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SardonicMeow

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Everything posted by SardonicMeow

  1. SardonicMeow
    Swivel gun stocks were designed. They were 3D printed at various heights as needed. In addition to the swivel gun stocks, the steps on the side of the hull and the round drainage hole were also made. The picture below shows everything glued in place.
  2. SardonicMeow
    The design and 3D printing of parts continues. This time, it's the channels. After some experimentation, I made them a little bit larger than what appears on the plans. The tabs were added as an aid in attaching them to the hull. Here are the pieces after printing. I also printed long strips, 1mm x 1mm, to use as the trim. Note how the channels and trim are merged.
  3. SardonicMeow
    I was fooled too. What incredible work. I am looking forward to seeing more. In particular, I would like to see the method for developing the hull shape from the plans.
  4. SardonicMeow
    Time for the quarterbadges. Here's a nice big picture I took last year of the Sultana's quarterbadge. Initially, I thought I would model this in Fusion 360's T-Spline modeling area. However, that proved to be beyond my abilities with the software, and ultimately, not necessary at the scale at which I'm working. The quarterbadge form pushes my 3D printer to its limits. In the end, the best approach was not to try to model the quarterbadge form perfectly, but to arrive at a shape that would create the best badge based on the limited ways the 3D printer would produce each layer. I started simply by creating a single layer object to establish the general outline of the shape. From there, I gradually built up each form of the badge. The picture below shows the evolution of the design. The following pictures show my final 3D design and the corresponding 3D printed part. The mechanical pencil is included for scale. When I designed the bulkheads for the model, I intentionally made sure that there would be empty space inside the hull at the location of the quarterbadges. In fact, if you go back to my post of 20 March, you can see on the last picture that I painted that area white before planking over it. All of that was for the purpose of having the interior visible through the quarterbadge windows. I carefully broke through the planking and exposed the cavity. My design wasn't perfect, and some bulkhead wood also had to be filed back a bit. The cavity was given an extra coat of white paint. (The walls of the Sultana's cabin are painted white.) The quarterbadge pieces were painted yellow and white, and cellophane was glued to the windows as glazing. Then the quarterbadges were glued into place.
  5. SardonicMeow
    Derek, it took some searching (using the keywords startup / hobbyist), but I found the relevant page: https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/fusion-360-for-hobbyists
  6. SardonicMeow
    Here's a shot on the Sultana looking forward. The rails at the bow are somewhat complicated. The knightheads stand proud on either side of the bowsprit. Working along the rail, there are three cleats, then the rail is broken by the cathead. After the cathead, there are seven timberheads, which are wider at the top. This picture shows my final design for the forward rails. There were several iterations to get things where I was satisfied. This picture shows how the timberheads were angled to match the slope of the bulwarks. And this is the design of the cathead. All the pieces were 3D printed. Here are the pieces for the starboard side. All pieces were gently sanded and painted matte black prior to gluing. Two shots of the pieces after being glued.
  7. SardonicMeow
    Just a small update today. I produced and glued the rails at the lowest level.
  8. SardonicMeow
    The aft rails are next. Below is a picture of the Sultana with the rail stanchions marked. Middle stanchions are in pairs, and there are singles at each end. (At least, that's what I assumed. The foremost may also be a pair, but I couldn't see it clearly in any pictures, and I went with a single.) I created the shape of the rail in Fusion 360 to match the curve of the edge of the deck. All rails here and in future steps will be 3.2mm wide and 1mm thick, to mimic 1/8" x 1/32" strip wood. I made a copy of the rail and positioned the rails in approximately the angle they would appear on the ship. The stanchions were added. Stanchions are 2mm square at the base, tapering to 1.5mm at the top. Stanchions are taller forward and shorter aft to match the angle between the rails. The upper rail was moved slightly aft, then square holes were added to accept the tops of the stanchions. Here are the 3D printed parts. The set above are being glued together. The set below are fresh out of the printer. And finally the rails were glued to the ship. The rails were painted with black to remove the glossy plastic finish. I also made some short rails for the next step down. These are also visible in the picture.
  9. SardonicMeow
    With the warm months just a memory, I'm back to working on the Sultana. There are several parts that I'm anxious about on this model. The cap rail over the transom is one. I tried to bend a wood strip for the part, but had little success. So I have tried to produce it via 3D print instead. Modeling it in Fusion 360 was also a challenge, and I ended up with something of a compromise, as can be seen below. I started with the curve of the transom shape that I had developed previously for the laser cut transom pieces. I thickened the curve to a thickness of 1.5mm. Then I wanted to extrude it horizontally. But when I tried to extrude I realized that it could only be extruded normal to the plane of the sketch. That wasn't what I wanted. It turns out that the Sweep, rather than the Extrude, operation was the correct one. I added a line in the direction and length (10mm) that I wanted. With that, the Sweep operation created the shape. Below on the left is a picture of the piece as it came out of my 3D printer. I intentionally created a piece longer than necessary, with the intention of filing it down to the correct fit. In the picture at the right is the final piece after being filed down. And the piece was finally glued into place. I created the small curved fashion pieces in wood, painted black, which merge the cap rail and wales.
  10. SardonicMeow
    Point, I would also appreciate it if you could show us in more detail how to reached this point. I'd love to see, in more detail, how you did the work in the Form workspace. Floyd, have a look at my Sultana build log (which I really do plan to get back to once the summer is over). I modeled the hull in Fusion 360, took cross-sections, and then laser-cut pieces from those. (My cross-sections were created using the Intersect operation, not any add-on. I'll have to see what Slicer can do.)
  11. SardonicMeow
    Regarding the loop, I used cloth covered wire there. The hidden wire is why it holds its shape. (I should point out that a loop like that isn't how the line would be attached on an actual ship.)
  12. SardonicMeow
    Sorry, but I'm not sure what "loops" you mean. Are you asking how the sails are attached to the gaffs?
  13. SardonicMeow
    Uh oh. That means you'll inherit my mistakes too. 😀 I'm sure there are other minor problems, but the one that stands out is that I placed that block on the mainmast for the throat halyard too low. It limits how high the gaff can be raised. In the picture below, you can see that the two blocks (one on the gaff, one on the mast) are touching. The other issue that I remember isn't directly related to blocks but may affect your placement of them. If you follow the length in the plans, the foresail gaff is too long and will hit the mainmast no matter how you adjust the lines. I recommend that you cut it a little shorter than the plans show (testing it before you cut, of course). I'll post again if I remember any more issues.
  14. SardonicMeow
    I've been a proud member since January 2018. 😁 You're doing great, Matt. Once you work around the rudder issue, all the most frustrating parts are behind you.
  15. SardonicMeow
    Ships are living things that change over time. I am approaching a point where I'll have to make some decisions about what specific point in time I'll depict in my model. Here are two pictures of the Sultana. The top one is from the blog ship25bsa.smallsquareddesigns.com and was taken August 2003. The lower picture was taken by me in October 2018. The most obvious change is the black stripe painted between the planksheer and caprail. The nameplate at the bow was changed to match. The painted figurehead in the older picture is a rare sight. Nearly every other picture I've found has the figurehead solid white, and I plan to keep it that way. There are other minor changes (like the pintles and gudgeons I have pointed out), as well as other minor details not visible in these pictures. What do you think? Do you prefer the older look or the newer look? I think I'm leading toward the older version. Here's another comparison picture. Top is from the blog 829southdrive.blogspot.com November 2014 and the bottom is another of mine from October 2018. It's not obvious from the top picture, but the band between planksheer and caprail is painted black. However, the bow nameplate is still light. Note the light gammoning rope. The only other time I've seen it light is in pictures of the Sultana at launch. I'll be using black gammoning in my model. The big difference in these pictures is the change in the style of anchor.
  16. SardonicMeow
    Clare's build log of the Independence can be found on his website.
  17. SardonicMeow
    Brush. I thinned the paint a little, which is why it took several coats, but helped to keep the paint smooth. As long as my brush strokes followed the flow of the planks, they were nearly unnoticeable.
  18. SardonicMeow
    Strips for the wales were bent, painted black, and glued into place. The contrast between the black wales and the light hull colors is striking.
  19. SardonicMeow
    Artist acrylic, because that's what I had on hand. Naples Yellow from Liquitex was the closest match I could find for the yellow color of the hull.
  20. SardonicMeow
    The hull was painted. Multiple coats were required for good coverage.
  21. SardonicMeow
    A bad cold and a variety of obligations made me put the build on hold for a few weeks. The deck has been stained. In spite of lots of sanding, there was still enough glue to make the stain cover inconsistently. However, if you look at pictures I've posted of the deck earlier, there is some inconsistency due to weathering, so I'm not too upset. The bulwarks were added and painted red on the inside. Figuring out the right height for the bulwarks was a challenge. Six slots for the scuppers were added on each side of the main deck. I did not completely succeed in making them perfectly rectangular. Here's an image of the scuppers on the real ship.
  22. SardonicMeow
    How does it look with the bowsprit dry-fitted? It seems to me that the bowsprit, more than the windlass, would limit the space to work.
  23. SardonicMeow
    Trenails are done. Next step is to apply stain. What am I to do with all these tipless toothpicks? When someone spends 20 years building the Taj Mahal out of a million toothpicks, is this how it starts?
  24. SardonicMeow
    Yes, those are the exact toothpicks I've been using. 😀
  25. SardonicMeow
    I was hoping to find a less-tedious solution, but after further experiments, I have accepted that the toothpick method is the way to go. I used tape to define the location for the trenails. Holes were drilled along the line. The toothpicks are glued in. After drying, the toothpicks are chopped off and the surface is sanded down. Getting a straight line is a challenge.

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