Thanks Mike.
I always appreciate comments from the Top Guys.

Hi Cap`n,

That`s looking good matey WTG.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

I like the progress you are making here David, coming on a treat... .. Keep up the good work, i'll be following closely....

Regards

Alan

I thought I would post up what I have been doing to the launch - making the floor.
My next phase on the big ship is going to take a few evenings...
I have relied on the official build diary for this stage, as I don't get instructions in the magazine just yet.
I can't see that it is easy to fit the boards one by one into the launch and get it right, so I built up an assembly on the workbench.
This is built up as the original would have been, with cross-braces underneath that fit up against the ribs to hold it in place.
Only the outer braces (the fore and aft ones) need to be accurately measured. The aft brace fits just forward of a rib, preventing movement aft; the front brace, vice versa. The two middle braces can go anywhere, so long as they are not directly over a rib.
Planks squared up and taped down, I glued on the bracing pieces, then sanded the aft end square, so that it just covers the rib that it sits on.
The front end is the sanded to a curve, so that it just sits in the launch, without riding up on the rib sides. It should just cover the flat part of the ribs.
Then a coat of white acrylic, sanded down. Final paint shade yet to be decided. As the assembly is still loose, I can take it out later to paint it again.
After painting, the planks seem to appear as a solid sheet. Maybe I shouldn't have held them so tightly together. I will probably have to V-joint them at some time, just to define the planks.
This has used up less than 2 planks of the 5 supplied. I can't see that the thwarts/seats and aft frames will use up more than 1 1/2, so maybe there is a future use for the 2 spare?

You should be proud of your launch David, nicely done....

Regards

Alan

Hi Captain
Nice work on the launch, as for the excess in wood what tends to happen is if you follow the instructions to the dot then offcuts are what is left that can be used later if needed.
But if like me you can make up what you need using the minimum of the supplied wood you end up with the excess you have, this can be saved and used later if needed or just stashed away for future builds.
regards
Andy

Next, the Stringers/Dummy Gun Supports.
I decided not to glue these in, for two reasons:
a) They do not fit well enough to get a good glue joint. The bottoms of the stringers do not meet the deck at right-angles - and the ribs are not cut flat where they are supposed to be glued.
b) I want the ribs to be free to move against them. There is a tiny variation in the rib gaps higher up and I want the next two decks to go in without widening their slots. These decks should hold the ribs to their proper positions - but they will only do that if the ribs can move.
So, how to fix them in place? They need to be firm enough to drill into later, when mounting the guns, without breaking away and disappearing inside the ship.
I am bracing them with blocks on the inside.
As the stringers are set at an angle to the deck, I used a two-part method - otherwise, I would have had to cut angled blocks.
First, I used sections of ply to hold the bottom edges tight against the ribs. Most of these were cut from the spare wood from the stringers themselves and a few from the fret of the deck.
At the centre of each stringer section, these were held in with clamps, to get the curve tight to the ribs. A spare piece on top prevents them twisting out of place as the clamp is tightened, while another spare piece is used as a pusher to hold them in position. One hand on the "pusher", one hand for the clamp screw. I wish my ratchet clamps hadn't rusted up - they would have made this job easier!
The other bits of ply needed no clamping, just dropped in place.
Next, small blocks from some 15mmx15mm softwood.
I could have cut these a bit smaller, as their main function is to hold the upper edges of the stringers against the ribs. But I decided to take a little time and cut them to fit exactly under the next deck - so they will provide bases for pinning the deck down.
To get the height, the deck support beams went in next.
Ten beams, ten strips of wood supplied. But it is easy to get the six shorter beams out of three pieces with just a few millimetres of waste. So I now have 4 useable offcuts and 3 whole strips left over - almost enough to do the next layer!
There is just one more modification before I glue the blocks in. I am thinking of putting some lighting in here. The stringers only come up about 2/3 of the height to the next deck, so light would flood out of the gaps. I want to restrict this and make a more subtle effect. More on this later...

Thanks again Alan. Still working on the blocks at the moment. Will post another photo when finished with them.

Hi Captain,

looking good!!

Claret

I'm really liking this build David... a very big well done there....

Regards

Alan