Hubac's Historian

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!
 

Greetings Fellow Modelers
 
After a busy month with little time for modeling, I've finally begun work on the fish hold of this dragger.
 
 
But first, please allow me a quick diversion.
 
The path of the recent solar eclipse tracked over Maine on a day when there was barely a cloud in the sky.  My wife and I traveled several hours north on country roads to get close to the center of totality.  A total solar eclipse is such an astronomical coincidence that it's hard for me to get my head around it. That from a moving 100-mile diameter shadow on earth, two spheres appear to be the exact same size because one being 400 times larger is 400 times farther away, and that they line up precisely with the smaller sphere blocking all the direct light of the larger while leaving the entirety of its corona visible.  Perhaps I'm a simpleton, but I find this extraordinary.  To be honest, I thought this was going to be an interesting but ho-hum visual event, but when it went dark and I took off the glasses to see where the sun had gone, I was mesmerized.
 
I had a DSLR mounted on a tripod with 200mm of lens.  I promised myself beforehand to enjoy the experience and not spend the few minutes of totality tinkering with camera settings.  So, I preset the camera and hoped for the best - manual focus, aperture priority, exposure bracketing, cable release and crossed fingers.  I pushed the cable release quite a few times without ever looking at the results.  Later, I found most were completely blown out and a few were just terribly overexposed.  But I'm not disappointed.
 

 

 
 
The lens flare image below is my favorite.  A lousy eclipse photo, but an interesting image just the same – kind of surreal.
 

 
 
 
Fish Hold
 
My decision to display the boat with the hatches open and maybe a bunker plate or two, requires that the entirety of the hold be modeled as I can't predict what will be visible through each opening and view angle. Mainly that view will be small fragments of individual bunkers and planked partitions, so this modeling will be on the quick and crude side.
 
Before I started in on that, I first washed the hull exterior with India ink/alcohol to give it a little age. About 2 parts ink out of a hundred. I've yet to decide on how the hull will be painted/weathered, but this small amount of coloring doesn't narrow my options, and the alcohol tends to remove shiny sanding spots and helps to unify the overall look – at least to my eye.
 

 
 
I then penciled on the water line. I placed the hull back onto the base and used a squared scrap of construction lumber with a pencil glued to it.
 

 
 
The fish hold uses up almost 17' (5.1m) of hull length. The area is partitioned off into 20 individual bunkers/pens as shown below in the top-view drawing. The pens with green dots hold the ice/fish and the red dot areas do not. The blue dots are the stationary posts that hold the wood slats which make up the partitioning. The four pens in the center over the keel functions as a walkway but can also be partitioned to hold ice/fish.
 

 
 
Shown below is the lower half-section at station #7. The open space against the side of the hull is the area identified by red dots. This area is empty and begins at the lowest bilge ceiling strake. This drawing detail is actually from the “transverse section” plan sheet of a completely different boat by the same designer a few years prior to the Pelican, but it is labeled as the “type plan” for the Pelican.  Consequently, the dimensioning is incorrect for my boat, but the structural construction is the same – presumably.
 

 
 
The bases for the posts are 6” square timbers and on the model the six center bases are mounted on wood strips that span the entire length of the fish hold. The six bases away from the center are beveled to reflect the changing shape of the hull as it narrows toward the bow. The drawing below shows the bevel for the posts in the area near station 6A.
 

 
And for the posts in the area near station 4A. Note that the bevel has changed due to the base sitting higher up in the hull. This is necessary because the interior space is narrower yet the distance between posts must be maintained.
 

 
I print out spacing guides to locate the center line for the wood strips the post bases will sit on.
 

 
I mark the center line for the inner and outer strips on each station bulkhead.
 

 

 
 
The strips are placed, and the outer post bases are beveled and glue on.
 

 
 
As per the plans, there are three planks below the lowest bilge ceiling strake and below that is concrete. Although they are not yet glued down, the image below shows those three planks in position. The six inner post bases have been added as well as some styrene sheet material to act as a support floor for the “concrete”.  Also, note how the post bases (top of photo) incrementally sit higher from left to right as the hull narrows.
 

 
It would have been easier to place the two lowest bilge ceiling strakes as one piece and mount the post bases on top of that. But, I didn't and decided instead to piece it together around the posts for reasons that in retrospect make absolutely no sense. But that's water under the bridge and in the end it won't show anyway.
 

 

 
 
I smeared on some Hydrocal to form the floor of the main fish pens.
 

 
 
Colored up the bulkhead planking with chalk/alcohol (burnt sienna, raw umber and black).
 

 
 
Made up the grating to place over the keel and gurry trough.
 

 
 
I'll be placing some dim-ish lighting in the hold, so a gloppy PVA mixed with black acrylic paint is slathered onto the hull to prevent light leaks. All of this mess will be hidden by the wood plank partitioning.
 

 

 
Next – posts, partitioning and completing the hold.
 
Thanks for taking a look.  Stay well.
 
Gary

It has been a little over a week since my last update. I am continuing the second planking which is just a slow price of putting a jig-saw puzzle together and making the pieces at the same time. I decided to add the sections of the keel that goes down the front of the bow and behind the rudder early so that I could but the planking right up to those pieces. Instead of cutting and trimming the planking pieces later when I installed the keel sections as OcCre suggests. 

Finished the middle section second planking. A dark stained planking will go from the keel up to this planking and top area will be finished off with a dark blue stain. 

First.
Thanks everyone for watching, liking and comments.
 
Building the upper part of the hull at the waist. We change from fraims on the inside of the planking to standards on the outside. Planking is quite thin here, only about 4cm 1/1 scale.
First the stadards, luckily some of these remained. And my standards were created based on them. One by one, time consuming

Glue the standards in place after dry fitting

Then the planking on the rear castle is neatly cut.

The first plank


The second plank, all hands (clamps) on deck.


Additional supports around the gun ports.

Glued the middle rail in place

And the top rail.


The starboard side is ready, the tops of the rails still need to be shortened slightly. 
I'm happy with the look of this part, if I say so myself 

The diagonal joint is great when there will be a lot of stress on the finished item. In your case I suspect the load will be minimal!

I considered buying a torch like that when I first picked up soldering supplies.  I decided, though, to see how easily a conventional soldering iron would work with the Solder-It, silver solder paste that I purchased.  There is a generous ratio of flux to colloidal silver solder, with this product, so I found that the smallest amounts make nice joins with a quick touch to the iron tip.  Like anything else, it was a process of course-correction to figure out how to use these products correctly.
 
I do know that the technically correct place to make the joints is along the straight parts, however, at this scale I was having a ton of difficulty getting my wire ends to meet nicely; I was either too long, resulting in a bowed straight, or too short, necessitating an excess solder-fill.  I also made the first batch of preventer plates too long, and I wasn't using enough solder paste on the back side to bolster the join enough for bending/shaping.
 
Dan Pariser suggested that he likes to cut meeting ends on a long bias so that they overlap like a scarf joint; more surface area produces a stronger joint.  As usually happens with this kind of thing, doing something like snipping wire ends hundreds and hundreds of times has a way of sharpening your skills and discernment for where precisely to make a cut.  At this point, I could fairly easily make those wire ends meet exactly where they need to.
 
I do appreciate the correctness of what you guys are suggesting, but the method I have arrived at is working for me in this scale, and producing the clean results that are a higher priority to me than rigorous accuracy of manufacture.  In larger scales, I absolutely would give the "correct" way a go again.

I considered buying a torch like that when I first picked up soldering supplies.  I decided, though, to see how easily a conventional soldering iron would work with the Solder-It, silver solder paste that I purchased.  There is a generous ratio of flux to colloidal silver solder, with this product, so I found that the smallest amounts make nice joins with a quick touch to the iron tip.  Like anything else, it was a process of course-correction to figure out how to use these products correctly.
 
I do know that the technically correct place to make the joints is along the straight parts, however, at this scale I was having a ton of difficulty getting my wire ends to meet nicely; I was either too long, resulting in a bowed straight, or too short, necessitating an excess solder-fill.  I also made the first batch of preventer plates too long, and I wasn't using enough solder paste on the back side to bolster the join enough for bending/shaping.
 
Dan Pariser suggested that he likes to cut meeting ends on a long bias so that they overlap like a scarf joint; more surface area produces a stronger joint.  As usually happens with this kind of thing, doing something like snipping wire ends hundreds and hundreds of times has a way of sharpening your skills and discernment for where precisely to make a cut.  At this point, I could fairly easily make those wire ends meet exactly where they need to.
 
I do appreciate the correctness of what you guys are suggesting, but the method I have arrived at is working for me in this scale, and producing the clean results that are a higher priority to me than rigorous accuracy of manufacture.  In larger scales, I absolutely would give the "correct" way a go again.

I considered buying a torch like that when I first picked up soldering supplies.  I decided, though, to see how easily a conventional soldering iron would work with the Solder-It, silver solder paste that I purchased.  There is a generous ratio of flux to colloidal silver solder, with this product, so I found that the smallest amounts make nice joins with a quick touch to the iron tip.  Like anything else, it was a process of course-correction to figure out how to use these products correctly.
 
I do know that the technically correct place to make the joints is along the straight parts, however, at this scale I was having a ton of difficulty getting my wire ends to meet nicely; I was either too long, resulting in a bowed straight, or too short, necessitating an excess solder-fill.  I also made the first batch of preventer plates too long, and I wasn't using enough solder paste on the back side to bolster the join enough for bending/shaping.
 
Dan Pariser suggested that he likes to cut meeting ends on a long bias so that they overlap like a scarf joint; more surface area produces a stronger joint.  As usually happens with this kind of thing, doing something like snipping wire ends hundreds and hundreds of times has a way of sharpening your skills and discernment for where precisely to make a cut.  At this point, I could fairly easily make those wire ends meet exactly where they need to.
 
I do appreciate the correctness of what you guys are suggesting, but the method I have arrived at is working for me in this scale, and producing the clean results that are a higher priority to me than rigorous accuracy of manufacture.  In larger scales, I absolutely would give the "correct" way a go again.

I considered buying a torch like that when I first picked up soldering supplies.  I decided, though, to see how easily a conventional soldering iron would work with the Solder-It, silver solder paste that I purchased.  There is a generous ratio of flux to colloidal silver solder, with this product, so I found that the smallest amounts make nice joins with a quick touch to the iron tip.  Like anything else, it was a process of course-correction to figure out how to use these products correctly.
 
I do know that the technically correct place to make the joints is along the straight parts, however, at this scale I was having a ton of difficulty getting my wire ends to meet nicely; I was either too long, resulting in a bowed straight, or too short, necessitating an excess solder-fill.  I also made the first batch of preventer plates too long, and I wasn't using enough solder paste on the back side to bolster the join enough for bending/shaping.
 
Dan Pariser suggested that he likes to cut meeting ends on a long bias so that they overlap like a scarf joint; more surface area produces a stronger joint.  As usually happens with this kind of thing, doing something like snipping wire ends hundreds and hundreds of times has a way of sharpening your skills and discernment for where precisely to make a cut.  At this point, I could fairly easily make those wire ends meet exactly where they need to.
 
I do appreciate the correctness of what you guys are suggesting, but the method I have arrived at is working for me in this scale, and producing the clean results that are a higher priority to me than rigorous accuracy of manufacture.  In larger scales, I absolutely would give the "correct" way a go again.

As always, Kevin, your knowledge bank is astounding.  I think you are right about this wire’s manufacture, but given the relatively light gauge, it has been pretty easy to pull taught around the pin-formers.  What is essential to this process is a pair of parallel pliers.  I’m indebted to Druxey for that tooling tip!
 
As always, Bill and David and Michael, and everyone who is looking-in - I appreciate the support!

I struggled with silver soldering for some time until I found a system that works for me virtually every time. First off, the mini torch I was using did not generate enough heat for silver soldering. I have since had excellent success with the Blazer Torch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Z8KD3S?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details. More importantly I switched to silver solder paste from Euro Tools. It comes as soft, medium and hard so you can solder adjacent pieces. Otherwise I use the medium https://beaducation.com/products/silver-solder-paste-medium. I also use Battens Flux on the joint prior to soldering but I'm not sure if you need it with the paste. You only need a speck of the solder on the joint and you have to move the torch the second it flashes. At any rate if you're having unsuccessful solder joints more than 10% of the time maybe give this a try. Also, as Druxey has pointed out, it's best to place the joint on a linear plane.

Where I struggled when soldering my links was trying to trying to solder the the wire loop end to end. Eventually I had to overlap the wires just a bit then solder. 

Hello Marc,
what I use to cut brass wires is a cutter for finger or toe nails. I grind one side thin, so that I could cut also small diameters. For soldering I use almost a soldering fluid. Then you needs only a small amount of tin on your soldering iron and it would flow evenly. If brass is to stubborn to bend, I would use copper wire. 

Indeed, making the split at the long part and soldering there, as druxey said, would have been my first thought too. Also silver-soldering with some paste might have been easier and stronger.

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!
 

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!
 

As always, Kevin, your knowledge bank is astounding.  I think you are right about this wire’s manufacture, but given the relatively light gauge, it has been pretty easy to pull taught around the pin-formers.  What is essential to this process is a pair of parallel pliers.  I’m indebted to Druxey for that tooling tip!
 
As always, Bill and David and Michael, and everyone who is looking-in - I appreciate the support!

As always, Kevin, your knowledge bank is astounding.  I think you are right about this wire’s manufacture, but given the relatively light gauge, it has been pretty easy to pull taught around the pin-formers.  What is essential to this process is a pair of parallel pliers.  I’m indebted to Druxey for that tooling tip!
 
As always, Bill and David and Michael, and everyone who is looking-in - I appreciate the support!

As always, Kevin, your knowledge bank is astounding.  I think you are right about this wire’s manufacture, but given the relatively light gauge, it has been pretty easy to pull taught around the pin-formers.  What is essential to this process is a pair of parallel pliers.  I’m indebted to Druxey for that tooling tip!
 
As always, Bill and David and Michael, and everyone who is looking-in - I appreciate the support!

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!
 

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!
 

Another brilliant subject, Tomek.  I love the clean and simple lines.

All beautifully coped together.

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!