KeithAug

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

That looks fairly reasonable, Keith! 🤣
 
John

Incredible Kieth, truly incredible!!
Rick

Your smithing skills come to the fore again Keith.  You must have the patience of a saint and the steady hands of a surgeon mate, as the cut scroll pieces look superb.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Yes John , it will be good to see meteor taking a leap forward.

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

"God bless you merry gentlemen" and ladies.
 
I am sorry I haven't been around for a few weeks. Dolls house building and Christmas shopping have decimated my time in the shipyard. The good news is that the dolls house (and shop) is finished sufficient to be delivered to Bean (Eve) by Santa. Bean and Ben are being entertained by their alternate grandparents this year but Santa is delivering the dolls house to her home address in time for our New Year visit. I hope Bean won't be too worried about Santa's delivery mistake.
 
My son has been at pains to remind me the dolls house is to be "played with". His way of telling me that finesse isn't required. I hope that I have met his criteria. I leave you all to judge.

 
Thank you all for following along with my build over the last twelve months, as I look back I see that progress has been somewhat slow. Fortunately I have made a bit of progress since my last post so I will post an update later this week. With a bit more time on my hands I hope to catch up with all your build logs before the turn of the year.
 
In the mean time I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Whoa...

It looks Brilliant Keith, a work of tremendous patience! 
 

And you only broke one blade in the process?! Amazing, and a beautiful result. Actually that 3" throat has advantages. If you had messed up, only ⅓ of the scrollwork would have been be affected - not the whole piece.

Great Job!

Great story but did you ever locate the helicopter?

Tom,
 
My wife started early (18) in a previous marriage. And our oldest son married a slightly older woman with two young kids. All together that makes for several generations of rug rats.
 
I have been making bits and pieces as I go along, ahead of when they will be installed. The plankshears and nibbing strakes are some of these pieces. Here is a photo.
 

 
The plankshears are the wider outboard pieces and the nibbing strakes are the inner parts. The straight piece in the center is the stern plankshear. I didn't want to try to bend a 0.31 inch (7.9 mm) wide wood strip across the wide dimension so these pieces were all cut from a large 1/16 inch (1.59 mm) thick sheet of basswood.
 
And that brings us to the latest work. I needed the stern plankshear piece to finish the transom.
 

 
Mr. Cox sent the photo (left above) that shows the transom of the current Cape. The top of the vertical "guard" pieces end below deck level, and the bottoms merge into a horizontal member at the bottom of the transom. But the original blueprints (right above) are quite different. Most of the guard pieces extend up to the stern planksheer piece, and all but the outermost two on each side extend down to the bottom of the hull. So there have been a few changes to the vessel since it was originally constructed. I want to model the ship as it originally was - as a minesweeper - so I will follow the blueprints.
 

 
I originally thought I would make the stern like the current vessel so I extended the planks and built up the piece all around the edges of the transom (left above). However, when I finally figured out how the blueprints showed it I trimmed back the edge part to extend only to the second vertical piece from the outer edge of the transom (right above). The other vertical pieces were glued in place (below) as shown on the blueprints.
 

 
The vertical guard pieces protected the transom when we were streaming minesweeping gear and hauling it back in. The heavy pigs (floats), otters (pull the sweep cable down below the pigs) and kites (pull the cable down at the ship's stern) were suspended from derricks while rigging the gear and could swing around wildly in heavy seas, banging against the hull. I will describe this gear in detail when I get to that part of the build.
 
And this brings us to another episode of
 
DrPR's Story Time
 
Once upon a time on a slow day when nothing much was happening the Cape's Captain, Executive Officer and I (Ensign Fuzz) went over to the Long Beach Naval Station's Officer's Club for lunch. Afterward the CO and XO went to the Base Exchange while I wandered back to the Cape. When I got to Pier 9 I saw a large crane on the pier beside the ship. It was lifting the stern minesweeping roller chocks from the ship. Our Chief Bosun's Mate (senior enlisted on board) was on the pier.
 
"What's going on?" I asked.
 
He handed me a piece of paper with orders to get underway IMMEDIATELY as soon as the sonar was ready! Sonar? The Cape didn't have a sonar - well, normally, that is. But the Bosun explained that occasionally we would take aboard an experimental mine hunting sonar for testing. That was news to me!
 

 
Here is a photo of the SQS-16 sonar installed on the Cape's stern, along with the control shack just forward of it. The sonar is the spherical thing with something sticking out of the bottom.
 
Unlike most sonars up to that time, the SQS-16 didn't just send out a "ping" and measure the time for the return echo to determine distance. This thing used a very high frequency acoustic scanning "beam" to create a picture on a video screen.
 
The resolution was good enough to see nuts, bolts and other small features on the objects being viewed. It was bleeding edge stuff, and that is why it was classified SECRET.
 
 
You can also see that the vertical guard pieces on the transom were actually installed as the blueprint shows, and details of the stern ends of the horizontal guard rails. The white things on either side at the stern are the ordinary minesweeping otters and kites, and you can see one of the pigs on the starboard side aft. If you look closely you can also see some of the additional horizontal "lining" planks added to the exterior of the hull planking to protect the hull while the pigs were being lowered and hoisted over the side.
 
Well, we weren't going anywhere - orders or not - until the Captain returned. Fred would have been really POd if I left without him! After a while he and the XO came walking up the pier. Imagine his surprise to find the lines all singled up, the engines running and the gang plank ready to be hauled in! So off we went!
 
But where were we going?
 
This reminds me of a scene from the movie Le Roi de Coeur (The King of Hearts) where the WWI Scottish Colonel asked for three volunteers. When they arrived he said "Men, I want you to leave immediately!"
 
"Sir!" they replied, saluting. And then they all ran away.
 
"Stop!" the Colonel shouted. "Where the devil do you think you are going?"
 
"No idea, sir!" came the reply.
 
The CO made a call to the Squadron headquarters and learned we were supposed to motor down the coast to San Diego and hunt for something in the waters off Point Loma. The Captain said it was a downed helicopter, and there was something aboard they wanted to recover. Then after a quick call to his wife to say he wouldn't be home for dinner we cruised out of Los Angeles harbor and headed south. It was about 1600 (4 PM) before we actually got under way and well after dark when we got to San Diego.
 
We received the coordinates of two rectangular areas we were supposed to search where the "helo" might have gone down. The first was just a mile or two off the beach at La Jolla, just north of Point Loma. Our search pattern was just a series of parallel courses a few miles long. At the end of each leg we did a 180 degree turn and proceeded back parallel to the previous leg.
 
Simple, right? So simple that after a while the CO took to his bunk leaving Ensign Fuzz to complete the search area. I had only conned (driven) the ship a few times, and that was just around Catalina Island or such while the crew fished. This was different, because we had to proceed in straight lines proscribed distances off shore. Every couple of minutes I used the ships' surface search radar to get distances to shore, and visual triangulations to points ashore to locate our position. The positions were plotted on a chart so I could estimate the timing of our next turn.
 
But the fact that we had to conduct the search at night complicated the visual sightings - I had to locate certain reference lights that I was not familiar with against the background lights of a large city! But I figured this out and we were going along smoothly, except for two major problems.
 
First, the sonar sphere was dangling directly off the stern in the propeller wash. If we went too fast the sonar cable would twist and turn, making it impossible to get a picture and determine the bearing to anything spotted on the sea floor. And remember, the USS Cape was about as maneuverable as the Rock of Gibraltar at low speeds. We barely had steerageway (fast enough for the rudder to work).
 
The second problem was the Black Current (Kuroshiro or Japan Current) that flows from north to south down the Pacific Coast of North America. It streams close to shore at Point Loma, right where our search area was. Even with our bow turned into the current we moved backwards! Add to this that there were kelp beds inshore that would tangle and foul the sonar that I had to avoid. It was nearly impossible to steer a straight course (especially for a novice like me)! Instead of a set of nice parallel course lines on the chart there was a scribble of zig zag lines, but I did cover that search area thoroughly! There was no helicopter (or anything else of interest) there!! I was proud of myself for having accomplished the assigned task.
 
The CO came back to the bridge about dawn and asked if we had finished the search areas. Areas? All I knew about was the one. But apparently he had expected me to search both areas before dawn. He was upset! When I asked what the problem was - we could still search the other area - It seems we weren't supposed to be seen searching the areas in daylight. Why? Your guess is as good as mine!
 
It was another McHales Navy moment.
 
Happy New Year!

"God bless you merry gentlemen" and ladies.
 
I am sorry I haven't been around for a few weeks. Dolls house building and Christmas shopping have decimated my time in the shipyard. The good news is that the dolls house (and shop) is finished sufficient to be delivered to Bean (Eve) by Santa. Bean and Ben are being entertained by their alternate grandparents this year but Santa is delivering the dolls house to her home address in time for our New Year visit. I hope Bean won't be too worried about Santa's delivery mistake.
 
My son has been at pains to remind me the dolls house is to be "played with". His way of telling me that finesse isn't required. I hope that I have met his criteria. I leave you all to judge.

 
Thank you all for following along with my build over the last twelve months, as I look back I see that progress has been somewhat slow. Fortunately I have made a bit of progress since my last post so I will post an update later this week. With a bit more time on my hands I hope to catch up with all your build logs before the turn of the year.
 
In the mean time I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

Thank you the twins!
Druxey - thank you and complements of the season to you and yours.
Thank you Glen - I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
Hopefully Andy. Because she is with her alternate grandparents in Lyme Regis she won't be getting it until 1st January when we go to "sit on" the Grandchildren before they return to school / nursery.
 
Anyway back to the main event and a start on reporting the few jobs that I managed in parallel with the dolls house build.
 
I tried both versions of your suggestions for cutting out the gingerbread. The reverse blade method worked but I found it a bit slow so I glued the 2 sheets of brass together with double sided tape and attached them to a third sheet of 1/16" plywood. This worked well. The cutting was somewhat quicker than the reverse blade method but still slow enough to provide an acceptable degree of control. "Somewhat quicker" is a relative term as it took me ages to work my way around all those nooks and crannies.
 
The length of the decoration was circa 7" and my jewellers saw only has a 3" throat so I has to make the decoration in 3 pieces. The next photo is part way through the first piece, and features the first broken blade.
And here is the first piece completed.

And then the second piece - sawing completed but still mounted on the backing plywood.

Then separated, using white spirit to dissolve the double sided tape.

I then applied a first coat of metal paint to start building the thickness.

I also started building up the prow decoration.
The scroll was turned and glued in place.

Next i turned the elongated "bead" before shaping it and attaching it to a piece of 1/32" ply.

The next photo shows it temporarily in position with a couple of extra bits of carving also in place. The 4 beads in front of the scroll are .04" ball bearings.

I have still much to do in this area to reproduce the finished article and of course much of it will be painted gold.
 
I'll catch up a bit more before the New Year.
 
 

"God bless you merry gentlemen" and ladies.
 
I am sorry I haven't been around for a few weeks. Dolls house building and Christmas shopping have decimated my time in the shipyard. The good news is that the dolls house (and shop) is finished sufficient to be delivered to Bean (Eve) by Santa. Bean and Ben are being entertained by their alternate grandparents this year but Santa is delivering the dolls house to her home address in time for our New Year visit. I hope Bean won't be too worried about Santa's delivery mistake.
 
My son has been at pains to remind me the dolls house is to be "played with". His way of telling me that finesse isn't required. I hope that I have met his criteria. I leave you all to judge.

 
Thank you all for following along with my build over the last twelve months, as I look back I see that progress has been somewhat slow. Fortunately I have made a bit of progress since my last post so I will post an update later this week. With a bit more time on my hands I hope to catch up with all your build logs before the turn of the year.
 
In the mean time I wish you all a Merry Christmas.