tkay11
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Everything posted by tkay11
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Thanks, Gregor and Kester. The size mismatch has been commented on by so many previously that now I do think it is worth it to re-size the cannon. Re-sizing, yes that I can do. However, as to finish and crispness, those I have a lot to learn about yet -- although I do appreciate the kind comments. I'm definitely still learning about the sharpness of blades, thinness of paint, which files to use and how, applying varnish etc. It is the patient exploration of all this that is not only enjoyable, but very calming. The quiet contemplation that goes with thinking how to go about a problem is very satisfying -- whenever I have a boring meeting to attend it gives me a certain wicked pleasure to go back to thinking how to do something with the model rather than having to listen to the same old platitudes, group think and the drive to mediocrity that most groups strive for. Tony- 269 replies
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Thanks a lot, guys, for the comments, likes and the continuing encouragement. It's quite clear that without the experience I've gained from you and the forum I'd never even have attempted working with a wood lathe -- as you have seen I spent a long time trying to make it work just with the kit barrels rather than accepting that it was just too big. I'm really glad you made the suggestion to use ebony, Nigel -- I now feel much more confident about using it in the future. It certainly was made easier by spending time on learning how to use the lathe with the pear and boxwood barrels. Onwards! (Well, step by little step, anyway) Tony
- 269 replies
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Ebony cannon Well, after turning 8 barrels from boxwood (I had decided that it would be overkill to try casting from resin, and it did only take a day to do) I did decide to follow Nigel's suggestion and turn the cannon in ebony after all. It seemed to me that boxwood allowed a little more accuracy, but the appearance after painting wasn’t as nice as that of ebony. I also decided to make the carriages at the same scale as for the 3pdr cannon. I won’t go into the process of making the carriages smaller, as I used the same techniques as for the 3.5pdr carriages that I made last time. To make sure I didn’t go off the line too much when drilling out the bore, I used BluTak (a kind of putty) to act as a depth gauge. Holes for the trunnions I had not covered in my last posting how I drilled the holes for the trunnions. This had caused me to think a while because I needed to drill a horizontal hole through a barrel that has a changing diameter along its length. In the end, the answer was simple. Using the CAD drawings I found that in order to lay the barrel so that the centre line was perfectly horizontal, I’d need to raise the edge of the muzzle swelling by 0.45mm. So I rested and held the barrel on a plank with some BluTak and placed the muzzle on some feeler gauges that combined to a depth of 0.45mm. This assembly was fixed to my x-y table and a 1mm hole drilled through so that the top of the trunnion went through the central line of the bore. You’ll note the faint pencil mark in front of the reinforce ring that shows the centre line of the barrel. The trunnions The trunnions themselves were again made from strips off a bamboo chopstick pulled through a drawplate to 1mm diameter. You can see the different barrels from ebony, boxwood and painted pear when compared to the original barrel below. Finally, you can compare the carriages and barrels as they went through their evolution. (For those with questions about the acrobatic abilities of the captain, he is not standing on the barrel, but is behind). Should you ask whether it was worth it to make a small difference to the size of the cannon and their carriages, all I can say is that they now fit the cannon ports much better. That as well as the fact that I've improved my skills slightly as a result of all this fiddling around. Now I will be working on the rigging for the cannon, and I've started to plan for the belaying pins and racks. Tony
- 269 replies
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Now you see how satisfying that motivation can be. It brings happiness and laughter to your life. Long may it continue. And Gregor. And Kester. And Mark. And Eamonn. And Chuck. And Jay. Oh, dear, now I'll have to start the list of all the members of MSW. Let me work on it. It might provide some motivation for my build.... Tony
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Dirk, if you didn't know it already, your entire motivation to build is to provide my instruction at no cost. Tony
- 210 replies
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It's like you were reading my mind, Gregor, because I have been ruminating about a serving machine, and I had entirely missed Marc's build. So I am delighted at the link and will be building my own machine on those plans as well. Thank you very much, and, equally, congratulations on another nice piece of work, Dr. M. Tony the Preserved
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Nigel, could you say who your supplier of the black tissue paper is in the UK. My initial search came up with sites that do not specify the weight of the paper. Thanks Tony
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Great to see the first stage done. Really pleasing, isn't it! You've made a nice job of it. It will be very exciting to see the Sherbourne fitted with a landing pad for the quadcopter. Possibly a first on this forum, and it will lay to rest all the discussions about where to put the ship's boat -- it's now the ship's quadcopter, which clearly couldn't be towed behind, unless on a raft of course. You might have to make the mainsheet a bit smaller, though, if you do have a landing pad. Like you, I found pencil to be a very nice method of caulking. In terms of planking, the planking patterns above and below the wale seemed to me to be a bit different and I seem to remember that I treated them separately -- measuring to and from the wale's position above and below. For the area beneath the wale I don't think there's any defined wisdom as to whether you start at the top or at the garboard. I went the way of the tutorial on this forum by starting at the garboard, but I also laid planking at the wale and worked my way toward the middle. You might also think about whether you use the kit wood for the second planking or whether you buy thinner planking which is easier to lay (especially if, like me, you haven't cut a rabbet or left enough space for the 1mm wood supplied). As for the dust it makes a superb filler when mixed with dilute PVA -- and it certainly saves on buying special filler. I am sure, though, that others with more experience will be chipping in with their advice. My own is based on a rather hazy memory. Tony
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Thanks, Jim, for the encouragement. I've been following your Ballahoo with interest, but I hadn't seen your build of the Snake until I noticed it in your signature. Very nice work indeed. As for my build, it really should be kept in the context of how a complete newbie to this game can make the build more interesting by taking the time to learn from others (be it from the forum, from books, or museums and the internet) as well as just jumping in and learning by attempting. As with others who have expressed the same, I am constantly surprised that I can do something that I thought would have been beyond my competence -- just by having a go, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes. I hope to make this process as transparent as possible to any others who are coming to grips with this hobby and who may feel that they'll never achieve the craftmanship that some builders display. I want to show that for many of us it's just a case of step by step, building up skills and confidence. Patience is everything in this game, but I suspect that many of those who, like myself, start very late in life, feel that their years are numbered and have to rush! Tony
- 269 replies
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I've heard that NMM has shut its ship model gallery for the moment and is moving a lot to Chatham. So it would be a good idea to check. Chatham has nice displays but is dimly lit for the models and does not allow photography at all. One thing I intend to do is to contact the Science Museum to see if it's possible to look at their collection of models which I believe has several cutters. I'm sure you'll be very satisfied with the plank bending once you get the feel of it. Tony
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You should try macro photography on some of the models in the National Maritime Museum -- I am sure there were a few modellers of those days who would have been very happy not to have macro shots to display alongside their models. Your solution about the deck planking sounds fine -- just make sure there are no implications for the intersection of pieces that have to be added in the future. Tony
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OK, Kester, I'll wait till I see how you do yours, then. Anyway, I'm still finishing off my gun carriages and their rigging, then I have to consider the belaying pin issues which you guys also foisted on to me. I'm beginning to feel like Preserved Killick, as in "I'm coming, I'm coming (mutter, mutter)". The trouble with subversive thoughts is that they stick in the mind, and I'm already thinking of how to build a jig ... oh, no, Preserve me! Tony
- 210 replies
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I do wish you guys would stop making my life more difficult. Now I have this choice to keep me up at night worrying over whether I'll try it or not. Grrrrrrrr! The challenge is a nice one but I have a feeling this is one too many for the likes of me. Hmmm. Ponder, ponder ... Tony
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In that case, it looks as though the planks shouldn't stop at the end, but indeed should curve round. If you fill in the space with balsa or lime or some wood that's easily sanded, and remove the planks that have been cut 'short', it shouldn't be too hard to bend the planks over the sanded filler wood (which you can apply glue to). You could also put in an epoxy putty, or some other wood filler which would help hold the planks. To bend the planks you just have to soak them until they can bend with gentle hand pressure, and curve them round a bottle or shape that's similar to the one you want. I seem to remember about 20mins in warm water does it with the kit strips. There are all sorts of methods of bending planks, but most depend on water. The one I prefer is to soak them then dry them on or round a shape using a hair dryer. Others use low wattage soldering irons to bend their planks on, or hair curling tongs. Some prefer just to use a dry heat, but I haven't tried that myself. You can also buy plank bending tools but they depend on nipping the wood on the inside curve: which works, but can make the wood split more easily if you are not careful, and more difficult to sand. If you know all this, then I apologise -- but that's all I can suggest for the moment. Tony
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I don't understand what the problem is at the stern, John. There's another build (in German) at http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=30870.0 which is slightly past the stage you are at -- so you might pick up a hint from the photos there. Could you explain the problem a bit more, or maybe show what the plans suggest?. There's also a low res picture of the stern at http://www.model-boats-ships.co.uk/commission-restoration/kit-model-ships.html. Tony
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I believe the downward pointing bowsprits were only on the whaling boats of the period, and then only when chasing larger whales in rougher seas. Tony
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Milliput superfine epoxy putty may be the kind of thing you are looking for. It has a few advantages over chewing gum. Conversely, I suppose I wouldn't chew Milliput after it had hardened. Tony
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Airplanes? I thought rails were for trains. Which reminds me of a question I forgot to ask. What size wheels did the Sherbourne have? They're not in the plans and they weren't in the kit. Tony
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I can pretty much guarantee that Tony is not right. Tony
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I think everyone is confused, but Kester's on the right track as to height. In fact it should have been set to about 3 feet high as the 'horse' was in fact a clothes horse on which the sailors would hang out their clothes to dry after their daily wash and shower in the bathrooms below (which unfortunately were not shown as such in the plans of the time). It was only later that they discovered this was also a convenient way of managing sails. Tony
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It's great that you're doing this model, Frank, as I don't recall a full log of that having been made on this forum other than the few pictures provided by Dirk. Dirk did post a full range of photos of that build on another site, Part 1 of which you can see at https://plus.google.com/photos/+DirkKarsten/albums/5092241937714554929?banner=pwa&authkey=CMDJmoPsx8ns0wE but again without a written description or discussion of methods/tools. His written log from 2007 is in German and can be found at http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=20915.0. The Krick Alert has been one of the possibilities for me for my next build, so I look forward to yours with great interest. As has been mentioned, the Krick model different from the ship in the AOTS book. The Krick Alert is two-masted and defined as an American ship. Peter Goodwin's book is of a single-masted Naval Cutter. The deck layouts and armament are quite different. All the same, Goodwin's book is very interesting and will give lots of good ideas about detail. Tony
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I often not only have several days off, but sometimes weeks at a time. There are lots of reasons for people not doing their building all day every day. There is someone on the forum who posts a motto saying something like 'it ain't a hobby if you hurry', and someone else who posts something along the lines of 'if you're not enjoying it, then don't do it' (with the implication that if you don't feel like it at the time, there's no one asking you to do it, so there's no point in agitating). This hobby is very much self-driven, and I'm sure you've picked up from many contributors that they're not going to worry if you're not performing to a schedule. From the point of view of someone following your log, they're not going to pay much attention to the dates on your posting. What is interesting is what you've done, the questions you ask, and what can be learned or contributed. Some people seem to be able to devote the whole day to the hobby, for some it is a business, and for others they'll pick up the odd hour or two when they can find the time. Then there's the time that is very nicely spent researching, reading or simply looking at other builds on the forum to find out how people do things. My own schedule has been crazy -- not least because I decided to do some parts several times over until I arrived at a stage that I felt acceptable (if not perfect), One difficulty is that I keep learning from others how to do it a bit better -- so my problem is deciding the cut-off point at which I say enough tinkering and move on. But I've also had tons of travelling to do and intensive work schedules, let alone the day-to-day business of family life, repairs in the household and the like. You'll see lots of logs saying something like 'life has got in the way recently', and thank goodness for that. So, in short, take your own time, what suits you, and don't feel under pressure to 'perform'. There's lots of flexibility in this hobby, and if you make mistakes many are fixable (just as Kester has pointed out). Tony
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Great! Lovely to have another Sherbourne. I wonder if it might have called in at Leigh on Sea in its day (although your identifier says Leign on Sea, I presume it's Leigh). The photos show you're off to a cracking start. I'm very much looking forward to the continuation. And welcome to MSW! Tony
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It's coming along just fine. Are you going to fill between the remaining bulkheads? Tony
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Great to get going, isn't it! Looking forward to the rest. Tony
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