Ian_Grant

Interesting article examining whether dazzle patterns had any real effect on U-boat targeting of ships in WWI. https://www.popsci.com/technology/wwi-dazzle-camo/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Interesting to see it come together. Not to diverge too much from this log, but in my handyman days I was once hired to "restore" a large L-shaped basement area where the lady's deceased husband had run his model RR along with his friends. This area encompassed half of the basement of the house. RR track completely encircled the room (except for one doorway) with as much as three feet depth from the walls, which were adorned by very skilfully painted hills and trees (I know this because I saw the area before the husband's friends came to remove the whole thing to another location). Anyway, when I went back for the job the walls were riddled with large jagged holes where they had apparently just ripped stuff off them as opposed to unscrewing. The lady was surprised when I proposed to just patch everything up rather than install new drywall but that would have been a big job and I was getting too old to be lugging drywall sheets down stairs any more. It was one thing to patch and tape the holes (and build a little closet around the incoming water valve) but effectively hiding all the painted forests took about four coats of primer. The finished job delighted the lady with the fresh new room. I've found that one advantage of doing a job for senior ladies is that they keep you fed while you're there! 😏 Now back to our regular programming; sorry.

Every summer our RC boat club puts up a table pondside at a local fair and runs boats around. People come over to see the models all lined up on a long table and are really interested. Well, I guess only those interested would come over HaHa. Last year I took my Roman galley (didn't have it on the water, too windy) nonetheless people were fascinated to see the oars rowing. It was great talking to them and showing how they worked.

I got up the morning after my last post, walked downstairs, and my immediate reaction to the deck was,"God it's awful!". I bought some "white spirit" and wiped down the decks with it thus removing all the yellowish tones and most of the dark brown. The laser-etched planking once again became readily visible. Whew! I was left with a faint, weird "greenish tone" in places. Don't know where that came from; seemed to be highlighting the grain of the surface ply even though I had four coats of clear-coat on it, somehow. So I used the "desert sand" wash one more time, then a wash with "white" and I like the decks a lot now. They have received three coats of exterior satin water-based varnish. I know, it should be matte, but I can't find an exterior matte clear-coat. Here's a pic showing part of the decking, and also the interior "walls" of the aft superstructure which will be visible since there is a large well deck here. Teenaged me missed the fact that it was open; I don't blame me because it is not obvious in the single sheet plan and top view drawing. Rather, it is shown only in one of the cross sections in the lines drawing which I probably rolled up and ignored after making the hull. Incidentally, I'm not sure what the secondary armament looked like in the aft well deck. Norman didn't show casemates for them (like the upper pair in the forward SS) but if they were open the crews could all be killed if a single shell landed in the well deck I would think. I decided to add casemates partly because they're not conspicuous when viewing the ship from outside, and partly because I didn't want to have to construct the gun breeches in the absence of casemates. Close enough for RC. 😏 I'm now working on printing weather deck fittings. From left: - breakwater for the foredeck. - top left, engine room vents for the aft well deck, "closed" and "some open" options. - below left, twin searchlights; printed housing and base, brass rod. - printed bollards and cleats. - printed skylight covers, all closed. Thinking of making a couple with steel covers open. -various printed hatches for the weather deck I'm thinking of starting to paint the hull tomorrow. That would be a giant leap ahead for sure. Incidentally, does anyone know if these ships had some sort of mechanical semaphores for visibility? My drawings show items labelled "semaphore" in four places in the forward superstructure (two at back corners of the shelter deck, two on the flag deck above). They aren't shown in detail but they could be a mechanism with the arms folded down, not in use. Or are they just big signal lights to flash Morse, not related really to a man manipulating two tiny flags?? Can't find anything about it in what books I have, or by a brief google search. Here's a pic or two: 1) Showing a semaphore placed in the corner. 2) See the four of them in this section view. They're a good 10 ft tall, whatever they are. They look more like lights here.

Interesting discussion. Here's a theory .... When coming in to harbour they'd be under topsails alone, probably. Knowing they were about to anchor they could remove the bumpkin shrouds. If when anchored the tide was across the wind or whatever the anchor cable could be at any weird angle without fouling the absent shrouds. As to whether Endeavour herself had bumpkins, I have no idea.

Today I bought a Vallejo wash "Desert Sand" and have applied it three times. It adds a yellowish tone and is making a difference. It looks pretty good to me now but in the morning I'll probably apply the wash a 4th time. It only needs 20 min to dry, 40 min to recoat. I bitterly regret, though, applying that dark wash just because it was in stock at the local store. The really foolish thing is that yesterday I forgot my reading glasses so I could barely see the labels thus I missed the Vallejo washes entirely; there are just a few wash colours at the bottom of the Vallejo paint rack and their labels don't really differentiate them from regular paint colours. 😞

I'll say. I used to go shipwreck diving at Tobermory in the 80's. When we took the kids camping up the Bruce about 15 years ago I was amazed to see the water clarity in Georgian Bay. It looks like the Caribbean now, that is until you jump in.

Plugging along slowly. I shopped for a wash to apply to the decks. I like MIG washes but the only local source was stocked out on them. I ended up buying AK301 "Dark Wash for Wood Decks", only because the local stores are out of AK263 "Wash for Wood". I'm not sure I like it; maybe too dark. Opinions? The camera has lightened the colour in the above shots. If it truly looked like that I'd be pleased. Here's the best I could get on trying again; in the dark with the camera's LED on. LED glare is the whitish spot near bottom centre. Deck's true colour is best seen beside Q turret and between it and the blast shields behind it. True colour is near turret not ahead of the deck split.

Another day, another Great Lakes shipwreck announcement.......... https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ironton-shipwreck-lake-huron-180981741/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=92646438

Marc, where did you find such tiny blocks? During my Victory build the smallest I saw was 2mm.

Another wreck very well preserved in frigid water. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-an-almost-entirely-intact-142-year-old-shipwreck-in-lake-michigan-180982848/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=92646438

Good God! And all this will be nearly impossible to see when model is complete! I second the mention of maybe doing cut-away model. I've seen many engines in the local airplane museum with openings cut in parts, with edges painted red to delineate them. It could be phenomenal, Chris!

"Wow" just doesn't cut it. Tackle hooks at 1/168 scale????!!!!!! In-cre-di-ble!!!!!!

Yes. nine a side. Each euphroe hole has to connect to a hole on the top each side of centre.

"Spanker" or "Driver". 😉

Very nice parrals, Glen. 👍

Hi Bill. Good questions. I don't have definitive answers. I'll give you my impressions as formed by what little I know of seamanship. Two cents worth. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can correct me.... For the bowlines, I would expect that if in harbour, they would be removed to enhance a neat "harbour furl" of the sails. If at sea on a long blue-water voyage with the trade winds, perhaps not rigged either. If at sea in varying wind areas, then rigged. Staysails? We would have the halyards, downhauls, and sheets to deal with. If a staysail was not bent, I would expect that the halyard and downhaul would be left in place if at sea as above. Obviously the sheets would be absent as they only attach to the sail. I'd guess the halyard and downhaul ends would be attached to each other or else both attached to a convenient point at the foot of the stay, If one wanted to bend the sail, one would haul it up to the foot of its stay and attach it by its hanks; then attach the halyard and downhaul to the head of the sail before hoisting it up. The "tack" would be a simple length of rope from the foot of the sail to a fixed point at the foot of the stay. I believe the common thing to do on a model is either omit everything, or rig the halyard and downhaul as one continuous piece of thread or optionally as two pieces with their ends joined at a representative knot. I looked in "Harland" and "Lees" for more info, but Lees is detailed in rig and short in explanations. Harland has staysail tidbits scattered throughout but nothing as detailed as what you ask, that I could find. Staysails always seem to be an afterthought in books; for instance Harland has an entire chapter on studding sails but no section on staysails. Even Longridge as you may recall lacks his usual detail when it comes to staysails. Yours will be a beautiful model either way. Regards, Ian

As always, I am in awe!

Richard, I know you will come up with a few ingenious jigs for the job. I used three to produce oars for my galley, but I only had 88 to make. 😏 This is one of the most impressive builds on MSW, absolutely!

A true work of art!

Where does one find such figures as a little girl wearing a gas mask and holding a teddy bear? Or a dog in a gas mask? Great model, great diorama, great imagination! Your work "goes to 11".

You're making a beautiful job of her Glen!

Amazing work as always, Michael. Is the handlebar on the fish davit etched brass eyelets with wire? Or did you work up something even smaller, for the scale?

Marc's a speed reader; he read 7 of your posts in 7 minutes. 😏

Working on turret enhancements that teenaged Ian skipped. I printed two quarter-circle tapered parts to bring up the top of the front edge and also add the sighting hoods. Then I printed some little wee ladders, and some what would you call them, weather-protective canvas bellows?, for where the guns emerge from the turret. Here's an original turret. Notes (1) the hole in top is from me re-drilling to get a more accurate axis location, (2) teenaged Ian wrapped some large-dia solder around each barrel, since removed, and slapped on some grey paint. Here is "X" turret with enhancements; further fettling and filling required. By the way, I seek opinions on the grey that teenaged Ian used. The drawings have a note saying she was "medium blue-grey" but this looks too blue to me now. I bought a lighter grey which looks ok in the shop, but is very pale in daylight. Suggestions?