Ian_Grant

A good while since I posted. We were away a couple of weeks hiking in various canyon national parks at the corner where Utah/Nevada/Arizona all meet. Great trip which we hugely enjoyed given terrain which was like nothing we'd ever seen. Here are a couple of shots taken at Bryce Canyon. There are various trails which go down and wander among the hoodoos, each of which ends with a climb back up to the rim! One day there was snow, 0 deg C, so the family opted out but I had a great hike; muddy at first but tee-shirt warm at the bottom. And here is a fun photo taken at the trading post near Bryce Canyon. We will hang it next to a similar western-themed sepia shot taken when the kids were four and eight. Now back to the ship. I finally painted the bottom and the main wales black, actually "Dark Secret" from Home Depot which I would liken to Humbrol "Tank Grey". It was a relief to finally see the seams between the various small pieces of plywood skin disappear. The oars and mechanisms have been removed to allow mods. I want to make the lower oar blades the same increased size as those of the upper oars; shorten the upper oars by 1/2 inch; elongate the mounting holes of the upper oar beams to allow adjustment relative to the lower oars. I had a brief panic about NiMH batteries. Way back at the start of this project, I looked around and saw NiMH 5-cell "packs" at 6V and thought, ok, we're good to go with 6V analog servos. But recently I read that a 5-cell NiMH pack charges to something over 7V but soon drops to 6V when loaded. Consulting with the Hitec technical support line yielded the info that it's OK; the analog servos will be fine. Now I've been looking for a suitable battery pack and charger. I put my ammeter at the battery when rowing in water and was surprised to see it only draws about 3/4A whereas I'd been expecting maybe 2 or 3 amps. I have my eye on a pack and charger but haven't ordered yet. I also have the bigger resin-printed ballistas from my brother. He is now tasked with printing the rudders for this thing in transparent resin, which I really need quite soon in order to progress further.

Wow, those planks are going to look awesome when sanded...........👍

Good on them for promoting recycling. Our local dump does not allow you to pick up anything someone else left, for some reason.

"Pretty good"? At this scale, it's incredible! Or any scale really.

Nice work! Always happy to see an RC build!

Marc, in your #103 DR's wale is under water; in this stern view it's well above. Colour me confused.......🤔

Interesting that the Dauphin Royal has her main wale completely underwater amidships. Final nail in the coffin of Heller's way-too-low etched waterline on SR.

Oh Eric, I have no idea what is accurate. Best see what Marc thinks. 🙂

Wow Eric, you are really going to the wall on this model! I'm taking notes for when (if?) I get around to mine.

Ship looking great, Malcolm! Are you sure about the length of the jackstaff - it look a bit long? Maybe mine was broken short and I didn't realize...... Yes the Hackney book was written especially for the Airfix kit. I predict once you finish your Heller, you'll want to make a different ship, though. 😉 ps I replied to your email when I returned from vacation.

Looking great, Bill. Wood hull? No Problemo for Bill97! 👍🤙

Printed parts look great! Welcome to the "3D Club". 😉

"very odd" LOL yes I looked for some Roman archers for my ship. Didn't find any but I could have had archers in the form of skeletons, orcs, elves, scantily clad bounteous women, crocodiles, etc. I did see some pretty nice vikings but for tens of dollars for the file. Are you aware that if you buy a file of a "fully rigged" figure you can use the "Pose" function in Blender to manipulate their posture and their clothes etc will just go with the flow and adapt? You can then use the one file you bought to print as many figures you need in whatever poses you want. Even vary their heights a little. You can pose body joints in the arms and legs, head position, usually the fingers, and on some models even jaws, eyes, and eyebrows. If you find a viking you like but which has that stocky build, and the file is free, try importing the file into "3d builder"which is a free microsoft app probably factory installed on your computer. I don't know how to do much in this app, but it does accept bigger files than TinkercAD will open and it is pretty simple to "scale" the figure on any of the x, y, or z axes; or all at once. I used it to scale things for my brother to 3D resin print. I haven't tried the following in 3d builder but I thought of it after my Roman search: if you "shrink" the figure along the x and y axes it will get slimmer. Once it looks reasonable proportioned you can scale it up or down an all axes simultaneously to maintain the new proportions to get the 1/25 scale height you want. It might work!

Nice work in TinkerCAD! And on the ship, of course.

You can search for viking 3D files in many places. If you're very lucky you might fine something for free. I just had a quick look, but as in my search for Romans for my ship many of the Viking figures are for war-gaming and have those really stocky unrealistic builds. I did manage to find a very good Roman Legionnaire for about $20, and he even came rigged. Good luck!

Thanks. I was always all about building stuff. Still am. ☺️

Yours is truly outstanding, beautiful work! Twenty out of ten!

Thanks Dan! I'm exceptionally lucky to have the library's 3D machines (and the laser cutters!) freely available to me within a 1/2 hour walk. Apparently they are soon to upgrade to newer and better models 😊. Have you tried TinkerCAD? It's much simpler to learn than other CAD tools although obviously more limited too. For rectangular things like ladders and gratings it is super easy to draw what you want. The fantail fingers are about as complicated as I'd like to get in TinkerCAD. Yes, you are right about the order of painting. I have now painted the black between the fingers which I should have done first. Now touching up the white then will redo the black edge trim. I looked up your "albums" here on MSW. Wow! They're beautiful models. I especially like the "Maine" and the Viking knarr. Thanks for commenting, Ian

Yes, topsail schooners are very pretty. When I was making RC boats in high school in the 70's I scratch built one. The fore and aft sails were controlled by my big winch from my large Class M boat; the topsails by a motor drive ripped from a plastic model tank. I added a "bentinck boom" to the foot of the lower topsail because I didn't then know what else to do. My mom sewed the sails for me. On the boat's maiden I had trouble tacking her; decided I had placed the fin keel too far aft. You can see the addition strapped on with meccano for a test, however I then went to university and this ship has gathered dust for decades. I doubt the tank drive would still work. I thought of rejuvenating her with modern gear but as is my habit I built her solid as hell with full bulkheads and there isn't much room to work in her. Maybe someday. And just look at those big ugly bolts sticking out of the lead-filled ballast tube! 🙄 The tank drive. The remainder metal screen was my idea of some form of RF shielding for the small motor's emissions. Guess I had interference issues with the old AM RC set. Wonder what I "grounded" it to? 😏 "Reaching woman" figurehead made from a Zulu drummer from the British-Zulu war. I named her "Charlotte Rhodes" after the old "Onedin LIne" PBS series which I loved. I have two DVD's of "Onedin" episodes; wish they'd make a complete set available.

Yes, the library printer could barely print it at all. Mortice and tenon is a good idea but I think a more complex CAD program would be needed. I have two days before we go away - I am trying to improve on the paint job. So far it looks promising.

Beautiful model. The crew really brings it to life! Nicely done. I'll have some figures to do soon; I have some learning to do first.

Kevin, sounds like a good idea but the "frame" would be awfully delicate. Unfortunately when drawing it in TinkerCAD I gave no thought to possibly splitting it so it's a real dog's breakfast of elongated tube sections and "holes", and a patchwork of filler pieces. I'm reluctant to revisit it but may have to if I can't get a decent paint job on it. If you're interested here's the CAD file, at the risk of exposing my clumsy drafting: Galley Fantail(1).zip

Another great model, Glen! Did you consider maybe having the fore topmast broken and hanging askew, to add to the abandoned appearance?

Plodding along on deck fittings. Here is the latest overall view: 3D printed vent gratings and spar cradles. The mainyard lies on the cradles. The main mast "tabernacle". The separable upper black part will be glued to the mast, and lashed to it in the concave portion. The white pin at the bottom is to allow me to lift off the little block behind the mast, thus allowing me to slide the foot of the mast aft so I can collapse it. All the rigging will collapse with it, and it will all attach to the main removable deck section except the fore and backstays which will need to be unhooked at the stem/stern. Tabernacle taken apart. The white pin will be painted black. Mast will be stained then varnished as will the yard. Fitting on foredeck for the "artemon" (what we'd call a bowsprit). Again, the part which will be lashed to the artemon is glued to it. Removing the white pin releases it so the artemon can be pulled in and down. Will need to make sure the bracket holding it at the stempost has some wiggle room to allow for this. Boarding bridge is now painted. I see some white touch-up is needed. I have no info as to how it was manhandled over the side through the gaps in the bulwark or held in place there; will need to devise some reasonable scheme using cleats etc. Bridge will be glued to fore hatch and be its "handle". I copied this design from Flavio Terenzi's model but it seems to me that the lower portion of the sides should be solid to protect the marines' legs as they formed shield walls to cross over in the face of enemy archery; shields would have reached from heads to about knees. Might modify it. Printed fantail decoration, badly painted. I need to figure out how to get black paint in between the converging fingers without gumming them up. I should have printed it in four pieces, one per finger, then painted, then glued together. Hindsight is 20/20. Artillery: here is a printed ballista in resin, courtesy my brother. Beautiful detail but sadly too small (I had spec'd the length but it was hard to picture) so he has printed four more copies in larger scale for me. Not received yet. Still to come are captain's stern shelter, anchors, rigging, some sort of material for gathered sails, stern flag standard. And crew. We're going away on a little trip again. Thanks for following.....

It's from the Zvezda plastic kit #8515 "Roman Trireme". I only have two or three books on galleys through history and can't find any such details as to their rigging in them. It looks cool and suitably "ancient" but really I'd rather not have to fiddle with little wood sticks when rigging my galley. Sorry Steven, for digressing from your fine build!