Louie da fly

Steve, that's a beautiful model of a beautiful vessel. With such high quality of workmanship it's hard to believe it's your first build.
 
Steven

Nice work, Patrick. I like the way you've fixed the guns. They'll certainly never come loose! (and as you say, the screws will be invisible).
 
Beautiful detail work, as we've come to expect from you.
 
Steven

This wee sleekit cow'rin' tim'rous beastie looks forward to following the progress of your cunning plan.
 
 
Steven

Lou, to my chagrin I'd never heard of the Beaverford, which seems to me had even more to do with saving the convoy than the Jervis Bay, (noble though her sacrifice was). I looked Beaverford up and was astounded at her achievement - for an unarmoured merchant vessel to hold off a pocket battleship for 5 hours, with only a 3'' and a 4" gun. Amazing and incredibly courageous. And it's shameful they were never given official recognition.
 
Steven

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Thanks, Mark. But the shelf needs to follow a smooth curve to get the deck to be consistent, otherwise the deck itself will be all wobbly.
 
Steven

Nice work, Javier, particularly at such a small scale.
 
I suppose the skids on the bottom are to help run the boat up onto the beach (which is large flint pebbles, if I recall correctly).
 
Looking forward to following your progress on this one.
 
Steven

Fascinating stuff, L.H.
 
Steven

Beautiful work, Michael. A real pleasure to watch this build.
 
Oh, and I take comfort from the fact that even someone at your advanced level sometimes misses something (the attachment of the vent stack). I don't feel quite so embarrassed about my own boo-boos. Still embarrassed - I've got a long way to go before I even approach your level of skill - but not quite so embarrassed.
 
Steven

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Nice work, Patrick. I like the way you've fixed the guns. They'll certainly never come loose! (and as you say, the screws will be invisible).
 
Beautiful detail work, as we've come to expect from you.
 
Steven

Lou, to my chagrin I'd never heard of the Beaverford, which seems to me had even more to do with saving the convoy than the Jervis Bay, (noble though her sacrifice was). I looked Beaverford up and was astounded at her achievement - for an unarmoured merchant vessel to hold off a pocket battleship for 5 hours, with only a 3'' and a 4" gun. Amazing and incredibly courageous. And it's shameful they were never given official recognition.
 
Steven

Very nice work, Pat.
 
Steven

Nice work, Patrick. I like the way you've fixed the guns. They'll certainly never come loose! (and as you say, the screws will be invisible).
 
Beautiful detail work, as we've come to expect from you.
 
Steven

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Steve, that's a beautiful model of a beautiful vessel. With such high quality of workmanship it's hard to believe it's your first build.
 
Steven

Working on getting the beam shelf smooth.
 

 

 
To be honest, the amount of wobble is pretty tiny - maybe 1/2mm - but it does make a difference. To smooth out the curve I've used all three techniques I mentioned earlier - slicing off where it was too high, filling where it's too low, and relocating the beam shelf where it's too far off the line to slice or fill. Still a bit to do before it's all smooth.
 
Next time I do something like this I'll make sure I get it right first time so I don't have to get into this whole correction thing, which wastes time and effort. A lesson learnt (I hope!).
 
Steven 
 
 

Carl,
 
It looks like you replied while I was in the middle of editing my post above to add another photo and two links, which I hope are of help.
 
Steven

I've done a preliminary fitting for the support system I'll be using for the lower oars, to see if it will work. A number of cross-members hold at the correct height a frame with a series of lines all at the same angle, as guides for the oars. The oars go through the oarports with the inner end resting on the frame and the outer end resting on a raised plane (currently two thicknesses of balsa wood) to simulate water level.
 
  
I've done my best to get all the oars as close to identical as possible, so they'll all be at the same angle vertically when they rest on the frame. Also, they'll be interchangeable so it doesn't matter which one goes where. The other quantity that has to be kept constant is how far the oars poke out from the hull, which is done by simply drawing a pencil line around the circumference of each oar at the point it goes through the oarport.
 
I've only tried it with three pairs of oars so far, but it looks like it will work. Now to get it all done properly, with everything lined up and glued in place. As I mentioned before I won't be putting the oars in till later on in the build so they don't get damaged while I'm working on other parts of the ship.
 
The two mast steps are still in progress - I'm making them like the ones found in the Yenikapi ships. Though they're more complicated than my original version I think it's good to do it the way it was done back in the day if at all possible. The blocking piece is shown above the two mast steps. Sorry about the photo quality.
 

 
At some point I have to correct the line of the beam shelf - it's a bit wonky and has to be made into a smooth line, or the deck beams - and the deck itself - will also be wonky. As can be seen in the photos, the line wobbles very slightly all along its length.
 


 
As the beam shelf so narrow and flexible, I can probably correct it by cutting it away from the frames at the offending places and re-glueing it in the correct position. If not, I'll have to cut and fill till it's correct.
 
Steven
 
 

I feel the same way, Lou. The ABDA force didn't achieve their aim to stop the Japanese invasion. But they were a scratch force flung together from widely disparate navies with no opportunity to train together or work out a common strategy and tactics - not to mention the language problem! They knew they were outgunned and outclassed, but answered the call with heroism that is hard to contemplate in today's world.
 
Not forgetting the Jervis Bay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Jervis_Bay
 
Carl, try doing a google image search on HMS Glowworm - several of the photos that are fairly small in the above links can be found larger and with better detail by doing this.
 
Steven
 
PS: Just found another one!
 

 
and links to higher definition photos  - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/1c/70/cb1c700a04541ee2356ef9efa0c5439a.jpg  and https://i.pinimg.com/originals/48/84/69/4884695873e57a0ef98a10aaa8697b78.jpg .

Carl,
 
It looks like you replied while I was in the middle of editing my post above to add another photo and two links, which I hope are of help.
 
Steven