Matle

Now for some trim around the border and some paint to finish off the display part of the waters edge.   Further detailing around the base and the hull still needs to be accomplished.

Now as you might imagine.......the water has to look like mercy, oily, algi, back water.  I did 2 details at  the same time...the water and the floor of the harbor.
The water was resin that I lapped for the unevenness.......died the resin and then painted beneath with water colors.  I was seeking a 3
D effect.  Next was the floor of the harbor....which as you would imagine...was strewn with nautical debris and water current deformations in the sand.  Plus minimal flora.

On that topic Corel's Amphion is based on the yacht on plate 44 in Architectura navalis. The mentioned museum has a model based on a drawing by Chapman that is believed to be the real Amphion.

On that topic Corel's Amphion is based on the yacht on plate 44 in Architectura navalis. The mentioned museum has a model based on a drawing by Chapman that is believed to be the real Amphion.

On that topic Corel's Amphion is based on the yacht on plate 44 in Architectura navalis. The mentioned museum has a model based on a drawing by Chapman that is believed to be the real Amphion.

Many thanks for this advice, it is clear I need to study more before making this investment. The Boley in question was indeed a D-bed. I'm not sure what the bore was, but the seller wasn't either so I stayed clear. Going to keep looking for either watchmakers lathe or one of the old Austrian unimats. I'm not in a rush, so I'd rather wait for a good opportunity.

Many thanks for this advice, it is clear I need to study more before making this investment. The Boley in question was indeed a D-bed. I'm not sure what the bore was, but the seller wasn't either so I stayed clear. Going to keep looking for either watchmakers lathe or one of the old Austrian unimats. I'm not in a rush, so I'd rather wait for a good opportunity.

Agree, and the French takes the prize for the oddest. You can barely tell which way this thing is supposed to go (Carnot's near-sister Massena):

Agree, and the French takes the prize for the oddest. You can barely tell which way this thing is supposed to go (Carnot's near-sister Massena):

Agree, and the French takes the prize for the oddest. You can barely tell which way this thing is supposed to go (Carnot's near-sister Massena):

Agree, and the French takes the prize for the oddest. You can barely tell which way this thing is supposed to go (Carnot's near-sister Massena):

A belated thanks for the likes and a small update. Progress will continue to be slow as I'm spending a few hours weekly. 
 
I'm continuing the work on the deck furniture. A big problem is that the majority of available pictures show her in her present conditions. After the journey through the passage Gjøa spend six-seven decades in San Francisco, and beside a paint job or two, little was done to maintain her and time and souvenir-hunters slowly deteriorated her. After being returned to Norway she was restored, or rather rebuilt as much of the detail is now different. Apparently there were some reconstructing going on just prior to shipping her back, as told in this thread: .http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/11776-help-identifying-some-things-on-the-bulwark-19th-century-merchant-vessel/
 
Almost no images show her prior to the SF stay. I try to reconstruct her from the images that exist from Golden Gate park. I found some googling around the net but am a bit skeptical on the copyrights as I believe they might be from the old MS kit instructions so I don't want to reproduce... they can be found by googling in any case.  They show the ironworks - pump, winch, windlass (which seems to be different from the one currently on her) and the gears for driving the messenger chain. By the way, the chain will be able to drive the pump as well as the windlass. The winch for the rigging seems to be manual only though as I see no sprocket wheel on it.
 
Anyway, here the current state of the rail around the mast. I have prepared the pumps as well and am working on the metal work. Similar pumps can be seen on this still sailing yachts.  On Gjøa it could be driven by the engine via messenger chain and the junk on the left side is a guide for the pump handle and the  wooden support for the axle with the sprocket and linkage to the pump handle. I couldn't figure out the construction of the hatch so I just covered it with tarpaulin 
 

 
Two shots of the house and the finished skylight. House built by veneer on ply core. Skylight portholes made with clear plastic glued in a recess and fastened with a sliced piece of brass tube of fitting size. The engine was beneath the skylight and the driving shaft will go through a hole through the forward side of it. They still need some detailing and are only doweled to the deck but the slow going is bad for motivation so I needed to see some progress.


 
I don't like that the roof doesn't follow the deck camber but I guess that's how they did it.

Hello Jay,
Thanks for the article. I'm aware she's been restored on the border to rebuilt, and try to base the model on older images. Unfortunately they are very few, and on most of them Amundsen and his friends are blocking the details. Also, his account of the journey through the Passage is very interesting in itself, but offers few clues to the ship. There are plenty of pics available from her in the restored state but as you say, the details seem to differ for most of the fittings - e.g.  the entire windlass seems to have been replaced.
 
The pics I have posted here are from her time in San Francisco though, and I believe nothing  has been added (apart from repaired bulwark planking as far as I can tell). Rather the other way round - for example as visitors were taking souvenirs, as indicated in the article. In short I'm trying to take the information from the San Francisco time and only use the current state if all information is lacking about that particular detail. So far only the paint job I have taken from the present, as that was supposed to be the scheme chosen by Amundsen.

Hello Jay,
Thanks for the article. I'm aware she's been restored on the border to rebuilt, and try to base the model on older images. Unfortunately they are very few, and on most of them Amundsen and his friends are blocking the details. Also, his account of the journey through the Passage is very interesting in itself, but offers few clues to the ship. There are plenty of pics available from her in the restored state but as you say, the details seem to differ for most of the fittings - e.g.  the entire windlass seems to have been replaced.
 
The pics I have posted here are from her time in San Francisco though, and I believe nothing  has been added (apart from repaired bulwark planking as far as I can tell). Rather the other way round - for example as visitors were taking souvenirs, as indicated in the article. In short I'm trying to take the information from the San Francisco time and only use the current state if all information is lacking about that particular detail. So far only the paint job I have taken from the present, as that was supposed to be the scheme chosen by Amundsen.

Even if it the castles were built by the shipwrights on a military purpose vessel, they were probably of much lighter construction. The recently discovered wreck of the Mars, sunk in 1564 has a relatively preserved stern castle. She was a huge military-purpose vessel and although she was more modern, primarily an artillery ship, she still carried a castle that was built with a much lighter internal construction than the lower hull and clad with thin clinker planking as opposed to the thick carvel hull planking. Not sure how much that can be interpolated backwards in time, as Mars was a big step away from ships designed for primarily boarding towards ships designed for artillery duels, but I figure previous shipwrights would have noticed if the carracks starts flipping every other turn.

That was quick answers. Yes, there's a pin rail there, where the plans (I have two sets, none which I trust completely, but here they agree) have much of the rigging from the two square sails, plus jib halyards. What kind of rigging would need to go through these things? I imagine ropes coming at annoying angles or ropes prone to move about a lot? Or take strong forces? As you can guess, I'm not a sailor 
 
Pat, there's whiskers and the bowsprit shrouds go through them, but they are secured forward, as seen in this pic. The location of the "things" is amidships where the shrouds are. Pic from http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/.
 

Even if it the castles were built by the shipwrights on a military purpose vessel, they were probably of much lighter construction. The recently discovered wreck of the Mars, sunk in 1564 has a relatively preserved stern castle. She was a huge military-purpose vessel and although she was more modern, primarily an artillery ship, she still carried a castle that was built with a much lighter internal construction than the lower hull and clad with thin clinker planking as opposed to the thick carvel hull planking. Not sure how much that can be interpolated backwards in time, as Mars was a big step away from ships designed for primarily boarding towards ships designed for artillery duels, but I figure previous shipwrights would have noticed if the carracks starts flipping every other turn.

Hello all,
I'm  building a 19th century Norwegian yacht, Amundsen's Gjøa. 
 
I'm trying to identify some 3 things on the bulwark stanchions, two of them repeated both on port and starboard. The number '3' and maybe '2' I guess are some holders for the pump handle (can't see where else they could have put it, except below deck). Number 1 I can't begin to guess. It's no big deal if I never find out, as they are so small modelling them as they appear on the pics would be no problem, but I'm curious to know what they were used for. 
 

 

Monthly update  - despite horrible weather encouraging indoor activities I didn't do a lot. Painted the upper part of the hull and started with the backside decorations. I'm thinking to put some gloss lacquer on the wooden parts as the wood looks quite shiny on the vessels still floating. Followed by matt varnish everywhere. Not sure if that will take out the shine too much but we'll see.
 
This kind of shine, as on her "near-sister" which I had the luck to see during this summer:
 
 

 
Current state of paint. Looking at this image now I think the added planks are too thick... but it'll have to do. I also made a boo-boo by cutting the stem too short - you can see the extra piece I added on top to compensate. I will have to try to hide it better (there are many good reasons to paint ).

 
And one with the stern decorations drying. Made them in several laterally bent 2 mm strip pieces.

While waiting for the paint, I started on the deck furniture. I'm trying to built after the pictures and drawings of the original. There are plenty of detailed pictures of her in her current state, but lots have obviously been rebuilt/repaired and not with 100% faithfulness to the state in 1905. I'm trying to follow the few old original photographs and fill in what's missing from the new.
 
I have more-or-less completed the deck house, the two WCs, the forward companionway, the hatch and started on the large skylight (test of concept picture below).
 

 
Trying to figure out how to make the skylight. Testing to carve out recess and using that rock-hard packaging plastic for windows and cut brass tube for the holding ring. In the third post there is a picture from Norwegian maritime modellers' club (http://www.pbase.com/maritimmodellklubb/fartoyer) on Gjøa today showing how it approximately should look except that the windows have been removed now.

 
Left to do is heavily laden with metalwork: winches, windlass, motorized pump (driven by messenger chains) and the small skylights.Not sure how to proceed, as I'm lacking tools to do especially the round parts and gears.

There are a lot of images of Gjøa in her current state here: http://www.pbase.com/maritimmodellklubb/gjoa_dekk&page=1     The deck was planked unevenly. I couldn't discern any apparent pattern from the pictures on the original, and went for a more or less random approach, but at trying to keep the butts where I thought it'd be deck beams. It's possible the deck's been repaired, but nevermind:     The original deck was probably pine, so the light look of the kit-supplied  wood should be ok.        The bulwarks are built up with a laser-cut plywood sheet and planked on the outside. Kit supplied frame extensions to support them are 1x5 mm strips which I replaced with 3x3 mm tapered towards the top, as from the images, see image below. I'm not very happy how the joinery of the deck planks with the marginal turned out: the errors get really apparent on photo...        

Recap continuation
 
The keel and stem are added one top of the finished planking. This was a bit messy as I had to either cut into the planking or sand it down to a form flat even surface to attach the keel on. In the future I'll try to do the "traditional" way - this is also the point where I stopped reading the instructions. No matter how nice the booklet looks, the actual building is not that accurate either and is representative rather than replicating. I'm following drawings and images found on the net.
 
Some filler was needed to close a gap between the garboard and keel, but this is ok as I will paint it over. The stem was way off from the original, with the propeller sitting far too close to the keel - I ended up re-building the thing from a sketch I took off the real ship (note the freudian slip =). The kit-supplied propeller is a three-bladed affair, so I remade it by cutting off two blades, reshaping the remaining to a much narrower design and soldered a scratch-made blade onto it, wondering how long that'd hold. 
 


 
The iron reinforcements and rudder hinges were modelled from brass sheet and rivets from .4 mm rods. 
 

 
Below is the finished planking, keel and stem.
 


 

I decided to paint her as she appears now with red below the waterline, black up to the third strake below the deck, two natural strakes and green upperworks and wale. Looking at old pictures I suspect the natural wood strakes were painted white, but I like having some wood shine through and as long as I'm not sure I can convince myself that I can always paint it white later - but hardly the other way around. I also wanted to keep the rather 'used' look, and to accomplish this I will airbrush using much thinner and not using any primer.

So far I've painted the red and the black and like the results to far:






Last picture shows how long my home-made propeller made it... Not sure how to solve that.



The bulwarks have been built up and is only missing the outer planking and caprails. The latter will be green so I plan to dry-fit them, remove and paint off the model rather than mask. The belaying pin rail was reinforced with brass rods through the false frame extensions. The picture below shows the construction after filling and sanding the outside and ready for the planking.

Progress at a snail's pace... the original was built faster 
 
 
 
Since the stem and stern are added outside the planking the construction does not feel robust - I drilled four holes front and back nailing them to the hull. I countersunk the holes and filled with a 'plug' of wood filler. The original seems to have the same reinforcements, so I will try to leave some contrast and let it be possible to see them.

 
I'm building my way up the bulwarks, trying to copy the original as she appears now. Due to the paint scheme I'm following a strange procedure, only attaching the uppermost planks down to the in my case false extruding margin plank. The margin plank will be left natural or painted white (can't decide) and two more strakes will be natural, the rest green. The two green lines below the deck I am trying to shape without glueing, so that they can be painted separately and then mounted without the need of extra heat/soaking. Masking would be too complicated.
 
What I'm aiming for:

 
 
A view of the stern with the first piece of cladding with colour test. I'm redoing the opening for the tiller, not liking the fuzzy oval opening of the kit-supplied bulwark.

 
The cap rail is also shaped to fit without attaching. I will paint it before attaching since I don't think I will be able to mask the millimeter-high part of the rail on the inside that should be natural. I expect that the top side will have to be sanded and repainted after gluing but that should be ok to do. The almost-straight pieces were made by left-overs from the hull planking, but I couldn't bend it to fit the bow profile. I instead lamintated three 1.5x2 mm strips of the same wood as the hull strips, bending them while gluing. The lines are barely seen unpainted so it should be good afterwards.
 
Cap rail pieces and a front shot showing the cladding on the bulwarks:

 

Monthly update  - despite horrible weather encouraging indoor activities I didn't do a lot. Painted the upper part of the hull and started with the backside decorations. I'm thinking to put some gloss lacquer on the wooden parts as the wood looks quite shiny on the vessels still floating. Followed by matt varnish everywhere. Not sure if that will take out the shine too much but we'll see.
 
This kind of shine, as on her "near-sister" which I had the luck to see during this summer:
 
 

 
Current state of paint. Looking at this image now I think the added planks are too thick... but it'll have to do. I also made a boo-boo by cutting the stem too short - you can see the extra piece I added on top to compensate. I will have to try to hide it better (there are many good reasons to paint ).

 
And one with the stern decorations drying. Made them in several laterally bent 2 mm strip pieces.

While waiting for the paint, I started on the deck furniture. I'm trying to built after the pictures and drawings of the original. There are plenty of detailed pictures of her in her current state, but lots have obviously been rebuilt/repaired and not with 100% faithfulness to the state in 1905. I'm trying to follow the few old original photographs and fill in what's missing from the new.
 
I have more-or-less completed the deck house, the two WCs, the forward companionway, the hatch and started on the large skylight (test of concept picture below).
 

 
Trying to figure out how to make the skylight. Testing to carve out recess and using that rock-hard packaging plastic for windows and cut brass tube for the holding ring. In the third post there is a picture from Norwegian maritime modellers' club (http://www.pbase.com/maritimmodellklubb/fartoyer) on Gjøa today showing how it approximately should look except that the windows have been removed now.

 
Left to do is heavily laden with metalwork: winches, windlass, motorized pump (driven by messenger chains) and the small skylights.Not sure how to proceed, as I'm lacking tools to do especially the round parts and gears.

A couple of years ago the water level in Stockholm harbour was unusually low. On the beach of Kastellholmen island surfaced an unknown wreck suspected to be a 17th century Danish prize that later was deliberately sunk at the spot to act as pier. Only small parts remain, but interesting nonetheless. Pictures here, including a detail on what appears to show how a deck clamp was bolted to the frames:

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Örlogsfartyget_vid_Kastellholmen