Roger Pellett

Another small update.
 
The first image is an overhead view of the very long poop deck - now cleaned of dust, dirt and general grunge. 
 
The second image is of the forecastle, showing the first tentative steps towards correction of some errors on the model. Part of the railing has been removed on each side of the deck, as these sections were removable and had chain, rather than steel bar railings.
 
More thinking and study of photos has brought to light another major problem. The original ship had a beautiful teak capping rails all around the poop rather that the pipe rail shown on the model. The Senior Curator would like to have this changed to conform to the original, so - yet another major alteration. My current thinking is that the simplest way around this will be to file down the tops of the stanchions a little to bring them to the height of the bulwarks forward, and then to run the wooden capping around on top of the current steel piping. A lot of work, but I think easier than ripping out all of the railing and starting again. If anyone has any better ideas, I'd love to hear about them as I'm not looking forward to all that additional work.
 
Another problem is the number holes and gaps in the deck caused by the removal or alteration of items that were no longer on the ship at the time of her last voyage. I need to find some kind of filler to close up all those holes and make them a little less obvious.
 
This model is turning into a real lesson for anyone thinking of taking on a restoration; the number of problems on deck on this model that have come to light since I started serious cleaning operations is amazing!!
 
John
 

I believe that everything being hand made should also be a selling feature. In this case it’s also cheaper as it  appears that you are donating time and materials.  Printing materials and labor would be out of pocket costs.
 
I join others in lifting my virtural hat to you!  Building 13 of the same model !
 
Roger

Looks good to me!

Piping has a certain logic.  High point vents, low point drains, bypasses around some eqipment and valves, and loops to absorb expansion and contraction in long runs.  There are industry standards for fittings like elbows, tees, flanges, etc.  Long Radius ells are formed to a radius of 1.5 nominal pipe diameters, eg a 4in nominal sized elbow is formed on a 6in radius although the outside diameter of the fitting and pipe that it welds to is 4.5in.  Metric pipe sizes while specified in metric dimensions usually correspond to American pipe sizes.  Pipe bends are usually specified in nominal pipe diameters too;  3 dia, 5dia, etc.  Unlike fittings, which are purchased from a manufacturer, bends would be made at the shipyard or by specialized pipe fabricators (where I worked for most of my career).
 
Roger
 
 

Thanks Maurino.  I’m enjoying watching you build this model.
 
Roger

The picture posted below hangs in my living room and was painted, supposedly in Venice, in about 1898 by the relative of a family friend.  He gave it to my parents in 1932 as a wedding present.
 
I thought that I would post it here to see if you could identify the type of watercraft.  It might be what you are building.
Roger

I believe that everything being hand made should also be a selling feature. In this case it’s also cheaper as it  appears that you are donating time and materials.  Printing materials and labor would be out of pocket costs.
 
I join others in lifting my virtural hat to you!  Building 13 of the same model !
 
Roger

Looks good to me!

Also, check out the articles for other ships in the book.  You may find some useful examples of hull structure for Lake built vessels.  I think tat you will find your local library in tracking down  a copy.  This is one of those books that deserves to held in your hand.
 
Roger

Haven’t visited for quite a while.  Outstanding work and nice progress.
 
Roger

Nice Model!

Micha, et all:
 
Some thoughts from a modeler who doesn’t use CAD.  CAD is not necessary for building ship models.  There are 1000’s of lovely accurate ship models built before CAD.  
 
The basic scratch ship modeling drafting task is to convert archival information into patterns that define the shape of the hull.  This information comes from a drawing, a half model, or a table of offsets.  For Nineteenth Century vessels and ships built to about 1970 hulls were not designed using simple geometric shapes.  Curves are the result of two different drafting techniques; ships curves, and splines.  Splines work by the rules for deflection of beams; a cubic equation.  Ships curves are standardized drafting tools created using different mathematical functions.  How well a particular CAD program mimics these manual drafting tools well determine the accuracy of the model.  As a Naval Architecture student a long time ago, I watched a visiting Professor from a Major Japanese university test several hull forms modeled from simple trigonometric shapes, sines, cosines, parabolas, etc. in our large towing tank.  They looked nothing like real ships.
 
All ship hull lines drawings are “faired” at one time or another.  In other words, plotted points often do not line up to allow a fair curve to be passed through.  Manual drafting requires the draftsman to use his judgement to correct this.  CAD requires either manual intervention or a mathematical algorithm.  There is therefore, no definitive example of an old ship’s hull, only different interpretations.
 
To me CAD is just another ship modeling tool.  If you enjoy working with computers and are willing to spend the $$$ and especially time to learn the program that’s fine.  On the other hand, beautiful models can be built using manual drafting techniques, or purchased plans.
 
Roger

I believe that everything being hand made should also be a selling feature. In this case it’s also cheaper as it  appears that you are donating time and materials.  Printing materials and labor would be out of pocket costs.
 
I join others in lifting my virtural hat to you!  Building 13 of the same model !
 
Roger

I enjoy reading the plastic modeling posts on MSW as you guys are real artists when it comes to subtle painting effects.
 
I would like to try your scheme on my current project, the Great Lakes freighter Benjamin Noble .  It has a black hull.  
 
Is the white brush applied? Randomly?  Is the fan in the background serving some paint related purpose?
 
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
 
Roger

Piping has a certain logic.  High point vents, low point drains, bypasses around some eqipment and valves, and loops to absorb expansion and contraction in long runs.  There are industry standards for fittings like elbows, tees, flanges, etc.  Long Radius ells are formed to a radius of 1.5 nominal pipe diameters, eg a 4in nominal sized elbow is formed on a 6in radius although the outside diameter of the fitting and pipe that it welds to is 4.5in.  Metric pipe sizes while specified in metric dimensions usually correspond to American pipe sizes.  Pipe bends are usually specified in nominal pipe diameters too;  3 dia, 5dia, etc.  Unlike fittings, which are purchased from a manufacturer, bends would be made at the shipyard or by specialized pipe fabricators (where I worked for most of my career).
 
Roger
 
 

One of the key things that 3D printing and CAD bring to the table is the ability to generate what is effectively a 'kit' from a set of plans for a ship that no company will ever produce a model of for you to build.
 
Usually we call that scratch-building.  
 
The thing about doing it with 3D CAD though is that you can generate a model...and another model, and another...just by clicking print again.
 
So, you can build yourself a fleet - or you can offer the model for others to build so they can have a model of your favorite ship as well.
 
I have a plan in mind to help the local museum - I am working to do a 3D design of a ship they have in their collection, and I'm hoping to get the design workable for print in a couple of variations.
 
First as a highly detailed model that is a great replica of the ship that I can produce in a suitable scale for floating in a pond myself as RC.
 
Second, as a lower detail model, smaller in size, that can be fairly easily assembled by students doing a summer camp or March break program at the museum.  My hope is to have that 'March break camp' something that the model club can contribute to, and do a presentation with the campers about 3D design, and then have each of them design an 'accessory' for their ship - something like a bollard, an anchor, a funnel, or whatever, using TinkerCAD, and we then print that item for them by the end of the week for them to assemble it onto their individual model boat.
 
That's my concept. 
 
I'll see how that works out. 

So after the experimentation its time to get the nerve up and start putting some or the results onto the seascape. I used the teddy bear material and worked it into the wave crests and wakes using diluted white glue. It seemed to work better than gloss medium.
This is the first pass. It looks a bit overdone but thats becuase the glue is still drying and makes everything look whiter


After drying it tones down a bit 
 

And with long suffering Zinnia
 

This will be tidied up and then the bursting wave will be added. So far it looks as if I can do most of the seascape without irretrievably installing the ship which will help with morale.
So far I am happy with the progress and no teddy bears have been hurt in the process
Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments
Alan
 
 

These 2pm to 2am shifts are really beating me up so not much else is getting done at the moment. Hopefully only another week and then back to something a bit more reasonable
I have been using the limited spare time available to experiment with ideas for spray and wave tops. 
I played with clear silicone sealant but it didn't really dry clear and was hard to work. I had read that it could be diluted to a jelly consistency with IPA but mine didn't seem to do that. I tried Lexel clear sealant which does dry crystal clear and glossy but didn't really provide any better options for the seascape.
Next up was gloss medium mixed with micro balloons. The micro balloons gave the medium a white colouring and stiffness to create dimensional wave tops. Curiously it dried matt. Initially I thought this might be the way forward but looking at the results for a few days I am not so sure.
Then I tried cotton wool teased apart and coated with dilute white glue. This provides something that can be worked with a brush into approximate shapes and further moulded by hand as it dries. I think it might be possible to make candidate shapes on a temporary base and transfer to the diorama for final shaping and installation when dry. That would avoid getting medium all over places it shouldn't be. The following photos show the micro ballons and medium, cotton wool spray and Lexel sealant.


More cotton wool experiments looking at creating the skeins of bubbles seen in turbulent water and more spray
 


I like the surface bubble effects. The spray looks promising. Not all results are good but they are quick to create and working off model means the best can be picked.
 
I got some polyester cotton wool material used for stuffing teddy bears and tried that. It is a little stiffer than cotton wool so the results have more depth which I like. It is whiter than the cotton wool and it has a bit of a sparkle to it. I tried spray, bubbles and wave caps and I think with a bit more work they may be the best option
 


Thanks for looking in and likes and comments.
 
Alan

Quick update - the Santa Maria won 1st place in its category, and also best ship of all 3 ship categories.

Thanks, everyone. When my customer picked it up, he was very happy. And I learned why he wanted this particular model. His older brother by 13 yrs built one as a young adult. His brother passed away, and the model was lost. So this has a lot of sentimental value. I'm so happy I could do this for him

Definitive answer from a flag company. Double sided not recommended for outdoor use.
 
https://auroraflags.com/2019/02/singlevsdouble/

If you are going to buy plans get the best.  David MacGregor was a serious student of sailing ships.  You can rely on his work.  His Thermopylae drawings are reproduced in one of his several books.  His lines drawing beautifully captures the ship’s shape.
 
Almost 15£ Spent on Conwall’s drawing just allows you to reproduce the Sergal kit model with whatever limitations it has.
 
Roger

Micha, et all:
 
Some thoughts from a modeler who doesn’t use CAD.  CAD is not necessary for building ship models.  There are 1000’s of lovely accurate ship models built before CAD.  
 
The basic scratch ship modeling drafting task is to convert archival information into patterns that define the shape of the hull.  This information comes from a drawing, a half model, or a table of offsets.  For Nineteenth Century vessels and ships built to about 1970 hulls were not designed using simple geometric shapes.  Curves are the result of two different drafting techniques; ships curves, and splines.  Splines work by the rules for deflection of beams; a cubic equation.  Ships curves are standardized drafting tools created using different mathematical functions.  How well a particular CAD program mimics these manual drafting tools well determine the accuracy of the model.  As a Naval Architecture student a long time ago, I watched a visiting Professor from a Major Japanese university test several hull forms modeled from simple trigonometric shapes, sines, cosines, parabolas, etc. in our large towing tank.  They looked nothing like real ships.
 
All ship hull lines drawings are “faired” at one time or another.  In other words, plotted points often do not line up to allow a fair curve to be passed through.  Manual drafting requires the draftsman to use his judgement to correct this.  CAD requires either manual intervention or a mathematical algorithm.  There is therefore, no definitive example of an old ship’s hull, only different interpretations.
 
To me CAD is just another ship modeling tool.  If you enjoy working with computers and are willing to spend the $$$ and especially time to learn the program that’s fine.  On the other hand, beautiful models can be built using manual drafting techniques, or purchased plans.
 
Roger

Haven’t visited for quite a while.  Outstanding work and nice progress.
 
Roger