Piet

WOW, Patrick, impressive looking masts. I agree with the comment about your canopy, loos very real! Can't wait till you start rigging. Cheers,

Finally an update from the Flying Dutchman. I have been busy with domestic chores, some cooking for my wife and other sundry items. However, I have been able to spend a few hours on and off at the workbench in between. Some of the work was the same as previously posted thus it made so sense to clutter up the log with same stuff. I have now completed the conversion of all the canons on the main deck waste area. I still need to make the tackle hardware for them as well as the tackle. Plenty of single and double pulleys, hooks and eye bolts. To have a change of pace i started with the starboard side gun deck gun ports. I made a bunch a few years ago but several are too small for the gun ports so I have to make about 6 new ons and that includes the two at the stern. I also have to remake the associated hardware - - - hinges! The previously made hinges are too large in scale - - - I used 1 mm brass tube for the hinges. I obtained 1/2 mm brass tubes from Holland via Remco, that'll be mucho better. That means that I also have to redo all the gunport hinges on the port side Hey, what's another redo among friends Okay, here are a few pics. Cheers,

Stay strong and have a VERY positive attitude and keep smiling and joking. Get well soon Dave. Cheers,

Hello my friend, let me add my best wishes for your dear mother in law and hope that she'll recover soon. You too must take care of yourself and reduce the stress level your in at this time. All the best from Piet,

It's all looking fantabulous Patrick! Cheers,

Very nice indeed! Love the stern tuck, looks very symmetrical. Cheers,

Lovely! Cheers,

Good news Nils and your decking looks super nice. Cheers,

Hang in there Dave and take care of your health. Your ship will wait patiently as we are. Cheers, Piet

Beautiful, just beautiful Patrick. Stunning! Cheers,

Congrats Dan on a most beautiful ship. I have been following along throughout the build not commenting but thanks for teaching us all as you were building. That's what makes this forum so special. Cheers,

Thanks everyone for your warm welcome back messages, and then all the likes, it's really appreciated very much. Yeah, it's been what, almost 3 years since I last worked on her. As yuns know I kinda concentrated on the 019 build. Well, here we are and trying to spend some more time on this ship. I finished four of the eight cannon conversions except for some final detailing, which includes adding the bolts that hold the pivot straps. I made the straps from paper that I painted flat black. I'll wait with all that till all eight are completed, no sense in prepping the paint twice. Then there is all the hardware yet, with the ropes. Here are a few pics of what was done today. Yes, it was rather warm in the dockyard (garage), 33 C! But I love it though. This was how I left it last evening. So, this morning I started dunking the wheels in brown dy so they could dry out for later assembly. I also painted the axles flat black. Here is the bunch from another angle. I decided not to polish the canons but leave them somewhat rustic. Gives a better impression of time at sea This shows only two of the 32 wheel securing pins. Yeah, they are still in the rough state but before I installed tem into the axles they were dressed a little better. I decided not to glue them in the axles in case the crew needs to change a wheel This shows the four cannons placed in their position on deck. You can now see that the smaller size fits a lot better without running into the hatch coaming at recoil. It also gives the crew some space working around the hatches. Here is an overhead view. Here is a close-up of one of the cannon assembles. This is probably the roughest cannon of them all but I kinda like it and it's not noticeable when placed on deck and ready for action. Cheers,

Hello everyone, Piet's back in the Surabaya shipyard! I have accumulated a few more tools and 0.5 mm brass tubes for the canon lid hinges. I have to redo all the lids already done because the 1 mm tubes are just too much out of scale. There are no 0.5 mm brass tubes available here in the US but Remco offered to get them for me from Holland. Thanks again, much appreciated. In the meantime though I started on converting 8 of the 18 pounder canons to 12 pounders. I cheated and bought a bunch of precast cannons that would fit my scale of 1:80 for 18 pound canons but on the upper deck they must be 12 pound. The are too large to make them look good. I also had to modify the gun carriages for the modded canons. I cut the barrel from the gun in front of the pivot pins and shortened that piece a 1/4 inch and did the same at the breach end where I cut about 1/8 of an inch off. Drilled holes in the three pieces and cemented the gun back together using steel finishing nails as reinforcement. A little filing and presto, I have a 12 pounder. Actually it wasn't all that simple because the castings were not round but oval. Fortunately this was mostly at the barrel end. I had to first file the barrel round before cutting the canon pieces. Not doing this first would give me all kinds of grief when cementing them back together again. Drilling the holes for the pins was also a tedious job because I had to go slow other wise the metal would melt and jam the drill bit. I think I lucked out in that all the holes were very close to center and wound up with straight looking guns. I used 5 minute epoxy to cement the three pieces together. A little fine tuning and cleaning and then a coat of flat black paint. The gun carriages are still not finished yet. I only made one for now and will use that as a pattern for the other nine I also started to make the wheel / axle securing pins. Micro work, to say the least. Well here are a few pics of the progress so far. This'll be slower going then with the work I did on the O19 but it has to remain fun. This shows the difference after I converted the first gun. This shows the barrel end removed from the gun and in proces of shortening. This shows the same treatment with the breach end. I used a grinding wheel in my electric hand tool to shorten it that 1/8 inch. I had to go slow to prevent the metal from melting and clogging the stone. The final treatment was with a file to make the cuts square to centerline. Here I have laid-out all the parts to be cemented back together again. This shows the result of all my work for just one gun. All together i estimate about 4 hours or so per gun. I didn't check time so it could very well be longer when counting all the time i spend in dressing the gun. This shows the completed gun on its carriage with the next one in line to be done. All that's left is painting. and attaching the hardware for the ropes. Here you can see the axle / wheel pins. They too still need to be dressed some more - - - carefully, because they are fragile. Cheers,

Hope that everything will be successful and speedy recovery. Cheers,

Love that inboard shot Remco, like standing there in person. Nice progress with the hammock thingies. Did you knock one off trying to get your smartphone inside? Plan to have a few hammocks hanging with a few sleeping crew members in them???? Lovely work my friend. Cheers,

My jaw hit the floor again Patrick and a submarine too! You could have made the O19 my friend, she was smaller - - - only 77 meters and that at a scale of 1:1000 ??? All kidding aside, she's really looking grand. Cheers,

Hey Patrick it's all your fault that I hurt my jaw - - - it dropped to the floor mate Very nice work! Cheers,

Me 4!

Hello Kevin, So good to see you back again at your Vic, missed you. Checking in late, been on holiday with the family in Holland for three week, no time to chick in till now. You are making great progress and keep at it. Cheers,

Hey Dave, greetings from sunny Amsterdam, well at least today it was. Sorry to hear about your ear problem but it looks like that things will work out okay. Your planking is another story but you'll figure that one out too. All the best with both "situations." Cheers,

Beautiful peace of work Bob! Cheers,

Beautiful peace of work Bob! Cheers,

Beautiful work Boris. Looking forward to the availability of the kit. Will you also have or offer PE parts? Cheers,

My sincerest and most heartfelt sympathies to you and your two children. Consider yourself hugged so I can pass on some of my spiritual strength to you. In brotherly love,

No like on your post from me either Nenad. So sorry to hear that your mother passed on. What about your wife????? Hang in there my friend, stay strong. All the best from,