Mirabell61

Thinking about Treenailing.
To do or not to do, I am drawn by the effect achieved by both Mike Y and MikeB4 on their Pinnace builds regardless of the work involved but I note that Chuck did not add this feature on his own Pinnace build, a question of scale perhaps?
The smallest drill that would make the job even worth considering would be a 0.5mm ø. but this equates to a tad under ½"dia at full scale or a circumference of just shy of 1½" which seems somewhat over-scale.
Below this drill size, the effect would not be apparent, and above perhaps too much, but having said that regardless of scale the two Mikes result is very appealing to my eye.
Using a 0.5mm drill I have added the treenail holes but because my Boxwood strip was only 0.7mm thick before sanding, and slightly narrower than the kit stuff, I was concerned that using toothpicks may split the already very fine planks.
I have therefore used a fine filler toned mix to represent the treenails which border on subtle approaching invisibility. They are apparent to the naked eye from certain angles and light which is good enough for me.

9814
Difficult to photograph but this close-up shows  the effect before cleaning up the hull.
I expect the effect to be more pronounced once the hull is varnished.
B.E.

Thanks Jeff for the comment and to all for the likes.
 
 
Okay here we go with some more progress and a few other bits and pieces.  Due to limited modelling time I am squeezing in bits and pieces where I can but still keeping to the general flow of the plans and are all hull related.  The temptation to jump to more exciting parts such as gun turrets and the superstructures is strong though!
 
 
First up the photo etch ports holes for the hull side skins.  I counted all the larger portholes, which I will use 2mm GPM ones and came to a figure of 144.  There are also a number of smaller 1.6mm portholes which I haven’t cut out yet but will use GPM ones again.
 
The problem was how to hold them for cleaning up the 2 tangs left when freed from the PE fret.  I initially tried tweezers but regardless how tight I held them the shiny brass against shiny tweezers meant they just spun round.  I tried using the smooth part of the jaws of some pliers but they were big and awkward and risked crushing the tiny brass.
 
I needed something small and grippy and ended up using a clothes peg where I had sanded down the nose so the jaws at the front were flush and sanded the sides so the porthole was accessible from both sides with the file. 
 
The photo shows all 144, 2mm portholes cut out and cleaned up except for the last one which is in the holder.  It was so easy to use and the spring pressure alone was enough to grip the ring securely for filing so I didn’t suffer any finger fatigue gripping the peg.
 

 
 
Also clothes pegs have a tendency for the legs to move laterally when opening and closing so I glued on a couple of strips of spare decking planks I had to each side of one leg so the jaws remain aligned when opening and closing.
 

 
 
After cleaning up 144 portholes I had a look at the photo-etch detail set specifically for the Borodino and low and behold there were 144 large ports holes!  I actually think I like these better as the ring is wider and will show up more and look more in keeping with the Victorian era of these ships.
 
Unfortunately the PE of the detail set is so much thinner than the GPM stuff which means that they will not fill the thickness of the paper and have space behind them and the floppy disc windows and I guess more susceptible to damage during handling.  The biggest issue though is I have no way of neatly making the holes for them as they are ever so slightly wider than the GPM portholes.  The GPM rings fit nicely into holes left from the 2mm brass tube punch I use.  So although nicer (IMHO) I won’t use them and will stick with the GPM ones.
 
The photo shows the printed portholes with the detail set one on the left and the GPM one on the right.  The difference doesn’t seem so pronounced in the photo compared to in the hand.  Rows of them would have looked nicer though.
 
 

 
 
I am trying Swann Morton scalpel blades for the 1st time (kind of).  I have exclusively used Excel blades for my modelling but since my stock was dwindling I decided to order a box of 100 from an Australian on-line store I found with the cheapest price.  (I don’t do eBay) They didn’t have 100 Excel No.11 boxes in stock but noticed a box of 100 Swann Morton scalpel No.11 blades for the same price and for an extra tenner got the No. 3 handle as well.
 
I know there is a segment of the modelling community who swear by them saying they are sharper and last longer than the typical modelling blade.  They are certainly a bit thinner than the Excel blades and although I can’t determine their longevity yet I didn’t notice any significant difference in cutting out parts which at this point is minimal anyway so hard to judge.
 

 
 
A little anecdote; many many years ago when I was probably a pre-teen my old man did Napoleonic war gaming (so did I to a certain extent) and I remember he had several of the distinctive Swann Morton knife handles and different blades lying around.  I don’t remember seeing any other type of hobby or craft knife.  What I do remember though was the seemingly deadly, thumb nail puncturing, finger slashing act of changing their blades!!!  So was a bit apprehensive of fitting the 1st blade.  Turns out following the instructions and using a pair of needle nose pliers fitting and removing them is, well child’s play LOL
 
Thinking back I am surprised I survived to reach adulthood unscathed what with the molten lead for casting armies of 25mm soldiers, changing scalpel blades with fingers and other modelling hazards lying about in his war gaming den!
 
 
I went to glue down the top foredeck so I could get going with the anchor shelves when I noticed there are a few hatches to cut.  It appears to be universal in card modelling that any openings to be removed are marked with either a scissors symbol or W (for waste I guess).
 
The usual method is to just cut them out with knife.  You would start by placing the knife point in to the corner and working out from there.  I don’t like doing this for a couple of reasons.  Firstly I am not ambidextrous so I am only comfortable doing half the cuts.  The other half I find awkward trying to get orientated.  Secondly I don’t like this for small openings to be cut out as I find it inaccurate.  It’s okay if only doing large holes (for me).
 
My method for cutting out small holes is to use my Dremel to grind old worn blades into a chisel the width of the side to be cut.  This way the corners are all the same and hopefully a lot cleaner than doing it the usual method.  The blades are held in knife handles as usual and pressed vertically down to make the cut
 
The time taken to grind the blades to width is well worth it for clean holes and especially where you have multiple holes the same size, the time saving can be immense.  (I started doing this when I had 5 holes to cut in 160+ tank track links).
 
Important note: I have found when doing a row of holes such as ship bridge windows or for the example in the photo below where there is only a thin bar separating each window the order of cuts is important.  Do all the cuts with the thin piece between them first then do the top and bottom cuts to release the waste.  The reason for this is that the waste is still in place which supports the thin piece to be left during cutting.
 
If you cut out in the other order, once the waste is removed the thin section is no longer supported and can be bent out of shape when the ‘chisel’ blade makes the cut of the next window.  Hope that makes sense. In the photo I did all the long cuts first followed by the short ones to release the waste.
 

 
 
With the holes in the deck done it was glued down and ready for working on the anchor shelves.  Shown in the photo is all the parts to make up the anchor shelves with the exception of the side hull skins as these fold over to fill in between the vertical blades.  I refer you to parts 4dR and 4dL; these were beasts to cut out and fold to form the boxes/supports for where I believe the anchor cranes are located.
 

 
 
The vertical blades in the photo are marked with the laser cut form number against which they are fitted to.  The shelf is constructed by fixing these vertical blades against the forms.  As can be seen they stick up past the forms, the darker print being what will be exposed once the side hull skins fold over between them to sit on the tops of the forms.
 

 
 
I have progressed as far as I want to with the starboard anchor shelf and I will do the port one next to the same state.  I am going to hold off further progress here until the side skin is attached so I can work out what sides the vertical blades fit to as there appears to be discrepancies with some numbering and positions in the assembly diagram.
 
The crane support area (4dR) can be seen all bent up and fitted against 4eR.  This was a real tough bit to do and isn’t perfect as had some misalignment issues.  Incidentally the part 4dR isn’t shown or numbered in the diagram and was a real head scratch it work out all the folds.  
 

 

 
 
Overall I had some alignment issues (my fault) some of which have been tweaked out and others will wait to see how they affect the side skins.  Still, pretty happy with how they are going.
 
Cheers
Slog

Hi All,
 
Thanks for all the comments and likes.
 
You may be on to something there Chris!  I would imagine with your experience though lower hulls wouldn’t present too much of a problem.
 
Thanks for dropping by Slowhand.  There are plenty of warts to see coming up! LOL
 
Thanks for the comment Brian.  I am trying to avoid painting to gain experience trying to be as precise as possible.
 
 
Okay on with the progress.  My lack of painting experience really showed by doing the boot top first as per the previous post.  I am sure the more experienced painters spotted the trouble with doing that.  I had no idea how difficult it would be to cover black with red!  I used Tamiya’s Flat Red acrylic XF-7 mixed at a 2:1 ratio and after spraying coat after coat of paint the black overspray was still showing through.  Also patches of the grey filler putty I used were still evident.
 
A plus point was that the boot top was very sharp and parallel and the red cover was very consistent, which is tricky using a small/medium size airbrush as the spray pattern isn’t that big for a largish hull…but I couldn’t live with it.
 
A trip to the local hobby stored procured a can of Tamiya TS-27 Matt White spray paint and after masking off the upper sections of the hull, blasted on some decent coats of white.  Got to say I find Tamiya’s aerosols very good, giving great coverage and pretty forgiving also.  The white soon covered up the previous red and black airbrushing with a nice smooth even coat.
 
It was back to airbrushing the complete lower hull again with the Red XF-7 and then masking off the 2.5mm boot top although this time I made it 3mm to make sure it covered the previous painting. Then the boot top was airbrushed in with Black XF-1.  After peeling back the masking it turned out pretty good again.  The red though isn’t as even and consistent as the first attempt but it is satisfactory to me.  The lumps and bumps and filled areas are still evident in some sections but again thinking ahead and looking at the ship as a whole it shouldn’t look too out of place.
 
I came to like the bright red paper printing of the hull and the Flat Red isn’t too far off it as can be seen with the unpainted rudder.  I will paint and fit that permanently closer to the end of the build as it is too vulnerable at this stage.  Similarly the props are only temporarily placed for the photos and will leave off to the end also. 
 
 
Here at last is the finished lower hull!  I will give the whole thing a coat of Humbrol Matt Cote for protection and to flatten a couple of shiny areas where I accidentally splashed some thinners on it.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
With that saga out of the way I am looking forward to getting back to some real paper modelling again.  Next up will be to line the anchor shelf so I can permanently fit the upper hull section, which will allow the decking, upper hull structures and side hull skins to be fitted.
 
Cheers
Slog

Hi All,
 
A bit more progress, some wins, some losses and some draws.  My modelling time lately has been very limited only managing to sneak in an hour here and there and most of that has been spent on the hull; which is taking its toll on both my enthusiasm and enjoyment.  I’ll cover that below.
 
The first photo covers the last of the lower hull attachments; these being the bilge keels and the rudder mount (part K2).
 

 
 
The keels are in 2 halves with one side being full size with a dotted fold line along the top third of the keel.  The corresponding part has a thin section and a lower section. The thin section is glued to the area above the dotted line and the larger section is joined only on the top edge.  This forms a ‘Y’ shape with the top of the Y being glued to the hull.
 
The first of the losses, my lack of experience totally messed up the first one I did.  I didn’t do the second one although having one under my belt I reckon the second one would be more acceptable but decisions need to be made. 
 
1. Carry on and have crap bilge keels on a so so hull
2 Make a new pair either with paper or Evergreen styrene
3 Forget them and continue on.
 
I choose the 3rd option as need to get off the lower hull and back to paper modelling before I throw a wobbly.  I may go back down the track and fabricate new ones but will see.  I have accepted not having them on at this point.
 
The small K2 rudder mount was formed with no problems.  Being a combination of a tube and a cone I won’t go into detail as these were covered earlier.  Posted the photo for no other reason than I had a win when it slipped over the rudder top perfectly.
 

 
 
 
Okay here is the hull which has eaten into my limited modelling time for weeks now.  First off the part alignment, size, fit etc of the skins were spot on and any issues were with me, so hats off to the publisher.  Also surprising was the stern skins which I thought would be the hardest part with all the curves, slits and cuts turned out the easiest parts to fit.
 
Secondly it was almost a given that I would end up filling and painting the lower hull and I accepted that and was happy enough to do.  I am 2 for 2 for lower hull filling and painting LOL  I have something else I will try for the 3 hull attempt before I turn to plastic models LOL
 

 
 
Okay the skins were fitted, badly, and then given a brushed on coat of Humbrols Matt Cote to seal the surface and toughen it up a bit.  What to use to fill in the hollows, dents and depressions?  Plastic model filler should work…another loss.  The model shop had run out of Tamiya putty but had the Humbrol equivalent.
 
I don’t know if I got a bad tube or not but it would squeeze out nice grey smooth filler followed by spurts of black oily liquid so couldn’t get a good flow going.  The stuff also went off so quick I didn’t have time to smooth and work it out and worse still it turned as hard as concrete.  Fine I guess for hard plastic not so good for flexible paper <sigh>
 
Okay not using plasterers seam putty again as per the Bismarck as it has far too much moisture in it so tried Polycell skim filler.  This worked okay but still has a fair bit of moisture so some buckling did occur but dried back again okay.  Spread it on in multiple thin layers, building up the surface before sanding.  Of course it sands really well.  After sanding and blowing and brushing off the dust I continued to skim on more filler before sanding again.
 
After doing this like 3 times and each time thinking it was spot on I would come back to it at a different time of day and a different light and see a whole new range of marks etc really put the dampeners on my mood.
 
I had to take stock and assess what I am really trying to achieve here.  Am I after a smooth flawless hull like a plastic model from a paper and plaster material or am I trying to get my initial muck-up into a presentable state to continue?  I jumped on line and checked out some completed paper models I really admire and whose hulls have been applied flawlessly without resorting to remedial work and guess what, although perfect they still had a particular look to them associated with paper models. 
 
That was the decider for me, I want to paper model not body work! So another coat of Humbrol Matt Cote was brushed on followed by fitting the prop shaft fairings and the supports from the previous post.  Because of my body work I had to trim the supports slightly but no issues.    After all my hard work with the prop tubes they are totally hidden once the props go on LOL. Typical, my best work is fully hidden and my worst is on full view to the world!
 
 
 
The lower hull end is insight.  I masked up the edges of the upper hull where upper hull skins fit but didn’t bother fully covering the upper area as nothing to be affected by over spray.  I know I should paint the lighter red hull before doing the black boot top but I have a plan to make masking the boot top easier so did that first.
 
Got the airbrush out for the first time in I don’t know how many years and mixed up Tamiya Flat Black acrylic at a 2:1 paint to thinners ratio and sprayed at around the 15 psi mark.  It sprayed beautifully with this set up.
 

 
 
I am hoping I can get the red done tomorrow but will see.
 
 
 
I know this post sounds like a long winded whinge and whine and that I am down but I just need to cut, fold, glue, bend, whatever, some paper not endless body work.  Again even that wouldn’t be so bad if I had stacks of free time but I am so close to getting back at it I can taste it Lol
 
Cheers
Slog

Hi Ken, hope it helps.  I look forward to following your progress when you start again.
 
Hi Grant, thanks for the comment.  Sometimes I do prattle on but if it helps new comers like myself then all good.  I must say when I started I had to go through lots of web sites and forums trying to find info as most build logs just cover progress and not how they did it.  Anyone starting up or thinking about starting up card modelling can’t go wrong by checking out Chris’s (ccoyle) excellent 8 part tutorial found on this site as per the link below;
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/2701-intro-and-table-of-contents/
 
 
Okay here are the propeller hubs.  These were my first attempt at this type of petal and were certainly the trickiest.
 
With the hubs cut out I used the rolling with a smooth rod, a drill shank in this case, to progressively curve the ends round to meet each other.  This was pretty straight forward.
 

 
 
The difficult part was forming the petals inwards to glue to each other.  If the petals were only on one end I would find a rod with the same internal diameter and round it off so the petals could be formed against this.  Unfortunately the petals are on both ends to form an inflatable beach ball type of shape so this wasn’t possible.
 
Necessity being the mother of invention I found glass bead pins held in a pin vice could be used to form the petals against. Not ideal but workable with time and care.
 

 
 
The hubs all glued up.  Not overly pleased with how they turned out as they are supposed to spherical
 

 
 
Time to attach the blades done previously.  I bent the blades against the handle of the craft knife to get a bit of a shape into them.  They were simple enough to glue on but because the hubs weren’t fully rounded some blades have a gap in the centre of the root.
 
There are coloured lines on the hubs to show where the blades glue to but I also used the square lines printed on the cutting mat to align the blades at right angles to the hub.  Looking down through the hub I used the cutting mat lines like crosshairs to centre the hub and then used the lines extending from the cross hair to align the tips of the blades.
 

 
 
After the blades it was just the end caps to attach and these were barely wide enough to sit on the end of the hub opening.  Of course the holes in the ends of the hubs weren’t perfectly round so after applying glue around the hole perimeter and dropping the end cap on top It took a bit of tweeking, pushing in here and there to match the cap as best as possible.
 

 
 
At least the paper prop shafts fitted!. For the photo the tube is slid along a piece of wire to hold it up and couldn’t resist blowing on the end…and it actually spun LOL…but would that be full astern?!
 

 
 
The full macro shots look pretty awful to be honest and I resisted showing them, but saying that for a first attempt and at normal, to fairly close viewing distance I think they are acceptable.  Again their final home does prevent close scrutiny.  I really need to skin the lower hull LOL
 
Cheers
Slog

excellent work Kees ,
and beautiful photos at the beach
 
Nils

Wow !!
Kees, wunderbare Arbeit, it looks like the real thing after an overhaul in the dock...
 
Nils

I finished working on the pre rigging of my foremast yards.
 
The royal yard
 
 

 
The top gallant yard

The topsail yard

The main yard

All four foremast yards

I wasn't happy with the way my first attempt at rigging the foremast yard. I knew it would bother me too much, so I decided to redo it.
 
Here are my results. I am very happy the way the foot ropes turned out. Overall, things just look better.
 
 
 
 

It's been a little slow going, but I've planked the next section of the hull (the area between the plankshear and the wale) with ebony.  So far, so good, no issues really.  I decided to complete the second planking at this stage, because the wale on this ship isn't a separately defined row of planks - instead it's just thicker planks from the top of the wale down.  
 

 
For the next section, I'll be using a thicker first planking, which I'll sand back to the thickness of the planking above, and then add the ebony second planking so that there is a clear definition.  I won't be planking the rest of the hull in ebony because I'll be coppering the hull.  So, at some point below the copper line, I'll probably just feather the ebony planks into the first planking rather than add a second planking to the entire hull.  We'll see how it looks, as I can always throw on a second planking, not caring what it looks like since it will be covered anyway.
 
Speaking of the copper line, the plans how two levels for the copper line.  A higher line which seems to be the historical line, and a lower line from the 1983 restoration (which appears to still be the copper line for the ship currently):
 

 
Most models of the Morgan that I've seen go with the lower line.  A benefit of the higher line is that the hull would need a lot less ebony for the planking - I think midships there are only three or four strakes above the copper line.  On the other hand, I wonder if the higher copper line would overwhelm the ship.  I think I have enough ebony sheets for the higher line, but not the lower line, so I might just go with the higher line. 
 
I'm curious what others think.  The first picture is of a model with the lower line.  The next few are with the higher line.  I really like the oxidized green copper look of the second model below - I'm wondering if i can achieve that with the copper tape that came with the kit.
 

 

 
 

Very nice Amalio,
 
I like the way you display the different stages of work on your hull, including sight to the beautiful lower levels of framework and non planked areas...
 
Nils

I'm sorry, Jay.
I really missed this post.
 
Oops. In this question it is impossible to give one answer. There is no concept of a standard size for a figurine. At me all figures turn out in different sizes. And this is natural. For one model, you need a small bust, and for another, a full-length figure or even several figures together: a rider on a horse or a multi-figure composition. Each master and customer does on different scales. The biggest figure that I have encountered in my work so far is the British lion. It was about 15 centimeters in length. And the smallest detail was about 1 centimeter. I even had such that almost simultaneously I was ordered the same order by two people. Both collected the same set, the same firm. But when each of them sent their sizes and wishes, I was surprised to find that the figures in size would be different.
One of the orders I showed, I will soon show another one and it will become clear what I have just written about.

 
Here is the only advice: if you choose from several options for the size of wooden bars, it is more profitable to have a larger one. After all, from a large bar you can make a large figure and or few small ones, and from a small workpiece a large figure will not work. You can, of course, make it a component of several parts, but in each case you need to look separately.
Here is a photo that shows how different figures look next to each other.
 

 
I took this picture for the customer. He sent his block of wood so that the figure would ideally match in color. I photographed the report how much material I had to spend and how much I left for other details. From the fragment of the bar, which is already missing, Minerva was made.
 
 

I hoped that photos of this work will appear much earlier. But I
to publish it turned out just now.
I already mentioned in one of the past posts that one and the same character for the same models are different. I consciously try not to make duplicate copies, especially when there are no exact data and drawings for work have only an approximate image. In this work, all this is clearly visible, I tried to go a little different way and created another image, so that it was not the same as the first time. But I was surprised that when the customer sent me the sizes they were also different. It was impossible to take measurements from the previous order and on their basis to do this work.

I show the next work. Sculpture for the French ship "Le Commerce de Marseille"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Piet,
 
thanks for your words, I would like to see you start the "Musi".....
Should you be able to make it over to Hamburg during your your next Holland visit, I shall be very pleased and looking forward to seeing you and your wife here in Glinde, you`re very wellcome
 
Best regards,
Nils

Thank you for sharing this news. I had been missing his updates on this model, and his presence in general, and now I know why.

Hi Piet,
 
thanks for your words, I would like to see you start the "Musi".....
Should you be able to make it over to Hamburg during your your next Holland visit, I shall be very pleased and looking forward to seeing you and your wife here in Glinde, you`re very wellcome
 
Best regards,
Nils

Thank you guys!
There is a reason why only a few of those are sailing now days.  Despite the fine lines and specious cockpit
sailing those things was far from leisurely. Compared to cars they would be something of a bolide racers - fast
but demanding and not easy to handle. They required an experienced crew which actually cost money back than.
Movable ballast consisting of sand bags had to be moved on each tack. Capsizing did happen, apparently often enough.
By the 1880's a cutter type boats where proving themselves as fast but much user friendlier craft. Sandbagger type racing
slowly transfered itself in dinghy racing that is still very well alive.

Wow, that looks like so much fun! I love the rig, and imagine they go like a rocket on a broad reach in a blow. I especially like the "Comizo Lisbona" going wing-on-wing on the previous page. Beautiful boats. Simply beautiful.
 
Ciao. John

Congratulations Nils with the completion of this most magnificent ship.
I thoroughly enjoyed following along and picking up ideas for my planned build of the M.S. Musi, the ship my father in law was the captain on. Just hope I will still be alive when I can start on it.
Next time I'm in Holland I will try to drive out and visit you.
 
Cheers and stay in good health,

Many thanks for sharing this Moxis,
good looking block stropping job...
 
Nils

Hi Patrick,
 
love those little power runabouts in the boats hangar...
 
Nils

Jack,
 
a lovely boat-typ and wonderful pictures, must be real fun sailing the blue waters of the Adriatic sea...
 
Nils

WUNDERBAR !  Mitbok,
 
awesome build
 
Nils
 

Interesting Log Götz,
and a nice built hull of the "Lisa von Lübeck"
 
Nils