USS Juneau CL-52

[Douglas Urantia]

I posted a very nice comment on this thread and it never appeared. What happened???

[Texman]

Originally Posted by Douglas Urantia

I posted a very nice comment on this thread and it never appeared. What happened???

Again, my apologies, I must have missed the notices signifying there is a new member posting. Your posts should appear now!

[rjccjr]

Hi All;
The stacks are just starting to come together. The after stack base is a separate, and tricky, section. It is over sized to accommodate a searchlight platform, the aft mast and the ships crane. The shape is peculiar in that it's considerably wider than the stack itself. The forward section has a distinct rake to it, while the rear is straight vertical. It gives the illusion that the whole section is raked aft. A center keel was created and slotted, one piece fore and aft, one piece side to side. These were glued to a base former with a flat cap on top. The outer shell was cut over sized and shaped around the frame. To get the curve, the flat shell plate was placed on my upper knee and a thick skewer rolled over it to break the stiff fibers in the card. It creates a gentle curve. Incidentally, to roll a gun barrel or a mast, the same process is used. Years ago, a number of brass rods, of descending diameter, was purchased just for this purpose. To get a gun barrel you just keep rolling down the diameters until you have a pretty fine tube. In this case only a gentle curve was required. The shell was test fitted and trimmed to get the required shape. The seam was kept forward to be hidden by the crane post. To make the shape a little stronger, a narrow connector plate was attached to the front of the frame for the edges of the shell to adhere to. It took several tries at redrawing to get the shape to fit properly. Once the base was in place, a searchlight platform was glued to the top. The stacks use the same core and shell process. The first picture shows the base for the aft stack in place. The second is a close up shot. I won't be certain that this is a success until the upper stacks are test fitted, but it's a start. The last picture shows the parts for the after stack laid out and the drawings for both stacks. These are rough because it's the first attempt. Notice, the forward stack is not raked, but straight vertical and is taller. The stack caps will not be addressed until the stacks themselves are shaped correctly.
By the way, Douglas; your messages were showing up under your name, probably because they hadn't come to CL-52 update.Thank you for the kind words.
Regards rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

This was a "one thing leads to another" week, a chain reaction of cataclysms. That's when you fix one problem and it forces you to fix a whole series of others. First the aft stack base was too wide at the bottom and needs to be slightly slab sided as well. When that was redrawn, it showed that the searchlight tubs were too small and the ventilator openings were also. The vents were easy enough to fix, but increasing the tubs meant that the deck at the top of the base needed to be redrawn, which of course led to moving the upper stack forward. It also meant that the same problem existed on the forward stack, which had to be redrawn to keep things in proportion. It also forced a redraw of the crane assembly. Aaargh!

It seems that in the construction of a complex model, there is always a "throw it against a wall moment," sometimes several. That's when the quality of perseverance comes in. If you keep going, you will eventually finish. If you get caught in the doldrums, well, that's the end. It helps to look back, to notice how much work you have into the project. You are too far into it to quit. Right now the daylight is showing. A usable set of stacks are aboard. The first picture shows three attempts. The third is not completely glued. That's because there were two plates which were used to keep the front and rear of the stack cover from getting too pointed. It didn't work, so when the unit was glued they were removed and the unit fell into place. The second photo shows those plates just before removal. Notice that the platform design is altered with each version. The next two shots show the stacks in place with the revised searchlight tubs and vents in place. Notice that the forward stack vents are not yet modified, nor are the searchlight tubs. The positions are right, but the sizes are out of proportion. They will shortly be fixed and the rear upper stack needs to be raked a little more aft. The stack position marked on the platform needs to be moved forward about tree thirty- seconds of an inch. These are easy fixes. The drawings for the crane unit are well underway. At this point, thinking about the mast works may well be put off to the prototype model, where they may be dealt with in detail.

Regards rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

This was a week when a lot of little things were done that make a big difference. The first photo is from a while back. It is included because it shows the mock up when the light tubs were on the stacks were different sizes, the stack caps were not in place and the contrast of color and white areas was rather stark. The next shows the corrected tubs, stack caps, one missing gun barrel and mast stubs in place. Mast stubs were chosen because they don't require any detail work, but are the right height and proportion. They are simple teriyaki skewer bamboo rods. There are some components which cannot be made of card for one reason or another. That's where teriyaki skewers come in so handy for other than tools. The bamboo is very strong, very light and can be tapered easily. They can also be sliced into slender slivers for lattice mast parts or whip antennae. Rather than go to all of the trouble of replacing the parts which had the under sized vents, the corrected vents were printed on regular paper and just tacked on. When the parts were all corrected and put into place, tube water color paints were mixed on a plastic palette and used with a dry brush technique to reduce the stark white card edges as well as color the stub masts. The paint dries flat and can be over-sprayed for water proofing later. Any fear of mixing colors on a palette went away years ago during my artistic days. At this point, once the crane has been fitted, the mock up will be removed from the builders board and the prototype will be started.

Regards, rjccjr.

[rjccjr]

Hi All;
The crane post and boom were completed and fitted. The mock up was removed by sliding a medium sized snap off knife blade under the glue spots, which held the model in place. Sliding the extended knife along beneath the model popped it from the building board very nicely. The glue spots and residual card fragments will be sanded off, using a household sander and the board used for the construction of the prototype. Experience has shown that the old model should not be immediately discarded, since it can still be useful for testing clearances and fittings before they are used on the prototype. For example, the twenty mm guns are pretty tiny, so a test version will go on the mock up to insure the proportion and size. It can save a lot time and of trouble building the prototype. The same will be done with the quad 1.12" AA guns. The first photo shows the post and boom in place before the model was lifted from the board. There was some doubt about the clearance of the boom when it was elevated and lowered. The parts for the pulleys on the top of the crane post and at the end of the boom were attached to make sure of the clearance. The second photo shows the model removed from the board with no ill effects. The last two shots show the pulleys in place. Everything clears for movement.

It appears that I've run into the dreaded size monster. I'd be willing to downsize the pictures, but do not have a copy of "Uploads For Dummies." Some help, would help.

Regards rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

This is the last photo from the previous post. It shows the king post and boom in place. Still haven't figured out how to decrease the size of the photo, so this entry is reduced to just one shot. It looks like a single shot will slip by the jaws of the dreaded size monster. Patience is fairly easy and not a problem. Still, there's a lot to be said for persistence. Otherwise this kind of project simply couldn't get done. Best wishes to the moderator for working with the difficulty. The efforts behind the scenes are very much appreciated though not often thanked.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;
The prototype is under way. The build board was sanded. The glue spots are gone. A light pencil line was drawn down the center of the board. Pencil marks were made at the bow and stern. The four sections of the base plate were cut, folded and dry fitted. Some corrections will be needed to the drawings, but these are easy. That's the value of the mock up. Corrections will be expected all the way along.
Regards, rjccjr

[Michael Mash]

Hello rjccjr:
Looks like you were searching for advice to downsize your photos?
There are many ways, but one of the most simple is to use Microsoft Paint.
Open your photo in some convenient program.
Then right-click it. Then click “open with . . . choose paint”.
That should open your image in Microsoft Paint.
Then in the upper left area of the screen you should see “Resize”. (See attached image).
Click on that. Another window will open (See 2nd attached image).
Where it says “Horizontal”, type in the number 25. (looks like your images are very large, so this step will reduce it to 25% of its original size.
Then hit OK. Now the image should be much smaller.
Go to file and click “Save”, and you should be done.
All of this should be done first, before you put them into PaperModelers.com.

Note: I find instructions like this over the internet very difficult, since I am not a good instructor. But maybe (if lucky) this will be helpful.

[rjccjr]

Hi Michael;

Thank you so much for the information. It will certainly be tried. Was sort of going on that direction, but don't quite have the hang of it yet.

Regards, rjccjr