Mirabell61

Just catching up after my recent pre-occupations Nils, and what a treat for my eyes, those last full shots are so impressive.
B.E.

UPDATE:
 
detailing the funnels, not completed yet....
 
Nils
 

 
 

thanks for your compliment Patrick,
much appreciated...
 
here is a little impression of the "raw" structures and vents under and around funnels 3 + 4
 
Nils
 

 
the vent shafts will be cut to length afterwards
 
 

 

Hi Cathead,
nice technique for making sails, its really an alternative approach to sailcloth and looks great...
 
Nils

Update
Build log part 54
 
railing has been added to the mid ship platform, and funnel 3 + 4 understructures have the lights fitted. Also all vents and gratings fitted.
The upper platform is supported from the lower deck at both outer sides. These supports fit between two davits in order to enable their swing function...
 
Nils
 

foreground (bottom, left) are the boats winches
 

The command bridge area now requires some attention
 

I`m pleased with the progress, its not so very far more to go...
 

the model is comprising 86 vents in different sizes
 

must be thousands of "rivets" holding the plates together...
 

one of the deck-crew taking a rest on the aft anchorchain gear
 

deck curvature can be noticed here...
 

Nils, this will be a semi-scratch build. I will probably post it as a kit build since much of the framing is laser cut. The scale is 1:48.
 
Rich, most of the models have been given to family and friends. I have donated a few to charitable auctions. I do still have 9 in the house.
 
Bob

Hi Bob,
will the schooner "Halifax" be a scratch build to a plan (because of the lumberyard timbering set) ?, and what scale will it be ?
Nils

Hi Cathead,
nice technique for making sails, its really an alternative approach to sailcloth and looks great...
 
Nils

Continuation.
 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
The beginning of the relation is available at this address:
http://5500.forumact...ndre-1-24#66516
 
Regards, Pawel
 

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

Hi Cathead,
nice technique for making sails, its really an alternative approach to sailcloth and looks great...
 
Nils

Hi Dan,
now thats a challenge in 1:350 !!
I remember when the "Michelangelo" together with her sister "Raffaello" set the Italian elegance bar for design of fast Atlantic liners, and what a sight in those days !
Congrats to your choise, a very ambitious project you are preparing for, but I know you can do it, and I wish you all the best with this lovely build...
 
Nils

Hi Dan,
now thats a challenge in 1:350 !!
I remember when the "Michelangelo" together with her sister "Raffaello" set the Italian elegance bar for design of fast Atlantic liners, and what a sight in those days !
Congrats to your choise, a very ambitious project you are preparing for, but I know you can do it, and I wish you all the best with this lovely build...
 
Nils

Hi Dan,
now thats a challenge in 1:350 !!
I remember when the "Michelangelo" together with her sister "Raffaello" set the Italian elegance bar for design of fast Atlantic liners, and what a sight in those days !
Congrats to your choise, a very ambitious project you are preparing for, but I know you can do it, and I wish you all the best with this lovely build...
 
Nils

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

Hello to all who followed this build.  I am working on my next ocean liner, SS Michelangelo at the smaller scale of 1/350, which should be a bit of a challenge since I want to incorporate close to the same level of detail as in this build.  Hopefully it will work out.
 
You can find it here  -  
 

Hi Cathead,
nice technique for making sails, its really an alternative approach to sailcloth and looks great...
 
Nils

Part III: Adding reef points
 
Reef points add a lot of visual interest to sails, and they're easy to add in the paper-sail method.
 

The reef bands were glued on in Part I. Where to place the reef points is something of an uncertain topic; I found references for a variety of options, including one point on each seam, one point within each panel, and two points within each panel. I chose to use the first approach. Because the paper layers were extra thick here, due to the seam and reef bands, I used a small drill bit to open up a hole rather than trying to drive a needle through.
 
For the reef points, I cut a series of rigging rope a bit longer than I needed. I wanted my reef points 2 scale feet long, so I cut the rope 5' long to allow for trimming, then used a deadeye/block threader to run each line through the sail. The threader creates a strong crimp in the line, so I tried to center each line in the threader before pulling it back through; the crimp then becomes a natural reference point holding the line in place where it passes through the sail.
 

When all the lines for a given band were threaded, I clamped a piece of wood across the sail 2 scale feet below the reef band as a reference marker. You can get the length right here in two ways: either trim each line to the right length relative to the crimp, or don't worry about the crimp and pull each one back through the sail until only 2' are left on the side you're working on. I then used a fine brush to gently apply a bit of glue to a line, then pressed it into place on the sail with its tip against the wood. You only have to hold the line in place for maybe 10-15 seconds for the glue to take hold, before moving on to the next one. I like to get glue from the tip to about 2/3 to the sail, not all the way to the sail. This means the line naturally bows out a bit where it comes out of the sail, giving it some 3D texture. Don't overdo the glue or you'll get weird stains on the paper. Also, don't worry about trying to get each line perfectly straight; they're going to want to curve this way and that, and buckle a bit, and that's exactly what you want because that really makes them look like loose lines dangling down. You want just enough glue to hold them relatively flat so they look like gravity is working. If you glue them too flat or perfect, they'll look glued on and artificial.
 

Once one side is done, it looks something like the image above. Then you just turn the sail over, clamp the wood at 2' again, trim the remaining lines to length, and glue them in the same way.
 

If there is more than one reef band, do the upper one first, since you're overall working on the lower side. Above, you see the same process being repeated for a lower line of reef points.
 

And here are the two completed lines of reef points. They have a nice randomness that looks like loosely dangling lines. Note that, once again, I slightly messed up this demonstration by not cutting the upper line of reef points quite evenly (they're too short on the left). It figures that my demonstration sail would be the sloppiest of any I've made so far, but I hope the idea comes across. And, as above, this sort of things fades away when the sail is placed in the full context of a rigged model.
 
I'm quite happy with this method. I've now made all six of the sails for my topsail schooner this way and feel that they have a strong visual interest and a realistic (if not perfectly accurate) appearance. Moreover, the method uses cheap material that's easy to work with, and requires no special skills other than some patience and care when handling glued paper. It's easy to test on random scraps first before trying a full sail, and it's easy to customize. For example, you could skip the panels and just use a full sheet of paper, or skip the boltropes, and still use the rest of the approach to have a nice sail that holds it shape and can even be shaped to hold a curve. I hope others find some or all of this interesting and useful as a different way to produce interesting sails for nautical models. Thanks for reading.

Hi Cathead,
nice technique for making sails, its really an alternative approach to sailcloth and looks great...
 
Nils

Part II: Adding boltropes
 
My understanding is that boltropes are hard to get right in scale. The ropes themselves are pretty small at most common model scales, and the stitches that hold them on would be essentially invisible, certainly at this project's 1:64 scale. However, leaving them off removes clear visual interest and makes it difficult to attach lines to the sails properly. One approach in the paper-sail method would be to bury a fine line within the folded-over edging; this is the method I used on my longboat. Glue one side of the edging down, then spread glue on the rest, stretch a thin line along the seam, and fold the edging over. You now have a boltrope that's hidden from sight, but strengthens the sail and can be carefully looped at each corner to provide the proper attachment point (and it's easy to form cringles anywhere just by tugging it out slightly from the stitching). However, for my current project, I wanted to include the visual interest of stitched boltropes even if they were out of scale. I know my model isn't perfectly accurate, and I'd rather it be a visually interesting representation of a real ship. So here's how I added them.

First, I punched holes for the stitching all the way around the sail, having measured and marked straight lines of evenly-spaced points. Then I laid out my boltrope and stitched it into place with a running stitch (I used basic white sewing thread). This can be done two ways: either with a needle (as shown above) or with a deadeye/block threader like this one from Model Expo (which I love) [edit as of 2022: these are no longer sold by Model Expo but here's an example of an equivalent product from Joann Fabrics]. The former is a lot faster, but the needle's eye tends to make wider holes. The threader takes long, but leaves smaller holes that aren't as visible. The sail in this demonstration used a needle throughout, as I wanted to try it. Another benefit of pastel coloring occurs here: a bit of pastel rubs off on all the lines, inherently coloring them to match the sail.
 

I stitched the boltrope on loosely all the way around, making extra stitches at each corner to create a proper loop. There will be two loose ends of the boltrope meeting at the first/final corner; we'll deal with that soon. Just leave a few inches extra when you start. Once the loose stitching is done, I used a fine tweezer to work along the stitch, pulling out all the slack. The boltrope sits naturally on one side of the sail; technically this is accurate, but rather out of scale. The true-scale boltrope would look like it was right along the sail's edge even if slightly to one side. However, once you get all the stitching really tight, you can actually use your fingers to massage the boltrope up almost to the edge of the sail, where it looks about as right as you can get. Once each corner's loop and stitching is tight and as I want it, I applied a small drop of CA glue to the stitching binding the loop in place, ensuring that it's not going anywhere.

Now for the final corner. When the boltrope is stretched tight in all directions, cut it short at both ends and weave each end back into the stitching, overlapping itself a little. Then you can nip it off carefully near the corner, allowing for one final loop, and pull the stitching tight to hold it in place. Another small application of CA glue holds this in place.
 

This is actually a very sloppy final corner; the worse one I've done so far. I cut the upward-running rope too short, so that my joint falls down the side of the sail. I meant it to fit right in under the loop, where the extra stitching hides it. Still, it's barely noticeable from more than a few inches away.
 
This approach gives you out-of-scale, but functional and very interesting, boltropes. Personally I think they look really nice in the context of the model overall (see any of the overview photos). They demonstrate to any viewer how this part of the ship would work, and they give the sail extra texture. Again, I like that this approach demonstrates the reality of the sail rather than perfectly simulating it. Your approach, and priorities, may vary.
 
In the next post, I'll attach reef points and show the completed sail.

Hello all - 
 
Welcome to those of you who followed my build log of my previous ocean liner, the SS Andrea Doria.  If you have not seen it, you can reach it by clicking the link below my profile, below.
 
The Michelangelo was a slightly newer ship and sleeker in appearance.
 
 
To give myself a bit more of a challenge, the model is being built to the scale of 1/350 rather than 1/200 as were my previous liner models.  This means that the model's overall length is just over 31", which is a reasonable size for home display.  I hope to still incorporate the same level of detail as at the larger scale, with some windows laser cut and others done with custom decals.  Railings, ladders, etc. will be done in photoetched brass, and let me tell you, those pieces are tiny!   
 
The primary challenge of the build will be to replicate the cages around the funnels at this scale.  The cages are one of the most visually appealing aspects of the ship, and were magnets for publicity photographs and even made it to the cover of the New York Times Magazine section.  Nice shape, don't you think?

 
As usual, my research began with trolling the internet, various books and other publications for images of the ship that would confirm and supplement the engineering drawings that would be ordered from the Italian naval archives.  Out of about a thousand images some 200 were selected that were of such sufficient clarity and resolution to be useful.  The covered almost every aspect of the ship, from her construction in the Anseldo Shipyards in Genoa
 
to her ultimate end in the Pakistani breakers yard in 1991
 
Next time I will go into the process that I used to go from the plans to a laid-up basswood hull.
 
Until then, be well
 
Dan

Hi Bob,
will the schooner "Halifax" be a scratch build to a plan (because of the lumberyard timbering set) ?, and what scale will it be ?
Nils

Hi Bob,
will the schooner "Halifax" be a scratch build to a plan (because of the lumberyard timbering set) ?, and what scale will it be ?
Nils

Thanks so much Dirk, Michael,Russ, Albert and Don for the generous words, and thanks also to the "likes".
 
Michael, Granado, like all my builds, will go in a case and will replace one of the models on display in my home. I'm on a "one in, one out" system, so one older model will have to go.
 
For those interested, my next build will be the schooner Halifax from a Lumberyard POF timbering set.
 
Bob

very nice work Sjors,
the whole rigging is beautiful done....
 
Nils