NMBROOK

Hi all,
 
I wanted to let you know about my experience with the use of basswood for miniature carving.
Quite a lot of modellers, including myself, entertain the prejudice, that basswood is not very good for miniature carving. Instead, the only timber to go for, are all sorts of short-grained, hard-growing fruit varieties.
Not true.
 
I have a carving mentor, who lives near the alps. 1 hour driving time. Every now and then I visit him for a lesson.
The typical alpine carving style is what he does for a living. Nativity scenes and that sort of thing.
But sometimes he does miniatures, just to push the borders and see what's possible.
 
From that, from practicing with basswood,  I can tell you, basswood is perfect for miniature carving. Especially, if you plan to gild, or paint it.
 
It is not as hard as the fruit timber, but still holds tiny edges. It is worked with normal, small carving tools. You need to keep them in a pristine sharp condition.
But you do not have to invest in expensive high quality dental burr equipment, if you don't want to.
This also means you can finish figures much faster than working the much harder fruits, like pear or box.
 
I am attaching a picture of a quadriga, my mentor did. That's his smallest so far. The groundplate is much smaller than my palm. Again, no dental burrs, only knives and traditional miniture carving tools.
 
Tom 
 

Stunning work,as always Karl
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hello friends,
new pictures of the BHR.
Karl
 
 
T e i l    5 5

Hi Boyd
 
I should imagine Jotika's manuals have a list of quantities.This should be a good starting point.They are free to download here
 
http://jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Manuals_Victory.htm
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Works on bowsprit rigging are cpmpleted now - bobstay shrouds, bowsprit shrouds, boomkin shrouds) and main stay collar.

Thanks Nigel .
Bowsprit is attached to the hull. A few pictures of the gammoning and rack-blocks. .

I have been giving a great deal of thought as to how to proceed with this build. I have now completed the first planking up to the main deck level. To my immense relief, the planks are still straight, which means that each deck installed so far is exactly parallel with respect to the others.
 
Other builders of the RW on MSW have decided to continue the first planking upwards, but I am nervous about doing this. Any planking above the main deck is unsupported by frames, and thus potentially vulnerable if the ship is turned upside down.
 
I have therefore decided to start my second planking at the waterline and work downwards and upwards. These photos show that the waterline has been drawn with a thick black marker.
 
If you look closely, you will note that I am using pear strips which I bought from Jeff at Hobbymill for the planks above the waterline, and the Euromodel supplied strips below the waterline. The reason is to save cost by saving the expensive pear strips for planking which will actually be visible. The planks below the waterline will be hidden by white paint.
 

 

 
(EDIT) I forgot to mention - the 2013 edition of "SHIPWRIGHT" magazine has a feature by Mr. Yankovitch who scratchbuilt the 1:36 scale Royal William. It is well worth reading, he talks about his technique and how he overcame various problems. I bought my copy on Kindle. Amazon link is here:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Shipwright-2013-International-Maritime-Modelmaking-ebook/dp/B00GZ8EPPM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416144214&sr=1-1&keywords=shipwright+2013

Here is a few on the cannon's. Hope you enjoy them.
 
Gary



 
 

Thanks Mario and Dave.
 
 Mario your so right sir and work has kept me away from Montagu but I do look in on the site, to help me get through those times when there wasn't enough time to do any ship building. Things have eased up a bit the last month and have been working on the stern and the thirty two pounders which have all been installed and have a few more tackles to make up for them. In the mean time the stern upper and lower counter curves have kept me busy trying to get their curves just right. Seems every time I thought I had it right, found a part that didn't look just right and tore  it off just to redo it.
 
 To me if those curves are not right your eyes lets you know, and every thing else is built upon those curves. So getting them right was high on the list. A make or break sort of item. Some thing that helped was the ideal that I got out of Davids new book the fire ship comet, the quarter gallery berthing piece on page 111. He talks about how he mount this on Comet so figure I would try it. After making 3 of them, I finally manage to make a port and stbd that fit the bill and this in turn help big time in getting her upper and lower counter curves to lay proper.
 
 In the process the top plank on the lower counter was a little shy on meeting the rail of the lower counter and had to make a new one. Not glueing the planks in place and held by a small amount of glue on tree nails made pulling it off a lot less nerve racking. One thing about building up the curves of the quarter gallery is figuring out the curve of them. But there is hope for finding their curve  at least the one I came up with. English plans only show one pattern for this curve and that is on the quarter deck level, but is bigger then the ones that fit the upper deck. Taking their size off of the stern and sheer view and using the quarter deck pattern one can get it real close in size, which I do believe Montagu is just right. Sorry about the long delay in a up date. 
 
 Gary 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for your thoughtful comments as well as for just dropping buy, always a pleasure and a source of encouragement.
 
Continuing with the cannon doors;
 
All doors have been sized given the minor size variations on the ports. As Nigel pointed out, my errors were actually in keeping with the way Vasa was probably assembled given its early 16th century birth. Love it when my errors turn out to be OK J
 
Started to put together the opening and closing rope pulls, getting there, need 100 altogether. For the much less visible opening pulls (doors will be open almost vertically) I will only do a single rope wrap not a double, as I’m doing for the closing ropes
 
Those nails will double as the door hinges
 
Using the Proxxon to drill through the door and the inserts. I will use the same hole for the pull and pull eyelets.
Again, thanks for taking your time following along, dropping in or just passing by.
 
Regards,
 
Michael
 
 
 
 

Keith,there looks to be enough parts on some of them to get a good idea of the construction.
 
 
/Matti

Kevin
My scroll is a cheap and cheerful one.I don't know how much better things would be with a more expensive one.At the moment I am not willing to part with 300 quid to find out.If yours is like mine,the recessed section where the blade goes through is the cause for the timber trying to 'jump'.There is an added issue if you are cutting pear,there are hard and soft spots throughout this timber that can send the blade wandering.When I cut ply and boxwood things are much,much easier.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

To be honest Kevin,my scroll saw work looks the same.I cut well away from the line and sand back to shape.I feel I have more control and this method I find twenty times quicker than trying to get perfection from the machine.I enclose a pic of my 'secret weapon' cheap sanding drum in the bench top pillar drill.For mass sanding sessions I have a piece of wood slightly larger than the drum that I clamp to the table.A disc sander is useful for the outside profile,but I have yet to purchase one of those.I use this set up for rough sanding of everything I cut out on the scroll saw
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hi Keith
I used the rolling technique on Caroline for depicting bolts,it works fine,you just cut the double ended section in half to form the nails.The only thing is to keep pressure very light due to the softness of the copper.
Fingers and toes will be doubly crossed and the feed speed will be extremely slow.At around 800 holes per grating,it will be a long process  
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Greetings all
Well here I go with my second build, which was not my chosen build. My chosen ship was the Pegasus by Victory models after following blue ensigns cracking build. I received the pegasus for my birthday in July and was ready to start the build on the completion of my first build. The Admiral was chatting to a friend who came to visit and was telling her about my late father who built lots of model ships, and saying how clever he was. She said to her friend the last two ships he built were galleons and and he built them side by side. She turned to me and said I don't want you to build that ship you have now, I want you to build a galleon. So after looking at the kits on CMB and photos she along with her friend decided the Royal Caroline was nice. It was not worth arguing so I am now building the Royal Galleon Caroline. I made a start a few weeks ago and have just started the first planking, and things are going ok. And at the minute this will be a straight foward build, but we will see what's what when the planking is completed. There are some really cracking builds going on here with all you enthusiastics, so I should not be lost for advice or help if needed. Well here we go we are off and running. Here's a few photos of my Galleon. DAVID

Hi Keith
I used the rolling technique on Caroline for depicting bolts,it works fine,you just cut the double ended section in half to form the nails.The only thing is to keep pressure very light due to the softness of the copper.
Fingers and toes will be doubly crossed and the feed speed will be extremely slow.At around 800 holes per grating,it will be a long process  
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hi Keith
I used the rolling technique on Caroline for depicting bolts,it works fine,you just cut the double ended section in half to form the nails.The only thing is to keep pressure very light due to the softness of the copper.
Fingers and toes will be doubly crossed and the feed speed will be extremely slow.At around 800 holes per grating,it will be a long process  
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Now that's some small drilling. Hopefully the mill and collet will help with bit breakage, I'd definitely feed it slowly as bit flex from too much down force is the only problem left, not sure how hard the pear is, but that price of the added drilling time will pay for itself if you break a bit at that price. ...and don't forget to cross your fingers
 
On the Vasa grating pic, Matti, I'm assuming that grating in the pic is a new piece due to the wood color.... I saved it and expanded it until digitization and you can clearly see double diagonal nailing, barely. Was there enough of the original grating to get that detail on the rebuilt, or are there other gratings that survived and showed the double nailing?
 
Nigel, good luck with this setup and at learning the nail rolling technique. I've considered trying it since reading its method, but haven't. Luckily now I can sit back and watch you work out all the bugs to the learning curve   
One thing I wonder and can't remember, the rolling technique I think would flair both ends. Did he use a cup burr to dress the end before cutting another. I would think that would help, otherwise both ends would have heads. I used a cup burr of the bow shroud bracket  and rudder nailing to get them to slide into the hole better. Just a though...
 
Seriously though, that is why your logs a jewel, for learning technique.....and great discussion... not just stealing ideas (but that too)

Some wonderfully clean and crisp wood work Juergen!!!
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

After spending a few hours scouring the net,I have eventually found a supplier of super small drills.I have purchesed two 0.18mm drills for adding the grating nailing.These drills have double stepped down shanks enabling them to fit in the 3.2mm Proxxon collet.I am certain a chuck would have far too much 'run out' to drill these holes.I intend to use them solely in the miller.They are very expensive at around ten pounds each,but are carbide and hopefully will last for a large number of holes.I have ordered a reel of 0.15mm copper wire for the nails.For scale purists,this equates to 9mm full size,so isn't miles away.
If anyone is in the market for some mega small drills(yes they do smaller ones than these   )the website is
 
http://www.drill-service.co.uk/index.asp
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

After spending a few hours scouring the net,I have eventually found a supplier of super small drills.I have purchesed two 0.18mm drills for adding the grating nailing.These drills have double stepped down shanks enabling them to fit in the 3.2mm Proxxon collet.I am certain a chuck would have far too much 'run out' to drill these holes.I intend to use them solely in the miller.They are very expensive at around ten pounds each,but are carbide and hopefully will last for a large number of holes.I have ordered a reel of 0.15mm copper wire for the nails.For scale purists,this equates to 9mm full size,so isn't miles away.
If anyone is in the market for some mega small drills(yes they do smaller ones than these   )the website is
 
http://www.drill-service.co.uk/index.asp
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Thanks Lawrence, Joe, Kester & Mike for the encouraging comments and the Likes.. as I mentioned before it really is appreciated !
 
Kester the enlarged Gun Ports were indeed part of the build instructions, though with my proper sized upgraded guns (which are a lot smaller) they probably won't be necessary.. I shan't be changing them though !  
 
Will have to consider one of those Lamps Kester, what brand & model is yours?
 
All The Best Folks
 
Eamonn
 
Hey There Nigel, you must have posted at the time I was writing this.. so thanks for stopping by too !! 

After spending a few hours scouring the net,I have eventually found a supplier of super small drills.I have purchesed two 0.18mm drills for adding the grating nailing.These drills have double stepped down shanks enabling them to fit in the 3.2mm Proxxon collet.I am certain a chuck would have far too much 'run out' to drill these holes.I intend to use them solely in the miller.They are very expensive at around ten pounds each,but are carbide and hopefully will last for a large number of holes.I have ordered a reel of 0.15mm copper wire for the nails.For scale purists,this equates to 9mm full size,so isn't miles away.
If anyone is in the market for some mega small drills(yes they do smaller ones than these   )the website is
 
http://www.drill-service.co.uk/index.asp
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

These things have a place in the market,the people who make them are feeding the families,I would be interested to know the mark up though.Regarding the price,ask yourself how much an exemplary model of Victory would cost,then compare it with the what they are asking.
 
Kind Regards Nigel

After spending a few hours scouring the net,I have eventually found a supplier of super small drills.I have purchesed two 0.18mm drills for adding the grating nailing.These drills have double stepped down shanks enabling them to fit in the 3.2mm Proxxon collet.I am certain a chuck would have far too much 'run out' to drill these holes.I intend to use them solely in the miller.They are very expensive at around ten pounds each,but are carbide and hopefully will last for a large number of holes.I have ordered a reel of 0.15mm copper wire for the nails.For scale purists,this equates to 9mm full size,so isn't miles away.
If anyone is in the market for some mega small drills(yes they do smaller ones than these   )the website is
 
http://www.drill-service.co.uk/index.asp
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel