WackoWolf

Your diorama makes me shiver....   it looks that cold.  Beautiful work. Wefalck.

Thanks, Vic.  Nicely stated, not understated at all.  Thanks too for the likes.
   
This week I got some work done on the hull despite the snow. 
 

 
The wooden plates of the upper hull have been cut and bent to the required shapes.  The portion from the stern to the end of the waist is fairly flat, with a consistent 13 degree tumblehome.  It was cut, fitted to the rabbet cut into the solid lower hull, and screwed in place.  Temporary support blocks were fitted to the inside face which also support the dummy quarterdeck that you can see in the photos. The transom piece has been cut and temporarily fitted in place as well. 
 
The bow section is much more complex.   In place of the open bow deck with a flat beakhead bulkhead, the ship had a closed bow.   At the waist it has the 13 degree tumblehome, but at the cathead it actually has an outward flare as if it were still open.  Then when it comes around to the stem it is vertical.  To accommodate these requirements, the foredeck corners are bumped out, making it less rounded and the deck overhangs the lower hull.
 
I derived the shape of the quarterdeck from the plans and cut a dummy deck.  This was mounted at the correct height on a sturdy block and screwed into the solid lower hull on the centerline.  Rough patterns were cut from cardstock and transferred to ¼” basswood, which was cut oversize at the top.  Multiple dados 3/16” deep were cut across the pieces, closer together at the tight bend at the corner.  The pieces were wet for an hour in a bucket of water, then forced into shape in the hull rabbet and against the dummy foredeck.  They were screwed in place and the top line marked out above the foredeck.  The pieces were removed and trimmed, then reinstalled and left to dry. 
 
This is where you see it in the photos, with a dummy stem piece in place.  Although I have never used this method of both kerf and wet bending together in a model hull, it seems to be working out pretty well.
 



 
Meanwhile, I continued with some of the deck pieces that will be needed.  Here is the bench that sits on the quarterdeck for the captain’s convenience.  I’ve never seen this before, but Budriot has it on the plans.  If anyone has seen such a fitting, I would be very interested.
 
Here are his drawings.
 

 
And here is how the completed bench looks, with some of the components.  The primary wood is birch, with cherry veneer for the accent work and arms.
 

 
The arms were built up of four layers of veneer stacked vertically.  The outer layers of the horizontal pieces for the arm are sandwiched around two vertical pieces for the post.  On the right is the arm piece shaped oversize to the desired curve.  On the left it has been trimmed to shape.
 

 
Here is the first one completed from another angle.
 

 
And here are the finished pair with my scale figures for comparison.
 

 
I also set up for the four ladders which will connect the gun deck at the waist with the gangways between the quarterdeck and foredeck.  They have only four treads but are wider at the base than at the top.
 
As you can see in the photo, my ladder technique is to make a long box from which separate ladders can be parted off individually.  Two matching rectangular pieces for the stringers have dados cut across the grain.  A web of veneer sheet woods are fit into these slots for the treads.  The grain runs across from stringer to stringer.
 

 
Sorry, this enlargement did not come out too well, but you can see how the dados are cut halfway through the stringer material.
 

 
The ladder block was set up so everything was square or, rather, symmetrical until the glue hardened.  A ladder was parted off on the band saw at the calculated angle, cleaned up, and finished.  This angle might not be right, so I only made one to test.  Whatever the ultimate angle, the rest of the block should be enough for at least the four needed for the first model. 
 

 
I will need a pair of longer ladders from the quarterdeck up to the poop deck on top of the captain’s cabin, and a wider one from the quarterdeck companionway down to the gun deck.  They will be made in much the same way.
 
The companionway itself will be next.
 
Be well
 
Dan
 

Personally I think Tanganyka looks the best for deck planking and you can source it from cornwall model boats.
 
Another suggestion is to purchase some red paduac(k) also, in 1x3mm.
I suggest it because:
1. The metal gunports (or wooden substitutes) stick out, having the extra material makes it look better.
2. Many people like a red Santisima Trinidad and red paduac is one way to achieve it.
3. The walnut wales are 4mmx2mm and will still stick out above the 1mmx3mm paduac. They won't be as prominent but will look better,
4. 3mm lengths work because the plans indicate the gap is 12mm between wales, enough for 4x3mm approximately.

Just finished the first batch of 10 sixpounders for the covered parts of the gun deck, so I've made also a few pictures of them. Looks like its decorating time now and doing whatever can be and has to be done before covering the deck.
 
 

 

 

 
 

continuation of the previous message. .    The channels photographed from a lower perspective. 
 
It's possible to note that I have added a further reinforcement with the same wood of the wale below. 
 
I felt this measure necessary because, having decided to set up the model with no full masts, there will be no standing rigging to firmly hold together these elemens. 
In my case, in fact there will be in place only the lower deadeyes . .
 
01 P1090701.jpg

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03 P1090705.jpg

 
These days I'd the possibility to use the grinding machine illustrated here below. It 'a great tool for many processes. 
To use at its best it has to be fixed to the worktop, in my case on an old desk.
I preferred an alternative solution (although not to spoil the desk) that works in practice in the same way and can be removed easily . .
 
04 P1090706.jpg

Brilliant!  It looks just like you think it should.
 
Colin

Really brilliant, Remco. I love your stove

Coming from a young salt, thank you. 
Here is a view I don't hope to see again. It is 'pre-main-shrouds'.
The lines from left to right are the two lines of the flag halliard, the royal backstay, the topmast backstay, and the four lines for the topgallant halliard (belayed as shown). I may still make a very small coil for the flag halliard.
 
I'll do the same on the starboard side and then do the shrouds (I think).

Hi Patrick,
Many thanks for stopping in and saying hello.  I have decided to finish the lower masts and then start the shrouds before I go further with the upper masts.  It has been pointed out to me by others that it will be more practical to do things this way.  So, we'll see what happens.  Nothing is set in stone so it's very possible after trying the shrouds, I might change my mind and finish all the masts first.  We'll see.  Have a great day.
Jerry

Unfortunately have to finish manually. However, within the accuracy of one micron.

Simply amazing. I think I'd resort to a 3D printer for that kind of thing. Does a 3D printer even print to that level of detail?

Neptune, Poseidon, Nij

Here is another small update. I had some time to solder up the chainplates tonight. There are ten total. Each has an eye soldered in its upper end and is drilled for two wires that will fasten it to the hull.
 
Here is a photo of a dry fit. Never mind the wires, they will eventually be glued in and cut off. Also, the chainplate will be cut shorter, just below the bottom wire. That will happen only just before final installation. The rail is notched for the chainplate to lay flat against the hull and there will be a wooden cap fixed along the outer edge of the rail to help secure the chainplates upper part.
 
Questions and comments welcomed.
 
Russ
 
 
 
 

Not much to report on the model building front. Unseasonably warm weather, and a less than perfect insulating job on the roof of the shop has resulted in some serious Ice dam flooding.
 
Water came down at the window where my lath was and the water splashed over the tools on the window ledge resulting in a major reorganization of where things are situated. I had to take the time to dry off all the small stands of drills reamers and mill bit along with some custom tools, this really was a pain.
 

 
The silver lining is that this event has forced me to rethink the entire layout of the shop and the equipment, tool and material Storage. So instead of rushing this work I am taking my time to reset these things, building new racks and drawers for tools and materials. It is also a good opportunity to de-clutter the workplace.
 

 
When the shop was laid out originally i was more focused on model engineering and steam work, now that I have found my true calling (model boats) I am organizing so that the various elements work in better harmony and flow. And now of course I have Gaetan and Mark's workshops as examples of great organization to guide my thinking.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Now that I have all the metal work sorted I can start on the wood storage and the tools for it.
 
I will be back to work on the cutter hopefully within the next week or so.
 
Michael

Thank you Frank. In all honesty I have mixed feelings with the machine. I have to say it makes very nice rope, but I get tired pretty soon when doing it.
You need to have both hands at work and your attention and eyes fixed on the area where the rope is twisting, so you can control the speed at which your right hand turns the take up spool.
I have another machine, but this one makes only short segments of rope. About 1.30 mts. So you need to load the machine several times to make enough rope of a given thickness. Byrnes machine shines at making a continuous rope, limited only by the amount of thread you load in the spools.
 
Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please ask!

Update: JAN 23/14
I finished the shrouds and ratlines of port side. Here are some photos. Flashlight plays some funny games over certain black lines, making them look too shiny. They don't look like that in person.
 
I need to pay more attention to the alignment of the deadeyes, I know!.
Also, my choice of tan thread came out too light. Nothing I can do about it now.
Here's 2 lessons learnt. 
 
You will see some loose lines here and there. They are not definitely fixed yet.
 

 
 

Hank - with Pontos duplicating the Trumpy PE it maybe a blessing in disguise as I found the Trumpy PE to be as soft as putty and pretty much useless on a number of parts. I have yet to try the Pontos PE on my Dreadnought but I hope its like the White Ensign PE.
 
Norman

A quick update and a couple of photos.  Skid beam support pillars are now in place and I've made up the quarterdeck screen and dry fitted it for marking on the bulwarks.  Put a couple of coats of walnut stain on the screen, followed by clear satin polyurethane.  I decided to make the window frames black rather than the yellow ochre suggested. Pictures of the real ship indicate these window frames were black or dark brown. I haven't glazed these windows yet as the screen will be set aside for a while and I'll glaze them before final installation.   Just need to take off the stubs of bulkhead 14 and sand down to deck level and I'm ready to start planking the deck.
 
Patrick
 
 

Hi again ZyXuz, hope all is well.  My package from CMB arrived, so now I should have enough thread to finish my Badger.  I also got a few goodies for my upcoming Unicorn build, which I thought I would share with you (and Ian of course), if you don't mind.
 
For the coat of arms, I ordered A5349, which was listed as 17mm (I think you had ordered A5350, the 27mm one).  The 17mm is pretty close as you can see to the coat of arms on the original cast metal stern piece, but much sharper in definition.
 

 

 
 
For the stern galleries, there is crown that sits on top of the cast metal piece.  It all looks pretty mediocre, so I bought AMND166 (CD166), which is pretty close in size, but again, much better definition.
 

 
I also bought a few other items to play around with.  One was the stern decoration for another ship (A5338), which I could use the two ends for decoration around the coat of arms or along the sides of the stern.  I also bought one of Corel's edging strip (CD110, or AMND110), which I might use as accents along the stern.  
 

 

 

 
 
I probably have more posts on the Unicorn, a ship I haven't even started building, than I do my Badger that I've been building for over five years 

It's been a while since I've updated this build, but I've not been twiddling my thumbs. I'm sort of in a holding pattern on hullwork, waiting to see what some other modelers building this kit  (The Ship Model forum) will do regarding some discrepancies in the molding of the hull. So, with many other facets of the build to address, I've turned my attention to the superstructure and masts.
 
The last two weeks I've been working on the Foremast/Radar Suite and the following photo show it's current status. With the exception of the main mast pole (Pontos part) everything else is scratch made. The brass comes from both the Pontos and kit PE sets. I'm about 75% finished and will post new photos when complete.
 
I'm waiting on a couple deliveries of parts, tools, and radar set drawings in order to build the surface and air search antennae and then will put the railings around each of the platforms, add ladders, whip antenna, waveguild trays. The uppermost radar platform will be added once the others below are complete.
 
This is has been a very tedious process to say the least...as you can see from the photo, the PE is very delicate and I have a couple areas that need straightening out with needle nosed pliers in order to unbend  them.
 
I'm using a combination of the kit plastic with the Pontos Detail Set PE in order to achieve the best results on this.
 
Hank

Thank you all for the likes & the comments, they are (as always) appreciated a lot and very motivating, keep them coming 
I hope I don’t bore too much with all these “how I create stuff” pictures as these might not be relevant for all of you followers...
 
..Right now I feel I’m starting to run in circles..
Off course the supplied “metal cast” bell-tower didn’t matched the rest of the wooden interior, so my next project became the bell tower.
 
The biggest hurtle was to find out how to create the arc from wood.
I made it by cutting very thin strips of African walnut, soaked them in water and wrapped & dried them on a 10mm drill-bit afterwards.
 

 

 
After gluing 3 of them on top of each other ..the result..  
 

 

 
I used the kit’s bell tower as the reference and together with my imagination I added a bit more details to it.
 

 

 
“2” laser cut “plywood” !!  :mellow: Brackets are needed when installing the bell tower (“32”  brackets will be needed for the entire build)
So I setup an small production line and made enough brackets from a piece of 10mm redwood which was available to me.  
I glued the brackets supplied by the kit at the end(s) of them and used these as "shaping guides", I shaped them, and cut individual “brackets slices” afterwards on the table saw .
 

 

 

 

 
To add a bit more detail I wanted to mille an edge in the curved top of the brackets.
To achieve this a came up with the idea to mile the bit (with the appropriate depth and width) into a round piece of scrap wood.
 

 
Luckily the brackets where not too small and by using toothpicks and a pair of tweezers I could avoid milling my fingers
 

 

 
Off course "afterwards" (when looking at the macro pictures) I can now see a lot of different “colors” 
 

 
Fortunately when looking at it from an distance it doesn’t show too much, but learned a lesson here: “next time use only wood from the same batch”    
So finally a few pictures of the bell tower fitted on the ship (including the (blackened) bell and accessories) and with the previously modified pillars & handrails
..Enjoy..       
 

 

 

Thanks for the comments 
 
@Amateur, I still have an unresolved problem with painting the Dutch 'tricolore' on the tiller. My attempts to do it free-hand didn't turn out well. I have to start again with proper masking and the airbrush. The (running) bowsprit was left at home when fishing in the winter. The summer rig would comprise a couple more (rather odd) sails, for which spars would be carried. I only modelled the iron-work that goes with the bowsprit.
 
wefalck

I generally don't buy cheap drill bits or even sets for that matter unless they are on special offer. In the past I've bought the sizes I needed at the time and from reputable suppliers, normally companies like Buck and Hickman. Surprisingly to many maybe, but it's normally cheaper to buy from a local engineering supply house if you have one than from a DIY store. The one notable exception I made was many years ago when I took the chance on a cheap set of number drills at a very good price at a model engineering show. They turned out to be made in India but I've not had any quality issues with them at all and still use them now. Having said all that I do keep a "rough" set of drills for non critical work!

The website WackoWolf is talking about is https://www.drillbitcity.com/ .
He mentioned this elsewhere on this site and I bought some bits from them and they are worth it and I will do business with them again.
Marc

...and a great way to produce those sculpted knees that you would see adorning the overhangs and out croppings!  such a great idea Daniel..........
 
welcome back!