Ras Ambrioso

Roger, Veszett and Valerliy, I really appreciate of your suggestions. As soon as I read your replies I opened into a second window to look at Roger's work on the Benjamin Noble. I will probably do the wood planking of my the model in the classic way since I feel that double planking will increase the girth of the ship out of scale. Then I will develop the plating as describes by Roger since Amapá is already started as a half hull. For the actual plates I tend to like Valerliy's idea of the shellacked paper. I will have to do a a little sampling before proceeding as I have never shellacked paper. Thanks a lot again guys, you got my head whirling right now.

Thanks Allan. I will look for PMing Greg.

I have a question for the forum. This model is going to be wood planked over bulkheads. But the ship was iron and I would like to hear from you regarding how to make planked wood look like metal. I have seen a few ideas such as copper or aluminum foil and cannot visualize a smooth finish. My thinking was something in the line of papier-maché ; using tissue paper and airplane model dope. Other modelers I have seen covered the model with a ladies hose fabric , epoxied it over and sanded. Your comments and/or ideas will be most appreciated. Construction continues on Amapá. I am currently cutting the frames. I will post pictures shortly. Thanks for looking.

Happy to see this post. I have been looking for 1/64 scale figures for my Amapá. I found some railroad figures at Michael's and I intend to convert them to Brazilian Navy seamen for my gunboat. Good to see another potential supplier of scale figures. I need one officer, a helmsman and maybe 2 seamen for the gun. I will follow this post.

With my wife out of the country I have been using our dining table as a drafting board. She is coming home tonight and I must clear this mess before she comes. I have been busy working on both of my builds. Doing a little bit of detailing and touch up on the Fifie and starting the work on Amapá. Today I started the to fabricate the ship's frame. As I stated before, I intend to build the hull in two halves. I tried several glues to attach the drawing templates to the wood. After using the Elmers spray adhesive I had a disaster as the glue came on too thick. I finally decided to use regular Elmer's school glue that is a paste and will be removable from the wood after cutting. The keel section is 26" inches long and the available wood was only 24". I split the keel section by splitting the nose at station 9. I intend to use balsa fillers in the bow and in stern sections so this split may not be a problem. This is the finished board ready for the saw. This was done in our kitchen counter. Notice the oil tablecloth I use to keep anything messing up our counter. The Admiral will be happy ,LOL. Thanks for the support

Valerly, thanks for the drawings. You are right. I used the information I found with Google but looking at Amapá's plans they show exactly a pump like your last two drawings of a downton pump. So I stand corrected and my model will use your plans. Thanks lot. This another reason to be part of this group. Here is a section of my plans and you see that it looks exactly like Varerly Thanks again to all of you or your comments and suggestions. Today I was working on the plans to start the frame fabrication.

Thanks to all of you calling my attention to the forum section for this build. My bad. I really intended to do that but slipped. Much thanks to Chris for correcting it. Today I purchased the material to start making the frames and did research on the bilge pump. Google actually directed me to MSW to a build from GAW on July 27, 2015 and from Mantua models. This is how a downton bilge pump looks like: The model is of a three spout bilge pump which was a standard part of the fast clippers of the English Merchant Navy and thus probably used by Thornycroft on this ship. The model is of a three spout bilge pump which was a standard part of equipment on the fast clippers of the English Merchant Navy.

Thanks for posting this. I am an engineer (retired) and often wondered at how they did the dredging in the 18th and 19th century. Now I see it. The book's price though is pretty steep but again thanks for information

One of my favorite eras of the ship building industry was the period at the end of 19th century and beginning of the 21st. During that period the navies of the world transitioned from sail to steam power and from wood to metal construction. The ironclads were born. In my modeling career I always wanted to build a Dreadnaught but found that in order to build a reasonable size “house” model it will have to be a small scale. The plastic industry produced a lot of kits with extraordinary detail but I wanted to scratch built one and my abilities were way under those of some of our modelers like Valeriy V and Wefalk. I lived in the Hague for a while and, while there, I subscribed to the Model Shipwright Magazine. They provided a plan and a brief description of a selected ship in every issue. I saved these plans for the day when I had enough time to devote to my hobby. The plans for this build show what I may call a miniature dreadnaught. Steam and sail powered, 130 ft length and at a scale 1/64 which will allow plenty details including a single, deck mounted, QF gun. The ship is the Brazilian Custom Cruiser Amapá that was laid down in 1906 as Yard No. 459 at Thornycroft’s Woolston (Southampton) yard. She was launched on 30 April 1907and issued to the Brazilian customs authorities on June 4, 1907. No further information is known about this vessel except that at some stage she was renamed Oyapock and she remained in service until 1918. This information is from the Model Shipwright magazine issue No, 88 The photo shows Amapá during her service with the Brazilian navy. Amapá was named after the region in the north of Brazil next to the Amazon. The ships dimensions are as follows: Length between perpendiculars: 130’0” Length overall: 137’0” Beam: 17’0” Draft: 6’0” Tons, gross: 177.5 Power: twin triple expansion steam engines Sails: Two masts with a stay sail and try sail Armament: One 3 pounder QF gun This will be a simple ship model in 1/64 scale with plenty of detail. My plan is to build the hull in two halves and use a plank on bulkhead method. I will scratch build most of the model but will still use available manufactured fittings. I have been studying these plans for quite some time and will be ready to start cutting wood shortly after I finished my current build: Amati’s Fifie I want to thank the members of this forum which have provided me with valuable information. They always said that is never to late for an horse to learn new tricks. Your comments have improve my craftsmanship as a modeler. Thanks. Ras Current build: Scottish Motor Fifie. 1/32 scale. Amati kit Previous builds: Patricia. Steam powered R/C launch. 1/12 scale. Krick Kit. African Queen. Steam powered R/C launch. 1/24 scale. Billings kit. Emma C. Berry. Sailing fishing smack. 1/32 scale. Model Shipways kit.

Thanks to all my watchers. Today I took a break in the rigging and spent the morning working on the deck small details. First, I completed the net buoys which had previously painted. Following are some of the details I did today plus the boxes and fish I had previously built. My basic idea is to present the model as ready to dock and start the unloading of the catch in the quay. The herring fishing was done using long drift "gill nets", hence, the boats were named: drifters. The fact was that the net caught all the fish around the school and, in the cold water of the North sea, that included cod and bluefish. My research indicated that the crew actually separated these fish from the herring and either sold them separately or took them home for mama to cook. I found the nicest fish at Michael's and they are almost to scale. So here are my deck implements: I am really proud of my mop. Tried to make it the way the booklet explained but the results were not satisfactory. Today I had an epiphany. I saw one my paint brushes and found my mop. It was easier that it looked. The bristles of the brush are clamped together with the metal bushing. I used my needle nose pliers to loosen the grip on the bristles and then tied a knot and served it. A little CA glue and I had the head of the mop. Also prepared some of the mooring lines to be stored on deck. I have been testing soaking the line in diluted Elmer's glue to see if the coils stay together. With my idea of the presentation after the catch, I decided to furled the sail.

I am including some pictures of the rigging and the dry fitted sail. Little work still remains since I broke one of the stays while installing the sail. On my next boat I will definitely do the whole rigging including the sail in a scale mockup away from the model. On this one, I had trouble with the final length of the stays and, in retrospect, I would have done the gaff halyard a little different. Notice the slack in the aft mast stays. Thanks for looking. Ras

Today I have, technically, finished the rigging on the Fifie. Next will be to complete all the loose deck details. During this rigging I had trouble with the mast stays as it became very difficult to balance port and starboard to keep a plumb mast. As a result some of the tackle for my stays looks a little loose. I would appreciate any comments on the subject of controlling the stays tension to keep the plumb. MY method was a rolling knot but then the loops look unequal. Your advise will be appreciated. I also noted an interference between the after-mast forward stay and the load line for the derrick. The indicated arrangement in the drawing will only allow for loading from one side of the boat. This is shown on the drawing as item 1. The drawings are no very clear as to how to belay the control lines for the load, supposedly handled by the crew during the unloading. These are marked in the photo as item 2. Are they supposed to be tied to the stay? If so, what knot should be used? Following are photos of the actual unloading of the Fifie: Notice the messy decks. LOL

Amazing detail. Keep up the excellent work

Thanks Yves. Today I worked on one of the stays in fwd mast. These ones are actually controlled with a regular block tackle but I wanted to check my idea of the sliding knot. I rigged the blocks and attached the one end of the stay, made a loop and served it in the bench. Then I run the other end through the mast ring and tied my sliding knot. Success. I didn't tighten it up completely because I need the opposite stay in place to keep the mast plumb. The only thing to watch, when tying this knot, is that the tightened loop be the size you want. I have dyed the sail cloth using the RIT Chocolate brown color. I made a template and cut the pattern and now all I need to do is to complete the hems and having my old lady friend stitch the panel lines. I am going to leave the stitching off the edge of the sail since I may consider furling the sail. Notice I added reinforcement at the sail corners

Almost finished the aft mast rigging After a little review of my work, I found that I could control the tension of the stays only in those stays with tackle. The ones rigged with eyes remained loose. I blamed it on the fact that they are looped to the mast to a brass ring and, when I tied the knots, I had no way to tension the stay. I also was having trouble trying to serve the loop. So I remembered my Boy Scout days and the sliding knot we used to tighten the tent stays. And this was the result It was easier to rig the stay on the bench and then place in the model. The lower part has a hook on an eyebolt on the rail and the upper loop went through the ring loop and then the knot was tied and tighten. Then, it dawn on me, that it would have been a lot easier to rig the whole stay in the bench and use a hook to connect the stay to the mast ring. Thats what you call afterthought. But I think I will revise all of the stay loops and replaced them with these knotted style.

Good luck cathead, everything looks fine from here. BTY, I think, when I do mine, I will keep the hull frame glued to the board. It will make the planking easier using the board as your third hand. Chris as said that it will be easier to remove the complete hull from the posting board later. My problem is going to be that I read this after I had glued the plans to my plywood working board. LOL

I had the same problem when building my fifie. I wound up extending the short frame with fillers but this resulted in a non-symmetrical hull. Let's see what our experts say about this.

BTW Ives, your corvette looks beautiful and I am looking forward to see it grow in details.

Going back to Egilman. It seems to me that the 3D is nothing more than a parts making machine instead relying on a kit maker or in your construction abilities. Then modeling becomes , like Roka says, a computer ability test. But you will have to to still assemble the parts and this is really what we do. So I am OK with both alternatives but I don't think I can handle the computer side so I will continue buying kits or making my parts the old way.

In the fifie I’m building, the steam winch had EP wheel installed. the Ep card had an extra one. They are a about 2.5 mm dia. I think these would be available on line

Roka, I agree but I am too far behind to catch up. It’s like learning a new language at our age and add to it a short memory and you got me.

Guys this last thread about the aileron horns is another reason I love this forum. We are not only modelers but historians. Thanks you guys.

Egilman, I feel the same as you regarding the future of modeling but I am an old man that just crossed from split to smart phones recently. I hope that the younger generation provide us with the parts resulted from 3D printing.

Thanks Cathead. I have been inspired by other builds in this forum. I am trying to build something a little different than just an "out of the box" kit. For my next adventure I am going to try a "scratch" build. But, I'll tell you these details are what makes it fun. I am going to make nets and improve on my fish. The boat will be presented as ready to unload crans of herring. Bumpers out, mooring lines ready and hold partially open etc, etc. Chris Coyle, PJG and Big Dan have been great models to follow.

Ives, I will be following your built closely. First, I have considered building the Flower corvette model for a long time and second, I am very interested in the 3D printing. Your comments on my build are always appreciated. Keep up the good work.