Hi!
Perfect, a fantastic diary with a lot of good tips for others!

Thanks and go on this way

Regards, Bernd

I have been reading lots of build diary's & other topics on this build.
This is my first build but being a bit of a perfectionist I want it to be the best I can make it, I know I need to learn lots & like everything you get better the more you do, hence why I am practicing & trying ideas & techniques I'm learning from all of you before using them on the SOTS

One topic that has really caught my eye is regarding the subject of lighting, I have seen where some ship builds have the cabins lit & I have seen a post where someone has been trying fiber optic strands with LED's.
The issue I see with LED's is that they are built into the ship & can fail over time, when you will not be able to do anything about it

I have been doing some playing with electronics, I have started working with a microprocessor called an Arduino, basically a very small simple computer.
My idea is to have a separate fiber strand to each port hole, lights on deck, cabin, etc. Then run all these fiber strands down through the base of the ship, hidden inside the stand to a unit under the base, where each fiber strand can be attached to an LED, I can control the brightness of each LED, also being able to make each LED flicker separately from all the others.

This is only an idea at the minute, I will need to do some tests & develop the idea

Will update you all once I get further with this idea

Thought it was about time I got some more work done, been working on putting the balsa in the bulkhead.

Photo 1 - 5- Fairly straight forward, work out the thickness of the balsa required & glue together before glueing into the bulkhead.
Started off by using clamps to hold the balsa together while it glued but then realised I would be better off using my tile press.

Photo 6 - Some cutting out required to enable the balsa to fit.

Photo 7 - Not the neatest looking but will be by the time I'm finished

Photo 8 - Cut off the excess before sanding into shape.

Photo 9 - Time to use a little filler to fill any of those not so smooth lines

Photo 10 - Second layer of filler before a final sanding to finish it off.
Now that looks better

Photo - 1 Even though I checked & double checked the levels of all the ribs as I glued them in place, did one final check, something I saw another builder had done, good idea & all ribs level

Photo 2 - Time to finish of the last rib 27. As always checking everything is square.

Photo 3 - Excuse the colour, camera must have been having an off day

Got my deck pieces, I had held off fitting all the balsa to the hull sections until I had these in place, wanted to make sure they were a good fit, everything square & level, last thing I wanted was to be trying to take out balsa, square everything up

Photo 1 - Started off by dry fitting the deck, had to do some light sanding where the decks fit around the ribs, only on a few, so looks like my measuring over & over paid off

Photo 2 & 3 - Followed the instructions about drawing lines so I would know where the ribs are when pinning decks in place.

Photo 4 - Haven't got myself a pin pusher yet (need to get it ordered), so hammered the pins slightly into the decks to make it easier once decks in place.

Photo 5 - 7 - Another idea from MWG, adding some well know glue to the balsa & normal wood glue to the ribs, all adds up to a very sturdy hull.

Photo 8 - All the deck pieces in place

For those of you wondering why I have an extra hole in the deck
I am looking to put lights in the dummy gun port holes, will cover this off separately in a later post.

The hull has now become very sturdy, all I need to do now in infill the rest of the hull with balsa

Done some work on using balsa to infill the hull.
Not the neatest at the minute but will be looking good once it is all finished & sanded to shape

Photo 1 & 2 - At the front & back of the keel, I have filled these in completely due to the smaller size & shape.

Phot0 3 & 4 - Now have the side's in place, need to cut these down & fit the bottom piece's.

Can then have the fun job of sanding it all into shape

Feels so much stronger & sturdy now the balsa is glued into place

Hi PB How are you plnning on mounting the electronics? inside the ship or externally and have the wires going in? also what about trying the other types of arduino? There's one for clothing that you solder wires direct to the board instead of having the jacks?
...also on a geeky note if you stick with the arduino you could add some cool effects to the LED's making them flicker for example?
great idea though will follow the lighting with great interest
thanks and happy holidays

Hi cptcrash, the idea is to mount the electronics away from the ship, running the wires through the hull & into the stand, still deciding how to build the stand to hind them, could do with the temporary stand that comes with one of the issue so I can work out dimensions.
Like the idea of the lights flickering, what I plan to do is have a yellow light that could flicker to simulate candle light & a white light that will have a single flash to give the affect of the cannon firing, will also be yellow light where appropriate on the decks.
I have designed a small circuit board for each light, holds the sum led & smd resistor, one for each led, so the there will be two of these in each bun port hole.
I will update once I get further along, testing soldering the small components at the minute & making the circuit boards, will add some photos soon

hi pabaz,when using the plank crimper for bending,turn the crimper blade around so that you only use the BLUNT side,otherwise you will end up with a lot of tiny pieces of plank!

Thanks guys, appreciate the advice