Swiss Steamwheeler RIGI under construction

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Damien
Thank you, I`m just trying to do my best

Also Hi to all PD`S
Here come the further steps to the companionways. The housings are ready built, so I had to do the windows and the doors frames. Therefore I cut some small veneer bars, from an unknown sort of wood; I just don`t know, wherefrom I had this(!); glued the outer frames for the windows, then the central posts, and as the last step the inner frames. Each window frame is made from 17 pieces of veneer, so it was a lot of almost microscopic gluework.
The door frames were much easier, now just a little bit of paint and the handles are left to do on this parts of the RIGI.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

The last steps at the companionways are done, the hinges and the doorhandles are set. the brass parts are just 2mm long at the handles, and 3 - 4mm at the hinges. And the window" glasses" are set in, they are made from a 0,2mm clear plastic film. Now I will go on with the tender boat, this is 54mm long, 22mm wide and 12mm high. It will be built the same way as the RIGI on a helling with the keel up. The material for this extremley small boat will be 1mm balsawood, this means to me, to be very careful at work.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

After the companionways are finished, now I`m working on the dinghi. It is just 54mm long but has 11 (!) frames. The keel is made from 1mm plywood, the frames are 1mm balsa wood. I did reconstuct them out from the plan shown in my former post, with big stands on them. This stands are necessary to glue them together with some 2x3mm balsa bars between them. This forms my "helling" which will be crap after building. The frames and keel section is already done, and the first planks are glued to the framework. If you want to rebuild the dinghi from the plan above, please remember that the distance between the frames is not correct 3mm, so you will have to grind the 2x3 mm planks down to around 2,8mm wide.
Regards
Gerhard

[DamienG]

Hi Damien
Thank you, I`m just trying to do my best
 
Regards
Gerhard

That's all we can ask of ourselves Gerhard To do our best.

[Gerhardvienna]

You`re so right, Damien
So, the next steps were the planking of the frames, this was made from 1mm balsawood, grinded down to 0,6mm thick and then wettened on a moist tissue. So the bars dont break, but glueing takes a bit more time for drying. After glueing the complete hull, I cut the framestands off the frames, anf grinded the hull for the first time. This needs to be extremley careful, 0,6mm are easyli grinded away! The next steps will be the inside of the hull, the bilding frame will all be removed, and the correct frames must be set in.
Regards
Gerhard

[DamienG]

Wonderful. 

[Gerhardvienna]

Thanks again Damien
Before removing the building frames, I had to smoothen the outside of the hull, this was done with a small amount of woddcement, and careful grinded with 800corn sanding sheet, After this I could remove the frames with a small needle-nose pliers, and the I started to glue the correct "frames" into the hull. Therefore I use 1mm balsawood, cut into stripes of 0,5 mm thickness, and wettened them as I did before with the planks. I just have not finished at the moment, the balsa stripes need some time to dry. Here come some few pics
Regards
Gerhard

[Doonie]

Good to watch a master in action.   Inspirational sir.

Doonie.

[DamienG]

Agreed Doonie.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Doonie & Damien
A MASTER?? not me, just a student, learning every day But I`m tryin`hard to become one in a far away future

The next steps for the dinghi was to set the rest of the frames, and after that to build the floor. Therefor I measured the inside of the boat, and made a template from carton. Then I laid this template on a piece of balsawood and printed the exatly lines through, this was done with a needle. As next step I took a small plank from 0,4mm plywood and cut the carrier strips, then I glued the long strips on them. As last step for today I painted the inside of the boat with coluorless paint, also the bottom of the floor was painted . The reason for that is simple, I cannot reach that parts, when the floor is glued into the hull, so it would not be waterproof.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

So here we go again...
After the dinghi was built in its shape, I mounted the paddle stands, they were necessary, because the boat is very low, and the man on board would not be able to drive the boat without them. Right after that I painted the dinghi first with black revell colour, later on will the upper parts be painted with white paint. The next part to do was the stern light, where a blue LED is placed in, what is a big difference to modern ships, they have usually red light at the rear.For that I used 1mm plywood for the stand, and 1,5 x 1,5mm wooden bars for the head. The roof for the lightstand is made from 1,5mm plywood also, the sidewalls of the head are made from 0,4mm plywood. The LED sits in a tube frum plexiglass which is filled with 10 min. epoxi. This isolates the wires perfect, and give also a perfect hold for the lamp. The roof will be mounted tomorrow, when the epoxi is fully hardened , and one more part of the RIGI is finished.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi to All PDs
As I posted before (page 4 this thread), The frames and keel section was glued together, now, after most of the smaller parts are done, it`s  time to build the hull. Therefore I use 2mm balsawood sheets, handcut to 3mm wide stripes. The stripe need to be cut at the bow end to a  oblique end, and grind it into shape. The stern ends need to be shortened and wettened well, because the ends need to be twisted, to fit to the frame. the first seven planks are done, today I hope to do the last of them.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Hello again
Even yesterday was a busy day, the hull is almost completed. The worst thing to do, was the fillet at the stern. Here I made a straight plank first, and filled the space betwenn the planks with a wedge from 2mm balsawood. The fillwt MUST be wettend very good, it would break when it`s too dry!! This happend to me at the firat attempt, I let it in the wet tissue for around 10 minutes`at the next try, and glued it later. Before wettening I grinded into shape, so I dont need to grind much, when the hull is closed.
Regards
Gerhard

[Spankbucket]

Gerhard I must say that I am very impressed by this project. The amount of scratchbuilt details you are crafting are amazing in both quantity and quality.

Great Job!!

[Gerhardvienna]

Gerhard I must say that I am very impressed by this project. The amount of scratchbuilt details you are crafting are amazing in both quantity and quality.

Great Job!!

Thank You, that gives me intention to go on! But it also gives me responsibility, not to drop dpwn with it!
I always build scratchbuilt models, "out of the box"-models do not fit to my intentions. Most of them are not made for sailing, so it`s much easier for me, to do it from scratch.
Regards
Gehard