Hi, Barry!
Coming along very nicely, mate!
That part with the lattice cutouts is a difficult piece of work nicely executed. So what if it's all going to be covered by the rafts, it looks really good...and you can never tell if part of that lattice is going to be visible even with the rafts in place.
Railing coming along very well too, I see. I can't think of a better glue than CA for the railings. Have you tried using a rail making rack similar to what we talked about last year? Photoetch can be expensive, you are right, but you can work out something similar using CA saturated thread instead.
On a few webpages I have seen a rack made of wood overwhich the thread is wrapped parallel to each other and at spaces that match the distance between the stancions. Then, thinner thread is stretch across those "stancions" and the joints where they cross are touched with a bit of CA to bind them together, then the entire railing is soaked with CA to stiffen it up (you can use a strip of paper to channel the CA from the end of the bottle on to the thread to avoid droplets being formed on the thread). You could use the same thickness of thread, if you want, but I think using a thicker thread for the stanchions than the railings gives it a more accurate look.
Do this in a very well ventilated place, as the CA fumes are very harmful. You should end up with a pretty nice and stiff bit of railing which you then trim the excess thread from, paint it whatever color you need to, bend it where it needs to be to fit the length you are installing the railing on, and then just glue it to the deck...you can use holes in the deck if you want, just be sure you provide for extra length at the base of the stancions to fit into the holes and that the holes are not too big so that the whole thing just slides down to the deck...unless you want it to. :lol: I often leave in a bottom "rail" which I then use as the "base" to glue the railings to the deck, but making holes for the actual stancions works good too.
But, and this is my whole point, what you end up with is pretty much just as good as photoetched railing material, and you have the benefit of adjusting the thickness and location of the stancions to fit your model's particular requirements...and you can make up a bunch of railings at the same time, in one session, if the rack is made large enough. The only problem which you want to avoid, if its a big rack, is to ensure it is very sturdy so it won't twist out of shape under the tension of the thread wrappings (I ran into a problem with this using that foam core material for the rack I used on the Mexico Victory, you will recall). Also, make sure the stancion threads are parallel to one another, and the railings perpendicular to the stancions, before you start gluing up the intersection joints. You can use a strip of paper on which you've marked the proper spacing on both the upper and bottom part of the rack...being sure they are, indeed, set up exactly right to lay a parallel set of threads across them. I am rambling on a bit, so is any of this making sense? :roll:
Anyway, you might find it easier in the long run to try this rather than soldering up wire pieces or trying to thread and wrap the railings around the stancions which you've already installed on the deck. I try to do as much sub-assembly work off of the model as I can as my shaky hands will do me in for sure if I did all the work in situ on the model...yes, it has happened! :lol: Not sure if you will find any of this useful, but I hope at least some of it makes some sense.
Sorry for the long post, mate!
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Looking forward to more when you can, Barry!
Cheers,
Jim
