Dr PR

This Freya build probably should be considered ancient history because I built the kit in the mid 1970s. But I recently saw a kit on eBay for $70.00, so it might be of interest to someone. Also, I think the kit has been released again as the Agilis "clipper:" https://modelshipworld.com/topic/23067-agilis-by-jct-finished-steingraeber-160-scale-slave-ship/#elControls_682192_menu I am also posting it because there are some peculiar features to this model and I am hoping some of our members who are familiar with German and Danish ship construction might comment on it. Here is a photo of the kit box. "Brigg Freya um 1840. Schiffsmodellbaukasten in Holtz." A ship model kit in wood, and instructions mostly in German. Well, I majored in chemistry as a freshman and I was required to take two years of German because a lot of the chemical literature was in German. So a few (and I do mean a few) instructions in German weren't too daunting - at least in the 1970s. There is no kit manufacturer's name on the box or the instructions, but it does say "made in west Germany" on the plans. Newer modelers might compare the sparse instructions and lack of pre-cut parts to more modern kits. The other side of the plans sheet has instructions in four languages (German, English, French and Italian). There is a list of parts and 22 building steps. For example, step 20 says "The yards must be rigged and attached to the mast, following the drawing." There are a few helpful hints in the drawing. The parts for the hull had to be cut from a sheet of plywood that had lines printed on it. All the dowels for the masts and spars had to tapered by hand. Here is the finished model. I do not know if it actually represents any real vessel, but I had fun building it. This was my second kit build, and I scratch built many of the pieces because I thought the kit parts were too crude. When I look at it I am reminded of zu Mondfeld's comment (Historic Ship Models, page 218) about top heavy models that have overly tall masts. I have noticed that on many ships the masts are about as tall as the hull is long, or less. But in this model the masts are nearly 1 1/2 times as tall as the length of the hull. Are the masts too tall? Perhaps our Forum members who are familiar with northern European ships of the 19th century can provide some information about this. Another peculiarity is the angle (steeve) of the bowsprit - there is none. It is horizontal. The plans show it this way and that is how I built it. Were any real ships built this way? The tall masts and horizontal bowsprit suggest to me that this vessel never went to sea where it would encounter high winds and large waves. Perhaps it worked on rivers and other inland waters? Here are some more photos of the decks and masts. In the upper right hand photo you can see a place where a gap opened in the hull planking. This was probably caused by the wood swelling and shrinking as moisture changed in the atmosphere. This also happened on my first plank-on-bulkhead kit model. For all subsequent builds I have coated the inside of the hull planking with thin clear epoxy paint or epoxy potting compound. The epoxy penetrates the cracks between planks and between planks and bulkheads and makes the hull rock hard. I have a plank-on-bulkhead hull over 40 years old that was covered with epoxy inside, and it still does not have cracks between the planks! This was the first time I had planked a deck with individual pieces, and not a pre-printed single sheet. I had recently served on three ships in the US Navy that had wooden decks. On one the decking was replaced while I was aboard, and on another (USS Cape MSI-2) the plank seams were recaulked. I had saved some of the caulking compound that was used on the Cape just for the purpose of caulking ship model decking, and I used it for this model. So this is the real stuff you see here! Kids, do not try this at home! It was really messy and the seams are probably too wide!! The kit did not come with a ship's boat, and I thought it should have one. It did have davits at the stern for a boat, and I used the spacing between them to make a boat about to scale. Remember, this is long before the Internet and the information available there, and there were no bookstores where I was living with books about ships and ship modelling. The local hobby shops were either pushing flying model airplanes or model railroading. So I was winging it here! This is a 2.1 inch (53 mm) plank on frame model boat. At 1:100 this is a scale 17 foot (5 meter) long boat. According to May's Boats of Men of War it should have more thwarts and oars, but I didn't have access to such publications back then. I cut pieces for crude frames and glued them together. These were glued to a carved keel piece. And then the hull was planked with HO scale model railroad ties (the things that support the rails). I didn't know if this method would work, but I gave it a try anyway and the results were adequate for this model. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! I replaced a few of the parts in the model with scratch built pieces that were more detailed. I did have Chapelle's American Sailing Ships (my entire nautical library at that time) and used the illustrations in it as guides. The last major modification to the kit was the transom. The kit plans showed nothing there but the plywood piece. I thought the ship should have a name, and Freya seemed appropriate. Freya was the old Norse word for noble lady, and was the goddess of love and beauty. I learned a trick here that I have used several times since. I drew the letters on the plywood piece just like the printing on the kit box. Then I carved around them deep enough to cut through the outer layer of the plywood. Then I cut/peeled away the parts of the outer layer I didn't need. The rim around the transom was made in this way too. This left the letters in bas-relief. Of course, they are way too large! This method is useful for creating recessed panels in doors and wainscoting. So that is the story of my brig Freya um 1840 schiffsmodelbaukasten in holtz.

Tom, Yes and no. It has been a while (2018?) since I last did any 3D CAD modeling. I think that was the gun carriages for the schooner build. So at first when I started working on the venturi drawings I had to think a bit to get going. But then I realized that I didn't have to think about how to use the CAD program. I have been using the same program since 1988, and my hands are programmed - like a professional typist or a violinist. I just had to think about what I wanted to do and it happened! Of course, sometimes what I wanted to do wasn't right and I had to start over. But at least the mistakes came naturally!

I realized that there were a few tweaks I needed to make to the visor and venturi to account for some odd angles in the superstructure. I started modelling the superstructure in 3D CAD so I could adjust the venturi. The visor fit without modification, but I had to angle the side pieces of the venturi to match the tops of the bulwark. The angles are non-intuitive. The blueprint doesn't give any dimensions for the heights of the side bulwarks, but just says the angle of the tops matches the sheer of the main deck. The bulwark section between the front and sides is angled at 30 degrees, and the outboard end determines the height of the bulwark side piece. The top of the bulwark side is parallel to the sheer of the main deck at the centerline. Try figuring that out on paper! After taking all of this into account the height and shape of the after side bulwarks, with the circular and elliptical curved top edges, came out just as the blueprints show them. I must have done something right! Another reason for the CAD model is determining the sizes of the wooden pieces I will use to build the model. I don't have a thickness sander or milling machine, so I must use parts that are available commercially. When I scale the dimensions shown on the blueprints to 1:48 the dimensions do not match anything I can buy. What you see in the CAD model is made up of pieces sized to commercially available parts that are the closest I can get to the scale pieces. Generally the differences between the scale dimensions and what I can buy are in the range of 0.010 to 0.015 inch (0.25 to 0.38 mm). That won't be noticeable on a 28 inch (711.2 mm) long model. By the time I get all of the minesweeping gear and other deck fittings figured out I will just about have a complete CAD model of the ship.

Actually, it looks to me he is thinking "Why is he wasting time on all this stuff when he could be petting me?"

You might not want to fill the gaps between the planks if you want the individual wooden planks to be visible on the model - they would be on the full sized vessel. However, Mark's suggestion is a very useful way to fill gaps that you don't want to see, especially where the parts will be painted.

I want to make many of the parts for this build out of brass. I like working with brass and I have been soldering things since I was a kid. I plan to make many of the pieces with photo etching. Here are some of the parts that I needed to use 3D CAD to design. This is a "visor" or sun shade that fits above the front windows of the pilot house. Because of the multiple angles involved the three major surfaces are trapezoids. The two smaller pieces are the supports that fit under the upper surfaces. I wouldn't be too much trouble to make these by trial and error since I have the blueprints for the visor. But 3D CAD lets me determine the exact shapes, and photo etch will produce parts that will fit together precisely. This "venturi" is a much more complicated structure. It catches air blowing against the bulwark around the open bridge and literally funnels it up between the inner and outer surfaces. The openings at the bottom are larger than the openings at the top, so the air is compressed, and therefore accelerated. The resulting stream of air is forced upward over the bulwark. This rising column of air intersects the wind blowing from ahead and deflects it upward. I was amazed to see this really work! I have stood on the open bridge in a driving rain storm and for a few feet behind the bulwark no rain blew on me - it was all blown up and over by the blast of air from the venturi! The three different front surfaces are shown in red after they have been flattened. These are the pieces that will be photo etched. There also are 15 of the support pieces like the one shown in dark grey. All I will have to do is figure out how to solder all of these things together into a complete venturi! The most complex part so far is the funnel. The lower part is a truncated elliptical cone. The funnel cap is another truncated elliptical cone with skewed axes. The actual shapes of the funnel and cap are shown at left in grey. The unfolded flat surfaces are shown in red. There is no way I could ever have figured this out by trial and error! There are a few more flat pieces that are not shown, and I will modify the unfolded funnel piece to include some vent openings in the aft side. I love 3D geometry and figuring out all of these things is one of the reason I wanted to make this model. This isn't the first funnel that I have "flattened" in 3D to determine the surfaces. I did this many years ago for the funnels on my USS Oklahoma City CLG-5 model. That was the initial learning curve. I photo etched the 1:96 scale CLG parts at home - with mixed results that I am not satisfied with. I don't want to mess with it this time. Now I just need to find a photo etch supplier to make the parts.

The problem I had with the home etching kit offered by one supplier is that the photo resist did not develop uniformly. This left thin invisible film "blotches" on the metal that protected it from the etchant. Some parts came out OK, but most of the fine detail pieces were ruined. Eventually I gave up on it. I should say that I have been making printed circuit boards at home since the 1970s, so I am very familiar with metal etching. Of course those early PC boards had enormously wide traces and spaces (>0.05"/1.27 mm) compared to the last PC boards I designed before I retired (0.004"/0.1 mm traces and spaces). You can use Sharpie permanent markers to draw patterns on brass/copper and then etch with a water solution of cupric chloride. The pen ink serves as a resist, and if you don't try to have very fine traces or gaps you can make some pretty simple etched parts. This is how I made my first hobby PC boards. However, this method won't work to etch from both sides of the sheet because you can't align patterns on both sides accurately enough (at least for small parts). It will work only on very thin metal.

I need a variety of photo etch parts for a couple of models I am working on. I have made some photo etch parts at home, bit I haven't been too successful with the fine detail parts. I can produce the graphic images in many different formats. Can anyone recommend a photo etch supplier?

Many smaller vessels (100 foot or less) did not have a capstan or windlass. It all depended upon the weight of the anchor and cable. On smaller vessels the anchor could be weighed by just a few men hauling on the lines of a block and tackle. Here is a discussion of anchor handling on smaller vessels. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/27410-small-ship-anchor-handling/?do=findComment&comment=787942 Here is how I depicted this on my Albatros build: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=1015509

The quality of the wood in kits varies a lot. My experience with cheaper kits is that the planks can vary in thickness as much as 50%. If this is the case you have to grind down the thicker planks to match the thickness of the lower planks. You can mitigate the problem a bit by using the thicker planks near the centerline and the thinnest on the outboard sides of the deck. Johnny is right about coarser grits leaving deep scratches in the wood. t can be very difficult to remove these with finer grit sand paper! An alternative is to use a scraper to take off the high spots. A single edge razor blade (or just about any knife edge) will do. Just hold it perpendicular to the plank surface and drag it along, pressing gently, to scrape off the top surface. Use minimum force until you get the feel of it. Use 300-600 grit sand paper to finish it, and even #0000 steel wool. But be sure to remove all fragments from the steel wool before finishing the deck - they can rust with time and cause nasty discoloration of the wood!

Bob, I rigged the running stays on my Albatros build "loosely" before placing them and then tightened the lines as it would be done on the real thing. This did make it easier to rig them. But now I have the conundrum of whether to finish them tight and add the rope loops - or wait until I have installed the sails in case something needs to be loosened and re-rigged! Decisions, decisions ...!

For future reference. In my early college days (back in the Dark Ages) at a land grant university I had to take two years of Army ROTC. Part of our cannon fodder training was learning how to polish shoes and brass belt buckles. I guess it really impresses an enemy to find a corpse with polished brass! We used something called "Brasso" to polish the brass belt buckles, buttons and collar insignia. It apparently was composed of a solvent that dissolved oxides and a fine polishing compound. We rubbed it on with cotton and the brass shined up quickly.

Then why are we talking about hammocks and such? If bravado was so important why did ships have hammock cranes and nets? Why not just line the crew up topside as targets for the enemy to shoot at just to show who was bravest? I had my share of "spilling your guts for your country" lectures. And sailors were expendable, just like ammunition and toilet paper. But lives were not to be wasted foolishly. As Aubrey said in Master and Commander, "We must survive this day."

John, Thanks.

I think the stem bands are finally done! These things took a lot longer than I thought they would (primarily because I used the wrong glue)! I originally planned to install the strip that runs down the front of the stem as three pieces, as shown in the blueprints. But I decided to make it a single piece. I had already glued on the narrow strip between the top and bottom pieces. It served as a guide when I was removing wood to create the "V" shaped stem. I pulled it off and then shaped the stem a bit to accept a single piece. The new piece was wider at the bottom where the stem tapers from the wider keel to the narrow "V" shape at the bow. It is also wider at the top where the stem is rectangular in cross section. Between these sections it is a narrow strip of constant width. I don't know how many hours I fiddled with this piece! I had to file it down a bit, try to install it so see if it fit, file some more, etc. But it did come out quite nice. Not perfect, but nice. I didn't get it shaped perfectly where the top rectangular part tapers to the narrow strip. You can see the epoxy that fills the gaps here. But it will eventually be painted something like haze gray so it doesn't matter. While I was waiting for the epoxy to harden on the stem bands I installed the hull zincs at the engine cooling and fire system water intakes. After the hull is painted I will paint these something like a zinc color. Now I think the hull is pretty complete except for the stern frame and painting. I am waiting for the boxwood to arrive for the stern frame.

Using hammocks for "shielding" against bullets and shrapnel has been used for a long time, even up into the 20th century. Togo's flagship Mikasa at the battle of Tsushima in 1905 had bedding strapped to the railing around the bridge . And I have seen videos of Japanese aircraft carriers launching planes early in WWII, and they had bedding bundles lashed to the railings of the open bridge on the carriers. Now about using hammocks as shielding in the tops of sailing ships - if you were one of the fellows who would be in the tops to shoot at men on the other ship, and knew you were a easy target for anyone on the deck or in the tops of the other ship who were shooting back, what would you do? Since hammocks were recognized as useful for stopping small shot when placed on top of the railings, why would you limit their use to just this one place? If it was me and I was up in the tops, I would haul up anything I could get to hide behind!

Mustafa, I guess I agree with you that on your very nice pristine model a uniform finish would be more appropriate. But the finish you got on those carronades would be perfect on a model of a ship that had taken a beating in weather and combat! They actually look really nice! **** Note: I have had difficulties getting uniform blackening on brass parts. I always wash them first with liquid dish detergent and rinse with hot water to remove oils. Then I wash them in acetone to remove the soap and anything the soap missed. Sometimes I wash again with alcohol, but that is just to remove the acetone. Then I dry the pieces. Some people always etch the parts with Sparex No. 2 Granular Dry Acid Compound (sodium bisulfite) to "pickle" the surface. It needs to be heated and some users suggest getting a mini "crock pot" just for this purpose. I have tried using the blackening solution straight out of the bottle or by diluting it 1:1 with water. I have tried short (1 and 5 minute) blackening periods and longer (10 to 20 minutes). In every case I have gotten uneven coating. Longer blackening times seem to produce more surface coat that rubs off easily.

The fingerprint is a type of corrosion caused by a chemical reaction on the surface of the brass/copper. These sort of stains can be hard to remove. A simple way to clean brass/copper coins that I used as a kid is to put on a drop of vinegar and then add baking soda. Use a tooth brush to scrub the metal. It fizzes and the baking soda acts like a polishing grit. If that doesn't work you can try using a polishing rouge. You can apply it by rubbing with a clean soft cotton cloth or by using a buffing/polishing wheel on a motor tool. The rouge will remove the fine scratches caused by the #0000 steel wool - just keep rubbing!

Here is a suggestion for those having "mini" drill presses that have very little vertical clearance. If you have separate drill presses and X/Y tables, first mount the X/Y table on a sturdy base. Then mount your vise on the table. Next mount a spacer block behind the table to raise the drill press high enough so you have adequate clearance above the vise. Mount the drill press to the spacer block. NOPTE: All of this MUST be very rigid. When you lower the drill press to drill the vertical support shaft WILL bend. Period. This will cause some misalignment of the drilled hole. Some of the "mini" drill presses have very flimsy vertical supports. There is a reason industrial mills have huge cast iron vertical supports! The sturdier the vertical support the less flexing will occur. If the drill press is mounted as I suggest above, the amount of bending of the entire assembly depends upon how solid the press is mounted to the spacer block and how solid the block is mounted to the base. But the higher you raise the drill press the greater the amount of flexing you will have.

A drill press (and milling machine) will drill holes perpendicular to a piece. Because the drilling motion is straight along the vertical axis only you can use extremely sharp and tough, but fragile, carbide drill bits and other very tiny bits that would break if you tried to drill by hand. You can use "V" blocks to hold circular parts in an exact and repeatable position to drill perpendicular through them with precision. If you have a tilting table or vise you can drill at precise angles. Circular tables allow drilling holes in circles, precisely spaced by distance or angle. You can't get this precision and repeatability when drilling by hand. If you have an X/Y table below the drill/mill you can drill a series of holes in precise positions by moving the table the desired amount. This is especially good for drilling a series of holes evenly spaced in a straight line, or lines of parallel holes. Here is a post using a very poor example of a drill press to get a neat series of holes in a pin rail: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=988816 Here is an example of a simple use for a "milling machine." But in this case I used a drill press: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=904616 The number of additional tools for milling machines is almost endless, each allowing some precision drilling or milling work.

I think I recall that Spain has a national maritime museum with some ship plans on line. It might be worth the trouble to poke around on the Internet to see if you can find plans of a Spanish galleon.

John, Thanks. I have relearned that lesson! Epoxy is a bit more trouble to mix, and certainly less spontaneous than just grabbing a tube of whatever happens to be lying around. But it would have been quicker to use the epoxy in the first place!

Keith, I have been soldering since I was a kid - at least 70 years now. I designed electronics circuits professionally and did a LOT of soldering with that. For most solder jobs I have found liquid flux works best. I like the citric acid based flux - it smells like orange juice! You position the parts together and apply a small drop of flux with a brush or toothpick (or similar pointed thing). The flux flows between the pieces. Then you put a small drop of molten solder on the end of the soldering iron and place the drop onto the joint. The liquid flux draws the solder through the joint evenly and quickly. Remove the iron and you are done. If there is extra unwanted solder around the joint I use a small file or a wire brush in a motor tool to remove the solder. The brush also polishes the metal and solder joint.

Hull planking can be tricky. There is/was no one "right" way. Different shipyards sometimes had different ways of doing things, even on ships of the same class. And different navies had their own ways. When I made my CAD model of the USS Oklahoma City CLG-5 I studied the blueprints and they did not mention a central "king" plank as some ships have. After studying a lot of photos it became clear that there was not a central plank on the centerline. Instead the groove between the two center planks ran down the centerline. ddp is right that there is often a wider border plank or "margin board" around structures and significant deck fittings. And there seem to be a few common ways of joining the pieces of this wider planking. But the blueprints for the USS Cape MSI-2 that I am now modeling are explicit that there is NO margin planking around anything! Instead all deck fittings were placed on the deck planking, sometimes with metal flanges around the fittings (hatches, scuttles, etc.) that rested on the planking. The planking was fitted against the sides of the deckhouse, and then a small wooden strip was attached vertically to the house side with the narrow side resting on the planking. Both the Oklahoma City and Cape were US Navy ships from the middle 20th century. So you need to study the plans and photos of the specific ship you are modeling to determine how the decks were planked (if it had wooden decks).

I cut the stem bands from some 0.003 inch (0.76 mm) brass sheet. The metal can be cut with scissors and is easy to shape. But first I needed to decide what the shape would be. Here is the blueprint showing the outline of the stem bands. There are side pieces on either side of the stem. You can follow the vertical left side from the top outline down through the planking detail (red line) to where this edge meets the curvature of the stem. From there it only shows a dashed line down to the keel foot. It shows a curved top end where it turns down to the foot. Notice also the upper stem band, the narrow stem band along the forward edge of the stem, and the lower stem band at the bottom. I have already installed the narrow band along the front of the stem. I will need to add the upper and lower pieces after the side bands have been shaped. One other thing to notice is the cross section "V" shapes of the stem. This will become relevant in the discussion below. The first problem was the shape of the lower end. Austin Cox's photos show a squared off aft end of the side bands. He thinks these bronze pieces are original material. I decided to go with what is shown in the photo of the real hull and put a squared off aft end to the side bands. The drawing (below) shows the dimensions (in inches) of the side pieces. However, when I cut out the pieces I left some extra material on the forward edges. This makes the exact positioning while gluing less precise. The extra will be removed after the side bands are glued in place. First I cut out a paper test piece and fitted it to the hull. I expected to have to make some adjustments to fit the model hull, but the paper part fit perfectly! I scratched the inner surfaces of the brass with number 80 sand paper to provide some "tooth" for the glue to adhere to. Then I shaped the pieces to fit the form of the hull (above). I used Duco Cement (a solution of nitrocellulose in acetone) to attach the brass pieces to the hull. That was a mistake! I have used this glue to attach small brass pieces to wood and it works nicely. But these larger parts had problems. But first I had to hold the parts in place while the glue set - that takes several minutes. When I tried to apply the clamps shown in the photo that "V" shaped front of the stem caused the clamps to slip on the smooth brass surface and pop off the front edge. And they also squeezed the strip, causing it to slip on the wet glue and slide out of place. So I was constantly picking up clamps and putting them back on, while I also pushed the brass strips back into position. As fast as I replaced one clamp another popped off. It was like the Whack-A-Mole game! I eventually found a set of positions where the clamps would stay in place and could relax. I let the glue set overnight, and then removed the clamps. But when I tried shaping the leading edge to remove the extra material the brass strips pulled loose! To make matters worse, one of the brass pieces was damaged while trying to hold things together!! Arrrggghhhhh! To be honest, I thought there was a "small" chance of this happening. I wasn't certain that the Duco Cement was the best choice. So had thought about another option. Plan B When in doubt, use Epoxy! I scraped the glue from the brass pieces and the wooden hull. Then I made another brass piece, and it actually came out better than the first after forming it to fit the hull. They say practice makes perfect. Then mixed up some 15 minute Epoxy. I coated the inner surface of one piece and the mating surface on the hull with thin coats of epoxy and stuck them together. The epoxy was thick enough to hold the brass piece in place while I tried to attach the clamps. The camp at the top - where the hull surfaces are parallel - went on easily. The same is true at the bottom aft end of the piece. But once again it was Whack-A-Mole with the remaining clamps. But this time it was easier. The epoxy was quite messy and I got some on the outer surface of the brass piece when it squeezed out between the parts. The epoxy was much stickier than the Duco Cement, and it actually retarded the slipping of the clamps. The longer it set the stickier it got, and it was trying to glue the clamps to the brass. They still slipped slowly, and I could watch them slipping closer and closer to the leading edge of the stem. So I could catch them when they snapped off and reposition them immediately. After 10-15 minutes they were all holding in place. A couple hours later I repeated the process with the other side. Persistence pays off and I now have brass stem bands on the model. The epoxy did a much better job of gluing brass to wood and the parts do not want to pull apart! I did have to scrape, file and sand off quite a bit of the epoxy that had squeezed from between the pieces. Then I used files to smooth some small wrinkles and bumps in the brass. That was followed by fine grit sandpaper and #0000 steel wool. I will allow it to set over night, and then I will file back the extra material on the leading edge to match the narrow brass strip on the front edge of the stem. I'll add the top and bottom stem band pieces after that and it will be ready for the anchor lining strips at the bow. There is a very complex shape for the bow chock that fits on top of the stem. Right now I don't know how I will make that. But if carving the the stern frame from boxwood turns out OK I may also carve the bow chock and the other chocks from boxwood. If all else fails I can make a 3D CAD model and 3D print them. But I am really trying to avoid using 3D printed materials because I do not know how stable they will be in the long run.