Skinning Seydlitz

SMS Seydlitz has been sitting idle for a while, but in the last few weeks I have resumed the process of skinning her. The forward port-side is essentially done, with the aft remaining to be done, and the whole starboard side. Low-hanging fruit is the forward sections, so I skinned the forward starboard side late last week (while waiting for the batteries to charge on Missouri for propulsion testing) which was easy to do, as it is a virtually flat segment (no need to shape the balsa to the hull contour prior to gluing).

The next section, abreast A-turret, slopes way too much to simply glue on. I readied a mixture of Ammonia and Water (50-50) and soaked the piece to go over the next several windows for about 5 minutes. I let it drip off a little, then taped it to the hull. In this state, the balsa is able to warp enough to bend around the hull contours without breaking (more significant bends require longer soaks, so the balsa is softer). CA glue won't adhere to the balsa when it is wet, so it has to dry throughly. So, to dry it in the shape it needs to be when attached to the hull, I taped it in place (with some supports in some spots) and set it to dry.