Dumb question about Heller Santa Maria

Thanks all,

Good ideas!

While Millard's suggestion may sound appeasing, I don't trust myself not to snap the whole model into tiny fragments with that method. Perhaps on another build.

Schoonerbumm's idea sound good to me. Yes, a bit more time, but less likely to break something.

I may just end up doing this:

1. Cement the starboard side of the hull to the deck. Us the port side to makesure placement and angles are right. Rubberband tight.

2. When that dries, do the samething witht the port side.Rubberband tight.

3. Now I have the deck glued to the bulwarks. The next step would be to open the keel just enough to get cement into there. Get a go amount into there, rubberband and clamp the hull tight.

4. Drink lots of beer and hope that works. Perhaps I should do the beer part first eh?

5. If all else fails, use portland cement, fill the bloody thing up and go to the nearest river and get a new kit.

How does that plan hold with experienced modelers?

Robert

I've found that square or rectangular Evergreen stock helps in assembly.  I use the existing pins (or remove them as use the 'ghost' in the plastic surface as a guide) as a guide and glue (cyano) the styrene stock along the bottom deck line. You do have to be careful with varying deck molded thickness.  This approach has three advantatges, (1) it provides a more positive trap for the deck (which makes dry fit easier), (2) it provides a better datum for getting the right curve to the deck and (3) it makes axial alignment easier (the locating features on some kits could use better tolerancing). Spot glue the Evergreen in short sections, starting at one end of the strip and working towards the other end, so you can get the curvature that you want. Spot glue the deck on one end as you assemble and then go back and repeat the progressive bonding, pressing the deck down on the supports as you go to get the correct shape. Once the deck is in place, use a fine strip of Evergreen in the re-entrant corner between the deck and bulwark to hide the glue seam and represent the waterway (a feature missing on most plastic models).

Hope this helps.

Schoonerbumm

 

The easiest way is to glue your hull halves together.Run liquid cement along the joint on the inside.Let it dry overnight.I will glue the stern on most of the time also. I apply Epoxy in side the hull the next day for strength. After that all dry's slide the deck in like your putting your foot into a shoe. Than work down the side of the hull. You might have to use a thin butter knife to help it down. now you'll here some cracking and popping but nothing will break. Remember to work slow. Once you have the deck in place run liquid cement around the edges and your done.You might have to use a clamp or rubberbands to bring the hull to the deck then run your glue.Most of the time I'll paint my hull what color I want and my deck before I put the two together. Just make sure the edge of the deck and where it touchs the hull are cleaned of paint you get a better joint than.When you run the liquid cement along the painted deck the paint will bubble a little.That goes away when it dry's.It will be a tight fit for the deck but it will go.Also you can get a better alignment of your keel this way.

Rod

My solution was to use 30 minute epoxy on the hull halves and Tenex or Ambroid liquid cement on the deck.  The epoxy gives you time to make adjustments and provides some tack.  Use plenty of clothespins, or better yet, discount hardware stores and large retail stores sell a bag of spring clamps in various sizes that work well.  As was said above, clamp the hull in place along the keel and let the deck "float" until you have adjusted it in postion, then use the liquid cement to tack it and then put the rubber bands around the hull, and give a final layer of liquid cement around the deck for a good bond.

Another tool that I use extensively is a vise that I clamp my hull to and build off of it.  I sometimes mount the vise to an old turntable or a board on a Lazy Susan bearing which is secured to my building table.

Scott

Actually, assembly of the IMAI Santa Maria is basically similar - the main deck has to be trapped between the hull halves as they're glued together.  I used bulldog clips along the keel and rubber bands to hold the rest of the assembly together (dry) and then used Tamiya's 'Extra-thin' liquid poly cement fairly generously along the outside of the keel seam (and inside as far as I could reach with the slightly thicker Humbrol liquid) and then the same along the edges of the deck.  The only drawback is that this stuff will get under the rubber bands and run along them, damaging the surface of the hull, so I put a couple of "spacers" on each side of the keel to prevent the band actually touching at the seam.

Admittedly, the IMAI kit goes together very well and my experience with Heller suggests theirs will be more difficult.  As I've said before, I once built their Viking Ship and the only thing the two hull halves had in common was the colour of the plastic!  Good luck!

Michael

Actually when it comes to tubes, here in Europe, both Revell and Faller still produce tubes, I'm not sure but I believe that Humbrol still makes them as well.

This is a basic problem in plastic ship modeling.  In the Olde Dayes, most of us used tube-type cement; it was possible to glue the deck to one hull half and, while that glue was still flexible, run a bead around the edge of the deck and the hull half and (having first offered up a brief prayer the gods of styrene) offer up the second half.  Nowadays it seems to be taken for granted that tube cement is for kids, but I happen to think it still has its uses - and this is one of them.  The problem is that the only widely-available tube-type cement these days is Testor's, which (largely because of the stuff that's put in it to discourage sniffing) has a stringy, yukky texture that's difficult to tolerate.  Oh, for the days of good old Revell Type S Cement.

Bottom line:  there's no easy way to do this - any more than there's an easy way to assemble the halves of an airplane fuselage with a bunch of bulkheads and other components inside.  Do a couple of dry runs, get some clamps ready (spring type clothes pins or "bulldog" paper clips work nicely), and give it a shot.