5a. Conning Tower – Lower Structures
The Nautilus conversion set includes a 2-piece resin conning tower… the main tower and the lower verandah. The resin main tower includes the tower with a larger upper gun deck, and separate radar housings for left and right sides. The lower verandah fits into the rear of the main tower, and includes 2 lower watertight locker “tubes” that protrude out the rear on either side.
Main Tower Lower Structure
Instead of using the 1-piece resin tower from the Nautilus set, I chose to use the kit’s plastic tower and graft the upper gun platform from the Nautilus resin tower onto it. This took careful measurement and cutting (and a bit of shimming and filling) to ensure a proper fit. Also, since I wouldn’t be using the kit’s tower deck, I had to fabricate a new deck from thin styrene sheet. After cementing the styrene deck to the tower lower structure (ahead of the grafted upper gun platform), the entire deck surface was flat, seam-free and level. I added a thin strip of brass around the outer edge of the resin upper gun platform to border the wood deck, and filled the gaps with putty.
Lower Verandah Platform
The Nautilus resin verandah platform is well formed and cast, but on mine the top outer edges were slightly raised. Worrying that the wooden verandah deck would not lie flat, I decided to slightly mill the top of the resin deck to make it flat and level. I turned my drillpress into a milling machine using a Dremel #115 High-speed Cutter (cylindrical, flat-bottom bit). With the drillpress platform acting as a level base, I set the platform height and carefully passed the resin verandah under the spinning flat-bottom bit. It took only a few passes and slight height adjustments to the drillpress platform until the top of the verandah was flat and level. I also carefully milled a vertical outer edge all the way around the resin verandah, in preparation for adding a thin brass border strip. I also removed the rear watertight storage tubes from the rear of the verandah. As with the upper gun platform, I added a thin strip of brass around the outer edge of the verandah to border the wood deck, and filled the gaps with putty. I then CA’d styrene ½-round rod to the outer edge of the brass border strip, to be mounting points for the railing stanchions.
IMPORTANT! When milling or sanding resin, ALWAYS use proper safety eyewear and respirator mask. Resin dust is very fine and can irritate your eyes and respiratory tract. If you face the same situation and decide to mill, take small steps and don’t overdo it; |
I joined the lower verandah to the main tower using thick CA glue, then filled the gaps with putty.
I then masked the two tower wooden decks (upper and lower), and glued them in place with epoxy glue. I had to install the tower upper deck at this point, since it would be impossible to install it after the tower upper structure was installed.
