cog

Augie,
Next year it will be the 'Popeye Gallery'
 
Looking good spinach-sailor. You keep on surprising us with your quick mind, and creativity!!

Druxey & Greg, I sectioned the hanging knees on the aft lower deck beam.  Since the ceilings only go to the frame, the knees would really just hang out there.   I think I'll just omit them.  Thanks for your comments!   Test fitting the deck planking around the partners carling.  Using the pattern again to line up the elm tree and pipes.  I'll caulk around the holes (with wood putty).   I think this is as good as a fit I can manage.  Cutting an octagonal hole is a challenge.  Thanks for all the "Likes".
Maury

Hi all had a go at weathering some of the superstructure (never weathered a ship before) is this enough or should I go further ?

 

 
also did some more of that pesky PE

 

 

TAKE... ME... TO... YOUR... LEADER
 
Sorry I couldn't resist, I just showed this to Jude and she said hey it looks like a face then in a robotic voice said "take me to your leader" I laughed out loud.
 
Just a bit more fetling and then I can move on to the next piece. I need to add a couple of relive grooves so that the jacket clears the valve springs, I will use an .093" end mill. lay the block on the top face and centre the end mill over the valve guide holes and just take a whisker off down to the holes.
 
Bob thanks for your very kind comment.
 
Thanks also for all the likes.
 
Michael

I think you goofed Piet........it doesn't look like a proto type anymore.........it's a model    I think you've gone too far!!!!        perhaps a beach diorama might be in order....it looks really sweet!

Hello everyone and thank you all for visiting and your like votes, much appreciated.
 
Well, dinner is done and i watched a fabulous nature show with my dear bride Gwen.  Birds of paradise in New Guinea.  
So, now back to the dingy saga, almost finished with version 1.0.  My wife asked me also, version 1.0?  Proto type?  That means version 2.0 is coming up?   Plan to gold plate that one????  She has a wry sense of humor, must be her English blood 
 
Today I made the four oar locks, the bow lifting / mooring ring and started with the oars.  I also painted everything dark grey and it's not looking all that bad.  I want to let the paint dry and then do some fine sanding on the outside and one more coat of paint.  It's amazing how much time goes into such a little boat, especially when it's klinker planked.
 
Okay, here are a few pics.
 

These oar locks are made from thin brass sheet and 0.5 mm brass rod.  The strips are about 1.5 mm wide and 5 mm long.  I bend them into a U shape around a 1 mm rod and drilled a 0.5 mm hole in it for the pin.  Then soft-soldered it together and trimmed them.  
 

First I made an eye bolt with a 0.5 mm eye.  Then a ring from 0,5 mm brass rod and looped it into the eye bolt and soft soldered it shut.  It' too crude to my liking and will remake the ring from thinner brass rod.  That's why it's a prototype    I drilled a hole in the bow frame and cemented the eye bolt in.
Yep, it's klinker planked alright.
 

Here I have put the oar locks into their little holes so they can swivel when rowing.  They'll be readjusted when the oars are completed for a better fit and appearance. 
 

Here is the dingy with two coats of dark grey paint and two oars.  Okay, I only painted one oar because I was still working on the second one when i decided to paint.  I may have to make the oar blades a little longer and thin the shanks some some.
 

 

 
Cheers,
 
 

Hi all my first attempt at water effect using clear bathroom sealant

 

 

 

 

 
and i've done a bit more to the superstructure
 

 

 

 

A substantial update:
I finished the decorations and everything related to the bowsprit.
It lacks some bits, rings, hooks and standing rigging of the bowsprit, but the most important part has been done.
I finished the two wolf's heads of the catheads, and the two small decorations of the bowsprit.
In that way I had the possibility to add the rope that secures the bowsprit to the bow (see related photo).
Honestly I was rather bored of all these decorations...
But at least 90% of the ship's decorations has done at the moment.
Now before proceeding further i need to:
-make at least 10 up to 12 customised kevels;
-Make at least 8 customised double blocks (in italian, violin type) for the standing rigging of the foremast;
-Make at least 10 bitts for the bow section of the ship.
So a lot of "boring work" is waiting for me...
This work is a "noisy work", so it will be difficult to proceed during the week, but mainly during week-end.

Hello everyone,
 
Well, I tackled the rudder today.  I made the gudgeons , pintels. rudder and helm.  None of this fine machining we have seen from Remco though.  First of all I don't have any machine tools and secondly, the size is just too small.  
I used small pieces of 1 mm brass tube soldered to a narrow strip of brass sheet for the gudgeons and 1/2 mm brass rod soldered to narrow strips of brass sheet.  I bend the gudgeon strips to fit the sternpost before soldering the small pieces of tube to them, which I didn't do for the pintels.   The fit is not as nice and I'll bend them fist as well in version 2.0.  Remember that this is just the prototype.
 
The helm is removable as is the rudder just like the real thing.  With a coat of paint it should look decent enough for a spare.
Next will be the oars and oar thingies and lifting rings, at least one at the bow. I think we can hook a hook to the rudder gudgeon to help lift the dingy out of it's little house below decks.
 

 

 

 
Cheers,
 
 

Today I sanded the new hull i made from mdf sections. The sanding went well and with the drawings and some photo's I managed to make a good shaped hull. Now I am going to finish the bull with some filler and sanding and then to the next step.
 

The ledges are done.  Those that land on the arms take a great deal of care to get all the angles correct.  The hatch frame is not attached yet.  I made the waterway by cutting a bevel from a sheet on the Byrnes saw, cut to approximate width and thicknessed on the Byrnes thickness sander and finally cut to final width.  I then ran the piece over the blade set at a 1" cut several times to bring the one side to the 3" thickness.  The planks are 3" x 10".  As the planks line up, only two or three will need minor tapering.  Figuring the planks closest to the enter line / partners takes special care where the pumps come through the deck.  I still have to decide if I install the hanging knees behind the aft beam.  If so, I will extend the planking to the edge of the knee, not the beam.  Any thoughts?
Maury

Thanks all.
 
Mark, for delicate enhancing of the joints I use a pencil, but to simulate tarring like the joints on  the rudder I use very thin paper (probably 0.1 mm thick). It comes in different colors but it's not water proof so I use the white one and tint it with a black Sharpy. All joints are lined on one side and after gluing the pieces together I used a plane to shape the rudder and trim the excess paper lining.
 
Meanwhile the metalwork on the rudder is continued, the pintles and spectacle plate are made from separate pieces silver soldered together. Piet, when all metal work is ready I will try to brown them (instead of blackening) 
 
Here they are temporary fitted
 

 

 

 

 

 
I noticed the hole for the tiller sits to close to the top of rudder, In need to make a little fix to lower it
I'm not sure how that happened......
 
Remco
 
 

Thanks everyone for your very kind comments and also my thanks to all who clicked the like button.
 
Hi Dave, thank you 
 
Hoi Remco, version 2.0 must be better otherwise making a prototype makes no sense 
 
Hi Popeye, thank you my friend.
 
Hi Omega, thanks but not sweet enough though 
 
Hoi Carl, thank you as well, hmmm, craftsmanship - - - just puts'n around and lucking out some here and there.
 
Hi Daniel, must be a prototype because too many small errors and not worthy to put on board the O19. This was just a learning curve to see if a plank on frame miniature could be build.  I found it can but it's not easy.
 
Hi David B, thank you and I'll hoist one when she's done, oh heck, I'll hoist one anyhow 
 
Hi Mark, thanks for visiting and yes, that's version 1.0.  When a person is not quite happy with the results then we must try again.  Isn't that the reason you are working on version 2.0 ????  
 
Hey Nenad, so good to see you here and taking the time away from your beloved CS to chat with me.  Thank you my friend and if an airplane guy can build a dingy anybody can.  So, here is the challenge to you, four small boats for your CS.  But use the plug method. 
 
Cheers to all.

Denis ,Row, Dan, Carl, thanks for looking in and for the kind words. 
 
I am beginning to wonder about this engine business.
 
The three cylinder blocks so far!
 

 
The one in the middle was the first one I was getting more dissatisfied by the hour, because the little break through into the water jacket area was nagging at me all the time. It was actually the second of the things that was bugging me and the top part had its own error I realized the oval water area was too long. also I decided that the bottom mounting lugs needed to be an integral part instead of part of a plate that was going to be fitted to the bottom somehow?
 
So I started over and was merrily milling down into the water jacket area when saw the cutter making it way down the outside of the jacket....... yup I set the cuts on the mill from the wrong side of the block after working the outside dimensions.
 
you can see the clean little slot on the one in the back, right down the middle.
 
The one in the front is version number three, according to folk lore it should be lucky.
 

 
The most tricky part was drilling the inlet and exhaust holes (still a bit gun-shy after the first mistake) I had to set the block up with a compound angle, for each hole the inlet ones on the outside and the exhaust ones in the middle. Now the hand work filing the surface shapes is under way. I also increased the size of the valve heads to .125 from .093 inches. The bore of the cylinders is reduced to 5/16 from 3/8ths in order to get more space for water circulation.
 

 
Carl in answer to your question why brass instead of iron, it is because brass is easier to work and I have the material. I have noticed that some of the engines on the engine website are brass and they seem to run fine as long as there is a steel or iron liner and an aluminum piston. this is the route that I am following.
 
Michael
 
 

Today I can totally relate to Saw Dust Dave. Lots of carving and sanding however the pieces fit nicely and I am sure the magnet's will hold everything in place. The next picture shows the dowels holding them and worked really well while carving and sanding.
 

 
Next shot shows the profile and the template doesn't lie. I had to get the wood curved exactly like the template plus there is one flat spot and one minor flaw in the bottle that caused a bit of grief.
 

 
Next shot shows wood pieces laying in the bottle nice and flush. Should be good to go onto the next step which is a mock up of the waves in a tube (hopefully same curvature of my bottle) to see how the scale will be with modelling clay. I have to determine how to model the clay for the wind, swells, and bow/stern wake before I even attempt to start carving. I can also use the mock up as my guide while carving.
 

 
Last shot shows the 4 pieces of Fir nice and snug without anything holding them together. Should be good here!
 

 
On to the mock-up .... Jeff
 

 
 
 

Well finally I got into my Man Cave to work on my SIB. Yesterday I had a few set backs with family stuff however I still forged ahead. First off was to remedy the plague of the plans falling all over the place on my bench. The later conundrum drove me nuts so time to take action. I had an old metal book stand which I quickly turned into a type of artists easel.
 

 

 

 
Above pictures show a piece of balsa (painted red) glued to the front of the book-stand and plans pinned to some coroplast sign material. Problem solved! Next pictures shows work on clamping the fir sea material together. I then drilled four holes and pinned them together with some wooden dowels. Pieces fitted together and numbered for reference.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Next I realized I needed to make a tool to determine the contour of the inside of the bottle as the wood pieces need to be tapered, curved, and fitted to the inside curve of the bottle. Wine bottles are fairly round but not perfect. Blowing glass is an art and getting a bottle completely round takes great skill. The following pictures shows my home made contour tool to measure the inside of the bottle.
 

 

 

 

 
I made the tool to hinge and had the control strings fixed in position while measuring with an elastic band. Worked good! The next picture shows me checking my template against the inside contour. At this point I thought I was close however I am working in 2 dimensions, add in some wood and now it's 3 dimensional and I know things are going to change.
 

 
Next picture shows the strings fixed with the elastic band.
 

 
The next picture shows me transferring the information to the wood.
 

 
The next picture shows the wood in position. I was gun shy when carving being extra careful not to take off too much without checking first.
 

 
After getting the 4 pieces into the bottle you can see I need to take off some more material. Remember what Grandpa said... measure 3 times, cut once. Well maybe... cut twice! Easier to take more off than try to add on later.
Jeff 
 
 

Today I had some time to get into the Man Cave and experiment with carving and painting the wooden seas. In this first exercise I wanted to make as many mistakes as possible to fine tune my techniques and get the seas to where I want them at this scale for a SIB.
 

 
Above I started with the mid size Dremel tool I purchased and it carved like a dream. No issues what soever!
 

 
I then scaled down to the fine dental cutter my dentist gave me and again no issues. The Fir carved like a dream and I was able to mirror what Mr. Lloyd McCaffery did on page 127 of his book Ships in Miniature. Also at this point I never paid no real attention to wind and wave direction just more concerned about caving and achieving crisp edges on the top of the waves.
 

 
Above you can see the Fir carves really well. This wood is perfect for my application.
 

 
Then I took some Model Master Dark Sea Blue to see how the wood would accept the paint and if it would bleed a bit. No worries here as well. One notable I will primer the wood first next time. Mistake number #1.
 

 
Then I dry brushed in some French Ultramirine Blue artist's oil paint and blended. Then some brushing with some Titanium White. Mistake # 2 was, I think I put the white on a bit heavy with the dry brushing. I have to watch this carefully next time especially at this scale.
 

 
I finished the waves and their crowns with the white. So for 1 hour of work a whole lot was learned with this exercise. Now the next step is to map out exactly how the waves and swells will look on my four pieces, get the magnets installed and hooked up, then draw out and outline how, and where, to remove the wood material, and then go for it!
 
Also I need to build so more bottle tools and refine my paint pallet for the seas. I am thinking a little green has to go into the waves under the white to show a bit of translucent color next to the hull and there should be a touch of black/red/white reflection at the waterline. Also I am looking into a silicon method for bow and stern wake and splash. There you have it, no worries and definitely no rush as the last two weeks work has been extremely busy and I actually put in 10 hours of overtime.
 
Just waiting for some documentation from Germanus to come in the post. He is sending me some details from Heller's plastic kit of the Preussen in 1/150.  :-)
 
Steady as she goes ... Jeff

I had an opportunity to get into the man cave and do a bit on my project. The first image is a couple of custom tools I needed to make to work inside of the bottle to start measuring it up for the wooden seas and clearances etc.
 

 
Next is a close up of the fiddle tool made from INCONEL ERNiCr-3 Tungsten Inert Gas (tig filler rod). This stuff is bullet proof and perfect as it has virtually no flex.
 

 
Next is my flexible template tool made from some brass rod and a clip which came from the head phones of my BlackBerry cell phone. Perfect for slipping templates into the bottle.
 

 
Next I show the filler rod tool being used to remove some water from the bottle. Final clean up will take place at the end of the build before the seas and ship is placed in the bottle.
 

 
Next up I have my templates and I show my hand tool with a piece of razor blade for cutting out the templates.
 

 
Finally I show my Douglas Fir which will be cut and formed for the seas and then carved with waves/swells/wake etc. It has to go into the bottle in 4 interlocking pieces. This is going to be fun!
 

 
I also acquired some special dental bits from my Dentist to use to carve the seas with my Dremel tool. More to come ... Jeff
 

Well done Piet, you show some fine craftmanship. Nice detail too

Hi all here is todays bit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's a prototype?     I'm looking forward to seeing the final version.  

Hello everyone and thanks for your patience, waiting for the O19 dingy progress.
I finally put the last planks on that little bugger and worked on the gunnels.  I also started to put the rower's seats in and the helmsman seat.
Overall she's not too bad looking for a prototype and will finish it.  It'll be good as a s spare on the display board.
 
In my humble opinion it was a worthwhile excercise.  I found that building a miniature model like this plank on frame is doable.  However, there are several things I will do differently now that I have gained the experience.
First of all I'll use build-up frames to prevent them from breaking. 
Just as with the larger models it's equally important to keep all the frames square and plumb to the keel. 
Working klinker planking with 1.5 mm or so thick planks is a real challenge at these small sizes. Here too a I think that a slightly wider plank that's pre-tapered will work better then to shave it after the plank is on. 
That in itself will be a challenge but I also found it was rather easy thinning the planks down after they are cemented on. 
 
Okay, enough about the should'vs and show how the dingy looks like as of this afternoon.  The first 5 pics were taken this morning before lunch.  The rower's seats are just stuck on loose.
 
The last three were taken late afternoon after I cemented the rower's seats on, made and installed the bow deck and the helmsman seat.  Next will be finishing the gunnels, the oar thingy's, the oards and the rudder. Then some nice dark grey paint.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Cheers,

Friday, November 7, 2014
 
The production of this last week has been rather poor: the bad weather, the need to study in detail a ANCRE plan, which I found (in my opinion) wrong, and the need to make some preparatory task to the work itself, which probably will start next week, all together influenced my poor productivity.
As preparatory work for the smoothing of the lower sides of the hull, to prepare the bulkheads with the correct bevel angle, I had to set up a large number of sanding blocks, which I show here below. .
01 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/CAM00364_zps4e2e650a.jpg

02 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/CAM00359_zps0dafe71f.jpg

I wrote before about the ANCRE plan. To my surprise, observing the planks of the deck, I noticed that there were no joints, as if the plank was a single piece of wood . . with a length of about 29 meters !!!
It's highly unlikely that this is true, then I have studied a solution in which a plank of the deck was composed of four sections of a more realistic size, say around seven meters.
Helped by the arrangement of the deck beams, as identified by the signs of the nails on the plan, I split the deck into sections and, after determining the correct distances on the drawing, I set out with a stroke of red pen on the real model false deck.
I also identified on the surface of the deck four lines (blue color even if they may appear black) which I have called "control stations" where the width of each strip of the planking, taken from the drawing, will be marked and will allow me to prepare the strip with the right shape and taper before applying it.
03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/CAM00357_zpsf8fab199.jpg

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/CAM00356_zps15ac9455.jpg

As always, until next time, Jack.

Bill
 
Looking good, I like your plankbender. I'll be following your build with interest

Ah.... forgot where I was.... this is a build log!!!!         My apologies.