Roger Pellett

Thank you Mike
I think I have discovered another rabbit hole to dive into.
 
Aan

Thank you very much OC. He will be going back home shortly. My friend is a professor of Ancient History at Barcelona University and lives in Girona (and knows the shop). She did her post doctorate work on Nabopolassar so hopefully she will enjoy the figure.
The sword is painted but I think it will be sent as a separate item and she can add it on arrival. I think it is too delicate to trust to the postal services
Alan

Continuing on then here is a bit more of the progress much of this work has been done over the last year.
The wheels are a combination of wood and steel the wheels used on passenger vans etc were Maunsell wheels the idea that by insulating the steel tyres from the hubs with hardwood would eliminate the noise generated by steel on steel over the joints etc.
after choosing some yellow ceder for texture and ease of working I cut four sets of 16 oversize in length wedges and began gluing them together in pairs.

 
after a while the set of pairs became sets of four,

 
and so on until I had two halves that were easy to get flat to match and then glued those together, these were then trimmed on the outsdide diameted with a jewelers saw and slowly sanded with sanding sticks until they slipped snugly into the tyres, then colored with the pentel pen.

 
After the wood had been glued to the tyre I was able to bore the centre hole for the hubs, the wheel was then set up on the rotary table to bore the holes through the steel ring on the front face through the wood and the tyre for the 1/32 copper rivets. ( eventually had to make them from brass because I did not have enough of the right length so they were turned and annealed ) the backside was countersunk with the small hand held tool.

 
the first wheel with some copper rivets from the back and then flipped over to show the front side with the retaining ring 

 

Using the same method a the sets of turned brass rivets I machined up some flat-head brass 00x90 bolts to assemble the hubs.

 
then bolted them together.

 
and finally set loosely on the axles.

 
to be continued.
Michael
 
 
I chose brass because I had the right diameter to do the work.

A very strong El Niño has given us a record winter; much above average temperatures and almost no snow. As a result, the SOO locks intend to open several days earlier than planned. Noteworthy this past month was the recent announcement of the discovery of the SS Arlington sunk in 600ft of water off Lake Superior’s  Kweanee Penninsula.  Arlington, sunk in 1940 shares several similarities with Benjamin Noble.  Both were close to the same size and were designed for the pulp wood trade.  Both were built by the same yard (five years apart). Arlington was loaded down with a late season grain cargo.  Heavy seas washed off hatch bars, tarpaulins, and la least one hatch failed entirely flooding her hold.
 
Work since my last post involved assembling the hatch covers on a backing piece of 1/64” plywood and fabrication of the hatch bars.  Wooden hatches float, so hatch bars were fastened atop to restrain them.  These were pieces of 3” steel angle bolted at the ends to padeyes attached to the deck.  For the model I used 1/32” square brass wire.  At each tip, I soldered a short piece of I/16” brass tubing.  A #75 hole through the top of the tube will accept the simulated hold down bolt.  A fussy detail requiring a frustrating amount of time.
 
Roger
 

Well some time has passed but the work has continued.  The distractions of the season  - gardening in particular _ are definitely impacting my time at the bench.  
 
Scott 

We also like to use Laguna Lake from that last ramp and float. When the lake level is up, we could trolley launch our schooner, which has a draft of 32" and sail her over a goodly portion of the lake.

The one from MicroMark for the tilt arbor saw should work.   However, something you could make yourself would work as well if not better.
 
Sliding Table Microlux

At this scale buckets should be easy to make from thin paper or sheet-metal. They were either zinc-coated sheet-metal or emaille. Just look up photographs of the real thing and get inspired.
 
The typical brushes as used on boats could be made in a similar way with thread as the pommels on childrens' knitted ski-caps - talk to a female family member, they probably will know, or have again a look on the Internet. This thing should be fitted to a wooden broom-handle then.

Well I thought I would turn something tonight.  
 
So I decided to turn a new handle for my lathe on the cross slide broke long time ago.
 
 Anyway I know the knob or handle I need is on my atlas craftsman lathe but I thought I would give the taig lathe a shot at turning some metal.
 
 Yeah it’s crude but for first time it’s good enough and it fits the hole and it will do the job.
 
 In my mind it’s a win win.  Play with the taig lathe and actually made something that I can use.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

This time an update without a  misstep..   Everything went according to plan 
 
The bulwark (frames) of the upper deck :  
Logically speaking and thinking.  This bulwark is constructed with partial planking and shields. In accordance with the waist, where there are also partly shields, why should all frames reach the top? If their only purpose is to hold up a beam with shields hanging from it?
Therefore, the height of the majority of frames is only up to the planking. And some go higher, the distance between these frames is approximately in accordance with that of the waist.
 
Saw the frames to height

And then narrow them to the 3mm

Then a beam is glued above the clinker planking. The connections are only to maintain sufficient strength on the model.

A new "frame" is placed  And the longest frames are narrowed. and to 3mm.
The height is speculative, the shortest frame was the size.

 
Starboard is ready, just a small beam needs to be attached at the top. Some extra planking is done (arrow)
Thanks for following, likes and comments.

Nearly done, I want to add some more ice. Then it’s off to a mates place to get a base for it.

Suddenly I seem to have found the time and enthusiasm to get some solid progress on Mr Nabo. In fact I think I am going to call him done apart from a little work on teh base. 
I dry brushed gold over the light orange base for the cloak fringes and some of the gold cloth parts of the tunic to differentiate between the solid metal plates and pieces  I think its fairly effective. The eyes are not quite perfectly aligned but I think for a first figure I am going to leave well alone. 
I have just realised that I still have his sword to paint and attach but I don't plan anything further on the main body. This one is actually easier that the daffadar - the sculpting is so good and the colour delineation is easy to work with.






And of course I now see a couple of misplaced dabs of gold that need to be tidied up and then its back to the Indian trooper. 
 
I have really enjoyed working on these miniatures so another shipment is on its way from Girona. This does nothing to diminish the stack of unbuilt kits but hey its my birthday very soon and I deserve a gift (well as well as the new car I bought yesterday hem hem)
Thanks for looking in and all teh helpful comments and likes
 
Alan
 
 
 

Thank you all for your kindness and welcomes. Here are a few more pictures of the restart as Druxey so aptly called it.
After bending up the angles I then used a vice and a little work with a chunk of mild steel flat bar and suitable hammer to tighten up the corner. Next a set up on the mill to cut each leg of the Angle to the scale 3 inch x 9 inch accurately this was a slow process and a couple of hiccups before all the needed section was produced.

 
The individual parts were marked out and cut to length with the inevitable mistakes because of the right and left handing of angles and holes. I now have a number of extra parts for some other purpose down the road so to speak. A few test samples were made of the riveting of corners a couple of which were very challenging but I wasn't giving up. ( More trinkets in the spares bin.) One of the reasons for some of the changes was my changing the layout of the frame as there is no extant drawing of this particular under-fame and during the late 1800's the Great Western Railway was undergoing all sorts of developments with the design of their rolling stock and Locomotives, as were all the other companies.
Once I was happy with my conjectural configuration based on the best practices and closest other frames of the same era I began riveting the frame together with 1/32 copper rivets.(very challenging indeed)
 

 

 
I ended up with all sorts of oddball configurations of vices clamps and bars in order to sequentially put it all together in all it took a few weeks and even then a couple of time I had to chisel off a connection because I had boxed myself in or the holes did not quite line up.

 
The sole bars were the last parts to add to complete the main structure and again I ended up taking a long time thinking about how to get these parts together.
 
Another oddball combination of vices and clamps allowed me to get the job done.  (where are those nano robots when you need them?)
 

 
we are getting there......
to be continued
 
Michael
 
 
 

Skylights.

I welcome everyone!
The number of parts on the model has been increased.
Gangways.

Good morning everyone, I have not stopped building models just have been busy with my masonic duties I am again the Master of my lodgeand have other duties in some concordant bodies. What little time I spend in the workshop these days requires walking past the cutter which sits waiting patiently for my energy to return to it. I have been doing  little work on my model railway endeavors particularly an 1876 great western parcel van which has been particularly challenging.  I could post a picture or two if anyone is interested.
 
Michael 

Hi everyone, not a massive update, but a pleasing one.
 
The deck was glued down, with some small brass screws holding the shape while the glue cured. The deck setout is below, from the bow: samson post, fore hatch, mast (chain plates are deck mounted & indicated by the short pencil lines just aft of the mast), companionway hatch. The deck edges have to be sanded flush & the stem head finished off. There is the storm boards & removable side panels on the face of the raised deck line, so I did a 2mm plywood template of the shape between the cockpit seat & the underside of the deck edge while it was still accessible.
 
I drilled more screw holes than I would need, & only used as many as was needed to hold the plywood - which was a fair bit, being curved down at the gunwales & slightly concave in the fore-aft centreline.

 

 

 
This shows some of the raised deck face, with the side panels removed. All varnished timber, so for a nice sharp result it's going to be better if I make it on the bench & install it as one.

 
 
 
 
 

Here's what I've been working on........
 
Drew two patterns of shield motifs in CAD and 3D printed ten of each. Painted them up and attached to bulwarks.


Drew some cleats and cut them out from 1/8" plywood using the laser cutter.

Here are the cleat boards which will be inside the bulwarks to anchor the mast shrouds.
Haven't yet painted the cleats.

Lashing and halyard cleat at the mast foot. Recall that the part of the tabernacle lashed to the mast comes off with it.

Cleats at base of artemon for yard inhaul/outhaul.

While I had a laser cutter booking, I cut out two rudder blanks from 1/4" clear cast acrylic sheet.
The etched stripes are where I need to cut a notch for the brass rudder posts.
Idea is to paint a scale rudder blade and leave the oversized portions clear.

Started work on the commander's shelter. It will be the handle for the rear hatch, bolted to it.
Hoping that stretching fabric over it will show the "tentpole" arches.
One more pole to add, in its slots. It crossed my mind to 3D print the end arches and slotted sides, but then I
gave my head a shake; "How lazy am I getting?".  🙄 It would have taken a good while to print, too.

Long weekend at the cottage a week tomorrow. I plan to debut it to all the inlaws and some friends, most of whom don't know I've been building it. It just never came up, HaHa......I'm the only one interested in building models or in RC.......Hope to have some rigging done, definitely the rudders, and of course use the new battery pack.
 
 

Well, I quietly missed the one-year anniversary of this build, but I have made some progress by starting on the final "big" project, the paddle wheel. First I cut a whole stack of cherry lumber (same as that used for the main deck) on my Byrnes saw. This is more of the material I harvested here on-farm.

Then I laid out a pattern by estimating the size I wanted the wheel to be, from the one decent photo I have, and fiddling with different round objects until I found two diameters that were close enough. Once this was drawn, I set down tiny patches of double-sided tape on each leg's location and began laying out the wheel:
 

Each leg is hand-tapered to fit its neighbors using a sharp knife and sandpaper. I didn't worry about the exact outer length as I'll trim them all down later. I was most concerned with a consistent inner pattern and leaving a clean hole for an axle at the center. When I had them all dry-fit to my satisfaction, I removed each one, put a dab of wood glue on its inner surfaces, then re-assembled the wheel and let it dry.
 
Once this was solid I began hand-cutting the outer circle, formed from a series of small wedges custom-fit between each leg. This is all slow, fiddly work that goes well with a baseball game on the radio. Here's the final result:

And here it is test-fit on the vessel:

As previously discussed I'll be cutting off a small portion at the waterline but intend to do that once I have all three rings made and can be certain I do them all consistently in the right place. I think it's easier to build the whole wheel and cut it down than try to guess ahead of time exactly where I want the cutoff to be.
 
Overall I think it looks pretty good! Thanks, as always, for the kind comments and support.
 
 
 

The wreck in the Smithsonian shows nails above and below the waterline.
 

Thanks Phil!
 
I was thinking that it was probably this way, but then I started wondering about the expansion of the 'hull' after a new ship was launched and the hull got wet... and then I began to wonder if that expansion could actually 'break' things if not given some room to expand within. Wooden ship's hulls don't have metal bands around them, to hold them together and tighten things up like wooden barrels with metal bands have. The hull timbers that are in direct contact with the water will obviously expand more than the drier parts of the ship (frames) that are mainly only exposed to humidity and will not swell as much. Strakes of hull planking swelling a lot, that are fastened to frames that aren't swelling as much = a lot of stress on both the strakes as well as the frames and definitely the trunnels! I'm sure that you see where I'm going with this. It has nothing to do with building models, but real-life things like this fascinate me. I guess I just like to know how and 'why' things work whether it really matters to me, or not! I've been asking "How and Why" for 63 years. No reason to stop now! 🙂        

The Big Reveal!
 
This one is as done as it's gonna get. It is not, in fact, as done as it could be, because I have made an informed decision to leave off some rigging lines that are both poorly documented in the kit diagrams and not well-attested in photos of either other models or real aircraft. Truth is, only die-hard purists may notice their absence. As I have hinted at before, this is not one of the better-designed kits I have worked on. There were many niggling omissions in the diagrams, which left many of the more nuanced construction bits pretty much up to the builder's imagination. I would give this kit a three out of five stars on the design and ease of assembly. The artwork, as I said at the beginning, is very nice and gives the model a good measure of 'curb appeal'. Enjoy the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You would think that a ship in bottle builder would have great attention to detail.  Yet I continue to struggle with that.  Or maybe it's attention span.  I don't know, but here's another example.  I was looking at that painting of the Banshee II again (after noticing the puffs of smoke steaming from the funnel pipes) and I found something else I had not paid attention to before.  I think I was so focused on the wheels and their covers, that I failed to notice the fairings that spread fore and aft of the wheel covers.

 
 
So I made some fairings and added them to the wheel subassembly.  No big deal, right?  

 
 
Wrong.  I felt really good about how it looked for maybe 2 minutes.  Then I realized I had a big problem.  The problem being that with the fairings added to the subassembly, it was now twice as wide as the bottle opening.  Obviously it wasn't gonna fit.  But I couldn't leave the fairings off because they are a prominent (and I believe elegant) part of the ship's profile.  UGH!
 
Back to the drawing board.  UGH again.  So here's the solution I came up with.  Turn the subassembly into two pieces that would each fit separately thru the bottle's opening. 
 
I took a saw and cut it the wheelhouse right down the middle to make 2 equal pieces.  Each piece will then be inserted into the bottle individually and dropped in place onto the hull.  To facilitate dropping each piece into place, I drilled 2 positioning holes into the ship's deck and added a short tapered dowel to each wheel structure (2nd picture below).
  

 
 
Here's what it looks like with the 2 pieces dry fit onto the hull.  

 
 
 
The gap between the 2 wheelhouses was bugging me, so I widened it to hopefully make it look like a walkway.  I also made a structure on top that can be added after assembly which connects the wheelhouses, but I haven't decided if I like that better or not.  I did find a model of this ship that does have a similar structure on top of the wheelhouse (maybe a pilot house?).  See first pic below.  So it might work.    


 

This ship brought my family to Australia in 1959 on its final journey.
 
This build report has started three days after I started. The process is much the same as my HMS Victory as you start with research, plans, two pieces of timber, carve out detail, and paint.



 
All that is left is getting it into the bottle, adding the bridge and pulling up and gluing the masts. Sounds easy, doesn't it? (It's not!)
Cheers,

This thread will show the result of a conceptual interpretation and a partial reconstruction attempt of an important, very well-preserved wreck of a mid-17th century Dutch cargo ship, excavated in the Ijsselmeer basin in the north of the Netherlands. The ship has been identified as the Samuel, serving the trade with the Iberian peninsula, among others.
 
A very extensive archaeological record of the shipwreck can be found at:
https://beeldbank.cultureelerfgoed.nl/rce-mediabank/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=e81&page=1&record=bb0c9df7-b54d-2770-7cff-2d946e245039&sort=order_s_objectnummer%20asc
 
 

Shipwreck E81 (Samuel 1650), photo by Jan Rypma
 
 
Ship’s main dimensions (as recorded, read or interpreted):
 
Breadth: 26 feet
Length of keel: 78 feet (3 x breadth)
Length between posts: 91 feet (3.5 x breadth)
Depth in hold: 10 feet
 
* * *
 
Keel assembly, lengthwise division & main design lines
 
Ratio of sternpost rake to stempost rake: 1:6 (note: stempost rake measured from the point where the rabbet line crosses the upper edge of the keel and enters the stempost)
Height of sternpost: ~2 x height of tuck (note: height of tuck at the waterline level)
Height of stempost: height of sternpost + 1 foot
Longitudinal position of master frame: 1/3 of keel length (see diagram for the determination method)
 
Note: the radius of the stempost in the diagram relates to the arc of the upper rabbet line.
 
 

 
 
According to the archaeological record, the following relationships and design sequence of Samuel 1650 have been found or guessed:
 
– the waterline level was set at eight feet, corresponding to the height of tuck (or vice versa), horizontally (as in the diagram) or, alternatively, angled to the lesser height of 7 feet at the bow,
– the length of the waterline (not including the posts) has been divided into seven parts (with a possible subdivision of 14),
– the line of the floor was set, terminating aft at the height of tuck and, at the fore, one foot below the horizontal waterline level (or at the intersection of the design waterline with the stempost for angled waterline); at the master frame deadrise has been fixed at three inches,
– the height of the greatest breadth at the master frame is 1/10 of the total length of the hull (i.e. between posts), about one foot above the design waterline,
– the wales are perfectly parallel to the line of greatest breadth (scheerstrook, scheergang).
 
Of note is the extensive use of logarithmic curves to define the shapes of the main design lines. These are one of the easiest types of curves (or maybe better: transformation) to use in practice, especially as they are ideally suited to achieving the contours of the frames straight away on the mould loft with a trivial simplicity, and without any real need to make any scale drawings on paper in advance. Essentially, no knowledge of theory is required, just familiarity with straightforward division operations is enough.
 
So much for the essentials of this rather simple design (in conceptual terms).
 
 

 
 
* * *
 
Cross-sections
 
Dimensions of master frame components (as recorded, read or interpreted):
 
Width of the „flat”: ~17 1/3 (2/3 x max. breadth)
Deadrise (at the master frame): 3 inches
Design depth: ~9 feet (1/10 x length)
Futtock sweep: variable radius (equal to respective breadth) or fixed radius (equal to max. breadth); note: both variants result in almost indiscernible shapes for this shipwreck,
Bilge sweep: 4 1/3 (fixed radius; 1/6 x max. breadth)
Reconciling sweep: 17 1/3 (fixed radius; 2/3 x max. breadth)
 
It can also be added that the transverse contours of the „flat” for all leading frames are straight lines, except for the last leading frame it is in the form of an circular arc (note: on the diagram below one more frame was drawn between the last leading frame and the sternpost). Employment of the arc is for the smooth transition of the hull surfaces toward the sternpost, providing better waterflow for at least acceptable rudder efficiency.
 
 

 
* * *
 
Possible appearance
 
The graphic below shows a hypothetical appearance of the Samuel 1650 once its upperworks have been recreated. The Samuel 1650 is actually almost the smallest ship for which the two-deck configuration was used. The distance between decks was taken from Grebber's table, reproduced in both Witsen's 1671 and van Yk's 1697 works. This feature, taken together with the relatively small size of the ship, make Samuel's silhouette quite tall, and despite the smallest distance adopted between these decks (about 4½ feet).
 
The very full shape of the underwater part of the hull, suitable for a cargo ship, is also evident. Taken together with the high freeboard, this must have made the ship very leeward, which ultimately surely contributed to her disaster, but also preserved her to our times.
 
The position of the masts, or rather the foremast and mainmast, was taken from the shipwreck documentation, but it must be said that it is altogether quite typical: the mainmast at the middle of the keel and the foremast above the gripe, i.e. above the junction of the keel with the stem post.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Also below are some graphics showing ships of a similar nature. While not all from the Samuel's particular period, especially the last two, they still can be relevant for various details, but also to get a better feel for this vessel’s general specifics (Dutch archives).
 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
* * *
 
Reconstruction hull lines
 
As the below drawings are reconstruction plans, there is no need to take them too literally. For example, a 'perforated' railing may be added in the aft part to make the sheer of the ship more attractive, or the upper edge of the stern 'mirror' may be made as an arc. Some more wales with a smaller cross section above the three main ones drawn on the plan should actually be attached as well, and the sternpost possibly shortened a little, roughly to the height of the wing transom, for free entry of the tiller into the hull, etc.
 
The correct arrangement of the garboard strakes in Dutch convention is well shown below in the documentation of the Samuel 1650 shipwreck. Actually, in the central part of the hull, the garboard strakes are not in contact with the frame timbers at all. On the plans the garboard strakes are not drawn because these plans show the contours of the frames and not the planking. On the sheer view, however, both rabbet lines are plotted, just for this purpose.
 
The hull lines has been checked for fairness (as opposed to actually forming the shapes) with diagonals and waterlines.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
Thank you for your attention,
Waldemar Gurgul