Dinghy

Continued work on the Atlantis dinghy, what a lovely little model this is...... I still have reservations about the veneer quality..... the sheet for the dinghy is particularly brittle and very thin.

The model has taken around a day to complete..... probably 8 hours or so..... I still need to paint the exterior of the hull...... but am pleased with the result.

I will have to think about using another cyanocrylate adhesive, the one I currently use, doesnt bond the veneers very well...... I ended up using a contact type glue.

My personal view is the gunwale fender supplied by Robbe appears over scale, so I have used some finer material to top off the hull.

I also feel , that in reality the dinghy would be in regular use, so I have slightly weathered the interior, as I shall do also to the extrior , when painted.

Added a few details and the end result is what you see here......

Oh, and finally, following advice from a German modeller, his experience has shown, that when sailing in higher winds, his dinghy on the deck, always returned to shore with it full of water !

He recommended I drill some drainage holes in the dinghy hull, to allow water to drain away.

Veneers

hmm.. whilst awaiting the courage to start the deck planking...... ( I need to decide what planking method I intend to use )... either the "robbe way" which follows the curves of the hull or the more common "straight" method.

So while I try to decide, I thought I'd skip ahead a little, and make a start on the ships dinghy. This meant having a more indepth look inside #1133 the Atlantis wood pack.

An aquaintance, Colin H, who is also building an Atlantis, did mention to me about the "brittle" nature of the veneers...... Upon closer inspection, I now see what he means........

One of the main diecut pieces, containing parts 26.2 - 27.17 seems to be very poor quality, certainly some of the poorest parts I have ever encountered from Robbe !

As can be seen, the veneer has "bubbled" separating from the ply backing.... this is straight out of the box... I decided, there and then to identify and separate the remaining parts from this sheet............

The results are as above...... I am not impressed, not only is the veneer separating, but the ply is also separating !

? Perhaps the adhesive bond between layers is failing ?

This has necessitated in some "remedial" work to glue these parts back together and apply pressure in a vice. On a kit of this price, I do not expect to have to repair items out of the box !

I may well be just unlucky with this problem..... but my guess is, it IS a common problem and I think occurs as the wood parts /glue, dry out in storage..... , as stated, these photos are of the die-cut veneers straight out of the box.

I intend to raise the issue with Robbe, and see what they say.......

May Day May Day ! Well Almost !

In the UK its the start of "May Day" weekend, a bank holiday Monday on the horizon.

Well, after what seemed to be a never ending winter, Spring appears to have arrived at last. Daffodils and Tulips are still well in bloom, the long cold months seem to have slowed everything down. But the Tadpoles have now hatched from the early Spring Frogs spawning, so better weather "must?" be coming !

The new workshop is now in situ, wired up, alarmed and fitted out, the older buildings demolished and removed, with the remaining garden areas gradually being tidied.

I must confess, to having been ill for over a month in February, followed with being distracted with "domestic and diy stuff" and then playing with my trains in my new found "space".

However, with the onset of better weather, my thoughts have now returned to the "Atlantis" , I am now refreshing my memory, with the Robbe Instructions and plans, so work is to resume on the build shortly.

I had always intended the build to be a long slow one, so nothings changed there :)

The next stage is the return to the deck planking.............

watch this space soon