Ras Ambrioso

Beautiful guns. They look nicer than my Amapa’s and mine is at 1/64. And, by the way, I also missed the firing pistol.

Found your log toor late to follow it. I love you attention to detail. Also the discussion about the minesweepers were very interesting. Witing to s follow your next build. Great job, thanks.

My knowledge is increasing exponentially since I joined this forum. I just learned a lot about cuttle fish bones on wikipedia. Amazing bones. Thanks Mark.

After my catastrophe with the carburators I changed the design to a front mounted carburetor feeding a straight down manifold. It worked. The engines still need a little dressing up but for all purposes I considere them finished. They will be put aside until I finish the engine room and cockpit. The next item are the gear shift levers that will stand at either side of the helm. These were provided in the kit but following my desire to scratch build I tried to develop a simile. Next I am going to tackle the helm itself. For this one I feel I will use the steering wheel provided in the kit. With the engines completed I worry about the remaining controls: throttle, choke, and the instruments: RPM, compass. Based on the models I have seen there were very few accessories to run these engines. We will see what comes to my old brain.

Wefalk, thanks again. Bewitched was one of my favorites back then. Look my next post for the results of the "nose twitching". Graham, thanks for your advise. I never heard of cuttle fish (calamari) bones being used on anything. Learn something every day.

Well, when you are scratch building it means you have to scratch your head several times to decide how to build something. For this project I only had one sheet with the general layout and three cross sections of this boat. Deans Marine offered a kit at the scale I had selected for the model with a molded hull in styrene (?) and the materials to make a R/C model in plastic. I decided to use the hull and scratch build all the details. One my interests was to build the engines and, after a failed research, I used the information on the cross sections, several inquiries on google, and my engineering background to come with an acceptable looking simile. So far so good. No where I could find what to do for the carburators since I had assumed that a "petrol" engine requires one. I figured that a 100 HP the engine would need a carburetor with at least a 3 Inch throat. I remembered, back in my youth, my dad had an MG-TC with a beautiful set of SU carburators. So I decided to do SUs for these Thornycroft engines. And this was the result I developed an intake manifold (see post #22) and also fabricated an exhaust manifold. This is how the port engine looked after I finished. Boy, was I pleased! I went on and built the second engine making sure that the new engine was an starboard engine. Then, another catastrophe. There is barely any space between the engines to fit my contraptions. The drawings indicated that both engines were identical but the engineer in me saw that there would be no way to service these engines within the space between the engine blocks and the hull so I figured that a RH-LH arrangement would work. Also, as I noted before, the molded hull is about 1/4 inch narrower (6 inches in the actual boat) than the drawing sections shown thus limiting access even more. Scaling the actual space available between the engine mounts came out to only 12 inches available access for service. The fact that the roof of the engine room has two huge hatches led me to believe that the intention of the builder was to remove the engines for any service and that would have been very difficult by the shores of lake Tanganyika. My solution now is to redesign the intake manifold and relocate the carburators to the front and lower side of the engine. I am so much fun. LOL

Continuing with the engines, I tackled the intake manifold using solder material that was the same diameter that I needed. I did some experiments with the soldering with some failures. Too much solder I refined my technique and using the same jig came out with two acceptable manifolds. The carburetors are coming up next and I had the great idea of casting them using the same low temperature solder. As a test, I made a mold drilling a piece of hardwood and proceeded to melt the solder into the holes. So far so good. Another catastrophe. I could not remove the lead from the mold. If I make the mold out of metal, what can be used as a mold release? I am now thinking making a simile of a SU carburetor using brass tubing and lathe turned brass rods. Any suggestions? Your comments will be appreciated I then turned to the other end of the engine and fabricated the spark plugs. The one on the far left shows the brass jacket that will be painted white to represent the porcelain and the nails will be clipped to fit the holes previously made in the cylinder head. I will them make a manifold where to introduce the cables and direct them to the far end of the engine where the magneto will be located. Thank you for your likes and comments.

Being working on a simile of the petrol engines. The following photo shows the various parts built. The crankcase, transmission and starting crank support. Cylinders, and cylinder head housings. The engine being assembled. The starter cranks. And finally the engine dry fitted to the boat. I also installed the fore and aft sub-decks with the marked accessories I am now researching the engine attachments such as carburetor, magneto, plugs, intake and exhaust manifolds. Most of these will not be visible once the cabin roof is in place but, I thought that the engine would not be complete without them. I am having a lot of fun researching and figuring out what to use to represent these items. Thanks to all you for the likes and comments.

Steve, you deck details are amazing at that scale in styrene. Will follow your progress.

Wefalk, thanks for the effort and the information. I went to the Overton museum site and I found a tiny picture (thumbnail) of the type of engine arrangement similar of what I need. Since I am not building this model for a museum or for historical accuracy I am going to go with a "representation" of what I think the engines would have looked like.The thumbnail I found follows . Very similar with the arrangement I have seen. Thanks again.

Looking forward to your jolly boat. I had a hard time making mine for Amapá at almost twice you scale.

Wefalck, I miss your comments and your amazing knowledge of the history of these ships. I am working on Amapá internal structure and found differences between the molded hull that I bought and the plans of the actual boat. Right now I am fabricating the two petrol engines. Unfortunately, I have found very little information on the actual engines installed in the boat. In my searches on google the closet thing I found is the following So I am now working to replicate it (somewhere within my tolerance). Most of the Thornycroft information I found is for diesel engines and essentially later engines. If you have any better data let me know. I am trying to figure out the actual controls from the helm.

Your work is amazing, please be careful and stay safe.

Keith, I am now working on another WWI boat: the HMS Mimi that fought the Germans in Lake Tanganyika after a 3000 miles trek from Cape Town to the lake. I started a build log on it.

The cradle is finished and I started the fabrication of the propellers support brackets. These were furnished in the kit, but they are kind of rough so I am going to reproduce them in brass. But then I realized I had to set the shafts first to see the layout and get the right angle on the supporting shafts. Following is the dry fit of the shafts using the white metal fittings Started the fabrication of the supports after measuring the actual angle of the shafts and these are the parts. Then, I set up my Unimat lathe to reduce the part of the exposed shaft and tragedy ensued. After I finished the first shaft my 3 jaw chuck locked up and I couldn't get the piece out of the chuck. I decided to proceed with the build by fabricating the hull frames that will fill the empty hull. For these I used the only plan that I have available (see my post #1). Then I found that the Dean's hull actually does not totally match the original plans of this vessel so I have been making templates until I got the right layout. I also reinforced the thin hull where the propeller supports and the rudder will be installed. Then, one of my neighbors helped me with the unlocking my 3 jaw chuck and I will be back in business tomorrow. 👍

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your comments and, as I have said before, I couldn't have done it without you support and information. I have been building models since I was 8 years old, now I am 86 years old and still learning skills in this magnificent hobby. Now I am embarking in another challenge building HMS Mimi and I hope you keep me in line. Thanks

Well guys, Amapá is finished and now is resting on display at the lobby my building. So, it is time to start building Mimi. The first thing was to clean the hull to remove the mold waxes. Then I started fabricating the hull cradle. This is Mimi in her building board: And this is the cradle drying the glue. More to follow soon.

Love to see your work. Keep safe.

Following are the photos of the finished model.

Work continues. The rigging of the davit for the small boats required a double block rig. I had purchased miniature blocks to keep the scale. These blocks were so tiny that I could not feed feed the lines through the sheave's holes. The plans called for a double line set up but I decided to simplify it to a single block. To this effect I stropped the mini block with very fine copper wire Then I made a jig to fabricate the hooks that worked perfectly Then I fabricated miniature cleats The results were satisfactory Last but not least I tried to make a decent looking Brazilian flag. I found a source that had the printed flag to the right size on a a very fine cloth (chiffon) which permitted seeing both sides of the flag. I tried several ways of making this flag to look alive but failed. Then I just just opted for the commonly shown rigid look. Please forgive me. And that completed my presentation of the model of the Amapá, a 1907 Brazilian Customs cruiser. Following this post are the pictures that will also be posted in the gallery of finished models.

Progress continue.Previously I have worked on the louvers for the skylights on opted to simply draw them up. This was shown in my post #98. I was not very happy with this and kept searching another solution. I found it while browsing a model RR web site and found HO scale clapped siding that at my scale fit perfectly for the louvers. And here is the latest look of the skylights Completed the ship's boat and installed in in their respective mounts. Also finished the stern railings The work left is the erection and rigging of the boat's davits. For this I ordered miniature wood blocks that arrived today. They are minuscule (2mm) and I am now trying to figure out how to thread the line through them. But that is the fun of this build. That will complete this model on time for display at the end of the month in the lobby of my building.

When we think we have seen it all, you come back with an incredible answer to the small scale boat building. WOW, WOW, WOW

I expect to complete Amapá by the end of August and get started on this project. My experiences with Amapá have given a lot more confidence in my builds and this model has the advantage of starting as a kit. I expect to have a lot of fun with it and to share it with y'all.

Talking about boat building, I went back to my ruined dinghy mold and refitted it for another try at resin molding. First I reworked the damaged mold. Following Valeriy suggestion I formed the stocking under pressure using making tape. I placed a layer of resin and, while still sticky, added another layer of stocking material and resin 24 hours later I tried the removal of the hull from the mold. The results a beautiful strong small hull. I followed all the hints and suggestions by the forum: seal the mold with lacquer, cover the mold with saran (plastic) wrap, apply the stocking material over the plastic and lock it in place under pressure. Then I applied the resin and a second layer of stocking material and resin. I am more than pleased with the results. But, I have been advised by the art coordinator in our building that the displays in the lobby will be changed by the end of August. This will mean I will have my old Fifie back and an empty space in the display is available for new models . So, as it has been in my old career as a construction engineer, the deadline is on. Amapá is almost finished so I decided to use the other two ship boats molds as solid models and presented them as covered boats in their respective supports. The photo shows my intent. I got a lot of suggestions for the material to use on the cover and tried the tissue with no good result. Finally, I decided to use fine linen from one of my old handkerchiefs soaked in watered down PVA glue. I will post the result shortly. Continuing with the build, I completed the standing rigging on the mizzen mast. And finished the work on the forecastle. The work remaining now is to complete the ladders to the midship deck, the dinghy details and the boat's davits. Finalizing the show with the remaining railings aft.

Roger: I also think it was a great movie. The captain had the crew make the boat as unifying effect for the crew. But I aldo thought that the ships shop wouldn't be able to handle the boat building