michael mott

Doing some catching up Keith, Wow what a superb job you are doing The rigging and sail making do look right I think that at the scale that you are working that "sewing" anything on the sails would detract from what looks like beautifully made sails. Our eyes put the "sewing there" because that's where the sewing is supposed to be! Wonderful work as ever. Michael

Starting over again somehow just as I was finishing I lost it all. Next the inner and outer side pieces ready to be laminated together, the upper portion is boxed with some 1/8th strips and the lower section clear to allow the outer layer to form the curved tumble-home. the inked line on the inner was a guide for the hand plane to for the bevel on the .040" inner wall. The bottom edges were glued with MEK and left overnight to cure fully. Once dry the test side panel was primed and painted with the brown colour, note the differing textures of the styrene and cardstock. I will ensure that when priming the actual model I will address this issue by giving the raised panel a light sanding to smooth the surface during the priming coats. The next task was to paint the inset areas with the cream colour and was advised by those who do a lot of coach painting to use very thin coats and to flood the panel areas and let the paint flow up to the border and not fiddle with it. this worked very well. after a couple of coats. And almost there. I took a break to let the paint harden up and started on the wheels which are a composite construction with steel tyres and wood between the tyre and the hub this is the standard Maunsell wheel which was designed to reduce the noise of the steel on the rails from being to loud in the coaches. I also noted that the painting was incorrect and did some remedial work to correct it. When starting the actual coach I followed David Jenkinson's method of building an inner box that the decorative panels would attach to. I transcribed the bevel of the sides to the end panels and this worked well when using the block plane. Then the outer panels were glued on , the top spacers were made horizontal to allow for glazing to be inserted from the ends before the end panels are permanently fixed after all the painting is complete. The end panels were made the same way as the first test pieces complete with their windows and tumble home and are able to be slipped in-between the side panels which are a little longer than the inner box. The roof substructure is made from a solid piece of yellow cedar and will be covered with and overlay of card and fine cloth to give the correct overhangs and texture. The edges of the roof substructure was slowly rebated to let it slip down inside the protruding side panels. The small protruding section called a ducket were made independently from the main body for the same reason as the ends and will be fixed after painting. The curves at the top and bottom were made from solid styrene and then the paper overlay was added afterwards. That's it for now. Michael

Hi Andy thanks for the compliment. I actually to have one of those nibblers, and it is useful for some work but not this work. but thanks for the link anyway, I should probably get a new one as mine is a Bit Tired. Michael

Yves, Yes there are some really amazing models being put together with the 3D printing processes, it though requires a whole new set of skills that I am not prepared to spend the time to learn. If I were 30 or 40 years younger then perhaps. But I am learning enough new things with my current set of skills as it is, and i am having fun solving the challenges that crop up. Michael

Thank you all for the positive responses. In David Jenkinson's book he does the entire body out of Styrene sheet stock. The outer panel layer out of .015" for gauge 1 (1/32) and .010" for O gauge (7mm scale) these are primarily English scales. here are the common scales and gauges for clarification I found that David's method of cutting out the "doily" or panel layer to be very hard on my wrists he draws on the styrene after giving it a light buffing with some 400 grit to give it a key. then using a Swan Morton scalpel cuts out the panels leaving a 45 degree mitre at the corners, and then uses rat tail files to create the rounded corners. Needless to say this is not easy to accomplish, I made one "doily' this way before giving up and deciding that there was a better way. so I made these The first time I used them was great but they kept slipping so I wrapped some blue tape around to facilitate an easy grip. and began with an end panel, you can see the punch in its original form. also I used some printable cardstock so that I could eliminate the drawing by hand on the card Because the punches are small and home made they need to be cleared which although not difficult is a pain because it is slow. However if the punch only has to cut out the curve of the mitered corner things go a lot more swiftly, as the piece tends to drop out on its own more time than not. Here is a new set of Panel "doilies" being cut by first following David's method of cutting the bulk of the straight lines out first leaving the miters in the corners and then using the punches to round off the corners in the cardstock. This was a much smoother way to do this and my previous experiments with gluing the cardstock to the styrene proved to work just fine. I used Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) to bond the card to the styrene as it capillaries so well. And last one of the panels glued and trimmed ready for the next steps. That's all for the moment. Michael

As suggested I will begin here. My boat building mojo is having a rest while i indulge my other main interest building odd and interesting railway models. This build will be a one off scale model of the GWR parcel van built in 1876, I am using as the main reference the pictorial record of GWR coaches by J. H. Russell From the information in the book i am compiling my own drawings which are a work in progress. Some early test pieces to work out my buildimg methodology, leaning heavily on the work of David Jenkinson who wrote a great book about making carriages out of styrene plastic. it is late so I shall continue tomorrow. Michael

Thank you Keith, Eberhard, and Druxey. Keith thanks for your kind words. Eberhard, yes the information is not exactly great, a mix of photographs of some existing coaches and tiny drawings in a pictorial about the GWR coaches. I Like your Hint Druxey. Michael

Hello to you all who have expressed concern for my health. First of all my surgery went well and my hand is back to normal working with the tools I love most the jewelers saw and my Myford lathe, opposite ends of the model-making spectrum. Judy and I have been keeping a low profile during the last couple of years for all the obvious reasons. My model boat building has taken a back seat at the moment, even though the cutter is not 3 feet away from my bench and the stern is only 9 inches from the end of the lathe bed. As many of you know I am also an avid builder of model railway subjects, currently in the front seat. ( I am working on a four wheel coach of the Great Western Railway built in 1876 in 1/32nd scale and it has presented a great deal of challenges. I am not likely to build any more of them. this one with full working clasp brakes, is enough for me.) Here are a few of pictures of it. the body is .030" styrene sheet with a printable card-stock overlay cemented with MEK to the styrene. The wheels are a composite of steel Castello (16 wedges) and brass all the bolts and pins are turned from brass stock, the axle-boxes and hangers for the springs are currently being redone to better reflect reality, with proper cups and rubber bushings. And the adjustable jig for bending the loops on the ends of the top leaf of the springs. I think I better not push my luck posting pictures of model railway stuff on this Bristol Cutter build log. I am sure that my boat building MOJO will be back sooner rather than later and I will get on with the galley and map chart area. perhaps a sextant lying on the table with some compasses and a parallel rule and pencil. Michael

Lovely work on the chain pumps Bitao. Michael

Keith they are just visible in some of the photos of the real boat. Michael

Nice work on the wheel sir! Michael

I have been busy with spring household garden stuff and other work for a bit but hope to get more planks on by the end of the week. Have been adding rain barrels to my downspouts. but only had a sprinkling of rain so far. Michael

Indeed!

Hi Rob Not intending to hijack your fantastic thread but I thought you might like to see this coaster I just cut this morning for you, it was a lightning cut, only took me a bout a year or so to do. It will go in the mail today. I am assuming your address is the same as the one you PM'ed to me earlier. sorry for the long delay I accasionally suffer from bouts of procrastination. Cheers Michael

I think that is the thing that many of us forget when struggling to portray a moment in time, which is what our models are really all about in my humble opinion. That said it is wonderful when the model can use the miniature of the real full sized object being modeled. But here's the thing we cannot scale molecules and an element of nature is what it is. We compromise all the time to make something look as real as possible in miniature, And you my friend have done an amazing job in representing all those furled sails. Oh but I did notice the stitching was a bit loose on the clew of the mizzen sail.😉 Brilliant work Rob!! Michael

I have added a few more planks. This planking is far more stressful that when I planked up the cutter, because on that hull it was all strip planked and on this hull I am trying to follow the real planking as best as I can, so it is a little bit slower going. Michael

Hello Geert I too missed the last part of your build, Wonderful work and the finished model is a nice reminder of the working vessels that supplied some of the food in past times. It is nice to see all the little details that you have been able to include, well done all round. I will now go look at the gallery. Michael

A small update the third plank on the port side The gluing went well, eventually, I did have to clean it all off the forward half mage a small adjustment to the length then re glue. Michael

Valeriy, I have just been catching up, so apologies for all the likes. Wow you have been accomplishing an amazing amount of superb work, with difficult news all around. Your attention to the small details are what make your work so compelling to study. I am sure that for some of the small repetitive details it is like a meditation, that carries you away. An exquisite body of work so far on this model, you raise the bar high for all of us. Stay safe . Michael

Rob the furled sales on the boom look great. It used to be a job on my small Maria neatly folding up the main between the gaff and the boom, I can imaging it must have been quite a job on a big ship, yours looks very realistic. Michael

Well a bit more adventurous today John, I did manage the second plank on the starboard side in a single piece, however I think I will continue with using 2 or three pieces just to allow the gluing to be less stressful on my nerves. On the third plank on the port side I chose to cut it amidships and work from each end. first however I used some regular thumbtacks to lay a batten along the tick marks, which made creating a tracing a little easier. Transferred it onto a rough slab of yellow cedar. Chopped it in half and worked at forming each end with the mini hut air gun, I will let it sit overnight and see how it looks in the morning. The nice thing about the batten is I was able the drop the formed plank into the gap. Looks like I will need to twists the stem end just a little more tomorrow, it is just resting there at the moment. Michael

No doubt...... Michael

Gary this is a very good way to get a lot of subtle soft curves and I can attest to it working extremely well. I used this method to finish shaping a pull saw handle made of birds eye Maple. and the edge stays sharp for a long time. Getting to the final shaping must feel really great Alan. It looks good, and I like your tilting table. and the plant stands. Michael

Yes, welcome Patrick and thank you for your kind comment. Michael

Thanks for kind comments and likes. The second plank was more difficult than the first, I ended up making it too short so cut it into three pieces and replaced the bow section. One plank was enough for me today. When looking at folk who place the planks on the full size craft there is a few guys and lots of clamps. we are spoiled with our super sized hands and strength relatively speaking as we plank up our models. That's my rational for the extra clamp and the holding pins! here are a couple of shots of the full size stern and stem credit to Roger Dymont who gave me permission to use the photographs. I think I will need to do more shaping of the stem and stern once the planking is complete. Michael