Topic: Melita

[karlgalster]

Hi Arno

Good idea. I have tried that technique in the past

Actually I have slightly changed my view of the kit's Styrolux cabin moulding when bonding to styrene. My early attempts were using Humbrol liquid poly to join styrene to untreated styrolux. It worked reasonably with large areas but not a very secure bond. However,if the styrolux target surface is roughed up with sand paper prior to bonding the Humbrol liquid poly works well but for small areas I think the Deluxe Super Crylic is the best solution. 

Robin

[karlgalster]

Hi. Moving on, the wheel house windows were cut from 0.75mm styrene sheet. I used the kit's vinyl window templates as a general guide but careful measurements of the actual wheel house window base bonded to the cabin were made along with measurements from the kit drawing. Needless to say the wheelhouse roof has had to be scratch built as the moulded kit version will not fit the top of the wheel house as produced by my frames The tabernacles for the mast are bonded to the cabin with a supporting strip underneath to add to the mast support rigidity.

[karlgalster]

Time to prime the cabin and hull. The cabin only required the aft planked area to be masked, The hull needed everything above the mahogany bulwark capping to be masked although the inside of the bulwark were also primed. I am using Simoniz white primer. The white does not cover that well particularly where I have used Humbrol modeller's filler which is mid grey. Should have used a white filler I suppose - try and remember that next time I have a white painted model. Various views follow of the cabin before and after priming and the underside of the hull. I primed inside the cabin as well remembering to mask off the windows. Followed up with air brushing Humbrol 22 gloss white enamel. Sprays quite well but again the covering is not that brilliant. Could have used an acrylic car spray...

[karlgalster]

The Melita will have a rotating radar and five leds. Two leds will be for the navigation lights, one led for the search light and two leds for lighting the interior of the cabin and wheelhouse for night regattas -my club does the occasional night regatta/barbeque in the summer ..... the lake/pond looks quite impressive I'm told. Melita will be my first model fitted with any illuminations. I will post some photos of the leds mounts and radar later but in the meantime below is a photo of the small board for fitting inside the cabin. It uses part of an old "Vero Board" which was used in days of old for building up circuit prototypes in labs etc. On my board is the small (very small) adjustable voltage regulator for the miniature radar motor. The motor will be fixed to the underside of the wheelhouse roof. I got the motor and regulator from Componentshop.com at the Warwick show last November. To give a realistic rotational speed the motor will not need much more than 1 volt dc. The regulator will provide this from my 7.2 volt battery. Could have just used a series resistor but better this way. The led series resistors are 1/4 watt. More on this later. The two leads and connectors mate up with the main control board which has switches for selecting lights and or radar. The leads will be long enough to enable the cabin to be removed without unplugging.

[karlgalster]

I have been building the wheelhouse interior. The plan was to glue this from underneath into the appropriate orifice in the cabin. However it has been possible to fix the wheelhouse interior in place (firmly) with just a single clip and some wooden strips. This will enable me to maintain the underside of the wheelhouse roof which mounts some leds and the radar motor.

The wheelhouse interior is from sheet styrene.

I have added some navigation aids which I have added reference being a set of photos included in the information when the yacht was up for sale in Bergen - just google yacht melita if you are interested.

The chart is reproduced from a photo of an OS map, in this instance Outdoor Leisure 36 South Pembrokeshire which is the closest I have of a maritime chart. I attached the jpg file to a word document and then reduced its size to what I wanted. The result was printed on Letraset Safmat which is a self-adhesive A4 material which can be printed on a standard inkjet printer. Cut out and stuck on the chart table.

Next task is to paint the hull and cabin in gloss white and two shades of blue.

[Dennis]

Nice detailing of the interior of the cabin. Should look awesome when lite up by the lighting.

[karlgalster]

Hi Dennis

I think led lighting will enhance the model but I suspect the cabin itself will glow at night as well since it is made of clear plastic painted white. Not sure what I will do about this except paint the cabin interior matt black but that might have an adverse effect on the model in daylight.

 I am also in the process of remaking my search light as it was also made of plastic and when switched on the whole thing lit up not just light from the front. I am lining search light mkII with a cylinder of litho plate (0.15mm aluminium sheet) to block out unwanted light. Hoping it works

[swiftdoc]

Hi Robin,

the aluminium method should work - I have used aluminium foil and nothing shone through later. Matt black paint usually is unsufficient especially when applied with a brush (at least when I do it ).

Cheers

Arno

[karlgalster]

Yes, perhaps the matt black was wishful thinking on my part. Plan B will be to try and stick a disc of the aluminium on the flat end of the led before inserting the led into the tube (being careful to not to short the led's two legs together  )

[karlgalster]

Most of the painting done. I use an air brush for practically everything apart from priming. I could do with a more heavyweight brush for the hull work but with a lot of work my neo for iwata TRN2 is just about OK. It has a nice pistol grip which I like.

The paints are Humbrol gloss enamels.

The next jobs are the railings and the glazing of the wheelhouse windows and making the wheelhouse  roof.

[karlgalster]

Moving on. Wheelhouse is now glazed and the wheelhouse roof made and bonded in place. I used Deluxe Glue 'n' Glaze for both the glazing and attaching the roof to avoid fogging the clear styrene glazing material. Seems a good all purpose glue as well as specialist glazing uses.

Railings. Quite a long job. The kit supplies white metal stanchions complete with holes for threading the kit supplied brass wire for the railings. The stanchions are supposed to be fitted to the wooden bulwark capping.

I have departed from this plan. In the actual yacht the stanchions actually are fitted to the deck not the top of the bulwarks. I also do not like white metal in general. Ok for a static model but with me being a bit clumsy I would probably break the stanchions on the first strip to the lake. 

My stanchions are from 1.5 mm thin walled brass tube. A slightly larger diameter short brass sleeve is soldered to the deck end to get the height above deck level the same for each stanchion. Half way up each stanchion a 0.5 mm diameter hole is drilled so that the 0.33 mm dia  nickel silver rod can be threaded through. The top rail is a 1.5 mm solid brass rod. The railings are in four sections. The sections were soldered using the model as the jig. Worked out OK and nice and strong.

[karlgalster]

Finished. Sails well, looks good on the water. The other half is now using it for steering regattas, her old faithful Conserver (Model Slipways) is now in retirement. Overall a typical DM kit. Nice subject but can be challenging for novices.

[karlgalster]

Couple of on the water shots.