THE KEEL - (part one)

Day-2

Well, before I could do anything tonight, I had to tidy up the spare room and make my workspace a bit more organised, so I started by putting my paint-organiser on the wall. Then I sorted the tables out and put some drawers underneath them. Found a space for the airbrush/compressor, installed the LED Light and hung "Drawing-1" on the wall.

Those paint-organisers are really very good! They go together very well and require no bonding. They just slot together and stay together!

 With that done, it was time to read the Vaporetto instructions and it was at this point that I realised that they're pretty dire 😄. Buried in the multi-lingual text, there's a single, short paragraph that attempts to describe how the two keel parts align. I didn't really understand it, but I dry-fitted the parts using spring-clamps until I figured I'd got it right. At least I think I got it right!

Unlike that Airfix Bentley model I just finished 🤪, the instructions are far from step-by-step and I guess they expect you to read a tiny paragraph of broken English, refer to the big drawing and just 'figure it out'!  I was wondering why the made the keel in two parts but then realised that it is, of course, because the prop-shaft has to go through the keel, so they split it in two and sandwich it with two reinforcing parts (Items '3'). 

 

Referring to the manual for some reassurance that I was doing the right thing, produced little reassurance 😂 since the next step shows the keel built and part-planked! I'll just have to go ahead and build it as I think is correct. I'm sure it'll be fine.

For those who are using this build log as a guide for their own build (God help you), I should explain that you need to insert 'BulkHead-11' into Keel slot 11 first of all, then push the propshaft through (positioning isn't really important (just use my photo as a guide)). 

Then butt up the two Part No 3's against the bulkhead and align them so that they match the curvature of the keel. Clamp them!  Now you can gently insert Keel Part-2 inbetween the Part 3's and adjust it so that it pushes squarely against the bulkhead and lines up neatly with the forward edge of the 3's.

Tomorrow I will bond these parts together and proceed with the rest of the keel which should be pretty simple.