Dumas USS Whitehall 1/96

Hey CG Bob, 

Did you use some fancy trick to get the forward deck piece to fit snugly on the hull or simply did you get it close enough and fill the gaps? I had a crazy idea to attempt to eliminate the seam from the front deck to the middle deck section by fabricating a one piece deck out of balsa or plastic using the full scale drawings provided with the kit as a template. Just by looking at the hull I can tell the drawing and the kit do not exactly match however, do you think this is worth giving a shot at? I might be bitting off more than I can chew at this point but it may clean things up a bit and reduce the gaps between the removable decking and the hull. 

Tonight I spent about 2 hours examining and sanding the hull. I used some grey plastic putty from Tamiya to fill the canyon of a seam between the 2 hull halves. After alternating from a rough 80 grit sand paper to a 120 grit the bow is starting to look a bit better. I am not too sure about the quality of my filling efforts so I am hoping after the primer and first coat of paint it will look acceptable. I only got about a quarter of the hull sanded until I forced myself to give it a rest and come back to it latter since I started sensing that I was growing impatient and may rush something. Oh how I appreciate the 1/350 scale one piece hulls lol! 

PHILLIP.BIBBEY -- Thou shalt not bang one,s head over a LINDBERG kit LOL.LOL. Shoot I just convert them ! Even though the officer of the company I knew was considered a friend I still recommend them to beginners with this admonishment , If you can , make sure you have profiles or "in action" publications to guide you to the correct look and equipment . I have been told their COAST GUARD "CAPE CLASS"is as close to accurate as you can ask for . the rest , well I have converted many "RUDDEROW "models into APD and RADAR picket ships . I took their ROCKET barrage ship and LST and converted many into work barges (self propelled) and inter island freighters. Their LCVP ain,t bad and I did R.C. one with a serco for drive and another for steering . I covered the reciever and speed control (before micro versions)  as tarped cargo in the welldeck . You can do it  , you MUST keep the "goodies" very low in the hull , it is workable and it can be fun watching it run on the lake or in the pool. As for your other endeavor , well keep at it . You will learn a lot and you CAN produce a good model , right ?? I think so !        tankerbuilder

Thanks a bunch for the info regarding the hull. If I get time tonight I will take a look at what you are referring to. Initially I am very happy with the kit, even with some die crushed side!

I reviewed that kit for SHIPS IN SCALE Magazine, July/August 2007.  It's a nice little kit, and there are a couple of discussion threads at rcgroups.com.  A couple of recommendations on the hull and its construction. 

1.  My kit had a coil of 1/8" wide triangular stock that I was supposed to sand to a ghalf round shape for the rubrails.  I used Evergreen 1/8" half round strip, it's close to the right length right out of the package.

2.  I substituted some Evergreen 1/16" x 1/8" strip styrene for the wood bilge keels.

3.  Check the die cut (die crushed) Sintra sheet used for the decks and superstructure parts.  One side has cruched or rounded over; I used the flip for the deck top and outside edges of the superstructure.