CDR_Ret

Hello everyone.  My name’s Ian and I’m a 59 years old ex teacher.  I’ve recently retired and I’m about to embark on my first wooden ship kit, Occre’s HMS Terror.  I’ve built plastic kits since the world was young but I’m very excited to finally have the time to learn how to build something a little more challenging.   I’ve always been curious about sailing ships but was very lucky to be able to do a tour of duty at Ascension Island whilst in the RAF and it was on exploring the Victorian RN infrastructure and diving the wreck of HMS Maeander that my interest in the 19th Century Royal Navy grew.  My long term goal is to build a scratch model of HMS Maeander.  

I thought I should add some photos to also help explain how I go about the process.
The first shows the tools I use for the metal forming part, which include a pair of pliers with serrated grip jaws, a couple of needle files, a small 0.5mm spade bit used in my mill (next photo), a jewellers type metal block (can't remember the name) but it allows me to hold tubes of various shapes at 90, 45 and 30 degrees and cut off small pieces to width, and the JB Tools grab handle making tool.

 
The second shows the set-up with the band on the wood mandrel in the rotary indexing attachment for the Sherline mill.

 
The last shows the band, which has now been drilled to indexed angles at 020, 100, 160, 200, 260 and 330 degrees, being held in my alligator jaws in a soldering station I have cobbled together (still being improved).

 
cheers
 
Pat
 
 

There are multiple tutorial videos out there, personally I have found the AutoDesk F360 to be the best.
Books tend to outdate rather quickly, due to software updates.
Unfortunately, Lars left Autodesk to pursue another life.

All done! I'd tell you what all the extra added doohickeys are, but I don't know what they are myself -- I just followed the reference photo. As a matter of curiosity, there are, of course, multiple variants of the Twin Wasp. I didn't find any sources that could tell me which variant(s) was(were) used in the dash-four, so if you know, don't tell me now, cuz it's too late! 😅
 

Old, but always good- C. S. Forerster Hornblower series.  I especially enjoy the mental gymnastics involved with figuring out his detailed ship handling situations.  I have not read Patrick O’Brian’s books so cannot offer a comparison.
 
Roger

Okay, I finally committed to attempting some of these fittings.  Attached is a trial piece (blackened) which was sized for the mainsail boom, and the actual spider band for the topping lifts and sheet blocks of the foresail boom. With the test/trial band you might notice the ear loops are different sizes where I experimented with what looked best/more correct - I also got a little too aggressive with the filing (removal of the solder etc).  I still have some clean-up to do on the loops of the actual piece to try ad polish out some of the 'jaw marks' as I had to forcefully manipulate the ends into their receiver holes before soldering them.
 
The booms have been made and the jaws fitted to them, but I am still determining the best material to use, and the easiest way to form the reefing combs before finalising the booms.  Still ahead are the boom hoops for the jaws, and the hoop at the very end of the boom.
 
Slow progress but getting there.
 
cheers
 
Pat

You guys should work up a tutorial for developing laser patterns for things like cabin and roof planking, skylights, and other fine details.
 
You might even start a small business of doing bespoke laser cutting jobs to pay for your hobby!
 
Terry

Terry,
My tutorials would be more of a " what not to do " when developing laser patterns..    My experience has been real hit and miss before there was much expertise available.
 
I enjoy making the stuff I do, and my tools and workflow have improved, but I don't want to compete with the pros. The logistics are a bit challenging, and it needs to remain fun for me.
 
I am always open to helping a fellow MSW member with a 1-off project if my skills and their needs can find a common ground.
Gregory

You guys should work up a tutorial for developing laser patterns for things like cabin and roof planking, skylights, and other fine details.
 
You might even start a small business of doing bespoke laser cutting jobs to pay for your hobby!
 
Terry

Excellent essay by Bob Cleek. However, I find rottenstone is a finer abrasive than any pumice. One gets a lovely velvet sheen when using it on a felt pad with a little water.

Hi folks, sorry I have gone a little quiet again in this log but I have been doing a little further research to allow me to complete the booms.  I had to determine what the odd conformal shapes were on the booms near the outer end.  This also led me to determining I had positioned the spiderbands at the wrong point.  I had believed they were positioned at the GD (given diameter) when in fact they were further out in Victoria - this has led to me having to remake the spiderbands     I have still to do the new ones, but practice makes perfect they say. 
 
I am also trying to determine how to make the reefing combs (those conformal fittings I referred to earlier) - see the attached.  At 1:72 these are only 1.5mm deep so a little fiddly to make - still thinking on the 'how' for now.  These were used to rig the reefing pendants.  One end was led through the hole opposite it associated sheave and stoppered with a knot, the pendant was then rove through it associated reefing cringle and down through the sheave.  The tail was then worked with a reefing tackle as required when reefing the fore-and-aft sail.
 
The attached is my CAD drawing of the outer end of the main boom.  It shows the combs and the spiderband, and the outer sheave.  There is also an iron band on the very end/tip of the boom.
 
cheers
 
Pat
 

Under the hood shot of the deck beam and framing. As it seems to be working well for this project, I once again modelled general shapes first, then gradually upped the detail and sophistication in subsequent passes and/or working sessions. About 50% done with the deck framing, at which point I'll move on to partitions, hanging knees (knee braces), and then the 'fixed' fittings.
 

Here is a fairly complete discussion about depth of field for photographing scale models and there is a step by step instruction for using HelioFocus for focus stacking ...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXOsZVbclPI
 
 

This is the first of about a dozen relief sculptures that outline Confederacy's stern. I will use two organic characters I modelled from scratch for a 3D anatomy class I'm taking online - one male, one female - to get all the sculptures added to the stern. I will then use their armatures to not only pose them properly, but to change their facial features and body types subtly, so that hopefully in the final product they will look as if each one was carved individually, and so they don't look like clones of one another (even if in fact they are).
 
Her hair is a different story. This will be the only time in this project that I use 3rd party models. I've decided to spend the $5-$10 bucks and buy a real-time hair pack from an online marketplace. 
 
 
Note: This one was very hastily posed, at this point I'm simply getting a feel for approx size as well as experimenting with how to get the cloth simulation to drape her skirt in a way that it looks like wood. Ironic, isn't it... cloth made to look like would that was sculpted to look like cloth?  
 
Anyway, here she is...
 

 
 

https://www.archaeology.org/news/11609-230725-vasa-shipwreck-passenger

Looking at two photos of actual metal plated hulls (as seen from a few yards away ... which might represent someone taking a relatively 'close' look at a model), the appearance is quite smooth.  Seriously, the outlines of the individual plates are barely perceptible - and the tiny nails are all but invisible.  Sure, if one can get right next to a plated ship in dry dock - close enough to reach out and touch the plates - you can see and feel the overlaps and nail heads ... but for a model, one would have to go through 'Wonka Vision' and be shrunk down to HO scale to get that close.
 
  A miniaturized person examining a model plated with individual copper plates would remark how thick the plates are and how large the divots (representing nails) are.  On actual ships the copper (or Muntz metal) is, what, 0.032" ?  At 1:96 you'd need 0.00033" (that's 1/3 of a thousandth - less than the thickness of a human hair ! ) material to be in scale - and 1/8" nail heads would shrink to only 1.3 thousandth of an inch - about 1.7 times an average hair thickness.  (I'm not going to convert to millimeters.)
 
  Of course, there are many scale compromises that often are made in many scales - meaning that dead eyes, blocks and belaying pins often are are a bit 'out of scale' (sometimes more than a bit), so I suppose that plates and copper tape are no exception.  'Seems that on a solid-hull model (or a completely 'filled' plank-on-frame below the waterline, one could merely use a fine stylus (with a straight edge as a guide to follow very fine layout lines) to scribe rows of plating and then add vertical division.  An X-Acto knife would also work.  Spray painting a brownish base coat followed by green overtones would be perfectly acceptable for the bottom of a hull - which is not where most observers are looking. 

Good ideas, thanks Eberhard and John - that idea had not even ventured into my fading brain cells.  I'll give that a shot and hopefully find a way to 'mimic' the wood with paint.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Pat...I continually think of you and your progress on Victoria.....and to mimic others, it seams like a life time since you shared an update.  No matter though, it is a marathon not a sprint....and we have no real time frames to follow do we.....?
 
Summer activates have nearly closed my shipyard down for 2 weeks thus far.....for myself.
 
But it is always a joy to see you post on Victoria.
 
Rob

Thanks Rob, I hope to post a small update early next week; I have been busy redoing the booms.  The though of the gaffs scares me a little as, at this scale, they will be less than two millimetres diameter at the most. 
 
cheers
 
Pat

View from the top ......

Most browsers have a feature to translate text to the user's default language. Looks pretty clear to me. Nice job on Bismark!
 
Terry

Hi Eberhard; many thanks for the consideration.  I am slowly getting back into it.  I still have issues with my hands shaking (not Parkinsons) which slows me on many days, but my GP is trying some new meds which may help further.  Due to me laying off for that and a few other factors I sort of lost the 'mojo' (desire) to work on the model and became easily distracted in doing other things in the workshop    I must say that your, and a couple of other modellers, recent updates helped motivate me.  
 
In the past week or two I have restarted work on the spars with the three booms almost complete.  Then I'll start on the gaffs and the upper masts (all upper masts are 'in one' with a combined top, top-gallant and royal mast).  In the meantime I had to continue my research on them, the rigging and the sails which has been progressing steadily.  I needed that sorted to finish the drawings to allow me to make up the spars.  I am still trying to work out ways to make the upper mast as the royal sections in particular are very slender at scale (under 2mm) and I need to insert/show an embedded lightening protection 'copper path' in all spars.  This will be pretty delicate and I am still not sure if I can pull that off.  Anyway, long story short - slowing increasing my time in the workshop doing model related work, but as the parts are repetitive at this point there is not much that is new to put online - but I will put-up some updates sooner rather than later (I know I have said that before  .
 
Again, many thanks for thinking of me; much appreciated.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Hello all, I am new to this forum, but not to model building. Building aircraft card models for many years, started also scratch building of aircraft and missile boats at a scale of 1-100, and planning to advance to bigger and mor challenging warships.

I can't tell you how happy I am, to have reached this point. The Nachtigall is not done, there is a lot do do until she is finished, but adding the subassemblies to the underside and remove the masks from the canopy was a major step.

The canopy had some staining on the glass, where I'm not sure, where they came from. Luckily,  could rub them carefully away with a cut toothpick. The framing needs to be decaled with rivets, the black color is only the base level.

I hope the landing gear holds up, as the Arado is a really heavy bird with all the heavy resin bits inside and the heavy nose weight as well.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Cheers Rob

And we have a winner! Bear in mind this is a preview of the color theme only... The actual texturing will take months and will look much, much better  
To give you all an idea - I haven't even UV unwrapped everything yet. I just wanted a break from modelling. Still, not in bad shape for the 3 month mark.