HMS Druid 1776 stern cross section in scale 1/128

[Dubz]

I started something new and small .... HMS Druid 1776 stern cross section in scale 1/128

I bought it years ago very cheap and just and found it in my stash recently. The manual is a bad printed joke but there are some helpful buildlogs around :-)

Unfortunately, one thing I notice again and again is the inadequate woodworking. In my opinion, it is really important to carefully remove EVERY laser burn marks, not just the cut edges but from the surfaces too. It is also important to sand the wood clean and - it's a matter of taste I know but Pear deserves it -  to oil visible areas. This is the only way to achieve a homogeneous overall impression that remains true to scale.

Don't rush, take your time, DON'T use a rotating tool! It will remove to much and it will do scratches you can't sand away easily. Exception are the inner parts of the frames IF you are able to do it very carefully!

Anyway now lets do some wooddust :-P

Started with stern post and keel.










The complete Jig.










cheers

Dirk

[tkay11]

Interesting model and good advice.

[Dubz]

It's damn small but it's doable with pear :-)

Next is the first frame number 39. There is a special jig for. It's a delicate task to sand the frame according to the lasered lines as it gots very thin.












Then the transom upright frames were cleaned and sanded.

Dry fitted.







cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

The three transom horizontal braces were cleaned, sanded and adjusted. L12 broke but no problem to fix and it stabilized itself later :-)

Installing L14 so that a good contact is made means that the wood has to be doubled up, otherwise L14 it sits too deep in my case.

Let's see the complete arrangement :-)














cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

Second Frame done.

Decided to build the base then. The kit includes a nice one though.

















cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

Thank you very much for you kind comments & the likes :-) I'm  glad you like this little build :-)

All frames are done. Temporary plank for strength and aligning the frames in (the wrong, damn my brain :-D) place. Wind transom pieces done. Fairing the frames done.

I am not 100% happy with the result. Some of frame were heavily overburned, especially the last two so I had to remove lot of material what lead to very thin frames after fairing ... and some areas I might improvise a bit later.




























cheers

Dirk

[tkay11]

I've vever seen a laser-cut kit. Do you think removal of all the char and burnmarks is significantly different from the old method of cutting the tags by hand to remove the parts? It looks as though the laser-cut version can do better detail and go smaller. Is this correct?

Anyway, its a nice small model and at that scale would be otherwise difficult to cut. Well crafted so far!

Tony

[Dubz]

Oh it is definitely different. And yes you can do great details - if you know how to handle a laser and did the design that way. Master Korabel & Falconet are Masters in this while - sorry to say - Chris Watton e.g. could do much better. Watching the oversized gratings of his boats I always wonder why ...

Anyway ..

Another update. I will not following the manual now anymore and I might do stuff different .. we will see :-)

I corrected the temporary plank. CA & Aceton and a bit of heat for the wood glue, yeah, easy task :-)

I did the first deck. There is a jig in the kit to get the correct position in height. For the eye, especially in this small scale it is very important to align the deck in both directions (!) perfectly parallel to the keel.

Also the mast step were done.









Before the next step the frames were oild again and got some Ballenmattierung for a little shine. After that the rear transom plate and the rudder were done








Here you can see the deck is parallel to the keel.







cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

And the second deck. Manual says build it outside the hull. No way! You will never get it well aligned e.g. the bars exactly on the frames. In this scale 0.2 mm is a visible "problem" :-)

I modified the Jig in the way I could place it between the frames and so adjust the bars to the appropriate frames.




To adjust and glue the knees in I used a strip with double-sided adhesive tape.




It's important to find the right visual compromise and not always the "technical" one, where, for example, a knee really has to stick to the frame. Lost symmetry would be far more noticeable to the viewer.

As is so often the case of these kits, there was also the problem that components were undersized, in this case the knees, which are sometimes too short. I had to lengthen one of them, as otherwise the gap would have been too large and would have been noticeable.











cheers

Dirk

[tkay11]

Totally agree about the need for great care at smaller scales. That's what makes it so rewarding.

Tony