Laser Dream Works, LLC Presents

The Cutter HMS LADY NELSON – 18mm ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

Matthew Green 07/13/2012

Greetings! First, I want to thank you for purchasing this ship model and hope you have as much fun assembling it and incorporating it into your games as I had designing it. With a little bit of effort, you should have her afloat in no time. Before beginning, take an inventory of your parts you should have: this instruction book, a part list, a tray of wooden ship parts, and a small bundle of dowel rods. The tray of parts has been coated with a sticky plastic to keep the parts in place during shipping, but it is always possible that something jarred loose in transit. If an obvious hole exists, fish around in the bottom of your box and find it now! You may notice a few small scrap parts missing – these are usually little circular holes in the main part that fell out during the cutting process - do not worry about these. We make sure the actual parts are in the box before it leaves our work shop. Once you have determined that you have everything you should, you are ready to begin. STEP 1 – The Hull Start with [Part 1]. This will form the base and we will work our way up. Place the main mast in the hole in the deck as shown. Do not glue it in now, we are just using it as a guide. Apply glue on the top of [Part 1] and then slide [Part 2] down as shown. Follow this up with the main deck [Part 3]. Once all three parts are glued together, wipe of any excess glue with a damp cloth and let the parts dry for a few minutes. I usually apply a weight to the top to make sure the parts do not warp and you get a good solid bond.

When the hull is dry, glue the prow [Part 4] and the rudder [Part 5] in the slots at the bow and stern as shown below.

We are now going to start working on the ships sidewalls. You will start by inserting the ribs into the small holes along the edge of the deck. Start with the two special short ribs [Part 6] into the fourth hole back from the bow of the ship. The remaining wholes will all be filled with the slightly longer ribs [Part 7]. You do not need to glue these in place but you may. When all the ribs are in place, you will carefully glue the first layer of the sidewalls [Part 8] onto the main deck [Part 3] making sure that each of the ribs fits snuggly into the appropriate slots as shown below.

We are going to continue to build up the side wall layers using [Parts to 14] There is a set of each for both the port and starboard side of the ship. Each piece has guide marks that align it with one of the ships ribs. Be careful to keep the parts in order as they are all slightly different. You will notice that the gaps between the pieces form the holes for the gun ports as shown below. You will repeat the process with a second layer using [Parts 15 to 20]. You will notice two things, First, part 15 is slightly longer than [Part 9} so you are going to have an overhang. You will see why shortly. Second, on the port side of the ship, [Part 20a] is slightly shorter and creates a hole for the bowsprit. You can see this gap up by the bow in the photo below.

Move back to the stern of the ship and glue one of each of the small triangle pieces [Part 22] under each of the overhangs created by [Part 15].

Now we will finish off the sidewalls by gluing [Parts 21] into place. You ship should look like this.

We will now move the stern and finish it up. Glue the stern supports [Part 23] into the slots of the main deck as show. You will then glue [Part 24] so that the wide end is down and slides around the rudder. It should be flush with both the sidewall triangles [Part22] and the stern Supports [Part 23]. You will notice that the angle of this piece and the main deck cause there to be a slight gap. When you ship is painted and on the table you will never notice, but if it bothers you, you can certainly fill these gaps with wood putty and then sand them down to a pleasing shape.

Complete the stern by gluing the rear sidewall panel [Part 25] into place so that the stern Supports [Part 23] fit into the notches and it rests flush to [Part 24]. Again, a bit of wood putty or a bit of extra wood glue will fill any gaps nicely as shown in the photo below. Finally, add the ships name plate. If you want to choose a name other than “Lady Nelson” then you can simply reverse the piece so the blank side is out.

We just have a bit more work to do on the hull. Move forward to the bow. Find the short piece of dowel rod in your bundle of masts and yards. Insert it through the holes in [Parts 26] and then glue [Parts 26] into the slots in the main deck [Part3]. Then slide [Part 27] down into the slots in [Parts 26]. Finally, insert the bowsprit through the small hole in the front of the ship and glue it into the hole in [Part 27]. You may have to use a hobby knife or sandpaper to shave off a bit of the bowsprit to get it all to fit.

Let’s finish off the deck details. Glue the three pieces of the wheel house [Part 28] together and then glue them into the main deck [Part 3]. Finish this off by gluing on the wheelhouse roof [Part 29]. Finally, you will glue the deck grates [Parts 30 and 31] onto the squares etched onto the surface of the deck [part 3]. If you plan on painting your ship, you may want to paint the area under the grates black before gluing the decks in place.

STEP 2: MASTS AND YARDS With the Hull complete, it is time to turn to the masts and rigging. If you have not already put your main mast in place, do that now. Some will not want to glue the mast in place to make storage easier. That is up to you. Slide [Part 32] down over mast down until it is about an inch above the deck. Then glue both [Part 33] into the slots of [Part 32] and insert the spanker boom into the holes in [Part 33]. Next slide [Parts 34] down over the mast about 2 inches. One will face forward and the other rearward and hold the for and aft gaff booms as shown. Next, slide both [Parts 35] over the mast and then insert the topmast so that it is forward of the main mast. Finally, slide [part 36] down the top mast so it faces forward and insert the fore top gaff into place. Much like the bowsprit, you may need to sand or shave the spanker boom and gaffs so that they fit properly in place.

STEP 3: Rigging Rigging your ship is an optional step. For our 18mm ships, rigging can really get in the way of moving models around the ship or for storage if you plan on collapsing the masts. While we do like a bit of rigging on then, we will not be doing any shrouds for this particular ship. If you do decide to add some, then we recommend using either 1mm thick leather thread, waxed thread for the best results. Before you rig your ship, you may want to finish any painting you intend to do. The rigging can get in the way of moving your brush around. Run the rigging from the ends of the various yards as shown below. I usually use a clove hitch, but any simple knot will do. When you are done, trim the loose ends, and apply a dab of glue to the knot to keep it locked in place. A bit of black paint over the glue will finish things off nicely.

You are now ready to

“BEAT TO QUARTERS AND CLEAR FOR ACTION!”

The Cutter Lady Nelson PART LIST

LADY N ELSON

1

2

3

4567 8

9 10 11 12 1314

1516 17 18 19 20a

21

9 10 11 12 1314

15 16 17 18 19 2021

22

23 23

24 25

26

26

27

28

29

30

31

32 33

34

35

36

Bo

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pri

tS

pa

nk

er

Bo

om

Mai

n M

ast

Mai

n To

p M

ast

Bow

sprit

bra

ce

Aft

Ga

ff

Fo

re G

aff

To

p F

ore

Ga

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