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Kevin-the-lubber

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Everything posted by Kevin-the-lubber

  1. Kevin-the-lubber
    Funny you should mention Blue Ensign (aka Maurice). I was very taken by his Pegasus back on the old Pete Coleman HMS Victory site and I’ve had his sail-making tutorial bookmarked for years. If only I had some finished yards to practice on! I too hope to move on to wood at some point, or being me, more likely mixed media. But I still have so many things to learn first. Retirement is only a few weeks away though, which will help.
  2. Kevin-the-lubber
    Marc, I can't remember if I've seen you commenting on Bruma's Cutty Sark, but if not, his sails are magnificent and more than worthy of your build. I know what you mean about wanting to maintain the standard all the way through and being unable to settle for less. I have found the facility to make 'better' parts to be a bit of a curse on both the CS and Victory, but especially regarding the masts, spars and rigging, in part because I am someone who has to understand what something does before I can make progress. Hence parking it for now. Quite frustrating as I'm usually a good completer/finisher, but all part of the journey. By the way.... I bought the SR kit on ebay a week or so back. They usually fetch quite a high price this side of the pond but as this one was at a reasonable buy-it-now price I took my chance. IIRC it's quite an old pressing, I hope so anyway. So I now have all the large plastic kits that I would ever want (Victory, Cutty Sark, Kearsarge, Constitution, Soliel Royale) and probably more than I will ever build unless I change tack.
  3. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'm finding it worthwhile to create them in CAD anyway, as I'm learning a few things about their design that I hadn't realised were the case i.e. that the pulley wheels are not central in the block, but slightly offset, and that the blocks are recessed to allow the ropes to run cleanly from the wheel. All obvious stuff really, from an engineering perspective, but not usually represented on plastic kit parts. How well these will print I have yet to find out - some of the sizes are extremely small at 1:100, but previous runs with generic, less carefully designed blocks have been broadly fine.
  4. Kevin-the-lubber
    Thanks Henry, that would more or less correspond with the drawings so I’ll stick with that. In passing, I had no idea thee were so many different fittings and sizes, and wonder does anyone stick to these when modelling. The typical plastic kit just gives four or five variants, versus the dozens in McKays tables.
  5. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'm going to partially answer my own question with respect to rope diameters; the 3 1/2" rope must go around the heart (slaps forehead), doesn't it. So what about the 4 through holes, does 0.4mm dia at 1:100 seem right??
  6. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'm starting to work my way through making all of the rigging fittings listed in McKay's AOTS HMS Victory, and I have a simple query. On his drawings on pages 114 and 115, McKay typically gives basic dimensions and, underneath the height dimension, adds, in brackets other sizes. In the example here, a closed heart, he says "(also 14", 17" & 26")". My query is this - should all the other dimensions be scaled to suit? I suspect it is very obviously 'yes, of course', but thought I'd check anyway. While here, can I also sense check hole sizes. On this drawing, the implication is a rope diameter of about 1 1/2", whereas in his tables on pages 116 - 118, McKay says a 16" closed heart would be used for ropes of around 3 1/2" diameter (11 1/2" circumference). Which is true? There actually isn't anywhere near enough room for 4 x 3 1/2" rope holes, but equally, 1 1/2" ropes seem a bit on the skinny side. Or am I missing something?
  7. Kevin-the-lubber
    Ps. I don’t use sharpies or any other kind of normal permanent marker pen, for that very reason (I use them all the time for plant pot labels and you’re right, they fade to grey within a year). I use Pentel acrylic art pens, I can’t say whether they have the same issue, only that none of the ‘pen-painted’ parts I’ve been handled this morning, at least some of which were painted a year or more back, have lost their blackness. BTW, as I’m writing, I also bought a pack of spare ‘nibs’ for the pens, so I can trim one to a very fine point. They go feathery quite quickly but I just trim off the feathers. I’ve found black and gold pens are excellent. Other colours seem to be less opaque so I stick with paints for these.
  8. Kevin-the-lubber
    I think that's come out very well indeed Marc. Your opening line about the coated wire resonated, I think I found the same on my CS cathead levers, the blacking just rubbed off, and I resorted to using a black acrylic marker pen. I like that it adds more or less zero 'paint' thickness, but the downside is that it has a sheen to it, though this can be made matt with lacquer.
  9. Kevin-the-lubber
    Glad you’ve got it figured. That’s quite a different way to how I’d do this in F360 and it would probably just confuse the issue by getting into that. Can I ask, what are you aiming for as an end product? A CNC-milled kit, or something like that?
  10. Kevin-the-lubber
    In what way are you stumped? I don’t use Rhino, only F360, but the principles are broadly the same.
  11. Kevin-the-lubber
    Just a brief note that I've parked the CS for now. The delicacy of some parts of the masts and yards was becoming a bit trying and I'll come back to it with fresh eyes at a later point.
  12. Kevin-the-lubber
    Despite semi-retiring recently, I still don't seem to make much progress on my models. However, I've completed the remaining 1:100 guns, being faithful to McKay. I changed the design of the carriage to get cleaner lines for cotter pins that go through the axles, I think that'll do now. The carronades were a nice little project and that really is a M0.6 threaded adjustment screw 🤪.
  13. Kevin-the-lubber
    Ouch, hope you have a really great outcome without too much pain along the way.
  14. Kevin-the-lubber
    This one can probably be filed under “teachings about the sucking of eggs”, but as a one-time metalworker can I add a little bit of info. The wire you’re using looks like cold-drawn brass stock, meaning it’s pulled through a former to get its diameter. This causes the grain crystals to get elongated (oh look at me, showing off that I paid attention at college!) which makes it springy and harder to shape. If you heat it to about “ouch, that hurt”, and let it cool it’ll be annealed and hold its form, but my memory is that brass work hardens very easily, so keep that in mind. Or you can fish out the little bundle of mild steel 0.5mm gunport lid wires in the Heller victory kit (so I assume also in the SR), which seemed to be already annealed. Either that or the quality was so poor that it worked in our favour.
  15. Kevin-the-lubber
    Apologies if I'm misunderstanding but isn't that table the wrong way round? I don't think the sail material would get thicker as the scale gets smaller! I don't know what the sailcloth thickness would be at 1:1 but if I assume roughly 1mm, then: Scale mm inch 1:1 1.000 0.0394 1:24 0.042 0.0016 1:48 0.021 0.0008 1:64 0.016 0.0006 1:72 0.014 0.0005 1:96 0.010 0.0004 1:200 0.005 0.0002 1:350 0.003 0.0001 Tissue is about 0.05mm so true to scale at 1:24, though it seems to give quite a credible representation at other scales.
  16. Kevin-the-lubber
    I'd say listen to your gut. This is rich coming from me, but there it is. If I eventually decide to put sails on mine I will copy Marco's method (Bruma) as his sails are far and away the best that I've seen. But if you go down that road, take a look at the timeline on his log between starting to make the sails and finishing. My personal view is that cloth is no more realistic than the plastic. Even the thinnest fabric is too thick. But you may well get a good result by doing what your wife suggests but using EZE Tissue (you'll find it on ebay). However, I sense that you want to complete this kit and then see where you go next, and the quickest route is the plastic. The funny thing is that I don't think I've seen them on a single build here, so while we all think they'll look terrible, who knows, maybe they wouldn't look that bad.
  17. Kevin-the-lubber
    That's very appealing but a fair bit more expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. However I fear it'll take something to persuade the admiral to sail again any time soon, more my thing that hers.
  18. Kevin-the-lubber
    We’ve done a three cruises in the last few years, personally I think there’s a fine line between it being a glorified passenger ferry and a floating hotel. The last one (Norwegian fjords) was very much towards the ferry end of the spectrum and I doubt we’ll do another any time soon. Here in the UK there’s a much more affordable way of living onboard and seeing new places - canal boats! You’re making great progress David, I’d again say just plough ahead and use this as a fun starter. For the future, I can 100% confirm that bigger is better. I finished making some carronades yesterday, printed them and thought how fantastic they’ll look on my 1/100 victory, until I realised I’d forgotten to scale down from 1/48. But who has space for a 6 foot model! I think the sweet spot is about 3 feet long and the largest scale possible against that final length.
  19. Kevin-the-lubber
    I've had a look at the file, nothing wrong with what you've done there. Though as often seemed to be the case with my own TinkerCad objects, the software says the components are not manifold (there are holes/gaps in the mesh, but the slicer is probably fixing these on the fly). A multi-part will print fine in resin but I think you'd struggle with the library printer. The frames would be about 0.5mm thick but if the finger cross section was like the sketch i.e. create a mortice and tenon, there would be enough heft in the frame for it to not be that delicate. It's ages since I used TinkerCad and I can't remember how much scope there is for dimension-driven design.
  20. Kevin-the-lubber
    I bet most of us won’t see 60 again. David, great job so far and, at the risk of seeming contrarian, I’d say keep plowing ahead without getting distracted by detail or precision. There lies an enormous rabbit hole and once you start trying to be true to the ship or even true to scale, it’s very easy to become bogged down. I’d also point you at a build log of the Heller HMS Victory by Bill, and also his Soliel Royale (just search the forum), not because they will help with the CS, but because they demonstrate just how good a result you can get if you just crack on and keep the aftermarket’s and modifications to a minimum.
  21. Kevin-the-lubber
    Tuppence from me: yes, print the fingers separately and, while you’re at it, think about splitting the fingers into two parts, the outer frame and inner insert. It’s not much work, design-wise, and you’ll get lovely sharp paint lines.
  22. Kevin-the-lubber
    What an interesting project! And very nicely printed, I don’t see any supports scars anywhere. I couldn’t hear or see any gears grinding but have been told by a pro that candle wax is a great lubricant for 3d printed gears, if you are having that problem. I’ve been meaning to try it on my rope seizing machine but as I’ve parked the Cutty Sark for now that may be a while.
  23. Kevin-the-lubber
    Bill, is everything so far part of the kit, i.e. the boards, ring bolts? The re-washed deck was definitely a good choice, it looks very much like the deck on the actual Cutty Sark and I think you’ve got the colouring spot-on.
  24. Kevin-the-lubber
    Over here you can buy decal paper by the sheet off eBay. But wouldn’t you want/need the setting liquids? In passing, my own recent foray into water slide decals hasn’t been particularly successful, they wrinkle and the ink rubs off, and I’ve parked it for a rainy day. I may be misunderstanding the exercise but couldn’t you make card or paper stencils instead? You can cut those using the laser for precision. Two or three masks (layers) with positioning points etc.
  25. Kevin-the-lubber
    About a year ago I bought a used Dell Precision 7720 17.3" Laptop: Intel i7, 500GB SSD, 16GB, P3000 for about £650, including a 1 year warranty. It copes just fine with Fusion 360 and the various graphics packages I occasionally use. I wanted the big screen for 3D modelling, so while it is indeed a laptop, I wouldn't want to be carrying this around a lot. But as a portable hi-spec computer its' great.

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