NMBROOK

As always Karl,exceptional work  
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Ok am back from the Holliers and decided to get going again on the Ballier ... Yup you read that right, it's Update Time Again Woo Hoo 
 
Today's exciting Post is ..... Wait For It ... The Carronade Breech Rope !    
 
I took some time to decide what position to put the guns in  (In or Run Out I Mean) and chose a sort of 'mostly' run in .. am not too sure how far the Carronade would slide inwards on it's sledge, so I experimented and saw that the 'mostly' Run In position cleared the Muzzle of the Bulwark sufficiently and it looked less awkward than Fully Run In (Or where Fully Run In Looked Like, if you follow) but it will be easy to alter at a later stage ! I also left enough slack in the breech rope so it would be tight in the Fully Run In Position.
I Blackened some Eyelets and Rings I had previously made (by winding wire around a drill bitt) assembled them and looped the Breech rope through the Ring and seized the end in place, threaded the other end through the Sledge fittings on both sides and the Carronade itself .. then finally seized it around it's Eyelet & Ring.. The Seizing was fun to do .. and by fun I of course mean flippin' awkward  the knots were held firm by diluted white glue ... See Photo ... That's Right, There are actual Photos Too !!!   
 
Have a great Weekend Folks And Thanks For Stopping By ..
 
All The Very Best
 
Eamonn 
 
Photo Time Now ...

After experimentation and actually using this technique on my Mordaunt build,I decided I would post a small tutorial of this system I developed due to the interest it caused.
Whilst I am not reinventing the wheel,this is a variation I adopted on the common method of using black paper.There are disadvantages with using black paper,firstly,that it reduces the glue penetration in a joint and secondly,it can appear too thick at the smaller scales.Some may say,the strength is not an issue for planking on a false deck,fair point,but I wanted a system that could be used for all joints where some caulking or similar would be used.This would include scarph joints in the keel where strength is important.
There are many similarities in techniques between using paper and tissue,but there are small differences caused by the delicate nature of the tissue.
This is a pic of the lower gun deck on Mordaunt using this technique.The timber is Pear and the planks are 6mm wide max(the planking is tapered)

To demonstrate the technique,I will be planking a small deck section that goes under the main deck hatches on Norske Love.This piece doubles up as part of the structure and is made from 6mm birch ply.No camber is incorporated as this will be unnoticeable as the only real view is through a companionway.It does have some shear and this is conveniently catered for by the bow the ply has attained,being stood in the corner of the workshop for several months.
The planks are cut from 3mm boxwood sheet.Cutting from the edge of the sheet,using the thickness as the plank width,helps maintain consistency.I cut the planks @1.5mm thick.To me this is less important as the deck will be scraped/sanded smooth.All gluing is done using Deluxe Materials Aliphatic Resin.The black tissue paper is acid free and bleed resistant.I obtained mine from WHSmith in the UK and can be found in the present wrapping section.

A section of tissue was placed on a small piece of clean glass.Glue was added to one side and one end of the plank.The plank is placed edge down on the tissue,ensuring the tissue develops no creases and the plank is firmly down on the glass.I then slice the tissue with a new scalpel blade to form a 'finger' that can be curled up on the plank end.The process is repeated until you have a good quantity of planks 'edged'.
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When the glue goes clear,but not fully set,slice through the paper between the planks.The individual planks will simply break off the glass with a little twisting pressure.The tissue should remain intact on the plank.Whilst the glue is still in the 'green' stage (a bit like cheese as it hasn't fully hardened),carefully trim the tissue flush with the plank faces.Keep the scalpel blade cutting toward the plank,not away as this can drag pieces of tissue off the edge.You can wait until the glue has hardened overnight,but I found this much harder and more time consuming.

Lay the planks in a conventional manner,ensuring to keep the tissue covered faces going the same way.I brush over the surface with a small wetted paintbrush.This consolidated any glue that has oozed out and is added insurance against the tissue dragging with the sanding and scraping.

 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hi Mates,
 
Working on those falconets that seem to have also been on the Vasa.
 
Pic 1 from the 1/10th
 
Pic 2 are examples from Clayton Johnson’s build of all of the various canons that were cast for the ship. Here is a link to all of his work for the cannons (if you care to look) beautiful work
 
https://sites.google.com/site/clayton707/1-10-scale-vasa-artillery
 
Pic 3 falconets seem to have disappeared in more recent photos – hmmm?—
 

 
------- Wheels were cut from dowel. I rolled the dowel, not cutting clear through (for obvious reasons) then just sawed the inner bits. The carriages had been built at the same time that I put together the weather deck ones. 
 

 
Used brass framing to articulate the metal framing for the carriages (simple tools helped) - not sure how to represent their attaching pins? May just let that bit go...
 

 
To be updated…..
 
PS: My big frustration with this ship (and all Vasa kits) has to do with all of the totally incorrect cannons that are supplied. But I understand – there were so many diff. size cannons mounted aboard that it would make this bit of detail cost prohibitive just for the Vasa kit. Let’s see if the DeAgostini 1/65 get’s these right???
 
Cheers,
 
 
 

Wait for it....
 

 
YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
Second planking is finally finished*
 

 

 
*well ok apart from two/three planks to reglue, gaps to fill and sanding the entire hull...  
 
Sorry for poor quality pics (from mobile) but I just couldn't wait till tomorrow to get the SLR out and tell you guys and girls 
 
Happy Dance Time! 
 
Nick

Stunning work Michael
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hi Mates,
 
Small update (well for me it’s a big one)
 
Finished up some detail work on the upper railings adding the look of probable attaching nails (should be painted over, but the detail look is nicer IMO)
 
Installed the lower main stays after putting the bits together. (Nigel – again thanks - annealing the brass rivets allowed for easier lip creation on the cut side)
 
Attached the shrouds along with the blocks. One issue that I had – notice the last two photos;
 
The 1/1 has much more rope spacing between the blocks. The 1/10th are much closer together. So took a leap and sprung the bits closer together. I think that they are too close, but so it goes.
 
Now onto building and installing the lower mizzenmast, and its platform.
 
As usual thanks so much for dropping by – always nice of you.
 
Cheers,
 

 
 
 
 

Edwin, thanks you are so encouraging – as always.  Well there have certainly been a lot of helpful posts with us Corel Wasa builders, which may be helpful to you in circumventing some of this kits glaring errors. Thanks for following along always nice hearing from you.
 
Frank, thanks – I am enjoying following your new project J
 
Jan V. You have been busy building the longboat nice side project. I will certainly use your ideas when I get there. Thanks for your nice thoughts.
 
B.E.  & EJ_L  thanks indeed. It is certainly mutual following along with your projects as well.
 
==============
 
Minor update: Decided on starting to build the two falconets and carriages that are at the quarter deck before moving to the mizzen mast. I’ll post some updates as they move along….
 
Thanks all for your kind clicks and comments,
 
Cheers,
 

Thanks Mike,... the images never quite seem to duplicate what I see when looking at the model. My camera skills are likely to blame but that is a whole other learning curve and a road I'm unwilling to go down.
  The wood is all stock walnut supplied (for the most part) by Euromodel as well as bits and pieces from my stash. The darker "black" values are either a black stain or simply a black Sharpie pen.  The blue value is a water based powder pigment that I had on hand. Once  applied to the wood, and after some drying time,  I always "knock back" the painted surface with a fine sanding stick to remove excess paint and to reveal the wood beneath. When I'm happy with that, I apply an old walnut stain that has aged to the point where the pigments seemed to have separated, to a degree, from the solvent base.
This application blends in the bare walnut surface with the painted areas and the results are more or less what you see.......I would describe the finish as an "aged" one as opposed to the pristine newly minted ship ready for her first voyage.  Thanks again for your comments and hope this helps a bit.
 
 
JP

Thanks guys,... believe me when I say that my results are far from  projecting any sort of quality. While we all typically attempt to shoot for the best results in each and every little step during construction, I'm learning to accept minor  build "anomalies" along the way. I used to focus on  the imperfections at each step but have come to realize that those little anomalies disappear when the build progresses and the "whole" is the focus. I should have some additional images on the bow available soon.......thank for looking in.
 
jp

Thanks for the likes and looking in....my rendition of the  French frigate continues.  I'm liking  the way the dark rich tones are coming together and is what I set out to do from the beginning. It's a work in progress and will likely take another year (??) at my current pace. 
 
JP

Hi all - thanks for looking in & all the likes.
Update - working on the bow,the next thing I did was to make a cleat for the gammoning out of some hard walnut. After painting it black,I glued & nailed it to the stem. Next I started work on the head rails. I was having trouble bending the cathead supports using the heating with a flame method,so I decided to try a heat gun. While wearing some thick leather gloves to keep from burning my fingers I found that holding the metal cathead support in the heated air from the heat gun I could bend the metal pieces quite easily. After a bit of filing to fit the curves of the hull,they were painted gold & glued in place. To anyone building this ship using the heat gun is the best way I have found to bend the metal pieces. The low setting on the heat gun is all that is necessary to heat the metal to be bent.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Mark

Hi all - more work on the head rails, First thing I did was cut a notch out of the front edge of the bulwarks for the upper head rail top timber to sit in - right next to the cathead support. Forgot to take a picture for this post,but can be seen in my previous post #271 in the next to last picture. After fine tuning the shape of the upper head rail it was glued in place. I then built the bow grating - it needed to be put in place before the lower head rails were in place. The grating was then glued in place. The front section of the side decorations were then trimmed & glued in place.
 

 

 

 

 
Mark

Hi,
Yesterday I printed the Archangel Michael figurehead. It is the biggest thing I ever printed, height about 11cm.
Daniel

Hello fellow ship modelers. Here's some good and bad news.
 
I wanted to post an update when the whole transom was completely done. I have completed only the rear part, (not the sides) as you will see in the following pictures. The sides, the area where I posted before that the parts broke and cursed and blah blah blah, will have to be finished later.
I am still thinking of ways to do that area. So many options, so little... whatever
 
My sister, who is totally dependent upon me because her diabetic feet and other illness,  and lives with me, broke her hip, had to undergo surgery and today is being moved to my home.
So my building time and mood will be severely undermined for some time in the future.
So I decided to post what I have done so far.
 
As always, thanks for visiting, and every single word of positive criticism will be taken in account. 
 
I love you guys!!!
 
This area had to be filled

 
I used play doh to make a mold. then I moved the parts a bit downwards. I then filled the space with "Plastiacero" (Plasi-steel) which is a two part epoxy component with a metal charge that hardens very hard.

 
Here the two parts with the extension added and filed, and partially painted. Also the upper curved part partially painted

 

 
The upper part glued in place. The white wood parts you see are fillers which will be reworked later

 

 

 
Here the 2 vertical sections have been glued. You can see at the right the black spot plastiacero left. I used plastiacero to bond metal to metal, and 5 min epoxy to bond metal to wood.
 

 
Lower and upper  balustrades added.




 
Close up of one of the winged female angels. I didn't know angels had gender, but this one obviously do.

 
Thank you all for visiting!!!
 
Ulises

Hello modeling friends, 
 
just a small update with my recent photos
 
:-)
 
Best to all of you!
 
-Heinz-

Hello friends, 
 
I want to show you a new update and what I have done in the last few weeks.
 
As I told you, I decided to finish the planking of the hull. Again I have the situation, that I don´ t want to use the parts of the kit. There are several moldings to put on the planks that have to be made of wood. I study the Victory of Alexandru very carefully, because he does it in such an outstanding way. I try to copy his work. But - surprise - it´s not as easy as it looks :-)
 
I had so many problems with it, I could not tell you. I decided to do it in my way, concerning to my skills. But even than I get some problems. First I had to find out, that my molding was invisible, because I used the same walnut-wood I used for the planking. The strips were a little bit thicker (1,5 mm instead of 1,00mm) but that was´t enough to have a visible contrast. The solution was to prepare them with my black wood filler and make them darker. Wood filler become a panacea for all my problems....
 
The next problem was the second and smaller molding. I simply don´t know how to do it and where to fix it. I have to admit that I was not able to build everything in the way that it fits perfectly and everything is exactly in the right position as it is written in the plans or on better models. So again I have to say: my model is inspired by the original, but it´s not a perfect copy. 
 
After finishing that part I returned to the upper deck and the walls (you can see in my pictures what I mean). Comparable to the stern I don´t wanted to use the sheet windows from the kit. I made new ones with my yellow wood.  Also I had the idea to fill the vertical slits with that wood, to have a contrast and a little "eye-catcher".  What do you think about it? 
 
Of course these parts are not fixed on the deck. I only placed them for the photo.
 
Best wishes 
 
-Heinz-

Sjors - maybe these photos will help you make up your mind    The planking is not as beautiful as I think you think because of the different woods used, copper was always the plan.
 
Believe I reached a point to deliver a verdict on the Amati plates and share some progress now that copper has met boxwood.  I know that there seem to be many diverse opinions on coppering, and it does present its own uniquw challenges.  Its also amazing how many varied diagrams there are of copper plate layouts.  In the end, I probably ended up somewhere between what is shown in the AOTS Pandora book and TFFM book 2.
 
So, some thoughts on the Caldercraft:Amati copper plate matchup.  First off, I cannot believe how much more fun it is to work with the Amati plates vs my experience with the Caldercraft plates (which do still give a nice result).
Because the plates come in sheets, its possible to apply in some cases in multiple plates at a time.  This is a real bonus when its necessary to shape some which otherwise would leave a tiny sliver to be attached.  This results in less wastage..at least so far. The thin profile of the PE plated I think attaches much more easily (in my experience) using the Admiralty Pro thick CA glue.  This also allows any needed overlaps to be achieved easily without having to hammer out the distinct nail head profiles on the CC plates On to the photos and little bit of the method I've found works well for me.  I started working on the stern as this will likely be the most challenging due to the hull shape.
 
I'm not sure what these are called, but determining the flow of the plates where they need to fan out is the first challenge. Because the plates don't bend and can't be spiled, the problem is a little more intractable.  I found that by using a small sheet 2 tiles wide to find the natural lines of how the plates lie well on the hull was the simplest method, it just takes time and fiddling....
 

 
Once the lined had been figured out, household painters tape helped me keep the lines straight at these transition points (I go through a lot of tape)
 

 
From above (the view as I work), the lines of the plates does appear a little erratic...
 

 
...however, the appearance from normal angles is much more acceptable
 

 
 

Thanks everyone for continued interest and support...
 
"It" has started.  I've been proceeding all along assuming that I would install a false keel visible beneath the copper plates as wonderfully shown on the Minerva model in the Annapolis museum.  I installed the various false keel planks using swiss pear as I felt the more orange hue would blend better with the copper plates.  I had intended to then copper to this false keel as per pictures below, which required the copper plates to be trimmed which I did with an exacto blade.  But this would have resulted in a rather odd plate layout at the bow using the supplied plates which I didn't like.
 
In the end, I decided to copper to the bottom of the false keel which was rather luckily pretty much exactly the width of a copper plate.  This is how David Anscherl describes it in the FFM series so its good enough for me to justify this approach! Definitely still trying to get into a groove with attaching these with thick CA glue but pretty sure it will get easier...
 

Dockyard is still the victim of an ongoing labour dispute.  Little bit of detail added onto the main deck, tried to simulate the deck clamps and the sheave blocks.  The clamps were cut from a sheet of pear using a sharp blade and a ruler which seemed to work OK.  The standards have also been added.  Glad now I added in the sweep ports as it adds a nice touch of background detail with the deck on.  Think I need to get on with the coppering, but do have some questions...
 
Range cleats:  The kit provides a huge 'block' for these which seem way over scale and don't look like a cleat (see bottom picture).  The photo at the bottom shows these side by side with one of Chucks cleats (12mm).  The FFM indicates the range cleats are 2' 9" which translates to about 13mm in real money at scale, very similar to Chucks.  Would the size of these vary considerably between ships of different sizes. Thoughts?  I'm leaning toward Chucks. Copper plates: Amati are very clear in providing left and right sided copper plates.  I thought that British ships were coppered from the stern, forward and up which would suggest the visible edge nails would be on the aft and lower edges on the starboard side.  Is that correct?
 

Wow,that looks absolutely fantastic Daniel!!!!!!!! I did wonder if you would adopt the red and black colour scheme
 
Slow down though,I need time to save my pennies,this is a definite must have for my stash  
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Thanks Jim .. Those Blocks are Smaaaaalll .. but seem more in scale than the supplied stuff .. I have been pondering the Anchor's too .. they seem big for so small a vessel .. will have to do some research I think before making a decision there !.
 
Thanks for stopping by Jim and Thanks too for the Likes Folks, always appreciated 
 
Eamonn

Photo Time Woo Hoo !!
 
This is some of the completed blocks .. I will make Hooks out of the eyes at the ends before final assembly .. The eyes/hooks have been chemically blackened... Oh and the Future Admiral made the 3rd set of them   
 
All The Best
 
 
Eamonn

Hi Sjors.
Thanks. Of course the kit will contain english manual (unfortunatelly not Dutch ). 
 
Last two days I spend with 3D modeling of archangel Michael figurehead. I will try to print it next week. 
 
Daniel

Hello All,
After longet time I can present some progress. I made some progress on Santisima Trinidad copper sheathing. I use copper tape and 3D printed stamp which is pressed into the tape. I suppose that the kit will also contain just that stamp made from resin-one for starboard and one port side.
Best regards
Daniel