Dan Vadas

Thanks John, Druxey, lamarvalley, TJ, Michael, Sherry, Pat and Laman - much appreciated .

where are the retaining pins for the capstan bars?

I'll leave those for Remco .

are those bolts properly threaded?

Of course they are   . Just kidding .

The capstan plans for my San Felipe show the bars placed on the deck around the capstan...I'm guessing to keep them out of the way until needed. Was this common practice on the British ships as well, or just something unique to Spanish ships or maybe just the manufacturer of the plans?

Common to all Sherry - They take up a LOT of space when in use.

Can you link the upper deck and lower deck capstans together for heavy lifting?

Yes, they are linked for that purpose.

  Danny

Well it's NOT "HMS Victory", even though that's what the pic's Filename is .

  Danny

Yes David, she is the Skaubryn.

My family migrated from Germany to Australia in her on her last completed voyage in 1957 when I was four years old. She caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean on the following voyage.

Skaubryn

  Danny

Let's try a passenger ship :

  Danny

The Chilean tug Yelcho, which rescued Shackleton's crew from Elephant Island following their voyage in the open boat James Caird when their polar ship Endurance was crushed by ice. (I've read the book   )

  Danny

Yeah Kevin, just like that - unfortunately for you Jan named her first   . It is the Starship.

She's a Harbour Cruise boat in Sydney - Jim Lad (one of our Moderators) can see her every Wednesday (when he's not on an overseas holiday) from the front door of the Australian National Maritime Museum where he works as a volunteer model ship builder. She's berthed in Darling Harbour directly opposite the museum.

Starship

Over to you Jan.

  Danny

It's not REALLY ugly, and it's not a Ferry .

  Danny

Thank you very much John, Janos, Doris, Amfibius, and Adeline - I'm glad you all appreciate the effort gone into this piece. It's been a heap of fun building it .

Almost finished with the Capstans - I've fitted all the bolts. There are 10 brass ones (they should be iron, but I've used brass so they can be seen) in each reinforcing ring, as well as the 0.35mm holes for the bar retaining pins. The pics with the sidecutters give you an idea of how small these "bolts" are - the last one to be fitted is lying on top of the drumhead in one of the pics.

I've used blackened brass "bolts" for the remainder.

  Danny

A bit more in the present Crackers .

There are plenty of pics to be found using Google - you just have to work out WHERE to look   .

  Danny

Kevin, that's not her most flattering angle - she looks a whole lot better from the front or side .

  Danny

Thanks David - that took a LOT of Googling to find the right Clipper in the right place at the right time .

OK - here's the next one, and a cryptic clue :   "Jim Lad can see her from the front door on most Wednesdays".

  Danny

Syren?

  Danny

Good to hear Grant . Maybe soon the only Malt you've tasted lately WON'T be on the ice-cream?

  Danny

Taeping and Ariel?

  Danny

Very good Posts Crackers and Frankie .

Silkspan is also excellent for making Flags. You can use your Printer to make any type of flag - even those "Fleur de Lis" French ones that are a real pain to try and paint any other way .

Here's a simpler one - the Jack on my "HMAT Supply" :

  Danny

Here you go Janos - both capstans with an Australian 5 cent piece in the foreground. For those of you who don't know, it's our smallest coin with a diameter of 19.25mm :

  Danny

Thank you Janos. I'll use a 5-cent piece on my next lot of pics   .

Capstan Bars

They'll be about the LAST things fitted but I thought I may as well make the Capstan Bars while I'm in that mode. There are 15 bars in total (5 on the lower capstan and 10 on the upper) but I'm only going to fit 6 or 7 to the top one and none on the lower - I want to show off the square holes in the drumhead on the starboard side.

The bars are 8 feet long. They have a 3 1/2" square tenon on the inner end to fit the hole in the drumhead. Then they step up to a short 3 3/4" section, and round off and taper to 2 5/8" at the outer ends.

I started by cutting the square bars on the table saw. Then I made a little jig from a pine block to sand the inner step all to the same length and depth - this seems like "overkill" but it made the job very easy :

Then I made another jig to turn the other end into an octagon. This also started the "rounding" in the right position, and also gave me a good grip on the bars whilst sanding :

The one on the right is still square, the middle one has been "octagoned", and the left one is finished :

I finished off the tapering and rounding by holding the bars flat on my sanding sheet board and using a sanding stick. Here are the first four :

  Danny

Thank you Joe, Andy, Clay and Grant .

what's next some fancy cabinetry inlay, or a parquet floor?

No thanks Andy, I'll leave that to Janos. Parquetry floors were restricted to Royal Yachts .

I'm still curious as to why you chose to use this instead of, say, brass

Because I could   , and also because it was probably easier than trying to turn a couple of brass rings, blacken them, turn out a perfect height groove in the drumhead and epoxy them in perfectly flush .

  Danny

Or DD-932 .... USS John Paul Jones.

  Danny

Popeye, there were two USS Forrest Shermans. This one would be DD-931, launched in 1955. The other is DDG-98 launched in 2004 (and clearly NOT the one in this pic).

I'm guessing that Andy took this pic when she was on her way to be turned into a Museum (or perhaps the Scrapyard)?

  Danny

Sorry Kevin, Jan beat you by two minutes   .

Yes, it was the USS President.

Over to you Jan.

  Danny

Here's the Drumhead Ring finished off :

  Danny

Well, you have all named five of the six Frigates (Independence wasn't one of the original "Six" Kevin, she was built in 1814) without getting THE ship.

One more to go for the lucky winner .

  Danny

Very close Kevin - right time frame, right country, wrong ship.

Think "Six Frigates"

  Danny

Righto, one more go - I'll make this one easy :

  Danny