Soldering the Mainmast

This post concerns the soldering of the mainmast. This is the first time that I’ve ever soldered any parts for a model. I made a run to Home Depot and purchased a soldering gun, flux, and solder. Something that I would add to the purchase is a device known as a third hand. (You’ll find out why later)

(The third hand)

I started off this part of the build by using an index card to transfer the dimensions of the mainmast from the plans. I used the card as a cutting base to get the mast cut and joined at the proper lengths without hosing up the plans. The mainmast was .032" brass rod, the top mast was .020" diameter brass rod. The remaining parts were made from .016" diameter brass.

This is the first time I've ever soldered a mast but it turns out that it's not that difficult. The first thing to do is to make sure that the components are clean. I sanded the brass stock that was going to become the mast with a sanding stick. I also tapered the top mast for a more realistic appearance.

Once they were clean I applied a little dab of flux to the parts. The flux facilitates the soldering of the parts by providing a chemically clean surface. Then I took the gun and heated it up. Using a small amount of solder I touched the tip of the gun until a small amount of solder melted off onto the gun tip.

In turn I sued the gun to “paint” the area where I was going to join the parts. This left the parts with a surface area of solder on them. Set aside the gun and align the parts as you want them joined. The main to top mast is the easiest join. In this case I secured them to the index card with some masking tape.

Heat the gun up again and touch the tip to the parts. The solder that you painted on earlier should “flash” (liquefy). Remove the gun and you should then have two soldered parts. Don’t over-do the application of the solder. Less is more in this context since only the top surface of the solder has any grip on the parts.

The other joints are going to be harder to do. Firstly because they are just more complex and secondly because you don’t want to heat the parts up so much that the earlier joints you made re-liquefy. I advise using metal clamps to hold the parts since that will act as a heat-sink to drain off excess heat.

The third hand would be useful to apply items such as the boat boom. I rigged something up using a chunk of florist foam but do yourself a favor and buy the third hand tool. These parts took me 2 hours to make…most of that time spent in a rather frustrating attempt to align the booms before I figured out the florist foam & alligator clamp arrangement.

A related 101 course on soldering.

Mid deck/Boats finished

The pictures ought to speak for themselves. The only details added at this point that haven't been previously discussed are some brass grab rails on the two steam launches. The rails came from 1/400 scale PE ladders. I also added a couple of boat crane hooks from a 1/700 IJN carrier PE sheet I had as a spare.





The next thing to tackle is probably going to be the aft superstructure. I'll be learning some new skills... soldering brass masts.

Boats and Rework

I took all of the boats that were going to populate the decks and mounted them to long toothpicks in order to paint them. Trim the end of the toothpick and dab the cut end into a drop of CA. I then very carefully stick the toothpick to the underside of the boat that will be towards the centerline of the ship. For the boats that were still on their resin casting gates, I simply used alligator clips obtained from the local radio shack to hold them. I mounted all the boats into a chunk of florists foam and headed to the spray booth. The boats were painted the same color as the hull.
Jim Baumann suggested that I replace the railings on the catwalks between the decks. I agreed... they looked pretty clunky compared to the WEM railings that I was using. So I pulled the bow catwalk up and cut away the railings and replaced them with the extra fine stuff. I opted not to replace the aft catwalk since it is going to be hidden by the two boats straddling it.
I also managed to finish one of the boats. I used short lengths of fine wire crushed in a pair of flat pliers to make oars for the boat. I also added a short length of "rope" made from fuse wire that was wrapped around the tip of a toothpick, slid off, and then pressed flat with pliers. It might look a little clunky in the photo but remember the entire boat is about 1 cm in length.

Boat Deck Supports

The kit supplied boat deck supports are on the brass photo-etch sheet. Unfortunately, there is no way that they will actually fit the kit. The supports have to be placed on either side of the superstructure guns. At this point on the superstructure, the sides angle in in order to provide the guns with a good field of fire.

The supports don't take this into account and hence they won't fit. In order to solve the problem I used .015" diameter silver-bearing solder. I bent the solder in an improvised jig of dress-making pins stuck into a piece of basswood. I flattened the resulting parts between my glass photo-etch sheet and a steel ruler. I attached the parts with CA. I'll paint them once they're dry. I'll also probably have to do a little tweaking of the boat bottoms in order to get them to sit straight since their are no cradles on my jury-rigged parts.

The pics below should explain the process fairly well.

Bridge Decks completed

The Bridge Decks are now complete. The only casualty was the loss of the starboard pelorus to the carpet monster. I also added the two diagonal supports to the bridge wings on each side of the ship.

The railing also looks a lot cleaner on the upper bridge. The reason is that I broke this section of railing down into 5 separate pieces. So there is a lesson learned. Complex shapes are better captured by a greater number of railing pieces. I trimmed them just short of a stanchion at the corners and then attached them to the follow-on piece at a stanchion.

And of coarse, I have to include the obligatory overall shot.