BANYAN

Vossie, I found that using rubber bands around the hull with balsa wood block wedged between band and the plank worked best. I also put a strip of electricians tape on the block face closest to the plank to avoid any glue seepage sticking to the block. I tried all those different clamping adaptions but found this to be the easiest to use and proved quite effective. The thicker rubber bands proved best and they simply stayed on the hull throughout and I simply adjusted the blocks as required. if you get the right tension/pressure on the rubber bands the blocks keeps everything in place and yet the keel etc won't get marked. In some places I had to use additional larger blocks to get the right pressure but the basa was dirt cheap at the local hardware store. cheers Pat

Very nice work (again) - thanks also for showing the process which is invaluable info for many. cheers Pat

Small but significant progress Denis, the look of the chain on those drag poles/booms look very natural - great effect achieved. cheers Pat

Terrific technique Michael, and a valuable mini-tutorial for us lesser mortals Those rails look excellent in situ. cheers Pat

Be a lot easier if there weren't so many options huh Joss I am having the same issue with researching my Victoria. You seem to be making some good headway though. cheers Pat

Thanks Carl

Stunning! The decorations set her off nicely and are very well executed. Are the carvings from Cherry also? cheers Pat

Slowly but surely will get you there! cheers Pat

A late comer Russ, somehow missed your new build - but better late than never I suppose Looks like another very nice Biloxi Lugger in the making. cheers Pat

Welcome back to the fray Dave; the boats are looking good! I need to get cracking as I only have the garboard planks on the yawl. I have been putting it off as I have been trying to get ahead on the Victoria, which has been taking an inordinate amouint of my time. cheers Pat

Thanks Russ, the shape had me bamboozled there for a while cheers Pat

Well folks, apart from continuing to research I have been making some small progress on the model also. The research is important as the results will determine the location of the fittings that I need to add to the bulwarks before doing any doing deck furniture etc, as it will be too difficult to do so later. It is vital that I can determine the location and orientation of as many of the rigging fittings, pinrails, backstay straps, eyebolts etc before progressing too much further; otherwise, it will be a matter of redoing the work yet again. Some rework has already proven to be the case (unavoidable) as we have no plans, and information on ships of this type is very scarce - so we were forced to make some assumptions which have since proven wrong As you can see from the following photographs, I have started opening the ports; and, unfortunately I have also had to remove and redo about 95% of the roughtree timbers (risers). I have completed that and I am now in the process of fitting the waterways. Again there was not much information, and while the Contract had specifications for many of the ship's timbers/scantlings; all it said for the waterway was "to be shaped and fitted as shown on the plan" - not very helpful Looking at the profile of contemporary vessels of this type, shows a very substantial waterway with a profile as shown in the first drawing. To obtain this shape I found it easiest to make it in two pieces which were then laminated, and then shaped at the rear with a slight profile to butt up against the bulwark planks which tumble out from the ship's side - see diagram 2. The following photo (not very good) of the HMS Warrior forecastle shows this profile fairly clearly - I found this on the internet unsourced but I believe it is from the book "HMS Warrior, Frigate by Wynford Davies and Geoff Dennison. Sorry about the in-your-face sizes of the drawings - I will need to to resize these first in the future. The following photos show the waterway strips in their various stages of assembly and in being dry fitted. I soaked the individual planks and used a bending jig to get the curved profile of each layer by stacking them in the jig, before gluing and profiling the outboard side. The 45 degree profile was obtained by passing the plank though my mill fitted with a 45 degree cutter (in the upside down router style ). I then glued the upper plank to the lower plank following the edge of the profile on the lower plank. This has worked out a lot better than I hoped but did take quite a few trials to get the right wood and mill speed combinations. I have fitted a high-speed pulley upgrade to my Sherline mill to start approaching router like speeds - just have to remember this before attacking some metals (that need the slower speeds ). cheers Pat

Ditto Rick's recommendation - should look good! cheers Pat

Hi, just a small consideration to ponder Vossie. The preciseness of your first planking might also be the cause of some issues down line. If you plank exactly the same for first and second layers, the seams/plank joints will all be coincident. By not having them coincident (having overlapping of planks between layers), you can reduce the chance of seams opening if there is any movement in the wood from humidity/heat etc; whereas, if coincident they may open up. That said, the argument can be made that a single layer of planking would have the same issues and that doing this is virtually the same as having a single layer of planking. However, with two layers, especially the uneven thicknesses, will make one layer might expand more than the other? Just raised as something to consider. cheers Pat

Is this PE envy I see cheers Pat

Nice detailing there Carl' will look really good when all is brought together. cheers Pat

There is really a lot of nice detail in this build Greg; will look good when all together. The guns look great. Makes you wonder how some of these things floated with all that metal cheers Pat

Michael, was that typical of the sort of material used in ship models of that period? Was brass wire available back then? I think you are well on your way to achieving your stated aim of no noticeable repairs and looking like as he should for an older model. i know the camera can show or hide a multitude of thing, but looking closely the is not much to show of where you repaired her (and I mean that as a compliment) cheers Pat

Beautiful decoration Gaetan; very good quality control as the pair look nigh identical. cheers Pat

Looks good Ben, will the new timbers gain some colour with age and even out a bit? cheers Pat

Look forward to seeing you back in the shipyard Denis; sorry to hear of yor ails but happy you are on the road to recovery - a few of the finest of brews may assist further cheers Pat

Hi rexy, Steve has summarised it very well. Exact paint schema could never be known without a Tardis White stuff (white lead) bottoms were a bit after this but starting to emerge as Steve points out. If I recall correctly, this particular item was mentioned in some Contract letters and a Log or Journal reference that mentions the Brown stuff. The brown stuff would not have been readily visible as it was also covered with a sacrificial layer of wood sheathing and this would probably have been painted with some form of varnish of pine also to seal it a little. I have read somewhere, that as the sacrificial layer was lost and the brown stuff began to wear, it became slightly polished and for a while may have had a buffed creamy colour but very patchy? So, I think the bare bottom you see for a lot of models is the most popular solution; as Steve points out, the white is incorrect. I followed the clone path mostly as the Replica people put quite a bit of research into the colour schema; I did differ with the boats though. cheers Pat

Nicely done Michael. some awkward shapes to control there. cheers Pat

Hi folks, I thought I would do a bit of a tool review on a great new tool I have just received. Michael Mott, in his build log for the restoration of the Basset Lowke Albertic introduced a great new third-hand he had designed for himself - a new take on the usual designs. This looked very promising but as I am no tool maker, I asked him if he might make one for me - which he did See following picture. This was such a great adaption of the common cheap tool that are usually next to impossible to use for finer soldering projects, that I started looking at alternate uses for it. I realised it could also be very useful for rigging and opened another discussion with Michael on alternate clamp designs/arrangements that would not crush rope cordage, but could also be utilised for working wire rope where necessary. Michael has agreed to trial a few alternate clamps and has asked me to feed back to him on how useful they are. I thought the best way to do this is via a tool comparison and review; so here goes. Early in my hobby days, I had purchased two of those cheap version you can find in many tool, hobby and electronics stores. These were okay for basic use, until I found they were difficult to configure exactly for the job at hand, the clamps were very poor quality (fit, purpose, pressure) and marred the parts, or crushed the fibres of rope. I made a quick fix by putting heat shrink on the alligator clamp teeth which helped with grip and stopped some crushing of the fibres, but they still were not flexible enough to configure to hold small parts for a tight fit for soldering. I looked around on the Internet and found what looked like the best solution available; the GRS soldering station used by many jewellers, and some electronics guys - they seemed to have good reviews, and although expensive I invested in one. See the following photo: These have proven much better for soldering but did not resolve my rigging requirements. I then made a jig, based on a jig made by CristiC (I think) to assist in rigging which I used in conjunction with my 'rigging crab' which is an adaption of an idea by the late 'Hubert Sicard' on his Wood Ship Modelling Dummies site. However I still found I needed another arm, so invested in a single arm version of the GRS third arm soldering station. These can all be seen in the following photo: This collection of tools and jigs worked okay for my Endeavour rigging - that was until I saw what Michael had designed . Michael's third-arms are very well made, and with a wider spaced/longer base arm, and rotating components that can be tightened securely without damage to the arms, provide great flexibility in positioning to hold parts or cordage. The flexibility is enhanced with some great clamps, of which a wider range will be available after some further refining (if needed) whenI have used them for a while. I will provide an update to these clamps once I have received them and had an opportunity to try them for awhile: 1. soldering small and larger pieces typically used in our hobby; 2. holding soft cordage in various sizes for various tasks such as whipping, seizing, making tackles etc.; and 3. holding wire rope for the same purposes. With the wider spread of the lower bar, I am also going to trial its use to hold spars while fitting stirrups and blocks etc. As to soldering, at times you just need another hand to hold things, so I am going to trial an adaption to the base to allow me to screw in one of my GRS arms. I opted for a rectangular rather than circular base, and glad I did now as I can drill and tap a hole in one of the corners to allow me to fit that arm out of the way and get max configuration options Happy days! If anyone has any queries, or additional comments to make please feel free to add to this thread. cheers Pat

Good luck with that one OC, a few complex folds to be done there. cheers Pat