PLANKING & STUFF

DAY 4

Today I spent a little time on the Vaporetto inbetween other things. I thought I'd get some planking done, but only managed 2 planks per side 😂.  I really struggle with planking and it's not helped by the fact that I've managed to make a couple of cock-ups that will make the whole process even more difficult!

I chamfered the forward and aft bulkheads way too much ! As a result, the planks aren't sitting  against the bulkhead's edge. In the end, I had to put some material back on the edge of the bulkhead by bonding a piece of plank material (tapered off at the top). It sounds dreadful but is actually a very effective repair to my over-zealous filing. It means that I can continue planking the hull without trying to hide any dark secrets 😂

None of this planking will be seen on the finished model because it has a painted hull, so on the one hand, my cock-up doesn't really matter, but on the other hand, I'm disappointed in myself for not learning from the model I made in 2011 😟

After fitting 4 planks I decided to move onto something easier - cutting and forming 74 seat supports. I guessed it would be repetitive but simple. Well it turns out that it was me  that's simple because I got one of the bends wrong when making a mock-up seat. Good job I didn't make a big batch of them like this 😂

I started forming these bench-frames using a small vice and that's where I ended up making a mistake with the angles. Let me give you a bit of advice - forget the vice - just use a pair of long-nose pliers. It's massively quicker and easier! 

MAKE ONE PERFECT BENCH FRAME and then use it as your guide for the other 21 frames. Cut the aluminium rod pieces  (110mm long) and then using your "perfect" frame as a template, form the others with the pliers. It's quick and easy!

 

 

 

I then painted the wooden seat part in Light Blue and later coated them in Tamiya Flat Clear. I'll see how they look when they dry and may add more coats. After that, I decided to cover the inside of the hull with "Hull Red" just so it doesn't have an unfinished appearance when you remove the cabin for accessing the RC parts. Having already painted the seats, I knew that my tiny Tamiya paint pots wouldn't go very far at all when it came to painting the bulkheads so I made up my own Hull Red (roughly) with some acrylic paint tubes. I used Cadmuim Red and Burnt Umber. When the planking is done, it'll be relatively easy to finish off the inner painting.