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Lou van Wijhe

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Everything posted by Lou van Wijhe

  1. Lou van Wijhe
    Be careful with builder specifications, ships are hardly ever built precisely as designed. The original specs say "Bulwarks. To be of plate iron 5/16" thick to extend 4 ft above stringer plate according to tracing", whereas in real life they are with 1/2" much thicker and extend only 3'4" above the stringer plate. For model building the thickness of the plates is of lesser importance but the height certainly is. All actual dimensions can be found in the document "Construction of the Composite Built Clipper Ship CUTTY SARK" by Captain Simon T. Waite, the ship's former (and honorary) master. Lou P.S. Rethinking the subject: The original specification doesn't say the bulwark plates are 4 ft high but the bulwarks are "to extend 4 ft above stringer plate" which is something different. The plates are rivited to the inside of the sheer strake and do not rest on the deck stringer plate (look here) so, if they measure 3"4", the total height may indeed be 4 ft. Something learned, again.
  2. Lou van Wijhe
    The dimension of the bulwark plates are 10'8" x 40" x 1/2" and they are riveted to the inboard side of the sheer strake. The butts of the plates are internally strapped and the upper edges of the bulwarks are stiffened by a 4" x 4" angle iron, which also support the main rail. The dimensions of and spacing between the rivets can only be estimated from the numerous pictures available. Hope this helps. Lou
  3. Lou van Wijhe
    Nenad, This is a valuable piece of research! Lou
  4. Lou van Wijhe
    And the ones that do not want to step back (like me) never advance... Lou
  5. Lou van Wijhe
    Nenad, The hull planks are not all the same length, the length varies between 27'6" and 36'. In contrast to ships with wooden frames, the plank ends are not fixed to the frames but to a butt plate between them. There are about 36 strakes of planking per side, the planks being 10" wide. This is straight from the horse's mouth. Lou
  6. Lou van Wijhe
    Surely a magnetic one. Lou
  7. Lou van Wijhe
    Omar, Should you like to tease yourself with even more details, I have collected some here. Happy reading (and modeling)! Lou
  8. Lou van Wijhe
    Nenad, I did originally start a build log. It was lost during the database crash we experienced some time ago and due to other time-consuming hobbies I didn't come to reconstructing it yet. Besides, I haven't got much new material to show and a build log should have some progress (like yours!) to keep it interesting. It shouldn't be a never-ending story like Peyton Place (my contemporaries will know what Peyton Place was...). Lou
  9. Lou van Wijhe
    Nenad, I'm not sure what you are looking for but I once made some pictures during repair work on the bow that might be helpfull. You can see them on (and download from) Skydrive, they are among the bottom ones. Lou
  10. Lou van Wijhe
    Bob, I think that somewhere you must stop looking for the ultimate truth. Ships change over time and some things cannot be ascertained any more. However, the Cutty Sark's former captain, Simon T. Waite, compiled a list of changes to the ship's fabric during the years which may be of some help. From the introduction: This document summarises the known history of the fabric of Cutty Sark, culled principally from the ship’s logs and survey reports. It draws substantially on research undertaken by the former master of the ship, Captain Simon Waite, with additional research by the Trust’s Research Assistant, Simon Schofield. You can download the document from here. Lou
  11. Lou van Wijhe
    And you can download the report from here. Lou
  12. Lou van Wijhe
    Sudomekh, Your model looks beautiful and highly detailed. I've also been looking at your photos on the Russian forum. This really is museum quality! Lou P.S. The way you built the hull, in two halves, is very interesting and special!
  13. Lou van Wijhe
    I can not explain it better than this. Lou
  14. Lou van Wijhe
    An alternative for soldering intricate parts is a resistance soldering unit. I bought one from American Beauty Tools (model Super Chief 250 W). They are pretty expensive, especially for Europeans because of shipping cost and import duties. However, I saw a used one on Ebay for only $ 150. An idea? Lou
  15. Lou van Wijhe
    Midshipman, This really is a beautiful model and I especially liked your setting her up like being drydocked. Very realistic! Lou
  16. Lou van Wijhe
    I'm afraid the progress on my Cutty Sark model is minimal. I'm a man of many hobbies and little time (that is to say, little time left, as I'm approaching 74). But I made myself a schedule so that all hobbies get their fair share from now on and to speed things up I bought myself a computer controlled milling machine (Stepcraft 420 from Germany). I bought it as a building kit and I'm assembling it at this moment. Lou
  17. Lou van Wijhe
    Nenad, Some time ago I uploaded a number of Cutty Sark photos, taken in the nineteen eighties, to Skydrive. They contain numerous shots of the bulwarks. You can find them here. Lou
  18. Lou van Wijhe
    P.S. In my sketch the bulwark stanchions look as if going through the deck. This was based on a drawing in a document by The Cutty Sark Trust (Conservation Plan Volume 1: History of Fabric). Later on the ship's curator informed me that this drawing detail is confusing and that the opportunity for water ingress would be too great if the connection passed through the deck. The bulward stanchions are in effect attached on a small iron plate to the angle iron between the iron gutter way and the margin plank, like here: Cutty Sark Maindeckwaterway.pdf Lou
  19. Lou van Wijhe
    Nenad, The lines on Cutty Sark's hull can be explained as follows (see drawing, which -by the way- is not exactly to scale): The 1st line from above is the outside of the top gallant rail (varnished brown) The 2nd line is the outside of the main rail (also varnished brown) The 3rd line is the sheer plank moulding (painted white) The battens on the former Muntz Metal sheathing may have been there to reinforce the sheathing. Anyway, they were not replaced during the reconstruction. Hope this helps. Lou
  20. Lou van Wijhe
    Here is a drawing detail showing the actual form of Cutty Sark's counter. It was made after precise measurements in the ship itself. The drawing is by a Dutch fellow model builder, Joost van Griethuysen, member of the NVM (Dutch Model Builders Association). It belongs to a set he made to update and complement one he made in the nineteen seventies. Unfortunately, he died during the process. He sent me the complete set but I'm not sure if all revisions were published by the Association. I'll check and let you know. If so, you might order the complete drawing set from them. I myself started building a large scale model of the Cutty Sark but it didn't make much progress as other hobbies got in the way (a luxury problem!). However, the process didn't stop definitely... Lou
  21. Lou van Wijhe
    Sjors, I have an original Emco Unimat 3 which is both sturdy and precise. Unfortunately, Emco went out of business years ago. You might find a Unimat 3 or the older SL on Ebay or Marktplaats. Besides that, Proxxon machines are also first class. Lou

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