Salty Sea Dog

Very nice details. I'll be stealing some of these ideas!!
 
Best wishes

Hi Michael
 
You continue to amaze me with the continuing addition of details I honestly didn't believe you could find anything else to add.Excellent work,I wouldn't fancy retrofitting this detail after the main construction.I concur that although only a 'segment' of the actual carriage,they add a great deal visually.
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for your nice comments, likes and just looking in- still and always much appreciated.
 
Continuing with the cannon door assemblies and dummy cannon installations it struck me that I really wanted to also add upper and lower “carriages” look.
 
I looked at the positioned (but not yet fixed into place) first door, and its cannon - wanted to do something about the missing carriages (pic 3).
 
So now I needed to simulate these bits.
 
I played around with some ideas (pic 4), the first two carriages, left to right, did not drop down enough into the dummy opening (pic 5).
 
 Added a longer leading edge vertical strip, looked better (pics 6 & 7)
 
-------------------------
 
I was going to use the Proxxon MF70 and cut a groove into a long piece of timber, but I still would have had the leading edge visual problem, and I imagined that if I tried cutting tiny little slivers of “U” shaped wood, I would loose most to breakage. My fear of the unknown J
 
So the pics were my solution. Made also sure that the wood framings were of the same diameter as the weather deck installs (pic 9)
 
I’m comfortable with this. These will get “lost” when one looks at the finished ship, but for me it adds a level of detail to the dummy openings that seem to work. Labor intensive, for sure. Each dummy has 5 pieces X 50 Hmmm that’s another 250 questionable parts added to this kit. Having fun-no rush on my part…
 
PS: You might note pics 2,5 & 8 (carriage bit in place) the very tip of the pull open rope for the door is a bit darker colored. That is GS Hypo at work. Thumb and forefingers bit of glue makes the rope tips hard and straight- so easy to push into its hole after positioning the doors. Here I actually thought ahead, must be some foresight going on (;-)
 
Regards,
 
Michael

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for your thoughtful comments as well as for just dropping buy, always a pleasure and a source of encouragement.
 
Continuing with the cannon doors;
 
All doors have been sized given the minor size variations on the ports. As Nigel pointed out, my errors were actually in keeping with the way Vasa was probably assembled given its early 16th century birth. Love it when my errors turn out to be OK J
 
Started to put together the opening and closing rope pulls, getting there, need 100 altogether. For the much less visible opening pulls (doors will be open almost vertically) I will only do a single rope wrap not a double, as I’m doing for the closing ropes
 
Those nails will double as the door hinges
 
Using the Proxxon to drill through the door and the inserts. I will use the same hole for the pull and pull eyelets.
Again, thanks for taking your time following along, dropping in or just passing by.
 
Regards,
 
Michael
 
 
 
 

Fabulous work mate!!!!The rigging is in perfect harmony with the rest of your build
 
Kind Regards
 
Nigel

Hi everyone! There's a lot on my plate at the moment, so I haven't had time to be as active as I'd like lately.
 
I have finished the skankläder (war cloth?) for the tops. I then started with the tackles. I was surprised how much work they where. First I reshaped all the block to make them more like the real ones. Then I drilled the holes slightly bigger to fit the ropes I wanted. After that I made the hooks connecting them to the channels before putting the tackles in place.
 
 
/Matti
 

 

 

 

Hey, Adam - many thanks for the kind words!  Should have seen the looks she got at the doctor's office waiting room the other day while she was knitting the blanket.  Priceless!!!!

Well, the Admiral read this and is now contemplating how to make them some bedding - she muttered something about the mattress stuffed with straw and wandered off with a glazed look and something about how thick would a piece of straw be at scale....

Good evening, one and all.  Have been working on the ECB with some nice progress. 
 
First, a full overhead view of current status.
 

 
What, you may ask, are those things hanging over the rails?  Well, mister man, them be home built nets for the hold. 
 
Yep, the Admiral has been busily making fish nets for the ECB.
 

 

 
But wait, there's more!  We can't have the crew shivering on the cold cabin - so knitted using common pins as the knitting needles, we have a scale blanket for the crew.
 

 
I am still working on the stove - using the Fatsco Tiny Tot Stove as a model, it is made of a dowel cut to scale (about 18 inches tall, 13 inches in diameter).  The legs are just toothpicks.  Will be adding some sand into the base and a cooktop before running the stovepie to the overhead.
 

 
Have been working on color scheme - think I will go back to a grey for the outside of the wet well - the brown just doesn't feel right.  I like the bottom red on the interior.  Will leave it partially unpainted as a repair underway.
 

 
I will be keeping this section unplanked.  I will also be leaving off some deck planks - probably around the wet well and also at the cabin.  Not quite sure yet.
 

 
I also have finished the bulkhead between the cabin and the hold.  The hold side will be painted in the same way as the hold so it looks a tad weathered and worn.  The cabin side will be a dirty white - backs up to the coal stove, so it would tend to get a bit mucky.  I still need to do some more painting and paneling for the cabin before I start installing the deck framing.  The forward hold is nearly finished, just need to decide what is going to be in there and anchor it in place.
 

 
Appreciate any suggestions or ideas on how to make it look better - still a long road to travel with this one and am enjoying the ride!

Forgot to post the pics.....
 

Washed the pencil marks out of the sails. Hung them on the front door on a sunny day. The sun coming through the glass storm door heats the space between the doors & dried them very quickly. The stitched lines turned out looking fine to me.
 
I am now working on the reef bands & other cloths sewed on the corners for extra strength in the high stress areas where the sail was pulled on by ropes/rigging. Pics coming soon......... 

Hand stitching the lines for the sail cloths will not be easy. How in the world will I get all those line straight? I pined the sails to the sail plan sheet. Used a ruler to mark the lines in pencil. Used the penciled lines as my guide & very slowly over many days I stitched the line in keeping the stitching as close as I could, keeping the line as straight as I could.
 

ROFL !!!!
 
What an idea ! Genious !!!!
 
And good result.
 
But what to do rest of us who has not enough hair, and a little remains is white?

Jus' briefly - still winged - Our Hero didst spendeth some time this past week pondering one of the Great Mysteries of the Universe:
Specifically, the problem of smooth and shiny nuts !!
 
Indeedeth, the problem didst resolveth itself whence CaptainSteve came upon a Barber shop which, verily, happened to have an over-supply of follicles.
 
"Forsooth, but mayest I partake of ye wares, fine Merchant ??" didst CaptainSteve enquireth, whilst pointing gleefully at the clippings upon the floor.
"Huh ?? WTF doest thou be about ??" asked the Barber, somewhat perplexed.
 
And so, CaptainSteve didst finely choppeth up a handful of hair clippings, coat his nuts with PVA glue, and thence proceed to roll them all about the place.

 
Once the glue had dried, CaptainSteve didst polish his nuts vigourously.
"To removeth stray hairs!!", he didst try to explain.

 
"Ah !! Now they doth happen to be a lovely bunch o' Coconuts !!"

The gentlemans seats of ease in the poop!!

 
The poop decking completed

 

 

 
The supports for the sterncastle are started
Dick
 
 

Here is the completed halfdeck. Note the position of the mizzen mast
 
Dick
 

 

Hi Dick!
 
I just discovered a website dealing with the excavation of the wreck of the Lomellina, a large Genoese ship with 300 men aboard, which sank in Villefranche harbour in 1516. Some interesting stuff there, including the capstan, rudder, port lids etc. It's at http://archeonavale.org/lomellina/an/l_6a.html and there's more at http://www.culture.gouv.fr/fr/archeosm/archeosom/en/lomel-s.htm It seems to me that quite a bit of this information could be relevant to your build.
 
Best wishes,
 
Steven

this is the tiller and steering mechanism. This ship would predate the whipstaff. The large rudder would not be controllable without the tackles.

Thanks, Steven. Next is a part of the ship dear to heart of Louie da Fly: the heads, those vulgar tubes so necessary and often detectable in some illustrations. Some illustrations show projections from the sterncastle much as are seen in the gardrobes of mediaeval castles or jar-like containers also projecting which are probably part of the sanitary arrangements. I believe these rounded projections are ceramic bowls which acted as pissdales or urinals for the gentlemen aft of the mainmast. Between these rounded "pots" are often seen box like ventilated structures accessible from the poop deck where I believe are the seats of ease.
.
These projecting necessary seats are not seen in the Trombetta nave so the seats of ease for the ships VIPs must be internal with lead lined "drops" through the curved base to either side of the rudder
It is these internal arrangements that I will build into the stern.
 
Dick

Hi All,
 
Well I decided to try and do kind of a build log for the Benjamin W Latham by Model Shipways.
 
This will be my first wood ship build. But by no means my first wood kit build.
 
A little background before we get into the build. I'm a retired Design Engineer for a Civil Engineering firm. I build and fly RC Sailplanes and have built, designed and  scratch built numerous sailplanes. I love building, but I don't need anymore sailplanes or for that matter have room for them.
 
I wanted to build something else, and something with a bit of a challenge. I've always loved the old ships and square riggers, so I decided to build one to feed my hunger for building. I wanted something with a bit of a challenge, and with my sailplane building experience, I figured I could build an intermediate model as my first kit build. However my sailplanes have 10 foot and 11 foot wings compared to this whole ship that's only 24". So I definitely have a new challenge.
 
Now, I'm not trying to be a perfectionist or build this as 100% authentic. But something closer to maybe 90-95% authentic or per plans. I have made a couple changes to start with and a couple mistakes as well. So you purist out there, don't blow me out of the water.
 
The first and main thing I changed from the kit was the deck planking. The plans call for 1/16" wide strips for the deck planking. I've read and understand the reason the original Latham used narrower planks for the deck. But I just didn't like the looks of the narrow deck planks. So I decided to use 1/8" wide strips instead.
 
Also, I'm not going to build the Seine boat as part of the kit and display. But will build it separately and display it as a different kit.
 
I started the build a couple months ago and have been taking pictures as I go and have pretty much completed the hull, with the exception of a couple additional items that still need to be added. But basically I'm about to start with the build of the Masts and Spars. From this point on I'm totally lost as how to proceed and this is where the real challenge will begin.
 
Hopefully some of you out there can help me along with the rest of the build.
 
So I'm going to try and post pictures of what I've built so far and get you up to date before I continue building,
 
Any tips, ideas, suggestions, criticism etc is welcome. So please chime in. 
 
So my next post will be the beginning pictures of the build and I'll continue posting pictures to get you to where I am with the build to date. So here goes. Hope I can post the pictures.
 
Eddie

The work might be boring to do, but the care and attention to detail have made sure that the result is magnificent.

Due to lack of time, during the week I didn't worked often around the model.
I made the rigging of two cannons, but other 14 still needs to be arranged, so it will become  a nightmare...
When all the cannons will be ready I will place them on the deck.
I can proceed with the rigging of the foremast only when the cannons are definetly placed, since it will be difficult to do that before.
Making the cannons rigging is rather boring and a slow duty.
I don't yet find a fast way to do it.
In the meanwhile the weekend arrived and so the "noisy days"!
Saturday and sunday are the only days when I can really make noisy operations, so again I concentrated there the crafting of many components, that more or less will be used many weeks later.
this weekend has been very profitable:
-I attached the various bitts of the bow section;
-I made the wooden pedestal of the model;
Later I will add a basement, with a lenght that cover the largest part of the ship.
The pedestal and related basement will be later painted with a mahogany essence.
- I made the belaying pins support of the mainmast;
Before doing that I needed to decide the correct positions of the various blocks and rings around the main mast.
That decision was needed due to the fact that the related holes needed to be done before (as usual).
Sadly I noticed that the mainmast basement zone will become very "crowded".
Probably a more accurate study was needed and the manole needed to be moved a bit more far from the mast.
Now it's too late...
the two bilge pumps needs to be placed between the manhole and the mast, so it will be a tricky affair place them.
The belaying pins are placed just for the photo purposes.
I used the "noisy days" in a wise way, so remained time for making the main mast!
That is a single piece mast, as can be seen in many drawings, paintings and models.
It will not be glued in place for the moment.
It has been placed just for photo purposes.

While you have been recouping and becoming a vegetarian, I have been rummaging through the ship locker and have found some measurements for a bailing piggin. The kit was also 1/16 (3/4" = 1'), so no scale conversions will be needed. The measurements worked cleaner in mm than fractional inches.
 
Base diameter: 12mm
Height to rim: 11mm
Rim diameter: 14mm
Height to top of handle: 22mm
 
The handle is an extended stave that is sculpted a bit for grip. If you Google "piggin", you will get a lot of helpful images. Don't know how many they would have had, but since they were riding so low, hopefully they had a few. I suppose they could have also bailed with coconut shells too.
 
Nice job on the fruit!
 
Best wishes,

While you have been recouping and becoming a vegetarian, I have been rummaging through the ship locker and have found some measurements for a bailing piggin. The kit was also 1/16 (3/4" = 1'), so no scale conversions will be needed. The measurements worked cleaner in mm than fractional inches.
 
Base diameter: 12mm
Height to rim: 11mm
Rim diameter: 14mm
Height to top of handle: 22mm
 
The handle is an extended stave that is sculpted a bit for grip. If you Google "piggin", you will get a lot of helpful images. Don't know how many they would have had, but since they were riding so low, hopefully they had a few. I suppose they could have also bailed with coconut shells too.
 
Nice job on the fruit!
 
Best wishes,

While you have been recouping and becoming a vegetarian, I have been rummaging through the ship locker and have found some measurements for a bailing piggin. The kit was also 1/16 (3/4" = 1'), so no scale conversions will be needed. The measurements worked cleaner in mm than fractional inches.
 
Base diameter: 12mm
Height to rim: 11mm
Rim diameter: 14mm
Height to top of handle: 22mm
 
The handle is an extended stave that is sculpted a bit for grip. If you Google "piggin", you will get a lot of helpful images. Don't know how many they would have had, but since they were riding so low, hopefully they had a few. I suppose they could have also bailed with coconut shells too.
 
Nice job on the fruit!
 
Best wishes,