JerseyCity Frankie

Plenty of discussion on this topic here. If you read my two cents you will see I am saying it's a lashing.  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/9027-puddened-gripes/

The next thing is the gun deck. That is now real time. The beams of the upper gun deck are only for get them ready when needed. 
 
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
 
Regards,
Siggi

With the outside ready, I started with the hold and orlop deck. 

But now it comes. The thing I had the most respect for, the carvings. That was after my visit of London. I saw at the British Museum carvings, after that I thought that I could carve 3 time larger figures blind ;-) 
 
Here you can see also that the color of the hull changed. Most of the gold and yellow is gone. 
 
To the stern carvings I have to explain, some know them already from the so called Thunderer. I think that this model is the Dragon. Both ships where build at Deptford and launched 1760. From the stern carvings I would say, that this are Dragons and there is the batch of the Prince of Wales. At those times the later Georg III. Wales has a lot to do with Dragons in there mythology, the red and white one. And the draughts of the Dragon are nearer to the model than the draughts of the Thunderer.
 
 

Next came the outer skin. Don't worry about the color, I changed that.

Hello everyone,
 
after I had so much positiv response about the pictures of my model in the gallery, I decided to start a blog about this ship. 
 
About the Dragon is to say, it was a third rate ship, designed by Thomas Slade and build at Deptford. Launched 4.3.1760 and sold 1784. 
 
It is not the first ship model I have build, but the first 18th century and framed model. A friend told me about the Bellona and I'm interested to learn more about these ships. My first name is Siegfried and that name is program, Siegfried was the most famos dragon fighter here in Germany, or the only? So I would build the Dragon. I ordered the plans from the NMM and a lot of books from everywhere. Then I started learning. Because the whole ship would be too large in 1:48, I decided to build only the stern part, from the 10th frame backwards. After 3 month I started with the model.
 
That was in the winter of 2011/12. In 2012 a friend of mine was in London and I asked him to take pictures from the models at the NMM. That was a great thing and helped me a lot. In 2013 I visited the NMM and the shipyard at Chatham. Here I saw the Superb, the third ship of the Bellona class. That visit changed a lot, you will see it in the pictures. I changed mostly the color of the hull. 
 
I will post the first pictures in a fast pass, to get update with the actual level of work.
 
And please excuse my english.
 
Regards,
 
Siggi
 
 
 
 

wq,
 
The tiller was overhead along the beams. Hatches, knees, etc. were all part of the "normal" for them.  You'd be wrong in your assumption of the guns not being installed.  Maybe in times of peace as many ship were not completely fitted out with guns and crew.  The ship I'm currently building even had cabins on the quarterdeck for the officers and higher ranks (it was French).  It was common on other nations also and these cabins would be removed during time of war.

Durhams Rock Hard Water Putty comes to mind. Its got "hard" right in its tittle. Its a dry powder with infinite shelf life, mix as you need it, with water, dries in three hours. Sandable drillable can be cast in molds, won't flake off. And it is very hard, harder than plaster or wood filler.

I had to make some Port and Starboard navigation lights for a whaleship model I am restoring, its a 1/72 scale model built to 1930 Popular Science plans. The lamps on the actual ship likely burned whale oil.
I needed a red and a green lantern so I painted red and green stripes on a bamboo skewer. This represents the colored glass of the lamps. Over this I glued strips of common tinfoil leaving a gap between strips corresponding to the hight of the glass lens of the lamps.
I could have stopped there but it seams to me most of these old lamps metalwork had some flanges and radially symetrical moulding. This I represented by putting half turns of thick wire around the skewer above and below the lens, twisting it tight from the back.
I cut off the lamps and glued them into place.
I had used the Wire-Represents-raised-detail idea on wood made canon barrels to represent Reenforcing rings and astragals, its easy and effective.
Incidentally I should point out a subtlety. The baffles that are the boxes the lamps sit in are painted red and green too. But since one is representing painted wood ( the boxes) and one is representing glass ( the lamps) I did NOT use the exact same color red or green on each. I think its important not to use color full strength right out of the jar, I believe it should always be slightly adulterated with a tiny amount of a dark color to kill the intensity just a tiny bit. Especially in cases where different materials are being represented. In this case the red and green paint is more intense on the lenses and duller on the wood baffles and this fools the eye int believing there are two different materials in use.

I would get a copy of Anatomy of Nelsons Ships by Longridge. Its really a close study and description of the building of an HMS VIctory model. Its notable for its great pen and ink illustrations. All the drawings of Victory you could wish for and all of them done really well.
I'm working on a Heller Victory as are some other guys here. feel free to ask questions.

I read an account in Fine Sale Modeling about a guy cutting up two toothbrush handles. They were tinted transparent plastic, red and green. He just used a tinny piece of each to represent the wingtip navlights on a plastic aircraft model. I looked briefly for some transparent tinted plastic but I did not have a lot of time to invest and so just painted the bamboo. But your right, it would be MUCH better with transparent lenses.

I had a chopper nearly twenty years ago and back then it was junk. But later in life I came across people using it and being happy with it and I said "really?" I found it flimsy. Maybe its a better product today but in my experience the arm that holds the blade was not fixed very well to the base nor was it nearly as inflexible as it should have been. I recall being disappointed with the guides it came with too, they were not robust enough and would not stay fixed in position.
Also, its only suited to chop very light materials. You are bringing the blade straight down onto the material so its a crushing action not a slicing action. 

I had to make some Port and Starboard navigation lights for a whaleship model I am restoring, its a 1/72 scale model built to 1930 Popular Science plans. The lamps on the actual ship likely burned whale oil.
I needed a red and a green lantern so I painted red and green stripes on a bamboo skewer. This represents the colored glass of the lamps. Over this I glued strips of common tinfoil leaving a gap between strips corresponding to the hight of the glass lens of the lamps.
I could have stopped there but it seams to me most of these old lamps metalwork had some flanges and radially symetrical moulding. This I represented by putting half turns of thick wire around the skewer above and below the lens, twisting it tight from the back.
I cut off the lamps and glued them into place.
I had used the Wire-Represents-raised-detail idea on wood made canon barrels to represent Reenforcing rings and astragals, its easy and effective.
Incidentally I should point out a subtlety. The baffles that are the boxes the lamps sit in are painted red and green too. But since one is representing painted wood ( the boxes) and one is representing glass ( the lamps) I did NOT use the exact same color red or green on each. I think its important not to use color full strength right out of the jar, I believe it should always be slightly adulterated with a tiny amount of a dark color to kill the intensity just a tiny bit. Especially in cases where different materials are being represented. In this case the red and green paint is more intense on the lenses and duller on the wood baffles and this fools the eye int believing there are two different materials in use.

I read an account in Fine Sale Modeling about a guy cutting up two toothbrush handles. They were tinted transparent plastic, red and green. He just used a tinny piece of each to represent the wingtip navlights on a plastic aircraft model. I looked briefly for some transparent tinted plastic but I did not have a lot of time to invest and so just painted the bamboo. But your right, it would be MUCH better with transparent lenses.

I read an account in Fine Sale Modeling about a guy cutting up two toothbrush handles. They were tinted transparent plastic, red and green. He just used a tinny piece of each to represent the wingtip navlights on a plastic aircraft model. I looked briefly for some transparent tinted plastic but I did not have a lot of time to invest and so just painted the bamboo. But your right, it would be MUCH better with transparent lenses.

I had to make some Port and Starboard navigation lights for a whaleship model I am restoring, its a 1/72 scale model built to 1930 Popular Science plans. The lamps on the actual ship likely burned whale oil.
I needed a red and a green lantern so I painted red and green stripes on a bamboo skewer. This represents the colored glass of the lamps. Over this I glued strips of common tinfoil leaving a gap between strips corresponding to the hight of the glass lens of the lamps.
I could have stopped there but it seams to me most of these old lamps metalwork had some flanges and radially symetrical moulding. This I represented by putting half turns of thick wire around the skewer above and below the lens, twisting it tight from the back.
I cut off the lamps and glued them into place.
I had used the Wire-Represents-raised-detail idea on wood made canon barrels to represent Reenforcing rings and astragals, its easy and effective.
Incidentally I should point out a subtlety. The baffles that are the boxes the lamps sit in are painted red and green too. But since one is representing painted wood ( the boxes) and one is representing glass ( the lamps) I did NOT use the exact same color red or green on each. I think its important not to use color full strength right out of the jar, I believe it should always be slightly adulterated with a tiny amount of a dark color to kill the intensity just a tiny bit. Especially in cases where different materials are being represented. In this case the red and green paint is more intense on the lenses and duller on the wood baffles and this fools the eye int believing there are two different materials in use.

In this video of the Surprise replica, you can see crew swaying aloft the Royal yard on a halyard at around the 2:10 minute-mark. The quality isn't too good and the angle is poor. If you watched the entire video you can just barely make out the same operation on the Fore at an earlier point in the film. 
 
 

I had to make some Port and Starboard navigation lights for a whaleship model I am restoring, its a 1/72 scale model built to 1930 Popular Science plans. The lamps on the actual ship likely burned whale oil.
I needed a red and a green lantern so I painted red and green stripes on a bamboo skewer. This represents the colored glass of the lamps. Over this I glued strips of common tinfoil leaving a gap between strips corresponding to the hight of the glass lens of the lamps.
I could have stopped there but it seams to me most of these old lamps metalwork had some flanges and radially symetrical moulding. This I represented by putting half turns of thick wire around the skewer above and below the lens, twisting it tight from the back.
I cut off the lamps and glued them into place.
I had used the Wire-Represents-raised-detail idea on wood made canon barrels to represent Reenforcing rings and astragals, its easy and effective.
Incidentally I should point out a subtlety. The baffles that are the boxes the lamps sit in are painted red and green too. But since one is representing painted wood ( the boxes) and one is representing glass ( the lamps) I did NOT use the exact same color red or green on each. I think its important not to use color full strength right out of the jar, I believe it should always be slightly adulterated with a tiny amount of a dark color to kill the intensity just a tiny bit. Especially in cases where different materials are being represented. In this case the red and green paint is more intense on the lenses and duller on the wood baffles and this fools the eye int believing there are two different materials in use.

I had to make some Port and Starboard navigation lights for a whaleship model I am restoring, its a 1/72 scale model built to 1930 Popular Science plans. The lamps on the actual ship likely burned whale oil.
I needed a red and a green lantern so I painted red and green stripes on a bamboo skewer. This represents the colored glass of the lamps. Over this I glued strips of common tinfoil leaving a gap between strips corresponding to the hight of the glass lens of the lamps.
I could have stopped there but it seams to me most of these old lamps metalwork had some flanges and radially symetrical moulding. This I represented by putting half turns of thick wire around the skewer above and below the lens, twisting it tight from the back.
I cut off the lamps and glued them into place.
I had used the Wire-Represents-raised-detail idea on wood made canon barrels to represent Reenforcing rings and astragals, its easy and effective.
Incidentally I should point out a subtlety. The baffles that are the boxes the lamps sit in are painted red and green too. But since one is representing painted wood ( the boxes) and one is representing glass ( the lamps) I did NOT use the exact same color red or green on each. I think its important not to use color full strength right out of the jar, I believe it should always be slightly adulterated with a tiny amount of a dark color to kill the intensity just a tiny bit. Especially in cases where different materials are being represented. In this case the red and green paint is more intense on the lenses and duller on the wood baffles and this fools the eye int believing there are two different materials in use.

The Captain asked me to make this post, so here it is: how to make balustrades from beads, wire, and string. 
 
The beads can be purchased in a jewelry supply shop. For those in Melbourne, and those interested in mail order, this is where I bought it from: 
 
(Code 11358), Metal 2.5mm round silver, 200pc/pack, AUD$5.99: http://www.wholesalebeads.com.au/shop.asp?cat=744
 
(Code 11350) Metal 2.5mm x 2.5mm cube raw, 100pc/pack, AUD$8.99: http://www.wholesalebeads.com.au/shop.asp?cat=1332
 
Making the balustrade is self explanatory with these pictures. 
 

 
Cut suitable lengths of wire, then CA the beads in position using a suitable jig to achieve even spacing. 
 

 
Tie a string around the middle, then CA it in place. Trim the string flush. 
 

 
Wrap the string around the wire until a bulb is formed. Periodically add a few drops of CA - the idea is to impregnate the thread with CA to make it possible to turn it on a lathe later. 
 

 
When done, coat with liquid Sculpey: http://www.sculpey.com/product/sculpey-translucent-liquid/
 

 
Bake the balustrades as per the Sculpey instructions: 130C for 15 minutes. When cool, mount on a lathe and sand off any imperfections. Paint it a colour of your choice.
 

 
Comparison of balustrades made using this method, and my best effort at turning pear wood on a lathe. 
 

 

 
Some applications for the balustrades. Mounting the balustrades is dead easy -drill holes through the wood, dip the end of the balustrade in a tiny bit of CA, and push it into the hole. Trim the exposed ends and sand it flat. If you don't like the dots of exposed metal, you can cover it with a thin layer of veneer, or paint over it.

In this video of the Surprise replica, you can see crew swaying aloft the Royal yard on a halyard at around the 2:10 minute-mark. The quality isn't too good and the angle is poor. If you watched the entire video you can just barely make out the same operation on the Fore at an earlier point in the film. 
 
 

Hi everyone.
 
Many thanks for your Likes and comments.
 
Igor and Dennis - I decided to leave the coaming off the floor of the cabin because it would be hard to see it anyway, but thanks for your feedback and suggestions.
 
I've done a bit more work on the cabin and here're the results of it temporarily (and crookedly) sitting in the hull.
 
Hope you enjoy them!
 
All the best
 
Patrick

Lock for the 30,5 cm gun
 
The next thing to be tackled was the lock piece or ‘wedge’. This 'wedge' has a rather complex shape with a flat front, but a round back and various recesses and cut-outs. I decided it would be best to undertake most of the machining operations while it is still attached to some (round) material that can be easily held in a collet. The round back was milled in an upright collet holder on my mill's rotary table after the various coaxial holes had been drilled and the flat sides milled, all in the same set-up. For machining the other recesses the piece had to transferred to the diving head on the mill.
 

Round-milling  the lock piece in an upright collet-holder on the rotary table
 

Cutting off the finished lock piece
 
The most time consuming part turned out to be the cover piece for the lock, which in the prototype was fastened by five hexagonal head bolts. It holds the moving and locking screws in their place. It took me four tries before I produced a half-way satisfactory piece. Soldering the microscopic bolts (0.4 mm head diameter) in place got me quite a few grey hairs. Finally a fake locking screw was turned up and the moving screw, which moves the lock in and out, was faked from a couple of drilled-together 0.1 mm copper wires, covered in a thin layer of solder to make them look like steel.
 

Milling square and hexagonal bolts
 

Facing the locking screw in special protective brass collet
 
The large re-enforcement ring for the barrel was also turned up and two holes drilled into it for seating the rack quadrant that forms part of the elevating gear. In fact, I had cheated a bit, when drilling/milling the lock seat: the front of the hole should have been flat, which is difficult to machine; so I continued the elongated hole under the re-enforcement ring, which was made as a separate part and slipped over the barrel.
The various parts of the lock were assembled using lacquer and cyanoacrylate glue.
 

 

 

The (almost) finished gun barrel with its lock (toothpick for scale)
 
To be continued ...

Long time between updates but I have been working steadily, just slow.  I am going to go ahead with making the hull in three pieces.  I will do much of the interior of the hull,  hanging knees and riders while it is in 3 pieces.  then put it back in the building jig and join the pieces with the planking.  fingers crossed on that.
 
So far I have the bow and stern portion made and rough sanded and I was delighted to find they can be removed from the building jig and then put back on with no trouble whatever.  The next job will be to finish the center portion, then the fun work of detailing the interior begins. 
 

 

 

In this video of the Surprise replica, you can see crew swaying aloft the Royal yard on a halyard at around the 2:10 minute-mark. The quality isn't too good and the angle is poor. If you watched the entire video you can just barely make out the same operation on the Fore at an earlier point in the film.