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Because the break on the foremast was clean and flush with the deck I decided there must be some way to reattach or pin the masts back into the deck. Re-gluing the masts wouldn't work as there's nothing to keep them from sheering off again. I have access to micro drills, which I've been using for the Langton 1/1200 ship builds and lately the rigging on the SoG ships as well. Using one of the smaller drills to start a pilot hole I carefully drilled out an amount of plastic that would accommodate the shaft of a household sewing pin in the foremast itself. You don't want to start with a large drill as that will push out the plastic of the mast and potentially split it? I didn't measure exactly how far in the drill went into the foremast, but I'd guess it was about 1/4 of an inch or 6 mm. Drilling in the deck to hold the pointed end of the pin isn't as much of a concern as you have supporting plastic around the hole. Once the pin is in the mast you can insert into the deck, either a set amount or, just push the pin further into the deck until it feels really secure? I've not glued anything yet and I may not so I can adjust the mast angle for rigging when needed. I do fully expect to rig all of the big ships as it will dramatically improve the strength and security of the masts.
Hopefully the pictures I took will give you a better idea of what I did, rather than my clunky description above. I've repaired two of the three damaged ships, and I'm quite happy with the results. The Orient lives again!!!
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The top poster in our penultimate month of September is Baxter, who has gained his Silver Award in the nick of time.