johnsmachines

machines which I have made, am making, or intend to make, and some other stuff. If you find this site interesting, please leave a comment. I read every comment and respond to most. n.b. There is a list of my first 800 posts in my post of 17 June 2021, titled "800 Posts"

Tag: Gluing polystyrene

March 5, 2026

Bellerophon -5

A picture tells a thousand words…but I might add a few along the way. This is the next step in making the hull of HMS Bellerophon, 3rd rate ship of the line, launched 1787. 1 year after Sydney was settled by the British and 10 years before the launch of USS Constitution.

I decided to fill the spaces between the bulkheads with balsa wood, because it would assist shaping the later planking particularly at the bow and the transom, and also because some of the gaps were largish, up to 60mm. But when I tried to find the balsa stand at the hardware store, where it had always been, there was none. Just a few sticks of “plantation grown paulonia”. The paulonia was quite light, and looked a bit like balsa, but I had no experience with it, And there was none in the sizes I wanted, just piddly little sizes. So I thought of trying the toys and hobbies store and disconsolately wandered towards the exit through the builder’s timbers aisle. And spotted these blue sheets.
“EPS. Extruded polystyrene. High level of incompressibility”. So I bought a sheet to try. (asked the AI first whether it would be suitable for the job, and got the thumbs up”. Much less expensive than I had expected for balsa. Only $AUD20. Incredibly light. And I could not dent it with my thumb. Here forming backdrop to my model. Incidentally the prow and keel are just sitting there for interest; not yet glued. Despite the written instructions, I was advised that it is best to finish the bulkhead sanding before glueing those bits to the frame. So I had rough sanded the bulkhead bevels. And started to cut the polystyrene XPS. On my bandsaw I cut strips of the 30mm thick sheet, to the thickness between the bulkheads, which varied from 15mm to 60mm. It cuts very easily with a woodworking blade. 3 pieces were required to completely fill each space. I asked the AI which glue was prefered for the job, and it gave me a list of 3 or 4 types, but recommended common old PVA, which I happily used.
After roughly overfilling the space, I cut the surface using the bulkhead contours as a guide to the hot wire tool, which SWMBO had purchased a year or so ago, and then totally forgotten. My inention jogged her memory, the tool was found, and worked perfectly. Heats to cutting temperature in about 10 seconds. I slowly dragged it through the glued in blocks, using the adjacent bulkheads as guides. If I pulled it through too quickly the wire formed a slight arc from the straight wire, and tended to cut a scalloped concavity which was not wanted.
Small concavities, like the ones below the black mark at top, will be filled later with bog, to bring the level up to the underside of the planks. After this, the bulkheads will have further sanding… The shallow lines are where I was dragging the wire too quickly.
Apart from a little bit of bogging and sanding, and some bow and stern pieces of XPS to be inserted similarly, this hull is almost ready for planking. My sanders are pictured. I used 280 grit initially, but it was too slow, so I graduated to 120 grit, using a light pressure stroke.

Oh. And a word of advice if you are planning to do this. Do NOT install a phone protector screen afterwards irrespective of how carefully you clean it. Have a shower and hair wash first. Don’t ask me how I know.

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May 13, 2022

Model Yamato

So far, glueing up the model has been interesting and a lot of fun. Look at the progress after 2 days….

The guns and superstructure are just sitting there. The components will be separated for painting.

The tools which I have found useful are lined up.

Alligator clip on a chop stick, rubber bands, Extra Thin Tamiya Glue for polystyrene plastic, flat non serrated small pliers, needle nose small pliers, safety razor blade, sharp side cutters which I have modified so the cutters are thin and very pointy, steel ruler used as a scraper, small fine file, fine sand paper, fine tweezers (actually from my microsurgery kit of 30-40 years ago), coarse strong tweezers, and utility knife. And of course an A2 cutting board, and Tamiya Instruction book which I have found to be accurate and very helpful.

The Extra Thin Tamiya Glue is very good. It sets in a couple of minutes so parts can be finger held in position. It is so thin that it tracks into small cracks by capillary action. And it is transparent. Time will tell how paint adheres to the glue.

The Tamiya parts are also very impressive. Beautiful smooth finish, minimal flashing which can be scraped off with a finger nail. And the parts fit together very accurately, for the most part. Rarely I had to use the razor blade to make parts fit together, and that was usually because I had missed a bit of the sprue when separating the parts from the sprue.

This was one of the first areas to be glued.
Large joins, like this foredeck to hull, were glued progressively, holding each bit with a rubber band. The deck has a bend, and I could not hold it in place with only my hands, but the rubber bands worked pretty well.

It was quite exciting to see the hull coming together.

Many of the parts are extremely small, and too light to feel. The fine tweezers are very handy for these. So far I have lost only one part after dropping it.

I am close to painting the components. I will use Tamiya spray cans, brush applied paints for tiny parts and fine lines, and possibly an air brush. I have been watching YouTube videos to pick up hints on the painting process. It was surprising to me just how many YT videos exist on the subject of painting model Yamatos.

Then the major components are glued together.

Then the smaller guns and other surface equipment will be glued on to the painted surfaces.

P.S. Another 1/2 day gluing up these tiny planes. One more to go.

These really tested my eyes and hand control. Cotton bud for scale.
This cheap Banggood LCD microscope was very useful. Only trouble was that it magnifies my shakes. (Mustool G1200)odel
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