Roger Pellett

Since my last post I have been trying to complete the poop deck assembly for the ship.  It seems like every time I make some progress, I have to take a step back to fix a problem.
 
The first step was to join the poop deck assembly to the bulkhead.  This was a simple matter of soldering the two deck edge angles to the brass deck plating.  The next step was to locate and drill the many holes for attaching the fittings to be later installed on the deck.  
 
There is an an opening in the center of the poop deck stern rail.  This could be used to tow another vessel or to assist in docking the ship itself.  Since this could transfer considerable loads to the poop deck fantail rail the general arrangement drawings show a reinforcing structure.  Although there is a plan view of this there are no elevations shown.  The structure shown in the photo is my best guess of what it might have looked like.
 
Photos of Great Lakes ships in the lumber trades often show them with long wooden fenders.  These were a baulk of square or round section timber hung from one end over the side of the ship.  A rope was attached the other end to allow the fender to be hauled up when not in use.  This was before the time when old tires were available.  Although photos do not show them in use, Benjamin Noble was fitted with chocks and cleats for four of these fenders per side. One chock and two cleats per side are located on the poop deck.  The chocks, shown in the last post, were easily epoxied into holes.  Likewise the cleats were soldered onto the inside of the bulwark or to the deck plating.  
 
Just when I thought that the assembly was finished I noticed that the brass plating around the gangway door had pulled loose.  This has been a problem area ever since I decided to show the upper half of the gangway door open as is often the case with Great Lakes vessels sailing in fair weather.  Rather than patching things up I decided to bite the bullet and to fabricate a proper door frame.  The resulting frame made from soldered brass was then epoxied into the hole and the whole thing faired with Bondo.  The door frame assembly includes the bottom (closed) half of the gangway door that fits into the hull when the poop deck and hull assemblies are joined.
 
Cleaned up and coated with primer the poop deck assembly is finished.  Whew, a major milestone!  
 
Next is the fabrication of the forecastle rail, deck, and bulkhead.  
 The last photo shows the wooden former for this.  Since the assembly must mate with the hull the former is upside down.
 
Roger
 

The months since my last post have passed too quickly.  We made a September trip to Southwestern Indiana to visit my son and his family who we hadn’t seen for over a year and also enjoyed Duluth’s beautiful Autumn weather.  We have also enjoyed our Michigan Wolverine’s 11-0 football season.  Tomorrow’s game with Ohio State will be the real test.
 
Time in the shop was spent fabricating Benjamin Noble’s forecastle bulwark. Again the material is soldered brass.  The process began by carving a wooden former (last photo, previous post).  Complicating  this process is the need to think “upside down” as the forecastle deck is laid on top of plug and the sides of the bulwark are bent around the sides. 
 
Photo 1 shows the plug.  The angle between the deck edge and side shell plating has been bent around the plug and the center deck plate has been laid.  The angle was ripped from a square brass tube using my Byrnes saw.  Bending an angle is difficult as it always tries to twist.  The little aluminum angles allow short sections to be bent and secured sequentially.
 
Photo 2 The individual deck plates have been laid and soldiered to each other and to the brass deck edge angle. Material is .005in thick brass.  The photo shows the underside of the deck.
 
Photo 3  This is one of the two bulwark pieces.  These had to be “spiled.” Station lines perpendicular to the vessel’s centerline were drawn on the plug and on the outboard profile drawing.  A piece of paper was wrapped around a side of the plug and the station lines transferred to the paper.  The elevations of the bulwark at each station could then be transferred from the outboard profile drawing to the paper.  Material is 0.010in thick brass.  The round piece atop the bulwark is a piece of 1/16in dia brass tube slit on my Byrnes saw abs soldered in Place.
 
Photo 4 The bulwark piece has now been wrapped around the former.  I carved a groove in the former side to accept the round top piece.  The bulwark has been soldered to the brass deck edge angle.
 
Photo 5 The bulwark assembly has been removed from the former.
 
Next post- Finishing the assembly.
 
Roger
 
 

The months since my last post have passed too quickly.  We made a September trip to Southwestern Indiana to visit my son and his family who we hadn’t seen for over a year and also enjoyed Duluth’s beautiful Autumn weather.  We have also enjoyed our Michigan Wolverine’s 11-0 football season.  Tomorrow’s game with Ohio State will be the real test.
 
Time in the shop was spent fabricating Benjamin Noble’s forecastle bulwark. Again the material is soldered brass.  The process began by carving a wooden former (last photo, previous post).  Complicating  this process is the need to think “upside down” as the forecastle deck is laid on top of plug and the sides of the bulwark are bent around the sides. 
 
Photo 1 shows the plug.  The angle between the deck edge and side shell plating has been bent around the plug and the center deck plate has been laid.  The angle was ripped from a square brass tube using my Byrnes saw.  Bending an angle is difficult as it always tries to twist.  The little aluminum angles allow short sections to be bent and secured sequentially.
 
Photo 2 The individual deck plates have been laid and soldiered to each other and to the brass deck edge angle. Material is .005in thick brass.  The photo shows the underside of the deck.
 
Photo 3  This is one of the two bulwark pieces.  These had to be “spiled.” Station lines perpendicular to the vessel’s centerline were drawn on the plug and on the outboard profile drawing.  A piece of paper was wrapped around a side of the plug and the station lines transferred to the paper.  The elevations of the bulwark at each station could then be transferred from the outboard profile drawing to the paper.  Material is 0.010in thick brass.  The round piece atop the bulwark is a piece of 1/16in dia brass tube slit on my Byrnes saw abs soldered in Place.
 
Photo 4 The bulwark piece has now been wrapped around the former.  I carved a groove in the former side to accept the round top piece.  The bulwark has been soldered to the brass deck edge angle.
 
Photo 5 The bulwark assembly has been removed from the former.
 
Next post- Finishing the assembly.
 
Roger
 
 

Industrial paints, the kind used to paint commercial vessels and workboats, might have a slight sheen but not high gloss.  Their job is to prevent corrosion.  Companies might specify certain colors, but that is secondary.  Here on the Great Lakes , hull colors historically have reflected the trades that the ships sailed in- iron ore, dull red, coal, black, limestone and cement, grey.  
 
Roger

The months since my last post have passed too quickly.  We made a September trip to Southwestern Indiana to visit my son and his family who we hadn’t seen for over a year and also enjoyed Duluth’s beautiful Autumn weather.  We have also enjoyed our Michigan Wolverine’s 11-0 football season.  Tomorrow’s game with Ohio State will be the real test.
 
Time in the shop was spent fabricating Benjamin Noble’s forecastle bulwark. Again the material is soldered brass.  The process began by carving a wooden former (last photo, previous post).  Complicating  this process is the need to think “upside down” as the forecastle deck is laid on top of plug and the sides of the bulwark are bent around the sides. 
 
Photo 1 shows the plug.  The angle between the deck edge and side shell plating has been bent around the plug and the center deck plate has been laid.  The angle was ripped from a square brass tube using my Byrnes saw.  Bending an angle is difficult as it always tries to twist.  The little aluminum angles allow short sections to be bent and secured sequentially.
 
Photo 2 The individual deck plates have been laid and soldiered to each other and to the brass deck edge angle. Material is .005in thick brass.  The photo shows the underside of the deck.
 
Photo 3  This is one of the two bulwark pieces.  These had to be “spiled.” Station lines perpendicular to the vessel’s centerline were drawn on the plug and on the outboard profile drawing.  A piece of paper was wrapped around a side of the plug and the station lines transferred to the paper.  The elevations of the bulwark at each station could then be transferred from the outboard profile drawing to the paper.  Material is 0.010in thick brass.  The round piece atop the bulwark is a piece of 1/16in dia brass tube slit on my Byrnes saw abs soldered in Place.
 
Photo 4 The bulwark piece has now been wrapped around the former.  I carved a groove in the former side to accept the round top piece.  The bulwark has been soldered to the brass deck edge angle.
 
Photo 5 The bulwark assembly has been removed from the former.
 
Next post- Finishing the assembly.
 
Roger
 
 

good evening everyone
 
thank you for comments and likes
 
like all kits, they are not always suited for conversion, and a lot of artistic licence is required to make it work, its not magic, just a lot of worrying, of what people might think of my pathetic attempt to show a build in progress
i have two sets of gantries in place, but the spacing between them is slightly different as there is not enough space to put everything in, also the superstructure islands are different between the two hulls
however they are are now in place and hopefully staying there, im still thoroughly enjoying this, but so looking forward to getting back into wood
 
some walkway supports are raised a bit, will be sorted
Some of the extra detail, ladders and fixing points


 

There are "ammo" 2 chests (speculative own design) one for the fore castle and one for the rear castle.

Painting the swivels.
First a mat black base with a wash with thinned metal color.

then the swivels are "colored" with pencil and polished with a soft paper tisseu.

result

 

On the rear deck, I used the black ball point pen only.  You can see the left side of the deck in the picture is done, the right side is not done.

Thanks everyone for the likes and comments.
Motor whale boat started out as a shapeways printed boat but was a early version. It had a hinged rudder on the stern. The whale boat I needed was a later version where the stern has been filled out to a more rounded shape and had a canopy. 
I built the canopy with glue soaked paper on a canopy shaped plug

the landing gear was done about a week ago.........I did manage to get some wood putty in the meantime.  I bought a couple different types.......the water soluble type and what they call plastic wood.  I prefer the water based type mainly because it can easily be diluted to a more malleable cream,  rather than a paste.  done smooth enough,  it can reduce sanding,  and does stretch it out to cover more surface.  I did a little on the fuselage,  but I tried the plastic wood.......smelly stuff,  but it works well enough.

still needs a little more sanding and finish the rest of the fuselage.  I hadn't checked on the wing either........that was also about a week ago.  it should be totally dry by now.

today,  I had some time to putt around.  I started to think about the engine.   the Fokker Dr 1 has a wingspan of 20 inches.......1:14 scale.  it features a vacuum form radial engine,  to replicate the Oberursel Ur.III.

the D VIII was equipped with the same engine,  and had the same result as the Dr 1.......poor engine performance.  there were experimental engines used in these aircraft,  and was later fitted with either the Goebel or Siemens / Halske engines.  unfortunately for the D VIII,  only 380 were ever produced during the war,  and around 85 actually saw combat.  most were destroyed after the war,  except for the handful that got snuck out of the country.  
    I gathered the parts to start this little task

the outer cowl part,  the crank case button,  and the piston sleeves that were cut from dowel.   the sleeves were cemented to the button......of course,  I could only get eight of them on, since nine is an odd number for the pie fraction.  all I need are the    ones that poke out from the bottom cutaway,  so it will do.  if I had beveled the base of the sleeves in two places,  it could be done.

now to sand it circular,  and round off the sleeve heads a little.......clean the mess up.  I may add some tubes on it to further detail it.  next was to cut a length of basswood across the grain long enough to go around the cowl face.  cutting it in this fashion will make it flexible.......even more so after getting it wet {dried and left damp}.  the CA will adhere even when wet,  which is a great property for a cement to have     the seam was filled with plastic wood filler.


the filler doesn't take long to dry.......being made up with Acetone and N-butyl acetate.  it appears to sand fairly well.....I think I'll stick to the good 'ole water base though.......less smell and it don't have cancer written all over it   before long,  the outer edge of the cowl was nicely rounded off.

....and now for the bad part........the engine is too small    I think going for a larger button,  will allow me to glue on all nine sleeves without having to bevel them.   so back to the drawing board for the engine.......but I'm on the right track.  hope you all had a great day  
 
 

Perhaps the most important event to shape the Middle Bronze Age was the demise of the so-called minoan civilization of Crete. Minoan is a term pulled from the rather creative brain of Sir Arthur Evans, the excavator and popularizer of the Palace of Knossos which he, on the basis of no evidence, called the Palace of Minos. The people he named the minoans were an expert sea people who were known to have traded extensively, especially with Egypt (who record the cretans as the keftiu). The demise of the minoan palace-based civilisation is poorly understood and probably was not sudden. The eruption of the volcanic island of Thera in about 1600 bce may have played a part in this. Certainly, the palaces of Crete were not destroyed by a monster tsunami, as is popularly depicted, but it may have destroyed the minoan war fleet and left the palace-based civilization open to opportunistic takeover by their erstwhile trading friends the mycenaeans. The Late Bronze Age (Late Helladic when applied to Greece) is regarded as that period between the fall of the minoans (1600 bce) and the catastrophic collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations in the early 12th century bce. 
 
 
The mycenaeans, also known as achaeans (and likely corresponding to the ahhiyawa of the Hittite records), traded extensively throughout the Aegean Sea and the Levant. They were also likely involved in piracy and freebooting including the famous siege of Troy which may have occurred in the Late Bronze Age and was later celebrated in oral performance by whoever Homer was (or were). In any case, the mycenaeans were based in the Peloponnese and what later became Greece during the Iron Age. By fair means or foul, they became the heirs to the palace civilization of Crete and together with the syro-canaanites of the Levant took over the minoan trade networks. The mycenaeans were known as deep-sea traders but they also were more war-like.  It is likely to the mycenaeans that the next revolution in sea-warfare is owed, namely the large, rowed war-galley which became the raiding longship of the age. This is not to say that the mycenaeans invented the concept but they certainly popularized it and brought it to a level of prominence and sophistication which led to its evolution into what became the most feared weapon of war of the Age of Bronze. These in turn were to further evolve during the Iron Age into the battleships of the Geometric and later Attic periods of Greece, the biremes and triremes.
 
 
It is my intention to build as convincing a reconstruction model of a Late Helladic war-galley as I can with the very limited and confusing contemporary evidence available from paintings on pottery, graffiti, carvings on seals and small clay or lead ship models which have survived the ages.
It is not my intention to use other reconstructions or modern artistic representations of these vessels but to sail unescorted into uncharted waters.
I will, of course, be greatly guided by the archaeologists and historians whose knowledge of the period is vast but all the while recognizing the controversies which abound in their literature.
 
Where possible I will try to use construction methods which were known to be extant at the period we are discussing. I may come up with the occasional idea of my own When I carried out my “reconstruction” of the mediaeval hulc vessel, I found that the method of construction greatly influenced the final shape of the hull and it is likely that the same will occur with this build.
I have no academic axe to grind and really it is immaterial to me whether this model meets with academic approval. I claim all my mistakes as my own but welcome them being pointed out.
 
 
No wrecks of any of these war-galleys or similar vessels from the period have survived. The only wrecks of relevance are a couple of trading vessels such as the Uluburun ship found off the coast of Turkey which give some clues to keel and plank configuration. But all the rest relies on the surviving imagery on fragments of pottery and crude models.
I hope you will bear with me as I blunder through this putative reconstruction and, of course, I would like to encourage any MSW members to contribute. There is a vast body of knowledge in MSW which I hope will protect me from the more egregious errors. So, please help me if you can.
 
 
 
Dick

Ok, a little update on my project. I am getting closer to being able to fasten cabin to the deck. A few hoses to drape, couple of fittings to add. 
Tring to get as much done on cabin while not on model.

My material of choice is a fast-drying solvent-based varnish that is sold over here in Europe as zapon-lacquer. In composition it is rather similar to solvent-based nail-varnish. Apart being fast-drying, i.e. within minutes, it has the advantage that you can undo any knots with a drop of solvent (acetone) should the need arise.

You are doing a great job building what I would consider to be a difficult model.  Scantlings for steel ships are much thinner than those for wooden vessels. Your scale is small enough that many details are really tiny but large enough where they just can’t be omitted.  
 
Roger

Thanks for comments and likes
Instead of using  problematic white I used a spray can to paint the dock. Then I will use shades of gray, gradually to erase the snow. So basically its the opposite technique comparing to submarine painting. Let's see of this works well.
Doors on shelters replaced with other type. Light were added. I need to extend the dock because the truck can't turn and the buildings won't fit

Completed the rudder assembly per kit instruction then proceeded with the permanent mounting base.  I didn't really want to glue it to the base, but I wanted it to be secure.  Per kit instructions, I set a vertical 1/16 brass rod vertical in the aft end of the mount and also fabricated a wood cradle out of scrap mahogany from the kit to make it steadier.  On to the sails: after ironing out the wrinkles in fabric with wife's iron I cut them out and drew the panel stitching locations lightly with a pencil to use as a guide for sewing.  I did add approx. additional quarter inch for the hems which I folded over and glued with Aleene's fabric glue just to hold in place for stitching.  We have a Singer simple sewing machine at home (which I never used before) and educated myself watching a couple of you tube videos on how to use which was very helpful.  I sewed all the hems and the panel stitching locations and to my surprise it went pretty smooth for my 1st time using a sewing machine.  Next steps will be preparing the mast and boom.

You are doing a great job building what I would consider to be a difficult model.  Scantlings for steel ships are much thinner than those for wooden vessels. Your scale is small enough that many details are really tiny but large enough where they just can’t be omitted.  
 
Roger

One possibility to duplicate parts, such as the shell is to use a shaped turning bit. This can be ground from a piece of old hacksaw-blade. You would need a bit of a clearing angle, but no top-rake for brass. One would rough out the shape with normal turning tools and just give the part the final shape with the shaped bit.
 
Coming on nicely, the model !
 

Finally I'm back again. A 50th year anniversary and a lengthy business trip later I'm now back with a small update. This time it's the bowsprit.
 

With that I can start assembling the deck equipment and the rest of the individual parts. I hope that it won't take as long with that...
 

Installed the front bridge with all the Pontos minutiae. Modified the two larger guns to be a bit more in line with a photo of Mikasa which showed them with steel shrouds, or whatever the correct term is. Just checked the Vegas odds on me managing to finish this without mangling the extremely fragile railings at some point. 1000-1.




 

Wefalck, you are absolutely right. On the first try of the gun the gunner was kicked out if the boat when firing sideways. Also the boat rolled almost to the gunnels. Then, they modified the base, and you can see, on the drawings I posted on post #1, how they reinforced the gun base all the way to keelson. They also lowered the gun so that the gunner actually had to kneel to fire it. From then on they actually deleted the sponsons on the sides and the routine was to fire the gun only looking forward.  I wondered about how would the gunner and the ammo would have to climb from the cockpit to the forward deck. It must had been a risky try.
Those were the things that made me think about building this particular model, A great history behind a simple wooden 40 ft launch.
Following are some more pictures of the progress on the model. Please note that the deck accessories are only dry fitted. After I complete the deck  fittings, I will paint the hull and proceed to build the guns, install the engines and set the cabin roof that will be removable to allow seeing the engines.
A view of the aft deck and the quarterdeck with the ammo lockers.

The foredeck.

The cockpit with a tool box and ready ammo rack.

And finally, my redition of the ammunition for the 3 pounder gun.

The one on the left is the kit supplied one. Still need need to refine my duplicating ability.
 

Pat, Brian, Todd, Eberhard, Tom, Mark, Druxey, CPDDET - trank you all for commenting.
 
Not a lot done in the last couple of days - so small update.
 
I lashed the dinghy in place, I don't know why but it seemed more appropriate to fasten it down with line (probably because almost every yacht i have been on takes this approach). All the deck eyes had been installed some time ago so it was just a case of deciding on how the lines would run. The chosen arrangement seemed particularly secure.

The masts at this stage weren't actually glued in place and I wanted to get the alignment of the cross trees spot on so I used a pair of improvised plumb lines. These were dropped from the ends of the cross trees and aligned against the turnbuckle attachment points on the rail. A spot of glue was then applied to the base of the fore and main masts to lock them in place.


Then came quite a laborious task of installing the remaining eyes and blanking plugs in the deck rigging attachment points. There were about 50 such holes left to fill.


As I said - somewhat of a low productivity weekend.
 
 
 

An essential tool that I use every time that I go into my workshop is a vise.  In fact I have four:  a large heavy machinist vise with custom smooth faced jaw inserts, a carpenter’s vise, flush mounted to my workbench edge, a 50+ year old model makers vise, and a seldom used swivel vise.  I can’t imagine doing quality work without one.  Each of these needs to be solidly mounted to a bench top, and some  benefit from access to a bench edge.  So, your computer desk would quickly get scarred up mounting a bench top vise, and a clamp on one requires an edge.  I, therefore, think that Bob’s plywood idea is the way to go.
 
As a newly wed, my first “shop” was the spare bedroom in a two bedroom apartment and my workbench was a 2ft x 3ft Sears wooden drawing table that I now use for laying out my plans.
 
Roger

I think that that looks first class!  

Stiff paper flags can ruin the appearance of a well built model and your beautiful model deserves lifelike ones.
Following techniques published years ago in the NRG I made flags that I an happy with for a Longboat model.
 
I used Japanese Rice paper.  I suspect light weight Silkspan would work too.
I taped a xerox copy of the flag onto a hard surface; in my case, a homemade light table. I taped the rice paper over the xerox copy.  With a sharp 4H pencil, I traced the flag on to the rice paper.  I painted the flag onto the rice paper with thinned acrylic paints.  I then turned the rice paper over and repeated the process, including pencil tracing of the flag.  The pencil provides a little crease in the paper to help you paint a sharped edge.  I did not paint white areas of the flag, instead I used the natural rice paper color.  These flags can be teased into various natural shapes with a wet paint brush.
 
Keep in mind “scale distance.”  In your case viewing the model from 1ft is equivalent to viewing the real thing from 48ft.  At 48ft the stars in the flag would not show up with crisp 5 points, so you can cheat a little.  I don’t know when sewing machines were invented or became common but I suspect that these flags were not machine made.  Actual photos of old flags show that their geometry is not as exact as we might expect.  Below is my attempt with shaky hands.  
 
Roger