shipmodel

Beautiful work Marc. That's quite a set of 3-D jigsaw puzzles you have created for yourself. I'm really enjoying watching how you solve them. I agree with Michael. Maybe an overcoat of clear gloss would hide the blemish. I would thin out the liquid so it will flow into your fingerprints a bit more. Best of success. Dan

Alan - in my experience, Druxey intends every one of the many puns he uses. He is a master of understated humor. Or was that humour. Bob - Pretty much the only bone on this model, and most other POW models that I have worked on, is the planking. Both the hull and decks are planked in thin bone veneers over a wooden core. I think that this may be because bone will soften by immersing it in vinegar and can be bent to the shapes needed for hull planking. I don't know if ivory will soften in the same way. Ivory is used for all the masts and spars. I think the grain in the bone (actually the holes from its blood supply) would weaken any long unsupported cylinders and make them prone to snapping. Ivory is also much easier to work with for making the blocks, guns, deck fittings and, of course, any and all decorative carvings. At the time, whaling was in full swing, so tooth ivory was plentiful, and I know that there was a lively trade in elephant ivory too, as the many Asian art objects show. I can imagine making an entirely bone model, but only if I figured out how to solidify it for the masts, etc. Perhaps an infusion of a stiffening liquid like the thinned epoxy that was suggested earlier might work. Best of success with your work on behalf of breed preservation. Dan

Hello again – Thanks for the likes and compliments. Barkeater - That’s exactly what it looks like to me too. It might not be that difficult to open the seizing around the bowsprit, run it above the pinrail, and reseize it again. My hesitation is because of the limited space in which to operate and whether any change in angle might damage the snaking lines. Hmmm This segment is short but important. I decided that it was time to tackle the broken mainmast. Here is how I received it, broken just under the trestletrees and the doubling of the head of the topmast and bent forward almost 90 degrees. The stays that led forward were kinked but not broken. The topmast shrouds and backstays were also intact, but bent sideways. Taking a closer look I realized that those shrouds were not original. They are the wrong color and lie over a mass of cutoff ropes that must have been the heads of the original shrouds. The good news was that this made them more flexible. More importantly, the mast was not broken. The head of the topmast was a separate piece from the body of the topmast. Possibly that was because that was where it changed from a round cross section to a square one. In any event, the mast was not splintered. The lower mast seemed to fit into a socket between the trestletrees, and there was the same red glue residue of an earlier repair. With that in mind I started to move the pieces around, as I had with the bowsprit. I found that I could put the pieces of the mast in place against each other and pull up on the broken top till it was quite close to vertical before resistance made me stop for fear of pulling something loose. I checked all the lines to see which was the tightest, thinking that I could cut one or two and that would release the top and let me put it in place. I actually found that none were particularly tight. It was only the stiffness of the lines that was stopping me. So I gently pulled the top up and released it back down several times. The lines seemed to loosen up and I was able to get the top into a position where it stayed, although it was tipped forward just a bit. The pieces were allowed to rest overnight and loosen up as much as they were going to. In the morning I could pull the top up into final position. Again I let it rest for a while. Then I tipped it forward and fed several drops of cyano into the joint. Here the mass of old lines below the trestletrees was a silver lining. It gave me a much greater mating surface for the glue, which made the joint that much stronger. I held the top in place till it solidified. As the glue set up I checked the orientation of the top from every direction. There are still some lines that have to be tensioned, but overall this was the easiest fix of a major problem that ever happened to me. I wish they all could go as smoothly. Stay safe. Dan

Hi to all – Bob – I’ve passed a lot of water under the bridge since that picture was taken. I really should update it, if I can find a photo that will not scare the kids. Just had time for a quick repair today. The first piece of rigging to repair on the main mast was the mainstay collar. As received the mainstay is one of the better preserved elements of the original rigging. The stay and preventer are both secured to the masthead with eye and mouse fittings. The crowsfoot is properly rigged through a small ivory euphroe. The stay and preventer are appropriately sized as is the snaking line between them. The preventer is properly rigged with a pair of hearts, but it is clear that its collar is a replacement. It is the wrong color and it runs badly. Its seizing around the bowsprit is particularly sloppy. On the mainstay the two hearts are still attached to each other by the lashing, but the rest of the collar that should run from the lower heart to the bowsprit is gone. I carefully cut through the lashing between the hearts and cleaned up the upper heart. In this photo you can see how kinked the preventer collar had to be to run under the pinrail. I’m not sure why any restorer would do this. I seized the heart into a line that matched the diameter of the other collar, but was the proper color. I passed the running end around the bowsprit and seized it so it could extend up toward the matching heart with a reasonable gap between. I thought about doing the collar in a more accurate manner, but decided to match the style of the earlier repair. I lashed the two hearts together and this little repair was done. More soon. Dan

Hi again to everyone – Thanks as always for the compliments and interest. Tony – I may try CPES the next time I have to make sails. I have never been completely satisfied with the stiffeners I have used in the past. It should work on thin fabric too, yes? Bob – Yes, victory it is! But I work in a space that is barely 6 feet by 7 feet with only one small French door (it used to be a walk-in closet). I am also 70 with a bit of asthma. I use solvent based materials only when there is no water based alternative. If I do, I clear out for a while until a small fan can clear the vapors. As you said, it’s all about common sense. Back on the model, with the lower rigging strengthened and repaired, I turned to the first break, the bowsprit. As it came to me the jib boom was broken right behind the bowsprit cap with the martingale detached and hanging only by its rigging. To test some ideas, I moved the broken forward piece around a bit and found that I could lay it in place on top of the aft piece, but the stays and other lines had shortened so they had to overlap about 2mm. I could also set the heel of the broken piece in place, but then trying to pull down the forward end would overtighten the lines and pull the fore topmast much too far forward. To mend the break I first cut off the martingale and all the raffle of lines that led to it. To get the pieces to fit I gently ground off about 1mm from each face and flattened them so they met snugly. Then I drilled into the ivory on both ends. I knew that with such limited mobility I could only use a very short length of brass rod across the joint. It was more used to locate and keep the two pieces centered than to provide any real strength against a future impact. Once in place with the brass rod inserted I gently clamped them against a straight piece of wood. When I was satisfied that they formed a straight line I bonded them with cyano. This is one of only two places where it is used. The other is to stiffen the ends of rigging line that has to feed through small holes, and is then discarded. Once the cyano had cured there was only a little groove where the pieces met. I took a sanding wheel and ground some ivory into a powder. Mixed with MC it made a nice filler. Here is how it came out. As mentioned, I was not at all happy with the “Y” shape of the martingale and the fact that it was not made of bone or ivory. I consulted my sources and, although large models of ships of the line had “V” shaped martingales, the most common was a simple spike rigged to the boom, the bowsprit, and the hull. You can see these features in the models in the Lloyd book much like these. Although many martingales are mounted under the bowsprit cap, the stub of the bowsprit tenon that extended through the cap suggested that the martingale here had originally been mounted to the front face of the cap and had been vertical. I decided that this solution had plausible deniability and went with it. I took some ivory and cut a piece the width of the cap and a length that looked right for the size of the model. I carved it down to a round spike with a mortise in the head that fit the bowsprit tenon. Three holes were drilled for rigging lines at approximately equal spacing. It was mounted to the cap with glue and metal pins, then martingale guys were made up of dyed linen line. One ran from the tip of the jib boom to a notch at the base, and then two went to eyebolts already in place on either side of the hull. Smaller lines were run from the boom through the holes in the martingale and tied off to the bowsprit. Between the guys and the inner rigging they form a triangular truss arrangement that would have strongly resisted the pull of the headsails. The various foremast stays that led to the bowsprit and jib were tightened by sliding their collars out on the boom or up on the mast till the stays were barely straight. This left just a bit of slack for further tightening when the mainmast is fixed and its stays that run to the foremast are rigged and tensioned. One break fixed, three to go. Stay safe Dan

Bob - Thinned CPES sounds like an excellent solution, but not for this problem, I think. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a "well ventilated area" in a Brooklyn apartment. I will stick with the water based products. Thanks for the suggestion. Dan

Hi again – Druxey – Now you tell me . . . J Tony – Thanks for the suggestion, but I only use epoxy for metal-to-metal joins, or making ocean spray (a process that I have not perfected). It cures very hard and brittle, in my experience, though I have never thinned it. I have no idea what solvents like acetone might do to 200 year old linen, and I don’t think I will try it on someone else’s model. Mark – That’s the s*******, c*********, r*****est compliment I have ever gotten. Back in the drydock, just one small repair today - the forestay preventer that I had broken before realizing how fragile the lines were. Notice how nice the cable is that makes up the stay and how neatly the heart was turned in. This must have been quite the nice model when it was new. The lines were painted with MC and allowed to dry. I did not try to paint the snaking lines, but again let capillary action take some of the MC onto them. I cut a length of 0.010” line to use as a splint, long enough to span the two breaks with a bit on either end. It was painted with full strength PVA and gently lifted up from underneath. I attached it at both ends, the tackiness of the PVA holding it in place. Then I could gently maneuver the middle piece until it lay on the splint in the gap. After the PVA cured it became completely clear and I gave the repair a top coat of MC. I also painted the snake lines which were now strong enough to hold up. Thanks, as always, for the likes. Back soon. Dan

Hi to all – Thanks again for all the likes and comments. Barkeater – yes, I use fly tying thread when I want a very smooth seizing on a small scale stropping or splice. It mikes down to 0.003”, and even less if you separate the several strands that make it up. But here the seizings on the model, whether original or repairs, use larger line for those purposes and I will be matching them rather than trying to make improvements. Today I worked my way around the lower shrouds, stiffening them and repairing ratlines as before. I came to the main lower shroud on the starboard side. I had noticed before, when I received it, that the lanyard of the center deadeyes was completely broken, although the lanyards on either side were still whole. A number of the ratlines, especially at the bottom, were broken. After stabilizing everything with MC I slid a Post-it behind the gang to help me see what I was doing. I knew that I would not be able to access the back of the upper deadeye to lace the lanyard. There was almost no room between the deadeyes and the hull so I would need to twist the shroud around, which would certainly break more of the ratlines, if not the shroud itself. All I could do was to fake the lanyards enough to fool the eye. First I removed the broken lanyard pieces. I took a length of the very thin linen line that had been dyed black, then soaked it in PVA and hung it with a weight on the end. It dried stiff and straight. I measured and cut three short lengths and glued them to the face of the deadeyes. I had hoped that these three would be enough to visually look like a lanyard, but it looked empty compared to the lanyards to either side. So I took three more lengths of the stiff line and attached them to the backs of the deadeyes. This last took lots of patience, some bad words, and a bent paper clip to nudge them into place without turning or twisting the deadeyes. It did not come out as perfectly as if I properly laced the lanyard, but considering the variations in the other lanyards it fit right in. It is solving these small individual puzzles that I like best about restorations. After this I could treat the rest of the shrouds with MC and lay on the Mettlar threads over the broken ratlines. Getting the lowest two or three sets of ratlines across the shrouds strengthened the entire web and hopefully will prolong the life of all of this rigging. And hopefully the rest of the repairs will go as well. Stay safe Dan

Hi all – After reviewing all the experiment results and considering Druxy’s suggestion, I decided to go with a combination method. I will use the methyl cellulose (MC) on lines that will not have to be manipulated, like the lower shrouds and stays. I will need the increased flexibility and strength that the PVA will give me on the lines that I will have to move around when I repair them. If needed I will tone down any shiny finish with an overcoat of the MC. This should give me some additional strength as well. So I took my softest sable brush and started to paint the MC onto the foremast lower shrouds. Disaster! Despite how gently I tried to apply the liquid to the forward shroud and ratlines, the ratlines crumbled all down the length of the shroud. Of course I stopped immediately. It appears that the ratlines are so thin and so cooked that they must be held together by will power alone. I tried blowing on one and it crumbled with just a moderate puff. To deal with this I thinned the MC some more, then painted it onto only the shrouds, hoping that capillary action would infuse the ratlines from the shrouds both left and right. I tried it on the rest of the lower foremast shroud gang and happily got good results. No more of the ratlines broke and, after the MC cured, I found that the ratlines were now strong enough to give them a second coat of MC without further damage. Now I had to repair the damage that I caused, and to fix other ratlines that had broken over the years. I wanted to use linen line, but ran into a problem. Linen makes for a pretty stiff thread. Even in the smallest diameter that I have, 0.007”, it acts like steel cable at these small scales. You can see how it does not curve compared to my softest thread, Mettlar’s silk finish embroidery thread. It is a mercerized cotton product, not linen, but I don’t think I will have to worry about shrinkage in this use. It has a bit of an irregular finish, but the 50/3 size generally mikes out to between 0.007” to 0.009”. I cut short pieces of the thread and soaked them in thinned PVA. Carefully laying them across the gaps they were smoothed down using a wet brush and the tip of a dry toothpick. After drying I gave them a coat of MC to tone down any shine. Once this was dry the extra ends were trimmed with a sharpened cuticle clipper. I use this tool from the cosmetics counter in almost all rigging situations. It cuts cleanly, with the cutting edge laid very close to the knot/junction, and without the danger of a wayward blade slicing through a line that I want to keep. Here is how it came out. There are a few tiny stubs where the new lines overlap the old ones, but they are only visible under magnification and then only when there is a contrasting background like this pale Post-it note paper. Other ratline repairs were needed from causes other than my clumsy hands. Here is how I found the main lower shroud gang on the port side. On the left of the photo you can see that the first and second shrouds have somehow been reversed. The forward shroud is twisted and at the masthead actually runs behind and aft of the second shroud. This must have put increased stress on the ratlines between them. At the upper right the brace for the lower mizzen yard is rigged, properly, to the aft main shroud. But the line is a replacement (it is a slightly different color) which shrank and pulled on the shroud, breaking the ratlines around it. And here it is after repairs. The yellow color is because I shut down the camera flash and used only and incandescent bulb. The picture is less confusing when there are no shadows of the ratlines on the paper backing. I did this for all the lower shrouds and ratlines. Here is the port lower mizzen gang during repairs and after. There will be many more repairs needed on the topmast shrouds, especially those on the broken main and mizzen masts. But those are for later. Now I need a stiff drink. More soon. Dan

Hi again to all – Thanks for all the likes and comments. I love it when there are wider topics discussed in a build log than just the building. The past several days were spent trying out 7 different glues and varnishes to see if they could help the original rigging. I was looking for a liquid which can be painted on gently and which will strengthen the lines and make them flexible so they do not break when they have to be manipulated to fix the current problems. Here they are. I tried to set up as wide a range of solutions as I reasonably could. If there wasn’t a suitable one in this group then there might not be one. Next I needed something to test them on. The original rigging lines were probably made of linen. Every time that similar old lines have been chemically examined, as far as I know, they turned out to be linen. It was readily available in England at the time since it was made from flax plants which grew there. Cotton was scarcer since Egypt was in French hands most of this time. Linen is also quite dimensionally stable, so rigging lines do not sag or overtighten. Fortunately, I had snapped up a collection of linen line spools about 20 years ago which includes diameters from 0.007” to 0.048”. I use them for all of my museum work that requires rigging. Although most of it is very white, it dyes black or tan quite easily and permanently. To simulate the cooking that the original lines had endured over the years, I took lengths of 0.02” and 0.04” lines and baked them in the over overnight at 350 degrees. Nothing! They came out hot, but as flexible as before. The same thing happened at 450 degrees. Finally, I simply wrapped the lines in foil and set the packet on top of the naked flame of the gas stove. In a few minutes wisps of smoke started coming out of the seams. I turned it over for another 30 seconds then removed it from the heat. When it was unwrapped the lines had been blackened and charred, just as I hoped. After cooling I tried one of the thicker lines and gently pulled it along its length. It took little effort to break the line, with the ends, under magnification, looking a lot like the ends of the broken rigging on the model. These would be acceptable stand-ins for testing purposes. Now that I had my test materials I took seven short pieces of both the large and small diameter lines and mounted them on a piece of file folder. Some of the thinner ones were extremely delicate and one broke as I was mounting it. Then each was painted with the liquid corresponding to the numbers on the composite photo. After they dried overnight I examined them under magnification and then tried to bend each around a ¼” diameter dowel. Here is the photo of the results. What I found was as follows, recognizing the limitations of my not very precise or controlled materials and methods: 1. Krylon spray – I decanted some and painted it on with a soft brush. I worried that the power of the propellant might damage the smaller lines, and also that I would not have a lot of control over the application on the actual model. It dried stiff with a matte finish. It did not seem to improve the pull-apart strength of the line, but made it too stiff to bend easily. 2. Lineco pH neutral PVA – It was diluted to skim milk consistency with distilled water and painted on. It significantly improved both the pull-apart strength of the line and was quite flexible when dry. The one drawback was that it dried quite shiny. 3. Liquitex gloss varnish – Painted on direct from the bottle. The result was not very strong, not very flexible, and shiny. 4. Liquitex matte varnish - Somewhat improved strength and flexibility, matte finish. 5. Paraloid b72 – significantly improved strength but not very flexible. Shiny finish. The biggest drawback is that it requires a strong solvent like acetone for dilution or clean up. 6. Powdered methyl cellulose - Dissolved per the instructions in distilled water. It markedly improved strength, had decent flexibility, and dried with a matte finish. 7. Gel cyano – It was laid on as thin as I could with a wooden toothpick so it would not heat up as it cured and damage the fibers even more. It was the strongest in the pull-apart test, but was the most brittle when dry, especially for the thinner line. Shiny finish. The decision came down to two choices, the PVA and the methyl cellulose. I am leaning toward the PVA just because I am very familiar with its properties. On the other hand, the MC could be used to strengthen lines that will not be handled, with the PVA used where the line might have to bend and twist. I am open to any and all further thoughts that you all might have. Stay safe Dan

Hi again - I forgot to mention that I am corresponding with Manfred Stein in Germany. He is the author of the book on bone models that dvm27 spoke about. He also has a very nice website that has located many bone POW models around the world and places where you can see them. If you are interested in these singular art objects, here is his URL - - http://www.pow-boneships.de/ Stay safe Dan

Hi to all - I am back in the shop today and the glues and finishes that I ordered have arrived. I will experiment with them in the next few days and report on my findings. In the meanwhile my client has located some documents from when his uncle had the model repaired in 1956. Here is a photo that the uncle sent to the Mariner's Museum in Virginia asking for information. Notice that the damages are very similar to those that I am repairing - broken bowsprit, main and mizzen masts. The entire figurehead area is missing. I do not know if the bust that is on the model was original or if it was added. The museum was not too helpful, but eventually he located a restorer named C.M. Smeltzer, Jr. at a company called Authentiscale in Metuchen, NJ. I could not find any existing information on either the man or the company. In any event, they reached an agreement that the repairs would cost $210.00 with an additional $40 for a case. I don't know what that converts to in 2021 dollars. I do not have a photo of the model after repairs and before the current damages, but my client is still looking. More soon. Stay well Dan.

Cathead - I think Johnny has it right. It was a mostly question of respect for a long time adversary rather than anger at traitorous colonists. This was especially true for sailors, who all understood that their true enemy was not the other fleet but the sea herself. The other issue was one of numbers. The land armies of Napoleon and those of the various opponents, Russia, Austria, Spain, England, etc., generally captured about equivalent numbers of soldiers, so exchanges could be arranged on more or less equal terms. However, the British Navy captured more French sailors by several orders of magnitude than the French captured English sailors. Equivalent exchanges could not be arranged, so the sailors had to be held for much longer periods of time. The British did not want to hold them, and feed them, as evidenced by the wholesale emptying of the POW camps and repatriation of prisoners whenever there was a 'peace treaty' between the countries. Captains Hornblower and Aubrey are always concerned that they will end up on the beach without a command whenever that happened. Barkeater - I have some bone, but it is in large chunks and is much more difficult to work with since it has dried out completely and tends to snap. For these small areas I chose the ivory as being easier to work without much difference in the look of the final repair. I am waiting on the delivery of several kinds of glue/finish products and will report on their suitability when they come in. Till then, stay safe. Dan

Hi again to all – As you can tell, I really like POW models. I first ran into one at an antiques show that my mother dragged me to when I was about 10. I found that it was pretty interesting looking at old artworks and furniture. But a large, intricate, bright white model of a sailing warship captivated me. When I was told that it was made of bones and rigged with human hair, I begged my mother to buy it. I have no idea why she decided not to spend $7,000 (about the cost of a good car back then) on such a simple request. In the 60 years since then I have learned many things about them, such as that they were not actually rigged with hair, and that I still can’t afford one. I do get a bit of satisfaction in restoring them for others. I have been fortunate enough to be given this pleasant task several times. Each is its own unique fine art object, and each has its unique set of restoration puzzles to be solved. For this one I spent that past two days trying to solve the hull puzzles. The easiest one to access was the small triangle at the gripe where the wide stem plank had lost its point. It had been repaired by replacing it with a piece that was much too white for the surrounding bone planking. I removed the offending triangle with a dental pick. It turned out not to be ivory, as I expected, but was actually a hard plastic. Not very original. The old glue in the corners was removed with the pick and the tip of a hobby knife. To fill the hole I used the ivory top of a piano key. I have a small stash of ivory, most of it whale tooth ivory, from when I was playing around with scrimshaw. It was also too white, but unlike the plastic I could change it. Many years ago I came across an article that recommended using used coffee grounds as an ‘aging’ agent for ivory. Fresh grounds have too much acid and volatile chemicals to use for this. I have used the method before with good results. Here is the key with its left end having been buried in damp grounds overnight. After drying out, a piece of the stained side was cut and fitted. It was installed with PVA since it is mounted on the wood of the stem. I next turned to the figurehead. It had obviously suffered some serious damage in the past. Although the figurehead itself was in pretty good shape, the area behind it was missing all of the hull planking. It had been crudely filled in with a putty of some kind that was tinted grey or had aged that color. As I said in an earlier post, I also did not like where the head was fitted. My understanding is that the back of the bust’s head should be at the level of the topmost rail, which is why it is called the ‘hair rail’. This bust was mounted at least ¼” too low. Using rotary tool I carefully ground away the putty. I used a flat bottomed bit to help insure that I would not unintentionally dig too deep into the original substance of the model. With the putty mostly removed I found that the entire tip of the stem was a replacement, being a separate piece of wood carved to fit. Removal of the putty also revealed a hole in the shoulder of the bust, probably indicating where a separate arm once fit. It was while taking this photo that I realized that there was a gap between the bust and the scroll which the bobstay runs against. On the port side the putty was similarly removed. It revealed a clearly broken end to the upper planking. It must have been quite an impact to do that much damage. But the bobstay appears to be original and shows no break or repair. How that could be possible I don’t know. The loose lines that are in the photo are some replacements that ran to the incorrect and broken martingale. They were soon removed to keep them from getting in the way. I thought about moving the bust up to its proper place and then carving a middle piece, perhaps a dress, out of ivory. But the bust would not come loose with gentle leverage, so I left it in place. All I could do was to fill in the open spaces with new planking. To take the shapes needed I laid on some translucent tape and drew the outlines. The tape was laid on the aged ivory and pieces cut out. I drilled holes for metal pins that would help secure the pieces to the hull. These are for the port side Here they are test fit, ready for final shaping. And here they have been glued and pinned in place. I also carved a rounded wedge of ivory to fit in the gap below the bust. This is the finished port side And the starboard side. I’m considering scratching some ‘grain’ into the ivory to make it look a bit more like bone, but that may be a bit on the obsessive side. It’s still an option. Stay safe Dan

Keith - Wonderful work. I am really looking forward to the lacemaking class, whoever teaches it. I confess to learning how to cane a chair for one of my smaller models, but making lace was always beyond me. I just buy wedding veil material or similar from a local fabric store that still has old patterns and weaves. Stay safe Dan

Hi all - Druxey - yes, and thank you . I have ordered some of the glue and will test it with the others that I have. Roger - the conditions of French POWs was not usually that dismal. Yes, the prison hulks were not pleasant, but you do not abuse the enemy's POWs or he may retaliate against yours. In fact, towards the middle of the period most of the naval POWs were housed in large camps like Norman Cross. Think "The Great Escape" or "Hogan's Heroes" rather than "The Bridge on the River Kwai". Officers could give their parole and live outside camp in nearby villages. All sorts of activities and athletics were permitted. There is even evidence that there were fencing lessons. The British also believed in having the prisoners keep busy, so they allowed them to make all sorts of handicrafts, not just ship models. There were bone spinning jennys, bone guillotines, and straw work of all kinds, like this jewelry box. The POWs were allowed on market day once a week to sell their wares to local customers at tables outside the camp stockade. They also sold to merchants and brokers in larger volume. Since they did not have labor costs, and did have lots of time, they excelled at making time consuming products like lace and straw hats. This trade grew so great, since they could easily undercut the competition, that the English lacemakers and straw hatters petitioned Parliament for help and the POWs were prohibited from making them. If you can find it, this is the bible on the POW arts and crafts. Stay safe. Dan

Hi all - Thanks for the likes and comments. Phil - I am pretty well convinced that it started out, two centuries ago, as a nice example of a POW model. It has many of the characteristics that I have seen in many museum pieces and under all the restorations there are well-crafted and delicate details. Construction methods match those described in the several books on POW models that I have. Druxey - the HMG glue sounds interesting. I will look into it. Do you know where I can buy some online? Dan

Hi again to all. I spent yesterday working on things other than the rigging. First I did some cleaning. The hull and deck were pretty clean, being protected from dust by the case. I still wiped them down with some distilled water, no soap or solvent was needed. As a mop I used half of a cotton swab in a drafting pencil handle. It is important to use the kind with a paper shaft rather than the plastic one. As can be seen in the picture, paper ones can be bent so it sits flat with the handle angled up so it can reach through spaces in the rigging. In this configuration it also can slide under deck fittings like the bitts and pinrails. The metal tool is a plaque scraper that I got from my dentist. There are lots of dental tools and supplies that transfer easily to ship modeling. I asked mine to set them aside when he was going to replace them anyway, and he was happy to do so. I used it as a scraper for the dried glue and it worked quite well. Here are the spots where the three loose cannon came from, and the same area after scraping. I went around the ship, as much as was possible, and removed the worst of it where possible. After cleaning I worked on the ship’s boat. It was detachable, so I did not have to worry at all about touching the rigging. Here it is, as received, hanging in the stern davits. I was a bit concerned that the thwarts were replacements since they do not appear to match the color of the boat’s hull. I gently bent the hooks open and slid the boat off. Now I could see that the thwarts had been glued in with the same stuff that was scraped off the deck. From this angle it was even more evident that the thwarts did not match, either in color or in the quality of workmanship. Their ends are ragged and they do not sit perpendicular to the centerline. The dried glue was little obstacle to removal of the thwarts using only gentle leverage. The inside of the boat’s hull was scraped clean and the thwarts sanded lightly to remove discolorations. With a few tweaks of the ends they were straightened out and levelled. I reattached them using small drops of gel cyano glue. It is the best that I have found for bone-to-bone, and bone-to-ivory, connection. It is stronger and more rigid than PVA, drop for drop, so I can use less and not leave a glue mound. It is also very clear and stays that way, at least over the 35 years that I have evidence for. But it can be brittle, so where the joint will be under strain I also give it a second thin coat of PVA as a shock absorber. That was not necessary here. I think the boat is much improved. I just hope the rest of the repairs go as well. Dan

Hi Vaddoc - Yes, all good ideas. I will be experimenting with cyano, PVA, shellac and other glues and finishes. I worked with hair spray once on some scale trees in an architectural diorama which were losing their leaves. It worked quite well since I could spray it gently using several coats. I recall that it dried a bit stiff, but that was not a problem in that setting. I'll report my findings soon. Dan

Hi Vaddoc - Unfortunately not. The amount of additional work involved would have increased the fee to a point where the client would simply junk the model. I have a particular fondness for the bone and ivory models and I didn't want that to happen, so we reached a compromise. I will do what can be done without stripping it to the sticks and starting again, which may well be a solution for the next generation of ship model restorers, if there are any. Dan

Hi again to all, and thanks for the comments and interest in this restoration. After reviewing the hull I turned to the masts, spars and rigging. The news was both good and not so good. First, to get an idea of what the model was like when she was built, I examined the best of the remaining masts and rigging, the foremast. Here are some photos of the details and some of my conclusions. Of course there are lots more of both, but that would take too much time to relate here. The foremast is well-proportioned to the ship and has several bands of woolding as would be proper. The fore spar is hung on jeers although there is no parrell, just a simple sling. It carries stun’s’l booms on each end. The shrouds are well-proportioned to the mast and the ratlines are appropriately thin. They are spaced at 3mm intervals, which also seems right. The deadeyes are carved from bone, 3mm in diameter, and generally well rigged. The forestay and preventer are correctly sized, with bone hearts and collars. They are even snaked together. A crowsfoot is laced with brown line to a bone euphroe on the stay. The fore topmast looks correctly sized, as does the doubling. However the mast cap has a through tenon, which is English practice, which contrasts with the French deck bench noted in the last segment. The fore course yard and topsail yard are rigged with lifts and braces, but no sheets or sheet blocks. There are nicely done futtock shrouds and upper shrouds with ratlines. Although extremely small, the ratlines appear to be rigged with clove hitches. The t’gallant mast and spar are well done, as are the two bone crosstrees. Here can be seen some of the prior repairs. The lower topmast stays (the lowest ones in the photo) appear to be original. They show a lay to the line and are served and seized as they go around the doubling. The four other stays all have fairly crude ties and seizings, with stubs of the seizing line sticking out. A gentle feel of the various lines confirmed that the upper ones are smooth and new, rather than the older, original ones. The main stay is original, as is the preventer stay below it. They are rigged with a proper mouse and eye on each with fore topmast braces and blocks tied to them. However, the hearts and collars are damaged. The preventer stay collar has been replaced with a line of the wrong size, the wrong color, and which goes under the bow pinrail, causing it to kink. It is seized to the bowsprit with a very crude knot. The main stay heart and collar are missing entirely. The mizzen stay is also original but broken completely. The several lumps on it are probably evidence of prior repairs that were less than successful. The crowsfoot is completely torn and the euphroe detached. I was provided with it in a separate envelope. You can also see that the sling/parrell line that should run from the lower mizzen yard jeer to the mast is broken. I believe that there were several sets of repairs in the past. For example, here are the main lower shroud deadeyes. The forward three are completely original, with bone deadeyes, the upper ones properly turned in and the lanyards appropriately sized and laced. The aft four have had the upper deadeyes replaced with metal castings. I thought that the rough look to them was lead bloom, but it turned out to be only the paint used to try to match them to the original bone color (whew!). I believe that this was the earlier of the repairs, since the lanyards of the two on the shrouds match the original ones and are properly laced. I believe that the aft two on the backstays represent a second repair since the lanyards are different and are incorrectly laced and tied off below the lower deadeyes. I found the same situation at the main mast. The topmast shrouds and deadeyes appear to be original, but the backstays are a completely different quality of line. The lifts look original but the upper stays are replacements with crude siezings. Viewed from behind I could see that there was a huge mass of mounded lines around the head of the topmast. This was where the original backstays were simply cut loose, leaving some stubs of line that can still be seen. The replacements were looped over them and glued in place, making a mess that may have contributed to the break. Although the main topmast shrouds seem to have survived, the same was not true for the mizzen topmast shrouds. The break was offset to port, so those shrouds were not stressed. The starboard ones were not so lucky. The forward two parted company from the futtock shrouds at the level of the top. The aft one held on at the lower end, but broke at the masthead. As a result all of the ratlines between the second and third shrouds parted. In addition to these issues, a fair number of the rigging lines did not run to their proper blocks or tie off to proper locations. For example, the main yard brace is misplaced, since it should run to the stern where there is an eyebolt and boomkin, but just ties off amidships. This and other evidence convinced me that at least one of the restorers did not know how a ship was rigged. After long discussion with the client about whether the model was worth the cost of restoration, he decided to go forward. We decided on a cost based on leaving as much of the current rigging, right or wrong, in place, but replacing what was needed and cleaning up the rest. With this understanding I very gently started to wiggle the broken pieces to see what could be retained and what had to be removed to get the pieces back into proper orientation. At the bow the jib boom could be gently manipulated to get the heel of the break to meet the head of the lower piece, but it would not straighten out. Several of the lines had shrunk and prevented it. I found that the shrunken lines were not original, but were part of some of the prior repairs. I believe that the glass cover had created a greenhouse effect that ‘cooked’ the lines over time and shortened them enough that they may have actually broken the boom. Note that the forestay and preventer, both original lines, are not taut. Unfortunately, even the original lines have been cooked. Even a gentle brush of a finger against the fore preventer stay was enough to break it in two places. I immediately stopped all touching of the lines until I could figure out how to deal with the cooked rigging. In the envelope of loose parts was one small deadeye with a piece of the original shroud still around it. I went to remove and examine the stropping only to find that it did not unwrap, but crumbled. The line was much more brittle than I anticipated and weaker than any I had run into in prior restorations. This will be a major problem if it cannot be corrected. So here is my first question to the group - - what method do you think will work to strengthen the lines and make them more flexible so that I can work on them? I am considering taking distilled water and painting it onto the lines to open the fibers, then a second coat of thinned white pH neutral PVA glue. Has anyone done this before, or successfully used another technique? In the meanwhile I have turned to fixing some of the hull and fittings issues noted in the first build log segment. I will detail those next. Until then, stay safe and well. Dan

Hello to all who followed me here from my prior build log of the James B Colgate, and to all those who are interested in the bone and ivory ship models made, mostly, by the French prisoners taken by the British navy in the Napoleonic wars. I was recently asked to repair an attractive example of the type that had some substantial damage over the past centuries, as well as suffering some repairs, good and bad. In this log I will detail my progress and, in addition to some techniques that I have used before, I will ask for additional ideas from the collective wisdom of our community here. So here she is in the photographs sent for me to consider doing the restoration. I asked for digital shots of the entire model and close-ups of the damage. First, the overall look, including the wooden base, the primary damages, and the large glass case. With the case removed you can see the extensive damage. The bowsprit, mainmast and mizzen are all clearly broken and the associated rigging in disarray. The balance of the standing rigging seems to be mostly intact except for the mizzen stay which is broken just below the crowsfoot. Sitting on the base are the flag and staff for the stern. In close-up here is the bowsprit, with the jib boom broken at the level of the bowsprit cap and the Y-shaped martingale hanging, literally, by a thread. I don’t recall seeing that type of martingale on any of the POW models whose photos I have seen. Even at this stage I thought it was probably a later replacement. The mainmast was snapped just below the crosstrees at the base of the t’gallant mast. From the way the rigging lines retained the kinks and bends I was pretty sure that they had been hardened in some way. This could indicate that much of it might have to be removed and replaced. The mizzen was similarly snapped below the t’gallant top. In addition the mizzen t’gallant mast was snapped as well about halfway up its length, just where the hole was drilled for the t’gallant lift. Here the rigging was also kinked, but more worrying was the mass of overlapped rigging lines around the doubling. I have seen this before when prior restorers have simply looped new lines over old ones and glued the mass together. Based on these pictures I gave the client a very vague ballpark idea of the cost of repair to see if he was serious about going forward. I told him that if he was, I would need to see the model in person and evaluate it in detail before giving him a firm price. After a few months of thinking about it he brought the model to my Brooklyn studio and left it with me for examination. In this posting I examine the hull and its fittings. The model was uncased and the glass cover removed. It was made of ¼” thick fish tank glass and I was surprised at how heavy it was. By my bathroom scale it weighs some 19 pounds! This probably contributed to the damage. Anyone lifting the cover will have a hard time unless he is prepared for the sudden weight. Trying to lift it clear would be difficult and the lower edge might well have contacted and broken the tops of the masts. In any event, the model matched the photos, which is not always the case. With the jib boom in approximate place the model measures 15 ½” x 12” x 4”. By measuring the spacing between ratlines (3mm) and the height of the bulwarks (11mm) and the height of the rope rail amidships (15mm), I determined that the approximate scale is between 1/80 and 1/100. I could not be more certain because none of these has a standard height and the modelmakers were not quite exact in rendering them. Two of the cannon and their carriages were loose, and a third was found detached on deck. The hull and deck are planked in bone with ivory (elephant or whale tooth is unclear) making up the balance of the structure and carved details. She carries 40 guns, 12 in each broadside on the gun deck, 5 on the quarterdeck, 3 on the forecastle. This is a lot for what appears to be a small ship. She is certainly not a match to any of the 40-gun ships in my library. She sits on a series of wood keel blocks with a larger built up central cradle. Three metal pins, two seen here and one in the center, go through the blocks and into the baseboard. When received the model did not sit vertically, but listed a bit to starboard. Ahe bow there was a nicely carved figurehead of a female bust with a Greek-style helmet and a pugnacious expression . It looked to me to be in the wrong place, slid down below the hair rail. Behind it was a mass of greyish putty hiding some additional damage. There was a similar mass on the port side Despite its small size the lower gun deck cannon are made to retract. Here they are retracted, then extended. The retraction mechanism can be seen through the open main hatch. The cannon barrels are mounted on a moveable wood strip. The client also sent a video taken of the interior through a borescope. It is poor quality but it does show the presence of some springs which would push the cannon out. Unfortunately the cords to operate the system are missing. On deck just ahead of the mizzen mast is a carved seat for the officer of the deck. This is a particularly French detail, even though the model carries English flags. The locations for the detached cannon can be seen against the far bulwark where the prior glue has yellowed. Hidden behind the rigging is a metal post where the capstan should be, and a single stand for the ship’s wheel, although the wheel and second stand are missing. A ship’s boat hangs in davits at the stern. The thwarts for the boat have been repaired before with a glue/varnish that has yellowed with time. Just ahead of it is a curved boomkin for the main yard brace, but no lines are tied to it. The rudder is clearly a replacement. It is too thin and too white, while the pintles and their straps are not properly set on the rudder. That was my detailed examination of the hull. In the next segment I will document the detailed examination of the masts and rigging. Lots of problems, as you might expect. Be well, stay safe. Dan

Wonderful work, Keith. I am always fascinated by your techniques and realism. Dan

Hi Marc - Looks great. Wish I could see her in person, but I guess I will have to wait a bit more. I was going to suggest that you work on the transom and counter by turning the piece upside down so it faces you, but I see from the last two photos that you figured that out. Are you thinking of muting the colors in any way to mimic the atmospheric effects of distance and haze? Dan

Hi again to all my friends here and, as always, mucho thanks for the likes and comments. Yes, Keith, this will be a quick build log for several reasons. Mostly this is because it is a retrospective of the construction rather than a day by day series of small progress reports. I have detailed many of my techniques in earlier build logs, so there was little need to go over them again. At least that was what I told myself as Covid malaise set in and I found myself not willing to stop to memorialize small personal gains amid larger world problems. It just seemed a bit trivial. Thankfully I certainly did not suffer any of the serious health issues or losses that so many have, like Doris in Czechoslovakia. Fortunately, I have climbed out of my depressive hole, and am working steadily again. I have to credit my family and friends with most of the recovery, but model building made a significant contribution as well. There is just something satisfying about looking at a well-crafted object at the end of the day and knowing that it only exists because of my hands, my head and my heart. Long may it be so. So, without further maudlin ramblings, here is the completion and launching of the SS James B. Colgate in its plaster sea. When the last installment ended the sea was mostly finished, although I looked at it every day and kept toning down the size and location of the whitecaps which I thought were still too bold and glaring. Meanwhile I turned to finishing the ship. After the hull was shaped the hatches were permanently installed. Along the sides of the hull several reinforcing stringers were added according to the plans and photos. These were made of half-round strip set over flat strips with rounded ends. Fittings that would ultimately be painted, such as bollards and the bases for the railing stanchions, were attached to the hull. Then the deck houses were removed and the hull was sprayed the deep red used by the Pittsburgh Steamship Company at the time. Some, like bollard uprights and the anchor guides, were subsequently painted grey for contrast. Then the deck houses, like this one at the bow, were built up and detailed before being secured to the hull Most of the details are pretty simple and common. Bollards, fairleads, winch heads and the capstan are Bluejacket castings. The railing and ladder are photoetched brass from Gold Medal Models. The nameboard is printed on my computer. I’ll go over some of the others where they appear in later photos. The one unusual fitting is the anchor. McDougall, the designer of the whalebacks, also designed it as a better alternative for use on the boats. It consisted of a heavy triangular frame with a shackle at the peak and a pivoting tongue in the middle of the base that would dig into the seabed of the Lakes. As can be seen on the model it lies much flatter on the hull than a conventional anchor and could be easily secured to the stanchion bases. I made it out of two strips of thick brass bent to shape and soldered at the peak and at the base where a separate brass tongue was fitted. I did not make any effort to have it pivot since this is a static model. After blackening it was fitted with a ring and fine chain. At the stern the deck house is much more complex. The lower level has the two larger oval support structures with a smaller round support at the stern. The forward two were made by sheathing oval wood plugs with styrene sheet. Portholes were drilled and filled with small brass grommets from dollhouse electronics systems. After painting handrails of iron wire were laid on with tiny supports inserted just underneath and clipped off close. The upper works began as a solid wood block, as usual, but this was sheathed in wood veneer rather than plastic. The window and door areas were left uncovered with the windows simply painted black and the doorways filled with printed 4-panel door appliques. Upper railings and life rings are photoetched brass. The angled stairway is a photoetched ladder with added side pieces cut from railing sections, secured with cyano and painted black. At the forward end of the upper deck is the bridge which rises another half deck height. It was built hollow with clear plastic windows on the front and back faces of the top. Through these you can see the ship’s wheel that was installed and which no one, except in these photographs, will ever see. The cowl ventilators are modified castings that sit on the top of cylinders that act as both structural supports for the decks and as ventilation ducts leading to the interior of the hull. I took a bit of artistic license and simply drew on the paneling in pencil, relying on trompe l’oeil and the tiny scale to fool the eye. The roof of the deck house is dominated by the large silver and black funnel. It is built up over a plastic sheathed dowel, leaving a 1/8” rim at the top. Reinforcing rings and a half-round lip at the top are made from plastic strip. All of the plastic products are from Evergreen Scale Models, an invaluable resource when building steel hull modern ships. The funnel is detailed with a steam whistle and pipe on the front face, and a steam release pipe on the aft face. It is guyed by four wires running from small eyebolts on the upper reinforcing ring to brass tube turnbuckles on deck. The Charley Noble galley stack has a cone shaped rain guard and a kink near the deck. This last is either to get the stack around the funnel guy wire or as a trap for condensation, of maybe both. It appears in the photos so it appears on the model. A pair of liquid tanks, one for water one for fuel perhaps, bracket the funnel. A pair of lifeboats with their davits and lifting tackles are tied down on cradles. Eight small cast cowl vents and a pair of cylindrical exhausts run along the edges of the busy space. At the aft end is a vertical pole, not for a flag, but for a lantern which would be fitted into the triangular shelf shown near the railing which could be hoisted to the top of the pole when visibility was limited. At the stern the rear name plate was printed to match the one seen in contemporary photographs. It shows up as a slightly different shade in this photo, but that is an artifact of the flash, and under normal light it is much less noticeable. The railing on the hull could not be photoetched since the lines had to come to a point at the bow and stern. I made the stanchion bases from 1/16” plastic rod and the uprights from 0.02” brass rod. These dimensions are about twice what they should be, but when I made them to scale they almost disappeared, so I fudged the figures a bit. The horizontal wires are 0.05” polished line. Again, slightly too large, but they match the photoetched railings and do not draw the eye when the model is viewed without magnification. The lines are tied under light tension to small eyebolts at bow and stern, then attached to the uprights with thin PVA glue painted on with a small brush. Until now the ship has been simply placed in the opening left for it in the plaster sea. Now it was secured with a pair of screws through the base plate and plaster carefully fed into the gap between it and the sea and shaped to a dynamic wake. At the bow the wave was built up in several layers to match the wide froth thrown up by the blunt pignose bow. The final layer is stippled with a stiff coarse brush. Little wisps of white paint were dry brushed along the hull in the direction of travel. This was all blended into the sea with more layers of tinted gloss medium. Along the flanks of the ship wave crests rose up the side to the level of the railing and left subdued whitecaps on and under the water. Here you can also see the minimal weathering applied to the model. A thin wash of dark brown left spots and streaks on the hatch covers. A similar wash discolors streaks that drip from the railing bases. Wet patches of clear gloss finish glint on the hull. At the stern the wake from the two propellers moving slowly was stippled onto and into the surface of the sea. The sunlight reflects yellow on the water. Looking carefully you can see where I have, at random locations, bent the metal railings to show a bit of hard usage over time. The final detail was the burgee of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. An image was located on line, dropped into PhotoShop, sized to the model and had the color saturation slightly reduced to mimic the effects of distance and haze. The image was skewed down a bit to take into account the way gravity affects wind-driven cloth. The image was printed onto acid-free tissue paper which had been sealed with clear finish before printing. This prevents bleeding into the paper fibers and gives a clean edge to the colored areas. After fixing the colors with more clear finish the flag was cut free, attached to a halyard and tied to the flagpole. A few curls with the back of a small paintbrush handle and it was done. The model is now complete and chugs realistically, I think, though a choppy but fairly calm sea. As part of the commission I built a display case from 2” x ¾” cherry, mitered at the corners and fitted around a ¾” plywood baseplate. A UV-resistant plastic case was sourced from a local plastic shop. It fits into a slot between the case and the base and is secured from accidental lifting with two small brass screws on the short ends. A bit of air movement is provided by small holes drilled up through the bottom of the baseplate and into the gap under the plastic case. The model now resides in the MMA museum in the Great Lakes area. Once we are all vaccinated and this pandemic is behind us, I hope you can find the time to visit this small but interesting maritime museum. Next, for something completely different, I will detail a repair and restoration of an antique bone and ivory POW model from the late 1700s that I am working on now. This will be more of a blow-by-blow exposition since the techniques and materials require some inventiveness to match the unusual nature of the model. Until then, Stay safe and well, and get those shots. Dan