shipmodel

Margin planking has been installed on the port side!
 

This is very exciting because once I am finished with the margin planks on the starboard side, full deck planking can proceed rapidly (with a deck framing reveal on the port side).
 
As you can see, some repainting of the deck framing that will be revealed is in order.

Hi Ron - 
 
Nice work on the steps.  Building something as complex as a ship model always requires dozens and dozens of individual decisions.
I like the ones you have made.
 
I hope that I will get to see her in person in New London at the end of the month.
 
Dan

I can’t escape the fact that I continue to fail at this chain-making exercise.  As the old maxim goes, though, every failure is one step closer to success.
 
I’ve now thrown away two whole batches of chain preventer plates.  While I was quite right to follow Andre Kudin’s example, for the process of their manufacture, I eventually discovered that that process is not entirely transferable from 1:48 to 1:96 scale.
 
After forming his basic links, Andre solders them closed at one end, and then places the closed link back onto the two pins so that he can crimp an eye on each end with his round pliers.
 
Well, the 28 gauge brass wire I’m using does not provide enough surface area for a strong enough bond to survive the crimping.  My success to failure ratio was pretty poor:

So, my lesson from that exercise was that I needed to do the crimping before soldering one end closed:

These soldered loops will be the lowest end of the chains, bolted into the wales.  That way, I could induce a series of bends into the upper half of each preventer plate, so that they could overlay the next small link:

Above I’m just using another preventer plate to check that the bends I’m making are sufficient.
 
So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the solder and inducing bends into the remainder of the preventer plates.  The solder joint will be re-enforced with the CA glue that fixes the pin-bolt in place:

With that out of the way, I could make a new, slightly closer-spaced pin jig for the next small link, which is only crimped on one end, where it seats beneath the preventer plate.
 
Now that I have a process that I know will work, and now that I’ve had all of this practice, these next links should go fairly quickly:


I have a lot of these to make, solder and bend - about 70 to ensure I can use the best.  This has all been a colossal PITA, but it was really important to me that all of this look very clean and uniformly shaped.  In the process, I have acquired some very valuable metal skills that will only enhance this and future projects.
 
That said, I am going to experiment with using black nylon thread of an appropriate diameter to connect the deadeye strop loops to the small links.  This would essentially be a variation on the way that the stock kit represents these links, but I will do individual chain loops that draw tight with some form of slip-knot that I can pull up and hide behind the deadeye strop.
 
Andre had a great method for producing these variances, but it is all just that much more tedious in the smaller scale.
 
The advantages of doing this are several.  So long as there is not a jarring difference in appearance between the black thread and the blackened metal, it will save me tremendous amounts of time.  It also simplifies the difficulty of accurately measuring and keeping track of a series of increasingly longer links as the shroud angle increases from fore to aft.  Lastly, it greatly simplifies the placement of the deadeyes because I can add the retaining strip, in advance, and it also makes it much easier to locate and properly secure the bottom two links.  Hopefully, that will work out.  
 
Well, I keep saying that I’m going to get back in the swing of the project, and then I get sucked into coaching another basketball team - now my son’s Spring rec team.  Meanwhile, the Rangers and Knicks are just too compelling to ignore this post-season.  At least for now, I can see the end of the tunnel for these chains, which is tremendously motivating, and then I can return to the more immediately gratifying work of outfitting and arming the main deck.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to look back in on This Old Build.  More to come!
 

Boarding steps--


 
I would have made the steps the full width of the hammock opening, but the carronade position wouldn't allow it.   The hammock position corresponds to Chappelle's sail plan drawing and also the location of the outboard boarding steps shown on the hull plan, but a little foresight may have warranted shifting the steps and opening just a bit.
 
Ron
 

Continuation: Equipment of the mizzen topgallant yard – Vergue de perruche 
After a short creative break, we continue with the equipment of the mizzen topgallant yard. The equipment and rigging elements basically correspond to those of the fore topgallant yard, but again with correspondingly smaller dimensions. The mizzen topgallant tye is also equipped with a hook. At around 4 mm long, this is even smaller than the hook for the tye of the fore topgallant yard. Of course, the eye splice couldn't be missing either. With a rope with a diameter of 0.35 mm (2x3 Japanese silk thread - rope in the original ø 17 mm) this is a difficult matter, but after some practice it is definitely doable. It just looks better and corresponds to the original design.
As already described several times, I use an injection needle as a hollow spike for splicing, with a diameter of 0.8 mm for the thin ropes.

 
In the next picture you can see the mizzen topgallant tye with the double strop and the thimble already tied on to guide the simple clueline.

 
Sequel follows …

Thanks Dan!  I'm exceptionally lucky to have the library's 3D machines (and the laser cutters!) freely available to me within a 1/2 hour walk. Apparently they are soon to upgrade to newer and better models 😊. Have you tried TinkerCAD? It's much simpler to learn than other CAD tools although obviously more limited too. For rectangular things like ladders and gratings it is super easy to draw what you want. The fantail fingers are about as complicated as I'd like to get in TinkerCAD.
 
Yes, you are right about the order of painting. I have now painted the black between the fingers which I should have done first. Now touching up the white then will redo the black edge trim.
 
I looked up your "albums" here on MSW. Wow! They're beautiful models. I especially like the "Maine" and the Viking knarr.
 
Thanks for commenting,
Ian

Hi Ian - 
 
Really nice work on the ship.  I am truly envious of your expertise with 3-D printing.  It is a technology that I have not mastered and am reduced to buying pre-made parts from Shapeways and then modifying them as needed.  Very well done, sir.
 
As for painting, perhaps you could paint the fingers black first, then overpaint with silver, which you can access easily from both sides.  You should be able to get clean separation lines either freehand or with some fairly simple masks.
 
Dan

Hi Ian - 
 
Really nice work on the ship.  I am truly envious of your expertise with 3-D printing.  It is a technology that I have not mastered and am reduced to buying pre-made parts from Shapeways and then modifying them as needed.  Very well done, sir.
 
As for painting, perhaps you could paint the fingers black first, then overpaint with silver, which you can access easily from both sides.  You should be able to get clean separation lines either freehand or with some fairly simple masks.
 
Dan

Hi Ian - 
 
Really nice work on the ship.  I am truly envious of your expertise with 3-D printing.  It is a technology that I have not mastered and am reduced to buying pre-made parts from Shapeways and then modifying them as needed.  Very well done, sir.
 
As for painting, perhaps you could paint the fingers black first, then overpaint with silver, which you can access easily from both sides.  You should be able to get clean separation lines either freehand or with some fairly simple masks.
 
Dan

Hi Ian - 
 
Really nice work on the ship.  I am truly envious of your expertise with 3-D printing.  It is a technology that I have not mastered and am reduced to buying pre-made parts from Shapeways and then modifying them as needed.  Very well done, sir.
 
As for painting, perhaps you could paint the fingers black first, then overpaint with silver, which you can access easily from both sides.  You should be able to get clean separation lines either freehand or with some fairly simple masks.
 
Dan

Plodding along on deck fittings. Here is the latest overall view:

3D printed vent gratings and spar cradles. The mainyard lies on the cradles.

The main mast "tabernacle". The separable upper black part will be glued to the mast, and lashed to it in the concave portion. The white pin at the bottom is to allow me to lift off the little block behind the mast, thus allowing me to slide the foot of the mast aft so I can collapse it. All the rigging will collapse with it, and it will all attach to the main removable deck section except the fore and backstays which will need to be unhooked at the stem/stern.

Tabernacle taken apart. The white pin will be painted black. Mast will be stained then varnished as will the yard.

Fitting on foredeck for the "artemon" (what we'd call a bowsprit). Again, the part which will be lashed to the artemon is glued to it. Removing the white pin releases it so the artemon can be pulled in and down. Will need to make sure the bracket holding it at the stempost has some wiggle room to allow for this.

Boarding bridge is now painted. I see some white touch-up is needed. I have no info as to how it was manhandled over the side through the gaps in the bulwark or held in place there; will need to devise some reasonable scheme using cleats etc. Bridge will be glued to fore hatch and be its "handle". I copied this design from Flavio Terenzi's model but it seems to me that the lower portion of the sides should be solid to protect the marines' legs as they formed shield walls to cross over in the face of enemy archery; shields would have reached from heads to about knees. Might modify it.

Printed fantail decoration, badly painted. I need to figure out how to get black paint in between the converging fingers without gumming them up. I should have printed it in four pieces, one per finger, then painted, then glued together. Hindsight is 20/20.
Artillery: here is a printed ballista in resin, courtesy my brother. Beautiful detail but sadly too small (I had spec'd the length but it was hard to picture) so he has printed four more copies in larger scale for me. Not received yet.

Still to come are captain's stern shelter, anchors, rigging, some sort of material for gathered sails, stern flag standard. And crew.
 
We're going away on a little trip again.
 
Thanks for following.....
 

More hammock crane work.
 
I decided I needed a better way to make the modeling clay form for the hammock covering cloth.   I had just kind of rolled it out and mashed it into rough shape, but it was a little TOO rough and varied in height and thickness.  So I made a mold out of scrap wood.  This is the length I need for the forward sections.  The previous clay form and removed covering paper are above it--

 
Then I mashed the clay into one side of the mold--
 
And clamped the outer mold piece against it.  There are spacers at the end to make the right thickness, and I used my calipers to make sure it was the same width at the middle.  They also worked as a clamp.  I mashed additional clay into the top where needed--

 
Then scraped the top smooth--

 
This gave me a piece of clay that was uniform in height and thickness--


 
I ran a finger along each side of the top to round and smooth it--

 
New pieces of Silkspan were moistened and folded around it--

 
When this dried, I tucked and glued the loose ends at the bottom, and let that dry--

 
Here it is fit into place--


 
 
I am much happier with this attempt.   It may be more uniform than it really should be, but it will be easy to go back and make it a little "lumpy" if I decide it needs it.  Here's a view from inboard--

 
As I finish up the hammocks I'm adding the capstan bars to the capstan.   It's always one of the things on a model that catches your eye, and I've been waiting a long time to add this touch!   I cut some blanks, and test fit a few times to get the length I thought was appropriate.  They look pretty chunky, but they haven't been tapered or rounded yet, hence they are also not glued to the capstan yet--

 
I numbered each hole and bar on the underside just in case it matters which one goes where--

 
As the afternoon light starts to fade--

 
That's all for now.
 
Ron
 
 

Hi Toni - 
 
An excellent idea and project.  From the look of the finished hull, you are incorporating most of the techniques and details that a ship modeler needs to learn.
This epitomizes what I think should be central to the Guild's mission - setting standards for achievement and then teaching and demonstrating how to reach them.
 
I will be following along with great interest.
 
Dan

Thanks Thukydides.  I am trying to get over this brasswork hump which I feel has slowed my enthusiasm and progress more than I'd like. 
 
Probably because the pintles and gudgeons have taken way more work than I planned.  This weekend I spent a couple hours fine-tuning.  All the pieces fit mostly, but lots of slightly lengthening or widening mortises, slightly shortening and rounding off the ends of the strapwork, and chiseling holes to allow the rudder to be seated with the smallest gap possible.  Heres where I started; to me the gap was too wide and the top pintle a little too high.  Not much I can do about the high pintle at this point but I can work on the gap.

I also noticed all my handling and fitting of straps was getting the holly dirty.
 
After this final futzing I washed the brass in isopropyl alcohol for 20 minutes, then moved them with stainless steel tweezers to a aprox 1:8 brass black to water for 15 minutes.

Here they are drying, about 99% coverage.  1 spot on a gudgeon that will need paint.  I haven't handled them yet to make sure the blackening sticks but I am optimistic.

And finally I started with the hull's finish coat.  After sanding off any marks on the sternpost from fitting the brasswork  I applied the first coat of Polycrylic (water based polyurethane that doesn't yellow) with a qtip, the immediately wiped it down with a old cotton t-shirt.  Most of the finish comes off so its a thin coat, but the tshirt smooths quite nicely.  I'm guessing I'll do 3 or 4 coats.  I have to test some of my discarded blackened brasswork to see if it looks ok covered with this finish; if not I'll put hinges in after finishing.
 
Here's the hull after its first coat.  It looks almost identical to before I finished it, which is the point.

thats it for me.  Monday is fast approaching and its off to mentally prepare with some hot chocolate and a book before bed.
 
thanks for reading
 
cisco

Most of us model buidlers know that the covering boards are the pieces of timber that cover the hull-deck joint structure. Chances are you know that they are very complicated things to build. This step of the build simply confirmed that.
Covering boards usually are solid pieces of wood that are penetrated by holes that accommodate the stanchions that must travel through them. For me to produce them like that would have simply been impossible. These will be complicated enough to build as is. Essentially, I will fabricate the inboard side of the covering boards with “teeth” that project between the stanchions, then the outboard edge will be added in a separate step. The seam between the two pieces should be effectively hidden in the alcove formed by the stanchions and the bulwarks planking.
Here I have covered the deck structure adjacent to the stanchions with tape because I was wishing to protect my paint job of the deck structure that would remain visible in an unplanked area of deck. The protection was needed because I knew I would need to fair down the ledges to the level of the sheer in order for the covering boards to fit, and I didn’t want to harm the paint job.
 

In order to start the process, I needed to obtain the shape of the sheer from the plans. These were transferred using tracing paper to 3/64” stock. These shapes were then cut out excessively wide.
 

This results in six overly-wide and overly-long pieces, with generous areas of overlap.
 

Using double-sided tape, an individual piece was tacked down to the level of the deck structure. The forward and aft edges of each stanchion were marked, keeping track of station locations.
 

Now the really slow part began. Under the microscope, I began cutting out notches to make the “teeth” that will extend between each stanchion. Again, each covering board piece was made so that its inboard edge was continuous. The outboard edge of the covering board will be added as a separate piece later on in the build.
 

This piece shows many of the notches at full width, while others are still being widened. The width of each stanchion was relatively standard, but the gaps between the stanchions varied just enough to require extensive trial and error fittings.

But wait, that’s not all. Once all of the notches are wide enough, now they each need to be made deep enough. And none were of exactly of the same depth, due to individual differences in the shapes and angles of the stanchions. This again required many trial and error fittings with the goal of leaving minimal gap between the covering board’s notch and the inboard surface of each stanchion.
 

In the real ship, there is only about a 2 inch gap between the inboard surface of the stanchions and the margin plank of the deck. This is 1/32” in model scale. You can see the anticipated final inner edge of the covering board marked with a continuous pencil line here.
 

Perhaps it is a little more clear in this image. At this point there is a lot of excess wood on the inboard edge of the covering board. Removal of this excess will have to wait until later, as trimming it all off at this time would leave a piece of wood that is impossibly fragile.
 

The process of cutting the notches was accelerated when I realized I could use my table saw and miter to at least start the notches in a more efficient manner.
 

After having cut the notches to proper spacing, width, and depth, it was time to prep and paint the stanchions. Paint would add just enough thickness to each surface of the stanchions to require further tuning of the notches.
 

For primer, I used some old Badger Model-Flex gray, which had thickened considerably. It was diluted with water to a usable thickness, but it still maintained enough body to serve as an effective filler.

Overall this achieved a pretty smooth surface, but some defects were hard to fill completely, even after using primer and model filler.

I can’t remember how long it took to make all of these very bespoke pieces, but keep in mind that my last proper post was back in July…

There is lots of overlap, way more than I really needed, which also slowed the process.

The stanchions and the inboard surfaces of the bulwarks planking are a burgundy color. I slowly added drops of blue Tamiya paint into a small jar of Tamiya red to achieve the desired shade of burgundy. The one small jar may in the end not be enough, because I will also use it to paint the inboard surfaces of the bulwarks planking. It took 3-4 coats to get a good smooth surface.

And as already mentioned, the notches had to be tuned again after painting the stanchions was finished.

So despite my efforts to protect them, I had to scrape and sand away portions of the previously painted deck structure. In fact, re-shaping of the deck beams and ledges was necessary in order to get the covering boards to sit flush with the sheer.

This ledge shows considerable downsloping toward the sheerline to accommodate the shape of the covering board.

So there will need to be repainting of the deck structure that will remain visible, after all.

The deck beams and ledges also required re-fairing of their curve once I had removed enough material to accommodate the covering board.

The covering boards were painted with a medium gray. Excess paint that ended up in the notches had to be sanded away after this was done.

At this point, I used the X-acto blade to begin removing some of the excess wood from the inboard edge of the covering boards. This helped make it easier to tune the pieces to sit against their underlying deck beams and ledges. It was also necessary to shape the undersurface of the covering boards to accommodate the camber of the deck structure. I carefully sanded the undersurface to change the cross section from rectangular to an angular undersurface.

In addition to trimming away wood from the inboard edge, I also carved down the thickness of the remaining excess wood in a way that left an edge that corresponded to the final inboard edge of the covering board. This involved scoring the surface of the piece with the X-Acto, then coming along with a fine chisel and planing away the surface of the piece along the inboard edge. The edge is visible as the bright line in this photo. This will make it much easier to identify the final edge when the last bits of excess are trimmed away, and to create a smooth and fair surface against which the margin plank will rest.
 

Next problem: now that I have this piece that sits fair when I press it down against the deck beams and ledges, how do I do the glue-up in a way that makes sure that I am not left with the kinds of gaps I can see in this picture? I don’t have that many fingers.

I used a 1/16” thick piece of scrap wood to create a curved piece that roughly followed the curve of the rail, then glued it to the tops of the stanchions.

This is a sacrificial piece that will hopefully come off easily when I am done with the next step.
 

Some of the stanchions were a tiny bit shorter than their neighbors. These differences will be hidden by the rail and its supports that will be added later.
 

Using scrap wood, wedges of wood thin enough to fit between the stanchions were created.
 

In preparation for glue-up, the areas of the undersurface of the covering board that will need to be wetted with glue were marked with pencil.
Then the mating surfaces of the deck structure were wetted as well. I put small amounts of glue into the notches of the covering board as well. The board was put in place, and the wedges were used to press them to the surface of the deck structure. Care was taken to make sure that the covering board was pressed in fully against the deck, as well as against the bases of the stanchions, without leaving any gaps.

After suitable drying time, the wedges were removed and the sacrificial piece was easily separated from the tops of the stanchions with the X-Acto.

I never would have been able to hand-paint such a clean appearance if I had simply glued up unpainted pieces of wood.
Now I only have to do this five more times, with the remaining covering board pieces! The joints between the pieces in real life would have had an angled appearance resembling a scarf joint, but I won’t be able to duplicate that here.
Once all the covering boards are installed, the next 2 jobs that would make sense are the beginning of the deck planking and also the bulwarks planking. I don’t know yet which I will do next, because it will probably take me awhile to get the rest of the covering boards in place.

Continuing on.
 
I'm going to try using clay to stand in for the hammocks.   My plan is to wet the Silkspan, and wrap the clay.   Hopefully when it dries it will shrink a little and take on the bumps in the clay.  We shall see.
 
First test is to size the clay filler, and determine the right width to cut the Silkspan--

 
I folded this piece over the clay, and held the ends down just to try and get some idea how it will work, and look.  It hasn't been wetted, and it's also the thicker Silkpan, which I don't intend to use.  But I can waste it to test, and determine the width piece that I need.  I think I can trim 1/4 inch of the width of this piece--

 
I'm also ready to start locating the end caps and cranes on the cap rail.  After epoxying a pin in each end cap, I located them on the ship, drilled holes and dry fit them--

 
Incidentally, I ended up narrowing each cap a bit.  These looked okay in place, so I drilled more holes in the cap rail and tested the 7 aft starboard hammock cranes in place--
   
I discovered that some of the blackening on the cranes had either not taken, or had flaked off, so they will need to be re-blackened.   I also see that the end caps need some adjustment of the top curve.  The two at the entry steps are not uniform.  When I narrowed the end caps I also adjusted the angle/curve of the tops, and apparently I "fixed" some more than others.  The angles on the iron cranes will need fine tuning as well, once they are glued on.


 
All for now.
Ron
 
 

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 
You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 
 
Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  
 
As always, best of success to you.
I will continue to watch with interest.
 
Dan

Well, the 6th grade CYO basketball season has drawn to a close and our team succeeded beyond my wildest dreams:  we went 13-1, and captured the Manhattan division title.  Our second and final loss came in a division matchup with the Bronx winners.  We played a gritty first half, and kept it close, but made mistakes in the second half.  We were simply overmatched.  Nonetheless, it was a wonderful and extremely rewarding season.  The Knicks, on the other hand, continue to surprise, so my attentions remain somewhat divided.
 
That being said, I am lately looking to focus more on model building.  I’ve completed all of the fore, main and mizzen channel deadeye strops.  Although Andre Kudin’s particular method is definitely more efficient with less clean-up - he solders the lower strop loop at a neatly cut joint - I stuck with the R.C. Anderson overlap method I had been using because the strops were coming out uniformly, nicely shaped, and strong.  I will change my approach for the deadeye strops in the tops.

Next in order to be made are the chain preventer plates.  One of the key differences between what I had first tried, when making the chain preventer plates, and what Andre does is that Andre bends each plate from an individual length of wire, rather than try to economize on material by wrapping a longer length of wire, many turns, around an appropriately sized former.
 
When you do the latter, for one thing - you may succeed in crimping the continuous loop neatly around the former, but it is nigh impossible, after parting the links to get the links off the former without pulling them all out of shape.
 
The other issue with parting the links in this way is that you end up with one neat flush end and a pinched end, which leads to a weaker solder joint.
 
What I am after are uniformly straight chain links, free of odd kinks, and sloppy joints.  To that end I set up a simple bending jig like the one I see in Andre’s videos.  Following is a series of screen captures from his YouTube videos.  This particular video is either #13 or #16, in the series, if I remember correctly:






And following along, I first pre-bend short lengths of wire around a drill mandrel:

I’ve placed a shallow spacer beneath the link area, so that the ends will be slightly raised and easier to crimp with my parallel pliers:

I crimp snug around the upper pin, then use my pliers to pull each end snugly around the lower pin.  I then crimp around the lower pin:

I can then remove the link, and flush-cut each side of the link.  A little tweezer/finger manipulation creates a nicely closed link:

Silver solder paste has proven to be really great as I can control its application with the tip of an Exacto.  A touch to the iron, and I have nicely soldered joints that only require a little cleanup:

Now, Andre puts the soldered loops back over the two-pin jig and uses his round-nose pliers to crimp eyes at each end.  I found, though, that the joints with this 28 gauge wire simply failed when I tried this:

Alternatively, I found that I could place each link end over the lower pin, hold the outer end with a tweezer, and use my round nose plier to crimp around the single pin.  This worked beautifully:

Now, It’s a simple matter of doing that over and again about 60X.
 
It is, of course tedious, but satisfying to achieve the result I am after.
 
More to follow!
 
Best,
 
Marc

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 
You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 
 
Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  
 
As always, best of success to you.
I will continue to watch with interest.
 
Dan

I could suggest another possible option here Ron. Before I throw out old appliances or tools, I always disassemble them and salvage anything useful, especially if they can be used for models. If you have a small old electric motor driven tool that you no longer use, you could use some of that fine copper wire that's wrapped around the armature. The smaller the motor, the finer the wire.  If it's disguised as rope and it needs to be draped, it can easily maintain the curve and there is no fuzz to deal with.  

Another brief update:
 
I tried making some rope small enough, but with the thread I had on hand, it wasn't quite thin enough.   After thinking I might have to try enlarging the holes, I found (I think it came from Bluejacket) a spool of rope in my small stock that fit!   I will dye it just a shade darker--
   
You can't quite make out that the line is through the hole, so--

 
I also tested soldering the pins.  Since they won't be seen, I can overlap the brass, instead of butting it.   This is a much easier joint to solder.   I clearly missed centering the pin on this one (I maintain it moved while soldering!), but again, it won't show, and I'll drill each hole in the cap rail "custom" to match.  (Or maybe I won't use this one!)  I think I have now satisfied myself that these will work. 
 
While I continue the production of the hammock cranes, I am considering how to replicate the oiled cloth (which I guess it is) as shown on Glenn's model that covers the hammocks stowed within these cranes. 
 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

Thanks, Cisco and Theodosius, and all watching.
 
Here is how I tackled drilling 228 holes with a #78 drill (.016" or .40mm)--

 
Two pieces ended up being deemed unusable, so I now have the 34 hammock cranes that I need, plus two extra--

 
I broke two more drill bits (for a total of three).  Those carbide bits break if you breath hard on them.  Actually, after the initial careless one, the breakage on the other two seemed to be related to how many holes I had drilled already (they may have been getting dull?), and how flat the piece remained held in the wood through the drilling--sometimes the piece lifted up when withdrawing the drill, in spite of my care to hold it in place.
 
Now I need to trim them, file the ends, and hope that I can thread a line through the tiny holes.  Hopefully I won't have to experiment on "punching" the holes a bit bigger.  Oh, and soldering pins on the bottoms.
 
All for now,
Ron 
 
 

Skipping around some, I decided to tackle the hammock cranes.  Although they will probably make getting to the belaying rails more difficult, on the other hand, I think they will be more difficult to install after the shrouds are on.
 
I'm aiming for something like what is on the Niagara replica--

 
Only more like Glen Greico's model of the Brig Jefferson, without the wood rail at the top--

 
I'm going to make it a little easier on myself and do three ropes vs. four.
 
Here are some attempts at figuring out the size, and exactly how to make them--

 
The first three are some 20 gauge square brass wire, bent, and pounded a little flatter.  The first two are too big, and the third, which I tested drilling holes on, is actually a bit too small, though too thick.  I was able, though, to figure out how to make a tight radius in the bends.  The third is 22 gauge square wire, annealed, pounded just a bit flatter, and with some smaller test holes drilled.  It's close to the right size, both overall dimensions and gauge of the wire, and I think this method will work, though it leaves no room for error on the hole spacing.  I drilled one hole too far off center, and I also broke a drill bit.  I'll have to be more careful, or I will be buying more bits to finish them.
 
I figured out how many hammock cranes I will need (17 per side) and cut thirty-eight (four extra) pieces of brass--

 
These were annealed (heated to red hot) with a soldering torch.   I also routed a groove in a piece of scrap wood as a guide to make sure they are bent to a consistent shape, and as well to hold the piece for drilling the holes (which hopefully will help with the bit breakage)--

 
The ends of the wire that extend beyond the block will be trimmed off--

 
I put a piece of tape at the spot that was the right width for bending the wire--

 
And the bends were given a light tap to make the radius tighter--

 
Then after some straightening and checking the squareness of the shape, the wire was pounded just a little flatter, mostly just to give me a few thousandths of an inch more width to try and center the drill on--

 
 
The holes will be drilled next.  Hopefully that will be successful and I won't have to abandon this method.   After the holes are drilled I'll solder a short pin to the bottom of each one to epoxy them onto the rail.  At that point I may also adjust the angle of the legs to follow the bulwark angle--

 
All for now,
Ron
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Good evening all.  Its been a while.  I spent a lot of time fighting with my pintles and gudgeons, mostly finding out how not to do it.  My goal was to make a reasonable group of hinges, made of brass, fully chemically blackened (not painted like last time), with a minimal gap between sternpost and rudder, and with evenly spaced and in-scale bolts.  
 
See the below cartoon.  The pintle was straightforward; bend the brass strip in a gentle curve and silver solder a piece of brass wire in place, then trim.  Worked well the first, second, and third times.  Also backened perfectly. 
 
The gudgeons, however, fought me every step of the way. 
 
I originally went for option #2, bending the brass strip around the outside of the brass tubing and silver soldering it in place.  But (see last post) this led to too much of a gap between the stern post and rudder.  It was also very challenging to make correctly spaced bends to fit around the sternpost.  I ended up fatiguing the brass strip bending and rebending until unsurprisingly one side broke off.  I decided this was not working well and looked for better options.

 After some MSW scrolling I decided what I really wanted was something like option #1, with a triangular "head."  I pre-bent the brass strip and silver soldered the tube on, just like in #3 above, without trouble.  You have to be careful the tube is centered on the strip, and not crooked, but overall not too hard.   I went with silver solder because the bond is so strong, but silver solder doesn't fill gaps.
 
Figuring How Hard Could it Be, I tried to fill in the space between the tubing and brass strip with lower temp solder, in effect changing #3 into #4 above.

 
I cleaned the gudgeon in isopropyl alcohol, wiped on flux, then touched a 40 watt soldering iron to one side of the hinge while touching the strip of solder to the opposite side.  This was challenging; the solder wanted to go anywhere except where I wanted, and as I had to do each "corner" separately I tended to melt my previous efforts.  But eventually I got a test piece with good blobs of filling solder which I filed down until it was the triangular shape I wanted.  So a lot of work but getting there.  That piece is in the far right of the picture below.  On this piece I also practiced drilling some bolt holes and made some improbably small bolts.
 
Then I tried blackening and things went downhill.  Below you can see my test pieces.  The one of the left is my original effort with one broken wing (#2 in my cartoon) and only silver solder.  It blackened perfectly.  The 3 pieces on the right all have low temp solder (either Tix or StayBrite) on top of a silver soldered joint.  Anything I touched with the low temp solders wouldn't blacken; often even in areas on the brass strip that I didn't directly solder.  For blacking I used Blacken-it for the first test, and Greg's (DVM27) sparex/Jax black procedure for another.  Neither worked; the soft solder turned a flakey grey and the black that did form could be easily rubbed off.

This had been a lot of work leading to a dead end and it took me some time to get my enthusiasm back. 
 
To change gears I decided to find the best way to drill the bolt holes.   I don't have a milling machine so it was all by hand.  Before I used my dremel, which went quickly but the bits liked to skate, leading to unevenly spaced holes.  So I tried it manually.  I got an awl and dimpled the brass strip, then used a 75 carbide drill bit chucked into a wooden handle.  It quickly became apparent this wouldn't work; I got nicely spaced holes but broke 3 bits for 4 holes.  The slightest lateral pressure and the bit would snap.  The Dremel, I think, rotates fast enough that its harder to bend and break the bits. 

 
Below I tried dimpling the brass strip and drilling with a "normal" wire drill bit.  But the bits were worse to keep centered, went dull after 1 - 2 holes, and then refused to cut.  No go.
 

Eventually I went back to dimpling with the awl, then drilling with the dremel while periodically dipping the tip of the carbide bits in some 3-in-1 oil, which made them cut much better.  The holes were not perfectly spaced but probably good enough.  I suspect you won't be able to see the bolts (matt black bolt heads on a matt black strip; basically invisible).
 
So now, having spent weeks chasing my tail, I finally have a plan.  I am making the gudgeons simple, #3 in my above cartoon, just brass strip with a tube.  These reliably blacken, are very strong, and don't stick out too far. 
 
My next trial run with the top hinge.  In this case I drilled all the bolt holes before soldering, but for the other 2 hinges I plan to drill the holes afterwards. 

This top hinge wet well (bottom right below) and so I spent tonight making the other 2 sets.  First I bent the brass strip to the correct dimensions, testing in situ on the rudder and the stern.  Its very easy to make them too big or small. 

Then silver soldered the pins and tubing.

Next is drilling all the bolt holes.  Then gluing the hinges in place with epoxy, afterwards adding the bolts.  I bet anyone who made it this far in this post is done with pintles and gudgeons; I know I'm ready to move on.
 
Have a great evening, thanks for reading.
 
Cisco
 
 
 

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 
You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 
 
Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  
 
As always, best of success to you.
I will continue to watch with interest.
 
Dan