Splitting the mast
Added 2018-12-14 07:10:03 +0000 UTCThe mast extensions can look intimidating to a beginner, but I think I have found an easy solution!
I have made two versions, depending on how comfortable you feel cutting holes into the separating parts.
For the first build, I did not cut these parts but rather split the mast cores. This approach I recommend for beginners.
So here all the white cores to be inserted into the mast hulls, have been cut off and glued onto the separator plates. If you let the glue dry well (I let it dry overnight) this "weak" joint is strong enough to hold.
But a technically more elegant solution is to lead the cores through the separator plates. This makes the alignment of mast parts better and the joint is much stronger. To do this you have to cut an opening into the plates.
As you can see it only leaves a narrow margin on the plate, so make sure you now how to handle a sharp knife! It's not really difficult if you have a little experience. So if you are a beginner, maybe try it a couple of times on dummy parts. In the end it is worth it. If you want more margin you can cut the opening a little smaller, so you have more border and then trim the core until it fits!
In the pic above the connecting short parts don't look aligned along the axis, but once you put them together, they align perfectly because of the cores threaded through (see the title pic for comparison).
Luckily the cores have the triangle shape, so you only need to cut this simple shape. A hex opening would be more difficult :-)
For the jib mast it will look like this. I have colored the overlap black as I have seen it on a beautiful model of a Sloop and liked it that way.
Let me know if this makes sense from the pics. I also want to make some technical line diagrams in the instructions, so that is becomes more clear.
And with that I am back to completing my final build. Almost done, just need to finish some of the deck structures! Then I have next week to package it all up and create the instructions. I plan to have it all finished and ready for release before next weekend (22ndDec).
Until next time, have fun and keep building,
Chris
