Siggi52

Hi again.
 
Thanks John.
Ok been making the deck Furniture this week Basic cutouts with the laser and strip wood glued in place. All the photos are still work in progress ATM. Lots of finishing and bits to be added EG Hatch runners, Handles, More strip wood on Skylight. Portholes.
 

Above is cockpit area seating handrail still in its jig Corners laser cut and hand cut strips on the straight sides and back. Cling film so no glue sticking to the jig.

Above. Cockpit well Planked but not finished. Got to add Engine control's and gear shift/throttle leaver. 

Forward hatch very much work in progress ATM.   

Above. Skylight with only sides and end planking in place. Not making the skylight with openings for ventilation.

Above. Cockpit seating area wall with skirt (Planking thickness). Two bits of thin ply wrapped around jig while glue sets and Handrail glued in place. Again Lots of work in progress.

 
Above. Main companion way hatch. Tried to copy the same construction methods as Leo's team used.  
Next job will be to Epoxy the false bulwarks(Plywood) onto the fibreglass bulwarks. This will give me a nice flat finish to mount the stanchions onto. 
And start to finish the deck furniture.  Ongoing for the next few months.
 
Regards AntonyUK.
 
 
 

The main wale jig-saw pieces are installed on the stbd side. I've one piece to add to the port side and then some sanding.
I think I've done an acceptable job of it for my very first ever (and likely last) time.
I found it very difficult, in fact impossible, to make the one side perfectly identical to the other. Human error.
The saving grace is you cannot look at both sides at the same time... except from the bow and stern, in which case they seem to match fairly well.

I did receive one personal message regarding the my bow: "The sheer should flatten out under the hawse holes as it heads to the bow rabbet."
I've looked into it quickly and found my measurements and layout for the underside of the main wale is correct. The width (up/down) expanded a wee bit in cutting out and shaping, and the top side was initially wet and pinched when clamped. The top sides on port and starboard match.
I need to go into it in more depth after I get the stern completed. Some adjustments are in order. I am certain there is accumulative error involved in the top side of the wales and the underside of the hawse holes.
Some slight of hand may be in order.

Front deck - deck clamps, deck beams.

Ciao☺️

Good morning.

Mounting platforms for main caliber guns.

The mainmast is almost completely assembled.

Assembling the upper platform.

Thank you all for your feedback and likes, and I continue...
 
Mainmast.
Soldering the ladder brackets and assembling the tripod.

After removing the wire from the drum and removing the manufacturing allowances, I obtained 2.1 m of the semicircular profile I needed.
I think that with a little modification to the drum, it could also be used to produce a square profile.

After being sharpened with a cutter, the wire on the drum took on this appearance.

Ciao ☺️
 
 

And here is the other version...or one of them just so they are all in the same place.  This was the different lower counter design.   
 

 
sternfriezespeed.pdf
 

Reposting the painted friezes as someone asked if I could make them slightly more blue but keeping them dark rather than the usual light blue background for them....The frieze I am using is actually on a darkish brown background.   But I think this will do the trick.   There are now three versions.  This will be the last one!!!
 
You just cant please everyone.   But try these if you want.
 
 
sternfriezedarknew.pdf
 

Thank you, Gentlemen.  I am continually amazed by what 3D printing now makes possible, however, I always like the slight irregularities of a handmade thing.  For me, this is the fun part of the hobby; you start out with scraps of sheet plastic, and at the end of it you have a super-detailed breast rail.

I have decided to keep my momentum going, and I am currently in the process of designing and making my QD breast rail.
 
In a moment of pre-install vanity, here is the f’ocsle belfry placed:

I wanted to be sure that the scale of the thing looked right, although I did mock-up the main stay during the design process and the top of the belfry is well below it.  With the Louis Quinz model as my reference, I think it looks just about right:


photos courtesy of Marc Yeu
 
Continuing the theme of bringing the outboard details, inboard, I used the main deck level balcony rail as my design reference:

The wonderful part of this hobby is that you are constantly learning and refining technique:

In order to more uniformly draw the three port side lattice frames, I realized I could create a series of reference lines (diagonals and a mid-line) that would help me to layout these shapes in a consistent way.
 
I was lucky that I still had six oval cartouches that I could extract from the kit QGs.  It was necessary, though, for me to cast another name cartouche out of BONDO, which came out with perfect casted detail.
 
The oval cartouches are cast with tiny fleur-de-lis.  On each side of the central panel, I will engrave the central ovals with the crossed-Ls monogram of Louis XIV, while the outer ovals will remain fleurs.
 
Little by little, we are getting there!  Thank you for visiting the build!
 
Bonus - I found this amazing VdV portrait of an unknown Dutch two-decker.  I just love the beautiful silhouette these Dutch ships cut on the water:

 

This has to be the quirkiest sternwheeler yet.
 
 This was a homemade sternwheeler built in 1938 by then 58 year old former ship carpenter "Captain" A.O. Engel of Pittsburgh, PA. His intent was to travel down the Mississippi towing a 62 foot barge carrying Engel's first boat, a 50 foot cruiser battered in a then recent Pittsburgh flood. Engel's plan was to repair the cruiser once he reached his destination. At the time, in 1938, Billy cost Engel $1,000.00 (approximately $23,000.00 in todays money) not including labor and was named for a grandson.  
 
 I discovered this image on e-Bay, it was a listing for the original press photo with writeup on the back. You know I bought it, right?! I am drawn to these quirky sternwheelers like flies to a dead mule. 

 
 The cruiser kinda looks like a converted canalboat and is every bit as ugly as Billy, maybe even more so. If that duo were to knock on your door after dark you'd call the police. 
 

 
 This should be a kick in the pants. 
 
   Keith

Accommodation ladder



 

I was able to attach a lot of the upper
carvings yesterday as well as some trim. All the laser files are dialed in and ready to go. The Taffrail was a bit tricky, made up of two layers of very thin boxwood, it requires a lot of patience.
 
The carvings required some clearance work against the trim as expected, otherwise they fit absolutely perfect.

I have to return to work on Friday so this will probably be the last update on the model for 6 weeks. Will be finishing the stern and lower windows when I return and the rest of chapter 3. Then on to the gun deck!
 

Hello everyone
After a short vacation, I continued with the anchors for my small corvette.
These were made of ebony and boxwood. Only the anchor flukes and the ring are made of brass.
The correct covering of the anchor ring (called: puddening) was particularly important to me. It was already discussed here (page 8 of the document): anchor ring
Often it is done as shown in the following picture on the left. However, this leads to the covering being pushed apart by the lashing ring.
So I tried to do it as shown in the picture on the right. Here, the ropes of the covering are at a better angle to the lashing ring and are held better by it.

 
I'm not entirely satisfied with the result, but at these sizes I'm reaching the limits of my abilities even though this is the corvette's largest anchor. I'll probably use the simpler method (as shown in the sketch on the left) for covering the rings of the smaller anchors.

 
In this picture, you can see the pattern of the clothing a little better. Sorry, but photography isn't my strong suit.

 
Here you can see the smaller anchor:

 
Next, it was time to make the anchor rope. It had to be a left turned cable 2mm in diameter.
 
To do this, I first used my rope-walk....
  
 
...to make three right-twisted ropes with a diameter of 1 mm.

 
These were then clamped back into the rope-walk and processed into the anchor cable.

 
The starting material is this yarn:

 
On the model it looks like this:
 
 
Herzliche Grüße 
Willi
 
 
 
 
 

To all of you who have supported me during this build with your comments and likes, thank you. I have enjoyed each of you being part of the journey. 
 
 TA DA! Tis done. 
 
  I fought trying to get the color of the dredge material to what I thought it should look like. Eric, you know the Susquehanna better than most, I hope I'm close because it's too late now.
 
 It's crazy in that the colors change depending on the light, in fact you see evidence of that in the photos, one to another.   

 
 I tried making the material at the ends and outside of the side wall  look like drying sand while keeping the center of the load looking wetter.  

 
I made the barge floating lower due to load and the fact that it's a soggy ole barge, 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And so this journey ends, I hope you were able to find a smile along the way.  
 
  Keith
 
 
 ps. I mentioned displaying Lula and the pile driver with the Susquehanna River sternwheeler and barge. Here are a couple of photos showing my thoughts. on that.  
 
 Note the color of the material in these two photos. 

 

 
 

Paddle Wheel continues…







Progress…
 
Cheers 🍻 

Getting near the end of installing the main wales.
I'll be away from the shop for a few days.
When I get back I'll install the last 2 sets and then work on planking the lower transom and sanding the wales to the planking.

And finally it all comes together by Adding the upper balcony panel. This is a bit tricky and requires everything before it to go well. 
 
The panel is 1/32 AYC and designed to fit over the QG’s and stern framing, it’s pretty delicate so be careful. 

start by clamping the panel on one
side at a time, making sure it fits around the windows. It should have a snug fit right over them as they protrude out of the QG slightly. You may also need to do some minor trimming at the bottom so they fit on top of the balcony beam. That 1/32 ledge behind the QG is exactly for this purpose. 

above you’ll also notice that I have the cove installed, I finally decided to print this along with the aft deck beam for the poop deck. This fits into some notches in the stern frames. 

I installed a temporary beam
to maintain the measurement between the two stern frames where the printed cove/beam install, I should have done this before I installed the QG’s it would have made things much easier, thankfully it was only about 1mm out so I pushed the ends in and quickly glued down the piece of scrap.

above you can see where the printer beam fits into the notches. It should sit at its proper angle. CA works best when attaching printed parts.
 
once satisfied with the fit, I pulled the balcony panel off and painted the beam red, we will Be adding an AYC margin plank to the top of the beam shortly.

I also painted the margins of the window with the blue I’m using to match the friezes, I chose to go on the dark blue side, similar to the contemporary  Bristol model.

With all that completed I set the panel back on and strategized how to attach it. With the arrangement above it wants to lift off on the outboard ends. So I glued all the clamped spots with PVA so I had working time and then once everything was set and clamped I worked the outer edges with CA, I used similar thick pieces of scrap to carefully hold the edges down while the CA set.
Once the panel was secured and drying I attached the upper part of the cove to the panel, if everything went well then it should already be a tight joint, I just let CA flow into it and it set.

now is the inner laminate part of the panel, this just gets us closer to the tidiness we want and stiffens it up. I cut the piece so the grain runs the other way to help it conform. I had to do some very minor trimming to get this to fit. It should drop in nicely. I secured it with PVA and some CA on the edges.

Finally we add the upper beam, this spans the stern frames and will be responsible for holding some knees later on in the build. This is a laminated piece. Way above you can see it in the parts sheet along with the 1/4” MDF jig that will help with providing the correct camber 

Once the beam it ready go ahead
and bevel the end that Fits against the panel until it fits nice. It can be secured with CA. And finally paint it all red.
as you can see once it all was finished I continued with painting the back side of the upper balcony panel blue, in fact the paint is still wet… it’s getting cold in the garage this time of year.
Today I will move onto finishing the upper stern with all the fun carved goodies, the reward for all the hard work.
JJ

Thank you @Paul Le Wol for the good luck wishes, @Knocklouder for hanging on the edge of your seat, @Keith Black for clinching, @BANYAN for puckering, @SaltyScot for the moral support, and @Canute for the St Elmo reference!  
 
It was a long and frustrating day on Saturday, trying to get that dang ship in the bottle (while watching college football games out of the corner of my eye).  Here's the Revenge on the playing field with her back to the opponent, right before kickoff,
  
 
 
Things began ok.  I had to wad things up VERY tight just to get the end of the ship barely in the bottle.  Of course the wires sticking out the base of the ship did not help, but fortunately, they kind of fit in the bottom curvature of the bottle's neck.  I started pushing the ship in, but hit a snag snag right off the bat.  So I pulled her out, mashed her a little tighter, and tried again.  I'd push her in some, pull her out, mash some more, then push her in a little further, pull her out, mash again...  Rinse and repeat.  I kept thinking something had to break, but I didn't hear any cracks or snaps, so I kept working her in.  Finally, after about 45 minutes, the Revenge dropped in.  


 
 
It's always hard to tell at first, if anything got damaged or if lines are tangled beyond hope.  But at least the fireball looked like it survived.  
 
The next major obstacle was securing the ship to the water.  Normally, that's a piece of cake.  But the LED wires presented a problem trying to get the bottom of the ship to lie flat against the surface of the water.  The good news was that the wires allowed me to push the ship upwards and hold it so I could easily get some epoxy in place.  
  
 
 
 
To get the ship to lie flat against the water, I took the whole thing to my table saw and used the gap for the side extensions to run the wires straight down.  Then I attached a large clamp that was just weighty enough to pull the ship flat, but not pull the wires out.  


 
 
 
Once the epoxy set and the ship was secure against the water, it was time to untangle the lines and raise the masts.  That was an hours-long and nerve/patience testing process  After that, I added the stern structure behind and the double-balcony piece in front of the mizzen mast.  That took a couple of hours.  Despite the custom tools I made for the process, I still kept dropping the pieces and having to retrieve them from the bottle and start over.  It was quite a relief to finally get them in place and glued down. 
 
Next was gluing the mizzen channels to the stern structure.  After that, I added the sprit mast and its tiny rigging.  That was pretty easy.  The final part of the ordeal was tightening all the lines and cutting them off.  Here's how she looks resting comfortably inside the bottle.  And the fireball lighting still works!  Whew!
  


 
 
I like how the fireball light reflects off the water.  It will look different after I add waves, but hopefully I will still get a cool reflection.  
 
There's still a ton of work left, but at least the scary part is over!