1/28 scale ENTERPRISE 1930

Hi Claudio, fully understand your thinking and fears (hence two laminations) just throwing an idea on the table here, by leaving the rudder area open and inserting a plastic drinking straw between the plug and the lamination (through rudder opening) and then directing compressed air through the straw would possibly make lamination separation along the plug easier, only a thought ? … just seems a pity to have to align and expoxy the two sides back together after making such a good plug.

Cheers Alan

P.S Thinking little further, popping a one piece lamination from the plug would have the benefit of having a clean (read smooth) keel cavity for later lead ballast addition inside the keel cavity, whereas joining two halves I imagine would be problematic with a rough join inside the keel cavity, when trying to have snug fitting lead ballast …

Hi Alan,
this sketch may explain what I intend to do :

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The compressed air tecnique is just what big yards do for real hull delamination, unfortunately my mould is not made for and I do not have compressed air.
The alignment is not a problem since holes are made for that purpose.
About the lead ballast integration while the two halves are still separate , is a good idea tha I did not toughts about, thanks Alan !
Meanwhile the first coat is hardened. Now , first trimming the edges excess and then the other side lamination !

Ciao
Claudio

Hi Claudio, nice work. I’m not sure you need to go to the lengths of moulding the hull in two halves; the only area where there is an overhang is 'midships where there is tumblehome, which is a gentle curve, and, assuming you’ll mould the hull light, I would have thought if you mould it in one piece there would be sufficient flex in the moulding to be able to gently ease if off the plug without any damage (once it is reasonably well cured. If you were to do this the flexing should also release the moulding from the ‘fin’ too.

I’ve moulded over these sort of tumblehome curves in one piece before and it has released fine.

Ray

BTW, this is a beautiful book…

http://www.yachtingheritage.com/product.php?id_product=10

…but expensive. I treated myself to a copy for Christmas.

I’ve always thought that modelling Reliance (1903 defender) would be an interesting challenge given the extremeness (extremity?) of her design, but she is still a beautiful boat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliance_(yacht)

Ray

Hi Ray,
I did not yet taken a final decision, I will think about.
Very good adress for the book “J Class” offered at almost half the price. In France is sold at 450€. I was intending to get a copy for Christmas too, but I have anticipated the buy.
I do have since 87 the other bible .
Thank to you.
Cheers
Claudio

The plug is fully laminated.
Now , having a good base, I will start in a couple of days a good filler and fine sanding work in order to prepare the plug for a glossy paint.
The Deck drawing is just arrived from F. Chevalier.
Cheers
Claudio

Hi Claudio - Well done so far !

Just wondering … are you going to remove the current glass hull from the plug, and then place it back on for final exterior finish? I ask, as I found that I managed to ruin a nice paint job trying to loosen the hull from the plug AFTER I had it painted and polished. I would hate to see you have problems during the release of the hull from the plug and ruin a nice paint job.

Only speaking from a single bad experience. I now pull my hulls from the plug, then just place them back on while I finish the exterior. Then I don’t have to fight to get them off after painting.

Best regards, Dick

Hi Dick,
the lamination made on the wooden plug is definitive.
Fine corrections can be easily made without running the risk to damage the wood.
Today I will check again this hull form with the negative shadows and correct as necessary with filler.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The plug will be painted with dark paint as “spy” to search for bumps and walleys helping sanding for good surfacing as the plug could be used to make a female mould.
Actually will not be the immediate case since a will laminate directly on the master plug for the first model hull…
If the model will be ‘good’ in the water, it is not escluded to make some replica and in this case prepare the master for a female mould like the one already done for the Tuiga - see picture below.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

So here I am.

Now recalling what you says, much care shall be taken when painting a master for susequent moulding. Most of the polyurhetane paints and not only are entering often in conflict with waxes. It is not rare to reads on waxes manufacturing Data Sheets specifics avertissements about painted surfaces. Here in France many got sticky problems , but we are also fortunates because a manufacturer developped a special liquid wax compatible with all painted surfaces.

Cheers
Claudio

Preliminary checks

Sum of +/- tollerances contributing to imprecisions :

  • Master wood construction and manual sanding
  • manual fiberglass lamination
  • manual paper negative shadows cutting

few exemples : the visibles skin imperfections are less then 0.3-0.4mm - The “small” squares of the paper are corresponding to 5mmx5mm.

Claudio

Slowly but surely !!!
Final touch-ups
Claudio

The decision is taken, I will laminate the two halves.
For that reason I cut a slit all along the hull edge using a thin grinding circular blade. Alluminium edge of 0.4mm will be inserted.
Cheers
Claudio

Dear Claudio,

I am Jethro (Jetem username) and I was impressed by your work on the J boat. I wish to kindly ask you if it is a possibility that you send me the plans that you have made from those pdf files as I do not know how to trace them and modify them to scale. Also I have a question why you made a copy with fibre glass? I mean is not wood better material after all the work you did to build it or it has better performance?

My email is: jethro@able.com.mt

I thank you in advance for your kind help.

Kind Regards,

Jethro

Hi Jetem,
the coverage with a glass layer the wooden master offers several advantages, the first is to protect it against water during sanding with water paper . Better and solid support for filler operations and consecuent sanding, better for smooth surfacing for the construction of female mould or for the direct glass epoxy lamination for a hull copy.
Concerning the plans of the Enterprise, the original drawing are made with an old version of CorelDraw 5.
You can, if you wish, to free download the Coreldraw 5 from : http://www.brothersoft.com/downloads/corel-draw-5.html
also : http://www.topshareware.com/corel-draw-5/downloads/1.htm or again from : http://www.vetusware.com/download/CorelDRAW!%205/?id=3320
Most depends also by the scale you want. My drawings are for 1:28 offering a LOA of 131cm.
Let me knows
Claudio

Thank you Claudio for your kind reply. My problem is that I never used corel draw only little acad experiance, however I will give it another try. Thank you once again for the usefull information.

The Enterprise has changed color. The dark make easier to find small defects that will be repared with filler and than another paint layer .
In the second plan a new class model is born ! I will tell soon more about in a new tread .
Cheers
Claudio

hi Claudio!
come on … whats new ?
some pics pls :slight_smile:
this boat is awesome! and we dont know nothin’ about her :slight_smile:

please update your post

respect!

aXon

ps. i saw your plans and boats in some www…it about iacc120
nice boats and plans. super! (every frame with pdf)!!!
i am dreaming about the enterprise drawning like for example iacc120 “america3”

geatings once again Claudio!

aXon

This is really good job. I read your post and all history of Enterprise. This is my new plan :slight_smile:
I have started with half hul model as usual. Problem is to find good drowings…
Regards and waiting for more up-dates from your works!
Michal

As mentioned somewhere else, I come back to this bild log since I went shopping for glass tissues and resin.
The Enterprise Hull is ready for coating with 3 layer of 80g/m² , but not escluded further layers later.

Actually this model as well the American Eagle will run almost in parallel, the lamination choices for the Enterprise will be applied to the American Eagle as well

ClaudioD

The work progress.
finally I added a 4th layer of 50g/m² glass.

I just recall that the lamination will be done in two steps, one half at the time as illustrated in the drawing attached except the deck line wedge.

It can be observed that after removal of the peel ply, the surface do not show any excess of resin.
Many remove the peel ply only after full polymerisation, personnally I prefer to remove the ribbons once are visually fully impregnated .

ClaudioD

Dear Claudio,

I would have thought that small overlaping band of peel ply would make logitudinal step lines of resin. It seems that I am wrong. Do you have an explaination?

Sylvain