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SardonicMeow

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Everything posted by SardonicMeow

  1. SardonicMeow
    All the lanyards have been tightened and the sheer poles have been added. The next logical step is to run the ratlines. Yes, the ratlines are definitely the next thing that should be done. I have never done ratlines before. I'm really intimidated by the ratlines. An so, to avoid doing the ratlines, I worked on the boom and gaffs. First, of course, a few 3D printed parts. The dowels for the boom and gaffs were cut and formed. And all of it was glued together and painted black. Also pictured is the jib boom which I worked on a little while ago but haven't pictured here before.
  2. SardonicMeow
    I haven't tried 3D printing blocks, but could give it a try. Now would be a good time, as I am actively avoiding the unpleasant task of tying ratlines on my Sultana. I did try printing deadeyes, but did not take any pictures at the time. From what I recall, deadeyes of diameter 4.5mm and larger were acceptable, but attempts at smaller diameters were malformed. Looking through my pictures, I did find the one below where I tried to produce grating. Left to right the hole size increases. Top to bottom the distance between holes increases. For the covers for the hatches on my Sultana, I used gratings with holes of 1.1mm per side and .7mm between holes.
  3. SardonicMeow
    Below is a picture of my Sultana, still in progress. As an experiment, I have been using 3D printing for as many parts as I can. Results have varied. Some parts are convincing, others suffer from the limitations of 3D printing with a consumer-level printer. There is a limit to the level of detail, and sharp edges are often impossible to achieve. And, of course, even when painted well, plastic can't match the texture and appearance of wood. Anyway, look it over, try to spot what is 3D printed, and I'll list the 3D printed pieces below the image. List of 3D printed parts: White figurehead Yellow quarterbadges All the black railings, caprails, stanchions, hull trim, channels, catheads, etc. Most items in red including the tiller, binnacle, hatches, pumps, windlass and bitts Gratings on the hatches Mast hoops Mast cleats Mast caps and bowsprit cap Have a look at my build log for details of each specific part.
  4. SardonicMeow
    For the deadeyes on my Sultana, I used the very thin beading needles pictured below. These are by far the thinnest needles I have found. However, even though the needles are flexible, I could not use a full needle because the deadeyes are mounted so close to the hull. I get around this, I cut a needle short and bent it into a curve. The bent needle, much abused but still in one piece after threading 16 pairs of deadeyes, is also visible in the picture.
  5. SardonicMeow
    Right. The single thread at the beginning really just serves the purpose of holding the ropes together so a little CA glue can actually bond them. The crepe paper covers the glued spot, and both adds strength to the bond and adhesion, since it's saturated in the diluted glue. I have tugged at the seizing points and they are held together well enough to endure some abuse. At 1/64 scale (and probably 1/96, 1/128, etc.) it's an effective illusion of seizing and much easier than seizing with thread.
  6. SardonicMeow
    Here is the method I have been using for seizing. I think I found this in the build log of Jersey City Frankie's Niagara, though I am unable to find that build log anymore. The procedure is as follows: Tie thin thread at the point where the ropes join and secure with a tiny drop of CA glue. Cut off the loose ends of the thread. Use a tiny drop of CA glue to attach a small strip of black crepe paper and wait for it to dry completely. Using a mixture of 50% white glue / 50% water, dampen the crepe paper strip and wrap it around the ropes. There is a 3D printed solution to every problem. I was thinking about how to get the correct spacing of the deadeyes, and came up the with part pictured below. Here are the spacers at work. (The upper deadeyes are oriented incorrectly in this picture, but were turned the right way later.) All the deadeyes were seized to the shrouds following the method described above. Now it's time to thread the lanyards. The greatest challenge at this point is the small space between the lower deadeyes and the side of the hull. In order to fit the lanyard line through the lower deadeyes, I cut short a thin beading needle and bent it into a semicircle. The final state of the poor abused needle, after all the lanyards were threaded, can be seen below. All the lanyards have been threaded but not yet tightened, so they are not yet in their final, properly spaced positions. But this is a good stopping point for this build log entry.
  7. SardonicMeow
    The ship's bell can be found on the back of the mainmast. These cleats on the bulwarks are for the foremast running backstays. There is no way I will be able to reach them once the shrouds are in place, so I attached some line and left a length sufficient (I hope) to rig the backstays later. Here is a picture of that particular cleat on the actual ship. Finally the masts were glued in and the trestle trees on top of them. The mainmast trestle tree has a platform for the radar. Here is the 3D design for the trestle tree. Next time, the shrouds.
  8. SardonicMeow
    The anchors have been added. I'm mostly satisfied, but in hindsight, I feel that a thinner anchor cable would be better. (I used the .045 miniature rope as in the Sultana practicum.)
  9. SardonicMeow
    I attached blocks and line for the tiller. This was my first time using the Syren 2mm blocks. Manipulating them and threading line through them was a big challenge. There are some other areas of the ship that call for these small blocks and I'm not looking forward to it.
  10. SardonicMeow
    The bowsprit cap was glued onto the end of the bowsprit. I attached one heart and two deadeyes for the bobstay and bowsprit shrouds respectively. I have been happy with some of my 3D printed parts and disappointed by others. The 3D printed hearts have been one of the more successful ones. I glued the bowsprit into place and tied on the gammoning. Among the (many many) reference photos I have collected of the Sultana replica, the gammoning is sometimes white and sometimes black. I thought that black looked better. Finally the bobstay and bowsprit shrouds were attached. The deadeyes hanging from the eyebolts on the wales will be used in the future for the jibboom guys.
  11. SardonicMeow
    Here is a picture for comparison. I included one of my 3D printed mast caps too (which hasn't yet appeared in my build log). The major difference with the bowsprit cap is that mine has a parallelogram cross-section while the kit piece has a rectangular one.
  12. SardonicMeow
    Some work on the bowsprit and jibboom has been completed. Chocks were added to the bowsprit and sections were painted black where appropriate. The bowsprit cap was 3D printed and an eyebolt was added to hold a block for the jibstay outhaul. Here are the pieces dry-fitted. It sure does look fragile.
  13. SardonicMeow
    I have been trying to think about what final details I can add to the model while it is still easy to do so. Once the shrouds and other rigging is in place, it will be much harder to fix anything on the deck. I stropped several blocks and lashed them to eyebolts on the deck. The bitts were designed in Fusion 360. And the bitts were glued into place. I also created a piece to cover the area where the bowsprit disappears below the deck.
  14. SardonicMeow
    Thank you for following along, Yves. I am very proud of the 3D printed parts I'm making. At the same time, not always satisfied with the results due to the limitations of 3D printing, and I think others would feel the same. My 3D printer can only produce a certain level of detail, which is often inferior to what a wooden or molded plastic part could be. Even so, I would be happy to pass on any of my 3D model files to anyone who wants to use them.
  15. SardonicMeow
    If you're having printing trouble, you might consider breaking the design into multiple pieces and gluing the parts together afterwards.
  16. SardonicMeow
    All the cleats have been added to the foremast. Yes, there really are more cleats on the foremast than the mainmast. They handle the brails, foresail tack, and something else that I don't remember at the moment. The picture below is from my visit to the Sultana in 2018. The mast hoops were very simple to design. A nice side effect of the 3D printing process is that the filament layers ended up creating a kind of simulated wood grain on the mast hoop pieces. Adding wood stain onto the beige plastic makes them look convincingly wooden.
  17. SardonicMeow
    Time for some work on the masts. For the mainmast I need... An octagonal thing at the base. And some cleats. And the boom rest. The mast was shaped, stained, and painted red at the bottom. The parts from above were 3D printed in black and glued on. Here is the base of the mast dry-fitted. I did similar work on the foremast but discovered that the cleats were positioned too low, so that will need a redo.
  18. SardonicMeow
    Thanks, Matt. I hope you're doing well too. I had a look at your Winchelsea build log and it's looking great. You should be proud of your planking effort.
  19. SardonicMeow
    After a little hiatus, I'm back to working on my Sultana. No much progress since my last update, but the lower deadeyes and chainplates have been added.
  20. SardonicMeow
    I'm impressed by the sails too. The way you made the seams was very effective.
  21. SardonicMeow
    That's my understanding too. The exact arrangement of sails at any particular time would depend on what the Captain (or, more accurately for a schooner, the Lieutenant) would feel appropriate for the conditions. Topmasts and topsails with their associated yards would be raised and used, or lowered and stored as needed.
  22. SardonicMeow
    I'm no expert, but after some searching, I have found that the sail plan strongly resembles that of turn of the century racing yachts. Do some searches on America's Cup winners from the 1890's to 1920's and you see what I mean. The hull shape is completely wrong for a racing yacht, however.
  23. SardonicMeow
    I like how the subtle variations in color make it look more natural.
  24. SardonicMeow
    I have only one experience with adding water to a diorama, but I'll share my experience with you. I made this diorama of Kinkakuji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a few years ago. The water is Woodland Scenics Realistic Water, tinted with acrylic paint. Realistic Water can only be poured in 1/8" layers, but it looks like Woodland Scenics has some newer products that can do deeper pours. I needed to do this one in several layers. There were bubbles, but I was able to pop them with a pin while wet, so they weren't a big problem. The biggest issue was how the water would creep up the terrain. You can see it in the picture below, how the water creeps up the island and the blue color has soaked into some of the scenery. It's also visible around all the edges in the picture above. I had to backfill some dirt materal on top to try to mitigate it, but it covers over any nice land to water transition I wanted. So, I encourage you to do some test pours with actual terrain like what you will use in your final display. I just did test pours into a paper cup with some gravel, which wasn't an adequate test. Anyway, for some great examples on making terrain and water features, I highly recommend Luke Towan's channel on Youtube, in particular the Realistic Scenery playlist. Good luck with your display!
  25. SardonicMeow
    Not a historical example, but that's the way it is on the Sultana replica. Here is a picture on the Sultana Projects Flickr showing the ensign staff. Note that the staff is offset to starboard so that the boom can remain at the center line. When the mainsail is raised, the flag is moved to the gaff peak and the staff slides completely out of its holder.

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