KeithAug

Yes I tried this but one or two items were so pixilated that I couldn’t identify anything. Not to worry sometime guessing is a reasonable strategy. Thank you for commenting. To all of you who have visited, commented on or liked my work over the past 12 months I wish you a Merry festive season. All the best to you and your loved ones.

Just the briefest of updates on a few more additions for the crosstrees. The crosstrees are festooned with various appendages, not all of which are clear in either function or form. The photos lack clarity as to anything but basic shapes. The 3 domes were perhaps the easiest to interpret. These were turned from wood with the base flanges turned from aluminium - formerly an MacBook Pro case. The deck lights were also easy - milled from aluminium with brackets formed from brass.

Eberhard - Sometimes I get too close to things to see the obvious. Yes it is about .1" too high - fortunately easily modified. Thank you Druxey, Geert, FF, Pat, Keith.

That seems to have worked out well.

Deceptive use of actors will confuse many to think it is the real thing. I assume it is the model I'm looking at??????

Thank you Keith and FF and thanks to those who have liked my work. I spent the weekend doing a bit more work on the mast appendages, specifically the main mast radar. The radar is protected by a circular guard and by the look of it this has gone through a process of evolution. The photograph below shows the feature (blue arrow). But it hasn't always looked like that - here is a reduced version:- Sometimes it disappears altogether:- My guess is that the radar has been attacked by the rigging a number of times - presumably an expensive experience. I decided to build the double ring version which scales 1.5" diameter. I started by turning the 8 vertical posts. These were turned from 1/16" brass rod and cross drilled at two positions to take the 1/32" circular rails. My lathe is a bit too big for this size of turning so I needed to improvise. Making the fence required a jig - made from MDF and drilled to take the 8 posts. The posts have a sacrificial spigot to locate them in the jig - see the yet to be inserted post, bottom right in the next photo. I then wound about 3 coils of 1/32" wire around a circular mandrel of about 1" diameter. This was threaded through the pre-drilled holes in the posts - the wire expanding in diameter as the treading proceeded. Once the complete hoop was formed it was cut to length and the join was lost inside one of the post holes. The ring was then soldered in place. This was then repeated for the second ring. The central boss which holds the radar was then turned and milled to take 4 support arms. These were soldered in place. The pins were then bent to the correct angle. The boss is actually brass although you could be forgiven for thinking it is copper. Once cleaned up and parted off it looked like brass again. The reason for the central hole in the MDF jig now becomes obvious - it locates the boss while soldering the 4 arms to 4 of the posts. The drill made a useful location peg. With the assembly complete it was eased off the jig. The location pegs were then removed with side cutters and the connection points cleaned up. The motor housing for the radar was turned from a piece of hardwood. The antenna was milled from a piece of aluminium. I decided to paint the guard silver. I hadn't noticed the white paint chips until I took this picture, Grrrrr!

Excellent work but i think we all need to get a life. Having delivered the tutorial you could farm the work out to your audience and check how well we have learned.

I am still working on the main and fore masts. A lot of the last few days has gone into set up and axial alignment of the lower and upper masts. I started by glueing and pinning the cross trees to the lower masts. With the cross trees correctly positioned I used them supported on shims (milling parallels) to set the lower mast off the bench. With this set up I used a steel rod to align and fix the rotational positions of the upper mast support brackets. These brackets were then glued and pinned. I then made the upper masts with their various hoops. Both upper masts are similar differing slightly in lengths and diameters. They taper at the upper end and have a parallel section that slides in the brackets. The photo below shows the sizes and one of the upper masts in preparation. Drilling cross holes in the masts at right angles can be a bit tricky and my short cut for doing this is to clamp a collet block to the mast and shim up to it (blue arrow below) thus allowing me to index it round through 90 degrees. Then it was a case of more setting using various "V" blocks, scrap wood and lashings of blue masking tape. With the masts held in position I set and fixed the radar support frames etc. The main and fore masts are now assembled but still have a good number of fittings to add. The workshop isn't much fun at the moments hovering around 8 deg C (46 deg F). About 3 hours a day is all that I can stand so progress is slow.

Perfection.

Lovely work Valeriy. Vey impressive rails - so crisp and clean.

Eberhard - thank you for the advice - excellent portholes.

Yes that's it. Sack the Hoover operator.

The cards are not in the correct positions. But quite brilliant!

Great progress but most of all thank you for your comprehensive commentary as it brings the whole build to life.

Your build detail continues to delight. Are you planning to put bite marks on the stern?

I think you do alright without. however Christmas is coming! Thank you Druxey.

Thank you Pat but I need to curb my deviant tendencies. I am still working on the lower main and foremasts. Where the gaff saddle bears against the masts the masts are sheathed with brass. I made the sheaths from .004" flat brass sheet. I rolled the sheet using steel rods with the sheet supported on a cork mat. Rubbing the rod repeatedly across the sheet produced the necessary curvature. I then machined up two pieces of aluminium tube to the same diameters as the masts. I then glued the brass sleeves to the tube using CA glue. The sleeves were held in place by elastic bands while the glue dried. The tube was then moved to the mill and mounted in the rotary table. With this set up radial and axial indents were cut to simulate the fixing studs. Heat was then applied to separate the sleeves from the tube. The tubes were given a polish and attached to the masts again using CA glue and elastic bands. The positions of the sleeves were marked with tape prior to gluing.

I agree it may look like that but the tools are only a means to the end, which is the model. Thank you for your contribution and I will take note in case my obsession deviates in that direction.

I find the the tension on the wire during winding makes the coils wind very tightly and evenly on the mandrel thus reducing the variability in the finished coil diameter. Its so simple to set up that it sort of makes sense to get the better control while not taking any more time. The set up time was about 15 minutes and the 20+ coils were wound in 20 seconds (lathe speed 60 RPM).

If you are not confident this is a simple alternative:- Install a vertical frame very close to the final bow position. Plank on to this frame and then sand back the plank ends until flush with the frame. Then glue on the nose piece. It is probably easier to glue on a square block of wood and then shape to match the angle of the planks once attached. I quite often do a version of this technique as follows:- Alternatively you could laminate up the bow with the rabbit pre formed as you have done with the keel.

Keith - yes and yes. although thankfully sail making will be some time in the new year. Steve - Thank you "old motor winder"! I will give it a try.

Thank you Gary and FF. and thanks to everyone who has viewed and left a thumbs up. Before I permanently attach the cross tress i need to attach all the bands below the cross tree level. Also I need to make and install the mast hoops. I decided not to go down the steamed and bent wood approach. At model scale I think they are too bulky if sufficiently strong and too flimsy if correctly sized. Various photographs of Germania show the hoops as almost back while others show them as a medium brown. The hoops are leather covered and I think the difference in colour is age / lighting related, anyway I prefer them darker. The hoops need to be about 20% larger than the masts and as the masts differ in diameter this means two sizes of hoop. Circa .68" and .73" diameter respectively. I decided to make the hoops out of copper wire (actually the secondary winding of a dead battery charger). This was about the right diameter, I decided to use the standard lathe spring making method to wind the wire. In this method the wire is wound on to a mandrel with the lathe set up for screw cutting. The pitch is set to diameter of the wire. The wire is drawn on to the mandrel through a guide held in the tool post. This is close fitted to the wire and provides a fair degree of friction to ensure that the coils are wound tightly. Because the coils spring away from the mandrel at the and of the winding process the mandrel needs to undersized relative to desired hoop diameter. The mandrel size was deduced through trial and error. Keeping clear of the wire during the winding operation is fairly important if you value your fingers. The second attempt wasn't as good but adequate for my purposes. I then cut along the axis to create individual hoops which were soldered at the joint and painted.

Hakan ---- They are called "hook and eye" sometimes life can be simple.

Fabulous job on the fishing rods, just love em.

If i am understanding you correctly you are thinking about dampening the keel as a precursor to applying pressure to increase the curvature. Given you have laminated the keel with waterproof wood glue i don't think dampening will have an adverse effect. In my experience once wood is laminated imposing further curvature is difficult as the wood resists any attempt to induce further bending. However here in lies the pleasure in ship modelling, all of us come across new situations and new challenges all of the time and improvising solutions is a big part of the stimulation and fun. If you have an idea of how to correct a problem give it a go and maybe the rest of us can learn from it.