AnobiumPunctatum

Space is something which is allways insufficient. It's the same with the time.
I made the mistake some years ago to think too much about the space my models need and forget to build one. So I have space but no model.
If you like to build such a big model perhaps also as POF do it. You will need several years for the research and the build and no one knows what happend in the meantime.
 
Hope you understand my denglish.

I second the compliment of the others. I find it very interesting what you do with the color on your model. I got a lot of inspiration from this.

Hello,
 
it is done, the last deck is planked.     I hope that the captain will spend some drinks this evening. But writing this,  I haven't seen him the last time 
 
Looking for some details, I fond this picture. That was exactly 6 month ago. So I worked 6 month at this deck!
 

 
Cutting and painting the planks was the first step. I lived 3 days only from wood dust.
 

 
A last view without planks
 

 
and the first with
 

 

 

 

 
Regards,
Siggi
 
 
 
 
 

Blowing Off the Dust        I dare say there are more than a few experienced ship model builders here in the MSW forum who have at one time started a model and, for whatever reason, stopped construction on it.  No doubt some of those models were terminated due to a mistake that was beyond repair, some cannibalized for yet another try, and others shelved with the hope of being revisited sometime in the future.  My Hancock is one such shelved model.
 

 
     When I was cleaning and reorganizing my shop several months ago I found, high on top a bookcase tucked behind a bunch of junk, an old model of the Continental frigate Hancock that I had started twenty years earlier.  It was tightly wrapped up in a heavy gauge plastic bag, taped securely and covered in dust, lots of dust.  Its age made me curious as to its condition so I decided to untape it and have a look.  Seeing the hull of the Hancock again took me back to a much earlier time when my model building skills were far less developed.  This was one of the first large scale bread and butter construction hulls I worked on.  As I looked over the model I was reminded why it ended up in a plastic bag.  There were so many problems with it.  Some were blatantly obvious with others discernible on closer inspection.  With a wry smile I shook my head, part in disgust and part in amusement, that I had made so many mistakes on the model.  I was about to put the hull back into the plastic bag when a little voice in my head said  "No Tom, don't do it.  It's true this model has a number of problems, some serious, but none are irreparable errors.  See if you can fix them and bring the Hancock back to life."  That afternoon I carefully went over every inch of the hull and cast a critical eye if it was worth the effort.  Even though there were a lot of issues to be dealt with the project I started twenty years earlier still had an enormous upside.  There was great potential to produce an attractive Revolutionary War frigate model so I decided then to give it a go.  I would resurrect Hancock. 
 
     It's too bad I didn't take pictures of the hull when I first removed it from the plastic bag.  I never envisioned, even after starting repairs on the hull, that I should make a build log for this model.  That was a mistake.  I wish I had because describing a problem is one thing, but showing before and after photos of them is quite another.  I'm glad I eventually decided to do one.  It's not often you will see a build log that starts off with a repair of a twenty year old model.  😉
 
     Yes, the hull had a number of problems, but what was the mistake that had me bring construction to a halt and shelf the model?   Well, after installing the keel, false keel, stem, sternpost, and knee of the head I discovered I made a serious error when I shaped the model's profile in the bow.  It was off enough it had to be addressed.   How could I make a profile error like this when I was so fastidiously meticulous in shaping the hull with station line templates?  How did it happen? Even back twenty years ago I shouldn't have made that mistake.  All that work had to be ripped out, the profile corrected, and all new pieces put in.  I don't know if it was a problem with a draught distortion, expanding a drawing from one scale to another, transferring the shape of the profile from the drawing to the template, carelessness in making the template, being sloppy in aligning the template on the hull, over-aggressive sanding of the bow, falling asleep while working, .....  There probably were a number of errors made, but whatever the reason(s) the profile was off.  While there were other errors made on this model, as you will see, that one completely freaked me out.  I was angry, frustrated and puzzled over what happened; and I certainly wasn't ready to rebuild the parts I removed.   At that time the only thing I could do was bag and shelf the model and come back to it another time.  Who would have guessed that would be twenty years later?
 
Tom
 

Fantastic work on your steering wheel

Fantastic work on your steering wheel

And now for something completely different. I took a break from the tedious deck work, intrigued by Garus' steering wheel on his excellent Victory and especially his duplicating device, I build the steering wheel. Using the technique described in TFFM 2 and 3. Not easy but lots of fun, frustration and multiple redo's later, the results:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Remco

HI ALL
WORK ON THE CANT FRAMES CONTINUES......NEXT PAIR HAVE BEEN FITTED.
 
THE ACRYLIC JIGS HAVE HAD A LINE SCRIBED ACROSS AT THE LWL LEVEL....HOPE THIS SHOWS IN THE PHOTOS.
 
THE NEXT TWO PAIRS OF CANT FRAMES WILL HAVE TO BE SUPPORTED BY A FRESH PAIR OF JIGS.......THIS AFTERNOONS JOB WHILST THE GLUES SETTING......UNFORTUNATELY DESPITE ALANS SUGGESTION TURNING THE CURRENT JIGS AROUND MEANS I CANT GET MY CLAMPS IN PLACE.
 
NOT A MAJOR PROBLEM THE BYRNES SAW WILL MAKE SHORT WORK OF MAKING A NEW SET......I SHOULD OF GIVEN MUCH MORE THOUGHT TO THESE JIGS IN THE FIRST PLACE........FILE THAT IN THE MEMORY BANKS FOR THE NEXT BUILD!
 
ANYWAY PHOTOS ENCLOSED FOR YOUR DELICTATION.
 
CHEERS.....MICK

hi alan
already made and in use! upload some more photos later when the camera batteries finished recharging.
 
cheers....mick

HI ALL
NEW JIGS ARE IN USE......LAST PAIR OF CANTS DUE TO BE FITTED THIS EVENING AND THEN WE MOVE ON TO THE HAWSE PIECES.
 
BACK TO WORK FOR THE NEXT FOUR NIGHTS SO NO MORE UPDATES FOR A WHILE!
 
PHOTOS ENCLOSED
 
CHEERS.....MICK

I recently drew up a hand powered dredge winch (about 3' X 3' X 2' in full scale), in a 2D CAD program, then went to a 3D model in SketchUp, then to an acceptable STL file to be printed by Shapeways. Would anyone be interested in a thread on the process, and some of the pitfalls along the way?
 
The winch pushes the limits of their tech, when translated to both 1/32nd and 1/64th scale printed models.
 
The winch is for my Carrie Price Skipjack model, in another build thread, but I thought that this subject would be more suitable for a wider audience.

Thank you  Crackers, and again to everyone else for the Birthday wishes.  It seems that another month has flown by without an update on the build log. It had been my intention to wait until I'd finished the gun carriages before posting another update, but decided I'd show where I'm up to as it is going to be another couple of weeks before I get some more serious bench time in (life just keeps getting in the way!).  Anyway, here is a small update to bring everything up to date.
 
4lb Gun Carriages (continued)
 
The remaining components of the gun carriages were made up using measurements and templates as necessary from the drawings.  The axles were made from square and rectangular stock, with the ends turned cyclindrical on the lathe.  Here are most of the parts prior to assembly (although some of these required a ‘do-over’ later on):
 

 
The sides of the gun carriages are not parallel when assembled and this caused a slight modification to be made by opening the angle of the axle slots in the carriage sides. The next problem to solve was how to hold the pieces in place during assembly while the glue dried.  The solution was a fairly simply jig mad from some scrap plywood. A plan view of the carriage was place on the plywood, and two dados were cut to accept the front and rear axles. A section was cut off the end and then sanded to a wedge shape to match the angle between the sides.  A couple of scrap blocks were glued in place to act as stops for the wedge to press up against:
 

 
The axles were then placed in the jig, the wedge placed over them and pushed up hard against the stop blocks, and the sides were then attached:
 

 
Once the glue had dried, the carriage was removed from the jig and prepared for final assembly.  The following picture shows the remaining components, which include a copper bar that will pass through the centre of each side and will support the front end of the Stool bed (lower right in the picture – showing it has been dadoed for both the copper bar and the rear bolster). Also shown is the transom, which will be placed between the sides over the front axle (it will subsequently be drilled for a second copper bar). The transoms all required a do-over to ensure a snug fit in each carriage. Finally, the trucks (wheels), which were turned from some ebony stock.
 

 
The Quoins were then made from some scrap boxwood, with handles from bamboo drawn through the Byrnes drawplate.  The Quoins are used to adjust the elevation of the gun barrel and so would be free to move, but I have elected to glue them in place.  I also drilled each of the axles and inserted a pin made from some more bamboo drawn through an even smaller hole in the Byrnes drawplate.
 

 
Not shown in the photos, I have since added the copper bar through the transom above the front axle (the empty hole can be seen in the photos).
 
Danny Vadas was kind enough to give me two gun barrels left over from his Vulture build, that seem to be pretty much spot-on for scale. These are the ones he imported from Russia, and come complete with the monogram.  Thanks Danny! They still need a little cleaning up and blackening, but are shown here for effect.  I’m still going to have a crack at turning a couple of barrels from ebony and if these work out, I will use two guns on the ship, and two as part of the display base. 
 

 

 
I have since given the carriages a coat of Wipe-on Poly, but have yet to manufacture the required eye-bolts, ring-bolts and cap squares.  Soon……….

tests for positioning the beams

 

 

 

 

 

Overhead storage seems right to me Alan.  Thanks, Christian.
 
Bill Maxwell generously gave me some of his sheet mica for the windows.  So, of course, I had to remake the fore bulkhead window and re-glaze it with mica rather than acetate.  For those of you not familiar with his work, take a look at his Fly at  http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/projectphotos1.html?proj=74
 

 
The aft bulkheads were made in similar fashion to the forecastle ones.  They are only temporarily positioned to facilitate fabrication and insertion of the quarter deck beams.
 

 

 

 

Your capstan is looking really good. It's a clever idea to make the ring from timber.

So I am starting my build log and I don't know whether it will help or hinder the building of this model. Maybe others have some experience of the effect.
Started selection of the next model last year and ran into the history of Napoleon surrendering on board HMS Bellerophon 200 years ago.
I have wanted to do an admiralty board model for some time and was inspired by Phillip Reed's book "Building a Miniature Navy Board Model" but I don't want to go to 1:196 yet!  So this will be a semi miniature scale.
This is my first Build Log so I am getting oriented with the process.
 
TonyM

WASHINGTON GALLEY  PART 8 CANT FRAMES
 
 
HI ALL
ABOUT TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE. BEEN DISTRACTED BUILDING FURNITURE FOR ONE OF THE LADS I WORK WITH AND STARTED BUILDING ANOTHER PROJECT......18 CENTURY LANTERN CLOCK .
 
HOWEVER ITS TIME TO GET TO GRIPS WITH THE FORWARD CANT FRAMES.....AWKWARD LITTLE SWINES!!!!
 
FIRST PAIR HAVE BEEN SET.....WAITING FOR THE GLUE TO DRY....NEXT TWO PAIRS WAITING TO GO IN.
 
PHOTOS ATTACHED.....COMMENTS ,CRITISMS...HOWLS OF DERISON GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
 
THE ONE THING I WILL BE DOING IS REPLACING THE LOW ENERGY BULB IN THE SPARE ROOM WITH AN LED BULB...A BRIGHT WHITE ONE......IT SEEMS THAT THE CURRENT BULB IS TOO YELLOW HENCE THE CRAPPY PHOTOS.
 
 I ALSO REPLACED THE PREVIOUSLY MADE WOODEN JIGS WITH SOME MADE FROM 5MM ACRYLIC,IT WAS LURKING IN A CORNER AT WORK SO IT HAD TO GO!
THE WOODEN ONES WERE FAR TOO CUMBERSOME TO FIT IN THE FAIRLY TIGHT SPACE AT THE BOW,
 
THATS ABOUT IT FOR NOW........MORE CANT FRAMES TOO FIT!
CHEERS.....MICK

Chuck, David, Albert, thanks.
 
I have had a little more time to work on the capstan details.  Bolts are used to secure the whelps and the chocks to the spindle.  Bolts are also placed through the reinforcing ring.  I left these bright to contrast with the black color of the ring.  They are actually countersunk bolts.  I did not have any brass thick enough to machine the pawls, so these are made from wood which has been painted black.  Sorry for the sawdust in the first two pictures.  This is an example of the camera seeing more than the naked eye and the capstan heads have since been cleaned.
 
 
 

 

 
Although I have drilled holes for the capstan bar retaining chains, I have decided not to model them.  They look "messy" to me and detract from the appearance of the capstan head.  I also figure I have a few months to finally make up my mind about them.  I have also not decided whether I will insert the bars.  Could anyone tell me where would these have been stored when not in use?

I can only second Marcs words. Your logs are really helpful

Really nice and precise progress

Really nice and precise progress

Really nice and precise progress

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 126 – The Wheel
 
I had hoped to make the wheel by the same methods used for the larger wheels on Naiad, but do to the smaller size of this wheel and the material, I found that some compromises would be necessary.  They are described later, below.
 
I wanted to use a darker wood for the wheel and decided to use cherry.  This is less hard and strong than the European Boxwood I used on the Naiad wheel.  In the first picture the outer diameter of the wheel has been turned in the lathe and the 39” (.54” act.) diameter is being checked.
 

 
The square cherry block in the four-jawed, self-centering chuck has its grain running perpendicular to the centerline of the lathe.  This would permit using a cross-grain lamination to strengthen the final assembly.  The 1/16” hole in the center of the turning was centered carefully using a center drill in the tailstock, before boring the final hole that will eventually receive the wheel axle.  In the next picture, slots for the 10 spokes are being milled in the face of the turning.
 

 
For this work the chuck was removed from the lathe to the rotating table on the mill without removing the turned piece.  The saw was then centered on the turning and brought down into contact with the face.  The blade here is .032” thick and it was lowered into the work to make a slot about 2.5” inches square.  After each cut across the face of the piece, the table was rotated 36 degrees and repeated to make all the cuts for the 10 square spokes.
 
In the next picture the piece has been returned to the lathe and a laminating piece is being glued on with the grain at 90 degrees to that of the turned piece.  The drill chuck in the tailstock is being used to clamp the glue joint.
 

 
This single cross grain lamination is already a much simpler construction than the multi-layer pentagonal assembly of the two Naiad wheels.
 
After the glue had dried the added piece was turned to the rim diameter and its entire face trimmed off to the final thickness.  The next step was to remove the area between the rim and the hub.  This leaves an integral rim/hub turning that will ensure centering of the hub.  The 10 square spokes were then slipped into the piece as shown in the next picture.
 

 
I had intended to insert these temporarily, to be replaced with the final turned spokes later – one-by-one as was done on the Naiad wheels.  However, I decided this would be impractical on this small wheel.  Apart from the difficulty expected in turning these very small cherry spindles, the amount of gluing surface at the hub was too small without the spokes.  For these reasons I decided to glue these square spokes in at the hub and round the handles by hand.
 
The next picture shows the inside face of the rim being turned through to the hub.  Once the cut passed through the ID of the rim, only the spokes held the assembly together – as with the real wheel..
 

 
In the next picture the wheel has been parted off and is ready for final sizing and shaping of the handles.
 

 
The next picture shows the handles being shaped using diamond grit files – very carefully, since the glued-in spokes may not be replaced if one is broken,
 

 
 
The last picture shows the finished wheel mounted on the helm enclosure.
 

 
The enclosure is still removable and I expect it will spend the next many months stored away somewhere, safe from damage during the remaining construction and rigging of the model.
 
Ed

Young America 1853 – POB 1:96
Part 35 – Forecastle Deck Beams
 
The POB model has some real deck beams to install – not many – just enough to introduce the method used on the framed model to POB builders. The method I used to make the forecastle beams – as well as the breast beam at the poop shown earlier – was very similar to that used on the framed model, but somewhat simpler.  It begins with a template for the round up of the beams.  In the first picture, a copy of one of the bulkhead patterns has been pasted to plywood and the curve of the deck is being sanded on the edge.
 

 
Since the round up radius is the same for every frame and every deck, any one of the patterns could be used.  The template was then used to trace the round up on to a piece of maple.  The curve was then sanded on to this piece as shown below.
 

 
Using a compass the depth of the forecastle beams was then drawn along the curve.  A blank that will be sliced into several beams was then cut off along this line, allowing some excess for sanding.
 

 
I then used the thickness sander to impart the final thickness on the underside of the beams as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The thickness sander does a great job with this.  The depth is uniform and parallel to the top face.  It is also very fast.  Without a thickness sander, I would have cut very close the line with the scroll saw, then sanded the underside by hand – not too arduous a task.  The individual beams were then ripped off –top side down! – on the circular saw as shown in the next picture.
 

 
The last picture shows the six maple beams and the breast beam, for which pear was used since it will be exposed and not painted.
 

 
As can be seen, I made these beams long before they were needed - before the planking of the main deck.  Cutting and fitting of the beams will be described in the next part.
 
Ed
 

Thanks or the many comments and likes.
 
Nils - The forecastle ventilation scoop on the starboard side is the access to the fore platform. There is a small ladder in place. I imagine the scoop was removable for easier access to the platform. The forecastle also has a small access grating to load coal. Note that on the port side of the fore platform has a small scuttle or "coal hole" in load it into the hold.
 
Remco - shockingly, I seem to have forgotten to photograph the completed galley stove prior to installation. I didn't overdo it as it will only be visible through some omitted planks on the forecastle.