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some steps forward:
everything is still only provisionally resting, I haven't fixed anything yet
 







 
 

Two of the last major additions that I wanted to add that weren't part of the Occre plans were better hammocks, and gangway steps on the hull.
 
Spent the last few nights working on the hammocks.  I used some sail cloth that I bought online, which was hard to work with as the cloth seemed to unravel faster than I could work with it, plus the gap in the railing to place the cloth was only about 1mm wide, so it was very hard to work with until I decided to open the railing up a bit with a chisel. Not the best, probably larger than they should be for scale, and I know I added way too many of them, but I am happy with the result with how frustrating it was to add them. 

 
After the hammocks I added up the gangway steps on the hull.

 

Put the lathe back under the bench; wonder if I'll ever use it again? Before doing that I vacuumed out under there in the process discovering objects such as a long-lost hammer. So I decided to empty and vacuum the shelf under the bench and found more stuff, including a box with my wife's late grandfather's carving tools and some bandsawn blanks of his for horses etc (he was a farmer who loved his workhorses), and this little jewel which I believe was the grade 11 machine shop project. I recall hardening the jaws and polishing before assembly. Fond memories!
 
I will take grandpa's box to the cottage this summer and while away some down time trying to produce a creditable horse, in his memory.

 

 

Here is what Ultimation provides regarding the replacement blades.   The blade on the right is the blade for the Ultimation. The one on the left is a regular utility knife blade.  The utility blade is a little bigger and has two notches instead of one on the top.  
 

I could suggest another possible option here Ron. Before I throw out old appliances or tools, I always disassemble them and salvage anything useful, especially if they can be used for models. If you have a small old electric motor driven tool that you no longer use, you could use some of that fine copper wire that's wrapped around the armature. The smaller the motor, the finer the wire.  If it's disguised as rope and it needs to be draped, it can easily maintain the curve and there is no fuzz to deal with.  

I made the chain pots and fixed them in place. These are where the anchor chains or ropes are transferred across the gun deck and into storage areas. I then hauled the anchor chains onto the gun deck.
 

I continued work on the hammock cranes, and also punched out a number of thimbles.  I'm happy to report that my success rate improved greatly, and I only lost one!!  These are now ready to blacken--

 
After blackening--

 
The thimbles are in groups of ten, plus four.  Fifty-four in all.  Hopefully enough, though I may need a few that are bigger.  I don't know.
 
On to the Silkspan.  After putting a second diluted coat on the piece, it was just as transparent as before when backlit--not so much when viewed normally.  So I painted a coat on undiluted--

 
It was pretty opaque, but there were now brushmarks that would be out of scale.  It was also uneven coverage. Most of it was smooth (though with some brushmarks), but some areas still showed the fibrous texture of the Silkspan.  All in all not a satisfactory result.   I also wasn't sure it had enough sheen to look like oiled or tarred cloth.   So I tried painting the back side with Tung Oil finish to see how that looked--

 
It really accentuated the texture.  Not at all to scale.  What was worse, the Tung Oil seeped through the thin areas on the "front" side, making that side kind of a mess--

 
Off the frame this is the back side--

 
And this the front--

 
When doubled over, similarly to how it will be seen on the model, the sheen of the painted (front) side may be okay.  Maybe less than actual oiled cloth (I'm not even sure!), but as is typical with scale models, gloss looks better if it's toned down--

 
So I will try another piece.   I'll build up the layers with diluted paint, until the fiber is filled in evenly without brush marks.  I'm also using a much larger brush.  I don't feel like I'm "scrubbing" into the material nearly as much.  After the second coat it was much more opaque than the first attempt, even though I don't think the paint was any thicker.  This is coat number three.  I'll need at least one more--

 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

Dave, I think I want a light color for the hammock crane line, so actual rope seems to be my best option.  But I appreciate the suggestion.  And we do tend to be pack-rats.  "Never know when I might need this!" 
 
Dowmer, yes, Silkspan seems to be an option here, and you will see my attempt at it.
 
As I work on the hammock cranes, soldering the pins on and finishing them, I am also sidetracking into another project: making a bunch of metal thimbles for the rigging.  When I get to blackening the hammock cranes, I want to be efficient, and the thimbles are something else that needs to be blackened, that I will need soon; so I will show my progress on making those now.
 
Basically, I need to cut pieces of brass tubing, and flare them out.  Easier said than done.  They are tiny.  To cut the pieces, I first tried using a my Zona saw with the 1mm OD wire held in a groove of scrap wood.  Nope.  Then I tried the rotary tool with a cut-off wheel.  Nope.  The biggest problems were holding the wire firmly enough to get a clean cut, and not losing the tiny cut-off piece. 
 
I settled on a method where I drilled a 1mm hole through a piece of scrap wood, and pushed the tube through--
 
The tube was then pushed back flush with the edge, and sawed through--

 
Then, a pin (which just happened to be the perfect diameter) was inserted into the end of the tube--

 
And the tube with the cut piece pushed through--

 
The pin held the cut off piece securely--

 
That piece after being sawn is too long, but it was made that way because I was afraid of snapping off the bit of wood on the edge, if I had made it thinner.  So the next step was to drill another hole in some scrap wood of the right thickness (this part is described in David Antscherl's TFFM)--


 
And the piece then filed--

 
This worked sometimes, but what began to happen more often (as the hole got a little loose, or my filing not square), is that the piece ended up with skewed ends, as on this one--

 
The next step was setting the thimble on a hard surface, and punching it with a modified nail set punch--




 
This took some practice to get a good result.   The end of the tube on the punch would flare, but not the bottom.  Then I would turn it over, and the flared end would just flare more.  After a few failures, I seemed to have better success if I barely started the flare, and then turned it over before punching again.   I had a success rate of about 1 in 5.  Partly because of the problem mentioned earlier about the skewed ends.  If they were skewed, no dice, it would just skew more when punched.   Here is a successful one, and another attached to a hook--

 
So decided to skip the filing step.  Maybe it would have worked just fine if the pieces were closer to the right length to begin with.  In the end I just pulled back a little (by eye) on the tube, rather than having it flush--

 
This gave me square ends, and the right length (more or less).  I cut 20 or 30 of these this way, but haven't started punching them into thimbles yet.  Hopefully I'll do better than 1 in 5.
 
 
Now for some exploration into the Silkspan hammock covers.  This is my first experience with this material.
 
I made a frame out of old unused paint stirring sticks, and cut a piece of medium weight Silkspan--

 
This was then wet, and taped to the frame to dry--

 
Painter's tape is probably not the best choice, because it doesn't stick well when wet, but it seemed to work well enough.  I then used some acrylic paint, diluted just a bit with water, and painted it on--

 
After drying partway it looked opaque enough, but when I held it up to the light, it seemed pretty transparent--

 
I'm going to give it another coat, and see how it looks.
 
So, a number of things going on:  fine tuning the hammock cranes (which consists of rounding the cut off ends and general straightening), making thimbles, and experimenting with the Silkspan for the hammock covering--
 
 
All for now,
Ron
 

Conny's current situation.

Spent the last week working on deck furnishings, all these attachments to the deck are deceptive with how much time they take to complete.  Also looking at these pictures makes me just want to pick up a touch up brush, its crazy how a camera points out so many imperfections that you can't see with the eye. 
 
Got the chain wrapped around the windlass after I spent nearly an hour looking on the ground for one of the chain pipe outlets I dropped.  I even saw exactly where the piece landed, but by the time I got on my knees to grab it the piece it had been sucked up by the small parts black hole.

 
Main jeer bits, water pumps and main hatchway.

 
Skylights and companion ways. 

 
Boat mounts

 
And that takes me up to how the ship currently sits.  

 
Just a few more items for the deck, I need to figure out how I want to rig the stowed cannons, start making the hammocks, then the ships boats.  After that then Its time for the masts and rigging.

I could suggest another possible option here Ron. Before I throw out old appliances or tools, I always disassemble them and salvage anything useful, especially if they can be used for models. If you have a small old electric motor driven tool that you no longer use, you could use some of that fine copper wire that's wrapped around the armature. The smaller the motor, the finer the wire.  If it's disguised as rope and it needs to be draped, it can easily maintain the curve and there is no fuzz to deal with.  

Another brief update:
 
I tried making some rope small enough, but with the thread I had on hand, it wasn't quite thin enough.   After thinking I might have to try enlarging the holes, I found (I think it came from Bluejacket) a spool of rope in my small stock that fit!   I will dye it just a shade darker--
   
You can't quite make out that the line is through the hole, so--

 
I also tested soldering the pins.  Since they won't be seen, I can overlap the brass, instead of butting it.   This is a much easier joint to solder.   I clearly missed centering the pin on this one (I maintain it moved while soldering!), but again, it won't show, and I'll drill each hole in the cap rail "custom" to match.  (Or maybe I won't use this one!)  I think I have now satisfied myself that these will work. 
 
While I continue the production of the hammock cranes, I am considering how to replicate the oiled cloth (which I guess it is) as shown on Glenn's model that covers the hammocks stowed within these cranes. 
 
All for now,
Ron
 
 

I could suggest another possible option here Ron. Before I throw out old appliances or tools, I always disassemble them and salvage anything useful, especially if they can be used for models. If you have a small old electric motor driven tool that you no longer use, you could use some of that fine copper wire that's wrapped around the armature. The smaller the motor, the finer the wire.  If it's disguised as rope and it needs to be draped, it can easily maintain the curve and there is no fuzz to deal with.  

That's it for today 

I continue with the structures of the head:
 









 
 
 

As my interest in jigsaw puzzles and ship modeling is well know by my friends and family, I was presented at X-Mas with this 3D model kit of Queen Anne’s Revenge (Blackbeard’s ship) by my wife's nephew and family. It’s more or less, a combination of my two interests in one box weighing in at a substantial 3 lb. 7 oz.
    While it is certainly not an accurately detailed rendition of the vessel, it will be my first entry into card models and I look forward to it’s assembly, which judging by the 23 page illustrated step by step instruction manual, (in 7 languages no less) should not be too difficult to complete.
    There are a total of 391 pieces including the display stand. The vast majority is printed on 15 sheets of 11” x 16.5” pre-punched sheets of 1mm card stock printed in color, but the sails are on 3 sheets of textured paper and there are 22 plastic canons, a small sheet of double sided tape, a card hole puncher, and small sheet of prefinished Mylar to represent stained glass on the rear of the ship.
     Although glue is not required for construction, obviously if you would like to keep it for display you might like to use some. No tools are required, other than the hole puncher that is included with the kit. It claims to be rated as a 6 in complexity, but not sure if that is out of 10 or what. I tend to believe that according to its estimated construction time of 4 hours it can’t be all that complicated.
    This kit is designed and manufactured by CubicFun Toys Industrial Co. Ltd out of Guangdong, China and is referred to as an anniversary edition, but I’m not sure if the company has produced an earlier model or if it refers to something else. While there is no indication of scale, the completed size of the model is listed at 29.1” X 10” X 24.4” (or 74cm X 25.6cm X 62cm).
     As this was a gift, I have no clue about its cost or if it’s a pirated copy of some other company’s product, but from what I can see, it is well produced and nicely packaged. While the model is admittedly more toy like, it is not pretending to be anything other than a 3D puzzle.
    Overall, I think that it seems to be a good introduction to card models especially for modeling fans that are inexperienced or just want to get their feet wet, so to speak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Cisco and Theodosius, and all watching.
 
Here is how I tackled drilling 228 holes with a #78 drill (.016" or .40mm)--

 
Two pieces ended up being deemed unusable, so I now have the 34 hammock cranes that I need, plus two extra--

 
I broke two more drill bits (for a total of three).  Those carbide bits break if you breath hard on them.  Actually, after the initial careless one, the breakage on the other two seemed to be related to how many holes I had drilled already (they may have been getting dull?), and how flat the piece remained held in the wood through the drilling--sometimes the piece lifted up when withdrawing the drill, in spite of my care to hold it in place.
 
Now I need to trim them, file the ends, and hope that I can thread a line through the tiny holes.  Hopefully I won't have to experiment on "punching" the holes a bit bigger.  Oh, and soldering pins on the bottoms.
 
All for now,
Ron 
 
 

The spar deck is slowly taking shape. The unpainted parts in the photos have not been glued into place yet. After making sure that all the parts are compatible with each other, they are painted and glued.

Couple more items completed.  Forward deck hatches.

 
Deep sea sounding wench.  Does anyone know if they stored the rope on the wench, or just attached it when in use?  Instructions don't show any rope on the wench, and its hard to find any images of deep sea wenches of the period.  I think it would look good with some rope wrapped around the drum.

That is probably true, but it just makes your results just that much more remarkable! 
    My paternal grandfather was also very good at carving by hand back in the depression with his own handmade tools.  I was always impressed by how he could create such beautiful sculptures and furniture from the most basic tools and scraps of lumber that he could get a hold of.
    I think that's who I inherited my urge to recycle rather than replace from.

That's a very remarkable improvement on such a small detail!

That is probably true, but it just makes your results just that much more remarkable! 
    My paternal grandfather was also very good at carving by hand back in the depression with his own handmade tools.  I was always impressed by how he could create such beautiful sculptures and furniture from the most basic tools and scraps of lumber that he could get a hold of.
    I think that's who I inherited my urge to recycle rather than replace from.

That's a very remarkable improvement on such a small detail!

Been working a lot on all the deck fixtures which means lots of painting and brass blackening of tiny parts.
 
Poop deck hardware, azimuth compass, and hand railing.

 
Windlass painted and glued in place.  I'm going to have to figure out what to do for the windlass handles, i formed up the brass rod to exactly match the kits template and they turned out not to be long enough, I tried to reform them to work but they just looked way to mangled up and I wasn't happy with them. The one material that Occre seems to be stingy with on this kit is the brass rod, so I am either going to have to order some more or find an alternative solution. 

 
Spent a while saturday night trying to rig up the carronade to somewhat match up how it is in the AOTS book.  It doesn't look great and the blocks look way out of scale, but it's way better than just the single rope the kit instructions called for. 

 
Sunday I finally decided to tackle the deadeyes, these took the better part of the day to install but weren't nearly as difficult as I was expecting.  

We the day finally came, all the sail rigging is complete. The only things left to do is rig the cutting stage, attach the davits and then rig the whaleboats to the davits. Sounds simple enough…..yeah right!😂🤪😜😁



The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!  😁
Tom