lamarvalley

Well,  my goal was to start rigging this week, however the set back on waiting for a few loose end parts and my approaching vacation this weekend will push rigging off to a start time of next week when I return.  Taking the wife and brother down to Hershey Park in PA tomorrow night and I don't think they will be too keen on me packing my ship and materials and working on it in the hotel - although it is very tempting!!
 
So,  got my parts and finished up all the little loose ends. 
 
Finished the pin rails;  pretty straightforward really just basswood and golden oak to blend it all together.
Put the "hinges" on the gun lids;  just used some pactra black trim tape. Cut it to size and stuck them on!
Then sprayed the whole thing down with a couple coats of sealer to bring out some of the colors and deepen the stain a bit and that is where she will remain until Next week.
 
So, as I head off to finish up some other work and tasks I need to wrap up before tomorrow night i will leave some pics of where she sits today, the hull for the most part finished and now waiting for some masts and rope!  Then it will be to attach the anchors, the flower the rear pole and mount on the base and wallah!
 

 

 

 

 

 
Until later all!
 
Enjoy and happy modeling!!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Added seats of ease, catheads and especially their supporting construction which was a bit tricky to make as well as the gaps for the sheaves. 
 
 

 
 

good afternoon 
 
thank you everyone for the comments and PM's
42 months after i bought her my build now has a name, 
apart from a repaint and fitting the emergency steering chain aft is now complete, good god i actually finished a bit - lol

I've never done a solid hull but I have seen a few in build logs and from what I've seen they are not 'easy' builds just because they are a solid blank.
 
The builds I saw were supplied with hulls crafted in the approximate dimensions of the hull with a fair amount of shaping and precision needed to get to the proper shape. To be honest, they looked in many ways harder than POB.
 
Besides, building is not so much the method as the end result.. yes? 

I like the cradle Sjors… the planking  on the stand ties it all together but won't outshine the giant ship that it will hold. The plate is a nice final touch.
 
Your coppering is coming along… having never done it myself I can't say too much except it looks like those gaps will be hard to cut perfectly to fit but you'll probably do it with ease eh?

it also becomes more fun and for me relaxing. The slow process of fitting planks is one that draws me into "the zone" you know when you look at the clock and go, WOW, where did that all that time go. I've actually gotten so engrossed that when I saw the sun coming through the windows was my first indicator that I'd worked through the night.  
 
For a beautiful single planked hull from a first timer, just check out Randy's Florencia, Its a beauty. (tmc says as he looks at the SF1 kit on the shelve).
You just gotta love a Galleon.
 
It's funny Randy's talking about rigging, because it was his and Robbyn's issues with their SF2 kits which caused me to slow way down and start pouring into research of the Gaff rig. Randy is right, as big as the learning curve is on planking, rigging may be even bigger. But that's not to intimidate, that's the challenge of this hobby. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

Looks like a good start John and that sentiment is true for everything… in life and model boat building…. practice makes it less daunting and easier.
 
Wait til you get to rigging      

I had a lot of fun weathering the ship these days. Maybe it's not everybody's taste but I like the result so far.











Groeten, Kees

The hull is now finished and below are some photos.
 
The next phase will be the masts and the rigging.
 
SERVING this is one thing that has unoccupied my thoughts, serving the rope is one thing I want to do on Diana that I did not on Pegasus,so how to serve the parts of the rigging that require it, like the top part of the shrouds and the forward ones where the sails can rub according the Rigging Period Ship models by “Lennarth Petersson”. I have been reading through logs to try and find the technique needed to do said serving,and fairly quickly came to the conclusion that the only successful way would to be to use a machine,and the way forward would to be to buy one of Alex’s ones The Machine 2.0 an unforeseen cost at $100 or £62 delivered, but having upgraded the decks, and mast material, is the only way to go, so one was ordered from his website,it came in only a few days nearly as fast as ordering something from home,( I have yet to put it together) pay pal does have its uses . The other item just arrived is black Guterman polyester thread 6 spools for £6 on e bay,
 
So mast making next and some serving practice.
 
Mort
I agree Cornwall model boats give a first class service I have bought all my upgrade materials and extra thread blocks & paint from them.
 














 

Morning Guys,
 
An update on progress so far, all four remaining yards are now complete and waiting to be fitted to the foremast and bowsprit, that will started this afternoon.
 
I have a series of pics showing various stages and the finished yards, I just hope I don't bore you guys with them, all you guys can run rings around me so I'm not trying to teach anybody to suck eggs.
 
These yards have been turned on my lathe but there is still work to be done trimming up.
 
 
The Octagonal is being worked on using a fine tooth file.

 
Completed Octagon
 
 
Starting to dress the yard, here I'm using black paper to form some strapping

 
Stirrups and cleats fitted
 
 
Stunsail brackets and more cleats fitted prior to painting 

 
Painted and waiting for the blocks, also the main sling is also ready.
 
 
Guess who made these blocks

 
I use my hands free to hold the yards, but the jaws are too strong so I clamp using the top of the clamp
 
 
The finished yards with all the blocks attached

 
Once these yards are attached the end is in sight, so its a matter of weeks all of a sudden, a display case still needs to be made and I want to pay some attention to a different stand, not yet designed but I have a few ideas.
 
That's it guys. Any and all remarks and comments are more than welcome.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

..Thank you Jack..
 
So here's the promised wrap up..
Next thing was to add some nice attributes so it really starts to looks like a lantern, (and to hide some of the imperfections of the wood).
 
.. I started with “twisting” 3 strings of Ø 0.4 mm brass wire with a drill, pictures will show later where i used it.
 

 
I used a “rounding over” and an “edge cutter” and milled the profiles into 2 laths and by using the table saw I cut them into 4 individually shaped laths (but I ended up in only using 3 shapes..)
 


 
Then i really challenged the table saw by cutting them into 8 egual angled pieces (2x22,5 degrees cuts).
 


 
And could glue these into "perfectly" shaped octagons..
 

 
Glued the different octagons on top and bottom..
 

 
And camouflaged the “rough” sides of the lantern with pieces of twisted (blackened) brass wire.
..the final finish was to glue an (cannon) ball on top and to add a Ø1,5mm stick  and to cut the holder for it …
 

 
Taa-daa..
 



 
So next project will be to create the 2 "smaller" lanterns.. 
.. the ST has not "1", but "3" lanterns   

Okee Dokee my friends,  had to do it - just had to....   spent the night working out how to assemble the deadeyes to see how they were going to come out....
 
I dunno about you guys, but I am really really happy with these things - THANK you Chuck, spectacular job!   I am sure you guys will as well.
 
 
So,  first the problem.
 
These things are small - as to be expected right? 
 
So, how to assemble them.   They are laser cut, very nicely and easy to cut from the wood spars.  However gluing them together and
 
1) Keeping the holes aligned
2) Keeping glue out of the holes
3) Keeping them sandwhiched properly so as not to slip.
 
I put on the thinking cap....and here is what I came up with.
 
I decided to start with the largest ones,  6mm,  as test subjects to my "process"
 
FIrst we need 3 pins and a block of wood. (The pins should fit through the deadeye holes )
 

 
We then cut the tops off the pins so we just have the metal shafts
 

 
We then cut the deadeye parts from the wooden spar and place one of the outer parts on the block (face down as it will be the outside) and insert the pins in the holes
 

 
We now have our "jig".   we take an inner part, add a VERY Small amount of glue and slide it over the pins, then take the second outer part of the deadeye, face up. Add a small dot of glue and slide it down.  There we have it, an assembled deadeye .
 

 
The pins act as an alignment guide, not only are they spaced correctly but due to the pattern on the eyes if you attempt to put a part on out of alignment it will be very obvious as the pins bend out of wack.   So we now have an alignment jig for our assembly of the deadeyes.
 
This process then can be repated.
* Outer section face down
* dot of glue on middle section slid into place
* dot of glue on outer section face up slid into place
 
I did this unti I had a small tower of deadeyes, all perfectly aligned and held in place to dry.
 

 
Once they are dried you can pull the assembly off of the block.  Most likely it will come off like a shishkebob of deadeyes, that is okay.  Just pull the pins out one at a time and walla, a pile of dead-eyes.   Repeat untl all are complete.
 
I was now just one step away from the finish 
 

 
The first thing I had done before any of this was assemble the Model Shipways BlockBuster,  in anticipation.
 
So  grabbed the handful of 6mm assembled and unbusted dead eyes, through them into the blockbuster and went to town.
 
I would say I had it running about 5 or 6 minutes and sadly the drill started to peter out.. so had to stop.  However,  the result is pretty darn nice!
 

 
I am goig to run it through again tomorrow after the batter has a chance to charge up a bit and even out teh edge color some and get rid of the little tabs where I had cut it from the sprue.   Some of them already have been sanded off by the buster so I know it will finish them off nicely.   Once those are cleaned up these will be some nice little dead eyes and at least in my opinion an upgrade from the kit supplied ones.
 
 
So,  that was tonights adventure.   My first adventure into assembling Syren Ship Model Company's dead eyes.  I am hoping the same process will work for the smaller ones I just need to find pins or some sturdy cheap wire small enough to fit.
 
Until next time all!
 
Enjoy!
 

 
 
 
 

Sweet!

Now i can go to the starboard side and see if I can do it better.????
 
What???  Looks pretty darn perfect on my monitor. Well done Sjors.

Theo,
 
What a nice way to begin the morning. Your work has always been so beautifully crisp and precise and I see that is still very much the case.
Thanks you for the images…. they entertain and inspire.
Well done Sir!!

Good Evening all!
 
Put the programming and gaming and what not aside for the last two days (today and yesterday) and spent a nice relaxing quiet time in the hobby room with the admiral.   She spent it working on her beads and looming and I with my ship.  Good times.
 
I will apologize however,  kind of got in a groove and just started going at it and didn't realize until it was far too late that I hadn't snagged pictures along the way
 
So,  a breif written description of what was done.
 
My goal is to be rigging end of this week / beginning of next week.  So I have to keep moving on the deck fixtures/fittings etc and get that all wrapped up.
 
The last two days were spent building ladders and railings and belaying pin racks and rudders OH MY!!
 
Everything has been pretty much by the book.  I used basswood for the belaying pin racks so they would match the overall color of the ship and the kevels.  Those were straightforward.  Cut them all up with "the chopper", drilled the right number of holes and placed the pins.  The only bit of drama with this came when I realize I was shorted on pins .  That was okay, needed some more blacken it anyway for future projects so ordered more pins and blacken it and will return to the missing pin racks when they show up.
 
The rudder was also straight from the plans,  the laser cut part was fantastic and after a bit of fidgeting with the brass for the pintel and gudgeons (?   Still learning my Terminology) I got that part all hooked up, painted up and purty like!
 
The ladders were a bit of a fight.  Got them cut to shape and again using the chopper got the steps all the same size,  just getting them all lined up, straight but at the right pitch, glued to both risers... ugh.
 
Finally it was the railings and the bell housing.  I used the bell that came with the kit, gave it a base coat of dark gray metallic and then painted over it lightly with acrylic gold.  The railings were all Pear to go with the other accented wood parts.  Epoxied into place to give them some strength then stained all over with the same 2:1 Golden Oak to blend it all together.
 
All in all I think it was a pretty good couple of days.  Now to work on the knightheads (?), and the pumps and await the incomming pins.  Once those are all set just need to finish off the beakhead (a grate and a pin rack and the outer fixings) and I will be ready to start the fun fun fun stuff (I think).
 
Here is where she sits at the moment, drying and awaiting the next round!
 

 
Enjoy and thanks for stopping in!!
 
 

I just happened upon your build John. Very nice work and I too love that cradle.
 
I had not heard of the Puritan before… that may be one that falls onto my short list of to do's and now I've pulled up a chair to watch what happens next. 

Well lookie there, it's almost all copper and so smooth and uniform. I note the tiny ends still need to be fretted about… that might be harder than cruising through the repeatable middle but in a day or two I'm sure we'll see a picture or two of the finished product… yes?? 

Well lookie there, it's almost all copper and so smooth and uniform. I note the tiny ends still need to be fretted about… that might be harder than cruising through the repeatable middle but in a day or two I'm sure we'll see a picture or two of the finished product… yes?? 

Well lookie there, it's almost all copper and so smooth and uniform. I note the tiny ends still need to be fretted about… that might be harder than cruising through the repeatable middle but in a day or two I'm sure we'll see a picture or two of the finished product… yes?? 

I reach the wale with the copperplates.....
Only the port side but it is a beginning.
I have to filling up till the waterline and at the bow and stern.
Cost me a few other plates 
Before that is done we are a few weeks further so here are a few pictures to keep you satisfied   
 
Sjors
 
 

Good day Wolf…
 
Your San Fran is superb… truly the one to watch and learn from for past and future builds.
Your nice and patient approach yields beautiful well thought-out far improved parts over the junk AL supplied. I love watching what happens next. 

I don't do that Augie....
And thanks for the faith   
 
But....pictures !
She is not finished but I wanna show you what I have done so far.
 
Sjors

Looks good Adam.
Chemistry ain't my thing.. I get it but don't get it if you know what I mean. I like the black but for me it was always a case of hit and miss… some went coal black and others only went gray… could be how well I cleaned the part, could be the metal, time frame… don't really know but I got what I got…  

Welcome to MSW Alex, and Antony, the more the merrier. 
 
Building a kit is great fun and satisfaction. Take your time in the build and ask questions of the more than 14,000 members which are more than happy to help.
 
Good luck with the Black Queen.