Piet

Ah yes!!!!! I'm looking forward to version 3.0 Marcus. Good luck, all of us looking in will certainly enjoy watching. Cheers,

Thanks again everyone fr visiting my micro miniature shipyard and for all the likes, it's really much appreciated. Today's post is about details for the landscape and saw mill. Some time ago I mentioned that I was cutting planking, well here are a few pics of the logs and how I made the ship's hull and deck planks. I plan to place the logs near the future saw mill and stacks of planks near bare-bones schooner. For the logs i used wooden toothpicks and the planking from regular copy paper. The copy paper I first soaked in the wood hardener liquid and after it had dried cut it into 1 mm strips. I left the strips for the deck planking white but painted the strips for the hull planking with Van Dijk brown. It kinda matched the maple of the semi finished schooner. At this point I was still thinking about how to make the hull frames for the bare-bones schooner and came up with an idea to try. I'll explain in a future post. I need to remind everyone that these posts are all after the fact, with other words, the work was done many weeks ago. Here we have a bunch of logs ready be cut into beams for the frames and planking. This shows the material for deck planking and hull planking. I had to keep these wider then the scale width for the planks because cutting them with a pair of scissors or or office cutter was near impossible to get a looking strip. I figures that once I cut the planks to scale length I'd split them in half with the #11 blade These are the rough cut hull planks. Same story here These are the planks for the decks. They will be cut in half lengthwise for scale. These are the hull planks cut to scale length and also to be cut in half length for scale. Cheers,

Great idea for adding the notes to the pics, that gives a clear picture of what you have in mind. Cheers,

Really like the paint job Denis. Great progress. Cheers,

Fantastic looking model Patrick. Most impressive detail. Cheers,

Hey Sjors, while you are at it make two for me Looking good mate. Cheers,

Bravo Sjors. Well done. Cheers,

Hello all y'all and thanks so very much for all the good info. Thanks also to all who clicked the like button. @ Denis: Yes, plastic would work but still too thick and besides, I am stubborn enough to use only wood and paper. @ Daniel: Wow, thanks for the info on Cards of Wood. I had no idea they exist. I'll be visiting for sure. At this writing the problem is resolved by still using wood. When I come to that phase in the project I'll explain how and what I did. I could only use the filament for attaching the booms and gaffs to the mast, the rest of the rigging had to be done with just a few strands of silk. It worked out okay. @ Pat: No, I didn't use wax paper but a very slick plastic sheeting. The problem was not so much detaching it from the plastic but the very fragile nature of the parts. In the end I gave up on the deck beams. As it sits on the slipway you can hardly see the thing. My wife had to use a magnifier to look at all the stuff I have on it. She knew I was using a few single strands of silk but she had to put the diorama under a light and with the magnifier she saw the rigging. @ Carl: No world record I'm afraid and it's also not to outdo anyone else. I guess I needed something to challenge myself and to keep my eyes in good working order. As it is there is some scar tissue in the left eye and a thin film on the backside of the lenses. The left eye gives me a slightly double image and both conditions do show a slight fuzz. But with the optivisor on I can work with it. I'll make an appointment with the eye doc and have the laser thingy done. Yes for sure Daniel's idea is a keeper and will pursue it further. Kinda late in the game for this project but as I mentioned it already, I have found a way do do it anyhow. Actually I did make my own veneer that was close to 0.2 mm but also impossible to bend into that short radius. This is what's so great about this forum, so many great folks willing and able to help. Cheers to all,

Thanks Patrick, you are too kind and really appreciated. Thanks also to all who visited and clicked the like button. Well, we are ready for another installment showing this time one successful item and several not successful. But in the end I did manage to get what I was after, sorta By adding a second slipway I thought of putting a schooner in the stocks being build up. Mostly just bare bones, the keel and a few frames. I decided not to go hog wild with all the frames and few hull planks. As it turned out that was a prudent decision as I will show. Okay, I think a few pics can tell the story better. Here I used 0.5 mm maple veneer to cut-out the three parts for the keel assembly. I used the acceptable schooner as guide for size. This shows how I cemented the three parts to copy paper for strength. Keel assembly completed and strong enough for the purpose intended. Next came the making of the frames for the ship. My first try was using wood, of course. I cut a few slivers of poplar, thinking it was soft enough wood and easy to bend to such a tight radius. Hmmm, no good. It started to split at the radius. Even going with thinner slivers didn't work out. Yes, I soaked the slivers of wood overnight. Second try was with file folder cad soaked in wood hardener. I made a different jig pushing the card in with a wooden form. Looks good but - - - - Didn't work either. The card also split, at this point I was really disgusted but thought to try with copy paper. This is the attempt using copy paper soaked in wood hardener. It seems to be workable and worth a try to pursue. I now attempted to cement the deck beams in using copy paper as reinforcement.. The problem here was cutting it off the paper. I'm not giving up,stubborn Dutchman that I am. Cheers,

Exceptionally clean, simple and very beautifully executed. Kudos to you Daniel. Cheers,

Super nice motor yacht Patrick. Cheers,

Nice work on the jigs Mark. Cheers,

Wow Patrick, I had to put sunglasses on looking at your jewel, that paint was blinding Very nice work and now also the life rafts. Are you going to paint them? Cheers,

Deck houses look superb Nils and especial mounted on the ship. Very nice indeed. Cheers,

Just caught up with this build, looking really very nice Denis. Cheers,

Thank you all my friends for your very kind comments, I really appreciate it. And also to all who clicked the like button. Thank you Patrick, I'm coming close to your miniature work. There is still hope for me? Carl, that grayish looking bolder is just a grain of Basmati rice, nothing fancy or extra large. No, I'm afraid no photoshop for me. I have version 6 still in the box and have no idea how to work it anyhow. Maybe some day I'll get the latest one and spend time to play with it. I am not a computer guy. The water will come to the end of the slipways. Our imagination should see it going under the water a bit. Hey, captain Bob, no trick rice here but someday they'll make a GMO version Thanks Igor, accolades coming from you and Patrick are really appreciated very much. Yeah, Denis, this kinda stuff has a tendency to escalate into more and more impossible things to try. Yup, there'll be a steam powered sawmill and a shop - office building - - - with trees and grass and weeds and gravel and logs to be milled and already sawn planks. Thank you Nenad, I try. You ate no slouch either making impossibly small stuff. All you guys are an inspiration to me. And thank you too Mark. Just got a message from Gwen telling me that she's back in the USA, in Pittsburgh. She's going to stay with Marianne for one day and then fly home on Monday. That means I'd better get the house in ship shape otherwise - - - - - be afraid, be very afraid ;) Other then laundry, mowing the front and back, doing some grocery shopping for her and making a nice dinner nothing much else to do. No time for the shipyard I'm afraid till later on in the week. But I still have a few pics of progress to post from work I already did. So with that I'll sign off for today. Cheers,

Hey Nenad, I thought that was weathering you added, you know, some rust - - - - - But your cleaning up job is looking great. Cheers,

Hello everyone and thank you all for your kind comments. And to all who clicked the like button, thank you. Yes Keith, I need something to show the relation to the size. Igor is using a regular wooden match stick, which I started to employ later on the build. Then some wise crack was made about a grain of rice Hey Popeye Denis, good seeing you in my micro shipyard. Yup, this was the surprise project and even with several redoes and different things to try out it's progressing to what I had in mind. Yeah Pat, nothing like a challenge, but it's a lot of fun doing it. Sometimes frustrating, especially when a completed part "twangs" out of my tweezers and disappears somewhere in the garage. Sometimes I manage to find it again. I don't know how many things I had to do again. Hi Mobbsie, good to see you back. Thanks for your accolades my friend. I'm actually close to completion. I took the project with me to the eye doctor yesterday to show that my cataract eyes can manage small stuff. She loved the model very much. Talking about eyes and eye doctor, besides it being a challenge building something in micro miniature, it's also good exercise for the eye muscles. The doc agreed. So far both eyes have not changed since the operation three years ago, still 20/20 in the right eye and 20/25 in the left. However there is some scar tissue growing in the left eye where the doc made the incision for the new lens. It's not bothering me and the doc said that it can be removed with laser surgery whenever. Okay, today I'll add a few more pics of the progress since the last update. I decided to make two slipways. The reason was that the ship building area was much too wide for one and I wanted to add a schooner on the ways in progress of being build. I thought to put the keel with bow and stern on the slipway with a few frames already fastened to the keel. I had no idea if it was even possible and if not I could always rework the rejected model and cement that one to the slipway. So my friends you'll have to wait to find out. Did he manage to pull it off olr did he give up????? The first three pics show the making of the slipways. I had to make the cross beams first and then the three lengthwise beams. I used boxwood for the beams instead of bamboo so I could make them squarish enough to make it believable. I forgot the size of them but 0.2 or 0.3 mm comes to mind. I'll add some detail of the how with the pics. As a little side project I made a 30 foot supply sloop. Reason being is that I also made a dock protruding from the wall over the water. Okay enough of my jabbering and time for the pics. In order to cement the cross beams for the slipway to the base I figured gluing them on a piece of paper with diluted school glue. Then use a few drops of CA on each beam and cement the whole thing to the base. After the CA had set I made the paper wet with water and peeled it off. It kinda worked okay, except for a few of the beams coming off but I just re-cemented them into place. As it turned out the slipway was too long so I removed quite a few of the beams but had to add some where the gaps between them were too great. I also made the beams longer then required, this way I could make them all somewhat even in length. Not too precise but realistic enough. This shows the completed slipways. The light colored areas is sand. I bought some model railroad sand but the grains were much to large for my scale. I pored some into a granite mortar and pounded the daylight out of them to make it into a rather fine powder. I used clear nail polish to whet the areas I wanted a lighter color with texture and sprinkled the sand on it. Later on I did add some paint over the areas using the dry-brush method. The final landscaping was a concern for me with an eye on the scale. You can see the dock I added. This is another view with a better shot of the wall and the dock. Here is that 30 foot supply sloop. It's pretty well done here except for the sail. Like with the schooner I mounted a toothpick to the bottom of the hull for handling purposes. It and part of the bottom will be removed when I'm ready to cement it to the water. Here we have the completed sloop with the main sail set. Just for grins I have put a grain of rice above it so yuns can have comparison. I did also doctor up the bow a little later on when I removed the holding pin and some from the bottom. By the way, the sail is made from the packing paper from a package Igor send me, it's like real thin tissue paper even thinner then cigarette paper. Thanks Igor! Yup, it has a cockpit and a cabin, of sorts. Cheers,

Thank you Pat, Patrick, Mark and capt Bob for visiting and your very kind comments. And of course tanks to all who clicked the like button. Yup folks, I thought it was prudent protecting my delicate hands. Actually I had to cut three of them buggers. Number two turned out to be frosted inside, thus useless. Well, number three turned out okay. Today I'll show a little more progress. This'll be the base for the diorama. I used 1/4 inch poplar with an additional 3/16 inch layer on top so I could make an incline for the slipways. I cut a circle of 63 mm with a circular groove of about 50 mm that's about 3 mm wide to receive the globe. I then modeled the landscape as shown on the pics below. To simulate the ground I used a piece of 400 grit sandpaper. This did cause me a few head aches later on but I managed to work around it okay. For the retaining walls I used strips of file folder card that I soaked in liquid wood hardener to give it some beef. Then made a bunch of retaining posts and cemented everything to the base cut-outs and painted it in a darkish brown color, simulating age. I'm thinking of reducing the base diameter when the diorama is completed and finish it with veneer and poly. Okay, here are a few pics to show what I have done in this step. This is how it started, bare bones and just an idea in my head. Well, actually I did make a few sketches though before cutting into things. Here I have glued the sandpaper on top of the wood. The point where the ground starts to angle down towards the future water is barely visible. The globe behind the base is the number one lamp I cut and yuns can see the chunk of glass missing. Here I have placed the globe in in the groove I cut previously to check for fit. That's what broke that chunk of glass lout of the lamp, being too rough with it I guess. These are the retaining walls and the supporting poles. One of the walls is temporarily put in place so I can mark it to cut it for a final fit. Both retaining walls are now cemented in place with their supporting poles. Cheers,

Beautifully done Paul, outstanding. Cheers,

Nice cleanup job Patrick, windows look very sharp and the added railings? Great looking job, we don't want the pax falling overboard now, would we? Cheers,

Hello everyone and thank you all for your nice comments and to all who clicked the like button. Thanks Mark, she turned out better then I thought at first. I did contemplate adding more lifts for the rigging but stopped while I was ahead of the game. Who knows, I may just attempt it anyhow when replacing a few of the shrouds. Thank you Capt. Bob, appreciate it very much. Thanks you Patrick and coming from a miniature exert I really value your comment. Hoi Jan, thanks for your kind words and no, none of us should grumble about having to make small things, it's all part of the enjoyment and challenge. I just use a standard cheapy optivisor. Hello Pat, good seeing you here and thank you as well. Hmmm, a grain of rice size ship eh? Well one never knows what lurks in this Dutchman's crazy head. We're not done yet with this project. Okay, now for an update. We are finally coming to cutting the cover globe from an incandescent lamp. I used a regular 60 or 75 Watt light bulb with, I hope, the white powder inside. Hard to tell by looking at it. being the cheap Dutchman, ummm, frugal - - - I took one that hasd been burning for quite some time but still working, figuring it being on the end of it's life. First I marked out the diameter of the groove it's supposed to sit in and then proceeded to drill a small hole at the base to allow the air to flow in. This is supposed to prevent the glass to shatter. I used one of the small dental diamond burs in my small WEcheer hand tool. This worked out okay. Next came the nerve wrecking job of cutting through the glass. I thought to put a diamond coated cut-off wheel in a Dremmel tool mounted in a Dremmel drill press thingy. However, in trying to hold the lamp and gently touching the cut-off wheel it started to chatter. I really had very little control over the cutting action. So, instead I put one of the diamond coated dentist burs in my small WEcheer hand tool. By holding the dental bur flat against the glass I had control and could apply as little or as much pressure to the glass as needed. Holding the lamp in my gloved left hand it seemed to work just peachy, slow but steady. It required quite a few rotations of the lamp before I could feel that I was close in cutting through. Instead of cutting completely through with the dental bur I thought it prudent to switch over to a small diamond coated edge file. This too worked quite nicely and after many heart stopping minutes I finally cut through without shattering the glass - Happy dance for a successful operation. Next I swabbed the white powder out and cleaned the glass with soapy water and let it air dry. So I thought this was the happy ending but no such luck. Unbeknown to me at that time the rotation direction of the burr created tiny hairline cracks in the lamp bulb part. By putting the globe in the base groove several times a small part of the glass cracked out. So, now I had to do the same operation again with a new lamp. This time I reversed holding the lamp by the screw base so the bur would be rotating into the glass. I let the lamp rest on another glove fer better support and to cut down of vibrations. After this operation was successful I used CA to seal the cut part of the globe. So far it's holding up well even with it being placed into the groove of the diorama base several times. Pffffffffvvvvhh - - sigh of relief. Alright then, next are a few pics showing the process. The marking is 48 inches in diameter. Here I am in the process of drilling the vacuum releaf hole. I also put some masking tape around the glass to prevent it from shattering. At least that's what the intend was. It actually worked more as a guide for the dental burr. Here we see the successful drilling of the releaf hole. Here is my setup using the Dremmel with a diamond cut-off wheel. I abandoned this operation for reasons sited above. Here you see the cutting operation in progress. This shows the final operation of cutting through the glass sing a diamond type edge file. You can see the glass filings on the glove. A very clean cut and after cleaning the glass I applied CA to the cut part. Cheers,

Very nicely done Nils, they look believably real. Cheers,

Lovely touch Mark, and inside a lovely lady for a lovely lady. Cheers,

Congrats to your son, not a bad grade at all. Now on to the next step in the exam process. I wish him good luck with it. Cheers,