qwerty2008

Well I have been busy this weekend. Here's my progress...



Mario








































 

Hi All,
A small update. I wanted to show you how I scratch built my planks in detail.....



BFN Mario

BATTEAU UPDATE TIME HAS FINALLY COME. BOY THIS HAS BEEN A BUSY MONTH FAMILY WISE BUT I AM BACK AT IT AGAIN


BFN
MARIO























 

A LITTLE MORE PROGRESS ON THE BATTEAU TONIGHT....


BFNMF

MARIO

Well friends I have added the tholes,,,,cleats,,,,rub rails,,,and another coat of minwax ebony.....


next up the turning of the mast,,,,spare and the swivel cannon...


BFNMF's

Mario

Well I decided to finish sealing the boat with sanding sealer. i also decided to build my display board and mount the Batteau before I go on with the spares and such.
If you remember my little board I rigged to help me put the bow in to the flat bottom of the boat which I missed early in the build. Well I decided it made for a nice little display board. A little black felt,,,,,1/8th square basswood for trim, and a couple of left-over barrels from my Bounty Launch and there you go...
I also decided to display the oars and hook pole on the board rather then clutter the inside of the Batteau....

So now it's time to turn thinks and continue on....

here are a few pictures from different angles...


BFNMF..........

Hi my Friends,
Well it was time to turn the Swivel ½ pounder for the Batteau. Since I did have experience working with Ebony Gabon I knew the warning of the type of wood. You might say you can treat it like a Bee Sting. Some people get stung and get a hard pinch feeling. Few with be rushed to the hospital because the glands swell up and they can't breath.
So with Gabon you should wear a respirator or the very least a paper face mask. Plus eye protection. The danger comes from the dust of the Ebony Gabon. Ebony can cause eye irritation, respiratory problems, or even a skin irritation.
So me I was going to live with the skin irritation if the ebony bothered me. Because from my high school we were taught to never wear long selves when working with a lathe. So no long selves for me in this case....
but with all these negatives with ebony it is a very wonderful wood that was born to be turned... easy to work with. But you must use HSS turning tools because if it's hardness...

SO EVERYONE HERE ARE MY RESULTS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. IT WAS A LOT OF FUN WITH THIS LITTLE CANNON....

A WHOLE LOT OF PITURES...COMING UP(28)

B y F or N ow M y F riends

cheers Mario







 













 
 




 
 
 

HI EVERYONE,
  IT'S BEEN A WHILE SO I HOPE I STILL KNOW HOW TO POST PICTURES...
 
Hello,
  Well I’m trying to get back into the modeling mode, since I have been away for a while.  Because of work getting crazily out of hand. Well they implemented a new system that is making us work at a snails pace now. Which is a good thing. Cause sometimes enough is enough.  When MSW switch to this new site. I did a model that I never added back to the new site. So I got a little time right now. I built this boat back in April 2012.
MARIO
 
Hello Friends,
 Well I have started. I downloaded the plans to my flash drive. Jumped in the truck. Drove down to the neariest print shop. I had 2 copies of the plans on 17x11 printed up. I ran out the door with plans in hand with a big stupid smile on my face.
So last night I was able to cut out the frames, cleats, stem n stern posts, boat bottom from the plans. They are now glued to the material and ready to be sawed out tonight.
 
MARIO
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I cut out my frames, stem n stern posts, the fore n aft knees, and the boat bottom. Now I will spend the rest of the day sanding the items cut out and ready them for install. Plus I will experiment with my rove creating. I will show my results later this evening....

So now I'm going to go back at it. Just stopped long enough to finally show some progress my friends

















 
Still have a bit to sand on the frames and cleats. But did not get to my testing the look of the roves.
On the plans it shows a butt seam of two planks running down the middle of the boat floor. I figured in real life this should not be. Because since the stem n stern posts will reside in their respective positions. Wouldn't this create a week joint? This is just me using assuming things again. So I drew a center line on the floor bottom and repositioned the plank seams.

cheers Mario

So here is a little more progress on the Batteau....










 
 

Further progress on the sterncastle of my Carrack ( nave tonda)


note the two knights at the stern. These are seen in the original illustration

Can you see the link now?  Can be found at www.Youtube.com  as "RC Ram Schooner model sailing"

Just found your Log.  Excellent RC work!  Here is a brief video of my three master...1/24 scale, 6 1/2 feet long, Chesapeake Bay Ram Schooner.  Cheers.   http://youtu.be/TOQrYBmOLF0

Continuation
 
Exposition of three models of a bronze 24-pound gun of Le Fleuron 1729, M 1:24 is ready.

Unknown...circa 1950-60 maybe...
 
Some people save stray dogs  I save models that are destined for the dumpster.
 

 
Unknown Dutch Fishing vessel...Maybe???  Circa 1950ish maybe.  Who knows.
 

 

 

Not to get to off topic...
 
 
But just a few...Boy am I lazy today.  I am crapping up my own build log to boot!!!
 
Great Republic by Boucher...1912
 

 

 

 

 

And just to round out the images of where I spend 10 - 12 hours per day...
 
This is the other side of the shop which is in my basement...yes I know it is an absolute bloody mess.  In total its about 25 feet long and 18 feet wide with that little hallway which leads to my kids man cave.
 
This is my block making station where yesterday I finished up milling 2000 2mm blocks.  Theres a lot of sawdust on the floor....and my shop mascot snuck in the picture.   You can see a drill press behind my hi-tech dust control system...the fan. , Byrnes saw and Sherline mill.
 

 
This is one half of my rope making station...You can see one half of that cheapo ME ropewalk on the table as well as all of the scraps from making a few thousand feet of rope over the last few days....I WANT TO BELIEVE.
 
I will be bringing all of that rope making stuff to St Louis to do a demo for the NRg Conference.   I will be showuing how I make 20 - 23 foot lengths of rope on that little Model Shipways rope walk....thats how I make all of it.
 

 

 
And then looking down the length of my basement and down the 30 foot long hallway to the other end of the rope making station.   This is where I make my rope.  Nothing too terribly exciting.   Alond the wall is my library and a bunch of old models...including the 18th century model that I should really find a better place for.  There is another old Dutch model there too that is crying out for some love and restoration.  I have no idea what it is but looks about 60 - 70 years old.  Maybe.  By God I have to tidy up this place...there is crap all over.  I am embarrassed.
 

Well I dont have any pics of the machine working...today is a rope making day.  But here are some images of the shop with the laser cutter.  Its very very messy as I am in high gear making stuff for the NRg conference in a few weeks.  The laser cutter....is a BOSS Laser cutter 80 watt.  But its custom and I had the larger laser tube placed in a smaller machine body for space reasons.  I dont need a huge laser bed because most of the parts we make are small.  I am very happy with its performance.  Buying a laser cutter is like buying a car...so many opinions and stuff to weed through on the web about which is the best one.  This particular unit cost about $5500 after everything was all set up.  The cheaper desktop models you see just wont do the job and cut very poorly.   Many promise to cut through 1/4' plywood but just wont.  So far I was able to cut through teh plywood using only 65% of the power that this tube is capable of generating.  It sits on a stand with wheels and can be rolled around teh shop but I like it right next to the workbench.  Its just like sending a document to the printer....instead you just hit "file Cut"   rather than "file print".   Its very easy to get up and running.
 

 
Baiscally the Laser is hooked up directly to an old laptop of mine.  I use Corel Draw to draft my cutting files.  They are saved as DFX files and opened up in the laser cutters software...lasercut 5.3.  Note the dryer exhaust behind the laser cutter.  The laser cutter doesnt leave behind anything after it cuts.  It actually obliterates the wood in its path leaving only residue....thats the brown stuff you see on the cut edges.  It is also on the laser bed.  It must be cleaned from time to time.  The material will smoke a bit as it cuts and there is a powerful exhaust fan that blows it outside through that vent.  My shop always smells like a fireplace now...very pleasant actually.  But I wont cut plastics and other materials because its noxious and the fumes are usually very hazardous...it could literally kill you.
 
Its a bit noisy because of the blower to work the exhaust and the pump to cool the laser tube.  Water is constantly pumped through the center of the laser tube as it cuts.  
 

 

 
You can see its size in relation to my work table...
 
This is the bed of the laser which allows me to cut a 14" x 14' piece of wood comfortable.  Its big enough for what we do.
 

 
This is the actual 80 watt laser tube in the back of the machine....the heart of the machine.   Th e laser beam is invisible and bounces off a series of mirrors to the laser head.   The laser head moves with a pulley and track system to follow the path of your lines.
 

 
The three things used to become an effective laser cutter is mastering the POWER setting for any given thickness of material,  the SPEED of the laser as it travels...and the maintenance of the machine to focus the laser as sharply as possible to give you the thinnest kerf.   Oh and of course the drafting and files you create must be done to the best advantage for your laser settings.
 
Basically its trial and error...place a thickness of wood on the bed and try various setting of power and speed until you find the optimum settings.  Every type of wood and thickness has different settings and they are recorded once I find them.  
 
Now back to the rope burning station where I need to finish up these 24 packs of black .012 rigging rope.  From high tech to incredibly low tech in just a few steps.
 

 
When you think about how much money you could spend on a Sherline lathe and mill and all of the accessories...$5500 is not that crazy.  I make a lot of parts for a living and that isnt the case with most ship modelers but I view this as just another tool to make parts.  You can excel at using it just like you could with a mill and lathe...which by the way,  a lathe is something I dont own.

Welcome back!
 
Fortunately, my fourth attempt at the Sea of Grass was a failure. I say "fortunately" because I had used up all the plastic grass and I was forced to re-think what I wanted. Some suggestions from a friend and his links to some wargamer sites and videos eventually led me to model railroader foliage techniques and products. Instead of the idealized uniform grass I initially had in mind, I went for realistic.
 
I'll go back to the fortunate failure.
 

The "potato chip" effect caused the plastic to curl and peel away from the plywood disc.
 
I researched tallgrass prairie and ordered several Woodland Scenics products to model the most common grasses and wildflowers. All the products, except for one tree, were basic pre-colored materials. When the products arrived I set to work making exemplars and settled on three species of grasses and four species of wildflowers.
 

The start of work with two grasses, two wildflowers and the surviving portion of a small burned
tree. The bare rectangles locate Ogallala's wheels so the wheels will glue directly to wood.
 

About three-fourths complete. I laid out the wheel tracks in black and the
concealed area under the wagon where I wouldn't need to plant any grass.
 

 

Two views of the lower hull and carriage in my new Sea of Grass. One species of
grass grows to over 12 feet / 3.5 meters as does one wildflower. The rest are 3 to
8 feet / 1 to 2.5 meters. Three of the wildflowers were made one flower at a time.
 

The fourth try re-posted for comparison. Now you see why I say its failure was fortunate.
 

One last photo showing the segments of the Sea of Grass to go in the bottle and their method of assembly.
 
As it turns out making this greatly improved version took considerably less time than the failed fourth try and was a lot less tedious and boring. In fact, this was fun! Clearly, I'm delighted with the results.
 
Work progresses on the other four figures (I added one), finishing up some minor rigging details, and making a base to hold the sphere. I ordered the photo-etch kit from Micro-Mark to make name plates and to experiment with making small parts and figure armatures for other projects. I still need to make up a bunch of rope coils to hang on the belaying pins and cleats. Bottling this project isn't far off.
 

 
Dave
 

I have already received the gunnades (carronades on carriages) for this model.  Thought I would share some photos.  These are turned brass just like the cannon I carry.
 
These are actually all ready to go...along with the carriages which are also already laser cut.  I am getting there...havent built one yet though.
 
Chuck
 

I was thinking about it.  But just the bulkheads and false keel.  What you see in that photo.  I want this to be a scratch project and scratch experience for the builder.  As much as possible anyway.  The bulkheads are easy and anyone could cut them out with the scroll saw.  It doesnt take much skill.  So if I offered them it would be only in an effort to save folks time so they can get to the fun stuff quicker.  They would still need a scroll saw to complete the project.  I basically cut these out over two-plus hours.  My laser cutter is very small but very powerful.  So I can only cut a few pieces at a time.  But it would have taken me far longer to cut them out by hand.  Its basically just a time-saver.  
 
I am a little worried it might be too expensive though.  Good 1/4" thick plywood is expensive.  These few pieces fit on three sheets of ply that  cost me $30 and then another two-plus hours to cut.   There is a lot of waste because of the funky shapes. Its midwest plywood.  I would have to look around for something as good but cheaper.  But thats a tall order.  Everything else I looked at was warped or a weird composition of woods.  This is some nice heavy stuff.  The stuff at my local Lowes and Home depot was just horrible.  
 
I am not sure what the price would be and if it would be too high for folks.  This 1/4" stuff is also heavy and would cost a pretty penny to ship...   Its the reason why you get half the bulkheads needed for most commercial kits.   But I would be willing to do it if enough folks are interested.  But I am definately not going into teh complete kit business.  I will do al-a-carte stuff like blocks and cannon and carronades....My recommendation would be to just cut them out yourself...then it would just cost you the price of the plywood.
 
I will be giving Jeff a wood supply list as well.  So that will be easy enough.

Today I laser cut the bulkheads and false keel from 1/4' thick ply.  It was comforting that the laser cutter will have no problem cutting through this thickness of ply.  That is really good.  Normally you will see 3/16" thick bulkheads.  I have started to use the thicker stuff in my latest designs.  I think it really helps with the stability and strength of the hull.  Its just a better thickness to go with in my opinion if you choose POB.    When you no longer have to worry about mass production and kit MFG profit vs. loss,  you are free to do these things.  Its a great feeling and in the end make the modeling experience so much better.
 
The parts fit really well.  You can see how large in comparison to the Winnie in the background.  I made the bulkhead former in two pieces as you can see.  I think its important to make these in shorter lengths.  If they are too long they have a tendency to warp and bend.  The slots cut for the bulkheads makes this even more of a problem.  It helps the warping become even worse.  You will also notice the many, many bulkheads.  I have added a picture of the Sherbourne cutter by Caldercraft for comparison of design.  With bulkheads that far apart the planking is going to be tough.  
 
Chuck
 

 

 

Thanks guys.
 
I may use it because Jeff has a stash of it at Hobbymill.   I have samples and it looks like real nice stuff.  Its a bit cheaper than boxwood but only marginally so.   But if you didnt know which was which side by side it would be hard to tell the difference.  Because they are so similar why not give it a try. Boxwood is slightly more tightly grained and the the color is more even.  But if you get choice pieces of Pau Marfin it looks just as nice.  It isnt as hard as Boxwood but its really close.  More along the lines of pear in my opinion.   But I figured why not give it a try.  It also helps Jeff get rid of some.  Maybe if more folks see a model made from it they might give it a try like I may do.  It all depends on how long I have to wait for it.  I think Jeff is going on vacation soon if he hasnt already.  But I can still make the bulkheads and stuff while I wait...     
 
Chuck