thibaultron

What printer/service did you use? Nice clean prints!

same painting (very roughly) just to emphasize the volumes

It was time to paint the bulwarks on Niagara. I had painted the port side once before and had a nightmare of a time with paint seeping under my masking tape (Tamiya).  Given that the paint I had saved had dried up and matching colors would be tough, I decided to repaint the port side with newly mixed acrylic paint so it would match up with the starboard.
 
I also learned here about painting over the tape edges with the color you are trying to protect and I did that this time. Then on with the airbrush painting. The masking did a pretty good job this time, although it created a new problem. With 3 coats of primer and 2 coats of color the tape left a raised edge when I pulled it off.
 

 
 
So 2 questions.
 
1. Is this preventable?
 
2. How to deal with the problem. I'm trying to hand paint those spots, building up more paint inside the edges - this doesn't seem to be helping. Next, do I consider sanding the edge?

Those poor souls!  I served on a ATF, a little bit bigger ocean tug and was in a few storms at sea. NOT fun I can tell you.

I've several reports over the last week or so but this one is the latest...
 
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/03/23/navy-tug-lost-for-nearly-century-found-in-waters-off-california.html

1. Stir the media well before use.
2. Thin with cellulosic thinner.
3. Apply multiple thin coats till achieving the desired result ( with airbrush if available )and give some flush off time between coats.
4. Let it dry at least 48 hours in a dustless and warm condition.
5. Try not to use gloss paints ..... make it shiny with gloss clear coats at the end .

thanks, I'll give the model an upgrade to residential class & see how we go....

Generally, Humbrol should be dry in hours, not weeks! It may be a combination of both factors mentioned, both temperature and humidity. 

My son is a professional painter (fine art and houses) and says paint generally will not dry/cure properly at or below 40 F but your 17 C is about 63 F so almost room temperature (68 F ) - maybe the humidity is too high.

Hi everyone
 
I did a first top coat in a mixture of Humbrol gloss enamel colours (3 tins, 2 of one colour, one of another), didn't add any thinners or anything else; it was done over a thin coat of Zinser oil based undercoat that had been well sanded & was well dry.
 
The Humbrol took ages to dry - almost a week so far, it's still not dry enough to sand but it is close. It was very nice paint to use & the finish is good, despite the gradual accretion of dust over the week....
 
My 'workshop' is a cool garage, not really damp & not really cold, maybe 17 degrees C & things don't go mouldy there.
 
 
Anyone comments? My thoughts are that I just need to do the next coats in a warmer location, but I am surprised that it took so long. 
 
thanks in advance, MP

Mark, 
 
The temperature may very well be a factor.   Can you put in the house or somewhere warmer?

Thanks John. It was harder to make than it looks .
 
Blocks under the Top
 
Returning to the tops. The blocks are held under the tops by a strop which has a wooden peg through it's top end on the top floor.
 
Here are a couple of pics of my method of stropping a block. The "splice" is a simple overhand knot held in place with PVA and neatly trimmed. It's very difficult to tell with the naked eye that it is a fake seizing :
 

 

 

 
I pulled the end of the strop through the top using a piece of thread :
 

 
The top view of a pegged block strop :
 

 
  Danny

Hi all
 
I am reading up on deck laying and ways to do it, what I'd like to know is..... Is the deck laid and then deck furniture added, or does the deck come to a halt at the edges of any deck furniture like hatches etc. Thanks

In a real ship, the deck planking ends at the hatch coaming (often thicker right around the hatch).

Not necessarily the best, but here is one example of framing around a hatch.  (Source:  Curtis, W. H. 1919. The Elements of Wood Ship Construction. http://archive.org/details/TheElementsOfWoodShipConstruction )
 
I will keep checking some other resources to see if I can find a better sketch.  Any particular ship/era/type you are interested in?  Practice varied, as in so many parts of ship building, over time and between nations.
 

This is from Paasch, H. 1901. “From Keel to Truck” Marine Dictionary in English, French & German...  https://books.google.com/books?id=mG_VAAAAMAAJ&.
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Wayne, pretty intricate for sure. In the model sense I did wonder if hatches ect had a grounding first on a deck plate rather than on the actual planks to give stability. Great drawings.

The coamings and headers bear on a beam or carlin and are bolted thereto.  Then, when the plank is laid next to the coaming, it can be caulked against the coaming and the joint won't open.  If the plank is beneath the coaming, laid first that is to say, when you caulk, the pressure is trying to push the deck and coaming apart.  Additionally, if you need to replace a plank, the coaming won't be holding it down.
Here's a little sketch I did for my club newsletter:
 

Hi Telp
 
Yes the coamings and head ledges rested on the beams and carlings, but some other deck furniture such as capstans and ship's wheel pedestals the planking ran beneath them.
 
Allan

Many thanks to all of you.
Some wonderful and very helpful comments.
 
Peter, your list is very useful. Yes, I have noted the Anatomy of the Ship - I believe there is one of the Granado which will come in handy for my next build anyway. It was going on my Chrismas list - perhaps I might add it on the 2015 Christmas List and get it now as "someone forgot"!!!
 
RichardG, maybe I should write such a book then - one I understand the subject myself!!
I also like your spreadsheet idea for future reference. As you will see below, I have created a document that lists the information which is a start! Here's an extract:
 
Belay   Side                                Description                                                          Fixed?
 
b1        Bow Rack                        Outer Jib Stay
b2        Bow Rack                        Schooner Stay
b3        Main Mast                        Main Topgallant Stay
b4        Forebitts crosspiece         Foregaff topping lift
b5        Port                                 Foregaff Blocks
b5        Starboard 
                                                                                               
 
Jersey City Frankie - I agree with the idea of drawings - I've actually started to do that.
 
Firstly, I have made a drawing of the bowsprit so that I understand the three foresails on my ship (PIckle).
 

 
I have also taken copies of my plans showing the Belay points. These are only listed as e.g. B1, B12 etc. so I have researched my instruction book so that I have been able to label each point with the correct name - that has helped a great deal. As I suggested in my log, I think it would help of the manufacturer added a table to those belay and rigging plans that actually lists the Belay points, where the rope comes from and what it actually is. I have created a document that lists the above information which is a shown above!
 
I have just made a drawing of the main and topsail - which is where all the problems start!!
 
...... and the reason for it all? Because I am wishing to add sails to my Pickle and therefore need to understand all the figging so that I can work out what additional rigging and belay points I will need - so that I can add them while I can still access the deck BEFORE I  clutter the deck with Deck furniture and masts etc.......
 
Thanks for your help.
 
John
 

If you go to the end of my 2D to 3D tutorial in my signature, you can see the results of my 1/32nd and 1/64th scale dredge winches, that I had 3d printed. The prototype winch was 36 inches tall from the base to the drum axle.

As all the cool kids know, the USS Wasp (II), built in Newburyport, MA, in 1813, vanished at sea with 173 souls some time in late 1814 or early 1815, and was last seen "officially" of the Azores on September 22, 1814, when she sent in her prize schooner, the Atalanta, formerly the Privateer Baltimore Clipper Siro of Baltimore. Prior to that she enjoyed a very successful cruise in British home waters, taking a dozen merchantmen and winning battles against two English Sloops of War, HMS Reindeer and HMS Avon, becoming the only American ship of war to win two battles while out on a single cruise under the same captain, in this case Johnston Blakeley. Wasp was one of only four ships, along with Constitution, Constellation and Hornet, to defeat two enemies of comparable force. Some long-winded and tedious fellow wrote a book about the Wasp and her captain a few years back, so I'll refer any interested parties to it for further particulars ...
 
There were many accounts of the Wasp's activities after the capture of the Atalanta in the Royal Navy records, and many more in the papers of the day, which I shall try to list here in chronological order. The British vessels referred to here were all cruising the same waters in which the Wasp had last been seen. These waters were rich with valuable English merchantmen and homeward bound Indiamen, the prime hunting ground for an energetic American sloop of war to stalk.
 
Somebody was out there in a ship/corvette/small frigate scaring the heck out of the maritime community. There were also many privateers in those seas, but they were only very rarely ship rigged, they being primarily swift brigs and topsail schooners. 
 
First, some official RN logbook entries and official letters.
 
 
 
Nov. 3, 1814: Log of Sloop of War HMS Reynard:
 
Position at Noon 41.58 N., 14.48 W, Virgo NE 194 miles. 1300. Saw a sloop of War to leeward, made a private signal to her (She having English Ensign and Pennant flying), which she made a mistake in answering, made all sail from her, supposing her to be an American Sloop of war" 16:00 "Stranger out of sight."
 
Was this the Wasp? Reynard was only a 12-gun sloop, armed with 18-pounder carronades, so she probably was in the right by fleeing. USS Peacock, the only other US sloop at sea at this time, was, at this date, off Brazil, heading north to NY.
 
Nov. 4, 1814: Log of HMS Reynard:  
 
Position at noon, 43.32 N, 15.28W Cape Finisterre 230 milles. "1415 saw a strange sail ... 1600 saw a ship of war on the lee quarter and a schooner which was in distress." Oddly, no further mention.
 
January 2, 1815: Log of Elizabeth, 74 guns, flagship of the Gibraltar station, Admiral Fleming:
 
"Letter from the captain of the [32-gun 12-pounder Frigate] Aquilion, dated 16 December, that it was his intentions to put to sea from the Tagus the following day ... A Letter from the Captain of the Jasper, that on the 16th December. off Cape St. Vincent, that he was chased by an enemy's ship, that after a variety of manuveres [sic] he succeeded in getting clear of her, with a transport and merchant vessel under his protection, and that he arrived in the Tagus on the 26th of that month, that he did not conceive it to be prudent to bring her into action having with him a vessel laden with naval stores, but that he was fully resolved to go to the bottom rather than to have struck his colors. " No log entry describes this event on that date. Twice, one month apart, Reynard runs into an American sloop of war, probably the same one, and twice he runs away?
 
January 3, 1813: Log of Elizabeth:
 
"Letter received from the captain of the Reynard, that he arrived in the Tagus on the 14th of December and that he had ...  on the 2nd of Nov., in Lat 41.58, Long 14.28, he had fallen in with a corvette, which he thinks was an American, that being within 4 miles of her, he perceived that she carried 20 guns, that point, from the inferior force of the Reynard, he did not feel himself justified in bringing her into action, which she did not seek. From the bad state of her copper, I believe she must be hove down after the next cruise, that at the moment her has completed her provisions, he will resume his station."
 
(Note that Wasp had 22 guns and eleven broadside ports, but English sloops of the Hermes/Myrmidon class carried only 20 guns, even though they also had eleven ports.)
 
January 4, 1814: Log of Elizabeth:
 
"Letter to the Admiralty that the Reynard returned to Gibraltar on the 31st December, that her Captain having been chased off Cape Finisterre by a small frigate of the enemy whose attention being drawn to other objects, he was enabled to escape, [and] that this sloop has lost a great part of her copper and is otherwise in a leaky state." The captain of the Reynard was named Sinclair. It is noteworthy that the "ship of war" has grown into a frigate.
 
Another small 18-pounder, brig-rigged, sloop of war on the station, HMS Jasper, also had a run-in with this mysterious corvette. Again from the Elizabeth log on the same date:
 
"Jasper states his having been chased by a corvette on his passage to Lisbon off Cape St. Vincent, and that he appears to have evinced considerable ability in saving h is convoy." For some reason, the chase was not recorded either in the Jasper's log-book.
 
January 8, 1815: Log of the Frigate HMS Garland:
 
"20:20 hrs, 34.44 N, 15. 28 W Joined convoy and gained information that an American Frigate was a few leagues to the NE." Note France was at peace since the previous summer so the marauding frigate could not have been french. The Constitution, the only American frigate at sea, was not yet in these waters.
 
January 23, 1815, log of Frigate HMS Aquilion:
 
"08:30 38.47N 12.17 W. A strange ship of war bearing down upon us. Made the private signal, cleared for action, hauled down the private signal unanswered, the stranger having hauled to windward. Observed the stranger to be an enemy corvette." Nothing further is mentioned in the log, until the following day, they discovered a vessel on fire burned to the waterline. Her captain was Thomas Burton. Privateers rarely burned prizes, but navy ships commonly did.
 
March 1, 1815: Log of HM Ship Meander, in the Tagus: "... several other privateers  have made their appearance occasionally on this coast, but from information being received from neutral vessels, the descriptions differs, accept with respect to the American of twenty guns, ship rigged, which was chased by the Aquilion, and which I have reason to believe was the same which lately pursued the Jasper, this vessel with another ship of the same description [i.e, which twice chased the Reynard!] , has generally been taken for the Wasp.  [signed] Admiral Fleming."
 
Next I shall list some contemporary newspaper accounts.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi All,
I learned today that two ship-wrecks from the 'golden age of sail' have been found
 
The first link relates to the portugese vessel 'Esmeralda', which sank of the coast of Oman in a storm in the year 1503.  Most of the ship has disappeared due to its location in shallow water, but plenty of unique artefacts (including what they think is an astrolabe) have been found.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/15/marine-archaeologists-discover-rare-artefacts-at-1503-shipwreck-site
 
 
The other thing I read  this mornng (it is in Dutch/Flemish) is about a Dutch Fregat built in Medemblik, West Friesland around 1708.  The archeologists are 95% certain it is the 'Huis te Warmelo' and sank apparently by stricking a rock.  The remarkable thing about this wreck is that the ship is in excellent condition - the cold water has preserved the wooden construction so that even the guns are still standing on the deck.
 
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20160314_02182297
 
Would love to hear from anybody that can shed some further light on both vessels.
 
Slainte
Peter
 

Thanks for the link! Great idea.

Thanks for the link! Great idea.