Piet

WOW Mark!  your moving right along!  canons look great   

Just catching up Mark The comment about the nice planking is very evident in the broadside shot with the cannons.
 
Michael

Thanks Denis!
 
I reckon you’re right!  Less thinking and more doing, should do the trick😉
 
Cheers. 
 
Patrick

Thanks Denis!
 
I reckon you’re right about the paint work. She’s scrubbing up rather well, I must say😀. 
 
As for my next boat....have you ever made a decision, only to secretly wonder why you made that decision in the first place?  Seriously Denis, this new ship scares the hell out of me. But oh, what a challenge ...
 
Have a great Easter weekend. 
 
Cheers. 
 
Patrick

that one picture........really shows how sweet she looks!   the finish paints are really cleaning her up nicely.   the big day is coming when we will get to see her finished,  but your next project may just dwarf her     really looks good!

Hi Piet.  Yep, you’re absolutely right.  Radical she is, that’s for sure.  I’ll put some more info when I create the Build Log, but as far as I can see, she is a trimaran (hence the two sponsons on each side of the rear of the hull).
Hi Michael.. it’s great to hear from you.  I hope all’s well with you and your new house.  Thanks, also, for the belated Birthday wishes!

Just catching up Patrick, a belated happy birthday, haven't you finished this ship yet?......absolutely amazing how much detail you have crammed into this little Gem.
 
Michael

Those figurines are very well done Dan; very realistic postures and well detailed.
 
cheers
 
Pat 

Nice realistic populating work, Dan. Happy holidays to you, too.
 
 

Hi all - 
 
Thanks Marc, Jan and Michael for your comments, and to everyone for the likes.  Here are a quick couple of photos of some progress on both the Michelangelo and the Zebulon Pike.
 
First, the lower two swimming pools on the liner.  Their shapes do not appear anywhere on the plans and had to be derived from the photographs.  The techniques and materials are the same as for those of the main pool, just slightly reduced in size.

And here are two final photographs of the crew at work on the Pike.  Two crewmen are tensioning the chains that hold down the Sherman tank, while a number of men are engaged in a lifeboat drill with the boat swung out.  One of the docents at the museum took a look and said, "Just like the real thing.  Two men working and five others standing around watching . . . "


Happy Pesach, Good Friday, and Easter to all who celebrate the holidays, and best wishes for a great day to everyone else.
 
Dan
 

Is it a saltwater pool?... Lovely exquisite work Dan
 
Michael

Perhaps not perfect in your own eyes, but it looks quite perfect to me.
 
Jan

Excellent detailing, Dan!  That pool slide is impossibly small.  At first, I was thinking that you should keep trying to install ladder rungs, but then that dime put everything into perspective for me; at that scale, ladder rungs are just are not necessary.

Hello again to all.  
 
So, back to the Michelangelo.  The ship's structure was completed last time and I began on the various detailed subassemblies.  Since I already did a mock up of the main pool, I started with that.
 
Here is the best color photo of the pool that I could find.  It is a bit low resolution, but looking carefully, it appears that the pool deck is raised two steps above deck level and is built of dark red planks that run athwartships.   The light tan areas come and go in the photos, and are probably removable mats.   There is a railing all around with solid benches along some portions of the deck edge.  There are four stainless steel ladders into the pool.  The slide is in the center, with its stairs to the port side.

The slide is a simple curve with raised edges.  It is supported on one angled leg and the edge of the pool.  The photo below is of the slide from the Promenade deck, but as far as I can tell all three slides are identical, except that this one has the slide to the starboard side.  There are kiddie pools for each large pool, but they all different.  Information from several photos had to be combined to get their final shapes and details.

Here is the mock up that I started with.  Actually it is the second one, the first did not merit a photograph.  This deck color is reasonably good, but the grain runs the wrong way and the half moon steps are too deep, so it had to be replaced.   The pool insert needed some cleanup and repainting, but was salvageable. 

The final deck was built up of three layers: a bottom lift of 0.030” styrene with only the space for the main pool cut out.  The second was a layer of 0.020” plastic topped with a scribed sheet of cherry veneer.  They had cutouts for the main pool, the steps, and the kiddie pool.   This gave those features some depth.
The veneer was scribed by first cutting it to a rectangle on the table saw.  It was taped to a cutting mat printed with 12 rows of dots every half inch.  This is 1/24 inch, or almost exactly 1mm.  A metal straightedge was laid along one row and a light pencil line was drawn across the wood.  The graphite from the pencil was tattooed into the veneer by scribing along the line with the back of a #10 blade.  With a coat of clear finish it came up to a nice warm red tone.

The layers were stacked and glued.  The main pool was sanded and repainted, then dropped into its space and secured there.   The kiddie pool had sections of two different heights surrounding it. They were painted off the deck and installed.

The vertical edge of the deck did not appear clearly in any of my photographs, so I went with a simple strip that created a lip around the deck surface.  PE railings were cut, bent and fitted to the lip, then secured in the usual way.  Some random streaks of lighter blue were squiggled on the bottom of the pool.  I find that this looks a bit more convincing under water.

Here is the pool filled with 5-minute epoxy water.  The ladders are 0.011” wire colored with non-buffing aluminum enamel.  They were simply bent to a narrow ‘U’ and inserted into holes picked out with a needle and then hand drilled.  I tried several different ways to get rungs on the ladders, but nothing worked to my satisfaction, so they were left off.   The side benches have been curved and installed and are ready for painting.

The final element for the pool is the most complex, the slide.   It started with a rough cutout like the one below.  The curve of the sliding surface was sanded into it and it was painted with the aluminum before sheets of thin plastic were superglued to both sides. 

The plastic was cut away to leave a raised lip around the sliding surface and a higher raised portion at the top to push off of.  The rest of the plastic and the wood was ground off until the “Y” shape of the slide emerged.  Then it was painted a slightly contrasting blue.

The back of the slide was notched for a polygonal platform whose shape was seen in another photograph, topped with a steel railing.  A narrow style of PE ladder was bent up, painted and installed.  After looking at this photo I realized that the handrails did not meet properly, so some very careful bending was needed before they did.

With that done, here is the slide and aft end of the pool.  I think it matches reasonably closely to the first photo in this log.  I do see, though, that during handling and construction the brown has come off the lower handrail.   

After touchups the pool was temporarily dropped into place in the deck.  It is not perfect, but I am not unhappy with how it looks.

And here is my second favorite President, come to check on the progress.  With his approval it was removed and placed in secure storage.
 
More soon.
 
Dan
  
 
 

Thanks very much gentlemen for your kind comments and suggestions, I'll try to remember them for the future. Thanks also to all who clicked the like button.
Yeah, Dennis but I'll wait making a new one when the ship is securely in the sea, that way I won't accidentally brush against again.
 
Well, I have completed the model and am about to start with the diorama base. This will take a little while because it's all new to me.
For now I like to post a few pics as "Java" looks like as of today.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Carl, there is always room and better late than never. The Dutch community is small but very active. 
I have wanted to do the Boyer since last year so I planned for it and then my wife wanted me to do the mill so I thought I can do both. Like I said before, both will be slow as I also have the garden and that includes the food. I am retired and that helps. It is not all play (boat and mill), there is house work and errands, etc. 
 
I thought it rather odd that when I saw this book and plans figuring it would sell better in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe and not here. Oh well. 
The Boyer is a challenge and the mast at the stern is held by a heavy board, it does not go into the hull.  I would think with a good Dutch wind it would break off. The pointy stern is going to be fun, sort of.  It is a bummer that there isn't more information on this boat. If it is worth to be one of the 17th century Dutch merchant ships you would think there is more information on this boat. 
Marcus 

You are having your running shoes on, Marcus. Glad to be driving so I can catch up I must be the last of the Dutch community to hop on ...
 
Two builds none the less ... an interesting vessel, and it's odd to see the book published in the US whilst the authors are both Dutch ...

Glued it all together and made a template of the height of the railing and little cut outs that will tell me the height of the deck. 
Next I need to sand the form and also use a dremel with a carving wheel to remove the excess wood as the deck is a bit too high. 
The bow is similar to a yacht, which is bluff, the stern is pointed at the end and haven't figured out how I am going to create this so the rudder and rudder post fit accordingly. 
 
Compared to the Utrecht,  which had 13 sheets of plans the Boyer has 3. So for me as a beginner scratch builder their is a lot of unknowns. The Utrecht had a sheet with the outline of the deck only. The Boyer does not have that so I guess I need to look at the top view of the deck plan that has all the deck items on it and look at the outer edge of the boat. 
In the end I will figure it out. 
Also, very little information of these boats on the Net or books. 
Marcus 

Welcome Ondras71. 
 
Glued everything together and she is in a clamp letting her dry overnight. 
Marcus 

I also report on board, to such a beautiful fleet.. 

Permission granted, Patrick. 
Marcus 

awesome job Piet........she looks sweet!

A small marvel Piet, and big accomplishment!! Take your time on the diorama. Better do it right the first time of

Hi Piet
 
What a beautiful job you’re doing.  Of course, the emotions must be running high at times, but, like the others have said, it’s good that you’re at peace with your father’s fate.  Not so, with your time in the concentration camps; but some memories are hard to shake.
 
Thanks for sharing and I value your willingness to bring us into your world.
 
All the best and take care.  
 
Cheers. 
 
Patrick

Hi PIet,
 
She is looking great. I like these pre-WWII cruisers very much.
 
I checked the original drawings fro that small house. The funny thing is: that little house is not on the original drawings
 

but.... it was there for sure:
 

It looks more of a wind-shield to me on this picture, and not a closed structure (you can see light through the porthole that is in it). So it has to be a 1934-refit change. During that refit, the masts were changed (shortened, and repositioned). At the same time the anti-aircraft guns were modernized, and a couple of sheltered fire-control positions were created (using steel screens). I guess this is one of those positions.
 
Jan