Hello. Welcome to my very first construction report.
One of the nice things about being a school bus driver is that when the kids have two weeks off from school for the fall break, the bus drivers also have two weeks off. This is the perfect time to start my Hermes tug / tractor model kit from HMV.
The last Hermes construction report I was able to find on the forum is from 2019, so it seems like a good time for a new one. I bought the model kit on Amazon.com, but there was no LC upgrade set and it would cost 25 euros shipping costs to have it sent from Germany to the USA. That means I'll be making my own handrails and ladders. I decided not to build the underwater portion of the hull and leave it as a waterline model; I just like the look of waterline ships as it looks more natural to me and is easier to show off with other ships.
So now I start with my own construction report. I've already cut out the base plate and installed it on a sheet of glass to keep everything straight and level during build (a tip I read on this forum) and added the central beam and cross ribs. I'm not sure what happened while gluing the cross frame # 9 (see area circled in red in photo Hermes_004); I definitely didn't align it right and will have to be more careful in the future. Since the cross frame # 3 is not glued to the baseplate, just the center frame, I was concerned that it would be damaged so I decided to wait and install it before setting up the main deck later (see circled in red Area in photo Hermes_005 ).
Unfortunately, I may have already made my first big mistake ... without thinking about it, I used CA glue to attach the cardboard base plate to the glass plate. I'm not sure I can cleanly remove the model from the glass plate later without damaging the ship. I should have used rubber cement instead, which would have held the pieces in place but would have been a lot easier to remove.
I will continue building and hope for the best when it comes time to remove it from the glass top.
Farewell for the time being, from the Arizona desert.
Dave