Mumin

And finally a couple of pictures of the carriage I built for my granddaughter(Christmas gift), this is an Amati kit
 

I've made some mistakes which I've been able to fix but I won't go into detail. I've also learned a couple things. Clamps can push a piece out of position and posting on this site doesn't work the way it's supposed to. I can't "Add Photo to Post" and I can't copy and paste from a Word document. I don't know if it's my computer (windows 10) or the site. I have Adobe Flash and it is enabled.
 
I'm pleased with my progress on the build so far and I really enjoy being a part of the MSW community.
 
Photos 1 - 3  Framing the bulwarks

Working on the stern.
 
Photos 1 - 5

So far I've glued up the hull frame, glued on aft section parts and started on the bulwark framing. I can't get the photos added to the post. When I place the cursor where I want it and click on "Add to Post" nothing happens so here's a list of the pics and a brief description:
 
Photos 1 - 2.......Gluing up the hull frame.
Photo 3...............My work station/kitchen table.
Photos 4 - 6........Filing the bevel (fairing) the bulkhead frames/bevel profile.

Hello,  here's a link to blocklayer.com, a website for various calculators and other things.  I think you will find many of them useful.  Blocklayer.com (Greg Tarrant) supports a chidrens foundation, so if you find this site useful please consider a donation.
 
http://www.blocklayer.com/Scale-RuleEng.aspx

Much appreciated Mumin,
     I chose this model kit initially because of the fine detail. Upon further investigation it seemed that it would perhaps be a good choice for a first time build with the laser cut planking and the hull design. We'll see.
Thanks so much for the links. These will be a great resource for me.
 
Corey

Good luck with this kit, it looks great and has somewhat unorthodox hull construction. Take a look at those links, may come handy:
 
Photo build log: https://plus.google.com/photos/118352369589541721632/albums/5931202021827923873
 
Build log (in Russian, but lots of photos): http://forum.modelsworld.ru/topic13249.html
 
Actually they have the whole forum on this model: http://forum.modelsworld.ru/forum110.html

Hello all,
    I'm new to model ship building and new to this site. I'm about to start my first build and like the idea creating a log.
   This is not something I have taken lightly. I've done lots of research and read some books about building model ships. I now feel I'm ready to take the plunge. I hope I titled this log correctly.
    More to come!

This is this weeks inventory.  All these ship this week.  The season is upon us
 
Jim

Hello all,

Christmas Sale is here. Get 30% off on all goods in stock.

Use this discount code in shopping basket: CHRISTMAS SALE 2015

The discount code is valid only to the end of Sunday 6th December.

 

Best regards

Daniel Dusek

Hello,
Kevin Omland from Oyster Bay, NY USA sent us photo of building stave church Gol in 1/87 scale with some notes from building.
Although its not ship model i think it is very nice work, if you are interested you can see it here:
http://dusekshipkits.com/stave-church-gol1
 
Best regards
Daniel Dusek

cont...
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

It's time to muddy my boots and wade into the waters of logging my attempt at building the HM Cutter Cheerful by the Syren Ship Model Company.  I fretted over several different ships to build.  But in the end, it was an easy decision choosing this model, as Chuck Passaro's on-going log will certainly provide instruction for me like no other kit out there could approach.  It won't be a scratch-build per se, however, although like any model there is a certain amount of that involved.  I purchased the Cheerful plans along with the laser-cut bulkheads, keel, stem, and stern frames.  I also purchased the windless mini kit, turned brass carronades and long guns, their carriages, plus the skylight mini-kit.  That should help this novice builder's chances of success.  All this is presently in-route for delivery.   I have contacted Jason over at Crown Lumberyard and am ordering the complete Cheerful Castello Boxwood package...all sheets...as I'll cut my own planks (hey, that's scratch-building!) as needed when I line off the hull.  That should provide plenty of wood for all the building.  But I also have some real nice sheets of mahogany that I also plan to use as it suits me.  OK, I've read many articles, followed along with many builds here.  I think the best advice I've read anywhere is to slow down, and don't put any piece on the model until I'm satisfied...and to have fun.  All I have is time, and I'm going to follow that advice.  Hope you'll follow along.
 
 

Gokstad Viking Ship, Jack.Aubrey, Dusek Shipkits, 1:35
 
It seems that for at least one year, but could be even longer, I'll spend two/three months in Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), in the house that I own since more than forty years, and two/three months in Calci (Pisa) in the house of my daughter Silvia where, being currently single, she has plenty of space to guest me and my wife, with mutual synergistic satisfaction.  
Therefore, by accepting this situation, there is a problem with my shipmodeling activities: in my house I've set up a quite functional workshop, where I am currently building the "Brick de Guerre 24" starting from ANCRE plans; but when I go to my daughter's house what and how can I do? I decided that it's not practical to bring back and forth the Brick and related material: the more the build progresses, the more it becomes cumbersome and the materials and tools needed increase, so I thought a solution that allows me to do any activity in Tuscany without having to make use of the materials and equipments located in my lab at home.  
The solution is for me the purchase of a kit: with this option I have everything I need (even though that's not completely true) in the kit and then I solve 90% of the problem for the materials while regarding the tools I can duplicate the equipment, on a minimum basis, or take them from home, not having, however, the need for great efforts for transport.  
Of course, in the months where I'm in Cinisello I'll work on the Brick, and when I'm in Tuscany I'll work on the kit. This means that to finish the models I'll most probably need twice of the time, but I don't think to die in a short time (sign of the horns exposed more and more times) and, with regards of patience, I don't miss it.  
I took advantage of a fairly advantageous offer from a Czech kit manufacturer, the Dusek Shipkits, http://www.dusekshipkits.com/, and I bought via the internet two Viking ships:  
1) the Gokstad ship, found in Norway and 2) the Skuldelev 1, a knarr, transport ship, found along with other boats in Roskilde, Denmark.
 
Both kits are marketed in 1/72 and 1/35 scale. I chose the 1/35 scale. To start I decided to build the Gokstad ship.  
I want to start with a minimum of history about this ship, on display in a museum located in Oslo. The source is an article I found on wikipedia, from which I extracted some contents relating to this ship:  
The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is currently on display at the The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.  
The site where the boat was found, situated on arable land, had long been named Gokstadhaugen or Kongshaugen (from the Old Norse words kóngr meaning king and haugr meaning mound), although the relevance of its name had been discounted as folklore, as other sites in Norway bear similar names. In 1880, sons of the owner of Gokstad farm, having heard of the legends surrounding the site, uncovered the bow of a boat while digging in the still frozen ground. As word of the find got out, Nicolay Nicolaysen, then President of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, reached the site during February 1880. Having ascertained that the find was indeed that of an ancient artifact, he liaised for the digging to be stopped. Nicolaysen later returned and established that the mound still measured 50 metres by 43 metres, although its height had been diminished down to 5 metres by constant years of ploughing. With his team, he began excavating the mound from the side rather than from the top down, and on the second day of digging found the bow of the ship.  
The Gokstad ship is clinker-built and constructed largely of oak. The ship was intended for warfare, trade, transportation of people and cargo. The ship is 23.80 metres (78.1 ft) long and 5.10 m (16.7 ft) wide. It is the largest in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The ship was steered by a quarter rudder fastened to a large block of wood attached to the outside of the hull and supported by an extra stout rib. The block is known as the wart, and is fastened by osiers, knotted on the outside passed through both the rudder and wart to be firmly anchored in the ship.  
There are 16 tapered planks per side. The garboard planks are near vertical where they attach to the keel. The garboard planks are narrow and remain only slightly wider to take the turn of the bilge. The topside planks are progressively wider. Each oak plank is slightly tapered in cross section to allow it to overlap about 30mm the plank above and below in normal clinker (lapstrake) style. Iron rivets are about 180 mm apart where the planks lie straight and about 125 mm apart where the planks turn.  
At the bow, all of the planks taper to butt the stem. The stem is carved from a single curved oak log to form the cutwater and has one land for each plank. The inside of the stem is hollowed into a v shape so the inside of the rivets can be reached during construction or repair. Each of the crossbeams has a ledge cut about 25 mm wide and deep to take a removable section of decking. Sea chests were placed on top of the decking to use when rowing. Most likely on longer voyages sea chests were secured below decks to act as ballast when sailing. The centre section of the keel has little rocker and together with flat midships transverse section the hull shape is suited to medium to flat water sailing. When sailing downwind in strong winds and waves, directional control would be poor, so it is likely that some reefing system was used to reduce sail area. In such conditions the ship would take water aboard at an alarming rate if sailed at high speed.  
The ship was built to carry 32 oarsmen, and the oar holes could be hatched down when the ship was under sail. It utilized a square sail of approximately 110 square metres (1,200 sq ft), which, it is estimated, could propel the ship to over 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). The mast could be raised and lowered. While the ship was traveling in shallow water, the rudder could be raised very quickly by undoing the fastening. Dendrochronological dating suggests that the ship was built of timber that was felled around 890 AD. This period is the height of Norse expansion in Dublin, Ireland and York, England. The Gokstad ship was commissioned at the end of the 9th century during the reign of King Harald Fairhair. The ship could carry a crew of 40 men but could carry a maximum of 70. The ship's design has been demonstrated to be very seaworthy.  
Both kits have the same price: in total I spent € 230, including VAT and shipment. A price (115€ each) quite interesting also if the kits are rather simple.  
The completed model should look like in the images 01 and 02 here below.  
Length: 610mm, Width: 260mm, Height: 370mm  
01 gokstad35-2.jpg

02 gokstad35-1.jpg

 
The kit of this model, shown in the photos 03 and 04, looks like this:
 
03 P1100347r.jpg

04 P1100348.jpg

 
Inside there is the materials, drawings and building instructions. On the internet there are also downloadable files with the same instructions at: http://www.dusekshipkits.com/viking-gokstad-1-35
 
That's all for now, but the adventure has just to begin . . Cheers, Jack.Aubrey
 

Richard
This is the Jig I use.
It is good for blocks, dead eyes, rigging hooks, eyes and just loops.
I clamp the base to the desk.

Then use a modified clothes peg, push a long pin through holes in the peg and the hole in the block.

Then the peg fits into the base. There is a 'dowel' on the peg and a hole for the pin.

Thread is fed through around the block, caught with a clip and an elastic band tensions the thread.

I then seize the number of turns I want using the traditional ‘trapped loop’ method.

I pull the end of the thread through the loop and pull out the loop. Push the siezing up tight to the block.

Take out of jig, paint with 50/50 PVA and trim when dry.

 
I'm sure some will think this overkill.
But I have done hundreds of blocks (even the smallest of sizes), loops, eyes etc. so have gotten pretty slick.
And I love the way the it looks.
 
Nick

The day has come.  I spent a lot of time messing with the anchors, but I simply couldn't find a position where they looked decent to me when lashed to the timberheads, so I chose to display them hanging from the catheads.  I then spent far more time than I probably should have messing with the anchor buoys, and in the end was just unhappy with how they looked when properly attached to the anchors, so I decided to display the ship without them.  I may make a couple of rope coils and place them on the empty timberheads where the buoys would be hung and belayed, but other than that, and some inspection and touch-up painting/matting, the Serenity is done.
 
I need to re-do my lighting arrangement (which means rearranging the room I take these in) as I'm not real happy with the way these photo's turned out (from a lighting perspective), so I will probably do a full 'finished' photo-shoot sometime later this week.
 
Image dump (bigger than usual - 1600x on the long side)...
 

Hello All,
Last two weeks I tried to do some sculptures for the new kit-Dutch Statenyacht. I decide to try to learn work in 3D sculpting software-SCULPTRIS and then to print in on 3D printer. As I found the SCULPTRIS is superb software for that and it is free, here is the link: http://pixologic.com/sculptris/
On the lictures you can see the SCULPTRIS virtual model of fish sculpture and result from 3D printer.

Then I tried to make some figurines of sailors in 1/72 scale. I hope I will be able to prepare some figurines for resin production, here are some pictures of virtual model and printed one, height of the figure is 25mm.

Kier,
Have a look at this post:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/439-planking-tutorials/   Check out the tutorial by Chuck as it is excellent and profusely illustrated. 
 
There's a lot of ways to spile...  some mark and use a scroll saw, others heat and edge bend, others sandpaper.  It'll take some experimentation to figure out what's best for you. 

Strictly speaking,every material has it's own optimum cutting speed.This is not an RPM value but measured in feet or metres per minute.Many variables come into play to determine the RPM you require,for modelling,mainly the diameter of whatever the cutting the device and how many cutting faces the tool has.A milling cutter with six flutes will want to run slower than that with two.
When all these variables come in to play,you essentially have many tables of desired spindle speeds.Advances in cutting technology challenge the 30m/min I was taught was the optimum for mild steel.The latest CNC beam saw/drill lines we have at work have drills unlike anything elsewhere and can drill a 50mm hole through 40mm steel in around 5 seconds!!
Sorry I can't be more specific,but the general rule to follow is too fast with wood,you get burning,too slow and you get poor surface finish.This is only with sharp tools,blunt tools can cause either even when the speed is correct.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

I would guess that 17000 is for very small bit diameter. General rule (as I understand) is the smaller the size and the softer material, the higher the rate.

The manual of my 'dremel-ish' tool has a neat table with suggested speeds:
 
Soft metal cutting 33,000rpm
Wood grinding 31
Hard metal cutting 29
Metal engraving 25
Smoothing of sharp or uneven edges 21
Drilling 17
Rust removal 13
Tool sharpening 9
Polishing 5
 
You yould also find those helpful:
http://mdm.boschwebservices.com/files/Dremel%20Rotary%20Tool%20Bit%20100,%20105,%20106,%20107,%20108,%20109,%20110,%20111,%20112,%20113,%20_%20(EN)%20r22502v55.jpg
https://www.dremel.com/en-au/customerservice/ManualsAndLiterature/Documents/08-09%20Accessory%20Guide%20Poster.pdf

Rigging time.
 
I found a few things that I was not happy with and therefore made changes to.
 
The first one was how the shrouds were attatched to hull. In the instructions, they asked that you tied a loop through a hole in the inner frame (see follwing photo) and then linked the shroud to it using the shroud pins.
 

 
If you did this, then there was no way in which you could tighten/loosen the shrouds.
 
Searching on the internet I found another option which I decided to follow. It is shown in the next photo.
 

 
The next photo shows the mast with its shrouds.
 

 
The next thing I changed was how the forestay was attached to the bow. The instructions ask you to tie the forestay through a hole in the bow. Whilst researching I found that there was a "pin" inserted through the bow which the forestay was tied around, so I decided to do that as is shown in the following photos.
 

 

 
The last thing I changed was the Parrel. There is evidence that they used a wooden parrel so I made one up and used that insted of tying rope around the mast and spar.
 

 
The following photos show the sail, sail bar and some of the sail ropes
 

 

 
I hope to finish the rigging in the next week and then make up the cargo and that will be it.

And here is the final photo of the Knarr with its name showing on it.