DanielD

Good morning mates, just finished another hand made safety net for my Amerigo Vespucci. Will mount permanently later today. One more net to manufacture.

Exactly! But after I thought I had all the lighting figured out, I forgot about about some lighting on the foremast, just under the first platform, then the crane area needed lighting, and also some just aft of the mizzen mast. A bit of oversight, but because I was able to pull off the structures, I was able to tie into the electrical at that location. Sure I was limited on what circuit the additional LEDs were on, but it all worked out.

Bill, that is correct. I created pins or short dowels strategically placed on the buildings that snuggly fit into holes of the deck. This allowed me to remove the structures as needed to work around the ship. In fact, even now the structures are not glued in except for the fire control room that is sandwiched between the two decks. I’m glad I didn’t glue them down as I’ve pulled them up several times to run extra wires for lighting that I had not planned for. Daniel

Hi Bill, I basically didn’t even look at the kit instructions for the inside of the bridge. I made everything from scratch to emulate the virtual tour as close as my skill level allowed. I made the telephones, the gauges, the supports for the helm, designed the floor based on the actual ship, lights, etc.

Wonderful work! Great job.

Good afternoon mates, it’s been awhile since my last update. I’ve not stopped work in the shipyard, but the work has been slow going. I’ve just finished the first of three safety nets for the bow of the Amerigo Vespucci, with over 1000 clove hitch knots at a spacing of about 1 mm square! This safety net took about 6 weeks to create.

Bill, here is the 4mm wood sheaves and the 0.4 mm x 0.4 mm x 30mm square grid material that I’ve used all over the ship. Places on the deck, on the floor in the bridge, the floor of the sky bridge, and the captain’s deck at the stern. https://falconet-mfg.com/collection/rustery?lang=en

Good morning Bill. This is not included in the OcCre kit. I made it by using laser cut 1mm square prefab grating that I purchased from a company in Canada along with a bunch of very small wood pulleys so that I could make the AM specific running rigging pin racks. I’ll try to remember to take a picture of the packaging when I get home. Great product but very fragile due to the small size.

Yes, you could have a separate circuit, but for me it was the only two LEDs on that circuit and I wanted the OR situation. Diodes are cheep, less than a $1 for like 5 of them and can be setup inside the hull so less wires heading into the hull from the control panel. But this is just me…you build your however you like.

I saw these and went a different route as I needed more than three out. Also, once you have everything working and before you seal up the hull, run a bead of hot glue across the switches to glue them shut. I have heard that these have a habit of popping open and if that happens after you close up the hull, you are screwed.

Hi Bill, let me see if I can remember…I believe the structures you labeled A and C and the exterior lights on B are all part of the deck lighting circuit. Well almost that is. The fore part of the structure C is the chart room and that is a part of the deck lights while the rear storage compartment of the same structure is, well on a special circuit as is the interior light of structure B. I used a diode on each the port hole circuits to create a “third” circuit. The goal is this, when one port hole circuit is on and the other off, the internal lights of Structure B and the storage compartment of structure C are on. If you switch the port hole circuits with the second one on and the first one off, opposite the set above, the internal lights of structures B and the storage compartment of structure C are also on. And of course, if both port hole circuits are on, so are the internal lights of B and the storage compartment light. This adds a level of complexity to the lighting that is unexpected yet very easy to do, giving the model a more authentic look. You are the first person to either notice or question this. Good job!

Hi Bill, yes and yes! I’ve added tons of features not in the kit just by looking at the virtual tour. Each piece of equipment I worked on I would go view the tour and add as much detail as I could.

Bill, part 1 answer: those brass pieces are found all over the ship! They are there to manage the ropes that are pulled around the deck to operate the sails and other operations of the ship. Basically, they are there to protect the ship and ropes from being damaged. part 2…I’ll have to wait until I get home to be sure, but what I remember they are just high intensity 3mm LEDs. Update: https://a.co/d/huSaGT5 this is what I purchased. I run this “channel” at a higher voltage which makes them brighter, but do not exceed what they are rated for.

Bill, these are not part of the kit. I manufactured them from scrap brass round stock placed in a lathe and sanded the center to create the hourglass shape.

Hi Bill, yes! Planning what you want to light up is essential at this stage, if not before. The mistake I made was not creating the raceway for the wires in the bulkheads before I assembled them onto the false keel. The "raceway" is a path for the wires to run under the deck to get them where you need them for eventual lighting. Things to consider: 1) don't put the raceway close to the deck, meaning create holes for the wires 1/2" or so below the deck. The reason for this is you will eventually be drilling holes in the deck for equipment to attach to. If the wires are close to the deck surface, you can easily drill into and sever a wire as I did in my HMS Terror (see that build log for a description of how I had to fix it). 2) Make the holes for the wires fairly large. I made mine 1/4" in diameter and that just was not big enough but it was the only "long" drill I had. I made it work but had to force some wires through a crowded hole or two. I had to use a long drill because I made the mistake of not drilling the raceway holes before attaching the bulkheads to the false keel. This would be so easy to do while the bulkheads are individual pieces. Make a list of what you want to light up! The obvious choice will be the port hole lighting. I chose to have two circuits to give it an authentic look. One circuit for a random selection of 1/2 the port holes, the other circuit for the other half. I can choose to have one set or the other on, giving the look that is in most of the night images, or I can have both circuits on and have all the port holes lit up. Plan what you want to have lit on deck. I have lighting in the main bridge, the chart room, the storage room (just behind the chartroom). Things that I did not plan for but I thought were essential and had to do some retrofit: deck lighting behind the main bridge that shines down on the deck and lighting on the foremast that shines down onto the deck. Things that I did plan for were the lights along the storage bunkers on the main deck, the night lighting circuits (3 colors), and the motor that turns the propeller. Lastly, figure out how you are going to power the LEDs. If using a battery on board like I did in my HMS Terror, plan an easily accessible location to replace the battery. Depending on how many LEDs you plan to use, you might need two 9v batteries so takes up a lot of room somewhere. In my case, two 9v batteries are not enough! It is enough voltage-wise, but not enough current-wise, meaning that I can not have everything turned on at once with just two 9v batteries. This is why I chose to power my AV externally. From reading my blog you can see that the switches are off the ship and will be placed in the pedestal eventually and power to the ship is through a USB-C cable. I will eventually power my ship with a 12v 1.5 amp power brick that plugs into the pedestal. This will allow me to power everything at once without issues. I would not recommend using AA batteries. These are only 1.5 volts each, which means that you will need to have 6 AAs to match the voltage and current rating of a single 9v, so 12 AAs to have the current to almost power everything at once. Well, I'm off to work for a bit, I'm sure there is a lot more I can offer on this subject, but will need to wait until another time.