FriedClams

Beautiful job on the sail G.L. Looks like time well spent - it turned out great. I like your method of producing the thimbles. Very authentic looking. Gary

Splendid woodwork and machine work Michael - everything looks so very nice! Not a character flaw - a special personal attribute. And I thank you for doing so. Looking forward to what’s next. Gary

You have been busy modeling since your last postings in October and what beautiful modeling it is! Your davits and rail assembly are wonderfully made - an intimidating quantity of fragile pieces to solder up. Beautiful work Valeriy! Gary

Beautiful work Keith - every update is a treat. Thanks for sharing your process in detail. Gary

Extremely nice work John! Coming together very nicely. Gary

I have a dry quirky sense of humor Michael - I was just ribbing you about the screw slot orientation discussion. Gary

Nice re-do on the cabinet woodwork Michael, and they are beautiful just as I knew they would be. Very interesting discussion on the making of scale hinges, but aren't the screw slots supposed to be horizontal? Gary

Nice work on those plinths Keith and the completed bollards look great. I enjoy seeing your clever work methods and jigs to produce these small identical parts and the shroud brackets are another example of this. Great stuff. Gary

Very nice work on that outer planking Jim. It looks great and I'm sure it will sand/smooth up wonderfully. You may have to re-think painting it - a polished walnut surface would be beautiful. You're going after this model like it was your 30th build, not your 3rd. Impressive, keep it going! Gary

Thank you Johann and Hubert for visiting and the for kind comments. And as always, thanks to all for the likes and stopping by. Trawl Winch Continued Work on the trawl winch has been intermittent and slow, but here’s where it stands. Some of the materials for the main section of the winch are shown below. The round disks that will make up the drum reels were cut from .02” styrene sheet using a paper circle cutter. The two hand wheels are 1:87 boxcar brake wheels injection molded in Delrin. I decided to change the position of the bull gear from where I had it originally drawn. The gear has been moved from the end of the shaft to the center and now has a drum reel on either side. I did this after additional research convinced me this was by far the most common configuration of double drum winches regardless of time period. Once this fact penetrated my skull, I changed the drawings accordingly as shown below. The drawing below describes how the drum reels are assembled. I used solvent and CA gel to put these reels together - solvent when the pieces could be dry fit and gel where the parts were placed freehand and a brief window for position adjustment was needed. The shift ring slot will be cut later on. The base frame is made from six pieces of styrene “I” beams. Cutting templates are drawn and the pieces cut. The base frame construction is simple. The frame is simple, but placing and riveting the corner angle iron plates was time consuming. I didn’t have any injection molded rivets that were small enough for this application, but the detail is easy to simulate. A rivet in the 3/4" diameter range was needed, so I heat stretch some plastic sprue frame to the diameter required. I hold the piece of sprue over a flame and when the middle begins to slump, I pull it apart (stretch it) to a fine thread. Somewhere along the length of the stretch will be the diameter I need and a one-inch section is found that calipers at .015". Monofilament fishing line also works great for things like this if the right diameter is in your tackle box. The angle iron (and "I” beam) is styrene strip material from Evergreen. This structural shape material is a real time-saver if one of their available dimensions matches what you need. Here I’m using angle that is .060" (1.5mm) per side. That scales to 2.88" in 1:48 and is close enough to the 3" I was looking for. Now it’s just a matter of drilling holes into the angle iron, gluing the end of my stretched plastic into the hole and trimming it with a slight reveal sticking out. I use a piece of brass shim stock as a height gauge to trim them off. I could round over the heads with fine grit paper - but my sanity is more important. Some rivets were placed along the upper I-beams. Bolts and plate washers hold the base frame to the deck. Pillow block bearings are made from copper tube and .010" styrene. There are two layers of styrene, one under the bearing and another wrapped over the top. The main shaft is .070” diameter brass rod. In my parts stash I found this white metal gear. It is about the correct diameter and thickness for the bull gear so I’m going to use it as such. I cleaned it up and drilled out the hole for the shaft. The lower portion didn’t cast very well and is missing teeth, but I’ll rotate that to where it won’t be seen. A drum reel disc is shown as a relative size comparison. A section of angle iron will be bolted to the I-beam base to support brackets for the brake wheels and clutch engage levers. The brackets are made from .020” x .040" styrene. The clutch lever bracket gussets are .010” material. I’ve started on the clutch levers and yokes, but there is still a lot left to do - brake pads, pinion shaft, main winch head, frame and sheet metal guard for the auxiliary winch head, etc. And of course, the coloring and weathering. Thanks for stopping by. Gary

Very nice Jean-Paul, she is coming along great. Clean work on the hull and the treenail simulation is very convincing. Gary

Really sweet work on those shock absorbers Keith - attach a gold chain and sell them as jewelry. Thanks for showing us your work process. Always such an interesting log read. Gary

Ouch! I’m surprised the backing sheet method didn’t work out as it seemed like a solid approach. The maple will certainly be beautiful and at least the design is already worked out. I agree. A few years back I bought a set of cabinet scrapers and the finish from them is so clean and the wood seems to have added depth. If you make a 1:8 sterling silver tea set - I’m going to throw away all my modeling stuff. Beautiful work Michael and a great build log. Gary

Nice job on the hand rails and the bridge walkway Kevin. She is looking great. Congratulations on your retirement - I wish you a happy and healthy one. Gary

Beautiful work G.L. - and I echo the statements of others on the boats’ authentic appearance. The model looks absolutely real. Wonderful choice of woods and color tone. Sweet work! Gary

A nice process for producing the frames G.L. and very clearly explained. With all the frames now placed, the shape of a graceful craft suddenly appears. Very nice work. Gary

Beautiful work Johann. I've been following along on your progress and find your attention to every detail inspirational. The wrap of every rope and the precise and elegant shape of every piece of hardware is so exacting and perfectly to scale. And thank you for taking the time to show us how you do it. Bravo! Gary

It looks smart to me Kees and the results are excellent. A beautiful model - an informative log. I will be watching for future updates. Gary

I agree with Druxey - not gnash worthy, and dental work is so expensive. You’re moving along nicely on the model Eric and it looks great! Gary

Beautiful model Dan and a very interesting and educational log. Congratulations on its competition. Look forward to your next build. Gary

Keith, Michael and Druxey - Thank you so much for the nice comments and for your continuing support. And thanks to all for the "likes". Thanks Vaddoc and yes it has been a fun model to build. As far as the mast color goes, it wouldn’t have been my choice for the model, but it is a toned down compromise of the bright orange often used on these boats. I used acrylic here knowing that I was going to use dry pigment powder on top of it. If I were considering mixing the powder with alcohol, clearly a water-based paint wouldn’t work. I always lightly sand acrylic paint because I feel it brings the look down to scale, and even though pigment powers contain an adhesive component, a little extra tooth is always good. I think more grease than rust this time. Thanks John. That’s a good question Roger. The main engine supplies the power, but the actual power take-off configuration and how it mechanically attaches to the winch is something I haven’t seen drawn out. The drawing below makes me think it could have been a direct chain drive as there seems to be a PTO point on the engine just left of the text. The image below is from a 1928 U.S. patent submittal and it shows a winch with a sprocket and roller chain (items 24, 26) that the accompanying notes state is the power connection point. At first this sprocket/chain arrangement seemed grossly undersized until I noticed the small diameter of the pinion gear (20) and considered the huge mechanical ratio advantage it had to the large bull gear (34). So a chain drive off the main engine seems probable. And there must been a lever or something somewhere to de-couple the two. As a side note, the patent being applied for here was the idea of clutch surfaces that are integrated into the bull gear - one facing in each direction. The reels (36) are forced against the clutch plates with variable pressure by turning hand wheels (56). Hand wheels (64) are the drag brakes. Thanks for stopping through Roger. Gary

John, Keith, Mark, Moab, Jim and Alexander - thank you so much for the kind remarks and continuing interest in my model build. I truly appreciate it. And thanks to all for the "likes" and for swinging through. Here's a short update on the beginnings of the trawl winch. I’ve spent an honest amount of time digging up details for a winch to go on this model. Like the gallows frame, I didn’t find a standard "this is what everybody used" winch. If I could time travel back to southern New England in the 1920’s, I’m sure I would indeed find boats using standardized equipment. Hardware and especially machinery such as a trawl winch were most likely purchased from marine distributors or direct from the manufacturer. It seems unlikely a winch would be built locally. Fisherman needed a trawl winch that worked flawlessly and was practically indestructible. And repair parts had to be available off the shelf to the get the boats back up and running quickly. It would be great to have model numbers, catalogs, and exploded views of these winches, but I have none of those things. But the few drawings I do have include block outline dimensions of the winch and period photos show me what the winches looked like. So along with materials of more recent trawl winches, I have enough information to construct a winch that is at least historically honest if not precisely identical. These draggers were small boats and their gear was sized accordingly. Below is a plan view of the winch I drew up for this model. Though small, it is actually larger than some I have seen. Notice the auxiliary winch head at the upper left in this drawing. It is driven off the main shaft with a sprocket and roller chain. Here’s a small winch in place on a 1940s dragger. And here is how I will position mine on deck. These winches were pretty simple and consisted of drum reels with adjustable drag brakes and a clutch to engage them. Below is an end view of a 1960-ish trawl winch showing the clutch lever, the hand wheel for brake pressure and a winch head on the end of the main shaft. Here is my version of it. And then a side view. This winch has no automatic mechanism to spool the cable evenly onto the drum as it is being wound. This was common on these boats and may be because the reels were quite narrow and therefore spooling unnecessary. Also, on many of these boats the cables wind/unwind at a very steep angle directly to the towing blocks, so if any spooling was needed it might have been done manually with steel push bars. The image below shows the steep take-off angle of the winch to the towing blocks. Also, I like this photo because it shows a net heavy with catch almost pushing the rail of this little dragger under water. Below is a photo crop of a 1970s Cape Cod Eastern-Rig fishing boat. I wanted to show this image because it is the only one I've seen showing the use of steel bars to guide the cable onto the winch reels. Notice that the foot of the bar is placed into a wooden plate with sockets providing a choice of leverage positions. In 1:48 the winch for my model will be a little over 1-1/8” by about ¾”. In the next post I'll make up parts and put it all together. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful new year. Gary

Hello Phil, I've been following along on your build and it's coming along very nicely indeed. Your painting of the grenadier is top notch - the coloring is perfectly subtle and subdued, and the shading is spot on. I wish you continued success. Gary

Beautiful work Michael - every bit of it. Walter is living in the lap of luxury. Gary

The hull is looking very nice John. Will be anticipating future updates. Gary