davyboy

Photo of World Championship-2014 in Bulgaria: Here and subsequent pages
http://forum.modelsworld.ru/topic12028start270.htmll

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 79 –Middle Deck Framing continued
 
The middle deck framing continues.  The first picture shows the opening for the large water tank being framed.
 

 
The header between beams 16 and 20 has been installed and the half beam at 18 fitted temporarily.  The large 6000 gal fresh water tank will fill most of the space in this opening from its base in the hold to just under the main deck beams.
 
 In the next picture the hanging knee and the pillar under the half beam are in place and the half beam is ready to be installed.
 

 
The smaller 2000-gallon water tank will come up to just below this deck .  Its top will fit in the currently unframed opening between beams 16 and fourteen in the upper right of this picture.
 
In the next picture the pillar under the starboard half beam is being fitted for size.
 

 
The next picture shows this area looking down and aft.  The paired pillars on either side of the tank opening can be seen in this picture.
 

 
The next picture shows the extent of framing aft of midship completed to date.  One full beam and two pairs of half beams remain to be fitted – then the lodging knees and ledges.
 

 
Some of the lodging knees have been fitted at the aft end of the deck.  The last picture shows the stern view opening.  As mentioned earlier, this one shows only the space between the middle and lower decks.
 

 
The exposed ends of the frames have been fairly well squared off in this picture, but there is still finish sanding, etc to be done.  The outsides of the frames have been faired, but final sanding and finishing cannot be done until many more simulated bolts are installed.  Those in the picture are bolts for the deck clamps and for the heavy internal bilge ceiling.  Bolts for deck knees have not been installed yet.
 
 
 Ed

Thanks. Vivian.
 Here are some pictures of the main hatch. I tried to keep in mind the practicalities of a hatch which would have to be manhandled by a brace of sailors. The overall shape is that seen on the Mataro Nao. The individual sections of the hatch could be lifted by two men. Bear in mind that the overall scale of the model is approximately 1:64.
Cheers, Dick

Life has got busy, and I got a new boss at work, however I found a bit of time to move my project forward. BTW my new boss is awesome! What an answer to prayer as the old boss was a professional bully. So here we are cutting up some cedar and Douglas fir.
 

 
I put a 7" 100 tooth fine blade for finish cuts and it worked beautifully. Also a bonus was the cut off pieces for detail work later on with deck pieces, structures etc.
 

 
I used an awl and a paint stick as a push stick to eliminate any risk to a hand injury. Also hearing protection, a face shield, and dust mask (N-95 respirator) was in order.
 

 
The fir cut beautifully however cedar has a natural oil in in so henceforth a little discoloration. On the blade is the oil oxidizing. I love the smell of cedar as it's almost aromatic.
 

 
I decided my clipper would fly a little less sail and be in a moderate sea with the intent of rounding the Horn. I wanted some action and she'll have a slight list as she tacks into the wind.
 

 
Sails furled or gasketed are as follows: Flying Jib. Fore Mast - Royal and Upper Top Gallant. Main mast - Royal. Mizzen - Royal. Jigger - Royal and Course. And the Spanker with Royal, Upper Top Gallant, and Course. Rarely did a clipper ever fly everything unless the ocean was totally void of wind. In fact, the Captain of the Preussen claimed there was so much wind resistance from all of the rigging, yards, and masts that she could sail with every sail furled and stowed with a moderate wind!
 
Sail Plans come from Mr. Underhill's book and the rest from the Internet. I used a printer to reduce to the appropriate scale, and an absolute must conversion tool is at www.craigcentral.com and mdmetric.com. I glued up the cedar in two sections so I can start the carving of the hull. I will use Lloyd McCaffery's technique for hull construction (page 57) and his sea carving and painting technique found on page 124 of his book. Of course I'll tweak the technique to suit my artistic needs. I bought his book exclusively for the aforementioned details. Below is a shot of the plans being developed. My motto think and plan ahead here!
 

 

 
The next shot I show the two half's of the hull gluing up on the bench. I purposely did it this way. The center here where the two pieces are glued is the natural waterline. Also when the two half's of the hull are glued together then I have an instant center line of which to mark reference points. locate masts, etc.
 

 
I'll post more in a couple of weeks.
Respectfully,
 
Jeff
 
 
 
 
 

The tops have been fitted to the lower masts,and the lower masts have been stepped into the hull.
Next I will add the shrouds to the lower masts, and then possibly tie the ratlines to each mast, as I go along, so as to break up the most tedious part of any build.
 
Lower Masts

 

 

 

 

Thanks again to all who dropped in and clicked on like, it's much appreciated.
 
Well, as I mentioned to Pete in my previous post, I ran into a snag with not having enough space between the launcher and the doors when they are in the open position.
I miss 1.5 mm!  Even a gnat's eye lash would be too much so I have to do some thinking in how to solve this problem AND make the doors work on hinges.
 
I think that I have to remove the three pieces of deck frames and then also the stringer where the side deck panel is glued to.  This may involve removing the portion below the door opening, that way I have better access to the sides to remove small portions of the stringer so that I can glue a new but thinner stringer it its place.  
 
The door must hinge in such a way to allow it to fold even with the bottom of the door opening.  The paper hinge must be glued straight down from the back of the door to the back of the stringer, that way it will do that.  
I'll most likely have to remove the lower stop strips on the doors and perhaps even shaving some off to make it a tad thinner.  
 
I may have to make some more plywood or if I can carefully cut the small part below the door opening I may even be able to reuse it.  A little filler in the seam and a fresh coat of paint will do the trick.
 
This is actually not a redo but more a re-engineering project.
 
Okay, I made two pics to show yuns what I see and how to best tackle this minor problem.
 

I have annotated the photo so you can follow my reasoning.  First I must remove the three left over pieces of the deck framing.  Next i must either make the stringer thinner with a rotary saw blade or cut-off disc or just remove it.  I'll most likely have to remove the section of side panel below the door opening and install a new but thinner stringer.  The thickness of the side panel with stringer must be the same as the total thickness of the door.
The portion I marked as door stops must also be removed, that's an easy one.
The way the door is situated on this photo is exactly where it should be and with the plan I have right now it should work. 
 

This shows how the launcher rotates nicely with the door flush with the lower sill of the opening.  Now I have to get to work and make it work.  I must remember taking a few pics of the surgery and hopefully a successful completion.
 
Cheers, 

Antony and Dave – you are flattering me (it feels good, I admit). There is really no big story to tell; I’ve spent the last few weeks preparing parts and pieces (and sometimes throwing them away again). I spent many hours with the serving machine I’ve made earlier. Here an example: The sling for the stay sail, which will go around the mast after the stays and the hanger for the square yard, shown on the right. The stay sail halliard has already been bent on.
 

 
The next great challenge will be the fitting of all the parts in the crosstrees, where it is already crowded. This is mainly because I just “shrunk” the masts to fit Sherbourne’s small hull, when the shrouds and stays (which are not yet here) do not shrink to the same proportions…
 
 
 
My biggest mistake so far was that I glued on the cap before bending on the shrouds. That made the job unnecessarily challenging.But now that I’ve put together all the prepared lines, I see there is some progress.
 
 
 
Still missing are the main and preventer stays with their mice – another thing that lets me believe that Petersson’s model has a very much younger rigging added later: There the main stay is simply spliced together. 
Cheers,
Gregor

Hello everyone and welcome to my shipyard.
 
My dear bride Gwen left this morning 0545 for Coraopolis, PA to visit with our daughter Marianne and grandson Troy Nelson.  Yep, he was also named after the great Admiral Lord Nelson.
 
In any case, my plan of mowing the front lawn had to be postponed because the grass was way too wet, we had an early rain this morning.  Well, that didn't really break my heart so I did some very productive work on the O19.
 
Instead of etching and painting the torpedo launcher I decided to start with the surgery on the torpedo launcher deck openings.  I needed to place the launcher inside several times for fitting purposes and that way the paint would be damaged.
 
I already knew that I had to remove some slivers of the bottom and top of side plating and the fore and aft parts of the opening so I just had to cut that away, VERY carefully, sliver at a time.  Checking with the launcher, marking where more of the plating needed to be removed.  Obviously I had to do this on both sides and also try to make it  even out.  
 
Not only the side plating was involved but also the framing materia insidel had to be cut back to allow room for the doors and the hinges.  For this I used a rotary file in my Poxxon had tool. This was slow going because the rotary file is for metal and cuts wood very slooooowly.  This is good though because I didn't want to remove a lot of wood at the same time and not damage the inside of the side plating.
 
After many, many times installing and removing the launcher for trying the fit I was satisfied with it.  I can now rotate the launcher into any direction and remove it for a show and tell
 
Now it was time to prep the launcher and paint it.  I had some acid and brushed a diluted mix over the poor thing and let it sit for a while.  Then washed it all of in hot running water and carefully hand toweled it semi dry, then put it outside in the sun.  Yeah, the sun came out and the grass was drying real nice so I planned on mowing right after lunch.
 
But before lunch I finally paint the launcher!  What a difference that made!  It looks really very nice all dolled up in a fresh coat of medium dark grey.
 
Now that the launcher is finished and the torpedo door openings are cut to size I started to make some plywood   I need two pieces for the door openings and don't want to spend an extra $15 dollars for a sheet, just for two small pieces???  Yeah, yeah, yeah, cheap Dutchman    No, just frugal and practical 
 
I had some nice ⅜ thick maple finished plywood and cut three pieces of 1 X 4 ½ inches from it.  Now I had to remove the nice maple veneer from the junk cores.  I placed each piece on it's side against the fence of my bandsaw that was adjusted to just inside the veneer and turned the saw on.  I very slowly and carefully pushed the pieces through.  And yes, I had an extra block of wood on the outside as a guid.
I managed all three pieces without losing any fingers, lucked out again  
 
Now I had to remove the rests of the core and used a sharp wood chisel and sandpaper.  The glue will be removed with acetone and a scraper.
I managed doing only one of the six pieces but hey, I'm having fun and again, it's a challenge to me, seeing if I can do it.
 
I don't recommend anybody doing this crazy stunt, it's better to spend the 15 bucks and safe a trip to the hospital emergency room - - - says he with a straight face after taking a chance of loosing life and limb  Well, crazy or not but I do know my tools and have confidence in my ability.  As noted already, I did have a block of wood on the outside of the piece as an extra guide though.
 
I'll show the pics in a follow-up post.
 
Okay, enough of my banter and it's time for a few pics.  I also took a few on the plywood project.
 

This shows the start of reworking the port side.  The biggest problem was grinding wood away from the lower side support structure inside without damaging the remaining side deck plating.  I really didn't want to replace all that too.
 

After many fit checks with the launcher inside I was finally satisfied with the way the launcher fit and rotated.  The following three pics show the different positions.
 

 

 

 

The painted torpedo launcher (uh oh, small divot in the paint, needs a touch-up)
 

 
Cheers,  

Forecastle deck:

Before planking the forecastle deck the dummy knight with rigged ramshead block and halyard (refer to post #9) has to be glued in:
 

 

 
A piece of string (temporary) has been inserted into the upper hole in the ramshead block so that it can be pulled out later throught the small opening in the deck. This string will be replaced later by the fore yard tie.
 
A false deck of 0.4 mm ply has been glued on, the coamings for the grating and the small opening for the halyard have been installed. 
 

 

 
Planking is finished (except some required sanding and cleaning):
 

 
 
 
Klaus
 

And the choicest photos

Some of wooden blocks with weathering - I use Tamiya acrylic paint for this:


 

Фотосессия. С отделкой корпуса при ярком солнечном свете. Снятый на профессиональной камерой. Наконец исполнение соответствуют действительности. И это хорошо.

Preussen Clipper - Ship in Bottle - 1:857 scale
 
Background
 
For about six or seven years I have wanted to get into modelling ships in bottles. The last few years I have been tied up with miniature wargaming, editing a Naval Wargaming journal, and writing for another journal. There is a season for everything in life and the latter chapter needed to end.
 
For the last 7 months I conducted extensive research into the hobby and read quit a few books on modelling ships, reviewed a few books in my current library, and read articles on the Internet.
Books reviewed or purchased are;
Ship models in miniature – Donald McNarry How to make a clipper ship model – E.A. McCann The ship model builder assistant – Charles G. Davis The Nitrate Clippers – Basil Lubbock – courtesy of ‘Davyboy’ from MSW Ships in bottles – Guy DeMarco How to make a ship in a bottle – Clive Monk Ships in miniature (a new manual for model makers) -  Lloyd McCaffery Sailing ship rigs and rigging – Harold A. Underhill Ships-In-Bottles: A Step-By-Step Guide to a Venerable Nautical Craft Paperback  - Don Hubbard Internet Articles read are;
Preussen German 5 masted full-rigged ship 25’=1” – Robert A. Wilson The Five Masters – Nev Wade Recommended tools and equipment for scale modeling – Mike Ashey The Esmerelda build on MSW - Dave Fellingham BonHomme Richard as a ship in a light bulb model – John Fox III Heather Gabriel Rogers – Facebook Page Three masted ship in bottle – Michel Bardet Numerous other sites and activities concerning ships in bottles  
The Build
 
What I have come to realize is everyone is different when it comes to modelling ships in bottles. There are 3 basic techniques however there are different styles of building and displaying ship models in bottles. My motto for my build is; “Go big or go home.” I have always wanted to model the Preussen in a bottle and to display the vessel in a carved wooden sea with painted waves and wake. The clipper is a sailing machine and the German Preussen is no exception. She is built for speed and everything about her is designed to haul cargo. The biggest issue I debated over with her initially was how much detail was I willing to model and … at a scale of 1:857 this was going to get dicey in a big way!
 
Specifications
Seas will be carved from Douglas Fir Hull will be carved from Western Red Cedar Masts, & bow sprit from aluminum, brass and steel Yards and spars from cherry wood veneer laminated and turned All running rigging, rat lines etc. from fly tying thread Sails from expensive paper hand drawn pen and ink Bottle is to be a 1.5 Liter wine bottle for display One of the biggest errors I see, and please this is my own opinion is … some modellers “get stuck on too much detail.” At a scale of 1:857 how much detail is really necessary to get onto a model to get it believable? I looked at a lot of pictures of the Preussen on the internet whether by; B & W photos, paintings, and various models of her. It’s all about perspective and what the eye sees. The real ship has 1260 blocks and 248 rigging screws so there was no way on this earth I am going even to try to represent the aforementioned. I’ll put some detail into it where appropriate and skip the rest.
 
A bottle stand
 
I knew I needed to build myself a bottle stand so my bottle wouldn’t roll off of my work bench. I built the following stand from some left over balsa wood and made it to fit 2 common sizes of bottles for now.
 

 
Bottle in Position, note elastic band to secure it
 

 
Some wood to carve, Western Red Cedar on top, Douglas Fir flooring plank on the bottom
 

 
My home made stand to mount the hull on to work and keep all the running rigging from tangling up.
 

 
A close up
 

 
In my next post I talk about the plans, cutting the wood up and the carving details … Jeff

Hello everyone and thanks to all for visiting and enjoying my build.
 
This is my second attempt to write this post.  I completed my story on todays work and started adding e few pics when MSW froze 
I couldn't do anything to unfreeze it so I had to reboot my @*%^#$^ confuser and lost everything   
 
Okay, I'll start over.  Today I fabricated all the parts for the torpedo tube doors.  The first pic below shows all of them for one side.  The other side looks the same - - duh 
 
I was thinking about how to connect the articulating rod to the heavier piston rod of 0.8 mm.  Drill a 0.5 mm hole in it for a hinge pin?  Hmmm, perhaps but no - - - so I figured that if I pounded the end flat and then drill a 0.5 mm hole in it would work better and look better.
I took a ¼ inch drift pin and a gebanger (hammer) and put the rod end on a steel block of steel and gebanged the end flat.  I shaped it nicely and attempted to drill a 0.5 mm hole in it.  Hmmm, problem.  I have no more small drill bits around that size, just the leftover shanks.  Soooooh, I filed a triangular tip to ane end and proceeded to drill the holes.  It works, believe me.  Now, I mention this so that yuns can do the same thing with your broken drills.  It only works for wood, plastic and soft metals though.
 
I could now solder the hinge pins to the piston rod and the door actuator arm.  
Next I made two articulating rods with eyes on both ends but had to add solder to the piston rod that goes through the actuator to make it a little thicker in diameter. It was a bit too loos and I needed it stiff enough to hold the doors open.
 
When I had all the hardware completed I put everything together and did a dry run to see if it worked.  Eureka, it did - lucked out again!      The only thing I'm a little concerned about is whether the CA will hold up in cementing the door to the hinge shaft.  I made a test piece and so far it seems to work okay, keep our fingers crossed.
 
I hope to have everything completed by tomorrow afternoon but I need to mow the front lawn first though.
Then I need to give it an acid bath to etch the metal for the primer.  It'll be painted a darker grey then the rest of the upper works.
 
In one of my last posts I mentioned that I was not going to make the actual sliding shoe with it's guides.  Well, this morning I thought to show you with a sketch and one actual piece I started on what I had in mind.  I'm glad I abandoned it because it would have entailed a lot of work and rework.
 
When you see the photos of today's accomplishment you should agree that my simple way looks acceptable, not as authentic but just okay.
 
I'll be bacheloring it for the next ten days.  Gwen is driving up north to Coraopolis, PA tomorrow morning at oh dark hundred (0600) to help our daughter Marianne with some stuff.  Brave gall she is - - 900 miles in one day, 13 hours!
 
Well, here are the pics.
 

Here we see all the parts for one of the two doors.  I kinda laid them out in the way they should be mounted.  On the left is the door with its hinge shaft and arm.  It also has the hinge pin already soldered to it for the articulating rod.  This rod is positioned below that.  To the right is the piston rod with its articulating arm hinge pin and the small 0.5 mm tube pieces, one to help soldering it to the piston rod and the other will act as the locking nut.  You can see the locking nut (tube) below the articulating rod on the left.  The hinge pins will be dressed down of course after the nuts are soldered to them.
 

Here is the start of fabricating the slider shoe.  I made a sketch to show what I was talking about.  That small brass gismo is a U channel from 0.1 mm brass shim with the articulating rod end stuck inside it.  I was ready to solder the shoe-plate to the bottom of the U channel at which time I put a stop to it.  The sliding channel would be made in two parts.  Both to look like U channels and then solder the long parts together.  This would have to be soldered to the forward part of the torpedo tubes as shown in the original photo.  Would it have worked?  Most likely but - - - well, enough said.  Perhaps at some later date, who knows - - I may just be crazy enough to try it anyhow.   
 

This shows that sliding shoe arrangement seen from the top down.  You can clearly see the articulating rod inside the shoe.
 

Here we have all the door actuating parts loosely installed for the trial.  Looks okay to me and works as advertised.
 

Here we see it with the door open.  I'm a happy camper 
 
Cheers,

Hello all, today I completed the piping on the torpedo launcher unit, I think    At least I'm calling that part done.  
I started with fabricating the door hinging mechanism and have to simplify it.  In order for me to make the slide shoe movement I would have to fabricate a flanged U channel for the shoe to slide in and also keep the shoe locked inside.  It's like a square tube with a slid cut in the top.  
Oh I guess I could probably make something like it with the shoe having a foot that keeps it inside.  Even at this scale of 1:50 it's just too small to make it look authentic and is not worth my efforts with the great probability that I would have to discard many trial pieces and damaging the other stings close to the front end of the launcher.
 
Sooooh, I'm making a hinged arm on both ends that are pinned to the door actuator arm and the piston rod.  I can't CAD a picture of it - - - but wait, let me make a quick sketch so yuns see what I plan to do.  First I though of making a fake shoe just to make it look close to what the original photo shows but thought better of it to just forego the fake stuff.  
 
It'll be enough of a challenge to make the pivot arm pivot on the pins without soldering it all locked up tight.  I already started the pin for the doorarm, which is temporarily kept long till I have made the articulating rod.  I used a very small piece of 0.8 brass tube on the end of a brass rod and soldered them together.  This'll act as a head and had to file it down to about a fraction of a mm so it can clear the forward flange of the torpedo tube.
I have bend one eye on one end of the articulating rod, waiting to see how long to make it before I can bend the other eye.
Then the actuator piston rod, that'll just be a brass rod bend 90 degrees with an eye on the lower leg as my sketch shows.
 
You can see the door hinge arm with pivot pin and the start of the articulating rod.  Right now I'm just experimenting with this and let yuns know and see how it came out.  Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck 
 
Well, here are the pics, the top one is with all the piping completed with the hinge pin and articulating arm next to it.  The other one is my sketch of the planned door actuating mechanism.
 

All piping is now installed to the best of my ability including the cross-way pipes with their little gizmos and the two side gizmos that may be check valves.  You should be able to see the hinge pin on the door arm and the unfinished articulating rod laying in front of the launcher.
 

With my explanatory dialog above this should be easy to follow.  Watch out, the ink is still wet so don't smudge it     I hope all y'all agree with my plan.
 
Cheers,

Hello everyone and thank you all for your approval of what I have done so far.
 
Today was my third visit to the urologist center for my BCGI treatment.  I figured not being able to accomplish anything because I have to be VERY close to the tinkeltarium.  When the urge comes to pee I should be there already before I have an accident and Gwen would not appreciate that     The garage, aka shipyard, is at the other end of the house - - - hmmm, what to do - - - - - 
 
Well, I figured the h--l with it and I'll use the great outdoors    That's one of the advantages of being a male 
 
Okay, so I continued with the piping on top of the launcher, all running fore to aft or aft to front if that pleases you      The cross pipes seem to fit over them.  I hand-shaped each pipe to fit on their respective side and position and then tack soldered them to the launcher tubes.  I could have used a third hand though but it all worked out okay with some Rube Goldberg rigging 
 
I only took one picture, y'all know how to bend brass rod to make it fit where you like to have them.  All slow going, one bend at a time.  Bend, try, adjust, try again till being happy.
 
The cross pipes will be done some other day.  Today was a challenge on the physical side but I did accomplish something anyhow.
 
Here is the picture for your perusal.
 

There is still a lot of cleaning up to do and some final pushing or pulling to get the pipes just right.  It's starting to look a little like the photo now, which makes me happy.
 
Cheers,
 
 
 

Thanks guys. 
 
Hlipplaa, sorry I must have missed your question, I used holy for planking and castello for the other details for the cutter and the longboat.
 
So here's how the story goes, the officer of the marines chased off the annoying rat that has been lurking in my ship's hold for the past years. Meanwhile Paddy the calico ship's cat indulged himself on the remaining mice on the ship and fell asleep on the marine offices bed place.
 

 

 
Remco

Hello I've been here for a long time did not appear. I decided to show you one of my work. This figure of an angel on the French Le Ambitieux. I love the model of this ship, which makes an Italian master. It was in his review and saw this figure of the angel. It wanted to try to do it yourself. And that's what happened. I did it for fun, it's not an order.







 
 
This photos from the competition, they were held in May in St. Petersburg. I went there to participate with their works.

This is the most fun build log I have ever seen. Just witnessing this amazing craftsman....(make that MASTER craftsman)... sharing his work with such passion to a growing group of fans who, like myself, are so thoroughly enjoying his gift for creating such detail in metal along with his wonderful ability to paint a picture with words.
Piet, my friend, you're really special.
Dave

Thank you all for visiting and your likes, much appreciated.  I'm glad that all yuns like my build!!
 
After helping Gwen sawing off a few dead branches from our bottle brush bush and some other minor yard work I mozied on into the garage to work some more on the torpedo launcher.
I decided to move to the aft end of the launcher unit and attempt to fabricate the center air tubes and hopefully solder them to the launcher. 
I'm still thinking about the door actuating system.  I may have to move the actuator cylinder back a few mm's to give me some more space for the wiggy waggy rods 
 
I took a 1.6 mm copper tube and cut two pieces off that would fit as the photo shows.  To make the bends down between the two tubes I inserted a small length of brass rod, to prevent the pipes from collapsing, and carefully started the bend from the end of the tubes and worked my way back till I had the right bend.  Oh, I checked it several times though     I must have bend hundreds of aluminum and steel pipes of various sizes for aircraft fuel and oil systems.  There we used sand to fill the pipes and plug them with wooden dowels.  Then we use commercial pipe bending tools.  Well, these pipes are just too small to use that system.
 
Sorry, no video but yuns know how to bend tubing, yes?
 
I figured they needed to be slightly separated from each other and cut two small pieces of 0.6 mm brass strips for that purpose.
To solder these pieces in between on the ends I placed first a sliver if thin wood, actually a piece of one ply from some leftover plywood.  Then I could clamp the two tubes together where I put this piece of wood as a spacer and the clamp also acted as a heat-sink for the joint flanges.  No problem so far and set this all up like a Rube Goldberg solder jig.  It required very little heat and the solder flowed nice without much to clean off.
 
The dry test looked good and fit okay.  I next had to make the 90 degree angle at the aft ends for the air pipes to mate with the torpedo tubes.  I filed the ends to about 45 degrees and cut two small copper tubes with one end also filed to 45 degrees.  These small pieces of 1.6 mm tubes are also about 2 mm long and I figured I can file them to fit when checking again before soldering this assembly to the torpedo tubes.  
 
As one of the pictures show I took two small pieces of 0.6 mm brass rod and bend one end to about 45 degrees.  I slid the longer end of the bend up rods into the pipes and then the small copper tube pieces on the short ends till they met the 90 degree cuts of the pipes.  They mate up pretty good and figured that the solder would fill in the gaps and I could file a nice looking end bend in the pipes.
 
This may be a crude way of making a 90 degree bend in a pipe but it could not be done any other way with such a tight bend.
 
I jigged this up again and soldered the pipe ends to the pipes.  It worked okay and after filing away the solder and dressing it I had good enough looking bend pipes.  Dry fitting, filing, dry fitting, filing, etc till I was happy with the fit and looks.
 
Okay, now came the time to solder these air pipes to the torpedo tubes.  I used a small pair of vice grips to hold it all together and used it as a heat sink.  First I soldered the front of the left pipe to the flange.  I cranked up the heat on the soldering iron to about 425 degrees F.  It worked great, used very little solder.
 
Now to solder the aft parts of the pipes to the last flange.  It worked great as well and I'm a happy camper. 
 
It's beginning to look more like the photo now     
 
Okay, here are a few pics of today's work.
 

This shows my Rube Goldberg soldering jig for soldering the spacers.  The pipes are shown upside down.  
 

This shows both spaces soldered between the pipes.
 

Here I'm dry fitting the pipe assembly.  The aft ends still need work.
 

Here you see my trusty vice grip plier to hold things together and as a heat sink.  Here I have not yet filed the 45 degree angles to the pipe ends but I have made and inserted the small rods for the bend ends.
 

I did not make a picture of fabricating the small ends of the pipes, sorry.  But here is the completed air pipe project and you can see the 90 degree ends.
 
Cheers, 

My wife Gwen saw me the other day with those big sheet metal sheers snipping away at those poor little parts and just shaking her head.  Then yesterday evening she offered to take a few pics of me doing that to show all y'all that I was not kidding using those big sheers on these little parts.  So this morning she snapped a few and I like to post them for you all. 
 
Today I continued with making a few more brackets and then attempting to solder them to the tubes.  I again tinned the flanges and the spots on the tubes where the brackets are to be.  I had to do it this way because I am only one guy and with only two hands.  
 
I placed a very small vice-grip plier in the already soldered parts on the launcher tubes as a heat sink because the forward bracket is close to shoe bracket.  Holding the actuator bracket in my left hand with a small needle-nose plier I eye-balled the location and positioned the bracket to the tube and applied heat.  I had to reposition the bracket several times before I was satisfied.
Then I had to do the same thing with the aft bracket.  That one too took several tries before it lined up horizontally even with the forward one.  Cleaned up the solder around the brackets and then inserted the 1.6 mm copper tube into the holes and soldered them secure.
 
I repeated the same procedure on the other side with the same shenanigans with having to reposition the brackets several times before they too lined up with each other and the one previously soldered on.
 
Well, so far so good.  Now I'm still thinking how to make the connection between the actuator and door handles.  This has to be an articulated connection because the handle describes an arc.  The photo shows it clearly but translating that to my model is a whole other thing.  
Oh, the difficulties we create for ourselves trying to make things work at this scale - - - - - -
 
Okay, here are a few pics.
 

This shows my large sheet metal sheers in action.  I normally hold the piece between my fingers but they obscured the piece of metal for the picture so I held in a pair of duckbill pliers.  It works really great, even snipping inside the curve.
 

Here I am using my Poxxon hand tool with a tapered rotary file, works great but have to take the file away often to let the metal cool so as not to burn my fingers 
 

This shows my method of bending that 1 mm flange to the bracket.  You can see the business end of my little hammer. 
 

This shows the launcher with the door actuator cylinder assemblies soldered to the launcher tubes.  
 

Another view.
 
Cheers,

First of all I like to thank everyone for visiting and enjoying the build of my father's beloved boat by clicking the like button.  Hope to see all y'all again soon.
 
Today started out with doing some fish pond maintenance.  Had to remove two pots with my leopard calla lilies to let the corms dry out a bit.  Then mowed the front yard.  I also mixed two cups of humming bird nectar for the pair of ruby throated hummers that come and visit our backyard.  It's just a joy to see these tiny birds feed.  We have a few nice flowering bushes they seem to like but not enough flowers to satisfy them.  
 
Okay, enough about our varied wildlife in the backyard and on with the O19.
 
I managed to spend a few hours I the shipyard this afternoon and started fabricating the torpedo door actuators.  Each one consists of three parts, at least that's what I'm doing.  There's more to it then that.  I have to close off each end but make a small hole in the front end for the actuator rod.  Hmmm, another can of worms  
 
Obviously the first thing we need to do is studying the parts by looking at the drawing while holding the launcher next to it.  I have done this now for the last few days to create a good mental image of how I am going to make this assembly.
So, today was the day to make a start of it.  I first made a sketch on some card stock of how I saw it in my mind and where the cylinder brackets have to have a flange where it'll be soldered to the round torpedo tube and at what angle.  I used a small piece of the same size of tube to check the form and fit.
 
After I had what I thought should work I cut it out and with a pair of tweezers held to to the launcher tube.  In this case I saw that I needed to change the flange of the flange a little more to fit better to the round torpedo tube.  
 
Next I transferred this shape to a small piece of 0.1 mm shim stock to cut the prototype out for a fit.  It's a lot easier to cut thin shim stock then the 0.3 mm I'll eventually use.  A little shaping and filing then I bend the flange and held it up to the tube for a fit.  Hmmm, not too bad but it still needed a little more angel at the flange to meet the curve of the tube better.  
 
I now transferred this shape to a small piece of 0.3 mm brass sheet and cut it out with  a pair of rather large sheet metal sheers.  Yeah, don't laugh but it's actually rather comical using such large tools on a piece that's smaller then your fingernail.  But hey, it works for me.  I bend the flange to it by holding it in my specially ground duckbill pliers and with a small hammer tapped the flange over.  The width of these flanges are about 2 mm.   I finished the bracket with a tiny rotary file in my Proxxon motor tool and small hand files.  Then made the hole for the copper tube that'll act as the actuator cylinder.  
Checking it against the tube it seemed doable.
 
I now had to make three more with two of them with the flanges bend in the opposite direction.  I want these flanges to be on the outside for ease of soldering.
 
I only completed two brackets for one side but started with the next two when it was time to quit.  Eyes were getting tired and I needed to do some correspondence.
 
The reason I am going into a little more detail is so that anyone who is a little afraid making small metal parts is to show that it's really no magic but just careful eye / hand coordination and shaping the part as your mind sees it.  As you can see I don't have fancy miniature tools but only what I have from my days as an aircraft fixer.
So give it a try, all you can do is waste some brass stock and time.  It's a fun challenge.
 
Okay, I made a few pics of what I have done this afternoon, doesn't seem like much but it all takes time, including the sketching and head scratching,
 

This picture shows te steps involved.  The first one on the left is the sketch.  #2 is the rough cutout in card stock with the flange bend up on the left bottom.  Not quite happy but remembered where to make adjustments.  #3  Transferred to 0.1 mm shim stock and fashioned it to what I felt should fit.  Drilled the hole by starting with a 0.2 mm drill bit and then successively larger drill bits.  Not quite happy with the angle of the flange but remembered where to make the adjustment and transferred to to - - #4 a small piece of 0.3 mm brass stock.  Now I couldn't use my sewing sheers but my large straight cut sheet metal sheers to just cut the major pieces away.  The rest I did with a small diamond rotary file in the Proxxon tool and finished with small files.  Next I drilled the hole for the copper tube using the same method as described for the thin part.  This should fit okay.  # 5 is the aft bracket in this assembly/.  The copper tube above the two brackets will function as the actuator cylinder.  You can compare this with the photo on a previous post.  I'll have to remove a little more metal from the brackets, they appear still a little too large. 
 

This shows the parts loosely assembled.  I'll have to solder the brackets first to the torpedo tubes and then the copper tube last.  It'll take a little more heat to solder the brackets to the launcher tubes then is required for that small copper tube, otherwise I may have a real problem on my hands.    
 
Cheers.
 
 

I had a semi productive day today.  I say "semi" because I was really struggling with the parts I was making in the afternoon but I'll get to that in a minute.
 
Remember that I lost a door pivot arm yesterday?  That was actually a blessing in disguise because the new ones I made this morning came out much better, not perfect yet but better.  They still need some more dressing.  I added a rounded area around the hole for the actuator shaft.  This may or may not be necessary but I like the looks of it  I can always file them away if need be.
I'm thinking about how to connect the botton of the arm to the actuator shaft.  That's one of the reasons why I may not need it.  Still pondering on it.
 
Okay, I made two arms, two small parts of a copper tube to act as nuts and two pivot pins to make two complete assemblies to act as the door hinge pin and door actuator.  
To solder all three parts together I made a crude solder jig from a piece of pine, drilled a hole in it to receive the hinge pin and then place the arm and a piece of copper tube on the pin, acting as a nut.  Yesterday I mentioned that that little copper tube is 1 mm, well it's actually 0.5 mm.  Soldering this was a breeze. 
 
I found out that I had to add a spacer between the arm and the outside pintel bushing.  So I made two of them of about 1 mm.  This gives me a little space between the arm and the tube flange to accommodate the actuator attaching hardware, which I'm still pondering over.
 
I also drilled holes in the small copper hinge tubes on the doors so that I can eventually either solder or CA cement them to the hinge pins.
 
Okay, time for lunch and looking at my mail.  Then off back to the shipyard for the next project while I'm pondering the door actuator issue.
I thought of making the door actuator shoe bracket as shown on the original photo and the actuator cylinder.   This proved to be a real can of worms.  I went though a few bad ones till I had two brackets I was happy with.  Next came trying to solder them to the torp tubes and that's where I started to have a struggle.
 
I tinned bot the torp tube and the shoe brackets but being careful not to apply too much heat as not to desolder other parts on the torp tubes.  By that time it was 1730 hours and a little irritated and thought it was better to call it quits.  There is always another day and in my case perhaps Sunday or Monday.
 
Tomorrow is out because I have to get my second BCGI treatment and that'll throw me for a loop.  I have some correspondence to do anyway so I can stay close to the "tinkeltarium."    
 
Here are few pics of the torpedo tube door hinge / pivot arm project.
 

This shows how I cut the 0.5 mm pieces from the 1.5 mm copper tube.  Just eyeball how much you need or measure, set your razor blade on it and start rolling while holding downward pressure on the razor blade.  The 0.6 mm brass rod keeps the small part from flying off.
 

This shows the remade pivot arm with the 0.5 mm copper tube and the 0.6 mm brass rod for the hinge pin.  
 

This is my crude solder jig for the hinge pin and actuator arm assemble.  I drilled a 0.6 mm hole in the wood to a depth shy of the length of the pin so I could put the arm and the piece of tubing on it and solder it.
 

This shows the pivot arm / door hinge assembly all soldered up.
 

Here I am holding the completed assembly.
 

This shows both pivot arm assemblies installed on the launcher.  It'll most likely needs some adjusting on the spacers because I don't want them to stick out too far.
 

I have annotated the manufacturer's drawing to show what I'm working on and struggling with.  It's that actuator shoe bracket that's my nemesis.  But so help me it will not get the best of me and it will be soldered to the torp tubes.
 
Cheers, 

Sal,
 
I believe Kurt is correct. From what I can see in the photograph, this would actually appear to be the 'stock' for this type of anchor, ie. a smaller or kedge type. The stock is also iron, and roughly as long as the anchor is. It passes through the top of the anchor 'shank', being held by a swelling at the end, and is thus hinged, so that it can be closed along the anchor shank for stowage. When in use, the stock is pushed up through the head of the anchor, until it comes up against a swelling in the middle of it, and is then normally fixed in place by a pin or forelock. The stock is then at its mid point on the anchor, with the arms on each side being equidistant.
 
The stock is set at right angles to the 'flukes' (the bits that dig in) and it's job is to turn the anchor over on the sea bed, so that this will happen. Larger ships had fixed stocks, which for those of Victory's period were wooden.

Sal:
Check the drawing below.  I believe the piece you are referring to is the stock with the keep pin removed and the stock moved to the left in the photo with the stock them dropping into place alongside the shank of the anchor with the ball at the bent end of the stock keeping the stock from passing through the eye of the shank.