jaerschen

A bit more work done on the galleries firstly they were painted royal blue, several coats applied to get the required finish, also the rail was painted black and the rest of the black paintwork touched up. Next the windows were fitted I added curtains by painting them on the clear glazing material supplied, and the first length of decoration trim was fixed and painted gold I will paint all the gallery decoration gold as it looks great with the royal blue.
 
Galleries being painted



 
Windows having curtians added

 
Windows in


 
 
 
 

Thursday, June 28, 2012 - Poop  
Again, these days the weather was very hot . . anyway, I was able to continue without too much troubles with this complex poop. Given the type of work to be achieved, my job was characterized by relatively short sessions, followed by periods of waiting time.
 
In the pictures here below you can see the progresses made: they aren't "striking" but they fully satisfy me.
 
In the idle time between the different sessions I started to collect and catalog all the materials of all the issues till now distributed by De Agostini. This was necessary to retrieve in a more efficient way the available materials in the next future. 
 
After a few days of this habit, now all the metal decorations, gun barrels, blocks, deadeyes, chains etc. are now well stored and easily retrievable.
 
I have now to decide a strategy of how to manage/treat the golden decorations. I cannot leave them as they are: too unrealistic. The instructions suggest to treat them with "judea bitumen" (is it the right term ?). I never used it but I don't like the effect achievable.
 
I have to think about this problem in search of a good idea, but in line of principle my way would be to treat them with a primer, then a coat of "Terra di Siena Bruciata" with a final "dry brushing" with gold and copper paint. I'm also considering to buy an airbrush, not only to treat these decorations but with in mind future uses and implementations.
 
See you next time, Jack.Aubrey.  
 
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And done. Out to the workshop to mix some stain.
 
 
/Matti

Sunday, June 3, 2012 - Gangways  
As I wrote earlier I installed the gangways above the guns; they were ready some time ago. I set them in place with a particularly sophisticated bonding so that we can safely say that they are proof of "catastrophic events".
 
The guns you see in these images are placed as if they were fixed, in the reality they are only positioned due to the well-known incident, I put them in place for photographic needs only.
 
I'm considering putting some columns below the gangways, I'll see what to do later, probably after having repaired again the barrels of the guns.
 
I connected the two "mini" wales of the forecastle and stern area so that now they seem as one single piece. . 
 
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Finally, I apologize for the mess in this picture, but I shot the photos in the lab and unfortunately there is a bit of mess on the working  table. . .
 
See you next time, Jack.Aubrey
 

Hi Kevin
I'm with Joe and Grant. I wish you a nice time...................and before I forget, your Vic is looking great

Hi Kevin
I'm with Joe and Grant. I wish you a nice time...................and before I forget, your Vic is looking great

Thanks Aldo.
 
Completing Great Cabin
 
To complete the work in the Great Cabin the Lockers received two lids and a couple of fill-in pieces :
 

 
Next I fitted four planks to the Lower and Upper Inner Counters :
 

 
A Sill finished off the top of the planking, and Cover Timbers were fitted between the Lights over the framing :
 

 

 
  Danny

Thanks every one, hopfully many more in the future. At the moment life has sort of got in the way but hoping for some time to work on her in the near future. Thanks Ed, as soon as I get back to the cannon's I keep those sizes in mind. Daniel the carpenter´s walk did go around the orlop deck but not so much like the one you show above. There was a lot of places that was not walled in and one had a good view, of the outside wall. On 74's of Montagu time there wasn't a wall all the way around the orlop deck. Here is some photo's that show how Montagu looked. In the first picture it shows the stanchion's that separated the cable tier from the carpenter's walk, followed by the fwd store rooms and finally the aft store rooms with the carpenter's walk on the outside. Have also included the plan of her orlop deck so you can compare the two. Sort of wish I had added more of the detail on this deck,like metal work and maybe even some cables, in the tier. Of course it would have been even longer to finish this deck then the couple of years that it took. Gary

Hi all,
 
so here comes some more progress on the ornaments from Sculpey.
 
Regards,
Jan

Nice work at this tricky part Ray. It's looking really good.

Wow Ferit,
 I admit that I had no time until now to look all the pics of your build.
That's the first pics where I see the deck of your Berlin. It's looking gorgeous, great work.

Hi Guys,
 
Thanks for looking in and the good words and encouragement given, it does really help.
 
A quick progress on the coppering, IT'S FINISHED, the port side took me about 25hrs to do with a few fopars along the way.  
 
The last couple of days have been almost a nightmare for me, I've had the droppsies which, when you think about it doesn't seem so bad, a bit frustrating perhaps, but I'm talking blades here, I have picked up a few cuts along the way, nothing serious, some I didn't know I had, a bit scary though when you see a craft knife falling and heading for the bulbous belly, this happened a few times, picked up a few puncture wounds with that.     
 
Tweezers with very sharp points sticking in the palms of my hands, my thoughts at that time were similar to " blast that really shouldn't be happening ".
 
The final straw was the Aggy falling from it's foam matt onto the floor, not too much damage though, just a little crushing of the stern post and a few popped plates, the stern post just needed to be trimmed and the plates stuck back on.  
 
I had to pull a few plates of the bow as they were not following the correct line, the old glue then had to be scrapped of and the plates replaced.
 
The rest was pretty well straight forward with no major problems.
 
I have learned one lesson though, when I next plate a ship I will be overlapping slightly, Caldercraft plates have rounded corners and as you can imagine these leave an unsightly gap.
 
OK I have a few pics.
 
The offending area that needed stripping and replating

 
Stern view.

 
Portside view

 
Now the fun begins, cutting in the waterline

 
More cutting in

 
The finish

 

 

 

 
So there we have it, all done.
 
Next step is to place the rest of the trim on and complete painting her.
 
mobbsie

The base of the main mast...

Matt missed you on the last post sorry about that.
 
Daniel, John, Russ, and Druxey, thanks for all you kind words, at the rate I'm going I sometimes wonder when it will get to the lake.
 
Today I managed to get enough time in to make a double block with a Becket. The sheaves are .375 diameter and the axle is .062, the brass is .125 x .031
I remembered a quote that one should treat every part as model in itself and this seems to work well for me.
 

 
Machined up a block of Degame (lemon-wood)
 

 

 

 
Did a lot of sanding and finishing with some fine steel wool. Made a pin for the Becket. the ring is .011 music wire.
 

 

 
Set it up on the mast with the other double block to see how it looks for the Gaff up-haul, I just used the weight from the ropewalk to give some body to the rope. I must finish those seizings on the shrouds.
 

 
The blocks work well together, this is a lot of fun, I need to get on and finish the gaff now, and of course there will be a few more blocks but the next few will be singles.
 
Michael

The rest of the lower deck planking has been installed.  I have removed the bit pins to prevent them from getting damaged.  According to TFFM, joggled planks were not commonly used in this time period.  David's suggested layout shows them, however, so I used them in four strakes at the bow.  I guess I just like the way they look.  The last three strakes aft and the last two strakes fore are dropped to prevent the end of the plank from being too narrow.
 

 

 

 

 

 
I have not decided what I am going to do for fastenings.  Deck nails were used to fasten the planks to the beams.  They were countersunk so wood plugs could be inserted above them.  I have tried unsuccessfully to show these plugs with a hypodermic needle.  To remain in scale, a 25 gauge needle is required.  I found that this bent after only a few uses.  Seven-eighths inch treenails and doualls were used at the ledges and butts respectively.  At this point I am leaning towards installing the treenails and doualls and skipping the plugs, as they would barely be seen anyway.

So last night´s tinkering ...
 
... the spectecal plates of the rudder ...
 

 
... the new poop skylight with bending help in the back ...
 

 
... roof curved by rolling with a wooden stick over a soft surface ... 
 

 
... and especially round roof and right number of windows ;-).
 

 
The fighting top with lantern holder...
 

 
... and the stun´sail boom fittings.
 

 

 
Cheers, Daniel

As the set of my etch parts is already with me and almost ready to be distributed, I am still trying out the last production samples just to make sure everything really fits and also refining my own skills and technics.
 
To prepare the locks I worked hard to cut off the small bit that fixes it to the frame. Also handling and positioning was quite difficult as the parts are tiny.
 
The first idea was to use this bit it as a connector pin :-) So a small hole drilled into position which makes positioning and glueing easier and the lock more stable afterwards. After breaking two 0,4 drills, I got the second idea: Why drilling? A needle does the job better and faster ...
 
... so a needle fixed in a tooth pick ...
 

 
... a small well positioned acupuncture and then using fine pliers instead of tweezers ...
 

 
... got it fast and safe on the spot. The fine pliers do not have the tendency to send things into the parallel universes as much as tweezers do :-)
 

 
Also tried out an alternative to the rings on the breech using etch rings instead of wire. Also a great way with the needle to prepare the fixing holes. Depending to the knowledge and skill of the modeler, the rings can be made a tad more even like this than using wire.
 

 

 
And also trying out other ways of working on difficult parts, here the back of a blade in a clamp for bending the bucket holders on the poop.
 

 
Daniel

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 169– Cheeks
Posted 12/2312
 
Lofting the patterns for the cheeks was almost as interesting as making them – perhaps more so. In addition to getting a close approximation of the shape, I also wanted to minimize the waste of the precious European Boxwood. The patterns were lofted as a projection on the surfaces of a block of wood oriented for good grain direction and from which two of these could be cut. The patterns pasted on to a block of wood are shown below.
 
 

 
The patterns are placed back to back on a block wide enough to allow the sectional views to be cut first – on a scroll saw. The upper part with the “plan” view was then taped back on to the convex side of the shape cut out. The plan shape was then cut out. There is a similar plan pattern on the opposite side. To be sure of a fit, I tried this out on a pine block first.
 
The next picture shows the upper and lower starboard cheeks pinned in place during fit up.
 
 

 
These two cheeks are so similar I was able to use one set of patterns for all four. The lower cheek in this picture has had its molding scraped on.
 
The next picture is a view from the front while these were being fit up.
 
 

 
The next picture shows the pattern for the hair bracket pasted on to check for a fit and mark the ends of the scarph joint.
 
 

 
The patterns for the hair brackets were simple since they are parallel to the centerline. I cut the lower cheek just a bit short - maybe two inches. I may replace this to allow the trail board to extend further beyond the end of the gammoning slot. This was a cutting - not a drafting – error.
 
The next picture shows the port hair bracket glued to a block for carving.
 
 

 
The scarph was cut and fit first, using the pattern as shown in the previous picture. The next picture shows the finished scroll on the starboard side.
 
 

 
This has been glued to the cheek but not to the beakhead. The scarph is just visible at the left. The moldings were cut with a bead scraper one edge at a time. This allows the beads to close gradually towrd the front as the siding of the member gets smaller.
 
The last two pictures picture show the assembly pinned in place.
 
 

 

 
At some point between the early 1780’s the hawse holes moved from between the cheeks to above the upper cheek. I had not noticed this before, but came across this difference when checking some model photos – Minerva and Leda in the Rogers collection for example. I find this very interesting and will do some research to see when this switch occurred and the relationship between the holes and the upper deck in the two variations..
 
This may be the last update of the year, so I will wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy 2013.
 
Ed

1:60 HMS Naiad 1797
Part 168– Channels
Posted 12/12/12

The next leap forward was the installation of the channels – but first a small carving chore – the scroll just forward of the gallery windows.



The next picture shows the mizzen channel with its supporting iron T-plates installed.




The T-plates were fabricated from two pieces of copper. A slot was milled on the bottom of the horizontal piece to fit the end of the lower arm. The slot was milled before ripping off the individual pieces on the circular saw. These were then silver soldered. As the next picture shows there are backing plates for these brackets on the tops of the channels. Also, the outer bolts are eyebolts. The slots for the deadeye bindings were cut before installing the T-plates.



The T-plates were attached with copper through bolts, peened to hold everything in place. The next picture shows the main channel. The tops of the eyebolts were clamped in a vise to allow the bottoms to be peened over.

The T-plates ate generally located so they can be bolted into the second frame from the gun port. I say generally because these also need to avoid the slots for the deadeye bindings that were located from the original sheer plan. They also need to avoid the long horizontal bolts through the channels.



Neither of these channels are permanently installed yet. Note the bracket for the main stunsail boom at the forward end of the main channel.

The next picture shows the aft channels and stools installed.



The ironwork was blackened first. The channels were then washed clean, dried then glued to the side, aligned and secured with bolts at the bottom ends of the T-plate arms. They are very secure.

The next picture shows the main channel.


The copper was blackened as usual with liver of sulfur after the parts were attached. To solder these parts I used a new product – a silver solder paste with copper in the composition. It fluxes around 1250 degrees like other silver solder, but unlike ordinary silver solder it can be blackened with LOS. There is not much solder showing on these parts but I did some tests before making these to be sure it would blacken.

The next picture is a closer view.



The bolts at the ends of the lower arms were installed like those on the iron knees on the deck beams. A under-sized hole drilled into the frame under the planking, a sharpened bit of copper wire forced in then clipped off just above the surface of the arm, then peened over by hammering – following by a touch of LOS on the bolt heads.

The last picture shows the fore channel from above.




Ed

Thank you Jeff .
 
Stern Lights Completing
 
I've completed all five Stern Lights - FINALLY   . The munions are VERY fragile - I lost count of how many I had to do more than once as quite a few either let go or broke in several places when I was doing "final adjustments".
 
I made a jig from three pieces of thin planking glued to a piece of flat pine for each Light. A piece of thin card established one angle first, and then I transferred each edge length using dividers.
 


 
The central Light being test-fitted. The small gaps between the Counter Timbers and the Light Frames will disappear when all the trims have been added :
 

 
The five completed Lights. Note the small brass (non-working) hinges that will attach the port and centre lights in the open position. These have been epoxied to the frames :
 


 
  Danny

Not much change since the last the last pictures I posted, but there has been a little progress.
The half deck is planked...the fore and poop decks are just loosely sitting in place, but not glued. The inner bulwarks (?) are planked with walnut.
 
I am thinking about measuring and cutting the gun ports before the second planking...the thought of waiting to do it after the second planking has me nervous. Any tips, pointers, advice before I venture into that realm?
 

 

 
 

It has been showed here an another example of craftsmanship...
Beautiful work as usual... Like the colors also...

Juergen,
 
On English ships, those curved pieces are called hances.  You've made a very nice job of them on your model.
 
John

The topgallant yards have been sent aloft and the rigging completed (with the exception of the braces)
 

 
 

 
Doesn't look like a whole lot but I'm very happy it's proceeding well in spite of summers' diversions. 
 
I'd never realized before just how many lines there really are.  And, for the first time, I actually realize what they DO!  And things are getting tight !!!!
 
The t'gallant braces are next followed by raising the royal yards.  All is on hold until I get my order of additional rigging line from ME.  My screw ups and do-overs have finally come home to roost and I find myself line-less .  That's ok......there are a few fish to be caught and I need to find the ladder prior to the next photo-op.
 
You all stay well
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you so much for looking and the kind comment B.E.
 
Here's a little update. The planking include the rails at the starbord side are finished so far as possible at the moment.
The ornaments at the end of the rails (I don't no the right term) were uncharted waters for me. I decided to do the rail and ornament at one piece.
I made a simply stencil because it needs several of that ornaments.

 
The shape of the rail is done with drawing plate and the ornament with cutter and curving tools

 
here you see it at the model

 
I desided to close the spaces between the bulkheads at the port-side based on some trubble during the planking
That's looking so

 
I believe the planking will be much easier at this