shipmodel

Nils =
 
Just caught up with this build.  
Nice look to the new deck.  With the coamings it looks like it all belongs together.
Love the engine.
 
Dan

Hi Toni - 
 
Those are two excellent anchors.  And thanks for showing your casting methods.  My own experiments in that area have been less than completely satisfactory.
Next time I will turn back to your explanations and try again.
As for handling the anchor, since I don't have access to druxey's time machine, I pull out "The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor" by Darcy Lever and see what he says.
There is usually a good explanation of the process.
 
Congratulations on the completion, or near completion, of a really sweet ship model.
 
Dan

Nils =
 
Just caught up with this build.  
Nice look to the new deck.  With the coamings it looks like it all belongs together.
Love the engine.
 
Dan

Hi Toni - 
 
Those are two excellent anchors.  And thanks for showing your casting methods.  My own experiments in that area have been less than completely satisfactory.
Next time I will turn back to your explanations and try again.
As for handling the anchor, since I don't have access to druxey's time machine, I pull out "The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor" by Darcy Lever and see what he says.
There is usually a good explanation of the process.
 
Congratulations on the completion, or near completion, of a really sweet ship model.
 
Dan

Hi Toni - 
 
Those are two excellent anchors.  And thanks for showing your casting methods.  My own experiments in that area have been less than completely satisfactory.
Next time I will turn back to your explanations and try again.
As for handling the anchor, since I don't have access to druxey's time machine, I pull out "The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor" by Darcy Lever and see what he says.
There is usually a good explanation of the process.
 
Congratulations on the completion, or near completion, of a really sweet ship model.
 
Dan

Hi Toni - 
 
Those are two excellent anchors.  And thanks for showing your casting methods.  My own experiments in that area have been less than completely satisfactory.
Next time I will turn back to your explanations and try again.
As for handling the anchor, since I don't have access to druxey's time machine, I pull out "The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor" by Darcy Lever and see what he says.
There is usually a good explanation of the process.
 
Congratulations on the completion, or near completion, of a really sweet ship model.
 
Dan

Nils =
 
Just caught up with this build.  
Nice look to the new deck.  With the coamings it looks like it all belongs together.
Love the engine.
 
Dan

Update
 
For the deck I had removed the intended pine planking again, changed the pattern arrangement and now mounted a new planking in straight larch wood, planks 4 x 0,8 mm. It went faster than I had thought
This looks OK in my opinion and gives a good contrast with the beech wood comings
The main mast with gaff and spars and the mizzen mast with boom and spars is also done, but yet without the rigging blocks that are on order
 
Nils

the first rough sanding is done.  The outcut on the front deck is for sight acess to the storage compartment and the anchor chain
 

 
 

The brass anchors at the deckside shall be for mounting the footrail, the dark stained anchors are for taking up the shrouds
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

the gaff to the main mast is rigged preliminary without blocks

How does this look?  The shankpainter would be bolted to the hull and drawn up over the bottom of the anchor shank and secured to a cleat on the inside bulwark.  The top of the shank would be secured to a timberhead.

This is how it looks with the upper mold removed and then out of the mold.

In the middle is the master anchor, to the right is the cast anchor after polishing and to the left is the anchor after taking a bath in Blue Jacket's Pewter Black.

I applied the seizing and puddening to the anchor ring and then installed them on the anchors.

The anchor stock was made next.  You can see the holes drilled for the bolts and treenails. 

The stock was then applied to the anchor and the "iron" rings were applied.   These are actually made from paper.  Overall, I am pleased with the result.

As I mentioned previously, I want to show the starboard anchor lashed to the hull.  As the ship's base will be a launching ways, the hawser cable would not be attached.  These pictures show the only location for the anchor that does not block any of the ports.  I have been looking in all the books I have, as well as looking at models on the RMG site, and cannot figure out how it should be secured.  I presume the shaft would be lashed to the aft timberhead but there must be some other rope securing it.  Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking in, Dan.  As for rigging, the only other rigging I plan on doing is for the anchor!  Speaking of which, I will be showing the ship with two bower anchors; the starboard one will be secured to the ship and the port will be lowered onto the base.  Since I had good luck casting the armament, I decided to cast these from pewter as well.  This is the material I use for the casting.  It is a high temperature silicone rubber that can be used for low-melting-point metals like pewter.  The second picture shows the rest of the equipment necessary for the casting, including a pewter rod.  As you can see, there is nothing exotic about the process.  It is, however, very sensitive to the relative weights of the components, so they need to be weighed down to the gram.


The first step was to make a master anchor from wood.  It would have been a lot less work if I had simply made two anchors from wood but I like the look of the metal.  I made a box from scrap basswood ply, embedded it in clay and did my first pour.  After removing the clay, you can see the result.  There are two dowels going through the mold for alignment.  The pouring spout is on top and there are relief openings at the end of the flukes.  These were too large, preventing the flukes from filling completely, and were reduced after a few unsuccessful pours.  The next photos shows the mold after the second layer of rubber was poured before and after the master was removed.

 
The two mold halves were clamped together, being careful not to distort them with the clamps.  I used pieces of the box to distribute the pressure.

 
 

Hi Roger - 
 
Two steps forward and one step back has always worked for me.
That poop deck is really coming along nicely.
Looking forward to seeing it all come together.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Toni - 
 
Just caught up with this build.  Looking extremely nice, neat and clean.
Love the capstain.
Looking forward to future progress with the rigging.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Roger - 
 
Two steps forward and one step back has always worked for me.
That poop deck is really coming along nicely.
Looking forward to seeing it all come together.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Roger - 
 
Two steps forward and one step back has always worked for me.
That poop deck is really coming along nicely.
Looking forward to seeing it all come together.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Roger - 
 
Two steps forward and one step back has always worked for me.
That poop deck is really coming along nicely.
Looking forward to seeing it all come together.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Thank you my friends for your recommendation. I am not at all familiar with the inks you are talking about. Would you be so kind as to tell me what to look for to purchase so I can practice?  Also do these inks work well with acrylics?  I have an entire spectrum of Vallejo acrylics, both brush and spray. Probably a couple hundred bottles and colors. Years ago I switched from oils to acrylics. I have pretty much just used black acrylic washes for any distressing I wanted to do. Here are a few pictures of my Man-O-War I did with acrylics. 

I think what Kevin is suggesting is a very good idea - to mock up some samples, so that you can play around with different mediums, and get comfortable with what they can do.  I did a lot of paint samples in the early stages, and that is where I acquired most of my knowledge about this kind of distress painting.
 
I can’t speak for the inks that Kevin has been using for his CS, but the walnut ink I’ve been using is extremely forgiving.  I apply it dilute, but strong, and simply cut it back with a wet brush until I like the way that it dries.  This is tricky to get just enough shading, but over time I’ve gotten the hang of it.  I continue to tweak the ink, with each new level of the stern, and will do so until it all gets sealed under a final coat of Matte clear.
 
As Kevin says, artists’ oils are amazing for creating depth and texture, and they are extremely forgiving.  I use them for my natural wood effects, and really like how the decking came out.  Van Dyke Brown (Windsor and Newton) gave my ventre-de-biche (raw sienna) painted sides (above the black boot topping) a pleasing patina.
 

You just lay it on thick and heavy and then wipe it back until you are happy.  I wrap q-tips in t-shirt scraps, so that I can get pretty far into recesses, but not all the way.  After wiping, I use a coarse chip brush (natural bristle) to even-out the effect.  I learned all of this from Herbert Thomesan of Artitec Modelbeau, in the Netherlands.  A lot of the Dutch builders use this technique and it is astonishingly easy, forgiving and produces excellent results on the first try.
 


My one piece of advice would be to do both hull halves at the same time.  I did one, and then the other after a period of time, only to realize that the second half was significantly darker.  The paint had cured by the time I really saw this in good light, so I had to wash the first half a second time to match.  On my model, the finished effect is darker than I would like, and most people mistake the effect for natural wood, but it is really supposed to represent a painted surface on the actual ship.  This doesn’t bother me, though.  I learned something.
 
Mostly, I learn from all of you.  Three projects stand out, in my mind, for their absolute fidelity to nuance and detail.  In no particular order, they are:
 
Michael, aka SafeMaster’s Reale:
 
 
Gary, aka FriedClams’s Stonington Dragger:
 
And Kirrill, aka Kirrill4’s Spanish Galleon:
 
At some point in the future, Kirrill will dive into his own Heller SR, and I’m really excited to see what he will do with it.
 
I have some idea of what I am doing with my particular subset of paints, but these gentlemen bring a very broad range of technique and knowledge of correct details and realism to bear on their projects.
 
Another master of painting technique, and scratch-building is Rex Stewart.  I don’t think he maintains a presence on MSW, but he can easily be found on-line.
 
Of course there are numerous other Uber talented builders and painters (Dafi, Blue Ensign, Moraine to name just a few more - I could go on, but the list would get very long), but the above really stand out for the breadth of techniques that they apply to each project.
 

Update
 
today I concentrated on the over night catch, Ì`m still looking for some eels in scale 1:24. Made the masts and main gaff,as well as mizzen boom
 
Nils
 

I used a thick viscosity primer both sides to get some "flesh" onto the flat etched fish....
 

and turned them into Hering, plaice and cods. Am still looking out for some eels in scale 1:24
The fish boxes are also from etched brass sheet
 

the plaice remain white on the bottom side
 

the mizzen mast can be layed down, when the shrouds are released
 
 
 

The mizzen boom is hooked in for easy removal
The main mast upper gaff is equiped with with a glide shoe, in order to slide up an down the main mast
 

Since my last post I have been trying to complete the poop deck assembly for the ship.  It seems like every time I make some progress, I have to take a step back to fix a problem.
 
The first step was to join the poop deck assembly to the bulkhead.  This was a simple matter of soldering the two deck edge angles to the brass deck plating.  The next step was to locate and drill the many holes for attaching the fittings to be later installed on the deck.  
 
There is an an opening in the center of the poop deck stern rail.  This could be used to tow another vessel or to assist in docking the ship itself.  Since this could transfer considerable loads to the poop deck fantail rail the general arrangement drawings show a reinforcing structure.  Although there is a plan view of this there are no elevations shown.  The structure shown in the photo is my best guess of what it might have looked like.
 
Photos of Great Lakes ships in the lumber trades often show them with long wooden fenders.  These were a baulk of square or round section timber hung from one end over the side of the ship.  A rope was attached the other end to allow the fender to be hauled up when not in use.  This was before the time when old tires were available.  Although photos do not show them in use, Benjamin Noble was fitted with chocks and cleats for four of these fenders per side. One chock and two cleats per side are located on the poop deck.  The chocks, shown in the last post, were easily epoxied into holes.  Likewise the cleats were soldered onto the inside of the bulwark or to the deck plating.  
 
Just when I thought that the assembly was finished I noticed that the brass plating around the gangway door had pulled loose.  This has been a problem area ever since I decided to show the upper half of the gangway door open as is often the case with Great Lakes vessels sailing in fair weather.  Rather than patching things up I decided to bite the bullet and to fabricate a proper door frame.  The resulting frame made from soldered brass was then epoxied into the hole and the whole thing faired with Bondo.  The door frame assembly includes the bottom (closed) half of the gangway door that fits into the hull when the poop deck and hull assemblies are joined.
 
Cleaned up and coated with primer the poop deck assembly is finished.  Whew, a major milestone!  
 
Next is the fabrication of the forecastle rail, deck, and bulkhead.  
 The last photo shows the wooden former for this.  Since the assembly must mate with the hull the former is upside down.
 
Roger
 

The next items were the pumps.  The band on the top of the pump is self-adhesive copper foil, typically used in making stain glass windows.  Looks like I need to clean out the inside of the pump!


The original model of Swallow shows a carved swallow on the stern.  The carving looks better in person than it appears in these pictures.  Making the masts is next.

I have finished installing the rest of the cannon.  The pumps are next.

Chris - 
 
Just went through this build log and am truly impressed.
It is amazing how clean and crisp all your edges are and how you persevere in building all those tiny details.
 
PS - my vote is to spend for the 3-D printed hedgehogs and other fittings.
Sometimes it is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.
Flowers and a dinner at a good restaurant always eases those difficult conversations with my wife.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Ken - 
 
She looks like she is coming along nicely.
I like the developing shape of the hull form.  She should look sweet when you get to plank her.
 
Be well
 
Dan

Hi Ken - 
 
She looks like she is coming along nicely.
I like the developing shape of the hull form.  She should look sweet when you get to plank her.
 
Be well
 
Dan