1/20 Scale Aluminum WW2 PT-Boat continued...

[kenb]

Hello folks,

I got some more work done on the boat this week, here's a few pictures of what I've been up to.

Final fitting of the prow trim cover was a little bit problematic, because of the uneven shape of the aluminum block that connects the prow together. The way it was, the prow trim piece was tipping on a downward angle toward the front, and the support area below needed to be raised upwards at the pointed end to ensure the trim blends in properly with the hull lines. Since I had to plug up the last remaining hole on the hull up there anyhow, I thought I'd try building the area up with the same aviation adhesive I used to seal up the rest of the hull.



I started by plugging up the hole at the very prow first, and then I spread some extra adhesive around the area to raise the level, leaving a good sized blob at the front. I then waited for 48 hours for the adhesive to firm up somewhat.




Two days later, I covered the still slightly soft and tacky adhesive with waxed paper to prevent it from sticking, and I then shoved the trim over top of it into it's proper position.




When I removed the trim piece immediately afterwards, I had left an exact impression of its inside surface in the still somewhat flexible blob of adhesive. Once this cures solid in a few more days, I'll be able to drill the hole for the attachment screw and finish trimming the lower edge of the trim piece. Also note the completed and polished Hawse Hole fitting (thanks guys!) sitting in position on top of the trim.



Next, I moved on to building a turret base for one of the two double 50 machine guns.


This is the beginnings of the machine gun turret base that will be attached adjacent to the pilots position to the right of the helm, seen upside down in this picture. In this image, the turret support tube is wrapped around a piece of 2" diameter bar stock and held in place with a hose clamp while I knocked over the flanges. I used internal flanges like this for attachment points so that I can conceal as many of the fasteners as possible.




Turret base with the lower flanges bent over.




This is the shroud that sits right in front of the helmsman. I made this part from .040" flat sheet 3003, and developed the bends as I stretched the material at the corners at the same time. It actually took two tries to get this part right, as I tore a corner on the first attempt by getting too greedy with the stretching.


More to follow.

Ken

[kenb]

Hi Folks,

It's time to introduce a couple of new crew members! These two guys will be spending a lot of time roaming the deck of this vessel from now on while I work; to keep my mind operating in 1/20 scale at all times, where 1 foot is roughly 9/16" of an inch long.




I haven't given them names or anything, but based on my scale calculations, the chap on the left is roughly 5'10" in height, with his buddy on the right standing at approximately 6'4".





Here's a view of the new helm shroud and turret base in position.




Close-up view of helm area.



I got thinking about how to deal with exposed edges around the helm yesterday, and I thought it would be nice to dress some of these dull features up a bit by capping them somehow. The picture below shows the tool kit I made up for making edge caps.


The cap making tools include the wooden block with two router cut grooves of different depths, a long .096" drill bit, an aluminum setting tool, and the .325" wide strip of aluminum we will make into a railing cap.




To begin, I used a hammer to drive the aluminum into the deep groove, using the drill bit as the inside die. Once the aluminum bottomed out in the curved bottom of the groove in the hardwood, I moved it over to the shallow groove and finished wrapping it around the drill bit from both sides. Spraying the drill bit with WD-40 first made it lots easier to remove afterwards.





This is the first one I made yesterday, I made a nicer looking longer one today after I switched from using a hammer to using a slapper instead when finishing the wrap. I can make these up to whatever length is required to span the desired areas, and they are quite easy to bend into shape. They will be permanently attatched with aircraft adhesive.





Here's some capping installed on the front and back walls of the helm. I still have some bugs to work out of the system, but I think I'll end up capping the all of the standing walls of the helm area this way. I still have to practice bevelling at the corners a bit, and I'm also going to try getting around corners with one piece for a seamless appearance from the outside.

Ken

[George H]

My Ken, you have accomplished alot since I saw it a few days ago. Looks great.
George