Roger Pellett

Steven,

Great work on the model and figures.  When posed, working the ship, they are really lifelike.

Roger

Thread wander alert!!

The master modeler, the late Gerald Wingrove, once set a waterline model of a Bengal Pilot Brig at anchor on a sea made from a block of Mahogany with thousands of tiny ripples sculpted with a gouge; the Mahogany then finished bright.  While not realistic it was an elegant setting for a beautiful model.

I personally find waterline models at anchor in calm water to be very attractive.

Roger

I’ve used a lot of West System Epoxy for boat repair projects.  Here’s what I know:

If mixed in the correct proportions it cures. Otherwise, you have a sticky mess.  For example, adding too much hardener does not make the end result harder, it just keeps the mix from fully curing.

Cured epoxy resin itself is not especially hard and the fairing compound that you used is intended to be sanded.

I am therefore of the opinion that you mixed and applied the epoxy correctly, so your problem is with the abrasive that you are using, not the epoxy/ fairing compound system.  And if you are just sanding with the paper held in your hand, it’s just skidding over the high spots, not fairing.  It needs to be backed up with something solid.

Make sure that that you are using high quality abrasive.  I’ve had good luck with 3M abrasives.  Back your sandpaper up with a sanding block. A block of wood works fine, as does a large diameter dowel for concave areas.  As soon as your paper “loads up” get a new piece. Ditto when it stops cutting, otherwise it’s just polishing the surface.  Use coarse files for major shaping.  When they load up clean them with a wire brush or better yet a file brush.  

Roger

Wonderful!

Lou,

An airship, zeppelin or blimp is supported by air, not hydrogen.  The hydrogen, or helium filling in US airships, is there to pressurize spheres within the envelope. These displace air and provide lifting force.  If someone could magically invent an ultralight envelope structure that would not collapse, under vacuum the hydrogen filling would be unnecessary.

An airship works like a submarine.  Air exerts a buoyant force on the envelope.  This force is equal to the density of the air x the volume of the envelope.  If the weight of the airship, including the gas filling is less than the buoyant force from the air, the airship rises.  If it is more, the airship sinks.  Once it was flying, the crew’s job was to maintain neutral buoyancy: airship weight = buoyant force.  Both of these factors changed over duration of the flight.  The crew responded by jettisoning ballast or venting gas.  Venting gas reduced the diameter of the gas filled spheres  within the envelope and this decreased buoyancy.

All in all a fascinating technical innovation that ultimately proved to be a dead end.

Roger

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This is in the “it’s worth what you paid for it” category as I have not personally tried it.

A number of years ago, there was a shop note in the NRJ by a guy who photo etches narrow brass strips.

Roger

Jon,

Some soldering tips:

Bakers Fluid.  This is a liquid flux, very low Viscosity, about like water.  It will flow into any crevice and solder seems to follow it.  I bought mine from Brownell’s, a gunsmith supplier.

Very thin solder.  I have been using some .020 diameter electronic solder that I bought from Radio Shack many years ago. They’re long gone, but I’m sure that the same thing is available somewhere else.  

Heat source.  I recently bought a cordless soldering iron.  I had been avoiding one as cordless and soldering seemed to be incompatible.  I was wrong!  My soldering iron heats to 950F and produces a sound joint every time.

Heat and temperature are related but not the same.  For the work that we do, I believe that the idea is to get the solder and the joint to the proper temperature with minimum heat.  Excess heat makes bad things happen; warping, oxidation, and damage to nearby soldered joints.  Using a heat source that is too powerful, or solder that requires to much heat because of its mass (diameter) makes these bad things happen without helping solde to flow into the joint.

Roger

Very nice work!

It must have been difficult keeping these small arms serviceable in this exposed position with the salt water environment.  Probably kept several sailors  with time on their hands busy.  Maybe there was a canvas cover over the gun rack?

Roger

Very nice blocks!

Nice job, and until one that can be identified as a hulc is found, probably as close as we will come to understanding the real thing.  Everything about your model looks plausible.

Roger

I recently bought a rotary table for my Sherline lathe /mill.  I also bought a fixture that accepts a WW collet.  The fixture fits into the hole in the center of the rotary table.  This allows me to mill very small diameter parts from brass rod held in the collet.

I’m not sure what you mean, but gluing things to a painted surface is not a good idea as the bond is only as strong as the glue’s bond to the paint.

Roger

Richard,

I just recently plated the hull of my Benjamin Noble model.  See thread in this same category.  I used shellac coated paper.  This will be a static not an RC model.  She was of riveted  construction using the in and out method.

You will be plating the hull of a welded ship using wood.  I would be concerned with sanding after painting hiding detail.  I would, therefore, suggest that you prime, rib down, and paint your plating material until you can no longer see the wood grain prior to plating. Once you have plated the hull, very light sanding, and a light finish coat should be sufficient.  

Some plates, like those along the bilge radius should probably be bent prior to prefinishing.

Roger

In wood, damage from rot is associated with fresh water; often from rainwater leaking from the deck into internal structure.  Salt is generally regarded as a preservative of organic materials.  Later Nineteenth Century American shipbuilding practice included pouring salt into cavities between frames planking and ceiling as a preservative.

I therefore,  suspect that rot would not be a particular concern for anchor cables immersed in salt water, particularly if they could be sluiced off to remove marine growth as they came inboard.  Ships were fitted with mangers to direct water and debris from the cable  as it was hauled onboard.

A real concern might have been damage to cables stored onboard in the dank environment.  Rats might have also been a problem.  I have read that they would eat flax sails if given a chance.

Roger

Wonderful, Gary!

Max142,

See previous post, a drill press collet chuck makes this unnecessary.  

The photo below shows my drill press with the Jacobs Chuck removed and the collet chuck attached.  The collet chuck allows the drill press to withstand moderate side loads; sanding drum and router bit.  The round knurled nut above the collet chuck is actually attached to it via a collar.  The but pulls the collet chuck up snugly on the taper and locks it in place.

This old drill press is easily the most useful power tool in my shop.

That’s it.  Mine doesn’t have the return spring.  You manually work the slider up  and down.

Another inexpensive overlooked power tool for producing tapered blanks for spars is a bench mounted disc sander.  Rip a square billet, Mark the taper on each of the four sides, sand off excess material with the disc sander.  You now have a square billet with the correct taper.

If you have a model makers table saw the same tapered square billet can be produced with a homemade taper jig made from scrap wood.

The tapered billet is the hard part.  From there you can plane it octagon           ( count the plane strokes for each corner)  and sand it round or use just about any kind of lathe.

Having began modeling when a growing family was my first priority I understand that a fully equipped machine shop is not in everyone’s budget.  Fortunately there is more than one way to get a good result.

When not in use, Naval guns were plugged with tampons in an effort to protect the bore from salt water corrosion.  Tampons were wooden plugs, usually painted.

 Instead of trying to accurately drill out the barrel, smooth off the end and add a touch of paint, the same color as your bulwarks.  I think that you’ll be much happier with the result.

Roger

I agree, Research and learn first.  As a means of comparison, a basic Sherline Lathe starts at $624, plus shipping from CA.  You should probably figure another $300-400 for accessories needed for any serious work.

The block plane comment referred to shaping of wooden spars by tapering square stock, planing 8 sided, then sanding round.  A good way to make wooden spars.

Roger

By push pull drill you could mean either of two different things.  First there is the Yankee Screwdriver type.  When you push the handle down, a threaded shaft turns the chuck.  This will not work for our purposes.  Unrestrained pushing to actuate the drill will cause small drills to buckle and break.

The other is called an Archimedes screw drill.  Better quality ones are sold to jewelers and watchmakers.  IMHO, these are very useful.  Armed with one of these, I drilled all of the holes for a POF model before owning the electric Minicraft Drill.  I still use it.  Google Archimedes screw drill and buy from a supplier that sells tools to professionals.

Roger

It is my impression that the large commercial shipbuilders of the time had standard designs that they offered to customers.  I have seen catalogs for river boats that could be sent in pieces to be assembled at a foreign location.

It therefore makes sense that the yard that built Ampa offered it to other governments as well.

Roger

Nice work and an interesting subject.  I too am enjoying your pictures.  This is a region that I suspect few of us have ever seen.

Roger

The hedge trimmer did seem a bit out of place.

As a child, I had my own workbench with real tools, a defensive measure by my father to keep me away from his stuff.  The only power tool was a bench mounted vibrating jig saw.  You could actually touch the blade. Without getting cut.  It worked for balsa and other soft woods.

Roger