment of final grinding, so as not to grind too much.
To speed up the process, you can grind the part either with an engraver...
... trying not to go beyond the control lines. Or on an angle grinder, as I did. But it is more difficult and you can polish too much.
After that, I secured this part and placed the keel in the slipway, while without glue. Then, on the clothespins, he fixed lodgements for the rear frames to check their correct shape and position.
 And until all these parts are glued, you can check whether the interval between the frames, the height and their inclination are correct.
 Naturally, each frame needs to be adjusted to its place. And when everything sits perfectly dry, you can go further.
The final adjustments will be at the moment of gluing.
And by the way about gluing. In order not to stain surfaces with glue, which will no longer be ground, they can be covered with tape.
The disadvantage of PVA is that if it is not removed on time, it can imperceptibly remain a film and then the coating oil can unevenly impregnate the tree and there will be a stain in this place. In theory, this place can be erased immediately, but then it must be polished, since PVA will still seal the pores of the tree and can also distort the color after oil.
The next stage will not be quite according to the instructions, the result, I think, will be better...
 
 

 04.05.2025

 

3.3 Stern I (gluing the rear of the ship).

So, with the finalization of the keel and the gluing of the slipway, I will finally begin to connect all this. And we will start with the stern.
And here the first significant departure from the instruction begins. The rear plane under the stern, according to the instructions, should be done after all the work on the sides, and this is strange, since then there will be limited access to it due to the glued stern and the hull will have to be polished again. What I propose to do... make this zone first.
On the last frame, you need to profile the half-frame, as will be seen in the photo. It is a pity that for some reason they are shorter than necessary. I had to add a little, since there was no longer an empty meta on the dies.
It is necessary to immediately grind the zone from the inside and sweat on the frame, since then there will be no good access to them.
Then I glued the last frame (71) to the keel, but did not fix it to the slipway!
Glued to different adhesives depending on needs. Where sleep needed time for correction used PVA. And where you needed speed - there is a gel cyanocrin.
Similarly, the penultimate frame (70) was glued.
Then I connected these two frames to each other with a temporary jumper so that when the keel was removed from the slipway, they were stronger.
And now it was possible to remove the top cover...
... safely pull out the keel.
 Then, I profiled the half-frames and tried them on in place.
Here are the inserts I mentioned earlier. I really hope that they will not be striking.
Well, then, again not according to the instructions, I cut two horizontal parts.
And together with the half-hangers, he glued it all in place. The implementation that the manufacturer offered is not correct. According to the drawings, there is not close to what is in the instructions for the set. I did closer to the truth. Although not tangentially, the connection was made by cutting in, which was often found on ships and was stronger in functionality. And visually I really liked this decision.
But the main aspect in all this is that in my case there is very good access to grinding this knot and the ability to give it the right shape.
 All outer contours and seams will be ground at the end, but the result is already visualized.

 

06.05.2025

 

Under the stern, I finished, now you can prepare the details of the stern itself.

To begin with, you need to glue parts 37 in pairs, having prepared the surface as much as possible and squeezed as much as possible so that the glue seam is practically invisible, since logically it should be as one part.
 And while they stick together I prepared two other details. One slightly more complex shape. But according to special stickers, it is not difficult to make a uniform as before.
 But you need to be careful with the corners, since the cherry tree is very fragile in fiber and you need to avoid chips. And here's the first fitting.
But with details 37 it turned out not so simple. And the difficulty is not in the implementation itself, but in the fact that the stickers in the set are not grouped correctly! I signed A and B so that it was clear from where which stickers and I would give detailed instructions on how to process these details.
So, I processed them on a grinder and refined them with sandpaper with a cylindrical base.
The most important thing is that you do not need to stick all 4 stickers at the same time. First you need to stick the top and bottom. Grind all unnecessary and only then stick two side and already grind other planes on them.
After that, you need to fit these parts as much as possible with the other two. So that the connection points are without gaps and steps.
But the most difficult thing was to fit it without gaps.
 And the problem is not skills... these parts initially formed cracks, that is, they were small. But I came up with an implementation to eliminate all these gaps. Further in the review, I will tell you in detail about this.
To properly fit some parts, you sometimes have to adjust the slipway.
And after the final checks, I glued the side pieces (37) and the back, but I didn't glue the front piece.
The frame was strong and it was possible to pull the keel out of the slipway again.
And in order to make it easier to get the model from the slipway in the future, I once again adjusted the details of the slipway.



07.05.2025

 

Now let's move on to upgrading part 31.

This is in fact the last beams. And as expected, on the upper deck it should have a slight curvature. I copied this curvature from the beam that comes next next to this.
And from this template I drew the line of the bend of the deck.
And after getting the shape right, I prepared a little space for longitudinal beams. In the center they are, but on the sides - there are corner details, and these slots should not have been, but they are. But it will already be so...
Now, this part is more or less correct and it is possible to upgrade the beams of the upper small deck.
The moment is that this deck plus passed parallel to the bottom, but a step higher. In the set, these beams are significantly at a different angle and exclude this step, which is in the anatomy. Therefore, I cut off the rounded part of these beams and in the future there will be overlays that will create the correct plane for the boards of the small deck and the step between these decks.
I did not begin to remake, therefore I made it composite. The form is not simple, and I have already adjusted them. And the composite structure in such places is quite acceptable.
 
The finished 4 beams were glued to the PVA. Places that will not be modernized without cracks, which is very pleasing.
And in order to make the upper parts of these beams, you first need to make a step.
 In essence, it is an array (not a bent rail), but an arc-shaped cut part 31. Its height as in anatomy is 4.5 mm plus the height of the deck board and that - 5.5 mm. And one more moment this step repeats the bend of the beam, which we gave him earlier!
But in order to fit this step to the correct size, it was necessary to install another frame (72). It is of a specific shape and needs numerous samples and grinding so that the frame fits correctly.
 So that in the future it would be possible to remove the case from the slipway again - I strengthened this frame with a reinforcing jumper.
 To speed up fixation, he glued the same cyanocrile gel to the whole.
As you may notice, the frame sat without a gap. But I have not yet begun to glue part 31 with a step. Since in the future this will block access to grinding the next frame. (marked with oval).
And here, as they say, when you have the experience of colleagues, you must take into account all the points and not be afraid to deviate from the instructions, where necessary... unless of course you're new. In this case, you need someone to tell you.

 On this, with the stern, we pause and move on to the front frames. Since we still need to remove the case from the slipway, the sequence is exactly that.




 

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