Rudolf

Yes John keep the ol cells working!
Thanks all for the likes and nice comments.
I did not have any 3/16" birch ply so made the keel from 1/8" ally sheet.
It is epoxied into the hull so going nowhere except where the hull goes.
The bulb halves are bolted from both sides and epoxied.
Then a coat of body filler to smooth everything down.
Just a few more rubs now and the hull is ready for painting.
My son will two coat it with his spray gun after christmas.
I was  not sure of the plywood rudder de laminating, maybe parting company with the rudder post because of just relying on epoxy to hold it and also the rudder throw was limited because of the half tube epoxied into the skeg.
So I have over engineered it as Aussies do!! and made a solid larger rudder from 1mm brass sheet soldered to the rudder tube.
It is NOT going to come off otherwise there will be some hat eating to do.
Okay its a bit heavy but I do not think it will have any down sides.
I now have 180 degree swing so this boat will definately turn!!!.
Pete.
 
Happy christmas my good friends.
Hugs all round.
 
 

Thank you all followers of this thread for your interest.
It is more than I ever imagined.
The hull shell is now complete and out in the hot Australian sun for its first coat of interior varnish to dry.
My Vic Smeed Yachting book arrived this morning and it is an absolute Gold Mine!
If you get into making a sailing yacht then this book has all you need to know.
What tickles me is that the past owner who is no longer with us had several engineering letters after his name but he still bought the Vic Smeed book as there were obviously things he needed to know.
Vic was a technical genius.
Onwards! 
Here is how his Starlet design has emerged.
It is an easy build.
It must be as I have done it!
It is imperfect but so am I.
Pete
 
 

Hello: Checking for possible defects, marking of the curves of the hull, and "lockout lock". Greetings
 
(Hola:
Comprobando posibles defectos, marcado de las curvas del casco, y traca de aparadura.
Un saludo)

Hello everyone: I've had a few days, and I've continued with the model. I have made the grooves to place the "barraganetes", I have cut all the "barraganetes", I have built the covers of the "trancaniles", which I will then paste, and I will make the grooves for the "barraganetes" (more carefully, and more tightly, as it will be seen), And I built the "apostles." From here, I will place the keel and start with the helmet lining. Greetings. (Hola a todos: He tenido unos días, y he seguido con el modelo. He realizado las acanaladuras para colocar los "barraganetes", He cortado todos los "barraganetes", He construido las tapas de los "trancaniles", que luego pegare, y volveré a hacer las acanaladuras para los "barraganetes" (con mas cuidado, y mas ajustadas, ya que quedara visto), Y he construido los "apóstoles". A partir de aquí, ya colocare la quilla y empezare con el forro del casco. Un saludo)

The inner upper deck bulwarks were faired to a thickness of 7" using a combination of a Dremel disc sander on a right angle head and hand sanding.  The stern fashion pieces were built next.  Quite simply, I used several laminations of basswood sheet to fill in the space between the last bulkhead and the counter timbers.  These was sanded to the correct configuration.  Using basswood made the sanding process much easier than if I had used hardwood or ply.
 

Openings for the gun ports and the oar ports were framed with castello.  The forward-most gun and oar ports are located in line with two bulkheads.  This required some creative construction.  My approach to the problem was to make a continuous filler piece between the first four bulkheads that could be slid in and out to facilitate shaping the inner surface.  This was done using several scraps of basswood.  It worked out well but it sure looks ugly!  This will also give me a solid surface to glue the upper hull planking as it curves toward the stem rabbet.
 

The next oar port also is located through a bulkhead.  I glued strips of basswood on either side of the bulkhead and framed the port between them.  The rest of the ports were located between bulkheads and did not cause any other problems.  In order to maximize my use of the scrap box, the frames were cut from various thicknesses of castello.  Once planked over, this variation will not matter.

 

Thank you for your praise and all the "likes", dear friends. I am happy you enjoy the pics and the progress.

Paper brings a huge range of options; it is possible to create almost everything using only ordinary modeling tools and it costs next to nothing (except spent work and time of course...). With every other model I can find a new and better application of this material. Of course, I prefer to make ornaments and scupltures from Modurit (this is my favourite modeling clay available in Czech Republic) and there is still opportunity to improve details and realism. Now I have made tiny reliefs for cannons,  8 of them will come for smaller cannons - sakers on the quarterdeck - these cannons will be made later. At the same time, I created other ornaments and placed them on the hull.
 

 
I use mainly photos of museum models for inspiration.

Rub rail now installed.

Fabulous! The world's smallcraft offer a virtually inexhaustible supply of modeling options. I look forward to seeing you work your magic!

This evening, I decided upon a plank width for my stern counter; 9/64”, strong.  This width affords me a little leeway to fair beneath the moulding that will support the four seasons caryatids.  On other words, I can plank with three boards.
 
Much of the evening was spent planking just one side of the first course.  Along with the compound curvature of camber and round-up, one must bevel the downward edge of the board, for the rake of the stern.  All, while trying not to diminish the uniform plank width.

My plan is to true up the top edge of the false balcony, as necessary, and according to how I want my top moulding (that serves as the base for the four seasons figures) to align with the bottom of the window frames.
 
We (and our ships) are all works in process - all of the time.  Thank you for being here.
 
 

A little more and it will be ready. I hope I have enough time for one week.

Wonderful work Javier I too will enjoy following along.
 
Michael

Thank you very much to all for your comments.
I continue with the constrction of the model.
 
 
 
 

My current project is a lugger of the east coast of Scotland, a type of ship called Zulu, which was the most powerful and efficient sailboat for the herring sail fishery among those of its size in the British Isles.
 
Its origin dates back to 1879, the year in which a Lossiemouth fisherman, William "Dad" Campbell, devised a radical design for his new boat for the capture of herring. He had the vertical bow of the fifie and the sloping stern of the skafie, and called this ship "Nonesuch." It was relatively small, with 16 m. of length and a keel length of 12 meters.
 
This design, which provided a longer deck and a shorter keel, markedly improved the maneuverability of the boat and provided it with a good speed, characteristics that made it highly appreciated by herring fishing fleets, as they managed to reach promptly to the fishing grounds and return quickly with the catch. Due to these qualities, that type of vessel quickly became very popular throughout the Scottish east coast.
 
The new type of vessel was baptized as a Zulu because of the war that was developing in South Africa at that time, in which Scottish soldiers fought, a war that was rejected by the population who thought they were fighting in an English conflict that, deep down, they were not concerned, which made their sympathies lean towards the Zulus.
 
The Zulu ships were carvel built, instead of clinker built, which was the most common in those waters. They were provided with two masts carrying lug sails and a bow jib. The sails were heavy and difficult to maneuver, and the masts to carry them had to be very long and strong. In the Zulu of greater size, the masts came to be 18 m high in boats of 24 m in length. As the twentieth century approached, steam winches were introduced aboard, which made maneuvering sails and nets much easier for crews.
 
However, and despite the success of its design, the life of the Zulu was quite short, since it was replaced by steam fisherboats after a brief existence of just over three decades.






 

Thank you ! Trying to do my best to keep up with you guys
 
***************************************************************
 
Freeing Ports
 
Originally I had planned to surface-etch the lids and the frames on the inside of the bulwark. The drawings for the masks were ready, but I never got around to actually etch or have the parts etched. Since I now have the laser-cutter, these parts were cut from printer-paper (80 g/m2 = 0.1 mm thick). With a width of the frames of only 0.5 mm, the surface-etched rivets may not have come out anyway. The same for the rivets on the hinges of the lids. At least not with my somewhat primitve home-etching arrangement. If I had etched the parts from 0.1 mm nickel-brass, the overall thickness would have been reduced to a more correct 0.05 mm (= 8 mm for the prototype).
 
The lids have no latches to lock them and the ports no bars across them to prevent items or people being washed over board. This makes their construction simpler.
 
Papers, even the smoothest ones, alway have a certain surface-roughness, at least compared to the bakelite of the bulwark. Therefore, the chosen paper was soaked in wood filler and spread to dry on a thick glass-plate that was covered in cling-film. The latter allowed to remove the paper without it rolling up. The surface was then smoothed with very fine steel-wool. The lids were cut from the thus prepared paper, but it needed several trials to find the right cutting parameters in order to arrive at parts of the correct dimensions. This is a disadvantage of such simple laser-cutters and their software. As the material is practically free, this is only a nuisance, but no other loss. Also the etching may not work out right in the first go, which may mean a considerable loss of money and time, if the process had been outsourced.
 

Laser-cut lids for the freeing-ports
 
Unfortunately, it does not work for very small parts with the paper prepared as above. It turned out to better for the very small parts, including the frames, to cut them from unprepared paper. Perhaps I should switch to dark paper. Due to its lower albedo (reflectivity) it absorbs more energy from the laser. Unfortunately, all the coloured papers I have come by so far are quite rough on the surface.
 
I cheated somewhat for the freeing-ports. As I was afraid that I would not been able to cut them out cleanly and evenly, I abstained from it. Also, the bakelite-paper used for the bulwark for reasons of stability would have had a scale-thickness of 64 mm, when looked on from the side. Therefore, frames and lids were glued flat onto the inside and outside of the bulwark respectively. I hope one will not notice this too much, once the stanchions are in as well.
 
Frames and lids were glued on with zapon-lacquer. Little laser-cut rectangles of 0.3 mm x 0.5 mm were stuck onto lids to simulate the hinges.
 

Installation of frames and lids 
 
To be continued ...

Thank you very much, gentlemen 
😇
 
*******************************************
 
Steering-stands
 
The steering-stands consists of two pillars supporting a pair of wheels. These pillars were somehow bolted to the deck, but drawings and photographs do not show how it was done. On the model this detail will be barely visible, as the lower part of the columns will be hidden by the gratings platform.
The grating actually were photo-etched a long time ago. However, I did not like the rounded-out corners, which are due to my somewhat primitive etching process. Therefore, I cut the gratings also with the laser from Canson-paper. By playing around with the settings of the laser-cutter, I managed to produce reasonably square field and sharp corners. The fields resp. the ‘laths’ are only 0.3 mm wide and the grating is 0.3 mm thick (0.3 mm in 1:160 scale is equivalent to just under 50 mm for the prototype). I would have found it impossible to produce a grating in these dimensions prototype fashion.
 

Steering-stand gratings: JPG-image as input for the laser-cutter
 
The gratings are made up from two layers of paper 0.15 mm thick each. Imitating the prototype to some degree the lower layer only had transversal laths. Both layers were glued together with lacquer. The transversal reenforcing bars are built up from three layers of paper and glued to the gratings again with lacquer.
 
The platforms are raised above the deck by four short columns that were turned from brass rod. They were slotted for the reenforcing bars on the micro-mill.
 
The steering-wheel pillars were designed on the basis of the photographie showen earlier and what can be deducted from the lithographs. There is a pole protruding from the front pillar of the stand on the bridge, the function of which is unclear to me. It may have supported an indicator for the rudder or just the lanyard for the steam-pipe. The only known photograph that shows a boat before the armoured command tower was installed is too grainy from the printing grid (it is only known from a publication) to allow to discern such details.
 

Steering-wheel pillars: JPG-image as input for the laser-cutter
 
The pillars where built up from three layers of Canson-paer, which allowed to represent the cannelures. The pillar appears to be rather thin, but this is how it is drawn on the lithograph.
 
The axle of the steering-wheel rests in bearings that are clad in brass or bronze. A piece of 2 mm brass rod was bored out for the round heads of the pillars and then a thin disc was parted off. For further machining the discs were held in special insert collets with a low recess turned into the front (so-calle jewelling collets, used by watchmakers to machine watch jewels or bushings).
 

Machining the bearing caps in a 'jewelling' collet
 
The profile on the front was turned with a small boring tool and the dome-shaped cap over the axle was formed with a cup burr, as used by jewellery-makers to round off wires.
 

Shaping the covering cap of the wheel-axle using a cup burr
 
The caps are actually only segments of a disc and were milled of on the micro-mill accordingly.
 

Milling of the segment-shaped caps
 
All parts were glued together using lacquer

The individual parts of the steering-stands
 

Steering-stand on the bridge loosely assembled (a 1 €-cent coin for reference)
 
To be continued ...

First upper deck cannon rigged... Not looking forward to rigging the 2 beneath the stairs though

Forgive the glue streaks, should wash off with wet wipes once I finish the job.

Thanks to Modeler12 for the idea for the rope coil jig!
 

Carronades installed finally...
 
Initially I thought I might be able to use blocks for the side tackles and attempted to fashion some from a wooden toothpick.
 

Well, that didn't work... Shattered as soon as I sliced it off...

 
So I decided to use thread to rig the carriage instead and then insert a false styrene block later.

Happy with the result, but it was a pain "slackening" the thread. 

Been a busy Christmas so haven't paid much attention to the Victory.
 
Did a little painting to start, especially the modded deck rails, footrails and bow area.
 


 
 
Continuing on, I finally got around to making the support for the Marine's walk (yet another mod) out of scrap 1mm styrene strips. Looks a little like a wishing bone...
 

 
Next mod was to reposition the locating lug underneath the bowspirit which connects to the spritsail yard.
 


A little dry run, no cementing till later when I revisit this.
 

 
Got a bunch of eyebolts and blocks etc from the good Radimir from the Czech republic .... Finally I can start pimpin' the Victory as Dafi would say!
 

 
Next step, I thought I'd do a better effort on the carronades this time, and although the eyebolts are a little large for this scale, what the heck I went ahead anyway just to try it out ...

 

 
Now just waiting for my styrene "pretend blocks" to dry so I can start work on the side tackles... Till next time!

 
 
 

The martigana (or marticana, martingana, etc.) was, in the times of the sail, a common vessel and quite widespread in the waters of the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic, although today its name has been almost completely forgotten. This denomination appears  only from the second half of the 1700s and only a few decades ago some of them were still seen sailing through Tuscany, and even today a couple of them have been photographed afloat in Sicilian waters.
 
This vessel was used for the transport of goods, even over long distances. The martigana of s.XIX, which is the one that reproduces the model, was a boat with a bow of very pronounced curvature that ended in a spur of the type used in the galleys, with the wedge stern and the rather rounded master frame. In fact, the martigana was, as far as the hull is concerned, quite similar to the tartana, differing from it basically in the sailplan, which was in those of square sails in the main mast and not with the lateen rig that carried the latter .
 
It seems that the origin of this vessel is in Provence, in the village of Martigues, located west of Marseille, on the southern shore of the great Barre lagoon, along the narrow channel that joins the lagoon with the sea, which It was famous as one of the places in the Mediterranean where the best tartanas were built, so that the term martigana was originally an adjective: "martigana tartana" or of  Martigues.

Merry Christmas everyone.
Well I have managed to do a bit more on this model.
Here is the radar and protective steelwork,
I hope the new year meets all your wishes.
Regards
Allan

Hi guys.
Thanks for the kind comments.
A couple of pics of the lower masts. (so far)
This work is not hard, just time consuming, take your time and have fun. Some of these parts are my second and third attempt.
I look at the work of others on this site and get a lot of inspiration. I get a lot of satisfaction too.
At this scale it's at the limit of my ability. (at this stage) But I keep trying. And so should you.
Allan
 

Boiler coming along