Landrotten Highlander

Continuing to work on hawse  #4 last week, the port side seemed fair but left a peculiar space for the filler. The starboard wouldn’t fit at all. Rechecked the 1st cant against the breadth plan and found that somehow the angle and therefore the distance between timberheads had narrowed considerably. I think this may have been due to the use of spring clamps that exerted too much pressure.I unglued and separated all the hawse pieces and cants.
(A BLUNT blade is better for this.)
Having separated the cant several times they look a bit worse for ware- so remade them.
The hawse pieces needed cleaning up and fortunately able to separate and reuse both bollard timbers and their bridging chock.
Used my jig to hang the relevant part of the body and align the timberline of the cants while using set squares to check against the breadth plan. 
As Richard Feliciano mentions, the relation to the step is secondary.
Remade starboard hawse#2 as old was damaged when removed.
Wore out 3 small files (and hurting shoulders) making grooves so thought there must be a way to machine these.
** Angle marked as before, held vertically in vice with so direction becomes 90deg, using 3mm milling bit much like a drill press, but incrementally moved until depth required. Quicker and cleaner groove.
Hawse#3 both OK
At last back to hawse #4 (taken me 4 days to get here).
Blanks of 7.16mm
Even with the tramlines as advised (to ensure vertical angle of short bevel) not easy.The starboard worked first time, but the port was more difficult as use same side as disk sander but at opposite angle. Took 3 attempts. After that it's the same principle bevels, but leaving the weird shape. Who cares-it fits!!
Tomorrow the filler pieces.

No good deed goes  unpunished. I was helping my wife to diet by removing temptation.

Model professionally photographed by my friend Brian Lewis

Presentation of the build, I would say, is as much important as the construction of the build. One of the things to do is to take sometimes to take photos. There are some basics rules to follow by examples when taking photos inside the model the photo must be well horizontally.  When taking photos, I try to take photos at the height of the human eye at the scale, this provide a more natural photos look. By contrast, photos taken too high do not look as well. This morning, I tried another series of photos.

Ok Mark, I erased them!
 
2020 objectives, first deck completed, and still 1 1/2 month to go.
This model is more oriented on carpentry, so no cannons will be install.
 
Parts for the first deck are glued.
As usual, 1 coat of tung oil us applied. On the previous models, I tried 2 and 3 coats, and I prefer the 1 coat application, just enough to accentuation the wood grain. At the opposite, too much tung oil will create a transparent thickness, a varnish look, and I do not want this effect.
 
Most of the photos are done with small camera Yi  4K.

I have made a new home for the vessel whom I now name La Serenissima

 

 

 

 
Cheers
Dick

To isalbert: Yes, I am using the cnc milling maschine for some works.
"Side windows".

Is that a big model, or are you a smallish person?
 
Blooming nice work nonetheless.

Is that a big model, or are you a smallish person?
 
Blooming nice work nonetheless.

Is that a big model, or are you a smallish person?
 
Blooming nice work nonetheless.

I do not dress at Big and Tall 😀. I am only 5 feet 10 inches, 61 years old and 177 pounds. The model is quite large, on the other hand as you can see.... and heavy too!
 
Yves

Still waiting for my professional photographer to show up.... I think it will not happen, as he is probably hiding in his basement....
 
Anyway, I wanted to look quickly and very superficially at the cost of building such a model. We will assume you already are in possession of a bunch of tools, including a Dremel hand machine with a nice set of bits.
 
The kit itself is around $450, the RCSubs PE sets add another $270-300 depending on how far you are going, $50 in glues of all kinds, $100 in paints (The Humbrol paints coming from Europe to paint the hull and deck cost me close to $50), LEDs (close to 50), electric motors and many yards of very thin electric wires, the stand made of wood and brass tubes, switches and many little things here and there. We are probably not far or slightly above one grand. Even more if you start buying books and DVDs on that subject.....
 
But when you look at the time it takes to build such model, it is no more than $3 per day which is less expensive than beer or tobacco. We all know that the cost of our passion is no object and as such should be disregarded.
 
I have immensely enjoyed building this model and being able to present it to you readers and enthusiasts. I have to confess that your support and encouragements have been my fuel to continue through that, at times, difficult endeavor. In retrospect, I just cannot believe that this thread was visited close to 80,000 times over a period of 16 months.
 
Thus, to conclude that Build Log, let me offer you some last pictures of the model and of the real thing. I simply hope the model will not terminate like the real submersible....
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Although it is not completely clear how U-552 finished its days, I think it was scuttled before the Allies could take possession of it in one of the Brittany ports in 1945.
 

 

 

 

 
Yves

Starting the carving......
 

 
 


And.... let see the final result with the capital included......
 

I could not hold the temptation to see it beside the ship....
 

 
 
 

Here I am again.......
 
I just decided to add a couple of columns......
 
In the left one, I’ll go with King Sahure and his wife Meretnebery
 


And in the right one will have god RA (sun god) and god Anubis (tomb guardian).....
 
 
 
 


Let’s see a little bit of the process....
 

Now let’s put them together and let’s see how is going to be in our base....
 

The ratelines for the futtock shrouds of the mizzen mast are completed.
 
Furthermore I mounted a single block next to each trestle tree. These are used for the topping lifts of the mizzen boom. 
Soon I will continue with the ratlines of the foremast.

The futtock shrouds were meanwhile attached to the shrouds of the mizzen mast.
I have already started with the fixing of the ratlines.

 

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments.
 
Before mounting the cannons and equipment on the second gun deck,
deck beams fitted on the upper deck (Gaillards ?) .
Karl
 
(Google Translator)
 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Greg, when I started looking at the finish joinery and bulkheads, it began looking like more familiar territory for me. Besides the human factor, I realized that much of the detail was inspired by Classical architectural design, in the columns and pilasters on the bulkheads particularly. Some contemporary models and drawings I looked at were pretty fanciful in their interpretations of the traditional Classical orders (like Tuscan, Corinthian, Doric, Ionic), while others were pretty accurate. The rules in architecture are very precise in proportions and shapes of mouldings. I suppose the officers came from an upper class used to living in Classical houses, and wanted something like that in their own quarters.
 
So finally moving on from drawing, I fabricated more beams while the garage is not too cold to work on the router table. I refined my jig, and it worked like a charm to crank out all of the upper deck, forecastle and quarterdeck beams. 
 
The jig has to do several things: 1) cut a smooth arc on the upper surface; 2) cut a smooth arc on the lower surface concentric to the upper surface; and 3) cut these surfaces with the correct angle at every beam location, which gets increasingly steeper towards the bow and stern due to the sheer.
 
Getting the right curvature for the beams on each deck level starts with finding the rise at the center of the beams at their widest point on the given deck. This comes from the drawings or specifications. I then drew this curve on blocks of wood. I was fortunate to obtain an old set of drafting curves, which makes this simple; but arcs can also be constructed by traditional means.
 

 
I then cut the curves on the bandsaw, and rubber cemented sandpaper to one side. I used this to smooth the opposite side, then put sandpaper on the smooth block to clean up the first block. When this is complete, you have a set of convex and concave blocks at the correct radius, which are very accurate and smooth arcs because rubbing one lengthwise against the other cleans up any irregularities and forms a perfect arc of a circle. I use these all the time for sanding edges of planking, leveling decks, etc.

 
 
For the deck beam jig, I used these to form a convex and concave edge on a piece of plywood, I did this by attaching them to the plywood with double sided tape, and then running them against a piloted router bit on a router table. I then installed spacers, first one with a straight edge for cutting the initial convex edge, and then a curved one for cutting the concave edge (because the beam now has a convex edge after the first cut, which is placed against the concave stop for the second cut). You see below that I also rubber cemented sandpaper onto the jig, to provide more holding power so the blanks don't slide around when they are being cut.
 

 
I then hinged this template to another piece of plywood, also cut with the concave and convex edges, but recessed well enough away from the template above so it would not run into the nut on the router. Its job is primarily to provide a smooth and stable surface for sliding on the router table.
 
 
 

 
Two nylon screws allow me to adjust the angle of the template relative to the router table, thereby creating the angle needed for each beam due to the sheer. I used to use an angle gauge held against the drawings and then against the jig, but now I can get the angle off the CAD drawings, and use a digital angle gauge to measure as I turn the nylon screws.
 

 
And then finally, a third piece of plywood is screwed down with the black plastic knobs, to provide a clamp to the workpiece (a scrap strip of wood the same thickness as the beams is put in the clamp at the opposite side to keep the upper plywood piece parallel to the template). We see it set up here with the first cut ready to go.
 

 
And then the template is run against a piloted router bit in the router table.
 

 
It took a bit of work to get all of the jig parts to work, but once set up, it allows a very rapid and precise cutting of beams, each one tailored to its unique location in the sheer, and with parallel surfaces of the correct radius. Here are (from top to bottom) the beams for the forecastle, the quarterdeck, and the upper deck, including the half beams at the aft end of the upper deck.
 

 
I took extra care in marking out on each beam which edge should be convex, and also the direction of the angle on the end. The danger of a jig is that you automatically cut, remove, add next, cut, remove, etc. and it is so easy to get things turned around if you are not scrupulous about keeping everything in the same order. Having a visual clue to the correct orientation when putting in a blank helps keep things straight.
 
Once each set of beams for a given deck was complete, I took the jig apart, recut the concave and convex edges with the radiuses required for the next deck, and then put it all back together again.
 
Those with a mathematical outlook will realize that my upper and lower surfaces are not exactly concentric, since they are the same radius but the moulded distance of the beam apart. I decided at this scale that it would not be significant.
 
 
So my only remaining challenge is how to store all of these beams so they don't warp. How does one sticker so many small pieces?🙂
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The weather is beautiful and the leaves are falling.... six bags filled from raking, and the grass is cut for the last time this year.
 
I am just this moment printing the last set of four gun carriages.  They will need to be cleaned up but I will wait until my next eye needle  on December 1st as I won't be down in the shop for a few days afterwards.
 
Today I discovered something that defies explanation.
 
The printed template for the floor of my frame L-Forward is too long on one side.  But the PDF of the drawing from which they should have been printed is correct as you can see in the images below. This suggests I supplied the wrong PDF to the printer.  I cannot understand how the template was made wrong as the sketch on the 3D model was drawn on one side and mirrored to the other side, plus the original PDF is correct!  Definitely a head scratcher.
 

The above image is from the PDF and is correct.  I added the red lines to show the proper alignment from port to starboard.
 

Here you can see the incorrect floor (one side longer than the other) with the piece cut out from a tracing.
How could I not have seen this earlier???
 

I've traced the correct location onto the floor and will cut it back.
 
Luckily I traced the 1st futtock from the proper side of the template so they are cut correctly.

photo 1 : post experiences; if the height of the post: - is finely adjusted, it is easy to install
                                                                                        - is too high, it needs great forces to install
 
Now, if we translate to the ship, I believe the same principles applies, for the height of the post. We often see metal rods at the each end of the post because this is an easy way to install on a model. I do not believe that this can apply in a full scale model. So, for today, my solution is to carefully adjust each post. No notches on the deck, but 1 under the beam. At full scale, a sledge hammer would be enough. All this is pure speculation, As usual, I do not know the answer, I just try to find the good angle of the problem.
 
photo 2: location of the posts; not at at the back because of the rudder assembly, not at the front because of the anchor cables, instead there is a beam to support some deck beams. In the middle, 2 sections with posts1 or 2 posts in some area, and few others: 3.
 
As usual, nothing is fix yet and the posts are still to be shaped. For now, only the height is fixed.

Hello,
 
today the carpenters build the step for the bowsprit and the manger. The painter painted it afterwards. I think, he has to wait until the paint dries to get out there 😁
The next thing would be to build the cabins for the gunner and his neighbour in the back of the ship.
 

 

 

I'm working on making the case for the dromon. A plywood body,
 

 
with the "glass" made of [Edit] polycarbonate acrylic [/Edit].
 
Front view
 

 
Back view (from "inside")
 

 
The [Edit] polycarbonate acrylic [/Edit] is a separate structure which will be screwed to the body once the model is inside.
 
 

 
I used "metal" screws because of their fine threads. Because the [Edit] polycarbonate acrylic [/Edit] is so fragile I had to be very careful about making the holes - first I drilled small pilot holes through both body and [Edit] polycarbonate acrylic [/Edit] - then larger ones - almost as wide as the outside of the screw threads. I rubbed each screw against a bar of soap (to provide lubrication), and slowly and carefully turned the screw, which acted as a die-cutter, making a female thread in the hole in the [Edit] polycarbonate acrylic [/Edit].
 
The guy who supplied and cut the [Edit] polycarbonate  acrylic [/Edit] to size showed me how to do the gluing between the pieces  - didn't reckon my inexperience, so there are a few places where the glue has interfered with the pure clarity of the surface. But not too bad for a first time.
 
I'll be staining the plywood so it doesn't just look like cheap pine. And I have some ideas for the background panel. But don't expect anything to happen for a while. I have other things that have to be done first.

Hello,
and many thanks for your likes.
 
Today the carpenters where extremely busy. They build all the beams who are made from one peace of wood.
 

 
This ship is smaller and has lower decks. Here you can see the beams are only 5f 11,5in above the deck.
 

Scrubbyj427 - I am using pear wood (steamed and not steamed - different color) and black hornbeam.
Completion of the quarter gallery.

Construction of the bread oven and the entrance of the anchor cables in the hold.
 
On the drawing , we see the shape of the bricks. The assembly is made on a wood form.  All the holes are filled with wood putty made of saw dust and glue.
2 actions are done so that the glue does nit stick to the form: adding oil and car wax. Finally, the painting.
 
Here is how I think "the cage" could be done. Below the oven, we need 2 things so that the support of the oven does not burn. Just under the oven, there could be thin plates and or a brick thickness. In the bottom half of that support, it would be filled with sand to dissipate the heat.