I have to admit the JSC construction method gave me a bit of a fit when I first came across it, mostly because there is no explanation in the kit except in Polish on how it all goes together...not even a little diagram, at least on the ones I have seen, which would have helped a lot.
I sort of stumbled into the construction sequence on the Mexico Victory, with a bit of help from Barry, who has built these little fellows, but I've noticed they alter the construction a bit over the range of kits they offer, like cmdrted mentions. I have also enjoyed Kami Kasen's site where he has photo essays on a few JSC kits he has built, and got a better appreciation on the construction used on a few of the kits I have contemplated starting. Take a look:
http://www.geocities.jp/kami_kansen/
One thing to keep in mind is to limit the amount of glue you use to the absolute minimum to avoid the warping problem. I haven't tried the non-water based glues yet, but I imagine that would help alot...maybe Barry or Rob (or anyone else who has built the JSC line) can comment on whether the non-water based glue helped avoid warpage.
I see Barry's comments and suggestions about building these hulls and it is good advice coming from a great deal of hard earned experience...just take a look at some of his JSC builds in the album and you'll see what I mean...the same is true of cmdrted's work...only wish more folks would photo some of the mid construction stages, particularly the internal structures, so we could all see more clearly what type of construction that particular kit uses.
In building my Mexico Victory, I built the hull three times before I had one that I was happy with as to alignment of the boxes that made up the interior construction. No base plate, but I did end up gluing her to a forecore base along the lower edges of the boxes that she used, although I turned that foamcore later one into a sea scape. In my humble opinion a lot if not all of the confusion could be answered with a few simple diagrams and the addition of a base plate for all of these kits, which would allow you to get a better foundation more easily mounted to a base board, at least for the first part of the build. I note cmdrted comments that some of the models in this line do this at some point, but I wonder how many of their designs do.
I have to try cmdrted's suggestion on making up a baseplate and combine it with Barry's suggestion of putting the box frame under some weight while the glue dries because, even when I glued it to the forecore, I noticed the hull on the earlier Mexico Victory had a tendancy to take on a little banana shape...pretty annoying! I ended up using a series of rubber bands with some scrap cardboard pieces to spread the pressure of the bands across the beam of the hull and to hold it all down to the forecore building base, but as Rob and Barry mentioned at the time, that was a dangerous gamble, lest one of the bands breaks or the board slipped out in the process. I imagine a nice, firm weight from some books that cover her from stem to stern might be a better idea.
Anyone currently building a JSC that might want to share their experience with us gluttons for punishment? :lol:
Cheers!
Jim