tasmanian

I recently used copper wire served with thread. It may work for you and the scale you work at.
 

Thanks for the likes and, Steve, for the encouragement.
 
To finish the deck fittings, I started at the bow with the forestay attachment.  The instructions call for a simple eye pin in the stem but the actual ship uses a shackle arrangement.  (The ship photos in Jond's log and elsewhere are both a blessing and a curse; you can't really get away with anything!)  I made one up from a length of Britannia chain plate left over from my previous project and a bit of brass wire.

The anchor cranes are bent up from 1/16" brass rod which (according to the instructions) mount through a hole in the rail down to another hole in the waterway.  However, the photos show a fork with a sheave at the end of the crane, so...

Again, chain plate to the rescue, stuck to the slightly flattened rod with CA and a bead as a sheave.  Attachment to the hull is also more complicated than indicated in the instructions - more chain plate and brass wire:

(There's a little glue that needs to be flatted.)  Here is the state of play:
The jib stay attachment is just an eye pin aft of the hatch.  (The hatch should be inset into the deck, but it's a bit late for that.)

Masts and bowsprit are now up.  Pictures below.  Some of the holes in the brass fittings need to be drilled out -- important to do that before mounting them.
 
Now on to the yards -- there are 19 of them on this thing.
 
Regards,
David

I'm sorry to read of this gentleman's passing. My condolences to his family and to you as well, Vince.

I am sorry to hear about that.  My sincere condolences to his friends and family.

I just heard from his wife, Juanita, that Harry Ohanian passed away from metastatic prostate cancer this morning at 11:20. He had been under hospice care at their home in Florida for several months.
 
Harry was a long-time member of the NRG and of the Washington Ship Model Society, which he led as skipper from 1999 through 2000. He and I co-chaired the 2001 NRG conference, which may well have been the first conference of any kind to be held in Washington DC following the attacks of September 11.
 
Harry is survived by his wife, his son John and daughter-in-law Lori and two granddaughters.

Finally, I attached all the bits and pieces to the bulwarks after removing some strategic bolt heads that were interfering. The second image shows the dry fitted bulwarks in place. For the most part, the remaining bulwarks will need the pin rails and like the gun deck, rigging eye bolts attached.

Fantastic initiative!

The Guild is an educational organization, dedicated to providing our members with the knowledge to improve the quality of their model ship building.  One of the most frequently asked questions on MSW, from both novices and old hands, is "How should I plank my hull?"  With this in mind, I have developed a half hull project to teach even the first time builder how to properly plank a hull.  First, I want to thank Mike Lonnecker for help he has given me throughout the development process.  Later this month, the NRG will beginning selling the kit for this planking project.  It will include all of the wood and plan.  The manual will be a download to help reduce costs.  The photo shows the finished project.
 
As this was developed as a teaching aid, certain shortcuts and compromises to historical accuracy were taken and I will mention these along the way.  So I apologize in advance to the master modelers who will certainly find some of my technique unconventional.  But they work!
 

I ve standardised the the method and now it takes less than 10 min for each shackle. I ll post a few more pics:
 
Clean the 2 mm tube and sand a flat and secure for soldering.
 

 

 
Cut a piece of 1.2 mm wire, bend with fingers round the pliers
 

 

 
Use second round pliers to bend into final shape in one step, using something appropriate to maintain gap
 

 

 
Trim the excess and sand flat the ends by touching on the disc
 


 
Secure for soldering, use a tiny amount of paste
 

 

 
Cool, then use the disc to cut free and shape the shackle
 

 

 

 

 
The shackles come out very consistent in shape and size. These have not been polished yet
 

 
After a bath in acid and polishing, I think they look great. This is how they compare with the bought ones (expensive)
 

 
Smaller sizes can easily be made and much smaller brass tubes are available as welding supplies.
 
 

Dear all
 
I experimented a bit more but this is a difficult nut to crack. I think however I can suggest another method that seems to work, at least for the 1:10 scale I work at. The shackle made this way is on the left, the one made the previous way on the right.
 

 
I used 1.2 mm brass wire, annealed, straightened and cut to 1.8 cm segments. I then used 3 mm brass rod to cut disks around 2 mm in thickness. This was actually very quick and easy to do with the jeweller's saw. The only issue is that when they cut away they tend to fly off. The rod was polished with 600 grit sand paper in advance.
 

 
I then soldered the discs to the ends of the rods with soldering paste, one at a time or both in one go. Easy to do but the usual preparation is essential, maybe will help to sand a small flt on the disc.
 

 

 
The end result is this
 

 
The second time it came out even better
 

 
Then I drilled the ends with 1.3 mm drill. This is difficult to do with the drill press as the tungsten drill broke bending the rod, I think some kind of jig is needed. With the dremel it is even harder and gets very hot.
 

 
Then, I bent the ends 20 degrees, just at the joints. If the soldering is not good, at this stage it will fail.
 

 
Then, without any jig but only using pliers, I formed the loop alternating ends so that the loop is uniform. No annealing is needed, the wire will happily bend without braking. A short segment of the same 1.2 mm wire, crushed in one end is used as a pin. Because the holes are not perfectly aligned, there is just enough tension to keep the pin in place, no glue needed. If the holes happen to be aligned, a small twist in any direction should fix the pin in place.
 

 

 
The new shackles look much better.
 
This is I think a reasonably easy and quick way to make shackles and it seems to have reproducible results. Certainly cheaper than buying shackles. I ll experiment with 0.8 mm wire and 2 mm rod to see if it still works.
 
 

I haven't posted in a while because I've been coppering, coppering, coppering . . .
 
One side now done -- picture attached.  I started on the side I don't plan to display so I could learn from it.  Results are fine, but on the other side I think I'll start at the waterline and bring it down to the keel, where the final fitting of odd pieces and shapes will be easier.  On this side, I did it where the bottom and top layers met, and it was a LOT of cutting, filing, and fitting.
 
I'm a bit concerned about my supply of copper plates, but we'll see how that goes.  May have to call Ages of Sail for a "make good".
 
Regards,
David

Have now painted the upper part of the hull black.  I brushed on the paint vs. spraying.  If I spray, I get spray mist all over my workroom (even with major plastic dropcloths) and have to be super careful not to track it into the house.  Just a mess.  I have a small exhaust fan mounted high, and maybe I'll get motivated and buy some flexible ducting to bring the exhaust down to the spray area I use.  But I used a foam brush here and it worked fine.
 
Time to start coppering.  I'm going to see if I can make copper tape work.  Stay tuned.
 
Regards,
David

Pictures below of the lifeboats and the anchor.  The hull is now complete (with the exception of the lifeboat parrels, which the manual says leave until later).  So it's on to the masts now.
 
Regards,
David

Re my comments above about drilling holes under the channels for the deadeyes, I used the right size (short) drill on an angle and then angled in the bottom of the chain plate.  Worked OK, but some distortion of the rods that I couldn't fix.  I did that on the side that won't be visible.
 
Then I just bit the bullet and used a 1/16 inch drill straight down, which gave a hole a bit too large, but since I was reinforcing these by bending the other wire under the channel, worked fine.  A picture of that below.
 
Regards,
David

Decided to go with this set of Starrett pin vices. Thanks to all for sharing your advice and suggestions.
 

The hull is already on, with all its decorative motifs (geometric freckle, angel, dove...) The next stage is the masts
 

Looking very goo Javier. Well done.

Just beautiful and amazing work, Javier.

And next is:
 

Hi.
Small progress with the Vasa planking.
On the base "The royal warship Vasa" and the model 1/10 in Vasa museum, opposite an instruction who made it glue parallel to the previous planks... 😆
Regards.

parts of the big windlass...and dryfitting everything on the deck