Draft thread for assembly information of the Deutschland superstructure. I'm working on the draft as a public thread before its finished in case anyone gets an early start before I finish. More info yet to be posted. Things you may need Acetone & brush E-6000 x-acto knife and spare blades Drill and drill bits (2mm?) small clamps / binder clips, heavy things flat areas to assemble parts on A bunch of parts Important Notes: Some parts may still have 'brim' or 'flash' attached in places. A razor blade or file can generally make cleanup quick. Avoid making blood sacrifices to Vul unless necessary though. Things should fit together smoothly. If something is too tight or simply does not fit, use an xacto, or needle file, or small bit of sandpaper to open up the fit until such time as the pieces assemble smoothly. If you want to loosen up the dovetails that are already assembled, carefully drive the pieces apart down the length of join with a non marring tool. Do not twist or pull apart the dovetail joint or you will damage it. All off-white superstructure pieces are ABS. I strongly suggest wiping or brushing down outer faces with acetone and allowing them to re-harden prior to assembly. This increases their ability to resist damage from combat. While the superstructure is built of ABS and you CAN chemically weld the entire assembly together using acetone, I advise that you instead assemble using a glue such as a e-6000, which you can remove at a later date should you need or want to replace elements of the superstructure without excessive destruction. I mentally refer to the flat laser cut pieces of ABS as top bread, middle bread and bottom bread. Now you will too. [Image] The printed pieces and bread pieces all have alignment holes in them to aid in getting everything where it belongs. The holes are nominally 1/16" but you should expect to bore the printed pieces out from their current sizing. The laser cut holes nicely fit a piece of 1.75mm OD filament, so I have included filament that you can use to align the pieces. Use a 2mm drill bit to open up the bores of the printed parts to accept the filament. Some alignment holes are through holes that run through all the pieces, others are one-sided. One sided ones are generally designed for a 10mm deep bore. Don't go too wild, the if you feel the drill bit punch through into empty space, stop drilling as you've broken into the internal cavity space of the part. Assembly may be made easier by assembling middle bread and bottom bread separately and then joining them together. Best assembly order seems to be bottom bread and first level super structure pieces joined, separately joint middle bread, 2nd level superstructure elements, and top bread. Secure the pieces on a flat surface with weights to keep appropriate pressure, or clamp everything up as you see fit. The middle bread will not work if upside down. This was a mistake when I was generating alignment holes. The indicated piece below can only fit if the middle bread is in the correct orientation. The side panels can be made to fit on either side of the ship, but they will fit *better* on one side than other. The wrong way, on one end the side panels will barely, if at all, fit into the claw And the right way (below), on both ends the panels will enter the claw by about the same amount. The mast assemblies are designed to have a 1/8" rod run through them. Avoid brass due to weight issues, it was simply closest to hand when I needed to take the photo. There are two outer mast tubes, one fore and one aft. The after one is taller. The top and bottom portions of the stacks are designed to fit nicely together but to be glue or bonded with acetone. If the top piece will not fit onto the protusion of the bottom piece, use a razor or needle file to carefully open up the groove on the bottom of the top section. The T pieces and the slots they push in to, and the base of the stacks may all need some fitting work with razor, sandpaper or file. This is easier to check before you've gone and installed the base pieces into the superstructure.
** Note: If you don't like seeing black e-6000 after you glue down things, buy the clear e6000 instead of the black. I'm painting everything so I don't really care.
Start with the middle bread Line up and attach all the bits that go on top of it. You'll need to cut the alignment pieces short enough that everything can sit flush. Use e6000 between the bread and the printed pieces. side wing shields are suggested to be glued on only out by the semi circular shield to allow it to flex and be easily replaced. apply e6000 to top of printed pieces and line up and fit the top bread on top. Apply downward pressure in appropriate locations for appropriate duration for the e6000 to set up
Meanwhile.. work on the bottom bread Apply e6000 between printed pieces and bottom bread *You do not need to use all the alignment holes. Use enough at any given point that things line up, but they're not required to be a permanent fastening point. Once the end pieces are in place, run a bead of e6000 down the middle section and insert the side panels. Ensure they are aligned properly, as per post #1 in this thread
Once top is cured , or at least set up enough to hold together, Apply e-6000 and line up the upper section and the bottom sections Apply proper weight or clamping forces and exhibit patience meanwhile, add detail stuff. Cranes, ladders, side 88 shields, stacks, etc
Once the e6000 is sufficiently cured, start work on the topmost elements After elements Standard formula, attach alignment pegs, apply e6000, locate item, apply pressure until set **I am not gluing in the mast tubes. I anticipate they may get broken, and as-is they are a tight fit, an would prefer to be able to replace them without cutting out a ton of e6000 Foreward elements. Same pattern.
