Showing posts with label Modelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Modelling. Show all posts

Saturday, 7 December 2024

N Gauge Model Railway - Episode 8 - Viaduct and Archway Shops

Tony's Model Railway

Documenting my journey into model railways.

Building a model railway layout in any scale is a challenge.  If you are not an experienced railway modeller and are coming at this without the benefit of many layouts under your belt it can seem a bit daunting.

What are the challenges when building a model railway

  1. Buying Your Track - This is a key barrier to progress, as track layout and more importantly what track you need to purchase, is going to determine how quickly you can build your layout. 

    Fortunately, I had a few scraps of secondhand flexitrack which meant I could get a rough idea of how many loops of continuous running track I would need and how many points.  This created a shopping list for eBay and Aliexpress and I could get on with some other critical elements of the build whilst I awaited delivery.

  2. Track goes on top of some things - Where my particular layout is concerned I have two items which need to be built before I can lay any of the 2nd and 3rd loop track.  This comes in the form of a viaduct whihc pulls double duty as a tunnel.  Fortunately, I have access to a 3D printer and so after a few hours searching I was able to locate an STL file which met my needs... somewhat.

  3. Building to a Budget can delay a Project - Model railways are expensive things and if you are not made of money then assembling your critical items might need to be spread over many weeks depending on your budget.  This can be a challenge when you are buying lots of points or turntables which can cost a fortune.  This can introduce delays which slow the process down and can suck all the fun out of the room. 

    We can all fall into the trap of prevarication but keeping up the momentum is key and there are lots of smaller projects which you can bring forward at little to no risk to the project as a whole.  Smaller scenic items which can be dropped into a layout at the right time are a godsend.

3D Printed Viaduct and Archway Shops - Cults 3D - £3

Whilst I waited for all my track components to arrive, I needed to build the elevated section of my layout (loop 3) and I had enough track to test the incline and build the up and down ramps.  The layout is intended to be viewed from the front and I wanted something a bit more visually interesting than a grassy hill.  This meant I needed to set the height of the tunnel so I could determine the height of my track and then put in place the loop 3 roadbed.

I found the perfect STL file on Cults 3D and shelled out the princely sum of £3.  I then set about  printing out a couple of these sections on my Photon Mono M5 to test on the layout.  They are huge chunky models which benefitted from hollowing out and adding some drain holes.  However, even after doing this I ended up with quite a lot of trapped resin which leaked out slowly... very slowly. 

Without realising that the designer had created a Low Relief version of the viaduct, I sliced the fronts off in Meshmixer to create fascias for all my arches.

Over the course of a week or two I printed off several fascias and infills to create a curved section of viaduct which hides the tunnel.

Archway Shops and Real World Inspiration

Ottley's Coffee & Catan - Inspired by my colleague and fellow boardgame fan Stephen Ottley.  Stephen is our resident coffee afficianado and also runs the tiktok channel TableTok Games.  

Ottley's Coffee & Catan


Sam's Sounds - Sam Buckley is our resident muso and part time punk. He will of course now be referred to as the punk pickle.

Sam's Sounds Record Shop

Lejava Journeys - Tom Lejava is one of my longest serving colleagues and is never happier than when he is on holiday in some exotic destination.  A travel agent was the obvious choice and Tom has the dubious honour of having a name which is super easy to cut out.

Lejava Journeys Travel Agent

Just A Girl - Impeccably attired Elena is honoured on this layout with a fashion boutique specialising in the latest street fashions.  "Just A Girl" is her catchphrase and fits this shop front like a glove. 

Just a Girl Fashion Boutique

Neale's Yard - Sales Director David Neale got a discount warehouse on this layout.  If you look very closely through the open door you will see the man himself pushing the Ark of the Covenant into the back of the warehouse. 

Neale's Yard - Warehouse

Anisha's Snack King - Anisha's snack drawer is legendary and so having an international snack store was a perfect addition.  If you are the King you need your sign made out of gold... real gold.  I knew I would find a use for that gold leaf I bought from Aliexpress all those months ago.

Anisha's Snack King

Loop 3 

Determining the height of Loop 3 was a simple case of tracing between a couple of sections on all three sides of the baseboard scribing a horizontal datum to work to.  On the left of the layout loop 3 climbs up to meet this datum, tracks level across the back of the layout and then falls down more steeply on the right.  The road bed was superglued in place with some MDF supports.

I threw in some track and tested that my engine would fit and with a small amount of support trimming it did.  I then tested that the same fully engine could climb the incline easily with a rake of wagons behind it.  It passed the test sufficiently well for me to continue. 

Using a wooden curve template I drew on the rough arc that the loop 2 tunnel track would take avoiding any of the vertical supports which will form the retaining walls for the loop 3 track. 

Magnetised Scenery

This entire section of scenery needs to be removable yet tie into the layout at each end where the tunnel mouths (portals) are.  This would seem like a perfect task for those tiny but incredibly strong neodymium magnets.   The ones I have are about 10mm diameter by 1mm thick.

Magnetised Viaduct Scenery N Gauge

The magnets were glued onto small offcuts of MDF on the back of the viaduct facias and matched to magnets on the viaduct supports.

As you can imagine this was a fiddly exercise and I broke the viaduct several times.  I used some car body plastic bumper filler to strengthen the combined fascia structure.

Magnetised N Gauge Viaduct Scenery

Obligatory Running Video

Saturday, 30 November 2024

N Gauge Model Railway - Episode 7 - Laying Track the Bob Ross Way

Documenting my journey into model railways.

The Wait is Over... Time to lay some track.

My Aliexpress order of flexitrack finally came through.  For £15 I got 5 50cm long lengths of really flexible concrete sleeper style flexitrack with gold rails.  Not a huge price difference to PECO track but when you are combining with other orders you can make significant savings on the shipping.

I did not skimp on the points and managed to pick up 2 x ST-5 (RH), 2 x ST-6 (LH) and an SL-E393F short crossing for £50 all in. 

Establishing Loop 2 and Casualties of Construction

Putting in the large Loop 2 was the first priority.  This goes all the way around the layout and through a tunnel / viaduct and allows rail traffic to move between the loops. 

This was also my attempt at laying cork underlay.  I bought a roll of self adhesive underlay (that's not going to bite me in the arse in a few years time, LOL) and cut 1 inch strips which I then cut in half about 2 inches from one end.  This creates a head and two tails which can be more easily bent to conform to the radius of the track. 

I joined two of the flexitrack sections together using the very substantial joiners provided and connected it to one of the RH points.  This established the first run of track on the left side of the layout allowing space for the platforms which will eventually service the station and passengers waiting at loop 1 or loop 2.  Things went swimmingly until I began fixing the track under the elevated section.  I could not get a tool in to drive home the track pins.  

With a sigh I proceeded to rip out the elevated section.  In truth, I was not 100% happy with it and it will allow me to custom cut a roadbase which conforms to the curve of the viaduct and provide a solid mounting surface for the points which will be needed if I decide to put a small siding on the left.  The right side of the viaduct is going to be getting a signal box from which the signalman can see the entire layout. 

The First Rail Disaster!!

Everything seemed to be going according to the vague plan I had in my head until I got down to the return set of points which reconnect Loop 1 and Loop 2.  I think I got mixed up and ended up putting them too low down on the layout.

However, as Bob Ross might say "It was just a happy accident" and chance purchase of the short crossing changed the direction this layout was going in a big way.  Gone was the idea of another set of 4 points connecting loop 2 with loop 3 and back again.  Instead the crossing would permanently link loop 2 and loop 3 in a moebius strip like arrangement.

I'm sure you will agree that this introduces a large amount of fun to the layout and saves me £60 in points that I won't have to buy.  This will also reduce the number of DC controllers I need to buy to have continuous running throughout the layout.  Double Whammy!!

Judge Dredd (1995) Sylvester Stallone Movie Poster

Thanks to this unplanned change the layout lines I had marked on the layout could not be followed and so I strapped on my big boy pants and began cutting underlay and laying track in small sections.  I can always trim it down later.

By now I had pretty much used up all my flexitrack, but don't worry I put in another order a couple of days ago just in case.  

Obligatory Running Video

This weeks running video showing the layout in its new improved Bob Ross inspired shape.


The archway shopfronts have been removed for photographic purposes but don't worry they will make a return shortly.

Thursday, 29 August 2024

Judge Anderson 1/24th Scale Resin Kit

A recent haul from Aliexpress included this fantastic resin kit of Psi Judge Anderson for the princely sum of £8.46 including shipping

Psi Judge Anderson 1:24 scale Resin Kit

Meet the Parts

Another multipart kit depicting Judge Cassandra Anderson doing some psi stuff next to the grave of Sidney De'ath the most powerful of the Dark Judges.  No assembly instructions which is not  big deal as the kit goes together really easily.  However, I have no idea where Death's skeletal hand is supposed to be mounted.

Judge Anderson - Meet the Parts

This appears to be based on this Psi Judge Anderson STL on Maco 3D.  I should probably buy that as well and print it out on my new larger 3D Printer.  Although this is a great alternative if you don't have access to a 3D Printer. 

Assembly

The parts were really clean and went together easily with no need to fill except for the join between the two halves of the base. 

Judge Anderson - Assembly

Painting

I wanted to go for a comic book colour scheme although the black uniform was going to need a little bit of thought.  After priming and zenithal I airbrushed on the green accents and added a dark wash.  

I think painting this assembled was a big mistake as it would have been so much easier painting individual parts with no risk of overspray.  

Judge Anderson - Painting Begins


I promise that the next model I build will be hot-glued together for the priming and zenithal stage and then disassembled before painting.  I also made the mistake of glueing in Judge Death's claw before glueing Anderson to the base.  This led to him losing one of his fingers... oh well.

The uniform was brush painted in some very thin coats of black and then dry brushed with a very dark blueblack mix to give it a volumetric effect.

Blocking in the Colours

The shoulder pads and badge were painted in a fiery orange with highlights in a yellow orange mix.  Orange and yellow are such lousy colours to paint and Iin hindsight I should have painted a white base coat to allow them to pop.  I chose to wash them in zealot yellow speedpaint which gave them a glossy look.  Don't panic... this will be fixed in the final step.

Judge Anderson - Nearly Done

Face and eyes were painted in my usual skin tone set, at this size it is pointless trying pinkle.

On the hair I tried a mousy blonde base and washed with zealot yellow and then progressively lighter highlights whihc kind of worked/

Black accents were added to the gun, belt pouches and gloves and she was done.

The magic final step is to airbrush a coat of artist matt varnish which removes all signs of glossiness.

Judge Anderson

 

Wednesday, 1 May 2024

1:100 Scale Halcon Baltimore Schooner NTJK Models - Part Two

I decided to take my time with this build, I'm surprisingly impatient when it it comes to modelling projects.  When I get bitten by the bug, it's hard for me to not just dive in.

Building the Keel, Frames and Fitting the Deck

The first part of the instructions are probably the best part of the instructions and it was just a simple case of popping out the numbered parts and supergluing them together.

The first thing to build is the cradle / display stand.  disappointingly this does not have a name plaque in English so this will need to be designed and printed.

I did make one change to the order of operations in that I left the frames unglued until I had laid in the deck.  This was a lesson I learned from my earlier 1:30 Naxos Fishing Boat build as the frames do not always line up with the cutouts in the deck.  If you force them to conform you will either snap the horns of the frames or the delicate deck. 

Halcon 1840 - Keel, Frames, Deck Fitted

Deck Fittings

Cannons - the laser cut frames of these cannons are perfectly acceptable at 1:100 scale so I proceeded to glue these together.  The cannons provided in the kit are flat and definitely not good enough for this model.  You can buy an upgrade pack with brass cannons but as I have a couple of 3D Printers it was a trivial task to find a suitable model and print them out.  

I will document all the 3D printed parts including the links in a seperate post. 

Halcon 1840 - Deck Fittings

Capstan - I thought I would try out the capstan which was provided.  After building it I am in two minds as I think it would possibly look nicer in resin, but it's a crazy shape and will likely test my modelling skills.  There were also a distinct lack of arms on this capstan which might be historically acurate but it looks kinda weird on a masted ship.

I have bought some scale chain to go with this capstan and so I will need to check out how it meshes with the webbing to see if I want to continue using it.

Locker - Again this is borderline acceptable at 1:100 scale although the roof of this locker is way too thick and will need to be sanded down

Anchors - I liked the laser etched detail on the anchors so I thought I would give them a try.  They sort of look okay at the top but the buisness end of the anchor looks awful.  I will have to mull this over.

In the Part Three I will look at planking the hull.

Monday, 29 April 2024

1:100 Scale Halcon Baltimore Schooner NTJK Models - Part One

I immensely enjoyed my recent foray into wooden model boat building, learning new skills and working with unfamiliar materials so I thought I would have another go with another cheap chinese kit from Aliexpress.

1:100 Halcon Wooden Sailing Boat - NTJK Models - £5.99

This is another kit from NTJK Models and comes in a little plastic bag with all the basic things needed to make a passable model.  Five laser cut sheets of varying thicknesses of wood, some lengths of dowel for masts, a sheet of linen for sails and a reel of cotton for rigging. 

At the super low bargain price of £5.99 (that's cheaper than a Big Mac) there literally is no downside.

1:100 Baltimore Schooner Halcon 1840 - Contents of the Kit

The History of The Halcon 

Doing a bit of research turned up some interesting documents:

A 1933 court report documents that on February 15, 1932 the Spanish Honduran registered ship The Halcon was found off the coast of New Orleans with a cargo of "intoxicating liquor".  She was escorted to Mobile Alabama and seized by US Customs. 

Model Research 

Building my last kit from NTJK models taught me that the assembly instructions are somewhat lacking in the actual instruction department.  Nothing has changed with this wooden boat kit and there are some pretty critical instructions missing including: 

  • Sail Plans - How big are the sails and what shape?
  • Mast Dimensions - All those dowels need to be cut to lengths but how long do they need to be.
  • Rigging Plan - What ropes need to go where and what blocks and dead eyes are needed.

Some intense internet browsing was therefore required.

Ships of Scale - This build log has a number of great pictures and also illustrates how there can be differences in the kit supplied and that an accessory kit is also available containing brass cannons and fixtures.  These I will of course be replacing with 3D Printed parts.  Also useful is a set of deck and rigging plans showing the routing of the anchor chains and various other deck accessories. 

There are a few other builders on there who have documented their builds of the Halcon, so this was a must community to join.

HIS Models - There are plenty of different models of the Halcon and companies supporting the model making fraternity with accessories.  One such company is HISModels who provide a set of CNC wooden blocks and deadeyes.  They illustrate the content of their kit with this extensive rigging plan

Best Ship Models - is another great resource site for model boat building and they have another set of plans. 

Tune in for the Part Two when I actually start building this boat.

Friday, 5 April 2024

1:30 Scale Nax Fishing Vessel - NTKJ MODEL - Part 3

In Part Two of this mini series we managed to get the boat sanded, filled, painted and wired.  In this episode we finish the model

Fitting the Accessories

Replacing some of the awful laser cut accessories has been a primary goal and now we get to fit those to the deck.  In the photo below you can see the life preservers, anchors and vents which have all been painted and glued to their respective positions around the boat.

NAX Fishing Boat - Accessories

Some additional accessories were necessary though:

A deck winch - Cults 3D - This is apparently the upper deck crane winch for a Liberty Ship, but it looked suitably mechanical for my needs.

A light housing - Thing:6007577 - Not perfect but do you know how hard it is to find these sorts of objects from a description

Rigging the Mast

We are almost at the end of the build and this is where the quality of the instructions once again fails to clearly indicate what you are supposed to do.

NAX Fishing Boat - Steps 11 - 14

I need a little bit more instruction given the limited amount of wood we have left.  So I spent an hour or so studying the other Naxos fishing boat model reference photos I had collected and drew myself out a rigging plan.

NAX Fishing Boat - Rigging Plan

Given that I had used some of the thin length of dowel for my prop shaft, I did not have enough left to do both the Spar and the crane Jib.  I grabbed a BBQ skewer from the kitchen drawer and used that for the crane Jib.  I chucked both lengths into my drill and game them a sanding, adding a taper to both ends of the mast to ensure that it fitted into the deck hole and also that it came to a rounded point at the top.

With no hardware (I believe is the appropriate term chandlery?) attaching these together was going to reuire some ingenuity.  I grabbed the thin aluminium florist wire I use for pinning my miniatures and bent up a couple of hooks. I then drilled a hole into the mast and one into the end of the Jib supergluing the hooks so that they act as a rudimentary swivel.   

Four more hooks were also made.  Two fit into the gunwhales on either side of the mast and two in the rear corners of the transom.  

I then laminated some plasticard and created a trapezoid shape which would act as a place to anchor the Jib Pulley.

Talking about Pulleys, I could have used 3D Printed parts for these but the kit actually came with some wierd figure of 8 shaped pieces of wood which may have been for the deck winch that I didn't end up using.  These would do nicely as pulleys. 

Some thin "straps" were cut out of the plasticard to add a little believeability to my scratchbuilt fittings and it was time to glue in the mast.  I wish that I had spent a little more time on this as my mast ended up a bit cockeyed and listing to starboard.  I tried to rescue this with the mast rigging on the port side  but it was a little more adrift than the thin cotton thread could muster.  Chalk that up to experience.  

With the mast rigged it was a simple case of adding a length of thread to the end of the jib and looping it through a pulley and down the mast.  This is when I realised I needed to tie it off somewhere and so I drilled a second hole into the mast for a tiedown.  I left the end of the thread long so this can be the end of the rope used to raise and lower the jib.

The final part of the rigging was to add a length of thread between the the two aft hooks and wrapping it around the end of the jib.  All the threads were superglued in place to stop them from ever coming undone.

And with that it's done, or at least as done as it can be for now.  I will probably tidy up the paint and maybe add some more accessories some time in the future.

NAX Fishing Boat - Complete

I was really impressed with what I was able to do given the limited nature of the materials and it was a real challenge of my modelling skills. 

I really enjoyed my nautical adventure and it has spurred me on to try another more historic vessel and another cheap Aliexpress wooden boat kit.

Friday, 29 March 2024

1:30 Scale Nax Fishing Vessel - NTKJ MODEL - Part Two

In Part One we got the basic hull together 

Sanding and More Sanding

As I mentioned the hull is made of straight ply planks and there are a lot of gaps and seams which require filling with wood filler.  I bought a tub of 151 wood filler which I thought was going to do the trick and I was dissapointed that it was more like wall filler than anything else.  Still I persevered and ended up slapping on a ton of the stuff.  

Naxos Fishing Boat filling the plank gaps

In hindsight I would do this totally differently.  The filler oozed between the planks and ended up inside the boat hull trapped between the frames which then dried and fell off.  I have in effect created a boat shaped maraca.  

Nax Fishing Boat Opening up the hull

This necessitated opening up the deck under the wheelhouse in order to release the now rock hard filler.  This might sound like major surgery, but as the deck is so thin it was easily acomplished with a sharp craft knife and a steady hand.  I made sure to keep the offcut as I have plans for that later.

The way to tackle this is to use the old superglue and baking soda trick to fill up the gaps.  This of course only works if you are painting the hull.  If you are going for the natural wood finish then you are going to have to get better at laying the planks. 

Painting

Painting the boat in sections is unavoidable at this stage.  I carefully masked off the deck and gave the now smooth (ish) hull a spray coat of white primer followed by a couple of coats of white gloss.

The airbrush then came in handy for painting the decks with a Vallejo Burnt Umber wash.

NAX Fishing Boat - Painting the Deck

The remaining wooden pieces for the wheelhouse, deck covers and the gunwhales were then extracted from their boards and sprayed with the same Vallejo Burnt Umber wash. 

NAX Fishing Boat - Deck Painting

Adding Some Colour

I imagined the boat a sort of tri-tone with a red top stripe white hull and black or red hull bottom.  In the end I just gave it a stripe of red on the sheerstrake plank and continuing around the transom.  Masking this off was a tricky exercise as I only had some really nasty cheap painters masking tape.  I will have to come back and do some tidying up by hand later.

Trial fitting the wheel house accents and deck hatches really makes the boat come alive.

NAX Fishing Boat - Red

You might beable to see in the photo above that I managed to glaze all the windows with some clear acetate from some recycled packaging.  I glued this in using my now favourite hobby glue UV Resin which I picked up in my Wish Hobby Products 2024 experiment.  This stuff is amazing.

Adding the Lights

Last year I picked up some micro LED lights for another project (which I have yet to start).  These are incredibly tiny and come pre-soldered onto super thin magnet wire.  I quickly soldered a couple of these together with a CR2032 coin cell battery holder and a latching push button and stuffed it into the hole.

NAX Fishing Boat Lighting

I will probably tidy this up with a piece of perfboard at a later date as the circuit is tiddly. I am also undecided if I will add any navigation lights.  For the uninitiated this mean a RED LED for the left (Port) side of the boat and a GREEN LED for the right (Starboard) side.  I have some 3mm LEDs from another side project but these might be too large, we will have to see.  Adding them to the circuit should be no problem and might even add some much needed resistance to bring down the brightness.  

The LEDs were then routed up through the floor of the front wheelhouse and up one corner.  One LED illuminates the interior and is bonded to the roof with the UV Resin and the other goes outside in front of the cabin as an exterior deck light.  I will need to find an appropriately nautical shroud for this exterior light as they are suprisingly bright for their size.

NAX Fishing Boat - Lighting the Wheelhouse

Oh did I forget to mention that I added a salty seadog to steer this fine boat across the treacherous seas? 

He is one of the many 3D Printed accessories I covered in part one of this mini series.  A fine free model although he is now sealed in his cabin for all eternity as I have glued on the roof and floor.  

In the next, and final part of this mini series we will add all the accessories masts and rigging.

Saturday, 16 March 2024

1:30 Scale Nax Fishing Vessel - NTKJ MODEL - Part One

In my recent foray into buying modelling supplies from Wish.com I mentioned that I had ordered a little wooden boat kit but that the order got cancelled.

Needless to say, I found a different seller on AliExpress and snapped it up.

This is a fun little kit and my first foray into making a wooden boat with a planked hull.  I made a balsa wood sailing yacht from old model engineering plans, decades ago with a lot of help from my dad, but I can't remember if we ever finished it.

The NAX Fishing Boat or should I say NAXOS Fishing Boat

The inspiration for this model is clearly that of a mediterranean coastal fishing vessel of which there are many models.  The kit is made by NTKJ Model and sold through various etailers.

Naxos fishing boat models

This is plenty of inspiration for me to commence making this kit.

Meet the Parts

The kit comes as a set of 6 laser cut wooden sheets, a couple of dowels for the mast and a reel of cotton for the rigging.  A set of pictorial instructions with quite well translated text completes the package which cost the grand sum of £5.94 which in 2024 money is less than a Big Mac meal.  

1:30 Scale Nax Fishing Boat - The Parts

Steps 1-4 - Making the Deckhouse

Whilst the first 4 parts seem fairly self explanatory and involve removing the deckhouse parts and assembling them, the parts are not numbered.  There is a disparity in the plans, in particular the inner bulkhead seems to have a large notch behind it which intimates a part fits into it but the instructions offer no assistance as to what goes in here.   

NAX Fishing Boat Kit Steps 1-4

The wheelhouse fits to the deck with 6 pegs and matching holes.  Dry fitting the parts to the deck helps keep the wheel house square and stable whilst gluing the instrument panel back wall and the top visor.

I left the roof unglued to enable me to paint the inside and out and to glaze the windows and doors with acetate.  

NAX Fishing Boat - Wheelhouse - Steps 1-4

This model is ripe for replacing some of the clumsier laser cut parts with 3D printed ones.  In particular the boat has some cowl vents which are made of laminated wood but they look awful and it will be so much easier to find some on the web or even scratch build.  The same can be said for the portholes and life preservers.  

  • Cowl Vents - Cults 3D - A collection of vents of different shapes and sizes.  The two large vents at the front of the boat are 20mm tall and the one on the rear of the wheelhouse is 10.3mm tall. 

  • Life Preservers - Thingiverse - A good looking life preserver model.  You will need to print six, two at 10.5mm across and four at 12.5mm across.

  • Boat Anchor - Printables - This anchor seems to have the same shape and dimensions as the wooden one.  However, the model is huge and will need to be scaled down to fit.

  • 3 Bladed Screw - Thingiverse - This will need to print this on a resin printer at about XX scale  The original prop is about 11.5mm in diameter.

Steps 5-8 - Laying down the keel 

Now the serious work begins.  The frames are all numbered and from 1 to 10 and are slotted into their corresponding slots in the keel.  Be careful when removing theframes from the sheet as the protruding sections are prone to breaking due to the orientation of the wood grain.

NAX Fishing Boat Plans - Steps 5-8

The diagonal slot at the stern of the boat I thought might be for the stern tube but there was no mention of it on the plans.  The kit comes with two diameters of dowel.  The thin one should be for the stern tube and it is a good idea to add a 1¼ inch length at this point as the keel is relatively thin and likely to snap as you insert the frame 8.  Ask me how I know...   

You could add the rudder at this point but the stupid thing has one mission in life and that is to snap.  It is much better to leave this until after you have planked the hull and either fit it or replace it with a 3D printed part.

Once all the frames are fitted you can add the deck plate.  Before you do STOP! 

Take the time now to add some cardstock or a thin piece of styrene to the back of the deck plate.  It is incredibly thin and the laser engraved planking makes some of the edge planks prone to detatching.  The slots that the frames fit in are also too thin and not in exactly the right places for the frames to slot into so you are going to have a whale of a time gently coaxing them into place and you will probably snap a few.  Don't panic.  Take some time out to put the stand together and have a cup of tea.  

NAX Fishing Boat - Steps 5-6

The next step is the one I've been both dreading and looking forward to in equal measure.

Steps 7-8 Planking the Hull

That kettle you just boiled is going to be handy.  We now need to steam the first couple of planks.  These are the wide ones with the little oval holes on the planking sheets marked IV.  The holes go at the bow (the front) of the boat and you will need to hold the end of the plank in the hot steam to soften it and then gently put a curve into it. 

This is incredibly fiddly so be patient.  With these straight planks being made of plywood they really aren't made to go around these curves.  I glued 8 planks down from the sheerstrake (the wide one) and then the remaining planks up from the bottom.  These all had to be shaped at both ends to fit.

Nax Fishing Boat - Steps 7 to 8

There will be lots of gaps.  When we shape the hull planks by sanding we are going to use some wood filler to fill in the gaps.  Real wooden boats have caulked seams and they are designed to swell when they get wet and thereby get tighter.  The hull is going to be painted so you won't be able to see the seams.

More 3D Printed Accessories

Fisherman with ships Wheel - Thingiverse - I spent a long time trying to find a suitable helmsman for my boat and this one conjurs up the same vibe as the Lovecraftian fishing horror game Dredge. be

To be continued...