ccoyle

Gun ports cut out.

S.M.S. WESPE (HENK, 1895)
 
History and context
The WESPE-Class armoured gun-boats of the then young Imperial German Navy were born out of a tactical concept that dated well back into the Napoleonic era. The idea was to mount a heavy long-range gun onto a highly mobile small craft that would be able to retire into shallow coastal waters, beyond the range of even the heavy artillery of an attacking fleet. The addition of a steam engine and the increase in calibre followed the development of the time, of course. Adding heavy armour to the front (mainly) was meant to give the gun-boats a certain attacking capability. It also owes something to the floating batteries used in the defence of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars and to the armoured floating batteries used by the allied French/British forces during the Crimean War (1854-55). In fact, adding armour plating to a (rowing) gunboat was already proposed as early as the late 18th century in Spain, as documented by a model in the Museo Naval in Madrid, but apparently never put to work in full scale.
 

S.M.S. WESPE, brand-new and still without the 30.5 cm gun (1875)
 
At the time of the conception of the WESPE-class in the early 1870s a former cavalry(!) general was the naval chief-of-staff in Germany. The tactical dogma was ‘proactive defence’: an attacking enemy was to be awaited near home waters and fenced off. The main threat was seen in amphibian operations attacking the German coast. Thus, the landing of troops at strategic points had to be prevented. Long-range strategic and oceanic operations were out of the scope of the German naval planners of the time. There was a certain logic in this, as Germany, unlike Britain, is/was a more or less land-locked country and largely self-sufficient in many respects at that time. Overseas trade then did not have such an importance as in Britain or as in later globalising economies. Therefore, attempts to severe overseas supply chains was not so relevant. There was, indeed, active resistance from trade interest groups, particularly the merchants in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, to a navy that would engage itself overseas. These merchants relied on their network of friendly contacts and on sailing under a neutral flag.
Hence, the WESPE-Class was designed to be mainly a heavily armoured gun-platform, giving long-range protection to the tidal North Sea harbours that are surrounded by mud-flats and to give mobile protection to the deep fjords of Schleswig-Holstein's Baltic coast. They would be backed-up by heavy artillery (and later fixed torpedo batteries) in coastal forts.
The guns in such boats usually could only be trained by turning the whole boat. This seems more difficult then it probably was, because even in the old days of the rowing gunboats they would attack by rowing in a wide circle and when the intended target passed through the line of aim, one would fire. As the WESPE-Class was designed to let themselves fall dry on mud-flats, a possibility to train the gun itself was needed.
This distinguished the WESPE-class from earlier boats of similar design in Britain, namely the ANT-, GADFLY-, and BOUNCER-class of the 1860s. Man other navies took up the same concept and there were examples in the Danish, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Spanish, and even the Argentinian navy. Some of the were armoured, while other were still constructed from wood or composite.
 

S.M.S. WESPE under construction (HENK, 1895)
 
Technical Description
The WESPE-class comprised ten boats delivered in two batches between 1876 and 1880: WESPE (1876), VIPER, BIENE, MÜCKE, SCORPION, BASILISK, CAMAELEON, CROCODILL, SALAMANDER and NATTER. They were all built by A.G. Weser in Bremen. With a length of 46.4 m and a beam of 10.65 m they had a dead weight of 1157 t, drawing 3.37 m. The dimensions vary somewhat according to source, but this may be due to different reference points, such as length overall compared to length between the perpendicles etc.
Two inclined double-expansion engines on two propellers gave a maximum speed of 11 knots. Their original complement was 3 officers and 73 crew. Steering was from a stand on the hut and an emergency double steering wheel abaft. Very early on they were also retrofitted with an electrical generator.
The WESPE-class were the first German warships (and indeed among the first of any warship) that did completely without auxiliary sails. As the consequence they only had a light mast for signalling. In spite of sporting quite some leading edge technology, they were only of limited seaworthiness and their handling was far from perfect. This resulted in them being given a collection of rather unfavourable nicknames. They were also not very popular with their crews and officers due to the cramped conditions below decks, but then they were not meant for long voyages in the open sea.
 

Admiralty illustrative drawing (before 1883)
 
Armament
The main armament was a single 30.5 cm rifled breech-loading gun designed and manufactured by Alfred Krupp AG in Essen. At the time the WESPE-class boats were designed, fast torpedo-boats did not exist yet – the automotive fish-torpedo was just being developed. When in the mid-1880s small torpedo-boats became a tactical reality, some form of self-defence against them was necessary and two bronce(!) 8.7 cm/l24 breech-loading guns in ‘disappearing’ carriage and two 37 mm Hotchkiss revolving guns came on board. In fact, very early on (1883) also two 35 cm underwater torpedo launching tubes were installed to increase the attacking capabilities.
 

Instruction model for the Rk 30.5/l22 on the Danish HELGOLAND in the Orlogsmuseet Copenhagen on a carriage similar to that of the WESPE-Class
 
Scale
The scale chosen for the model is 1/160, which admittedly is somewhat unusual for a ship model. However, the reasoning behind this choice was that a large selection of N-scale railway figures is available that eventually will crew the ship. There are also space and portability consideration, which are important for someone, who has to move from time to time for professional reasons.
The model will be a waterline model. This will allow a scenic presentation of the finished model. Besides, the hull below the waterline is not quite so graceful. Above the waterline the hull is also more or less prismatic, with vertical bulwarks and virtually no sheer. These parameters together call for a bread-and-butter construction.
 

Artist’s impression of a WESPE-Class gunboat (1891)
 
Sources
Owing to the loss of most of the archival material from the former Admiralty Drawing Office during and after the end of WW2, detailed source material is rather scant. Some lithographed drawings that must have been made before the major refit in 1883 have survived and serve as a basis for the reconstruction. The Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg i.B. has some drawings, but unfortunatelly they only pertain to a much later refit of S.M.S. NATTER. However, the WESPE-Class was a bit of a novelty at its time and some Detaildrawings of bothm the ship and the armament, have found their way into textbooks of the time. Relatively recently a very detailed original drawing of the gun became available on the Internet from a private collection (www.dreadnoughtproject.org). Historic photographs from the early days of the ships are quite rare and mostly of not so good quality, but some reasonably good ones from the end of their active life have survived.
Based on the information that was available in the 1980s Wolfgang Bohlayer drew and published a plan of S.M.S. WESPE as she might have looked like after the major refit in 1883 (available from VTH, http://shop.vth.de/wespe-1876.html). Based on the information available today, this plan would need to be revised in some details.
The available information is summarised on the page on the WESPE-class on my Web-site: http://www.wefalck.eu/mm/maritime/models/wespe/wespeclass.html
 
To be continued ...

Hi Again.
Making progress, I had to build some more cowl vent heads.
As you can see in photo of the real ship, there were four more of them in the upper deck.
Having noticed their turning ability, I also accepted the challenge.

 
Determining the diameter of the heads I firstly made a curved form from plastic and a related hole on a wooden plate.
Then, I shape them by the help of a hot air gun (hair drier wasn’t strong enough) and by pushing thin pieces of plastic with the curved form, on the plate's hole.

Eventually I cut the cup shaped pieces and I glued a piece of plastic tube on everyone but only at the half size of the final high.
The rest of the tube's high was made from a smaller in diameter tube so in a final combination, the heads have turning ability.

 

 
Using thin piece of plastic and some putty, I extended two model boats from my spare box and I built the two steam launches of the ship.

 
I have left some details for later...

 
Additional progress on the top of the cage masts, 

 
by painting parts (like 12” gun turrets) 

 
and by making some small parts, that can’t be placed at this time on the model (like flag poles-boat davits).
Hopefully, I think she should be ready by the end of the year.
 

 
Thank you
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I am living without a table saw, band saw, scroll saw, disc sander, and scratch-building.  It's hard, but my support group helps me cope.

Thanks for all your input on the HMS surprise kit. I'm glad I asked. I will never deal with disreputable companies' that pirate. I feel like a knuckle head for not knowing about these practices. Thanks for the warning and I've noted the list of companies to look out for. Glad I trusted my instincts.

Hrs 896-900
I am getting the hang of it. The vocabulary is pretty amazing and I have to constantly look at the references to make sure I am on the right track.
So for the Forestay and the Fore preventer stay, I created a mouse after serving the lines, which are nor the same diameter. These are attached to the bowsprit using the open heart collars at the junction of the Bowsprit and Jibboom.



 
Then attached the Fore Royal Stay (goes up) and the Outer Martingale (goes down) that is connected through the Dolphin and a sheave block on the Bowsprit to the Knighthead on the starboard side. Since the AL plans did not have Knightheads, I sort of manufactured ones that looks like reinforcing timber about the Bowsprit.




 
Off for Thanksgiving to see the daughter in NYC. Son is meeting us there. I am taking a frozen turkey in my luggage...think they will be suspicious? 

True, it's not the end of the world (or at least for my little corsair). I was lucky that it snapped off cleanly. Now, i didn't want to simply glue it back in place, i wanted something stronger.
 
The keel being only 3mm, i thought about using pins to dowel it.
 
First i drilled the hull at several places.
 

 
Then dry fitted some pins from which i cut off the heads.
 

 
To locate the places to drill on the keel, i used 0,5 mmm (which is the same the diameter as the pins) lead pencil for a refillable lead pencil.
 

 

 
They were cut rather short to the hull.
 

 
After that i pressed the keel back to its place and the pencil did its job, marking the places to drill.
 

 
Next thing, drilling the wholes in the keel. 

 
Some months ago i bought something very usefull for a task like this.
A footswitch, first time i tried it and i immediately wondered why i never thought of this before. So handy...
 

 
Glueing the pins in place with CA. And then glueing the keel with some woodglue, using the clothing pins to make sure the keel is right aligned to the hull.
 


 
The result, all firmly back in its place. The only scar to see is right above the rabbet. 
And since this will be covered by the planking, i was very lucky.
 

Part 3.
 
As the superstructure grew it was time to paint the hull before anything was fixed permanently. Several rub downs with wet and dry, a wipe over with a tack cloth, and then I painted the waterline area satin black. I marked out the waterline with the usual 'block at the right hight with a pencil stuck to the top of it' method and then masked off the waterline with masking tape of the correct thickness.  I sprayed below the waterline the same shade of blue as the anti fouling paint on the original vessel matched from a paint catalog. The topside hull was then sprayed white in several coats using Valspar acrylic spray cans. 
 
When the hull was dry, I peeled off the waterline tape leaving a nice neat black waterline. (Much later in the build when all the superstructure was on, I got a call from the client telling me they had repainted below the waterline with a green anti fouling paint and would I mind repainting the model to match.?   
I almost fainted at the news, but it actually went pretty smoothly and I was a lot more worried than I needed to be. Things that seem impossible often go smoothly. It's the simplest things that can sometimes give the most trouble!
I moved on to the stern which was varnished teak on the original and had a set of name decals for the various areas of the boat made up. Josh Mumia at Bedlam creations is the guy I use and he is amazing.
I just have to give him a photo of what I want and the sizes, and he can match any kind of lettering in any color.
 
After that, I added some more details to the wheel house and built the roof and the prop shafts and rudders. Finally I built the Dinghy.  As this was going to have a canvas cover over it like the original, there was no point in building an interior. I carved the hull from a laminated block of Basswood and shaped it by hand. I added the keel and then marked out the positions of the clinkered planks. The planking went smoothly and started on the rear deck and roof structure.
(continued) 

I did it! I did it! Well, I sorta did it. The compromise was that I couldn't do the hull as a clinker hull, due to its tiny size, difficulty in making the planks thin enough and carving a rabbett line. There are certain realities in size that just can't be overlooked, afterall.
 
Anyhow, the hull has five frames, including the transom. It's planked with wood, although the frames and keel are made out of card.
 
There's still much finishing off, including the deck boards, painting, oars, etc that need to be fitted. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy the photos!!!
 
I'm a happy man!

A couple of years ago, I was asked to build a 1/12 scale model of a 1929 'Consolidated' cruiser by the owner of the original vessel. He had invested over a million dollars in it's restoration and wanted a large model of it for his home. Not having much experience with 'doll house' scale I was more than a little anxious!
 
The model would be five feet long and at that scale pretty much every feature on the real boat would have to be shown. My client insisted the interior furniture would have proper drawers, there would be exact replicas of the light fixtures, instruments, doorknobs etc. He even specified which navigational chart he wanted shown on the chart table..!
It was a large project which took me about a year starting with a complete photo survey and a visit to Mystic Seaport museum who hold the Consolidated shipyard plan archive. Unfortunately a large part of the archive isn't catalogued yet and the researcher couldnt guarantee when they would turn up the hull lines I was looking for right away.  I sent her and her colleague two large boxes of Nantucket chocolates and I had the plans in a week along with a little note that said "we work twice as fast for chocolate"..!
 
A couple of days studying the lines, and I was ready to start. I had the plans enlarged to 1/12 size and stuck the bulkheads to a keel.
I added large wooden blocks between the bulkheads to ensure there would be as little twisting of the keel as possible and the bulkheads would stay rigid with such a long keel.  I planked the hull in basswood using planks of the same scale size as the original. When that was done I cut away the bulkheads  where the lower deck and interior were to fit. and then fibreglassed the entire interior to ensure there would also be no movement of the planking over time.  Finally, I added the fore deck formers and cut the deck from 1.5mm plywood.
 
(To be continued)

Motor Whaleboat & Davits
 
 
MWB
 
The kit provides an excellent casting of the MWB. Most of the cleanup is on the exterior, which is good since it is a lot harder to file off excess material in the compartmented interior. The only drawback to the casting is that the rudder has no space for the prop & shaft so if you decide to add them you will have to make some modifications.
Here’s the casting:

I cut off the rudder, drilled a hole in the hull for the prop shaft and fabricated a prop out of plastic “blades” glued to the shaft. It looks pretty awful under a magnifying glass but to normal eyesight it looks pretty realistic (it’s only about 1/16” in diameter). I then cut a new rudder with a space for the prop and glued it back on. Other details added are the rub rails on the side, the overboard discharges, back brace for the coxswain, and the steering wheel (the kit PE has an extra anchor windlass wildcat that works great for this)
 
Here’s the finished MWB:


The davits are 2 pcs of casting. I thought this would be a 5 minute job but when researching some photos online I found some stuff that should be added.
Here’s the casting:

Here’s some shots of the real things:


The kit instructions call for using some wire for the boat falls but I wanted to rig the blocks if I could. First thing I noticed was that the upper blocks are unusual in that they are semicircular and are fixed to the davits so I scratched some out of plastic rod and sheet. Eyes were added to the top of the davits where the vangs will be attached. A single block was added to the side of each davit to guide the falls from the upper block to the cleats on the base (also added from plastic and wire). Looking at this set up I was surprised at just how old fashioned it was, I didn’t think the Navy still used radial arm davits, rope boat falls and snubbing cleats in the 1960’s. Sure it was reliable but it was also a pretty dangerous way to launch a boat. Raising it was also complicated with the falls having to be led to the fantail where a double headed winch was located. All in all a very manpower intensive operation where plenty could go wrong.
 
Here’s the finished davits and also the kit provided vegetable lockers and two flag bags: 

Ratlines done! Not that many compared to other builds but still good to get them done. Onto the stays.....
 

 

 
First mate is on board providing 'help'.......
 

I spent a little more time with the Longboat last night.
 
I decided on the height of the pedestals:  2.5".  I made this determination in a highly scientific manner.  I raised the model above the base -- with a ruler next to it -- until I liked how it looked.
 
So here's how it all worked out:
 

 
I deviated from the instructions a little bit by making the chainplates before I stepped the mast.  I followed the instructions pretty closely, except that I soldered everything rather than use CA glue.
 
Here's the super-complex jig, a brass nail with the head cut off.  You can see the scorch marks from the soldering iron and the measuring line to show where to bend the wire.
 

 
And here's a chainplate being made.  The in-process one is below the finished one to show how it all works out.
 

 
These are little things...
 

 
Here are all four.  They still need to be painted.
 

 
And then I stepped the mast.  It took a couple of attempts to get the mast step to look right.   I think this is pretty close.  Tonight I'm going to do a little more beveling on it.  It looks a little too blocky to me as it is.
 
I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the mast and a hole through the mast step.  I ran a wire through the mast step and into the bottom of the mast, giving me a little spike on the bottom of the whole assembly that helped me line everything up.  The mark made by the wire showed me where to drill the hole and step the mast.
 

 
And here's how the boat looks now.
 

 
The gaff and boom are completed.  I need to make the other two chainplates and then start rigging.  Also have to get a base for the case made.
 
Coming right along!
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

All that in 31 days?  I am very impressed!

Final update !!!!!
 
She's finished......
A long journey but a wonderful one.
Thank you all for the comments and likes, helpful tips, pointing out the mistakes to me and more of that funny stuf   
It was a pleasure for me to build her  and to share it with you all !
The time has come to dust off the Agamemnon and go on with her.
 
Thank you all again 
 
Sjors
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Here is our own private fleet.
San Ildefonso, Corsair and the Albatros

As some of you know I had a dispute with a retailer over a Euromodel kit. The retailer never sent me anything and I had to get a refund from Paypal. Euromodel heard about this issue through Pete who runs their helpdesk and although Euromodel was in no way part of this dispute they offered me a discount on the kit as a compensation for my trouble with the retailer!!!!
 
This is really an example of extraordinaire customer care I never have experienced before, and it shows how much Euromodel values their customers.
 
Thank you Euromodel and thank you Pete.

Dos Amigos Occre 1:53
H:675  L:905  W:330
Working time: 31 days

Thanks guys. 
 
I did get the catheads fitted last night after the other photos were already up. Fit is good and bowsprit test looks good too. 

Hello,
 
so, the cannons are ready. Very handy in this case is my dock. I could lay the Dragon at here side
 

 

 

 
Thank you Gary for the efforts to look for the rope dimension. Next thing would be, to build all the staff used around the cannons, like buckets, rammers.. ect.
 
The captain was very pleased with the work and I hope he will spend a drink this evening
 
Regards,
Siggi

Friday, November 7, 2014
 
The production of this last week has been rather poor: the bad weather, the need to study in detail a ANCRE plan, which I found (in my opinion) wrong, and the need to make some preparatory task to the work itself, which probably will start next week, all together influenced my poor productivity.
As preparatory work for the smoothing of the lower sides of the hull, to prepare the bulkheads with the correct bevel angle, I had to set up a large number of sanding blocks, which I show here below. .
01 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/CAM00364_zps4e2e650a.jpg

02 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/CAM00359_zps0dafe71f.jpg

I wrote before about the ANCRE plan. To my surprise, observing the planks of the deck, I noticed that there were no joints, as if the plank was a single piece of wood . . with a length of about 29 meters !!!
It's highly unlikely that this is true, then I have studied a solution in which a plank of the deck was composed of four sections of a more realistic size, say around seven meters.
Helped by the arrangement of the deck beams, as identified by the signs of the nails on the plan, I split the deck into sections and, after determining the correct distances on the drawing, I set out with a stroke of red pen on the real model false deck.
I also identified on the surface of the deck four lines (blue color even if they may appear black) which I have called "control stations" where the width of each strip of the planking, taken from the drawing, will be marked and will allow me to prepare the strip with the right shape and taper before applying it.
03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/CAM00357_zpsf8fab199.jpg

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/CAM00356_zps15ac9455.jpg

As always, until next time, Jack.

I do have holly for the deck, but I got it in the same size as the kit decking, so should make no difference in height.  I've never really shopped at Hobby Lobby before, as I always thought it was more about 'craft' stuff (which honestly, it really is).  However, there are no traditional hobby stores at all on this side of town, and Hobby Lobby at about 30 minutes from my house is the closest place to get really anything hobby related that I can't get at a Lowes or Home Depot.
 
Made a little bit of progress since my last update, and learned another lesson about using clamps on painted surfaces (the lesson is - "don't do that you idiot").  I ended up having to do quite a bit of cleanup work on the inner bulkheads after leaving some divots and black marks on my nicely finished red bulkheads, so now I'm doing this when I need to clamp the outer planks:

 
I've got the three .030 planks on the outer bulwarks now from the aft gun port to the stem.  I need to trim them off at the gun ports now, and then paint the gunports again.

 
I also got a serving machine from Alexey and played with it a little bit this afternoon.    It will allow me to properly serve the rigging whenever I get to it - pretty slick machine, and the ability to fully serve the shrouds where needed in just a couple minutes will be amazing and awesome.  I need to find some slightly thicker thread though, the regular sewing thread I have is so fine that the 'serving' is sort of lost unless you are looking at it with a magnifying glass.

Hipexec,
 
Thank you!
 
The first item of rigging forward of the mast is the forestay, but there is one feature on the foredeck that is perhaps best put in place before fitting it, since access might be a little difficult afterwards. This is the staysail ‘horse’, which runs across the deck over the fore hatch and which takes the lower block of the staysail sheet. The horse is not included in the kit but I think one should really be fitted, otherwise the foresail will not realistically operate in practice. I wasn’t able to find a drawing from the period, and strangely enough the AOTS book on the Alert doesn’t show one fitted on either, so I decided to make one which resembled a cast iron fitting. I am sure there may have been wooden examples, but I reasoned that if other equipment such as guns, anchors and various other were of cast iron, why not the horse?
 
Fashioned out of a suitable metal rod, the ends of which were bent at right angles to the main bar, it was then simply glued into two holes drilled in the deck and at a suitable height. Its positioning was somewhat critical, having to be far enough toward the bow so as not to impede the operation of the foremost guns, yet not so much that the hatch across which it fits, couldn’t be lifted off – and, crucially, it wouldn’t work with the sail. I think I have it about right. This particular area of the deck, however, is somewhat crowded – and I would be the first to admit that the sheet, when in operation, could quite possibly foul my nice galley chimney, especially when on the larboard tack! I suppose I could move the latter, but relocating it somewhere else might be problematic.
 
Anyway, here is the horse in position:
 

 
Next time: the forestay.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and for all the likes, it is very motivating.
 
I have been out of the shop since Thursday evening I went to Calgary to visit my grandsons and play "electric trains"
 
Today I did a little more work on the water jacket, I finished shaping the insert for the bottom of the jacket sweated it in place and bored the holes for the sleeves.
 
Also did some shaping of the top part of the cylinders. after making a second milling cutter for the curves on the top.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The stainless sleeves are reamed and fitted, they are a press fit.
 

 
Michael

Hi everyone.
 
Mystic's progress continues. I've started to add small, but important details to Mystic's superstructure. These include the doors (intentionally left partially open to add life to the ship), the mast and the radar dome (that's the funny white thing at the top, just in front of the mast). There's more stuff to do, though, such as rigging for the mast, navigation lights, an anchor, windlass, propellers, rudder and stanchions, etc. I'm even contemplating doing a tiny dinghy which could be tied up alongside.
 
Anyhow, please enjoy the photos.
 
All the best!

Back to serious business...
 
The spritsail yard (no sail) is being hanged onto the bowsprit. I try to finish the last of the rigging in a working order that enables me good access to the actual belaying points without blocking the way to future ones – and sometimes nearly am successful.
 

Spritsail yard being attached