The Kit-Basher's Guide To The Galaxy

[allanyed]

15 minutes ago, GrandpaPhil said:

excellent yards and the thinner masts.

Hi Phil,

How do they do when you form the octagonal portions in the center of the yards and the octagonal and square sections on the masts?

Thanks

Allan

[GrandpaPhil]

15 minutes ago, allanyed said:

Hi Phil,

How do they do when you form the octagonal portions in the center of the yards and the octagonal and square sections on the masts?

Thanks

Allan

Allan,

I use a scalpel to shape everything, including the square and octagonal portions of the masts and yards.

I just shave each section flat as needed and rotate the piece to make the next one flat.

I just make small cuts to prevent splitting or other errors.

It works quite well for me.

Edited January 15 by GrandpaPhil

[Belco]

Hello Phil

In reference to your post about bamboo skewer chopsticks,

I have used bamboo chopsticks on several occasions to make very small pieces.

Now I don't have any model to take a photo of, but the hardness of the fiber allows me to make pieces 0.8-1 mm thick and even some hinges composed of 3 square pieces of 1.5 mm on each side and perforated in center.

 

I think that although it is of vulgar origin, it is a great help.

[NenadM]

Starting masts in my scratch build, I faced with question: what to use for?

And how to do that cones?

In hobby stores, there was nothing adequate, or something I found was twisted.

And click in brain.

Dowel sticks, 1000mm lengh, diameters 6,8,10,12 mm form boiled beech wood.

Very very strong even on 2mm dia

I don`t have a lathe, and don`t intend to by it, so, what to do?

Another brain click

I fixed my drill machine, and that was it, after couple of hours of playing

And at this point, everything start to be very very fragile, and a really fun begins ....

 

 

 

Edited February 2 by NenadM

[JerryTodd]

This is a bit after-the-fact at his point, but...

While there are businesses today that turn masts on giant lathes, that cheat wasn't available to the mast-makers in the times most of the ships we're modeling were made.
Forgoing "built-up" and metal masts, for our purposes, assume we start with a single log, as most spars for models will.  This is an abbreviation of the way real spars are made, and once you're accustomed to making spars this way, you'll find it's not so tedious as it seems.

I make, and have made, spars in this way for real boats, and models of any scale from 1:96 to 1:20.

 

A stick, is square-cut from a board of straight, clear grain, to the largest diameter of the finished spar. 

Where the spar has different shapes, such as in the pic below; square heel, 8-sided, round, 8 sided again, square doubling, angled cap-tenon; all are marked along with the taper in each section, if any.

Cut the tapers and sizes on all 4 sides.  I use a band-saw or scroll-saw on most of it, fine thin saws like a razor-saw on the delicate places.  You may need to remark the spar.

There's a jig for marking a spar to make it 8-sided, but when the stick is less than a centimeter around, it's near impossible to use; so I divide the width into 1/3 at each end to the taper, and connect the tick marks with a straight edge.  Do this to all 4 sides again, then using a knife, scraper, plane, or whatever work best for the size of the spar you're making, and take off the square corners down to the lines you drew to make this portion of the spare 8-sided.  The portions of the spar that will be round also are made 8-sided first.

For the portions that finish 8-sided, you're done, but for the round portions, you need to knock off the corners to make that portion 16-sided.  At small scales this is probably best done with a scraper.  Technically you then make it 32-sided, and even 64-sided; but at our scales you just gently knock off corners to get it to round - all done by eye.

You will find making yourself a "shooting board" to cradle the stick as you work will be a big help.  Cut a strip that's about 1/3 the sticks diameter at 45° down it's length. and glue the two strips to a board so the 45° cut forms a V for the spar to lay in.  Put a block at one end for the spar to stop against, and maybe a bock on the bottom of the opposite end to hook your workbench to keep the work in front of you instead of on the floor on the other side of the room. 

Here's a portion of my work log on a 1:20 scale schooner where I made it's bowsprit from white pine using this method.

http://todd.mainecav.org/model/pride/model11.html

 

The lower masts of that 1:20 scale schooner are hollow, and made using the "Bird's Mouth Method"  which isn't really practical for smaller scales where the mast is less than 2cm in diameter, but you can see them being made this way here:

http://todd.mainecav.org/model/pride/model10.html

Edited February 3 by JerryTodd

[Dr PR]

NenadM,

 

The technique of making round masts from square stock seems intimidating at first, but it is actually very easy. And it allows you to create the square or octagonal cross section parts as well as the round parts all in a single piece. Try it and you might like it.

 

Here are a couple of links:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=904995

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=908539

 

[NenadM]

Working on mast, question arrises - metal fittings are small (1:100) and - which material to use for them?

e.g. yard holdings ... Galvanized **** for gutters I have  is to rough and very hard to fit. Cu  foil I have (0,3mm) is very thin and elastic and can not hold yard.

Brain storming idea - to cover Cu foil with thin layer of soldering?

And this is it!

Soldering gives it required strenght , even it is 4mm in dia at the hole part.