qwerty2008

I have both a pin vise and the spiral drill, as well as the mandrel for a Dremel.  The problem that Tony points out can be annoying when you're working with tiny bits, like a #80, so I use the pin vise for one size bit and the spiral for another (usually smaller).  And I've chosen bits that I use a lot, so that I don't have to change them.  -- I also found, though, that it's important to have a good secure storage place for them, because when they fall with the bit in them, you break the bit.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin

I found a pinvice and twist drill set on ebay for a good price, I will get them if I can get my dad to use his PayPal account because I don't have PayPal yet.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but feel free to move it if I guessed wrong...  Anyway, someone on this site mentioned tegua nuts, and I picked up a smaal bag of them at Woodcraft supply to mess with a bit.  It turns out they are very freindly to carve, and will take a nice polish. I didn't get all that far, but I started roughing out a little figure of Amphitrite.  (I had a tough time photographing it, my camera is getting pretty elderly.)
The only draw back to the material, is that at least on the one I started with, there is a stem that goes pretty deep down the center of the nut and leaves a bit of a void. I had to modify the pose a bit to clear it.  All in all, a really nice material, thanks for introducing me...

While looked where the gun shoots, the look behind a board changed: on the horizon there was a ship which is very similar to my San Francisco II http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/754-san-francisco-2-by-garward-al/page-3 model
(author of composition the same)

I tried a new technique today creating the figurehead.  Took a lot of tries but it worked out.
 

 

 

 
You can see what she's supposed to look like on the plans.  Given the scale I think she looks pretty good.  Got the idea from an amazing SIB builder Michael Bardet of France.  Here's the link.
 
 http://michel.bardet.pagesperso-orange.fr/rdr2006infoa.htm
 
Simply put I took a piece of wire and bent it into the shape of the figurehead.  Then painted it a couple times to fill out the shape.  
 
 
 
 
 

John Thanks.
 
Back at the block Factory, A long time ago I purchased a small board  of Lemonwood or Degame to make some wagon type wheels, the blanks were cut but the wheels never got made. I re-cut the small curved sections to use for blocks. the wood is quite hard and takes a fine polish it is similar in texture to Boxwood but a little darker. I wont be using this many double blocks, after shaping the profile I will cut a number of them in half to make single blocks like the ones on the right.
 

 
and a metric rule
 

 
The big blocks are Lemonwood the small ones in the front are Boxwood
 
I also worked on a maple one with a metal frame
 

 
The pin is 3/32 in diameter
 

 
the new block attached with yesterday's shackle
 

 

 
 
Michael
 
 

Nice work on the masts, Qwerty. 

You picked a great bottle.  The clarity is great.  I like the stand too it works well.  

That looks great!  That's a good snug fit.  I look forward to seeing how you do the rigging.  

Beautiful, simply beautiful.
 
Bob

Absolutely amazing. That was, I think, the first time I saw a ship in the neck other than for fitting.

I made the mast and sails, it still fits in the bottle so that's a good sign. the mast are made from bamboo and the sails are made from some yellowish paper I had laying around. Everything is held together with ca glue. next comes the rigging.
My reply box is broken making it hard to reply emoticons are broken to so I have to type them in manually

Russ, John, Mark, Bob, thanks for stopping by.
 
Mark My plan is to make everything that would work on the full size boat, also work on this model within reason.
 
I took a break from the winch this morning and finished another shackle this one with a ring instead of a threaded section.
 

 
The ring is made from some .011 music wire.
 
the pin diameter is .073" or scale 5/8th inch the gap is 1 1/4" in scale
 

 
Michael

I finished this model four years ago and I have had some trouble finding the photo documentation since I had a computer die on me and files were all over. Likely I will add more as I find them.
This is a scratch built solid basswood hull model of a fictional ship based on the actual brig H.M.S. Speedy made famous by Lord Cochrane and fictionalized by Patrick O’Brian. Drawings were found on the web and the novel itself gives a great deal of useful information including measurements.

Details. and sub assemblies. I tend to build all the details ahead of time and attach them as the build progresses and they are needed. Others point out the logic of building them as needed, since there may be unforeseen factors that require alteration when the time comes to install them. At the top of the photo is a strip of “hammocks” which is glue stiffened tissue paper formed into ridges with a razor blade on a piece of glass from which these strips are cut when dry and painted. Not obvious is a blond colored object at the bottom center of the photo, this is a rope coil made on a jig.

I'm a big believer in planking your own boats over a wooden form. Its not that difficult. I had gone through the process of whittling solid wooden boats. I was dissatisfied with the "covered with a tarp" school of thought and gouging out the interior was difficult when the boat is this small. I tried the "squash" method with heated plastic. I tried the lift method. If your making a wooden boat of the correct shape anyway, why not plank over it? Then discard the wood form. With actual planks you get something more in scale in terms of hull thickness AND you get authentic clinker built texture. The planks in this photo are just thin strips of printer paper cut straight with no spauling. I have saran wrap over the form as a resist and white glue on the edge of each plank. Like an actual boat these paper boats are light and strong. Some of the other boats get a transome.

Sophie deck. My favorite ship model photo. You can see the scribed deck in this shot. The black football shaped objects are the smallest seeds I could find. I hope they never get wet and start to sprout one day since they are all over the rigs of a lot of my ship models! Donald Mcnarry describes using "Lobelia" seeds on his miniatures but I have never had any luck finding them. The cannons have a very slight blue color drybrushed onto them. I was watching a film and the cannons in the movie had a bluish cast to them so I said "why not"? It plays off the red nicely and to me it doesn't leap out at you and offend the eye but at the same time it suggests (to me anyway) the reflectivity of a glossy black surface. The coils of line are deliberately all different shades of grey and pale tan to suggest lines of various age and use.
 
 
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Canons were made of wood tooth picks. Gun carriages are made of sheet styrene. Trucks were stretched sprue. The pommelion is brass rod inserted in a hole I drilled in the end. The swelling at the muzzle end and the ogee aft the trunion are each made of one turn of wire twisted on the underside. Fortunately there are only 14 of them. At this scale the breaching rope is going to be carpet or button thread.

John thanks for all your help this afternoon.
 
Mark, thank you for your confidence in my abilitiy.
 
Well I finally got down to brass tacks and set the bolts in the staves cut the hole in the deck made a new knee for the post, I made the post a little smaller in cross section than the other posts.
 
The anchor chain was pretty heavy so I used the extra leverage with the special bar.
 

 

 

 

 
The pawl dropped onto the next tooth nicely as I turned the winch all the brass and wood are now glued together on the shaft I will make the small brass plates with the square holes to reinforce the square holes on the barrel, and the second pawl tomorrow.
 
The winch and post are still removable from the deck at the moment.
 

 
It's been a pretty long day so now a cup of tea and relax
 
Michael

Ok so I will clean up things and set the post close to the winch like this and add the second pawl and a small knee in front of the post.
 

 

 

 
I need to smooth out the brass rings and solder the parts together now, plus cut the square holes for the mooth part of the drum.
 
Michael

Ok now I see what you are doing.
 
So if it was me doing this I would add some strips of wood to the inside of the sheerline to strengthen the edges so that I could glue in some deck beams I would also think about taking the middle four formers and cut the centres out and fit them permanently into the hull That would strengthen the whole hull.
As far as sanding it would be easy enough to use some Styrofoam sheet and use it to place the hull onto when you go to sand.
 
This is just the way I would approach it, which is not necessarily the best way, but once you seal the deck in place it will limit your access if you are only going to have that small hatch to get into the hull. The inside of the hull will also need to be fully sealed before you do attach the deck.
 
Michael

This is very well done.  I really like the cannons.  I may try that method out.  Good work!    

I have decided to bottle it after all   now that its painted it looks a lot better in the bottle.


I tried to make it more authentic by putting a rat in the hold..... the rat was too big

Qwerty
1 Perhaps a couple of pictures showing the formers and how you are presently using them.
2 Are you intending to have the whole deck lift off?
3 If you are not going to lift off the whole deck will you be creating an opening that will lift off to access the controls?
 
Michael

The saga continues...
 

 
The new sub-frame for the anchor side it is turned up from some maple broom handle.
 

 
After gluing up I set up and drilled all the bolt holes these are .046 or 3/64th I also increased to shaft to 1/4 which is scale is 2 inches and added square ends for fast winding with a handle I still need to cut the square holes for the extra leverage handles.
 

 
The posts needed to be set through the deck so the holes were drilled and swan then filed square
 

 
Set in place not glued yet so that I can add the other parts of the winch supports.
 

 
The added parts glued in place. Then about ten minutes after the glue had been applied I realized that the whole winch was too low for the chain to go under , I was so focused on clearing the under side of the bowsprit when it is retracted. after getting all that sorted I also noted that to clear the bowsprit I had already moved the winch a little further to the stern so the distance between the bowsprit posts and the winch barrel was longer that the pawl I had drawn for the ratchet (don't you just love dominoes) I decided to cross that bridge later.
 
 

 
I snapped  off the newly glued parts and raised the posts so that there was clearance under the staves for the chain. so then I had to re-drill the holes for the top bar of the bowsprit posts, this did not go as well as planned the 1/8 drill was not aligned properly and came out the second post off to the stern about 3/64ths.  It took a while to sort out I used a scrap of oak and drilled a hole 5/16 in diameter. This guide block was clamped to the port post and I used a 5/16 end mill in the hand drill to start the new larger hole to encompass both 1/8th holes.
 
I marked a datum across the oak and the posts so that I could re-clamp it to the starboard post.
After both holes were drilled I used a 5/16 reamer to ensure that a 5/16 dowel would slide through smoothly.
 
I still needed to shave about 1/16th off the bottom side of the bowsprit after that was done the bowsprit cleared the winch barrel as it was retracted.
 

 
I made a compromise and formed a bracket that will be screwed to the deck with 4 screws to hold the hinged end of the pawl. I will sleep on this solution and see how it feel tomorrow.
 

 
Michael