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BANYAN

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Everything posted by BANYAN

  1. Nice find Bruce; thanks for sharing. I wish they would fold out those illustrations when copying cheers Pat
  2. Hi Keith, thanks for the suggestion. I have tried polyester, and still experimenting with Rayon, but I found the poly has just too much stretch in it - even PR stretching hasn't helped much, especially here with the wide range of humidity we experience. I agree with you re shine though, especially if you use the 'glace' types. cheers Pat
  3. Bruce, sorry for my tardiness; had not realised you had started a log. A very interesting discussion of your progress, trials and tribulations and it seems you have conquered all. Looking forward to your updates. cheers Pat
  4. Very nice work Steven, your persistence to get it right is 'Admir'able - sorry couldn't resist. Seriously, though, your GH is looking great and I really love those sails. cheers Pat
  5. Stunning detail and very well executed Greg; some great eye candy. cheers Pat
  6. Thanks for the feedback and comments Eberhard and Mark, and for all the 'likes'. Eberhard, yep, hopefully I will be able to make all of it, but may resort to suitable thread if I have no luck with the smaller stuff. I'll have a close look at that fly tying thread, but my concern here would be a colour match with the thread I have found for the silver/grey to simulate wire - this latter is a Gutterman cotton (long staple). cheers Pat
  7. Ditto Looking really good Rob, the furled sails really add to the look, and I am seriously considering this for the Victoria. cheers Pat
  8. Hi folks, this post is one for those interested in just how much scale rope would be required to fully rig a vessel in the mid-19th century (steam/sail). HMCSS Victoria was rigged as a three masted Barque with a full outfit of fore-and-aft sails). After transcribing a copy of her Rigging Warrant into an Excel Spreadsheet, I used some background formulas and pivot tables to calculate the various sizes of thread I would need and was very surprised with the result. This may not surprise the more experienced modellers, but needing over 71 metres of running rigging scale rope was somewhat enlightening for me (and that doesn't include some of the extraneous stuff like lacings, some rigging tackles, gun tackles, boat rigging (5 x boats) etc. Please note that I am using silver grey thread to simulate the wirerope rigging - using wire would simply destroy the rigging fittings at this scale. I am posting an example of one of the worksheets (that for the Bowsprit and combined Jib Boom) the spreadsheet. The scary bit - how do I make 0.1mm rope I think I will just have to find some suitable sized thread, or simply round these out a bit and use say only 3 or 4 sizes but stick to the principle of lighter ropes to the upper rigging etc. cheers Pat
  9. Keith, can you get heat shrink of this small a diameter (and right colour)? Might make life a little easier for simulating the wire coverings. I love that photo of your helper (dockyard assistant) - looks like she is well on her way to lofting plans Hopefully I can encourage both my granddaughters to help cheers Pat
  10. Thanks everyone for the comments and encouragement; and welcome aboard French Mr Bean - appreciate your kind comment. Good ideas Eberhard and Druxey, I will experiment with those techniques but I must admit I have never had much luck with concentricity when boring out cheers Pat
  11. Just a small update, I have been fiddling around trying to determine the best way to make some of the swing boom fittings, and I think I have settles on the way to go. I have found some thin wall brass tube which has the correct ID for the spider band. Using my mill with an indexing head and sensitive drill attachment, I can drill small holes 90 degrees apart using a carbon bit (good bight on the brass). I have made some small eyes with a 0.5mm twisted shank which fit these holes nicely so that I can solder them in place. I then nip and file away any of the eye shaft in the ID of the tube leaving a nice smooth finish that slides onto the boom for a firm fit. The finished band look very acceptable when cleaned up and blackened. For the inner end fitting I have used some PE I had made that when put into a former and domed using a burnisher, provides the base of the fitting. I was having some issues getting the small thin strip to sit properly for me to solder so had to find another solution. I found a bit of thick walled brass tube that had near the right ID to slide over the arms of the fitting but had to ream that out a tad. I then pushed this onto a bit of scrap dowel and put a brass nail in to the end to expand the wood so the tube was held tightly. I then put that into my lathe and cut, filed and polished the OD of the tube to form a very thin wall. Once parted in the small saw jig (micro 'V' mitre box) the inner form could be removed leaving me with a nice thin band. I think the photos show this process but also shows that care needs to be taken even with a jig - one cut got away from me as you can see - the parted tube/band has a very rough edge where my sawing technique was not up to par - luckily I had enough to make plenty of the bands. Now to solder them into place. For comparison, the thickness of the formed base of the gooseneck fitting is 0.2mm and the ruler ticks are 1mm apart. cheers Pat
  12. Ditto above comments; just when you think it can't get better than.... well, you continue to provide such lovely detailed fittings. cheers Pat
  13. Getting there indeed; looks great Greg. You have mastered these now so what is your next building challenge? cheers Pat
  14. You're making great progress mate; looks good. cheers Pat
  15. I think you have nailed it Dave, some ships I believed had fixed stanchions, but others removeable - the manropes were only fitted as required and usually had a Walkers Knot in the top end that went through the upper ring. cheers Pat
  16. Love the planning you put into these micro builds Glen; looks like you have a winner here. cheers Pat
  17. The boats etc turned out nicely, a lot better than those metal things. More goodies to play with; must be your birthday cheers Pat
  18. we must have crossed in the ether Rob - great minds think alike (well your's might be great at least). cheers Pat
  19. Wow, fitting the rails makes a real difference. That looks great! cheers Pat
  20. Rob, in a similar idea to that offered by NIc, also try some very thin wire as a leader, as it is stiffer than thread. It could be a single strand from the multi-core electrical wire but must be thin. I use ni-chrome wire as it is a little stronger; I simply double it through the leading link of the chain - it is thin enough for for both ends of the wire to easily pass through the block , fairlead etc. cheers Pat
  21. OK, based on the suggestions received, I have gone back though my sources. From what I can see, no contemporary nor more modern authors discuss any sort of a mechanism, resulting in some conjecture in the probable fit. The mechanism will have had to be easy to operate or rig/unrig and of an uncomplicated design. Having swung the boom clear, the crane would then have to be cleared away from the obstacle zone. Accordingly, the first of the best two options being that the entire assembly (crane) could be shipped or unshipped from dedicated fittings or brackets on the hull. This arrangement may have been as simple as horseshoe shaped mating brackets to receive the upper and lower ends of the inner part of the bracket, and locked in place with pins. Whatever the design, the receiving brackets or bolts, and the inner upright part of the crane will have been designed to sit flush against the hull to stop the crane swinging. It was then simply shipped/unshipped as required. The alternative method would be to swing the crane forward or aft out of the way. Again, the crane would need to mate with brackets on the hull, but in this design will have been round spigots, to allow the assembly to swing. This arrangement will have required some form of guys to be fitted which are not evident in any of the imagery and has therefore been discounted. This works, and the added benefit I don't have to try and correct the fitting I have made, as at this scale, the shoes/receivers would be nigh invisible. However, I am still contemplating adding a thin bit of strip brass to the upper end of the upright part of the crane to simulate the upper shoe/bracket. cheers, and many thanks again to all - the power and value of this site is well demonstrated with the excellent exchange of info and suggestions. Pat
  22. Thanks for the follow-on comments Keith, John and Roger; I think you guys may be onto something there. The boom did indeed swivel in two axis (horizontal and upward to a limited degree). I did not attempt this and have only modelled the horizontal axis - yep you can flay me later The actual swivel joint probably looked like the following, but could have been a simple angled rod (older type) which I have used. Image from The Century Dictionary by WD Whitney 1911. Now if the boom could be got out of the way quickly, the idea of a hinged crane bracket would do the trick. The model I have used uses a rod gusset between the upright and horizontal bracket legs. Now, if this gusset was a simple rod that fitted into a retainer on the vertical leg, and into a hole in the horizontal leg, then it could be easily removed. Now if the horizontal part was hinged in near the ship's side, it could fold inward out of the way. Not ideal but workable; however I would not have much faith in the capacity of the lower bracket leg to secure the boom effectively if the topping lift did not have the weight. Even better might be Roger's idea. If the inner ends of the crane simply dropped into brackets (probably with forelocked pins, the whole assembly would swivel in out of the way. It is not like the crane is supporting a lot of weight; it is more a securing device. Now I really wish this issue had been more evident before I attached the current 'interpretation' of a crane to the model. As it was well and truely glued I think I will damage the model trying to take it off so will have to live with it. I think I will do the other side properly though. Thoughts/ideas? Many thanks again. Pat
  23. Lots of new toys to play with Knocklouder - enjoy; as you mention the hardest part is getting the invoice past the bean counters A suggestion, perhaps consider countersinking the heads of those nails holding the mitre box secure so that they are flush with the base otherwise the wider planks may not sit flat for cutting. From the photo hard to determine but you may already have done that. Good luck and happy building. cheers Pat
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