I ordered this after seeing the construction photos on the DN website. After printing everything out and laminating enough 1mm for the hull parts I just sat and stared at the pile of paper for awhile. No matter what nit-picking comments I may have as things go together, this is an amazing piece of model engineering! The back-printing is brilliant and Roman is to be congratulated for taking what was a perfectly good model and redesigning it from keel up!
I started construction with the above-waterline structure thinking that I might complete it as a waterline model. The only hiccups were parts 8, 12 and 21 whose slots were not long enough. Another problem was encountered when test fitting the after deck to the hull structure. A slot is needed at the centerline forward edge to accomodate the "spine." I glued the #25 tabs in place on the #25 stringer pieces before installing the stringers.
I assembled the below-waterline structure on an extra waterline plate I printed out on plain (24 lb) paper. This allowed me to get spine and formers aligned properly. After I had completed that much of the assembly I discovered the "Another warship gets its keel laid..." thread and saw the great photos of wunwinglow's constuction. the gussets are a great idea and I'll use that procedure in the future.
There is nothing special in the photos here - I have a few of the glueing "cheat" strips on the lower hull and have been trying to decide whether i should put pieces 30-34 in place before marrying the upper and lower hull assemblies.
I discovered that the main deck pieces are apparently considered "hull structure" since they are supposed to be 1mm thick. I need to get those laminated before I end up with a "thin deck" like on my Shipyard Dutch yacht. More later as things progress...
I started construction with the above-waterline structure thinking that I might complete it as a waterline model. The only hiccups were parts 8, 12 and 21 whose slots were not long enough. Another problem was encountered when test fitting the after deck to the hull structure. A slot is needed at the centerline forward edge to accomodate the "spine." I glued the #25 tabs in place on the #25 stringer pieces before installing the stringers.
I assembled the below-waterline structure on an extra waterline plate I printed out on plain (24 lb) paper. This allowed me to get spine and formers aligned properly. After I had completed that much of the assembly I discovered the "Another warship gets its keel laid..." thread and saw the great photos of wunwinglow's constuction. the gussets are a great idea and I'll use that procedure in the future.
There is nothing special in the photos here - I have a few of the glueing "cheat" strips on the lower hull and have been trying to decide whether i should put pieces 30-34 in place before marrying the upper and lower hull assemblies.
I discovered that the main deck pieces are apparently considered "hull structure" since they are supposed to be 1mm thick. I need to get those laminated before I end up with a "thin deck" like on my Shipyard Dutch yacht. More later as things progress...