Silhouette SD

[Philip H]

Continuing progess...



A quick mock up with the roof now. The roof may be completely scrapped as I am planning to build it with vollmer spanish tile instead of blank sheet. I was originally going to skin what I have with the Vollmer sheets but they are too thick and the resulting offset will make a mess.

That is one of the best looking scratchbuilts I've seen in N scale in a long time!

[lashedup]

Tony that looks really great. I love the detailing and knew that building would make a great test project.

Nice work!

-jamie

[SkipGear]

The walls are done, on to the roof and windows...

[Dave Schneider]

Looking great Tony! I have been stalled on making much progress lately due to work, but it is great to see others charging ahead.

Best wishes, Dave

[pnolan48]

Got some poor results trying to cut bridge vertical truss posts in true scale (1:160) out of cardstock. Got slightly better results cutting a lattice for a bridge portal. Looks like this effort would be better for photoetch.

Photos later. 32GB SDs work strangely between camera and computer.

[sirenwerks]

BUMP - anything new from you more technologically advanced modelers?

[SkipGear]

If things go good today, I should have something else to show. It's hot outside so it's a good day to hide in the basement and finish up projects.

[pnolan48]

I'll try to photograph the lattices I made out of cardstock. When I came back after 3 weeks in Alabama, they looked much nicer and finer than when I left. And I did get my 4 x 8 sheets of .010 and .020 styrene, so cutting on ship hull formers and skins should start later this week. I still haven't given up on hulls, just thinned the materials. I've learned a good amount about cutting paths--the practice vs the theory.

[Dave Schneider]

Pete,

I just saw some of your ship models in one of the recent N scale pubs. You do really nice work and should share some photos with us once and a while. No recent work from me and the family and I are on vacation. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll have something new. 

Best wishes, Dave

[pnolan48]

Dave,

I thought I had posted a fleet review. I'll do so shortly on the N scale forum.

[pnolan48]

Interesting results today. Yesterday I drew the hull of an Aggressive-class minesweeper. Last night I cut it out of 0.20 styrene. and wasn't happy with the result. It was too hard to snap along the score lines, and the Silhouette somehow picked up a one-inch offset on one side, of which I couldn't find a cause, or even an indication.

Today I cut the hull from a new sheet of .010 styrene. Wow! It went together smooth as could be. This tells me that I've been overbuilding with .020 styrene (for ships about a foot long). There's just no need for thickness when I have a good vertical keel.

My hulls are made from:

1. Waterline (or bottom) plan
2. Top deck plan (which may be more than one piece, if the ship has a forecastle or poop deck)
3. Center keel with interlocking cutouts for sections
4. Sections interlocking cutouts for the center keel
5. Hull sides

Pictures later. The .010 styrene loads (and later snaps) much easier than .020 styrene or the .030 styrene I tried once.

Why the Aggressive? Well, digitalnavy.com has a darn good Admirable class, which I cut with a knife and assembled a few years ago. I did not want to infringe on that efforts in any way. And the Aggressive class was built in the early 1950s, with a prettier wooden hull. And Bob Bufkin has expressed an interest, so I thought I'd tempt him a bit.

Also, minesweepers outlasted many other classes of Naval ships. So now I have an 172' Aggressive-class, and also a 240' Raven-class (the one with a bow nearly or totally identical to the 341' Benson-class destroyers--yes, it looks like a Benson with 101 feet cut out!

I'm away tomorrow, so will pick this up Friday.

[Zox]

...and the Silhouette somehow picked up a one-inch offset on one side, of which I couldn't find a cause, or even an indication.

Did you check the setting for whether or not you're using a carrier sheet? If the Silhouette thinks you are, it will compensate by offseting the cuts, which sounds like what's happening to you here (although not by as much as an inch).

[pnolan48]

Did you check the setting for whether or not you're using a carrier sheet? If the Silhouette thinks you are, it will compensate by offseting the cuts, which sounds like what's happening to you here (although not by as much as an inch).

I'm using the 90-lb index card setting. That's new. I'll go back to the "Thick Material" setting--although I guessed that would entail the carrier. I am using the "Load Media" setting on the printer, not the "Load Media with Carrier."

[SkipGear]

I need to get back to work on my cutter. It seems like every weekend something comes up though. Last weekend was a pin hole in the water main into the house just past the meter. Now last night my wife complains that the dryer isn't working right. I find out that the vent line is clogged with cat hair from washing the rugs and towels that are cats us in their beds. It's off to Home Depot to get some new ducting and get rid of the flex pipe stuff.

[pnolan48]

Another one of my stupid mistakes!

A few months ago, I ordered .010, .020, and .030 sheets of styrene. When I picked them up a few weeks ago, my friend John told me the plastics house didn't have any .030 sheets, so they sent me .060 instead. So I believed I had .010, .020, and .060 sheets, which I happily unrolled and began cutting 10-inch wide sheets off the short side, then cutting the sheets down to 10" x 16" sheets to feed the cutter.

Of course, the uncut sheets actually measure 50" x 98", instead of 48 x 96, but that was just a little puzzling, as I described last night over on the Atlas forum.

I planned to use the .020 for hull bottoms, sections, top deck and center vertical keel, and the .010 for hull sides and deck houses. The .060 would be for large ships and perhaps the fascia on my reconstructed layout.

So I fed the first .020 sheets into the cutter--with much difficulty! I cut hull bottoms, sections, top deck, center keel and, because I had more room, the hull sides.

Hmm, the slots of the sections and center keel--which are interlocked--were way too tight. I opened them up with sandpaper, and went back to the drawing board and opened up the slots to .023 for the second prototype. The hulls sides were a little too short, but otherwise curved quite nicely. Maybe I should use .020 for hull sides after all?

The .010 sheet fed and cut like butter. Sure there were adjustments to make for the second prototype, as it's easy to misread plans when trying to draw all the components.

I went back early tonight to cut the second prototype. I had a work-around for the 30mm (more than an inch) that Illustrator did not render (probably a bug in CS2, as it also had printing problems). And I noticed an old remnant from another sheet of .010. Hmm--it was much thinner than the new sheets of .010.

Now I've been using my micrometer on a lot of stuff--but not the new sheets of styrene. So I miked them.

Instead of .010, .020, and .030, they measured .020, .030, and .040.

Sure explained why the tolerances were too tight, and why the ".020" sheet was such a pain to feed!

I'm surprised that I cut .030 styrene for hull sides and they worked! I guess I'm just stubborn when it comes to forming styrene.

And a few posts ago, I was thinking I was using too thick material. Oh well, when I am busy with a lot of projects, I tend to overlook basic precautions and measurements.