thibaultron

I just finished on of Model Expo's Naval Cannon kits. Nice large size, and uses several of the technquies you need for a regular ship kit. I added hooks to the gun tackle ends, and used rope stropped, rather than metal stropped, blocks. The later were what was shown on all the drawings I could find.

Model Expo promptly replaced some of the deck strips I messed up.

Keep calling till you get them.

How about ribbited? That's when you get a frog caught in your planking. :-)

I had a thread "Going From A 2D Drawing To A 3D Printed Part Tutorial" that focuses on SketchUp, but does have much info on designing parts for 3D printing. It might help you.

I remember a car restoration show I saw several years ago. They started with a late 60s muscle car, to be restored. As they stripped the body, they found more and more hidden rust. Finally they replaced all the sheet metal, except the piece between the rear window and the trunk!! The modern version of  a "Great Rebuild"!

If you can used the 3D, lay out the frames in position, and draw (in DesignCAD) a curved line along them at a fixed height. If the frames are correct, the line should be smooth in all directions, if a frame is out of line, draw the curve skipping it, and see where the correct point should be.

Below is, hopefully, an example. Why do this rather than a physical model? I can scale this to any one desired, and after I do I can used the parallel function to put in the lines taking account of the hull sheeting thickness I will be using.

Picture 1: The 3D frames with a waterline drawn. Note that the lines run along each other, except at the bow area frames.

Picture 2: A top side view: Note where the lines diverge.

Picture 3: A close up of the areas. The blue and red lines where the first and second attempt at laying the lines. Note how they bulge at the second and third frames, from the right. The green line is after I redrew those frames, with the corrected distance from the keel at that waterline. Here doing a model would be close enough for you to get an idea, but look at the next shot.

Picture 4; The before frame drawing of the hull lines. Note where frame 28 goes into the curve on one line and comes out on another line, and they don’t meet in the middle!

Picture 5: The before and after hull lines. The fore frames line up fairly well, but look at the aft frames! The original drawing was not even close!! The waterlines were run as in the previous pictures, from the transom to the stem, with a lot of iterations in between.

Until tommorow Model Expo has the Blue Nose for $99.99. It is on back order at the moment. The model is of the original Blue Nose, not the reproduction II.

I've attached a screen shot of the ad they sent me. They are presently listing it a $140, not the $220 they show in the add.

Does your CAD have a 3D capability?

Model Expo also has praticums by Chuck for both the Phantom and Sultana kits. They are available as downloads online in the Documents tab of the kit page.

Instead of masking the bands, you could paint the whole funnel "Funnel Color", then mask this and paint the bands. That might be simpiler than trying to mask the curved band surfaces.

I think you have the right approach.

Are the original plans paper or a file? Which ship/boat? I can probably help with more info. Can you post a jpg of the plan?

Paint stripper may work, also I have heard of burning it off. You'd have to be careful not to burn up that small a wire, though.

Machinists use several different tools for this. Look up squares in any metal working catalogs. One type is a Center Square. Another is a Combination Square. The usefulness of each type would depend on the dowel size. The Combination Square would work for all sizes, but can be a little awkward for really small dowels.

Below is a picture of a Center Square.

I know, but there was not enough deck space (length from hull to back of deck piece), for the gun to run all the way back. Maybe if I had not added the hooks, there might have been, but not with them on the tackle. The shorter breaching rope was a compromise, to make it look like the gun would not run over the tackle at the rear of the carriage.

I preferred this compromise to not having the more noticeable tackle hooks present.

Allanyed;

Thanks for the information!!

I finished the model yesterday, and choose to display it with the lines running off the diorama under tension, as if the men were pulling it back out for firing. I will keep this information for my next kit. Thanks, again.

Another question. How were the free ends of the lines for the gun tackle secured. All the diagrams and plans I've been able to find, just show them going off the picture. The model shows them loose with the end Flemished, but that would leave the gun rolling around freely, and I'm sure the Flemished coils would be a tripping hazard.

According to research on the internet. First set the parts out in the sun for a day. The parts are UV cured, and Shapeways does not always cure them long enough. Wash in hot soapy water, then rinse.  Prime with the paint of your choice. Enamels or acrylic, I'm not sure if  lacquer would damage it.

I don't know if the book is correct, but the AOTS "USS Essex by Portia Takakjian, shows gun port with lids with rigging that would hold them at a similar angle to that used in the MS cannon diorama. These ports are below the weather deck, but with not much more height between the top of the port lid and the point that the lanyard enters the hull.

As I already have the lid mounted, I'll just go with that setup, but use thread instead of the chain. It may not be 100% historically accurate, but it looks OK.

Unlike the MS kit, though, I made hooks for the ends of the gun tackle to carriage rigging. The MS kit has the blocks served directly to the carriage eyebolts, but all the diagrams I found show the hooks. They also show the blocks as iron stroped, but the diagrams all show rope stroped, so I'll use thread for this too. Luckily there were just enough spare eyebolts and cut offs from the tails to make the hooks. Bough three different  jeweler's beading and ring makers pliers for this and future jobs.

The lid is already attached. Most observers would expect one to be there anyway, even if I know that it should not be there. I'll use rope instead of the chain. Forty years ago my hands shuck a lot less than they do now, and thread is easier than working with really small chain, besides I have another model whick that chain would be perfect for.

P.S. I'm trying to model an American flavor look.

I'm building a MS Smoothbore cannon model, and I have a question about the "rigging" used to raise the gun port cover/lid.

The kit supplies chain for the external and through the bulworks portion of the rigging. This goes to the first block, and then line is used for the rest of the assembly.

I looked at several AOT ship books and they show Lanyards (I assume rope) used for this. I'd think chains would wear away the paint and chew into the wood.

So, finally, were chains ever used, or were rope leads more common?

I have found wood dowels almost unuseable. For my Pyro skipjack build, I went through my entire collection of kits (good and bad name manuf.), and found maybe 3 straight dowels in the lot!

I'm planning to make masts from square stock. I already made the bowsprit. Not your typical job, as the bowsprit on a skipjack curve downward toward the fore end. I made the sprit from a larger dowel that I squared (rectangulared?) up then cut in the curve, and shaped it. This is actually how the real bowsprits were made, the curve was cut into the spar, it was not bent into shape. I used the dowel as it was all I had at the time.

For the mast, I have both basswood, and boxwood. I'll practice on the basswood, then make the final one out of boxwood. Unless the basswood mast looks really good, then I'll save the boxwood for another project.

Another thing, if you are going to leave the plate glass in place permanently. If the surface under it is uneven, you can build a temperary frame around it, and pour in liquid RTV. It will flow under the glass, and fill the voids. Once it cures, remove the frame and trim the RTV. Now the glass is evenly supported under neath.

Another good "Flat" surface, is a thick piece of plate glass.