I am almost 2/3rds the way through the vents of the second bow section but decided I needed some very small sanding sticks to tidy up the vents as they are too small for a needle file.
I took a couple of old etch brass frets 0.4mm thick and cut several suitable sections from them. I then glued these sections to the back of a couple of grades of silicon carbide paper (180 & 320 grade) using evo-stick serious glue which is waterproof. Once dry I cut around the brass to give me several small files approx 0.7mm thick which fit the vents perfectly and I will be able to use them wet to hopefully give me a better finish.
Graeme

Genius idea, great thinking

Brilliant idea, Graeme!

Hi, finished the decorating so back to the build. I have removed the forward bolt and filled with 24Hr epoxy to prevent any problems when fitting the torpedo tubes later in the build.
The only fit problems I had with the plastic parts were with parts 66 & 67 which needed the shoulders on the enhancement cross bulkheads sanded down a bit as they were not deep enough (as David pointed out in his build).
The final photo shows the parts fitted but not glued as yet as I want to paint those forward bulkheads, which sit behind the now opened out vents, black once the epoxy has set.
Graeme

looking good enjoying your diary

jase

Thanks for the positive comments guys. I am due more parts later this week and was going to leave gluing the current parts until then but on looking at what we get in the next few issues, on the german site
http://www.u96-bauen.de/vorschau/
which shows all the parts and consruction instructions up to issue 67 at the moment, none of upcoming parts continue on from the current ones.

Also, looking at the parts which come with issue 25 it looks as though part 64 will need modifying otherwise it will cover part of the open torpedo room. All fun and games.
Graeme

Hi Graeme,

Coming on well, nice diary too.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

The forward bulkheads behind the vents have been painted black and the parts glued in place and given a preliminary fill and sand. All final prep will be done just prior to painting.
There is not really much to do with this months parts as the stern parts are not glued until later in the build and the forward parts I am leaving off just now to facilitate the fixing of the torpedo room parts later.
Most of the starboard forward part (part 64) will need to be cut away as it will cover the torpedo room cutout.
The second pic shows the forward and stern parts (stbd only) in place but not glued and the third pic the build as it actually is.
I must sat the whole structure is pretty solid now and is gaining weight rapidly.
Graeme

Graeme

Some excellant work you are doing.

It's really beginning to take shape now.

Hope the rest of your build goes well.

Nice work Graham

I cant get over how big these things are, looking forward to seeing this being more complete