thibaultron

I much appreciate the info I get here because I am new at this. 
The compliments are especially encouraging. 
I am a retired Porsche factory master engine tech, so when I show these things to my old school mechanic buddies, I get “encouragement” like this…..
😂

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/mary-rose-royal-navy-mystery-060000763.html

Looks like the thingy that was given to me by my wife with good intentions, but I found the speed too high for most practical purposes. Mine has three speed settings, but it starts from the highest and then steps down.
 
With all battery-operated equipment it has the disadvantage that one cannot start and stop it free-hand, i.e. with a foot-switch ...
 
Do the inserts have the usual 2.34 mm diameter shaft?

Just looking at this now.
Did you buy the basic version? The adjustable speed one could prove useful.
Thanks for bring this to our attention.

Guys,
This drill is a piece of artwork that works great, looks great, and comes complete! It ain't cheap, but it worth every penny.
I highly recommend it!
Bill

Thanks a lot for the info. Scale is 1/18 and boat was built in 1776 - US. 
Sounds like wood it is. 
Im going to go draw and burn one right now and see how it looks. 

It depends on the period. In the 18th century I think they are mostly made of a wood that looks very dark (can't remember the name). Lots of examples if you go to the RMG site and search for blocks in the collection. I think if you wanted to do working sheaves your best bet would be brass ones and blacken them, though it ultimately depends on your scale.

For the sake of authenticity, there is no reference that I can find regarding whether the sheaves were bronze or wood. 
None were pulled up, and I don’t trust the reproductions on the reproduced boat. 
 
I can make them out of “bronze” or wood, but I don’t know which to do?

Walnut single block blank. Hot off the press. 
Im going to make them functional with wooden sheaves and “forged” pins. 
what do you guys think???

Thanks for that picture, that’s great. 
I did both parts in cad, then cut them with the laser. Going to draw the doubles next. 
Still have to taper and chamfer by hand, but that’s for tomorrow at 4:30 am while I still have 100% patience. 

Nice work, it looks close to the below, a common single block.  How did you round the edges?  A block/rock tumbler is a huge time saver and does a great job if you are doing this by hand.  
 
Allan

I’m pretty happy with this. I can darken with Danish oil or linseed. 
If I can pull lines through them after I chamfer, that will be great. 

I usually agree with you Eberhard, but on this one, not so much. 😀   The smallest U chisels would be a challenge for 99.5% of anyone trying make these.    These are exquisite chisels that would take someone with lots of experience and time to make a set as well made as Mihail's.    Maybe some member could take up the challenge which would be fantastic.😁
Allan  

... and one shouldn't anyway now.
 
In principle, anyone with a good tool-grinder could make such tools from round HSS-blanks.

Cookstove yard lift

Part 002
 
The first part in the construction is building the floor/base of the diorama. The back of the floor is raised with three steps up to that level. Two blocks are glued to the underside of the rear of the raised floor, making sure the back edges of the parts are even with each other, as well as with the sides.
 

 
The steps, like the rear blocks have two pieces that are glued with the back ends even with each other. There are, however, no locating marks on the underside of the raised floor to guide attaching the step block to the floor. I used my calipers to measure the depth of the step on the block, locked it and used then used the caliper to set the depth of the step block to the floor section. I measured radially at both ends and the middle. I also made sure the edges matched the floor.
 

 

 
To make sure the floor fit properly in the case, I temporarily assembled the book cover pieces, and set the floor in.
 

 
After taking the floor section back out, the next step in the instructions shows the carpet from the detail paper sheet being installed. The problem is the carpet is all one piece, and the instructions show it flowing continuously down the steps, which are curved! Simple for a real oriental rug, which will stretch somewhat, but a bit harder with a sheet of paper!
 

 
I could not figure out how to do this, so decided to glue the carpet down on the raised section, then trim it off even with the curved edge. Mistake, I then realized that fitting the remaining sections down one piece at a time would be a nightmare!
 
 

 
Luckily the carpet was printed on the sheet as two pieces, and the other matching section was intact. I scanned that piece in, and doubled it to create a new complete rug piece. I was totally unable to completely color match to the old piece, but I came close enough to remove the old section, and will use the print to replace the whole thing.
 
To print the carpet, I’m using a laser printer, as my inkjet one died. This presents a couple of problems. The first is that my printer has a maximum print resolution of 300X300 DPI, some of the detail will be lost. Not that the printing on the detail sheet was photo quality anyway, but it is still better than what my 20-year-old laser can do. For this use, and at a typical viewing distance, it will be “Good Enough”, though. The second problem is the toner on the paper has a semigloss finish, not flat like a real rug, and also flat like the other parts on the paper sheet. I lightly brushed on some Vallejo matt varnish, and that killed the shine.
 

 
The problem still remained, of how to get the continuous piece to mold to the steps! I let the project sit a couple days, and then a light bulb went off in my head! I cut the plywood sheet the parts had come from, and there were two nice forming blocks that matched the step curves.
 
I tried it on the remaining piece of the original rug, and it pressed the carpet down nicely!
 
I started at the top step, clamped the thinner curved section down, then clamped the thicker one below it, also pressing the piece in.
 

 
I then moved the two formers down, the thinner one to hold the paper in place where it had already been formed, and the thicker on to form the bottom step.
 

 
I wanted to make sure the carpet piece would fit all the way the length of the lower floor, and it did. The picture below shows the finished test piece. There is a little bit of excess “rug” at the corners of the curves, but it is not as noticeable as raw paper edges would be.
 

 
I don’t want to use regular paper stock for the carpet, but I’m out of the acid-free stock I had. I’ve ordered three more acid-free reams, and will wait for that to come in, before printing the final carpet piece. I was just going to order one ream, but one was ~$19, and three were ~$29, both with free shipping, so I ordered the three-ream bundle. That is more than I’m ever likely to use, for modeling, but at least I’ll never need to order any more.
 
The next steps are to build the back wall with the cabinet, and fancy window.
 

 
Here are the three wood pieces, for that assembly.
 

 
First you glue the translucent backgrounds to the back of the cabinet front, and window unit. I set the glue toward the outside edges, so no glue would mar the soon to be backlighted areas.
 

 

 
The picture below shows the cabinet front with some light coming through.
 

 
Next, I dry fit the parts, to see what it will look like. For now, I am leaving them this way. When final assembly starts, and I can make sure everything lines up correctly, I’ll glue them in place.
 
This pictures how the back wall as it will look like in the finished scene. There are details to glue to the top of the cabinet, but you get the idea.
 

 

I just came across a picture of the cheap kit I mentioned in Part 001. The sad thing is, that it was only a little cheaper, but only showed a picture of a completed model of the one I'm building now! So a Chinese rip-off of a Chinese kit!
 
Notice the white LED module, which had no way to hook up a battery, and the solid amber rubber "thing", that I have no idea what it is for! There were no instructions.
 

Part 001
 
The next Book Nook type diorama I’m building is “Sailing Memory”. I figured a ship themed diorama would more fit with this forum. It is the least complex kit so far, but it does throw some “Curve Balls”, so follow along.
 
This first part will show the contents of the kit. Construction will start in Part 002.
 
The first thing to note, is that except for the book cover parts, none of the plywood sheets are printed on the back, like the other two kits were. For the most part, this is not a problem, but it does present problems for the chair and table, so far. Both are printed in a mahogany wood grained color, which was hard to match. As I like to paint the lasered edges, this was a problem, especially the chair which has raw wood on the inside of the arms. Also, this model has many more colors than the previous kits, and trying to come close to the right colors on the exposed ply edges, has been a challenge!
 
One thing of importance on this kit, about a year and a half ago I bought what I thought was this kit, for far less than the price of the other vendors. That was a huge mistake, and I should have known better! What I got was this kit, but with all the “details” printed on the insides of the covers, no 3D detailing at all, and the printing was fuzzy to boot! If you are getting this kit, find a vendor that shows the 3D detail up close, not just a shot of a completed kit!
 
I have already progressed in the construction, and while I took pictures as I went, there may be some gaps in this thread. I missed taking some pictures along the way. Normally I write the sections as I go, but life threw me some challenges the last few weeks, and I’m just now getting to the writeups.
 
Here are the contents of the kit.
 
This is the picture from the cover of the instructions of the completed kit. The box is just plain white cardboard, so no picture of that.
 

 
The next two pictures are the outsides of the book covers/shell. I’ll show the printed insides when construction gets to that point. (Mostly because I forgot to take those photos when I was shooting these, and had already started construction, when I noticed their lack.)
 

 

 
The next few pictures are of the remaining plywood sheets. Matching colors for all those edges will be fun, not! You can see the woodgrain detail printed on the sheets.
 


 
This sheet has the back wall of the diorama, with the fancy window.
 


 
This sheet has the cabinet front that the white translucent sheet glues to, in the lower right corner.
 

 
The accessory bag has the LED assembly, and a sheet of glossy clear squares, that I think are to put over the small books in the model, after you build them. I probably will not use these, as I think the flat finish on the printed covers looks better.
 

 
Here are the contents of the bag. The LED assembly, a ceiling fixture, A small sanding stick, and the folded sheet with the glossy squares. Another reason I don’t think I’ll use the squares, is that when I opened it to see what it was a couple of the squares stuck to my fingers, and were ruined.
 

 
This is the printed paper sheet with several details. There are pictures for some picture frames, maps to be glued on, the book covers that will be glued to wooden book blanks, and a carpet for the floor (much more on the carpet later).
 

 
Lastly this is a translucent sheet with two pieces to be glued on. The colored seascape is glued behind the ornate window at the back of the display, and the white blank goes behind the front of the cabinet that sits against the back wall.  This is similar to the Japanese style with paper “window” covering, like the old-style houses.
 
When the model is finished both of these will be backlit, for a nice effect. This may be a little incorrect for the cabinet, but it will still look good.
 

 
I have jury duty next week so there will a gap in the writing of the thread.

Part 002
 
The first part in the construction is building the floor/base of the diorama. The back of the floor is raised with three steps up to that level. Two blocks are glued to the underside of the rear of the raised floor, making sure the back edges of the parts are even with each other, as well as with the sides.
 

 
The steps, like the rear blocks have two pieces that are glued with the back ends even with each other. There are, however, no locating marks on the underside of the raised floor to guide attaching the step block to the floor. I used my calipers to measure the depth of the step on the block, locked it and used then used the caliper to set the depth of the step block to the floor section. I measured radially at both ends and the middle. I also made sure the edges matched the floor.
 

 

 
To make sure the floor fit properly in the case, I temporarily assembled the book cover pieces, and set the floor in.
 

 
After taking the floor section back out, the next step in the instructions shows the carpet from the detail paper sheet being installed. The problem is the carpet is all one piece, and the instructions show it flowing continuously down the steps, which are curved! Simple for a real oriental rug, which will stretch somewhat, but a bit harder with a sheet of paper!
 

 
I could not figure out how to do this, so decided to glue the carpet down on the raised section, then trim it off even with the curved edge. Mistake, I then realized that fitting the remaining sections down one piece at a time would be a nightmare!
 
 

 
Luckily the carpet was printed on the sheet as two pieces, and the other matching section was intact. I scanned that piece in, and doubled it to create a new complete rug piece. I was totally unable to completely color match to the old piece, but I came close enough to remove the old section, and will use the print to replace the whole thing.
 
To print the carpet, I’m using a laser printer, as my inkjet one died. This presents a couple of problems. The first is that my printer has a maximum print resolution of 300X300 DPI, some of the detail will be lost. Not that the printing on the detail sheet was photo quality anyway, but it is still better than what my 20-year-old laser can do. For this use, and at a typical viewing distance, it will be “Good Enough”, though. The second problem is the toner on the paper has a semigloss finish, not flat like a real rug, and also flat like the other parts on the paper sheet. I lightly brushed on some Vallejo matt varnish, and that killed the shine.
 

 
The problem still remained, of how to get the continuous piece to mold to the steps! I let the project sit a couple days, and then a light bulb went off in my head! I cut the plywood sheet the parts had come from, and there were two nice forming blocks that matched the step curves.
 
I tried it on the remaining piece of the original rug, and it pressed the carpet down nicely!
 
I started at the top step, clamped the thinner curved section down, then clamped the thicker one below it, also pressing the piece in.
 

 
I then moved the two formers down, the thinner one to hold the paper in place where it had already been formed, and the thicker on to form the bottom step.
 

 
I wanted to make sure the carpet piece would fit all the way the length of the lower floor, and it did. The picture below shows the finished test piece. There is a little bit of excess “rug” at the corners of the curves, but it is not as noticeable as raw paper edges would be.
 

 
I don’t want to use regular paper stock for the carpet, but I’m out of the acid-free stock I had. I’ve ordered three more acid-free reams, and will wait for that to come in, before printing the final carpet piece. I was just going to order one ream, but one was ~$19, and three were ~$29, both with free shipping, so I ordered the three-ream bundle. That is more than I’m ever likely to use, for modeling, but at least I’ll never need to order any more.
 
The next steps are to build the back wall with the cabinet, and fancy window.
 

 
Here are the three wood pieces, for that assembly.
 

 
First you glue the translucent backgrounds to the back of the cabinet front, and window unit. I set the glue toward the outside edges, so no glue would mar the soon to be backlighted areas.
 

 

 
The picture below shows the cabinet front with some light coming through.
 

 
Next, I dry fit the parts, to see what it will look like. For now, I am leaving them this way. When final assembly starts, and I can make sure everything lines up correctly, I’ll glue them in place.
 
This pictures how the back wall as it will look like in the finished scene. There are details to glue to the top of the cabinet, but you get the idea.
 

 

I just came across a picture of the cheap kit I mentioned in Part 001. The sad thing is, that it was only a little cheaper, but only showed a picture of a completed model of the one I'm building now! So a Chinese rip-off of a Chinese kit!
 
Notice the white LED module, which had no way to hook up a battery, and the solid amber rubber "thing", that I have no idea what it is for! There were no instructions.
 

This ship’s main mast channels are 13’ long, 18” wide and 4” thick.  They are made by laminating three layers of 1/32” sheet together.  The middle layer’s grain is oriented 90 degrees to the outer layers for added strength.  I weighted the channel down while it was drying to prevent warpage.  In actual practice, there would be a slight taper of the channel from the hull to its outer edge, but for this project I ignored that. 
 
The fore end of the channel is located just behind the aft side of the mast.  There are recesses cut into the fore and aft ends of the channel.  The deadeye strops fit into mortises cut into the channel and a decorative strip holds everything in place.  The channel template shows the locations of the deadeye strop mortices. 

The location of the fore end of the channel was marked on the hull.  It is 2.5 feet below the rail and runs parallel to the wale.  Templates were used to get the exact shape.  I used the template from making the cap rail as a starting point and modified it to exactly fit the shape of the hull.  The openings for the deadeye strops were made by cutting shallow grooves into the channel and connecting them with a 2 mm chisel.  A #11 blade will also work.  The location of frames 4 and 6 were marked on the inner edge of the channel and 22-gauge brass wires were inserted at those spots for strength.  The fore and aft edges were rounded over but the long outer edge was kept sharp.


You may have noticed that the deadeyes are not evenly spaced.  On the actual ship, a gunport was located between the third and fourth deadeyes.  I decided to keep things simple and not model the gunport.  If you want, the spacing between frames 5 and 6 will allow you to add one.With the channel installed, a clear finish was applied to the exterior of the hull.  After the finish dried, I sanded the long outer edge of the channel to remove the finish.  This will help adhesion when the decorative strip is added after the deadeyes are installed.
 
 

That’s a good tip that I wish I knew earlier. Very cool project!

The bit pins are 9” square posts.  The crosspiece is 8’ x 10” x 3” and connects the two pins.  It is morticed into the pins 3’ above the deck.  Shape the ends of the crosspiece as seen in the picture.  I raided my scrap box again for these pieces but the kit will contain the correct thickness of basswood to construct them.

 
I used the previously drilled pilot holes to locate the centers of the bitt pins and lightly  traced the outline of the bitt pin onto the deck.  A series of holes was drilled inside the outline and they were connected with a #11 blade.  They were enlarged with files until the openings were just large enough to allow the bit pin to pass through them.  They will not be permanently installed until later to make installing the mast easier.

This is how the model looks with everything temporarily installed.

Other than installing the channels, the hull is complete.  Next, the wale was painted.  The hull planking was masked off above and below the wale.  I used three coats of artist’s acrylic paint diluted 1:3 paint to water, sanding with 400 grit sandpaper between coats.  I remove the tape as soon as the last coat has been applied to prevent paint adhering to the tape.


 

Part 002
 
The first part in the construction is building the floor/base of the diorama. The back of the floor is raised with three steps up to that level. Two blocks are glued to the underside of the rear of the raised floor, making sure the back edges of the parts are even with each other, as well as with the sides.
 

 
The steps, like the rear blocks have two pieces that are glued with the back ends even with each other. There are, however, no locating marks on the underside of the raised floor to guide attaching the step block to the floor. I used my calipers to measure the depth of the step on the block, locked it and used then used the caliper to set the depth of the step block to the floor section. I measured radially at both ends and the middle. I also made sure the edges matched the floor.
 

 

 
To make sure the floor fit properly in the case, I temporarily assembled the book cover pieces, and set the floor in.
 

 
After taking the floor section back out, the next step in the instructions shows the carpet from the detail paper sheet being installed. The problem is the carpet is all one piece, and the instructions show it flowing continuously down the steps, which are curved! Simple for a real oriental rug, which will stretch somewhat, but a bit harder with a sheet of paper!
 

 
I could not figure out how to do this, so decided to glue the carpet down on the raised section, then trim it off even with the curved edge. Mistake, I then realized that fitting the remaining sections down one piece at a time would be a nightmare!
 
 

 
Luckily the carpet was printed on the sheet as two pieces, and the other matching section was intact. I scanned that piece in, and doubled it to create a new complete rug piece. I was totally unable to completely color match to the old piece, but I came close enough to remove the old section, and will use the print to replace the whole thing.
 
To print the carpet, I’m using a laser printer, as my inkjet one died. This presents a couple of problems. The first is that my printer has a maximum print resolution of 300X300 DPI, some of the detail will be lost. Not that the printing on the detail sheet was photo quality anyway, but it is still better than what my 20-year-old laser can do. For this use, and at a typical viewing distance, it will be “Good Enough”, though. The second problem is the toner on the paper has a semigloss finish, not flat like a real rug, and also flat like the other parts on the paper sheet. I lightly brushed on some Vallejo matt varnish, and that killed the shine.
 

 
The problem still remained, of how to get the continuous piece to mold to the steps! I let the project sit a couple days, and then a light bulb went off in my head! I cut the plywood sheet the parts had come from, and there were two nice forming blocks that matched the step curves.
 
I tried it on the remaining piece of the original rug, and it pressed the carpet down nicely!
 
I started at the top step, clamped the thinner curved section down, then clamped the thicker one below it, also pressing the piece in.
 

 
I then moved the two formers down, the thinner one to hold the paper in place where it had already been formed, and the thicker on to form the bottom step.
 

 
I wanted to make sure the carpet piece would fit all the way the length of the lower floor, and it did. The picture below shows the finished test piece. There is a little bit of excess “rug” at the corners of the curves, but it is not as noticeable as raw paper edges would be.
 

 
I don’t want to use regular paper stock for the carpet, but I’m out of the acid-free stock I had. I’ve ordered three more acid-free reams, and will wait for that to come in, before printing the final carpet piece. I was just going to order one ream, but one was ~$19, and three were ~$29, both with free shipping, so I ordered the three-ream bundle. That is more than I’m ever likely to use, for modeling, but at least I’ll never need to order any more.
 
The next steps are to build the back wall with the cabinet, and fancy window.
 

 
Here are the three wood pieces, for that assembly.
 

 
First you glue the translucent backgrounds to the back of the cabinet front, and window unit. I set the glue toward the outside edges, so no glue would mar the soon to be backlighted areas.
 

 

 
The picture below shows the cabinet front with some light coming through.
 

 
Next, I dry fit the parts, to see what it will look like. For now, I am leaving them this way. When final assembly starts, and I can make sure everything lines up correctly, I’ll glue them in place.
 
This pictures how the back wall as it will look like in the finished scene. There are details to glue to the top of the cabinet, but you get the idea.
 

 

Part 002
 
The first part in the construction is building the floor/base of the diorama. The back of the floor is raised with three steps up to that level. Two blocks are glued to the underside of the rear of the raised floor, making sure the back edges of the parts are even with each other, as well as with the sides.
 

 
The steps, like the rear blocks have two pieces that are glued with the back ends even with each other. There are, however, no locating marks on the underside of the raised floor to guide attaching the step block to the floor. I used my calipers to measure the depth of the step on the block, locked it and used then used the caliper to set the depth of the step block to the floor section. I measured radially at both ends and the middle. I also made sure the edges matched the floor.
 

 

 
To make sure the floor fit properly in the case, I temporarily assembled the book cover pieces, and set the floor in.
 

 
After taking the floor section back out, the next step in the instructions shows the carpet from the detail paper sheet being installed. The problem is the carpet is all one piece, and the instructions show it flowing continuously down the steps, which are curved! Simple for a real oriental rug, which will stretch somewhat, but a bit harder with a sheet of paper!
 

 
I could not figure out how to do this, so decided to glue the carpet down on the raised section, then trim it off even with the curved edge. Mistake, I then realized that fitting the remaining sections down one piece at a time would be a nightmare!
 
 

 
Luckily the carpet was printed on the sheet as two pieces, and the other matching section was intact. I scanned that piece in, and doubled it to create a new complete rug piece. I was totally unable to completely color match to the old piece, but I came close enough to remove the old section, and will use the print to replace the whole thing.
 
To print the carpet, I’m using a laser printer, as my inkjet one died. This presents a couple of problems. The first is that my printer has a maximum print resolution of 300X300 DPI, some of the detail will be lost. Not that the printing on the detail sheet was photo quality anyway, but it is still better than what my 20-year-old laser can do. For this use, and at a typical viewing distance, it will be “Good Enough”, though. The second problem is the toner on the paper has a semigloss finish, not flat like a real rug, and also flat like the other parts on the paper sheet. I lightly brushed on some Vallejo matt varnish, and that killed the shine.
 

 
The problem still remained, of how to get the continuous piece to mold to the steps! I let the project sit a couple days, and then a light bulb went off in my head! I cut the plywood sheet the parts had come from, and there were two nice forming blocks that matched the step curves.
 
I tried it on the remaining piece of the original rug, and it pressed the carpet down nicely!
 
I started at the top step, clamped the thinner curved section down, then clamped the thicker one below it, also pressing the piece in.
 

 
I then moved the two formers down, the thinner one to hold the paper in place where it had already been formed, and the thicker on to form the bottom step.
 

 
I wanted to make sure the carpet piece would fit all the way the length of the lower floor, and it did. The picture below shows the finished test piece. There is a little bit of excess “rug” at the corners of the curves, but it is not as noticeable as raw paper edges would be.
 

 
I don’t want to use regular paper stock for the carpet, but I’m out of the acid-free stock I had. I’ve ordered three more acid-free reams, and will wait for that to come in, before printing the final carpet piece. I was just going to order one ream, but one was ~$19, and three were ~$29, both with free shipping, so I ordered the three-ream bundle. That is more than I’m ever likely to use, for modeling, but at least I’ll never need to order any more.
 
The next steps are to build the back wall with the cabinet, and fancy window.
 

 
Here are the three wood pieces, for that assembly.
 

 
First you glue the translucent backgrounds to the back of the cabinet front, and window unit. I set the glue toward the outside edges, so no glue would mar the soon to be backlighted areas.
 

 

 
The picture below shows the cabinet front with some light coming through.
 

 
Next, I dry fit the parts, to see what it will look like. For now, I am leaving them this way. When final assembly starts, and I can make sure everything lines up correctly, I’ll glue them in place.
 
This pictures how the back wall as it will look like in the finished scene. There are details to glue to the top of the cabinet, but you get the idea.