gak1965

Looking great, Rick!

Getting really close there, Jared! Regards, George

Thanks @iMustBeCrazy, @Lecrenb, and @Kevin-the-lubber, thank you for the suggestions! I tried using card, but I found it tore too easily. Maybe my blades aren't sharp enough, but it didn't work. And unfortunately, I don't have access to a 3D printer or an entity that will make a brass copy alas... However, I then returned to a thinner piece of polystyrene, and was able to make something that, I think works...? (the pieces are not glued on yet, they are just sitting there to see how they look). It's not perfect, it's probably as good as I'm going to get at this scale. I also made the shield that is the figurehead on the ship. It's not perfect, but it is probably as good as I'm going to get. Anyway, I need to make a duplicate of the scrollwork for the port side, and then I can mount on the ship. On a more amusing note. My wife and I teach math to apprentice shipwrights at the Alexandria Seaport Foundation, and when I was there, I noticed two gaffs being stored on the roof. At the jaws of one, there were standard wooden parrel beads. On the other, were these rather atypical ones: Waste not, want not, I suppose. As always, thanks for looking in! Regards, George

Thanks Rick. Let's just say it took more than one try and leave it at that! I've been working on the stem now. I had earlier cut and bent two pieces of wood that would represent the naval hoods (?) which have the hawse holes and the scrollwork on the stem. Drilling the hawse holes was easy, I've been working on the scrollwork which is much harder. Here is the ship stuck in the ice in 1901, you can see the scrollwork (probably gilded since it is a different color than the white stripe). Here is the ship in 2010 with (nominally) the original bow: Here is the ship today with a replacement (nominally identical) bow (licensed CC-BY at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1901_wurde_die_RRS_Discovery_in_Dundee_vom_Stapel_gelassen._02.jpg: The scrollwork is, to say the least, complex. My original thought was to simplify somewhat, cut it out from 1/32" thick bass, sand the edges, paint them, and mount onto the naval hoods (or whatever the correct terminology is). However, I have found that I can't cut even a simplified version out of 1/32" bass, the things just break (repeatedly). I've tried cutting things out from polystyrene sheet. This seems more promising, but getting something that doesn't look like it was done by a child has proven complicated. Any thoughts on this? I've looked at some of the carving tutorials on the site, but they seem more focused on taking pre-cut items and carving them to be more three dimensional. Are there other materials I should be thinking about? I know that I'm going to have to simplify it given the scale, but so far my best attempts have looked simplistic at best. Anyway, appreciate any insights anyone might have. Regards, George PS - The Union Jack is going to be made separately.

Jared, She's really looking fantastic! Glad you took the time you needed, and are ready to proceed apace. Regards, George

Hello! I am also George from Washington, DC (well, Rockville a bit north of you). Welcome to MSW! George

Quick update. I've cut, stained and installed the cap rails. Most of the rail is made from 1/16 thick bass I cut to 6 mm wide. The stern is cut to match the stern from a piece of 1/16 bass sheet and fitted in place before staining and permanently gluing. Regards, George

Rick, That makes a lot of sense. The ship was not a great sailer, and if it was pinwheeling a prop with a steam engine attached, I imagine it would be a lot worse. Regards, George

One last propeller update. Mounted on the ship. On the stern side it is mounted into a small cradle made from brass strip and painted. On the forward side, there is a channel that runs from the shaft to the hull above (you can see it in the ship photo a couple of entries back). That is there to enable to prop to be pulled out and replaced from the deck in the event of damage. I've added that in using painted brass. So, here it is: One thing I didn't model is the actual octagonal hole that goes through the hull that allows the access from the deck (and a similar rectangular access point for the rudder). It's mostly hidden, it isn't a regular octagon, and it just went into the too hard pile. I will be modeling the access port on the deck (it's a piece of deck furniture). I mentioned that it isn't a regular octagon, but, sort of a flattened octagon. Seven sides are the same length, but one is not - I presume related to the width of the hull at the exit point, but still very weird. Anyways, have a great weekend everyone! Regards, George

Okay - the prop is done. Here is the basic sequence. I cut out the blades from brass sheet, using a bit of painters tape to draw the outlines: I used a knife handle to curve the blades, and then fit them into a curved cut I made in the hub: Here it is before painting: This was where I made, an, ah, mistake. I had a bottle of Tamiya "bronze" paint. Here is what it looked like after a coat of paint (yikes): So, suddenly doing additional research I should have already done (and frankly when I opened the bottle, I should have cottoned to), I learn that the bronze used on most propellers is in fact an alloy of copper, tin, and zinc, which makes it both a bronze (copper + tin) and a brass (copper + zinc). Either way, I took some Tamiya gold paint and mixed it with the bronze until I got a shade that made more sense. A quick sand with 320 grit sandpaper to even out the first coat, and we get the following: which I think you will all agree is much nicer. Regards, George

Concur. Plus, as the boat ages and things break, they get repaired with what is available - if it's a different size or looks a little different, well, no one is going to replace all of the block for aesthetics. She's looking great! George

Quick question. So, I gather most propellers were made of bronze (even to this day). What would the shaft have been made of in 1901? Iron? Steel? Bronze? Trying to decide how to paint the shaft. I mean, Given that this is meant to be removable, would it make the most sense for it to be a single bronze casting? Any help appreciated. Thanks, George

I tend to use annealed wire as well - same reasons - it's black and easy to work with. GAK

@Rick310, appreciate the comment! Now, the prop. Here it is on the ship. My initial question was how to make the ball that holds the blades and the shaft as one piece, two pieces (a ball with a hole drilled through it for the shaft), or three (a ball with two dowels glued on as shaft segments. My initial thought was to try to fabricate it as one piece and see where we go from there. This is one place where the plans have let me down, as they don't show much detail on the prop - so I've been forced to work from photographs like the above. The "ball" at my scale should probably be in the 12-15 mm diameter range with about 4 mm worth of shaft visible. I didn't have a big enough dowel or single piece of wood handy, so I glued up 12 segments of 1/4" by 3/16" (4x3) into a 3/4 by 3/4 inch wide billet, cut it in two, and mounted it in my little lathe. So, step 1 was to round out the square billet (this photo is from attempt 1, all of the others from attempt 2). I've also started defining the boundaries of the shaft vs. the ball. Here it is further along. I've defined the ball and shaft pretty definitively, marked the center of the ball, and started cutting away ball shape on the right hand side. And here it is after trimming further, and sanding with some 150 grit. I've cut it out and I need to see if it is visually the right size (it may be a bit too large), in which case, I'll put the piece back in and sand it down until it appears correct. Once that is done, fill any gaps and cut out where the blades will mount into the ball. I'm not going to try to model the "bolted on" blades at this scale, but I think it's going to look just fine. As always, thanks for looking in and for the likes. Regards, George

Today's update is the rudder. This is the rudder as it was when the Discovery was in dry dock in Australia (a section from https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/picturelibrary/catalogue/article/p83.6.2.3.2/: The rudder is one piece, and quite wide (as wide as the sternpost), and doesn't seem to have much in the way of beveled edges. Here is the blank: Rather than build a separate iron work for the pintle, I made the "iron" pintle holder out of wood, and glued slightly smaller dowel pieces above and below, and then shaped the wood that represents the iron holder semi-circular. The rudder was then painted hull red, as all of it is below the waterline. The rest of the "iron work" was made from 1/4 inch copper tape that I cut to 1/8". I made the "bolt heads" with a nail and a ball peen hammer, and then painted the copper black, and added it to the rudder. The pintle was fitted into the previously made gudgeon, and the top of the rudder glued into place. As always, thanks for looking in and the likes. Regards, George