Ian_Grant

Marc, when I tried to order parts from Heller I first sent the form to their quoted email address; I got an enigmatic error message about their router not being "365" and unable to receive from "my domain". Subsequent efforts resulted in the same. I faxed it in instead and got an immediate reply followed shortly by the part in the mail. Do you have access to a fax machine? I used the one at my wife's vet clinic; only the medical field seems to still use fax. Or maybe Heller's router can connect to your "domain". After all you're in a different country than me.

I am reminded of an occasion when I went camping in my youth with a number of work buddies many years ago. After a lot of beer had been drunk it was time to light the campfire. We couldn't get the damp wood to fire up. SO,... someone poured camp fuel all over it and it was up to Paul to light it. He realized that the fumes were spreading, so his solution was to sprint at the firepit while striking the match, then leap over it, dropping the match in as he cleared it. There was an "whoomph" and a searing flame erupted from the pit and spread rapidly outward. Fortunately it stopped just short of the still-open Coleman fuel can.😬

Hull skeleton glue-up is complete. Thanks to members who posted shots of Lego used to square up bulkheads to keels! 😃 Fantastic idea and the Lego doesn't get stuck to the boat by the carpenter glue. Once bulkheads were all in I added the inner wales and bilge stringers, first using a rasp to fair the notch inner faces. Rather than hassle around with steaming or heating I laminated them - for first layer glued the notches in the ribs and used my 23ga pin nailer to fasten strip, then once dry glued on other layers using paper clamps to squeeze together. Those pins that came through the rib walls were then pulled out from the inside of the hull. The wales consist of a 3/32" cherry first strip, then pine. The stringers are all pine. When adding the first wale I found to my dismay that the strip didn't want to follow the notches I'd cut in the bulkheads at the stern; I'd maintained a constant "y" location above reference line but of course since the strip twists as it approaches the stern it wanted to curve in and up to follow the hull contours. Not news to those who plank models and I should have known better but oh well. Abandoning all pretense of finesse, I chucked a straight bit in my 1-1/4 HP router and cut new notches where I had marked. My reasoning was that the router base spanned several bulkheads so it would follow the convex hull contours, which it pretty much did. Still need to patch the unused notches. The hull was removed from the strongback to add the bilge stringers. It's now very rigid, although the reinforcing strap along the deck is still present. It and the upper portion of the midships bulwarks will be removed once the hull is skinned. I haven't quite worked out yet how to then frame in the sides above the oar outrigger. Today I got a 25" x 50" sheet of 1/32" plywood for skinning and some vellum paper to make patterns. Midships is a constant cross section so that should go fairly easy. It's only the first and last 14 or 16 inches which will be a chore probably requiring special words. 😆 The deck height is a nice straight line but somehow the elevation is 1/16" higher at the stern than at the bow. I noticed some sort of error at the bow originally but couldn't seem to pin it down. No one will know. Next: fairing everything; skinning; filling extreme bow and stern with solid. Just pushing a strip against the bulkheads they don't look too bad apart from #4 which needs a strip added along pretty much the entire port side for some reason. We'll see how it goes. Not much experience in this for a few decades.....🤪

I see I didn't complete my description of the cat stopper. It goes round the big cleat, then it too must be belayed somewhere. I used, again, the large timberhead. In practice, once the cat stopper was in place, going to sea, the cat tackle would be unrigged and stowed. I left both the tackle and the stopper on my port anchor, but I think I omitted the tackle on the starboard side; can't quite recall and that side of the case is against a wall. 😉

Bill, the SR is shaping up to be your masterpiece. Nicely done!

Hi Robert, your model is looking lovely! Can't recall which book I read it in, or perhaps it was Blue Ensign's log on the old Pete Coleman Victory site, but I used two lashings on the stock of the sheet anchor. The one on the upper arm goes down and is attached to an eyebolt on the underside of the channel. The one on the lower arm goes up and belays to a convenient timberhead. The obvious place to tie the cat tackle is the large timberhead at the end of the fore bulkhead, at least that's what I used. All those timberheads seem to have two or even three lines belayed on them. The cleat on the back of the cathead is for the cathead stopper, as seen here: well, as not seen here, the photo is cut off. The black cathead stopper goes through the anchor ring then up to the back of the cathead (as seen here) then round the big cleat (not visible).

I had the same distortion problem trying to fix the bent-up stern railing on "Preussen". Hot water didn't do it, so I went to boiling and all of a sudden the whole thing just curled into a mess. Of course, it was completely formed of thin cylinders.... Marc you can order extra parts from Heller for further experimentation.

Hadn't heard of this kit before. Nice little ship; is it one of Heller's 1/150 boats? My Preussen's hull was twisted too, had to be careful to keep "untwisting" it when gluing in the various decks.

Bill; you should be! Nicely done!

Doug, looking good so far! May I suggest that you add "RADIO" to your log title....this will attract the RC enthusiasts!

Finished hollowing out the bulkheads, and faired stanchions at the bow and stern thus allowing me to cut their inner faces at the appropriate angles and positions too. Almost ready to start glue-up! 😃 🤪 🤙 🤞 Drilled holes through bulkheads in the central portion partly to save some (paltry) weight but also for wire fore-aft routing safely out of the way of the moving parts. I sized the holes to pass Tamiya connectors on the main battery leads. Likely it will be amidships after all; I'd prefer to locate the sweep servos under the fore deck beside the arduino, as opposed to between the oar beams. On the other hand, the hump-pak version of the battery fits nicely under the fore peak, provided it's not too much weight too far forward. Will have to wait for ballast testing on the skinned and painted hull. Oh, also glued small pieces of 1/16" plywood each side of keel at the stem and stern, just to beef them up a bit. They were then routered to match the shapes. Looks better now to my eye. Bow view: I'll be cutting that "ram" rectangle off sometime; planning a flat face at the extreme stem with a dowel sticking out to attach a prefabricated ram. Likely 3D-printed. Stern view: Detail amidships:

I don't think the outrigger is too short aft; behind it comes the platforms on which the rudders are mounted. Also they might have been used for boarding, as Pitassi depicts in one of his outstanding models:

Very nice so far, Bill! Happy New Year!

Eugene, looks great! What height did you settle on for the bulwarks? Maybe they mixed up Tennessee TN, and Toronto? Will you be carving the ram? I'm a long way from there, but for my large boat it would be cool to make one from brass and let it discolour with time. If I can't afford the weight I will TinkerCAD it and get my brother to 3D print it for me in plastic. I too was wondering about the deck. Last time I made an RC boat, in the 70's, I simply penciled lines on the deck plywood and spar varnished it. I want to do better this time. You found a cost-effective strip supplier in Europe? I think the outrigger extends a bit too far forward, if you don't mind the input. (Just let me know if I should 🤐!) 🙂 I'm going to a meeting of Rideau Nautical Modellers this Wednesday in Bells Corners. The guy told me I will fit right in with the members who use Arduinos, or who build electro-mechanical doo-dads. Don't know whether to take my galley skeleton, or the oar mechanism. Happy New Year!

But different inmates to stamp them out, I guess. 😁 When the Ontario Liberals got thrown out after too many years in power, the new conservative government decided to completely change the plate design. This cost quite a bit apparently, paying consultants for a new motto among other things. Fundamentally they switched from dark numerals on a white background to white numerals on dark, with other artistic flashes. Only after they started issuing them did someone notice that with the carefully selected new paint scheme, the numerals became illegible after dark under certain kinds of streetlights.....sheesh......😭...our tax money at work..... So they switched back again, at great expense.

About 20 years ago (memory is not exact) Ontario switched to "environmentally friendlier" paint for vehicle licence plates. Aluminum isn't the easiest surface; after a while they all started peeling. You'd see some plates with the entire paint layer free from the plate, only held in by those little frames some people buy, or you'd see plates with half the paint gone. At the beginning you had to argue to get a new plate without the replacement fee, then they brought in a 5-year "warranty" on the paint. Nowadays they still get some batches which peel, but they will replace for free. But you still have to go through the pain of waiting in line at the registry office to trade plates.

Made a strongback to assemble this thing straight and true. Working to finish the ribs. Hollowed out those at the bow and stern; still trying to decide on through-deck access. Thinking I will have the foredeck removable without the rest, just to access on/off switches. The boarding bridge can conceal the joint. The extreme forward deck will be fixed, back to the point at which the "artemon" (a sort of bowsprit) is fixed. Will be weighing the skeleton soon, just to see where I stand on the weight limit given the 4.2kg estimated limit for the wood hull in its entirety. Nothing glued yet, until I finalize the stringer notches. And cut the bulwark stanchions to width. I made slight alterations at the stern to eliminate the extreme "flare-out" at the bulwarks. I expect there will be problems as I just winged it. We'll see how fairing goes when I get there. That's the Arduino and a dummy sweep servo sitting on the foredeck. Happy new year to everyone!

Valeriy it's been a privilege watching you build this magnificent model! I wish you a Happy and safe New Year.

I debated the same thing about the bulwark. I'm aiming for about 40" after lying paper across "Julius" my 1/32 scale human figure cutout, but I'm not committed yet as my bulwarks aren't yet cut and anyway the top rail could vary a little. Bear in mind the average Roman male was 5'-6" or 5'-7" or so. Pitassi's drawings seem to show a bulwark even less then 3 ft; but that's trying to measure up from a drawing where the ship is only 4" long. That "Nave Roman" build seems to have pretty robust bulwarks. Pitassi does list pumps in his chapter on equipment, but doesn't mention Archimedes screws. Here is an extract from his book:

Wow! She's really beautiful!

I have used an old kettle and a length of PVC tube to steam wood for bending, but this was for a full-size canoe's laminated stems. It takes 30-45 min for 1/4" thick hardwood strips to become very pliable. The time required should scale according to thickness. I realize steaming may not be very practical for most modeling but I mention it here as it may be a way to do edge bending.

Bob is right - don't just grab some fir plywood from Home Depot. Baltic birch plywood has many all-birch plies, no voids, and full thickness outer plies, as opposed to face veneers, which are not so easily sanded through. I've just been gang-routering edges in 1/4" birch ply to form ribs for my current build. Edges are clean. This plywood is heavy and strong. I can barely break a 3/8" wide strip with full hand strength.

I wouldn't use hardboard, it's little more than compressed cardboard. Not suitable for a 9 ft model in my opinion. My choice would be 1/4" plywood. Maybe even 3/8" for the keel. Is this for display or on the water?

Nice looking bolts, Bill. And the anchor lining. I'm taking notes for my alleged future build. 😃

Bob, your decks look great!