Mirabell61

Thank you Veszett,

sure, I`ll keep it, for the sake of taking molds for spare boats if needed

Nils

Thank you very much Rick,

Update

for the stb. side mold I built a better boxing (Balsa) for that half mold. I knew I had a mini platine with very small etch parts which also comprised 5 wee prop 3-blade etchings of only 5mm diam. Finaly, luckily I found it. because these mini etched props were taken from the market for reasons I do`nt know. the wooden plag could easily be removed from the mold thanks to the use of seperating wax -spray applied to the wooden model before.  After removal the wooden plug was bearing no silicone residue. The blades were bent into shape. and the rudder blade was soldered to its shaft. To see what it looks like, all was mounted to the wooden model, as a sample, the heel was cut and drilled fom a small part of brass bar. I find it does`nt look bad, and even the rope contoures come out well.  The polyurethan resin with appropriate hardener is ordered, and I`m eager to see the come-out , in some coming days after the wooden inside contours-plug is finished.

Nils

making the stb. side mold in an improved Balsa- boxing

prop and rudder mounted

the prop etching is only 5mm diameter and soldered to its 0,8mm shaft

wunderbar Eberhard,

I like that crew of marine soldiers

Nils

thank you very much Keith and John,

Keith.

I made a template of the deck only, the other dimensions are taken from free hand. The silicone mold for the port side turned out quite well. I`ll be going for the stb. side now. There is one little objection near to the bilge keel, where an air bubble got trapped, but that can be easily removed from the later resin casting

John,

I practiced the rope-line fender on my 5 Elbe Pilot schooner`s boats and it worked very well. All details of the rope were cleanly with the cast resin afterwards.

My main concern was that the silicone`s lifetime may have also possibly have  expired, because I had bought this longer ago together with the (now unusable) resin and hardener.

Nils

rope contours are clearly visable in the mold

Update

I started with the wooden model yesterday out of a light carvable wood, to take the silicone-mold from. The boats are after the pic of the  make actual Fassmer lifeboats. In fact they are little launches with built in Motor.

I put a fender line all around. there will be two cockpits later on cut out of the cast resin outformings. I stll have some silicone with catalyst left over from recent models, for the  port- and stb. half-molds, hoping it would still work, but the resin and its hardener have unfortunately expired lifetime, so I need some new.... Also the wooden plug for the hull inside contoures must still be made.

Prop and rudder / rudder-heel will be mounted to the resin models later on.

Nils

drawing of the actual Elbe 1  boats

the wooden lug ontop is for holding in the vice during shaping

in scle 1:87 the boats will be appr. 84 mm long

bilge keels fitted

fender-line all around

thanks for your words Michel,

Nils

Thank you Roel,

your comment is well understood. I think that a sample boat is required now, will have to make that first, a wooden model would do, I could take the silicone mold from that

Nils

made a raw prototyp of the gravity davit with slide function. I may have to make the arms a bit thinner

Nils

just to see if it works .....

lower position

upper position

the slide profile is made from two U-bars

Hi John,

gravity, yes I thout so....

made the 4 arms of the davits, and the rail round the bridge

Nils

the 2mm tick 4 layer beech ply

the arms for the davits, it looks like the 2mm ply is strong enough

greatly magnified the first prototyp boats hook, with integrated 3mm roll

the bridge rail

stairway to the bridge

Hi Vladimir,

wunderbar !

Nils

Thank you Keith,

I had already ordered small brass wheels for guiding the lines and brass U-profiles for the slide bar-supports. I think I`ll do the slide structures from 2mm thick 4-layer laminated ply, or from 2mm thick aluminium plate if the ply turns out to be too flimsy

Nils

Right Keith,

I also have my doubts about the boats weight and the friction in the system. It was my early thoughts to include some lead weight or so into the lowered boat boat as well, but,  the intentsion to show one of the boats lowered for entering over the side, would overrule the doubts, even if it should not work as mechanicly foreseen. (only staticly bringing into position)

It is ambitious for me to model that mechanism for this small scale, and what materials would be suitable for doing so. Hope I´ll get it done somehow

Nils

pic out of Helmut Thomas`s  (model) magazine, allthough he did`nt include this shown feature himself

Hi Valeriy,

wonderful work. Are those the boat-winches?

Nils

John,

thank you very much. I am evaluating to make the davit-mechanism workable and trying to find right suitable function in scale 1:87.

Here a preliminary (not scaled ) scetch, of which I think it may work. The boats would have to be handmade with help of wooden model, silicone mold, inner plug,  and resin outforming. I intend to show one boat lowerd to the main deck and the other resting secured in fastening position. What do you think about it?

Nils

Update

the walls of the bridge deck pending some rails etc. and the 6 stairways are under process. The nav.light screens are now matt black and the port nav.light is dry fitted, to check the dimensions

Nils

port nav. light

forward stair to the boatsdeck

aft stair to the boats deck

Hello Eric,

I have`nt seen a Building plan on the market of neighther Alexander von Humbolt 1 nor of version 2

If I were to build the version 1, I would buy the revell plastic model (version 1 ) in scale 1:150 and use this for adopting all relevant details and ratings in to the scale I`m going for.  The revell plans usually provied all neccessary belaying- and rigging plans.  and Also a second hand book of the Alex would be of advantage for detailed pictures.

for the frames I would use those of the Gorch Fock (simular hull shape) except for the super structures

Nils

lovely work Keith,

very nice planking progress

Nils

excellent build Vaddoc

Nils

Thank you very much Peter,

and for your kind words

I`m pleased that the Gorch Fock has inspired you to do the model

Nils

Uwe,

many thanks for your input and your words

Relating to the lightscreens I asume that during its duty the ship was updated acc. to Colregs, and after Roels comment I looked up the color of the sheets (photos) on the real thing, it looks like they are realy matt black, and the ship was on duty and on position until 1988.

for me it was always clear that the lightscreens would be red /green because I thought the color would increase the illumination of the nav. lights, also I never heard of the Colregs regulations before. Now my decision is to go for matt black.

Nils

very nice progress Jond,

I like your project

Nils

Roel,

Many thanks for the explaination of the appropriate Colregs chapter.

I`m looking for my little can of Humbrol matt black already

Nils

Thank you very much Roel,

I never heard of "Colreg regulations) before, . Good to learn something further and especialy with resp. to Nav .lights housng dull black backround. Good to learn something new for my modeling. You`re right, at this stage I can easily correct that.

I looked up Colreg regulations in Google and found a listing of these regulations, but unfortunately not the passage where it stipulates the matt black neccesity to nav. lights containment background.

Please could you kindly copy me that passage, if you found it there. Many thanks. I believe this is also of interest for fellow modelers as well.

Nils

Hi Mustafa,

excellent build, she is a beauty scratch model in progress !

Will you fit out rigging and perhaps even sails later on ?

Nils

Update

this sequence is dedicated to the build of the wheelhouse, nav- and controlroom. Also the planked deck for the "monkey platform" is ready for mounting. The nav. light containments will be integrated in to the wheelhouse railing panels

Nils

brass windowframes ( square-tube) are fitted in, tight fit

the wheelhouse walls are from 0,8mm ply mounted to the framework

section is painted and the monkey plattform deck has dryfit

The "glassing" of 18 windows

silicone glassing bits pressed in, tight fit into the window frames

the "monkey plattform" deck will be permanently glued on, when the wheelhouse section is screwed down to the boats deck