Landrotten Highlander

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Made seats mast mounting. This design allows you to quickly retrieve the mast of a model for the transport and quickly assemble at the site of exposure or storage.

parasartie (I don't know their name in english, sorry!)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been a while since I used an airbrush.  One thing I still do - even if using burshes only - is the following:
 
I first paint a 'basic coat' - usually a matt gray - to highlight any imperfections.  Repair, then repaint.
 
Once I no longer have any imperfections I paint a 'base colour' in an easily found and not too expensive brand (can be the regular DIY paint, as long as it does not attack the model material (particularly important when dealing with plastics)).  This 'base colour' is of a shade as close as I can get to the eventually desired colour, and heavily diluted so I can apply very thin layers at the time while allowing each layer to dry completely.  I do this until I have an even coverage across the specified area.
Only then will I use the (relatively expensive) model paint it in the exact shade.
 
So for your red I would chose a DIY paint in a medium red shade (not too dark, but not too bright either) so you have an even coverage.  Then - usually in one or two diluted layers - I would use the model paint to obtain the exact shade.
 
It is a technique I picked up from figure painting (i.e. model 'tin soldiers' aka Pegaso or Andrea Models).  1st base coat, then the medium tones, then improve the 3D experience by painting shadows and highligths.
 
Hopes this is of use to you
Slainte
Peter

Hello,
thank you so much!
Thanks also for the LIKES!
Meanwhile, I made more details:
-supplementing the 2nd companionway with a railing.

 

-robes ladder for shrouds, as you can see on cut model.

 

 

 

Polishing for finish trim ... probably the most intelligent process, especially when a large ship model ...

Ah yes, Sunday morning .... a big mug of coffee, a few donuts, and Glenn's weekly update on Heroine.  Life is good.
 
Tom

I've been busy laying out the internal structure on the boiler deck so I haven't had the opportunity to get many photos.  Just a few here to show progress.
 
The internal walls would have been planked and then the bulkheads added.  I'm putting the bulkheads in first and will then plank between them.  This will allow me to economize on wood by using shorter pieces.  It's amazing how much planking this model requires and I'm running out of the long lengths.

 

 
The arches over the paddle box are just about complete.  I still need to add the steps up over the arch and the exposed planking will be painted white on the starboard side.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve now finished all the frames – 124 of them, each with its little paper tag to tell me where it goes.
 

 
And I’ve so far carved 30 oars of the 50 needed for the upper bank. This means I’ve got enough upper deck oars for one whole side of the ship, with some left over. I'm a lot happier with their consistency - they all look very much the same now, instead of having differences that were obvious to the naked eye. Maybe I'm getting better at this stuff!
 

 
 I’ve had my first experiment with bending the wales. I don’t have a steamer so I soaked each wale in water and fixed it in place using large headed screws as clamps, and then ran a heat gun over it. It worked after a fashion – the wale took the shape of the plug reasonably well, but not completely. Particularly at the ends the curve wasn’t tight enough – it sprang back a bit. The one I worked with was one of my “throwaway” wales – if I stuff it up it doesn’t matter – and it’s a little shorter than the others - too short to get a good purchase on the ends to bend them properly. However, even the longer ones will have the same problem.
 
 

 

 
I needed a way of putting bending force on the ends and clamping them there. So I put together a simple jig to tighten the curve after the initial bending, just using a bit of wood and some nails. And it works!
 

 
So now I’ve started using my ‘good’ wales, and I’ve done the initial curving on two of them. There’s still some adjustment and tweaking to be done, but it looks like I’ve got a workable technique.
 
While I’ve been working on shaping the frames and wales I’ve also been looking at how the superstructure will work. According to the 10th century treatise “On Sea Warfare” by Emperor Leo VI:
 
The dromon should have a siphon (flamethrower) in front at the prow . . . . Above this siphon there should be a kind of floor of planks fortified all around with planks, so that marines can stand on it to fight the enemy attacking from the prow . . .                          
 
So dromons had a forecastle raised above the siphon for marines to stand and fight from.
 
Moreover, they should set up xylokastra [wooden castles], fortified with planks, on the large dromons  ‘towards the middle of the mast’, so that men can stand on them and throw into the middle of the enemy [ship] great millstones or heavy iron [weights] like sword-shaped blooms . . ..
 
The statement ‘towards the middle of the mast’ implies some sort of fighting top halfway up the mast.  But it was usual practice for dromons to lower their masts before going into battle, as ships of the time had weapons designed to cut shrouds so the mast came crashing down on deck. A fighting top would be a liability.
 
Professor Pryor in Age of the Dromon proposes that the passage above has been incorrectly copied by a mediaeval scribe, and that the original Greek is more likely to have read “around the middle mast” or “around the middle [i.e. halfway between] of the masts”, or even “around the mast of the middle” (i.e. a mast stepped midships).
 
He proposes two castles, one either side of the ship, with a catwalk between allowing easy access between bow and stern. This would also allow room for the lateen yard, which would have been obstructed by a single central castle. This idea is supported by Leo’s reference not to a castle, but to castles.
 
I took the forecastle and xylokastra from the illustrations in Age of the Dromon, but I had to make some adjustments. Their floors are higher off the deck – the forecastle needed room below it for access to the siphon apparatus, and the xylokastra had to be high enough for the oarsmen below to row without hitting their heads. And their sides had to be higher to properly protect the marines standing on them, so I placed the bulwarks at chest height, with battlements on top.
 
In my original drawings it sort of looked ok, but once I made up cardboard mock-ups and put them on the hull, it looked totally wrong. The forecastle was too big and too high, and the castles were too high and too far forward. And all that superstructure so far forward would weigh the ship down by the bow.
 

 
I started by removing the battlements – after all a dromon’s primary purpose is attack, and the battlements would have interfered with the marines lifting their “millstones and heavy iron weights” high enough to drop them onto the enemy ships.
 
I made the forecastle shorter – it still left plenty of room for the fighters. I also angled the forepart of the triangle forward, in line with a dromon illustration found in Malaga in Spain. It started looking better.
 
The floor of each xylokastron will be about a metre (3’3”) above deck level. they can’t be too long because galleys are notoriously unstable, and too many marines standing above decks along one side, as they would be when fighting another ship, would make it even more unstable. (a galley can only heel about 10 degrees before the oarports are under water).
 
I shortened the castles moved them aft, half way down the ship. It looked better still, while allowing enough room for 5 or 6 marines to stand and fight from it (any more might capsize the ship).
 
 
At the prymne (poop) - though this may or may not be an actual raised deck – there is a krabbatos (berth) for the captain, probably with an arched awning over it, as both earlier and later galleys had. There’s still enough room either side for the steersmen to stand. 
 

 

 
 
 
You can see the little guy standing on the castle. I've worked up designs for two more crewmen - the helmsman and the man who gives the oarsmen the time with a flute/trumpet thingy, plus a lion's head for the siphon to look out of and scare the enemy. But that will take a while to do.
 
The word used for the captain's berth is one usually used for beds, so perhaps it was some kind of day-bed the captain could either sleep in or sit on for councils of war. An 11th century Byzantine picture of refugees shows two people carrying beds (and one with a table). Perhaps it was like this?
   
 
 
 
I’ve made the castles about 1.3 metres (4’3”) wide, which should give enough standing room on top as well as space on deck to walk between them and enough room for the oarsmen to row. They’ll be open at the back with a railing to stop the marines falling off backwards. There’ll be an opening at one end of the railing with rungs to climb up.
 
The forecastle is about 0.9 metres (3 feet) above the deck to give space for the siphon and its equipment. Access from the deck will be the same as with the xylokastra.
 
 
The mid-12th century copy of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes held in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid contains many illustrations of warships, and one illustration shows a ship with a xylokastron. I’m using that as a model as well.
 

347 hours into the journey with just 13 frames to go.  While I have enjoyed the framing portion of this build, I am looking forward to a change of pace.  Shown here are how things look to this point.  Note the template continues to be on target.  One challenge that I have continuously had with this build is the sided dimensions of the frames.  The glue joints over time have added to this overall dimension. While only a few hundredths per frame, that can really add up when you do 90 of them.  On my final 9 frames, I need to claim back 1/8th of an inch.  This may not sound like much, but its critical to keep everything within spec.  Otherwise, the gun ports and other openings will be off. 
 
After the final timbers are placed, I will be adding a few more cross spallings before removing the ship from the board.  I will then spend considerable time fairing the overall hull.  I will then sit on the front porch where it is shaded, but bright and go over each frame - futtock by futtock, chock by chock to get them smooth and well aligned. After that, I will place the chock bolts, etc. 
 
Best, G
 
 

equivalent curve on a model ship and a car

Today I didnt feel like working.  So instead I took a crack at carving the monogram of Queen Anne that will appear on the inside of the flying transom.  These will be boxwood in the kit probably but the before and after examples pictures are actually cherry.   The blanks like the one on the left are just 1/32" thick.  
 
I basically used four easy beginner carving techniques.   Lots of stop cuts.   But they are at a micro level.  Its hardly woodcarving and more like chip carving in my opinion.  This is the first wood carved decoration I have made in 25 years.  I usually prefer to sculpt as you know.  So this was a really fun learning experience.  I am far far from being any kind of expert and consider myself an absolute beginner.  The whole thing was carved with a number eleven blade in my hobby knife.  It is far from anything noteworthy but I am happy with it and excited about doing more carving.  Which is the whole point.
 
It was mounted/glued to a thick base for carving as you can see.   It worked great.  After I was done,  I literally soaked it in a cup of 90% rubbing alcohol.  1 hour later this carving literally fell off the baseboard.  This was just a test for me and I will be carving another in boxwood for the model.
 

 

 
This is the piece I wanted to use as a group tech session here as an intro to carving.  Not a class of any kind because I really dont know what I am doing.  But just a cheap way for folks to get together and exchange techniques.   Learning from each other.  This piece and the few others for this kit would make a great tech session build.  I am planning on getting my whole club together in my workshop next month.  We will all be practicing on this and talking about it as a group......lunch included.  I think it will be a blast and I hope other clubs might consider it as well.
 
 

Hello all,
 
Here is another update on this project: build the main yard and installed the top and royal masts.
For some reason the pictures which I uploaded in the right order are showing all mixed up...
 
Regards Alexandru

Hello Mark,
 
Sorry for the late replay but my computer (where the pictures were) was broken and it took a while to fix it.
 
Here is a short description on how I did the balusters:
I cut the desired shape in a piece of steel (an used broken knife blade) - you can see the shape in the first picture. On the back I glued a piece of wood the same thickness as the balusters (2mm in my case) at same distance (2mm) from the top of the shaped blade. I also glued two more pieces same thickness to delimit the length of the baluster stock - about 25mm apart. This way the square 2mm stock cut at 25mm length will fit exactly in that space and won't move sideways and its top will be flush with the top of the shaped blade. The whole assembly was hold in a vice. The square pieces of box wood (blanks) were placed in that notch and fixed in position by two small clamps as seen in the second picture. This kept the future baluster from moving back and forth on the next operation - filing the shape.  With several small jeweller files (square, round and trapezoidal) the shape from the blade was filed into the wood. Be careful to keep the file perpendicular on the template and horizontal so to have the same depth of the cuts across. See third picture for the result of this operation. Losses the clamps, remove the baluster, turn it 90 degrees, put it back and fix it with the clamps. Repeat step 6 Repeat step 7 again by turning the blank in the same direction and that's it - you'll have a three sided square section baluster - I only needed them three sided as they were glued on the stern gallery but you can do them four sided if you need. Another tricky part was doing the balusters that were placed at different angles (increasing angles) like those in the last picture.
 
For those first and third sides (side views) were cut (filed) perpendicular on the template but the second (front view) has to be in an increasing angle. In order to do that, the filing of the second side has to be at an angle which required the baluster blanks to be a bit shorter (say 23mm instead of 25). Here are the steps:
 
​place the blank in the jig as before aligned with the left side (future top of balusters). This will produce a small gap (2mm) at the other end. file first side perpendicular as before place the blank exactly as in step one for the second side file de second side in an angle bigger than 90 say about 100 degree (I estimated the angles trying to increase them for subsequent ones by trial and error) considering it from the left side (baluster top). Be careful to du all the "cuts" at the approximately same angle. After scraping several I got the hang of it. unclamp and turn the blank (always in the same direction) but this time it has to be shifted a bit to the right - depending of the angle you did the filing - say 1 mm in this case to be able to align the notches on the second side with those on the template, clamp back. shape the third side perpendicular again as the first one you're done you just have to cut it at the required length to fit the space you need it for.  
Hope this lengthy explanation is clear enough. If not just ask.
 
Regards Alexandru

Hi,
 
I'm rapidly nearing the end of the build now. Had a two months of magazines delivered in one go and this has brought to within one issue of completion. All the planets/dwarf planets/minor planets are now in place with the final addition of Eris after Pluto.
 
Also received the motor and gearing system, brass casing and three legs. The only piece now missing is the adapter and plug socket to actually get the unit powered up.
 
It looks cracking though at the moment even when it isn't moving. I will probably disassemble the entire thing and tweak fitting of the plastic washers and gears to ensure smooth operation.
 
Once I have received the adapter in a week or two I ill upload a video for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you for your interest and for LIKES.
Here is a short update:

Hello,
many thanks for the nice comments and the likes.
According to a note I made a new attempt for the canvas.
The new Canvas made of silk has a finer weave structure.
The previous version was made of linen material.
I think that the new version is closer to the original.

Thanks Patrick, albert, Keith and Pat,
 
Keith, I look forward to seeing the sternwheeler!
 
 
 
This week I was finally able to get around to the top of the paddle box.  It's starting to look like a sidewheeler.
 
I was able to cut all the pieces for the arches in about 2 hours with the mill.  I don't know how long it would have taken by hand.  I milled some of the segments double.  These will be used on the planked side.  It saves a little time and adds a little strength.

 

 
Trying to keep everything square.  The notches in the cross pieces are for a thin plank that will be used to support the ends of the lateral planking.

 
Port side.

 

 

 
Starboard side.

 

 

August

Fig-33 - With the ships beam formed of Bulb Iron, and the brackets cut - bent -and the opening filled with a plate, originally hammer welded, but in this case silver soldered in place, we are ready to complete the beam for fitting into the Hull Frame.  First the ends are trimmed to the correct length, then two brass angles - with rivet heads formed, are soft soldered to each side of the top edge, this being undertaken on the soldering table with the aid of the resistance (carbon rod) soldering unit.  A thin groove is cut into the soft soldering block and one tinned brass angle placed in it.  The tinned beam is placed on to this, with a second tinned brass angle placed on top of that.  Care is now needed to aline all three so that they meet at the top edge of the beam for the full length, at which point the carbon rod can be applied to heat the parts, melt the solder and fix the joints.

 

Fig-34 - Here we see the second tool, built into the ‘Beam Making Tool’ (BMT), used to form the curvature of the deck beam.  It consists of a double action cam operated press.  The working end consists of two thick plates, with a matching curved surface to form the camber of the deck where they meet. The lower one, next to the operating handle, being fitted with a hinge, and a groove across it’s face so that it can be turned up, to allow the finished beam to be placed into the groove.   When returned to it’s lower position, the handle is pulled, thus forcing the two plates together, and forming the camber to the deck beam.  All beams have the same curvature, they only difference is in their overall length

 

 

Fig-35 - We now return to the FMG, the top portion of which is the beam setting tool.  This consists of a hinged frame, to which are attached two adjustable fingers with cut outs to locate the two deck beams,  The distance between the tween deck and the main deck will be the same for the length of the hull, but the distance between the keel and the two decks will change as we pass along the length of the hull.  To accommodate this a micro adjustment has been provided to the platform holding the two fingers with the deck beam stops.  Each of the original aluminium frame plate patterns is so made, that the top of the plate represents  the position of the topgallant rail.  With the master frame pattern in place in the FMG, a small setting block  - so made to set the distance from the top to the main deck - is used to clip over the top of the pattern, so that the fingers can then be adjusted to their rightful position for the two deck beams.  The pattern plate is then slid out from the top of the jig, and replaced with the aluminium soldering table.  With the frame now fitted and held in place with wire dogs, the two beams are fitted in place up against the finger stops.. With the end brackets already tinned, it just needs a slight heat from the carbon rod to remelt the solder and secure both the beams in place.

 

Fig-36 - The first set of ships frames complete with deck beams and number tags, ready for the next set of fittings before being assembly to the keel.

Post script: The book on this model and making other open boats, both clinker and carvel, is now on the press! Look for an announcement from SeaWatchBooks soon.
 
Thank you again everyone, for your encouragement and support on this log.

Thank you very much for such a kind comments

Carl the size of the bitt is around 2,5 cm.

Another little progress


 

 
 
Cheers,
Matt

Thanks Don...
 
I nailed the planks today.  The clinker planks had a row of nails along the bottom edge that actually went through the beveled plank beneath it.  You can see that in this image of the queen Mary barge.  Black mono-filament was used and this will be added to every kit so you guys can use it and try it out.  Its a great way to simulate bolts on other projects and in this case nails.  It went quickly.  You can see that they used many more nails than I showed but ike the contemporary models I am just showing a stylized version of it with far few.
 

 
I used 20 pound black line which required drilling with a #74 bit.  Then dip in CA and stick it in the hole.  Use a straight razor to cut the line flush.  Its nice stuff to work with.  I may switch to 15 pound line for the kits though.   Slightly smaller.   But each kit will come with more than enough to complete this model and some extra so you can use it on other things.
 

 
The molding was added and I even got a chance to paint some red on the hull.
 
Its summer so sales are slow and I have more time work on the models.  I almost forgot how much fun it is. 
 

 
Chuck

... and another little update


 
 
Cheers,
Matt

Another photos 
 

     

Thank you Gents for your kind words  

This time I'd like to post just pic of small anchor.
I've made it the same way as a big one... few pages ago


 

 

 
 
Cheers,
Matt