Building a ship in card.

Or Royal Navy ships as this pic of HMS Cornwall (rip. Scrapped at Swansea), shows.

I hope it's just the ribs showing through fibreglass sail boats John - when they start to poke through, you start to worry …………

I was waiting for a shot of the modern destroyer/frigate type of ship showing all the plating.  They are designed to have very thin, and therefore, very light, skins.  Heavily armoured ships are physically very heavy foot for foot and therefore both expensive to run and relatively slow moving. The purpose of the skin on modern warships is simply to keep the water on the outside with no real armoured protection.  That kind of protection is not considered necessary in todays missile type warfare - the days of broadsides slamming into 8inch thick armour plating are over.  Being very thin, they do show all the ribs through the plating although the type of steel used makes them immensely strong, regardless of the plate thickness. 

Coming along nicely Terry. :thumbs

I have 100% faith in you're skills in producing an excellent model. Atleast we can all learn from what you have experienced in building this kit.  ;-)

Cheers, Gary.

:oops::oops::oops:

Terry

The front section of the hull was fixed in place but, unfortunately, it had a number of kinks at the water line.  Out came the scalpel and off it came again.  A new hull was printed, fixed to thin card and glued in place.  Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the new hull was slightly blacker than the previous one.  I haven't got a clue why, but it's here to stay! It is more noticeable in real life than in the photo…


The other side of the ship had the rear and front (in that order) hulls fitted.  Being glued only to thin card, there was a worrying bulge on both sides, where the hull rises diagonally to the bow deck. The next stage was to glue the bulwarks to the inside of the hull, above the decks.  As the bulwarks are glued to 1mm card, this has had the effect of stiffening the sides and the worrying bulges have disappeared…

That looks good Terry and yes, a salutory lesson regarding clamping ………..I always put packing pieces between clamp and work pieces. :thumbs

Fitting hull plates is always fraught with concerns about will it or won't it fit !!!

I've also found that, in spite of being told on many occasions to do all the printing at once, that reprints are often a different colour ……….  In your case, why would you want to print 2 hulls for one ship ? ;-)

Thanks Peter.  I had to print the front of the hull again as, in removing the original one because of a number of kinks, it got ruined and had to be replaced.

Terry 

Looking good Terry,A few dents here and there shows a hard working ship.With perhaps a liking for rum by the helmsman ?.
Cheers,
Derek.

Thanks Derek.

I ordered the following from Gaugemaster:


These being 'iron' railings for the stern deck, as suggested by Scalescenes and some ladders to replace the printed ones in the kit. 

 I was rather annoyed to find that Gaugemaster added a £2.50 'small order handling charge' to the bill.  This was in addition to the £2.50 standard postal charge.  I accept the postal charge but don't understand the concept of a 'handling charge'.  I note on their website that all orders below £15 incur this extra charge, but no reason is offered.  All items ordered have to be 'handled' so why single out the smaller orders?  After all, Gaugemaster are still making a profit on those smaller items.  In future, Gaugemaster will be my last port of call for either small or large items.

Terry

Super Job Terry despite the trials and tribulations. The ladders and railings (hadnt seen the latter before) will make the model even better. Not sure if you are familiar with Langley models (no connection) they have an assortment of add ons for canal boats…..some of which may work for you.

I do agree about with you  about Gaugemaster and their shipping/handling charges……I rarely if ever use them now

Regards

I can see where Guagemaster may be coming from as we operate a simlar system for small orders.

We are a bulk manufacturer of steel nuts, if we get an order for 1 box of product worth £10 it still costs the same for the administration to enter on the order and Invoice it out as it does for an order worth £1000 but the profit in the smaller order gets absorbed by the administration costs.

The answer to the problem is either have an admin charge or have price breaks on the lower price items to allow for the admin, I guess guagemaster have gone at it the easiest way by having an extra charge for small order values.

Although saying all this I dont like paying the extra charge so wait until i have enough to order to avoid it.

A really interesting build Terry and the model looks great.Are they Poundland clamps by the way?.

Thank you chaps.  John, I know of Langley Models but I wasn't aware that they did some bits for boats.  I see them quite often at shows as they are fairly local to me.  I'll have a good look at their stand the next time I see them.

Andy, I don't quite get the administration costs.  Presumably Gaugemaster pay for the staff to be present whether they are tapping on the keyboard of a computer or sitting there reading a paper and picking their noses!  So that leaves the cost of a paper invoice, probably a few pence.  Of course, this 'small order handling charge' might just be a cynical ploy to ensure that every customer buys more than they actually want.

Alan, I think the clamps probably did come from Poundland or somewhere similar.

Terry

I'd agree with you regarding Gaugemasters Terry.

On the other hand, I can understand Andy with his nuts and bolts.  Presumably you don't have a retail shop Andy so your business is "bulk orders" by carrier/mail order.   In that case, you would have a fixed cost per order. 

In the case of Gaugemaster, do they also have this "small order charge" for those who buy a packet of couplings over the counter ?  P & P charges should be calculated to cover P & P !!!  Small orders would then, automatically, have a larger percentage of the order value in the P & P bit.  They could similarly, have a minimum postage cost - as most companies do - so, if your couplings were £5 and minimum postage cost was £5, job done - £10 for the order. 

Making a "handling charge" smacks of the bad old days with a certain Irish based airline who got themselves a terrible reputation that had nothing at all to do with their ability to fly people around Europe……………

Come on Gaugemasters - get your act together or are you only interested in big spenders !!!  If 100 people spend £1 each, that's £100.  If 1 person spends £100 that's the same result but with far less hassle. 

However, what will you do if that 1 person changes his loyalties or stops modelling or dies…………..?

Hi Guys
I have the model of the coaster and was about to start building it. Then I realised how BIG it was so it will not actually fit my layout. So I had a scout around and came up with this site where you can get all kinds of card models free.
It's really Canons way of flogging printers/paper and ink but if you go there and opt for Vehicles at last count there were seven ships you could download which could be rescaled for use on model layouts and if you look at the construction techniques you just might become suspicious about where John got his shipbuilding method from.
Since my layout is Clyde based I keep looking at the "Cutty Sark" then thinking "Lord remove this temptation":shock::shock::shock::shock: but I think I will end up doing something with one of the sailing ships.

On a different subject what has happened to the pics in the original item? My browser says Pics no longer in Gallery.

Petermac
the technical name given to the "sagging" panels is Panting.



This is the only pic I have. It was taken off Portland in 1968 just before we left for the Royal Yacht tour of Brazil.

Regards
Jim

That's a classic photo of the Leander Class frigate HMS Naiad Jim.

Other than the blockade of oil to Rhodesia and the cod war, where she was rammed and damaged by an Icelandic gunboat, her active career was fairly uneventful.

She had the misfortune, having been decommissioned in 1987,  to be sunk as a target ship in weapons testing in 1990.  A sad fate for any warship.

Not too sure about Cutty Sark - wouldn't one of the "Queens" be more appropriate - or, if you're a Grey Navy man, HMS Hood  ?

Thanks for that link Jim.    Some amazing paper models there in every category - take a long time to build though as they look quite fiddly! :roll:

Ken

Hi Peter
The Queens or Nelson class warships? I can't even get Waverley or Jeannie Deans onto my setup. Absolutely spot on about the fighting 39 though but I was working on This:-



I'm the one on the left behind the guy with the "bats"

I was QM (Qualified to Maintain) Phantom, Buccaneer,  Gannet, Wessex 5, Seaking and Swordfish.



Third from left, back row. That one is an exhibition exhibit but I did get to fly in a real one at the Museum Flight at R.N.A.S. Yeovilton.

Regards
Jim

Hi Ken

  take a long time to build though as they look quite fiddly! :roll:

You should see the R100 airship I have from a different source but that won't fit the layout either.

Regards
Jim

Jim! You're a WAFU! I thought you were in the Andrew!

Tee-hee….

Doug