gjdale

That's looking really nice Jack. Clearly your painstaking preparations are paying off.

Thanks again folks for all the kind comments and the "likes" - they really do encourage me to keep striving to do better. The home straight is in sight! Entry Port Ladders The entry port ladders were fairly simple to make – once I used the right timber, and the right method. My first attempt was using 3/16” square stock Yellowheart, and using the Mill to cut the stepped profile. I quickly discovered that while Yellowheart is fine for planking, it is very difficult to use in other applications. It is very coarse grained, and very brittle, meaning that it will splinter as soon as look at you. I also decided that this task would be better accomplished using the Byrnes table saw rather than the mill – quicker, easier, and cleaner. I decided to use Castello Boxwood for the task as it still retained a pale colour to blend in with the external hull planking, and at the same time was consistent with the timber used for the Channels. These two decisions made the task very simple. The profile along the long edge of the ladder steps was cut very quickly onto longer lengths of stock. I decided to add a degree of difficulty by continuing the stepped profile onto the short edge of the steps. The pieces are too small to safely attempt this with the table saw, so they were individually cut using a chisel and finally cleaned up with a file. This last task was also much easier than I had first thought – perhaps I’m starting to develop my skills with the hand tools too! Here is what the steps looked like after profiling: I decided that they would be easier to mount on the hull if they had a locating pin, so I made up a very simple length jig for the drill press to ensure that all steps had a hole exactly in the middle of their lengths, then inserted a long brass pin “handle”. This handle was a useful holding aid while applying a coat of Wipe-on Poly to the non-glued surfaces, after which it was cut off to a more appropriate length. To aid in placing the steps accurately on the hull, a template was printed from the drawings and attached to a piece of card stock. This was taped in place on the hull while the centres of the steps were marked through with a brad point. The locating holes were then completed by very carefully hand drilling, and the steps glued in place. PVA was used for gluing, which gave ample time to ensure that each step was aligned parallel to its neighbour. Also during the week, my shipment of monograms from Chuck’s Syren company arrived – I think mine may have been the very first order placed, or if not, it was very close. I have to say that I am delighted with the product. The larger size is just right for this scale – a side-by-side comparison with the Russian-made (? or perhaps Ukrainian?) guns that Danny had given me previously showed that Chuck’s monograms were pretty much identical in size, and they also match really well against Jeff’s drawings. Well done Chuck! I gave them a coat of Floquil Engine Black prior to cutting from the sprue, and then put a tiny dab of CA glue on the barrels before placing the monograms ever so carefully with a pair of very fine pointed tweezers. This job would of course have been much easier to do prior to mounting the guns. Anyway, here’s a couple of shots showing the monograms in place on both the Mortar and Gun barrels. Unfortunately, the photos also show just how badly the model needs cleaning up prior to completion. I have been working on the "optional" Mortar Pit Housing over the last couple of days. Not sure if I will complete this yet or not for two reasons. Firstly, as I have been doing this, I have discovered that the recesses I cut into the top of the Mortar Pit are not actually the right size - I didn't appreciate at the time how everything worked together, so I went with something that looked "about right" at the time. If I had studied the plans more thoroughly, I might have realised this and been in good shape at this point. The other reason is that as far as display goes, it really needs for the Housing to be completely on or completely off - there doesn't seem to be a 50/50 option. So, I may just continue to make the parts for the heck of it, or I may get to the point where I simply call "done". I ordered the display case this week, so I've got until that arrives to finish this task, make the final display cradle/stand, and apply some Wipe-on Poly finish to the external lower hull. Oh yes, and clean the pesky dust off !!!!!

I'm with Bob on this one too, Sjors

Lovely joinery Christian!

Sorry to hear about the Half Moon, Sjors, but do I recall correctly that Anja has a scratch build Hannah package waiting in the wings? Could be just the excuse needed to start on it!

Ken, You could always try "ebonising" your wood instead of painting it. The process is described quite well in this video:

Very clever indeed Nils - they look great!

Very nice work Mike. Must have been a bit nerve-wracking the first time you used the plane on it!!!

Congratulations on completing an outstanding model and equally fascinating build log / history lesson, Cathead. I have really enjoyed the journey - thank you for sharing this with us all.

Fascinating and educational Druxey - not to mention exquisitely executed!

Good choice Mark. I've learned that if you are considering whether or not to do a re-do, then you absolutely need to do it!

Thanks again for all the kind comments, thoughtful suggestions, and of course all of the "likes". Chainplates – again! After pondering the problem of the chainplate failure for a few days, and after receiving a few suggestions from my MSW friends, I concluded two things: Firstly, I had been a little too zealous with the clean up of my silver-soldering when I attached the tube to the flat-bar. The result was that the joint had too small an area of bond, and hence a weak joint. After considering alternative approaches, I resolved to give this another crack. So I used exactly the same method as previously described, only this time taking care to leave a fillet of solder on the “shoulders” of the joint. Here is a picture after drilling, bending and blackening. If you look closely you can see the slight thickening at the joint line. The second conclusion I came to was that I was using wire of too great a thickness for the chain strops. I had been attempting to use 0.75mm diameter brass wire for this. After checking with both Mobbsie and Rusty, I decided that 0.5mm diameter would be better suited (Mobbsie successfully used 0.5mm diameter on his build at this scale, and Rusty used 0.78mm diameter for his build in 1:24 scale). The only problem I ran into here was that I was unable to silver solder the joints of the thinner wire. If it’s possible, it’s beyond my current skill set! Instead, I copied the method used by both Mobbise and Rusty on their builds, and that was to twist the wire one complete turn under the deadeyes, and then tuck the ends into the tube section of the chainplate. This at last produced an acceptable result. I secured the bottom ends of the chainplates with small brass nails left over from previous kits various (though I had to shorten them), and then blackened the heads in-situ by painting on Jax Pewter Black, and washing with distilled water afterwards to halt the reaction. This worked very well and did not have any impact on the surrounding timber (which I was careful to avoid). Finally, I used a dab of C/A glue to encourage the deadeyes to “stand up”. Here is the result: All in all, I’m quite happy with the results. All that remains now is to make the external entry ladder, and perhaps the Mortar Pit Housing, as well as the final stand.

Boyd, Jeff Hayes (HobbyMill) has a page on his website about operating the Byrnes Saw, and it includes advice on Blade selection. I just checked, and the page is still there - don't know how much longer he'll keep it up now that he's "retired". Here's the link to the Saw blade selection part: http://www.hobbymillusa.com/byrnes-saw-operation-2.php

Looks like a fascinating subject and a little unusual. Think I'll tag along too.

Mighty fine work Bob - looking great!

I'll add my thanks and appreciation for your detailed explanations and photo essays Ed. The techniques you have so skilfully demonstrated and explained, are applicable to a wide range of models and are an absolute treasure. Thank you for taking so much time and effort to post in such detail for the benefit of all.

I always enjoy watching your builds Rusty, so I'll pull up a chair for this one too.

Gosh that's nice work Albert!

Looks like your perseverance has paid off there Robbyn. Glad to hear the foot is mending well too.

Congratulations Bob - a truly fine model and excellent craftsmanship.

Good decision John! You won't regret it.................once the re-do is completed that is!

Thanks Dan, Coming from a professional model builder, your kind words are especially appreciated. Thanks also for posting pics from your QAR - that method might well be the "winner"! I'll have a closer look today

Thanks Jack, I had a look at your log last night, after Ken sent the link through. Nice work, by the way!

Thanks for the link and the suggestion Ken. I've got a couple of ideas floating through my head at the moment, including the reasons WHY my joints failed. I'll add this to the list of possible solutions though.

And now to the not so successful story... Chainplates I had a brainwave about making the chain plates, and was absolutely convinced this was going to work! The drawing below shows the chainplate (#8) as having a tubular-like section at the top, through which the strop for the deadeye passes. Having thought about this for a few days, I devised a cunning plan. I took a sheet of 1/32” thick brass flat bar, and a piece of 3/32” OD brass tubing, and silver soldered them together. I even devised a way to support the flat bar so that it remained level with the centre of the tubing. Here is what it looked like after soldering – not pretty. Not to worry, a bit of a clean up with a file and some sand paper, and it’s looking much better: And just to prove that I managed to get it centred properly: The next problem to solve was how to slice off pieces of the correct thickness to fit into the milled slots in the Channel boards. I first had to decide how to hold and cut the work. No problem – rotate the mill head 90-degrees and attach a slitting saw. Make up a sacrificial holding board for the brass stock, with a small channel cut into it to seat the tubing while keeping the flat-bar flat. Mount said piece in mill vise and we’re ready to cut – almost…. The slots in the Channel boards were milled with a 1/16” mill, so that was the maximum width for each slice. My mill handwheels are calibrated in millimetres (1/16” = 1.59 mm) and I planned to use a slitting saw that has a kerf of 0.6 mm. I decided that if I went for a slice thickness of 1.4 mm, I would allow myself a tiny bit of wiggle room, while at the same time making the Mill work easier as I would need to advance the X-axis handwheel exactly 2 mm (ie 2 complete rotations) for each slice. I then simply set the depth of cut to 2.5mm (just over the 3/32” thickness of the tubing), and advanced the Y-axis into the saw – carefully, and slowly. This part of the operation worked like a charm. You can see in the following shot, how the process looks part way through. And here are the resulting pieces – a test fit showed they fit into the Channel slots perfectly. A 0.8mm hole was drilled in the end of each piece to take a securing nail, and the chainplates were then carefully bent to the approximate shape shown in the drawings. At this stage I was feeling pretty darned pleased with myself! My success, however, was short lived and it was at this point that success finished and catastrophic failure took over! I made up some deadeye strops from 0.75mm brass wire. This had to be inserted through the tube part of the chainplate before being soldered closed. The parts were then all cleaned with a wire wheel in a rotary tool, and chemically blackened (using Jax Pewter Black, as it also blackens solder). It was then time to insert the deadeyes and squeeze the strops tight around them and the top of the tube. Two things happened here – both failures of the soldering process. Either the tube parted company with the rest of the chainplate, or the strop soldering point gave way, or both. Either way, I had a greater than 75% failure rate, and the remaining 25% were looking a bit dodgy too. Several days’ work down the tube, but learning (of sorts) has taken place! Back to the drawing board……