Dan Vadas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hello Danny!
Your work is absolutely perfect and awesome. That´s a great inspiration, what is possible to create. Thank you for description and sharing the pics from the progress. I cannot still pick up my jaw from the floor....  
My admiration to your masterpiece.
 
Kind regards,
Doris

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

Thanks for looking in Christian. BTW - there are four eyebolts immediately either side of the Main Mast and three on each side adjacent to it that should also be drilled and fitted before any work begins on the Pump Cranks. I'll drill these now and show you the updates later.
 
Hi all,
 
The final part of the Chain Pump setup - I've glued in the Pillars at the aft ends of the cranks. I was bumping and bending the aft ends of the cranks quite a bit, so I figured it was time to stabilize the whole structure. This meant fitting the 3rd Quarterdeck Beam as well :
 

 

 
My Aft Hatch is a little out of alignment - it's actually 2mm too short. I knew this a while ago - the problem is much further down. The Lower Well was slightly too far forward (2mm to be precise) and things further upwards had to be shifted to accommodate this. I'm not about to rip up two decks to fix an otherwise minor error properly .
 
  Danny

Yeah John, I'm pretty happy with the amount of work I did this weekend - especially with how detailed all this is .
 
Hi all,
 
The last couple of things for the Pumps - two Bungs, complete with handles, and the Latch that secures the Cistern Hood :
 

 

 
  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

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

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

Some day, a day far off in the future, I can imagine myself building the sails from individual cloths two scale feet wide. I picture doing this over a pre made form of the shape the sail would be in when it is set and drawing. maybe by then I will have rejected woven fabric entirely in favor of paper?  I imagine that going to this degree of trouble would allow for more realistic sails, less of a compromise we come to when we try to make miniature sails out of full scale woven cloth.  I draw my panel lines on with colored pencil,  others sew parallel seams with the sewing machine set to the smallest stitch, but still those stitches are way out of scale and cause the material to pucker too. But on the other hand my drawn on seams don't do enough to deform the surface they are drawn on, to suggest the varying elasticity of the individual panels, they are flat lines drawn on a flat plane. In actual practice the cloths were sewn edge to edge in a double row of stitches, the two rows about three or four inches apart.  Filed with wind, worn thinner sails in some lights take on a subtle corrugated appearance as the two foot wide panels between the seams billow out a bit farther than the seamed areas of the sails do. And on a level above that, the entire sail a compound curve, a beautiful convexity. I can imagine at some future date coming to the conclusion that each panel must have its own set camber. Would I burnish this into the paper strips before assembling them? Would my mold I build the sails over have subtle ribs in it to create this effect? I know that if I live long enough I will eventual fall to doing all these things I'm describing here. I'm pretty passionate about canvas. An excellent book on real world traditional hand made canvas sails is The Sailmakers Apprentice by Emiliano Marino. Full of well done illustrations of sails in all their varieties. Any questions you ever had about any part of a traditional canvas sail is answered, every variation on every sort of rig is described from the point of view of the sail maker. Its intended to teach you how to make your own sails so it goes into lofting and theory, but there is a good bit of historical background for a ship modeler to bite their teeth into.  And its well written warm and humorosus.

Sorry Kevin, Jan beat you by two minutes   .
 
Yes, it was the USS President.
 
Over to you Jan.
 
  Danny

Thanks very muchly Randy, Adrian, Russell, Mark, Sherry, Michael and Pat .
 
 
Geez Russell, does that mean I need to post something NEW every day? :D I'll do my best not to disappoint
 
Pat, the only things I did differently with the Drumhead Ring was up the RPM to near Max and slow down the Feed to near Zero with the Cutoff Tool - that worked a lot better, as you can see below. The ring has only just been glued in and still needs finishing, but it came out IN ONE PIECE :
 


 
Note - the top face of the ring is straight off the Cutoff Tool. The bottom face has been machined to fit the groove.
 
  Danny