CDR_Ret

Hello to all members of MSW.
I have been foloming this forum for some time now.
 
I make models of historic sailingships (for which I am not afraid to do a little kitbashing) as well as models of "sailing" ships if one can say that of a ship with motors and propellers.
My most recent build is an operational Trumpeter 1/200 DKM Bismarck with realisticaly turning turrets and elevating barrels of the main armament, a little lighting and turning radarunits of which i put a build log here:
Trumpeter 1/200 DKM Bismarck - R/C-conversie - werfregister | ModelbouwForum.nl
Text is in dutch, my mothers tongue, but pictures say more than a thousend words. 
 
My next project will be a static model: the Merit International 1/200 Japanese Battleship Mikasa 1905 with full Pontos upgradeset.
 
I hope to get some inspiration on techniques on this splendid forum.
 
Kind regards.
 

One thing Ive seen over and over, within this forum and in others, is that many common questions arise that typically already answered at length in other places.  Any trip to another forum and you will see that asking a question like this normally is immediately followed by some snark comment about you not doing any due dilligence or research.   One thing Ive always appreciated about this forum is that despite some builders clearly not bothering to read other logs, they STILL get lenthy anwers and help from some of the same people whom I know have answered that same question a half-dozen times or more...  so really, I see nothing wrong with how anybody does anything around here.   This forum is already far better than many others...   no complaints at all. 
 
For me, I often totally forget the like button, and actually regret not utilizing it more just to let others know that the work they put into their logs is appreciated, is being read and is still worth doing.   As a relative newb, I rarely have anything useful to add, so try to remember that many of the likes your getting might be from folks not nessesarily ingoring your question, but maybe just are not able to answer it (or if like me, like your question because they themselves have the same one...).  
 
Plus, who am I to critisize your work?  An interesting phenomenom I noticed having read (I think) almost every Longboat build log is that the same people will comment "beautiful job" and "clean work" even though clearly one builder is light years better or cleaner.   To me this is not a dishonestly but rather quite helpful, not only to the builder but also to the continued interest and growth of the hobby.   Truly good criticism comes across in a way that is hard to distinguish, and I personally appreciate the subtlety and the respect people of all skill levels within this particular community show to each other.  
 
Honestly...  this is without a doubt one of the best forums I have ever been lucky enough to discover.   No ego's, clean language, genuine interest in the work and best of all: lots of help....

Hey Everyone,
 
So it's been a while since I last updated, and I'm pleased to announce the project is progressing, albeit at what feels like a snail's pace. Still, here some of the more noticeable additions/developments:
Knightheads modelled and placed Beakneck doors modelled and placed Bobstay separated into its own piece Covers placed atop the roundhouses Seats of ease modelled and placed inside the roundhouses Internal Planking completed from the top of the quarterdeck down through the waterway on the gun deck Breastrail modelled and placed on the aft quarterdeck behind the main mast 'Confederacy' Name displayed across the upper counter at the stern (The U.S. eventually followed suit of the British practice of not attaching, painting, or otherwise displaying a man-o'war's name on its hull, but not until 1785) Channels modelled and placed Glass added to windows Paneling placed behind window framing on the 'false windows' Catheads added with sheaves Headtimbers placed using Bezier curves (minor adjustments required) And now for the screenshots:

Thanks for the encouragements.
To anyone who will follow this. Thank you in advance for your time and attention 👍
This build will take a very long time. Provide yourself with an easy seat, drinks, appetizers, etc 😉

When I was working on a couple of ships a few years ago, (Cutty Sark and Charles W. Morgan) some of the references I used said that the Americans coppered from the keel up, whereas the British coppered from the waterline down. Don't think it makes a lot of difference in appearance, but if you're a purist. I also polishsed my copper after I'd finished and then coated it with a spray lacquer. Over the years they were on display, I never had any discoloration.
 
I'm a stained glass artist, so I've used a lot of copper foil in creating Tiffany style pieces. 
 
Don't buy your copper foil from ship modeler's websites, go to the stained glass ones. I've used www.Delphiglass.com for a lot of my supplies, but there are many and Delphi isn't the cheapest.. Copper foil comes in a variety of widths generally from 5/32 to 1/2 inch so you can match the width of the foil to the scale of the ship. It also comes with a variety of backing colors. I typically use black backing for my stained glass, but it also comes as copper-backed and silver backed. My recommendation is black, since, should a corner come up it would show black which would resemble the felting and tarring used under copper sheathing. The copper also comes in a variety of thicknesses. 1.0 and 1.5 mil are the most common. I prefer the thicker copper since I feel it's easier to detach from the backing paper. Copper sheets with black backing and adhesive are also available if you need odd shapes. 
 
Delphi--and all other stained glass vendors--also have some useful tools. THey have very nice burnishers, which I use to make sure the copper foil is firmly attached, but also use it on my masking tape to avoid paint leaks under the tape. They also have fids, which may be useful it moving small things into small places, or making sure that the copper fits tightly into a groove. 
 
Probably the most important thing for me is a foil dispenser. When foil starts to come off its spool, it makes a terrible mess of copper tape all over the floor that's creased and you can't do anything with it. Think 'toilet papering' a house. Obviously the dispenser shown at Delphi is made for a number of different sizes. In my stained glass studio, I'd occasionally have all six slots filled with different widths of copper foil. An alternative would be to one of those paper towel holders, but I'd put another layer of something down on top of my spool of foil to make sure it didn't fall apart. The other thing that can/should be done is to leave the spool in it's plastic wrap, and just pull out what you need.
 
Finally, if you need strong strips of something, look at 'strongline', which is a thin 20 mil x 1/8 strip of spring steel coated with copper. If I needed strong pintles and gudgeons ore chain plates, I'd think about using that product. 
 
I also use the ponce wheel method of making 'nails'. Just make sure to impress the paper side, so the point of the wheel doesn't go through the copper. 
 
After the ponce wheel, I detach a length of the backing and cut my pieces to the right length (5/8" for me) and apply them directly. I use narrow masking tape to keep my copper lines straight. 
 
Hope this is useful. I'll be starting a blog soon on my current project USF Essex (model shipways)
 
Dan BLumhagen

79 years ago today 5000 vessels took part  in the largest combat landings ever made.   Ships and sailors from MANY countries took part and many made the ultimate sacrifice along with their soldier brothers,  Pics below are from our recent visit May 23 -25, 2023
  
 

I thought I would share a special photo of my grandfather I referenced in my first post who enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force and served with the 71st battery.  I believe this photograph was taken on his enlistment. My grandfather’s cousin was killed in action within a week after arriving at Passchendale. 

Not sure who to send this to, but I received this security message when I tried to access the site's article database:

Probably not related to this weekend's mishap, but thought you should know.
 
Terry

Hi,
my name is Piotr (or Peter, if you like) and I'm from liberty city of Gdańsk, Poland.
Since I remember I was always charmed by tall ships and ships of the line from XVII and XVIII century. I was always intrigued by the models of such ships. I hope I can gain some knowledge on how to build scale models of ships of the line and (hopefully) accomplish something worthy of showing.\
Before I check out: I can't find words to describe the beauty of the models that you guys build here. I'v been reading this forum for some years now and I wish I could create such beautiful constructions myself.
Regards and see you around!
Piotr

Looking good Kurtis! A couple minor notes:
 
1. Your deadeyes are spaced too far apart... To climb the shroud, the crew must be able to step from the deck or rail onto the lowest ratline (or spacing block), and logically, these have to be above the upper deadeye in each set.
 
2. It looks like you wrapped each shroud around the masthead above the futtock in the correct order (well done!). However, from here it looks like the mast head remains cylindrical instead of squaring out... It should look like this:

 
3. Finally, if there's any rearward lean/tilt to the masts, the futtock and cross-trees should be angled forward (to provide a flat perch), but the mast cap remains100% perpendicular to the lean of the mast. I did this wrong on mine and it later caused lots of problems with the rigging. Not saying you did this part incorrectly, just a lesson learned from my project.
 
Keep up the good work,
-Nate

I can barely hold in my excitement! I'm finally tackling the rigging! I know it's just the start of the shrouds on the fore-mast, but I'm pleased with the progress! Might need to thicken up the lines a little bit, and work on the bit at the top of the mast cos it looks a little weird at the minute, but pleased overall!
 
------

Dear MSW Friends,
 
In recent weeks we have experienced a rash of topics in the build log areas that do not feature actual builds. Please bear in mind that a build log is supposed to feature a model under construction -- that's why it's called a build log after all, not a built log. If you'd like to share pictures of a finished model, the proper place to do that is in the gallery (And BTW, have you seen our gallery lately? You should check it out!). 
 
Thanks for your cooperation!
The MSW Team

I haven't posted any updates here for a while, so I figure I'd pop up and let you guys know where I'm up to. I've pretty much completed most of the running and standard rigging at this point. I have brace-line, sheet-lines, tack-lines, lifts, braces and bowlines all installed. The only thing missing is the clew-lines which I'll likely to install at a later date cos there's a layer of complexity with those which I need to work around when it's time for furling up the sails, amongst other things.
 
I've attached a video of a sail test if you are interested.
 
Right now, I'm trying to work on a nice figurehead. The aim is to have a siren chained somehow to the ship like she's been captured and calling enemies to their deaths, holding a shield with Medusa donned on the front (thus the name.) Modelling humans is... a different beast though so I'll see how that one plays out 😄
 
 

Dan,
Every once in a while I have a good idea. But that's it for this year!
Tom

Not sure who to send this to, but I received this security message when I tried to access the site's article database:

Probably not related to this weekend's mishap, but thought you should know.
 
Terry

What are you using to drill with? With small bits, a Dremel or other powered drill may be overkill. 
 
Try using a pin vise to hold the small bit. Create a "starting hole" by gently pushing a pin into the wood slightly to create a center punch hole for your drill bit. Use a new bit that you know is sharp. Twist gently and let the drill do the work of removing the wood from the hole. Don't press down with any more force than is necessary to get the bit to eat into the wood. That should do the trick for you.
 
If you don't have a pin vise, read up on them here: 
 

The NRG website is currently experiencing technical problems.  Many who try to log in are getting "Privacy error" or similar messages.  The website is secure.  If you wish to go to the website, type in the entire URL,  https://www.thenrg.org, rather than simply "thenrg.org".  

I just went through this posting and happily found out that it wasn't due to something I did on my end.  I still remember the old Computers for Dummies manuals which emphatically declared that your computer won't blow up if you push the wrong button. Yes, but other bad things definitely could and in my case did! 🙈🙉🙊

Not sure who to send this to, but I received this security message when I tried to access the site's article database:

Probably not related to this weekend's mishap, but thought you should know.
 
Terry

No, this is an entirely different thing.
 
The site's security certificate has expired and I'm dealing with the host in getting it sorted. It really is nothing to worry about.

Not sure who to send this to, but I received this security message when I tried to access the site's article database:

Probably not related to this weekend's mishap, but thought you should know.
 
Terry

Attached is a dissertation written by marine archaeologist Daniel Pasco and titled ‘Archaeological Evidence for the Development of RN Gunnery from 1545- 1811’. It focuses on evidence from the wrecks of the London (blew up 1665), Hazardous (wrecked 1706), Invincible (wrecked 1758), Colossus (wrecked 1798), and the St George (wrecked 1811).

It has a lot of very interesting information; far too much to summarise here, and many of the findings deserve a topic of their own. If you have an interest in naval gunnery during this period, I recommend you read it.

The dissertation made me realize the importance of archaeology in filling the gaps in the historic record and appreciate that archaeology uncovers what was actually done rather than how it should be.

It’s disappointing that there’s such a lack of funding for maritime archaeology otherwise we’d see more papers like this. What’s worse, though, is that a lot of archaeologic evidence is being lost forever.
 
Here is the dissertation (note that it's 47MB):
 
Archaeological Evidence for the Development of RN Gunnery.pdf
 
Here’s a link to Daniel Pascoe’s website, which has more interesting information.
 
https://pascoe-archaeology.com/
 

I was finally able to finally log on this morning at 4:24 EDT and there were four of us logged on. That's the least number of MSW members I've ever seen logged on, it was weird. I logged out and came back a couple of hours later and our site was down again. I logged on just now  and I'm grateful to see we're back up and running in fine fashion.
 
 If during this outage you discovered how much you truly missed being able to log on to MSW to enjoy all the benefits that MSW provides and you're not a NRG member, then help by financially supporting MSW by becoming a NRG member.   

I really missed this site after only a few hours . It kind of went hand in hand with my cup of coffee. A big thank you to the technical guys or who ever brought it back to us. Well Done.

Well... that's a bit of problem, as such, that's been around for awhile.  The like is a replacement for the "nice work" comments.   One way is look at the logs of others building the same (or similar) ship and ask questions or make comments.  Most will answer and reciprocate.  I guess I should add that it's tough to read and comment on everypost.  So many each day.