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Kevin-the-lubber

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Everything posted by Kevin-the-lubber

  1. Kevin-the-lubber
    You know for sure that I like her! That's very impressive. Are you working from plans or just pictures? Over the last couple of months I've found myself looking with more and more interest at planes, trains and other types of models but have resisted as I know there is a danger of losing interest in Cutty Sark. I would still like to know of a really great model in terms of detail and quality, that I could build straight out of the box and complete in 2 or 3 weeks.
  2. Kevin-the-lubber
    Shipman, go wash your mouth with soap! 🤪. Dare I say, in defence of my fellow 3D-ists, there's a bit of skill on the resin side as well.... Anyway, Marco, the yards and sails are just the best I've ever seen, they are extraordinarily lifelike, and I've looked at an awful lot of exceptionally good models on this and other forums. Even after you mentioned the wires I can't see them. And thanks for all those close-up photos, I can understand the bands and rigging a lot better from these. You must be pretty close to the end now?
  3. Kevin-the-lubber
    Taping would work, Marc. I like to be able to see the joints if possible as a tight line means all is well.
  4. Kevin-the-lubber
    First 'draft' of the Fore mast. This is my typical 'stage 1' in the development process. Resin parts can be very flexible, too much so at times. But all masts and spars get a carbon fibre insert which makes them rock solid. Nevertheless, I will most likely change to a stiffer resin mix as I progress. A few months ago I tried printing a yard as a single 'tube'. It was hopeless, the 2mm centre hole (for the essential CF stiffener) closed up within 10mm or 15mm and even if I had a lathe (I don't), boring it out would be impractical as the resin would most likely be gooey in the centre. Split halves, just like the kit, work better, even on the topgallant. But when glueing up, you need loads and loads of clamp points to close the parts together, due to the softness of the print. Once glued the joints are far better than the kit parts. I think I may make a clamping jig for the final versions, something printed using the filament printer. A fitting trial. Everything looks generally good, I can see that, once everything is glued in place, the masts will naturally go straight and true. However, quite a lot of small adjustments are needed. I've made a better set of mast bands but none of them are fitting, need a bit more clearance. This is how it goes with resin: you find a magic formula, for me that's 0.2mm clearance, and then find it's not working for some reason or another. In this case it's an easy fix. The truss for the lower yard is in the 'really?' category. Even with the chain to the centre band, it'll be snapping at the slightest touch. And at 0.2mm thickness, the yard bands, while looking the part, are probably also a non-starter. I'll probably use hidden brass pins here. The rest of this weeks modelling time will mostly go into the revisions and then I'll print again. The good thing today is that everything printed fine, so at least I'm not chasing my tail to overcome problems in that area, which is good.
  5. Kevin-the-lubber
    Bruma, thanks for those tips. I’ve noted someone (was it you?) recommending to leave glueing the fife rails until later, as space around the base is tight, but in any case I’m avoiding fixing anything in place - even the cabins and boats - until I’m reasonably sure that won’t be a problem down the line. In general I’m using underhill’s designs as they seem more detailed than Campbell, and I’m only using revell for things like the length or diameter of a mast or spar. I think I used underhill’s designs for the caps and mast bands. Ian, I followed Rob’s excellent Glory of the Seas but don’t think I’ve looked at his Great Republic, so will do so presently. I have the first draft print underway, it’ll take 12 or 13 hours, meanwhile I’m back on house painting! Bruma, my white woodwork says ‘hold my beer’ to your yard rigging. I can’t believe that, once upon a time, I used to quite enjoy painting and decorating. Ian, the centre sheet blocks are simple in resin, the big question is whether they’ll be strong enough. At 1/100 I’m constantly on the margins of fragility with small parts. In fact the whole centre area, connecting the yard to the mast, is what I’m most interested to see once the printing is finished, as I have a feeling I’m going to need to cheat a bit and use some hidden metal pins to make everything secure. If everything prints successfully (high risk of print failure on the mast and yard sections) I’ll post reflections sometime this week.
  6. Kevin-the-lubber
    Thanks Ian, that makes absolute sense now. And presumably those coming along the lower yard (which appear to be chains) go down to blocks, which are in turn connected to the spider band, which in turn is tied off to the fife rail? I think I may have had my first of many rigging related light bulb moments 🤪
  7. Kevin-the-lubber
    Super slow progress at the moment - I'm still developing the foremast and yards, trying to make sense of the various texts I have on these, which I'm finding difficult as I have no previous experience of sailing, masts, yards or any of the other gubbins that are part of the array. The trouble with multiple sources is they each provide slightly different accounts of a typical mast and spars, and I have no base knowledge to help sort this out. But I suppose this is no different to the experts on here who scratch build based on pure research. I'm mainly basing my models on Underhill's 'Masting & Rigging The Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier' as this is very detailed, but adapting them where need be to make them practical at a 1/100 scale. Anyway, I'm getting there bit by bit and am fairly close to doing a first print. I suspect I'll go through quite a few iterations until I get to the finished article; there will be the usual fiddling around to find the best way to print the parts - this will be more challenging as they are long, thin objects - but I'll no doubt also discover down the line, that such and such a fitting is needed but currently omitted, etc. Why bother, you may ask, when I have kit parts; well, partly 'why not', partly because I think I will learn the rigging much better this way, partly because the kit parts are a bit wonky and generally not that great and partly for the challenge. A few people, myself including, have thought resin printing is not really suitable for masts and yards, so I thought I'd give it a go and see what happens. Which brings me to a couple of questions, if anyone would be kind enough to chip in; 1) What are these square blobs on the lower yards meant to represent? Cheek blocks? 2) What are these Fairleads for? Bruma, if you're reading, I've been studying your yards and, more particularly, your sails again this week. I'm going to try the 'half-hauled-up' look using modelspan, which I've ordered today, as ordinary tissue just tore when wet, but if I can't get what I'm aiming for, I think I may copy yours and try fully rigged.
  8. Kevin-the-lubber
    Thanks for looking in Bill, I always seem to have a lot going on these days so my progress is painfully slow. Some weeks it can be one tiny element completed, but that’s life! This is in part because I need to avoid letting modelling take up all my free time - it’s very easy to become over-engrossed in these projects. Yes, it would be great to be doing this all together somewhere. I wonder if we’d be faster or slower?
  9. Kevin-the-lubber
    Clever stuff! Not just the coding, but the manufacturing.
  10. Kevin-the-lubber
    Alan, I really wouldn’t have believed this is mostly printed on a filament printer if I hadn’t seen it grow through the log. I’m mighty impressed with e end result and my interest in buying an e-kit, rather than doing all the 3D work myself, is piqued. So I’ll be very interested to see what you make next.
  11. Kevin-the-lubber
    Just in passing. I'm doing some painting and decorating this weekend, so had a rummage through the shed this morning to see what paint I have that needs using up; kind of makes you wonder why you bother, doesn't it. I bet it can even be airbrushed if you thin it enough🙄.
  12. Kevin-the-lubber
    Bob, I know exactly where you're coming from. I stopped enjoying my work on the Victory last year and parked it. I still haven't regained the motivation so it can stay parked until I do, or possibly forever. Good luck with what you do next, post a link, I'm sure I'm not alone in sometimes thinking it's be nice to build a car, a train or (in my case) a bike. Heck, it'd be nice just to not be fighting the thing most days!
  13. Kevin-the-lubber
    Fantastic achievement Bill, just fantastic. And not just finishing the model and to such a high standard, but between you and others, Ian in particular, maintaining a build log that I'm sure is going to be one of the key resources for many that follow, me included.
  14. Kevin-the-lubber
    Another follower here Bill, sorry I'm late, I got caught up on some chaps' finale on Victory 🙂. Wow, this kit looks far better than I was expecting, I wrongly had the impression that the mouldings were quite poor now, but they look at least as good, if not better than, Victory's. Didn't Daniel show how he made chains for Victory? Anyway, eagerly watching to see how it goes.
  15. Kevin-the-lubber
    That sounds unpleasant and probably a bit scary. I loathe cities, there always seems to be a fizz of danger about them and even though we are only 40 minutes from London I only go there maybe once a year. Anyway, good to see you getting back into the groove, I always enjoy looking at what you're up to. I'm no historian but, for what it's worth, until I read the narrative I assumed the drawings were of french ships since that's what they look like. Case proven, methinks. Otherwise, you're probably right, I should hang onto my machines. And my telescopes, despite the lousy eyesight for astronomy and no longer liking being awake at 3am on a freezing night. Maybe I'll get cataracts, have them done and suddenly see a whole new Saturn or Jupiter 🙂.
  16. Kevin-the-lubber
    The boats are finished now, along with new skids to accommodate the jolly boat being in the middle. I'm still fiddling with skids on the fore cabin roof as the kit parts are all wrong for a gig. In other news, I've been working on the foremast and spars, coupled with the deadeyes as these are all part of a piece, over the last month while waiting for boats to print, paint to dry, summer to return etc. It's another good exercise; I'm already beginning to learn the names of rigging parts and understand how some things relate to others. It may be a while until I'm ready to post on that though and I'm reconciled to this project running well into next year. I still have no idea how I'm going to make sails though!
  17. Kevin-the-lubber
    Credit where it's due, I think those were the hands of the original builders as all I've done is copy from the plans, with some important help from your good self. But it's surprising how chubby and crude the kit part looks against the 'plans' version, isn't it. This is the pick of the litter for me though, the gig, which has the most beautiful lines. I may make this one a little side project and do it separately at about 1/30 or 1/40. It would make a very nice windowsill ornament with all the trimmings. I'm hoping to find time to pop up to Greenwich next week for another photo session and this would be on the 'to-do' list.
  18. Kevin-the-lubber
    And..... breathe top = kit; bottom = mine left = kit; right = mine
  19. Kevin-the-lubber
    I think we're using quite similar methods, tailored to our respective CAD packages. As mentioned, I also corrected the two ends manually. I didn't find this too time-consuming in F360, I think it was mostly a case of projecting the guide rails onto a flat sketch, then correcting the two ends, plotting their positions on the end profiles, then remaking the guide rails to incorporate the ends. This is what I did at the ends, compared to the centre profiles: I used exactly the same overlapping approach as for the centres, but without the clinker offset. I didn't shape the frames to the strakes, the strakes just sit on the frames. I don't know if this is how it is in real life? At this scale (1:100) you wouldnt be able to see the notching anyway.
  20. Kevin-the-lubber
    ps. sorry, I meant to ask - what's wrong with your planks, they look pretty good from here? In fact your model looks way better than mine, you've already sorted out the tricky sections at the ends. Whatever you're doing, I'd carry on with that.
  21. Kevin-the-lubber
    I fudged it in the end. I really wanted something that was mathematically driven - I'm sure you know what I mean - but I couldn't figure out a methodology for the end profiles. I basically did what you see below; I got a smooth skin by lofting a whole-mould-based set of profiles (the green lines here) which I used to fair the shape. In faact I had very little fairing to do as (I think) whole-moulding generates smooth curves. I then drew strake profiles in a clinker pattern, evenly spaced in the station profile, and lofting rails for each strake, otherwise it all goes a bit mis-shapen; and lofted each strake individually. I had to abandon the maths at either end as the end profiles are perpendicular and don't lend themselves to mathematical segmentation, so I projected the rail lines and extended them to get the placings for the strakes and tweaked by eye until they looked right. (It gets more and more like real shipbuilding as you go along!). I tried to make a single clinkered station profile i.e. to loft all 10 strakes simultaneously, but got nowhere, I think this geometry was way too complex for F360's engine. Last but not least, and I'm guessing you've done something similar, I did another shell (one of the inner smooth lines on each profile), thickened, then split it (intersected actually, in F360 speak) to get the frames.
  22. Kevin-the-lubber
    Tabycz, are you interested in talking geeky methodology? I know this can be very boring for some 🙂. I've just finished modelling a clinker built boat in F360 and had to jump through hoops to loft the planks, would be interesting to compare notes as I doubt my way was the best. Waldemar, that's the lifeboat you helped me with, couple of quick snaps below, whole moulding was perfect. I'm in the middle of painting them so the seats are not yet glued in but (IMO) these little boats look gorgeous once they're all painted up. I'll do a proper log entry when it's finished but I've posted photos of the gig and jolly boat on my cutty sark log.
  23. Kevin-the-lubber
    Very well done Bill, you’ve got that done far more quickly than I expected. Everyone talks of it taking years! Boats…. they’re my current preoccupation too.
  24. Kevin-the-lubber
    Bill, I just did a good catch up on your build, it’s looking fabulous with all that rigging. You must be quite close to finishing now?
  25. Kevin-the-lubber
    I've spent far more time on these boats than I should, but it's been interesting and enjoyable. I'm still working on the lifeboat but here are the jolly and gig (which is omitted from the kit). For info, I had to fiddle with the thicknesses of several areas including the hull because scaling down to 1/96 resulted in paper thin parts, but I think the end result is a pretty fair representation. Revell's jolly boat. Not too bad, a bit crude and clunky though. The real jolly boat The model. The paintwork is much darker in the flesh, similar to the real thing; I over-exposed the photo just to show the detail a little more clearly. I omitted the little circular badges on the prow, too small for painting. The sleek gig; if I was a sailor this is what I'd want to drive 🙂

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