I decided over the Xmas period to lay a new boat out a Raf Range Safety craft from a Vic Smeed plan of 1inch to the foot giving a model a decent size of 40ins...NO probs there.
The kitchen table was duly taken over much to the disgust of her in doors but as her Uncle was helping me draw out the frames using good old fashioned grease proof paper....OOPSY that dint go down well....even though it was a new roll with plenty on it !!!!
All the Bulkheads were drawn out to perfection NOT a single lie out of place the only odd one out was frame 5 where the prop tube was out of line,but that didn't matter as I was using twin shafts.The only slight modification I did to the bulkheads was that I dint plot out the actual cabin sides on to the bulkheads as per plan,as I wanted a totally open hull and a separate superstructure so I can access the motors etc easily,no problem there.
So all the bulheads were duly cut out on the bandsaw with my 49p blade....well Screwfix wanted £10.49 for a blade and as Mrs J had a £10 off any purchase I just had to use it up and voila a 49p blade !!!RESULT.Anyway as I was saying all the bulkheads were duly cut out including the Keel and Dave thought to himself this is easy and getting there very fast and I would have a fully sheathed hull in a week...MMMM how WRONG I WAS.
Yesterday I took the hull off the building board so I could check it out to make sure it had not twisted wey hey perfectly true happy days,so it was then onto the hull stringers...MMM half way around the deck there was a problem.....one bulkhead seemed to be around 5mm lower thus putting a dip in the deck....consult plans and check bulkhead....strange nowt wrong here ok ill simply add a short piece to the bulkhead not a problem so this was done and we had 2 deck stringers on the hull.
Now to the lower hull chine stringer....WHAT THE HECK....all the flipping knotches were at different heights that would have made a rather wavy hull......so out of the building block the hull came and I saw it....out of the 9 bulkheads 4 of them had different knotch heights What the heck had I done....out with the plans and bulkhead tracings to check everything again........took me 5 mins to realise in MY mind the plans were wrong....NO WAY does Vic Smeed drop such a clanger as I thought....internet search concluded I was right on this particular plan set....couple of phone calls late to others who I knew had built this model it was confirmed ARGHHHHHHHH and they all said NIGHTMARE and they had to fiddle new bulkheads to make the stringers fit and also the bottom of the hull.
Another call to my good m8 Neil confirmed that I was right,one totally scrapped hull later ...at least I was able to salvage the stringers but not the bulkheads or keel....Well I said golygosh or similar!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Not a very happy day and My immediate thought was waht a good start to 2019.
So Neil has kindly agreed to sort the plan out and to cut new bulkheads and keel with a bit of fiddling around here and there....HOPEFULLY he will put up a BLOG on here WONT YOU NEIL of how he has done it warts and all.
Dave
Home 
Portal 