Tuffarts

I remember thinking the kit must be wrong because the wheel points the wrong way. You would be facing stern if it was used like a car as I thought it was years ago. I only had the kit to tell me what to do.

I really want them to look cooper d, individual planks and the tops to look like the wood is the right thickness This is the test unit, I will post some pics of the process when I have a few done. There's still issues with this one but they should work out.

Got the hatch started. Cut a neat hole in the deck,then made a frame to fit it. It fit so well that I just left it in position after test fit, no glue used. I then had to scrape a rebate to get the next part to sit flush. I then made a frame to fit on top of the opening. It still needs a coat of polly but I think the fit is nice, still waiting on ladders. I think I have come up with a way to improve the mamoli barrels. It involves little bits of string I will get some photos of the process and make a mini tut on the process I am using.

Looks like some sort of resin. Could be as simple as araldite with pigment added, and the white tops are painted on after it is dry. Or it could be a sculpey type clay that has lots of clear washes over. You can put the 'roll' of the ocean in which is not evident in this model, it shows up as a wavy line along the waterline, this one is mostly strait along the waterline. Study pictures of real ships in similar weather that you want to create, lots of reference around.

Made some progress on the fire station. It is not installed yet, so all the pipes are not in the picture. Here is a picture of the reference I used. nearly got the next deck beams finished also, waiting on some ladders to replace the kit provided, then I can get into making the hatches that need to be installed before I can really progress onto the next deck.

Great looking case for an American ship, I love the idea of flutes drawing the eye up and banding inlays will frame the model inside the display nicely.

I found replacement part for $10.00 Now I have 3 from different decades the broken one is the oldest, it is model 396 bought sometime in the mid 90's still working strong at last use, the part that failed was 20 years old, rest of dremel seems good even the bushes are hardly worn. The second one is model 398 (4001 digital) bought sometime around 2005. And now the new purchase is model 3000, bought last week. I thought fixing the old one worth it as the bearings are big and plentiful it always seems the steadier of the dremels I own, And I plan on buying aftermarket drill press it will fit in.

My old Dremel had a major failure, it is very old model, so I went and bought another

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8509-melb-new-kit-builder/ That is the thread I started here when I joined MSW It has some pics of my Blunose

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/4029-the-constrictor-knot/?hl=constrictor there is a link to a thread with a cool knot for attaching stuff to spars, it sits very flat and is more secure than simple clove hitch.

Looks like a job for the 'Admiralty' to me,

Looking good This was the second kit I ever bought, I have it on my todo list at the moment, but I will be following along on your build. Your kit looks similar to the kit I have, but I got bad wooden blocks to replace the plastic ones you have.

Thanks for the praise Patrick I looked in on you build log, looking great, much bigger project then mine is. I have installed the knees. I prepared all the knees the same size as the vertical knees provided with kit, but these were too short I discovered after fully painting them. I had to lengthen them with CA glue and off cuts. I glued them in with wood glue. Making sure to scrape back the paint to get a good bond. I then painted it all white again (still needs few touchups). Next is partially install the pipes for the pumps, and start installing the deck beams for the gun deck. I also have to fill both decks up with interesting 'Stuff' Table, benches, barrels, boxes, stacks of wood. I have extra barrels coming from different supplier, so the ship is not filled with identical barrels. Any suggestions of 'Stuff to lay around on the lower decks would be appreciated.

If you are just milling for personal use you could try recycled stuff like old picture frames or old wooden planes, there seem to be a lot of these available cheaply, and the wood could be first rate.

I redid the pump arrangement again, I removed the old deck planks with incorrect holes. Replaced those planks (still need to tree nail and finish), and built the fire station (needs finishing/painting). Now I can work out the exact height of the grey parts, I will be able to finish the pump system for this deck. the small brass thingy on the deck there is going to be the fire nozzle (needs a buff).

Cigaret papers can be taped to A4 paper then printed with min ink ie, fade with opacity

Yes you gotta love that wipe on poly Is a great finish and protector I read a tip here somewhere that marbles in your bottle of polly, will keep air in bottle to a min just add more marbles as you go to keep liquid near top of bottle. Stops the polly from drying out in the bottle, and thickening up before you can use it all.

Finished of the deck as much as I want too and added the waterways. The tree nailing has come out well, is subtle on the deck but stands out on details like the waterway. Next I trial fitted the pipes in position and the port side pipes are too close to my lumber rack. I will have to coax them into position with a file and cover old holes as best I can, or I may remove a few deck planks and start again The top gray sections are still far too tall, they will be cut to correct height and covered in copper foil, the bottom portion painted black to join the lower deck pipes. This photo you can see where the pipes finish (so far), I do not think this is correct but it does look functional. Till next time, I hope to get stared on the knees for this deck.

RB Models have some that are 15mm x 3mm I have ordered some but they have not arrived yet I needed some larger cannons but ordered some tiny ones to see if they fit something in the future http://www.rbmodel.com/index.php?action=products&group=011

I have just run the pipes from the bottom of the pumps to larger copper holding tanks hanging from top deck on the gun deck there I will scratch build a firefighting station, the pipes carry through the orlop deck and attach to the manifold I scratch built from bamboo skewers, the end of the pipes will point towards the very bottom of the mast, where I have a small grating. the pipe does not meet the bottom of the ship but it is very close, and will be easy to hide with ballast if incorrect. Next time I test fit them I will get a photo.

Back again with update; I have been working on the pipe system for the pumps, I did not find a photo of the pipes in the lower hold, so I improvised and made a manifold that joins the pipes in groups of 3 to 1 then these 'drain' into the grate I put in to the mast holding device on both sides of the mast. First photo shows the jig I made to get both sides similar Then this is the finished units, the 2 small pieces of wood with holes in them will go over the pipe and be stuck under the deck to fix the pipes hanging from under the orlop deck in correct position and angle. I then started planking the orlop deck, I used thin brown cotton to simulate caulking, I have not seen this method used much here, but I like the rustic look that it gives. You need to make sure that no cotton is higher than the deck level or it will turn to fuzz if you sand or scrape it before soaking with poly varnish. Here you can see the holes that are for the pipes to pass through the deck, the small peice of wood with the hole will be glued in from below holding the pipes in these holes I am part way through tree nailing, and need to finish some of the port side planking (some will be left out to show of the deck beams) I have some lime wood shaped for the waterway/gutter/architrave, it will hide the last plank there that does not have caulking. Next is to work out the arrangement of the diagonal knees for this deck and the gun deck. I have some photos of the orlop deck and lots of the gun deck, but the biggest influence is the existing model and fitting in with the Mamoli plans. Hope to have all the knees worked out in the next week.

I have started on the deck beams for the gun deck. Things are going well, the gunports will need to be redone to get the cannons to line up properly. When I cut the gangway opening, I shortened the port side frame 1.5mm shorter than the other, an easy fix, but the mistake has been confusing me this whole time as I kept getting different measurements when trying to level the decks. Sometimes I would measure from the back frames, all good then latter I would measure from the front and want to do repairs to true up the deck levels, lucky I never did. I also installed the 'Mast holding apparatus', I added grattings to each side of it and added some black nails. Here is a good shot of the 'Sail/Lumber storage'

Is it the La Merced

Well it has been a while, but time for an update. I finished the treenails on the lower deck, installed the shelf, which lost it's front legs which were replaced with angled beams that join to the back legs. I waited a long time for the draw plate to arrive from America, so I made what other assemblies I could while I waited. They included the fighting top. the riding bits, and some work on the cannons. The fighting top was made was laser cut from thin plywood, I had wood that was same dimension as the kick rail, but more supple than the supplied walnut, I used the lasercut leftover as a jig to firmly attach the whole piece in one length without a gap. It worked a treat. I then put a kick rail around the inside, so sailors don't slip down through the mast hole. The riding bitt and pin rails were tree nailed together as were the uprights that were drilled to take ropes (maybee little wheels if I can find some) I started the cannons, I grooved the outside of the carriage to simulate separate pieces of wood, I painted these and made small wedges for them from scrap, there was 3 badley cast handles from belaying pins that had not formed properly, these had holes/bubbles that were perfect for mounting to the wedges, leaving only 1 hole to drill in an impossibly small part. The barrels of the cannon were some sort of antique brass finish, but needed the flash lines filed, so a new finish is needed. I tried putting the barrels in acid, this gave them a nice matt black finish but fell of as soon as it came out of the acid. I may have to resort to painting or possibly buying aftermarket barrels/cannons. The wheels have small treenails in centers to simulate the axle, I left them proud a little then peened them over with small hammer. They have not shown up on this photo but they look better than the plain wheel provided. I have started the pipes for under the pumps, the copper tube will continue to the bottom of the ship and be painted black. the wooden flanged part will be covered in copper leaf. I also finished of the chests and boxes Fitting deck beams was next, I pre cut all the parts. Using the plans to approximate the fitting. Most of the fitting was done on the model but the whole floor assembly is not fixed to the model yet. The whole assembly lifts out but sits in its correct position without any coaxing. I still have smaller beams to go in the rebates on the beams that run along the length of the ship, and the beams that hold up the floor. And the knees need to be installed. I am still waiting on some rivets that I want to detail some things in the lower deck and I want to get the rest of the pipe system for the lower deck worked out, I have not seen what happens to the pipes lower than the berthing deck. If I cannot find out the real configuration I will make up something interesting. I must apologize also to Victorian shipmates, I did intend on coming to the BBQ but was waylaid by work. No meeting for 2 months now, I will make a point of showing up for that, and will bring my membership application. Also I have purchased the Shipways 18th century longboat (it's smaller than I thought), I will start this in a few weeks as a small side project. And I purchased the Concord Stagecoach, that will be going in the storage locker for a while, but it looks like lots of fun for a future project. Anyway back to the workshop till next time, if anyone can help with photos of the lower hold under the main mast would be appreciated.

You could leave the warp in the keel to fix the ships problem with left turns