bruce d

These books are news to me, many thanks. I have looked for reviews and citations and they seem to be the go-to source for the subject. I have put them on that 'wish list' I keep in the drawer with my lottery tickets. In the meantime, I am hoping for a bit of guidance to finalise the deck layout of the plans I am drawing. I don't want to speculate too much but if the nets were stored on the deck it would not be a surprise.

Morning Mark, Thanks, but it seems not. What started me down this path is finding that HMS Pickle had her boarding nets up at Trafalgar. I wasn't expecting that. Regards, Bruce

Mods: please move if this is not the right forum. I wonder if someone has some answers about boarding rigging, Nelson era. All info welcome but my interest is focussed on one of HM schooners. 1 - Was boarding netting stowed on deck? If so, what did it look like? 2 - Were there standard sizes and materials? Concerning 1 above, in my case there were only four of the potential 14 guns mounted so there would have been more room for storage around the deck, if such a thing was permissable. Thanks, Bruce

I have a 'Henry' vac set up as a dust collector. The noise factor was originally bothersome but that changed when I finally got around to making a proper spot for it under a bench. It was absurdely simple: I sat it on a piece of styrene foam and it became quiet! Presumably the hard plastic wheels resting on the wooden shelf had been the source of the racket. Now it stays running for long periods and I can listen to the radio. BTW, I made an impromptu hose adapter by cutting the bottom off of an empty plastic pill bottle. The bottle's lid-end fits the sander and the Proxxon saw, the other fat end fits the Henry hose.

My brain hurts. I have now, thanks to the help received from Ab, Rene' and Terry, imported the background image I wanted into the Delftship workpiece and adjusted it to the correct size. This absolutely basic step is now complete and I can plug away to get a good result. The learning process also illuminated a number of the features within the software and I can see how some of the other stages will be more straightforward now. Delftship is no doubt a marvellous tool for modellers with the patience to learn the techniques peculiar to this software and I can only hope that one day there will be a 'DELFTSHIP LITE' version without the sophistication of the professional ship-designers requirements. It sounds odd but I believe the complications I encountered could be eliminated if the advanced features were stripped away. It would be of more use to modellers with only the basic tools to produce detailed drawings, not the 'real' shipbuilders' calculations and options. I would pay for a version tailored to that narrow specification. Also, a tutorial for a 'draw only' edition could be much more focussed and I believe could make the product commercially viable. Perhaps I am a dinosaur and more nimble minds would have danced through the steps that defeated me, but we shall see what happens now that I am up and running (well, not running but moving along anyway). Many thanks to all concerned, especially Terry who stepped in to shine further light on the subject. Regards, Bruce

Update: the tutorial from Ab and a very detailed off-board lesson from Terry are being digested. I hope to have a four hour slot to sit down at the computer and do both exercises properly later today.

Welcome and good luck with the rebuilding project. The big thing is that everyone (and the critters) made it. Maryland has so much history, and I'm a bit partial to the working boats I saw in the bay, especially the crabbers. Perhaps you have visited the museum at The Solomans? It is a great source of inspiration. We look forward to seeing what you build next.

Chris, how can I resist the challenge? Will have a rummage tomorrow.

Glad to help. Thought I would identify myself since the original may be digital dust now. Did you get what you needed or would you like the link again? Bruce

Just to come back to the original question, Unimats were made in Austria up to and including the Unimat 3. The Unimat 4 was made in the far east as have all others with the Unimat name since.

That makes a lot of sense. The crew would be keeping their eyes on the prize and would not want any fiddling around at the crucial moment.

Very nice model (including the rat).

Ab, thank you and please pass on my gratitude to Rene' (again). It will be tomorrow before I can sit down to the task, and whatever happens I will report. Regards, Bruce

I will wait for the cavalry. Many thanks. By the way, I have spoken with other people using DELFTSHIP and we do not all have the same models in the database. I originally had none, then I reloaded the software and now have 257. Another person has eight models in his database even after reloading. I am not complaining, after all I have 257 designs to choose from, but it seems odd. Bruce

Translations are always going to have glitches. In the '70s a very expensive piece of electronics arrived from afar wrapped in plastic. The plastic had printed warnings in different languages and the English said: Do not store children in this bag. It's all p[art of the fun. Bruce

Hello Matle, She was an Isles-class trawler, and there were 197 of them used by the RN and commonwelth navies.

Then I remembered another resource - German-English Dictionary of Technical, Scientific and General Terms - A.Webel, first published 1930, and bingo: Heckbalken = transom Block = pulley block So it seems to be a near-miss in the translations but it doesn't look like a critical instruction.

According to my copy of Schiffahrts-Worterbuch 'heck' is stern and the closest entry to your puzzle is 'heck balken' = 'horn timber'. BTW, 'block' = 'block' ? HTH Bruce

I agree, and no doubt when it is shown to me it will be obvious. There are quite a few online tutorials but so far none I have found explain this probably absurdly simple step. Hopefully the cavalry is on the way.

Ab and Rene have been very generous so far but I am hoping for some more help with a basic step in DELFTSHIP. How do I add a background image and make it line up with the model? I have tried until I accept that I am not going to figure it out within this decade. The model I am starting with is Number 9, the schooner. I want to use a JPEG image of my subject as the background. I open the JPEG with DELFTSHIP and then use 'edit background picture' to replace the existing background. OK so far. Of course the image does not line up at this stage and I see from the DELFTSHIP manual that I should be able to reposition it by grabbing the centre-point and/or dragging the corner cursors: I cannot find how to get the image to display with the cursors and centre-point like the example in the instructions. Both the model and the background image are displayed together. By using 'scale' it is possible to make the background image the correct size but it is not aligned. Without accessing the cursors and centre-point I am stuck. What am I missing? Thanks in advance, I have no doubt it is simple but sometimes so am I. Bruce

We spoke and sadly they cannot export to North America for the reasons Edward spotted, and he did not have any suggestions for NA sources. Bit of a dead end from your point of view, sorry it didn't work out. On the bright side, my wood has arrived and is undergoing our strict 'cleanse-it-and-leave-it-for-two-days' process before opening.

I'm pretty sure 'stern blocks' is a literal translation. Can't quite see how that fits the illustration from the instructions, but at least it is a starting point. Just had a thought: in the earlier steps, did the instructions tell you to carve/shape pieces to support the transom? Possibly these are the 'stern blocks' and you are being told to plank over them?

I see what you mean about looking a mess, however you have shown us that the end result is superb. I have started experimenting with paint/wood combinations and find enormous differences (a) in enamel and acrylics on the same wood and (b) in the results of sanding vs scraping, again depending on the paint/wood combo. You have got it right, can I ask what type of paint you ended up with?

Don't give up. As far as I am aware it is still 100% a platform, Ebay style, for others to sell their books. You still get the booksellers price, not the algorithm-driven pricing seen on Amazon. I just scored a book on Abebooks that was half the price of all others listed, and it turned out to be from a seller I have used for years. Good to know about the plans/illustrations inside the AOS books, I hadn't realised it was consistently done that way.

Looking good, you have a great effect with the well defined planks. Can I ask what you did for the caulking? I am looking forward to seeing the treenails in place