Piet

Very nice metal work, fantastic ship model.

So much ironwork! Beautifully executed, as usual, Ed. You are the iron-master.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 277 – Main Yard Boom Irons
 
The ironwork on the main yard continued with the fabrication and fitting of the boom irons, the supports for the topmast studdingsail booms.  The first picture shows two steps in the fabrication of the inner boom irons.
 

 
The large circular bands were first made to fit tightly in their positions on the yard.  The smaller bands were sized to be about 1" larger in diameter that the 8 ½" diameter of the boom center sections.  I used brass for the short arms between the rings – mainly because I had hard brass in that thickness.  Making these of copper would have simplified the blackening process later.  Because of the brass, these were blackened before installing on the yard, as will be seen below.
 
The next picture shows a yardarm with its banding and pieces for the end cap and strap that support the outer iron.
 

 
The straps were drilled first, then shaped as shown - in a vise with files, and then bent and clipped to the shape shown below.
 

 
The straps are secured with tight-fitting, stretched rings pressed over the ends of the yard as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the yard with the inner irons installed.
 

 
Only the brass-containing inner irons are black.  These were also fixed in place with a wire "bolt" – really a small wire nail in a drilled hole – riveted to hold the band on the underside of the yard.  The last items to be made were the outer irons – sometimes called "Pacific irons".  These consist of rings at the ends of bent iron bars.  The picture below shows the rings – same size as the inner rings – soldered to lengths of brass bar stock. 
 

 
The rings were fitted with a roller on the underside to ease the movement of the boom.  These were simulated by soldering a small bit of wire under each ring.  The lower assembly shows the soldering configuration before clipping off the excess.  A small round section was first filed out of the wire to help it fit to the band.  Again, making these of copper would allow the yard to be completely assembled before blackening, which would then be done using liver of sulfur solution.
 
The last picture shows the finished yard arm after blackening and installation of the outer iron.
 

 
Final assembly of the yard and finishing will be described in the next part.
 
Ed

Indeed very beautiful work Doris. I'm speechless.
 
Cheers,

WOW!

I’m sure there are many solutions to completing these tasks. Your metal work is mind-blowing though. An art in itself. 
Steve

Hello, Christian.  Probably the easiest way to simplify the model is to eliminate some of the rigging that is often left off models - items like reef tackle. bowlines, and others.  I will think about how to suggest fewer lines.  Other simpler methods may be used - for example, banding may be made with paper instead of the soldered copper.  Shackles may be eliminated.  Other simplifications may suggest themselves.  I will give this issue some though to follow through on the simpler model idea that led to the 1:96 POB version being included.  I will say that most of the rigging work is manually done - a lot of knotting and seizing.  Once learned these tasks become more repetitive than difficult.  Hope this helps.
 
Ed

Really wonderful work, Ed. I had a lot to read this week and was really surprised about the many details you show in your model.
I don't think that is possible (for me) to build all this details. Is there a simplified version for the 1/96 model planned? Than a not so talented modeller could use this version.

Grazie, Allan.
 
Ed

Ed,
 
I ran out of words to describe the beautiful work you have been doing a long time ago so will use a different language for a change.  Esecuzione assolutamente bellissima!!!
Allan

That looks incredible Ed, the level of detail you achieve at this scale is inspiring.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Love the comments.  
 
First the number of hoops:  At lengths of 82' and 86' respectively, I decided to make the fore and main yards as two-tree made spars.  The main yard has a 30 ft scarph joinng the two trees, each about 60 ' long.  These were bolted and banded, with heat-shrunk bands about 30" apart over the scarph length.  Then there are bands for the sling, the truss, the inner boom irons and a number of eyebolt/fairlead bands.  Youre right, Druxey - a lot of iron.
 
Massive is right, Wefalck.  The yokes are about 6 feet across and the distance between mast and yard centerlines is about 6 feet as well.  These were both dimensions I estimated from typical data.  With a center diameter of 23" and a length of 86', I estimate this yellow pine main yard to have weighed in at about 3 1/2 tons for just the wooden spar - no ironwork, stun'sl booms, sails or rigging  Of course the weight of all this was mainly taken on the chain sling at the center - with some help from the topping lifts.
 
Still smaller than a main yard on a first rate like Victory: 102' x 24" diam.
 
Ed

Ed, you should actually put a scale figurine next to all the iron work in the photographs - it strikes me how massive these forged parts must have been on the original. I gather the yoke would have been something like 2 m (7') across ...

No so much a band or two, as a collection of whole orchestras! I had no idea that there was so much hardware attached to a wooden main yard during that era. Beautiful work as ever, Ed.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 276 – Main Yard Truss
 
The main yard truss described here, and the mizzen version, are identical to the fore yard truss.  The basic shapes shown in the first picture were cut out using a band saw with a 1/8" metal-cutting blade with a pasted-on pattern scrap as a guide. 
 

 
I cut both main and mizzen at this stage to avoid another band saw blade change later.  I used the band saw to save time vs. the jewelers saw.  The basic profile of the truss was then filed out as shown below in the next two pictures.
 


 
The eyes at the ends were marked with dividers set from the band brackets on the yard, then drilled to accept 20 gauge copper wire.  The unfinished yoke is shown in a test fit in the next picture.
 

 
In the next picture the yoke has been rounded, polished, and again fitted to the yard band brackets.
 

 
The center hole for the truss arm bolt is shown in this picture with a straight length of 20 gauge wire inserted.  The next picture shows the fabricated truss arm.
 

 
The arm was made using sections of telescoping tube.  The eye that will fit into the mast band bracket was fitted into a slot at one end and silver-soldered.  A short length of 20 gauge wire was soldered into the other end.  In the next picture a flange has been soldered to the wire to hold the arm on the yoke, but allowing it to rotate.
 

 
The assembly is set up, upside down, for bolting to the yard band brackets.  Heads were first formed on one end of the copper bolts.  They were then inserted from the top side o be clipped off just above the bracket surface and peened like the right-hand bolt in the picture.  A square ended punch was tapped with a hammer in the position shown to enlarge the bolt head like a rivet.  The left hand bolt is not yet clipped.  The last picture shows the truss installed on the yard.
 

 
This picture shows the top of the yard.  All soldered band joints, though not very visible, were positioned out-of-sight under the yard.
 
 
Ed

Indeed very beautiful work Doris. I'm speechless.
 
Cheers,

Joining the fellows in the applause. Great detailing as always, Doris. A masterful skill to astound us all.

That roof section is a marvel of card engineering! And the sculpted pieces are first class as well. Glad also that you are now better, Doris.

Extraordinario.........thank you very much Doris.

Hi Doris,
wow, windows, sculpturing and forming of the QG is marvelous, you`re doing an amazing job there !
 
Nils

And others.....
 
Please enjoy the pics, soon I will add new ones.
 
Best regards, 
Doris

There are increasing other sculptures - karyatides. I like this work very much.....
 

And here starts the most favourite part of my work....
Sculpting of course..... 
 
Apart from the Vale's painting, I get inspiration from period models, paintings + drawings and archaeological finds. I would like to create not only beautiful and detailed sculptures but also more realistic.
 
Some inspiration I find also here:
http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=110763&start=210#p2086152
or
http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=110763&start=225#p2087773
 
So how the sculpting started......
 

I have also placed and glued plexiglass (I use a clear CDs) into the windows and created a diagonal grid with the scalpel as you can also see in plenty of historical paintings by artists - mariners and museum models from that period.
 
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/65964.html
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-T-1885-A-555
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-T-00-408
 
 

Other pics: