Javelin

Genious way of doing those rivets. Love the plating effect so far. This is real scratchbuilding.

Been a while again. I had expected for a break, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I could continue the build. I've been detailing the ship further, I'm feeling without the bottling risk, I could expend the additional time on this. I've done some tiny rigging on the system that holds the spud and compensates the forces on the spud and vessel in large swell and/or forces from the cutting process. I've made some anchor winches as she doesn't have real mooring winches. Drilled tiny holes in a 0.75mm thick strip. Then cut to length and added the gipsy wheels for the anchor chains. The finished product, hugely enlarged. The other objects are a half-height container and a 10ft container. Fully coated the hull in yellow-green now, to avoid contrasts below the water line when painting the anti-fouling. I then continued with the bottom profile. A more detailed sketch was made. It was then divided in different layers with different thicknesses, based on real dredging operations. The original depth would be the highest point, that part I will probably litter with tyres, debris etc.. The lowest part would be a part that is already at the final depth. The middle part is slowly being dredged in layers to reach that final depth. I chose this lay-out so the deepest part would give a proper visibility on the anchor and dredging cut, while showing some specific issues with having the anchors in deeper and shallower water than the ladder itself. This can give some issues with the wires below the surface. As you can see, I started with the vessel outline and anchor positions. I then chose an orientation and measurements and last, but not least drew the layers and measured them from the sketch. In the lower right corner I've made a small sequence note as I'd probably screw up if I didn't write these things down. This whole profile will be covered and smoothed out with sand-acrylic mixture. The "dredge layer" with the semi-circle, is made too large, so I can adjust to push the ladder back and hold the vessel evenkeel on the spud. The anchor boom will be swept more aft eventually. You can also see the large hydraulic mechanisms to tilt the spuds from horizontal to vertical and vice-versa when shifting between sailing and dredging. Most parts are still dry-fitted since I'm still adding the details. Having the big parts loose leaves me more space to manoeuver the pincers in.

Love the blue garden dragon. The ship is also nice Brilliant job so far. In a way it's a pitty you won't do the rigging, but on the other side it does put more focus on your brilliant hull work and decoration.

Somehow she looks large... Bulky is probably a better word for it (might be the macro picture of course). It'll be a challenge to get her in a bottle for sure... Great looking corvus, always thought they were shorter compared to the vessel. You're off to a well deserved vacation. Enjoy!

Thanks for the encouragement throughout the project Keith. Let me start off with an example of my production of small parts. In this case I needed to make 4 devices that were of the same dimensions. In such a case I'll determine which measurement is the most important one to be the same and which one I can adapt later on to make them match. Then I'll cut a strip of the most important dimension and start shaping the first part. Once it's ready, I cut it off and do the next one. And time for an overview of where I'm at at the moment. As you can see the barge loading installation is nearly in place. The large T-shaped pipes still need to be placed. It took me a while to realize that by cancelling the whole bottle idea (sorry @Glen McGuire), I wasn't restricted by that bottle anymore. Here was a drawing of the original idea, side view and forward view (from the bottle neck). The cutter head over the neck would have been cancelled considering the experience with the windmill hub on the Sea Installer project, but the bottle was to lay on a dredge anchor supported by some rocks. As you can see on the front view, the rigging would have been a nightmare and doing it ahead of pouring resin probably was a recipe for disaster. Since I realized this, I've gone back to an old concept for this vessel. Originally I wanted to do this in 1/400 scale without epoxy, but with a regular plexi box (which was probably going to take around 3 years to build). Below is a top view drawing in more or less actual measurements. I'll make a more precise one once I figure out what I'm going to use a base for this. Above is a top view. The ship's position you can figure out. Numbers 1 and 2 are the anchors, with number 1 anchor just being laid on the bottom. Number 3 is the floating line (on the surface of the expoxy). Number 4 is a multicat workboat stand-by near the anchor of the floating line. The multicat is there to simply fill up some open surface. I think I'll also treat the epoxy surface with acrylic gel for tiny waves. The straight lines crossing are the "cut" with the middle one being the center line, where the spud is positioned. That would be the lowest part, with Number 2 anchor on a more shallow area and perhaps for visibility, Number 1 anchor on the same depth or deeper than the cut depth.

Looks very convincing already! Can't tell if it's card or wood, which means you're doing an excellent job.

I don't like a shelf-of-doom. These things tend to annoy me greatly, being a brake on every project, I don't like to leave loose ends. As it stands, I'm now planning to keep the same lay-out, minus the bottle. I think I'll build up a box of 4 plexi walls, build the model inside, including pouring the epoxi to finally finish it by closing the plexi box on top. This would allow me greater access to the rigging during/after pouring, which would increase chances of succes. The anchor boom and its rigging are my greatest worries for bottling as its deployment should be done before pouring (= ship not very fixed yet). Tightening some of the lines and preventing the anchors to float in the epoxy were other concerns/risks. All those things can be fixed in an open box, but working around the corner inside a bottle is doubtfull at best.

I'd probably bend some 0.3mm copper or stainless wire around a rod/drill bit of appropriate diameter for the bow and cut to length. Then insert it through or glue it at the end of a small strip and make a support of an opposite V shape of 0.1 or 0.3mm wire. Something along those lines in any case.

Well not entirely true. I'm building on autopilot so to speak. Pushing to get ahead with it and get rid of it. I'm on the verge of giving up. Perhaps I'll complete it without a bottle, as a gift to my son. It'll probably be that or just squash it under my foot (which is the faster way). I'm longing for something with sails, probably made out of wood too. It's been fighting with project all along.

Hi, I have some serious branches of pear and apple trees in my backyard (more or less freshly cut) and would like to know how to prepare it for modelling use. - Do I first de-bark it? - Do I dry it first (in original branch form or cut up in shorter lengths?) - Do I just cut it in slices and let it dry that way? Removing bark after drying? - Any known sequence/additional info is welcome It's the first time I've cut larger branches and I don't want to let them go to waste.

I've made a start on that crane. Seems simple enough, but it doesn't fit through the neck due to its large square shape. The idea is to drill two holes through its feet and mount it on pins to the aft superstructure. The aft superstructure will be glued in place before bottling. The crane will then be hinged down forward, on deck to pass through the neck. Once in, I'll have to erect the crane before putting the accomodation block in place (hope this makes sense). She'll be mounted more aft than on this picture as she's normally somewhere aft to avoid blocking the sight from the bridge when handling the anchors. Since I've been working with simply a circle cut-out from a page to see if things are passing, I though I'd use the Sea Installer bottle for some testing. To avoid surprises later on. I was happy to see the gantry fit through. I'll have to shorten the main spud a bit, but that's not an issue since it's always a question how deep the spud goes in the soil, so I have a few mm (meters in reality) to play with.

Great progress indeed. Did you consider an offset cut to keep the bow, stern and masts fixed on one half? Would make life a lot easier I believe. Or is the bottle neck really too tight to do that with the oars and all? I kind of expected my comment to backfire in following way: "Shouldn't you be building instead of making stupid comments in my build log" But I'm happy it's motivating (forcing ) you to carry on

Nice work. Love that forepeak entry hatch with the attached davit.

I checked and it appears the current rules for navigation lights were only implemented from 1969, so considering the age of your tug, they wouldn't have been applicable. Can't say anything useful on lights pre-dating that implementation, I assume it was regulated on a national (flag of registry) level.

That's a stunning result on that sail. Quite a job to do all of them like that. Are you going to repaint the hull as well? The green looks quite authenthic, but its application isn't exactly what I'd call "sharp"... On the other side you are restoring, rather than rebuilding...

Beautiful model, one note though, the inside of navigation lights is supposed to be matt black, this is to avoid any sheen that would reflect the light out out of its regulatory angle. I'm not sure however, when this matt black was introduced into the regulations. Towing lights are normally a combination of masthead lights, depending on the tow's length. Basic is 2 masthead lights on top of each other (tow less than 200m in length). The red-white-red means restricted in manoeuvrability (also carried by other vessels)

I knew it was the penguins you were talking about. But shouldn't you continue the build instead of watching movies???

Another small update. Looks small, but did a lot of detailing. I'm now working towards application of white primer. I'm using white primer instead of grey for parts that need to be white in the final coat. Additionally I've applied the grey primer to the hull and started with the Moss Green deck. I don't like glossy paint and normally I simply mix it with colourles matt paint to tone down the glossy effect. Unfortunately my matt dried out and inside the bottle, everything looks glossy after all. This is not the final coat of the Moss Green. In reality of the course the ship is less than half the size of this picture. As you can see I'm forced to work at about 0.1mm accuracy to make everything fit. The printer didn't really succeed in printing a lot of lines on this scale. I've also finished the anchor chairs in front of the accomodation now. Next step will be working towards finishing the hull to a level where I can paint the yellow-green. The installation sequence for now, in my mind, would be: - Install base plate (pre-coated with sand-acrylic mixture) - Blend base plate into acrylic base on the bottom of the bottle - Insert lower part of main spud - Insert hull and mount it on top of main spud, lowering the pre-rigged ladder to keep the vessel up - Erect auxiliary spud - Deploy anchor booms and anchors - Pour Epoxy to steady the ship - Mount funnels - Deploy barge loading pipes - Erect crane - Mount accomodation block Conclusion, the bottling process has a lot of chances to get screwed up... and definitely won't be a 5-minute job. Still a while to consider changes in the design/sequence since I'm a long way off from completing the vessel itself. (but at least we have a plan)

Great progress Glen, rapidly catching up with me! That's a lot of patience drilling that many oar supports and making that many oars

@Glen McGuire, that's correct indeed. The nautical anchors in this case are recessed into the hull to avoid getting tangled on them with the wires or worse, having them caught by one of the workboats or barges when approaching the Spartacus. In normal merchant shipping, when the anchors are recessed instead of sticking out of the hull, it means the ship has an ice class. (where recessing the anchors is done to avoid them from being hit by ice that is pushed up by the hull). @Thukydides, thanks. The secret is often the manipulation of parts while shaping them. Unlike with kits, where you cut out the parts from a sprue, in this scale you often have to create a handle on them. I often make a sort of strip, shape one side of the part I want at the end of the strip, then shape the rest, all while using the strip as a handle. The last action is then to cut the last side of my part to part it from the strip. It's way more easy then to cut a piece the size of the part you want to make and then try to shape it, as you will have great difficulty to hold it while shaping. Another small update prior to primer. Must admit I'm rapidly losing interest in this project. Not entirely sure why. I primed it today and put some green on it and I was genuinely feeling annoyed during the painting... Here is the stern with the stern discharge pipe mounted. The bent piece at water level is where the floating line is connected. It can swivel and has a quick release ball-joint on the pipe. The Auxiliary spud is in it's final position here. Of course it won't fit through the bottle neck this way. That's why I created a hinge on the holding mechanism. In the following picture you see it hinged down. The lower ring will be glued to the spud, so it'll arrive at the correct height and look like it's attached to the hull. On the real ship, there is a big door that opens when the spud is tilted down. And a bow shot of the finished gantry with the sheave packs (little brown cylinders at the top) underneath. They are mounted on 0.3mm copper rod, which were then bent in a U-shape and drilled into the gantry. They'll be used to rig the ladder, with similar sheave packs. I've also built a slightly longer bottom plate, so it works better with the temporary laundry pins. I'll be mounting a piece of styrene in place of the forward laundry pin, which will then be covered by "soil". In reality the cutter is also sitting partly in the seabed, so that's not going to be an issue.

Love that fishing boat. I know how hard it is to keep children motivated to try things that appear too difficult for them. This experience a great result could be the start of something greater! Hope they didn't put a lego submarine inside the cake though... better be careful...

Penguins are seabirds... Might as well add some too, for realism

He is right though... Or perhaps a greenish sheen near the bottom? In any case an amazing construction job. The stones really look like they are made of limestone rather than "painted" in lime....👍

But you persevered and got it nice! Great job on a handsome ship! Very crisp and clean build.

Time for a small update. Got distracted by garden chores and it's quite hot over here. Made the two dredge anchors. This type of dredger has its "nautical anchors", which fulfill the requirements for a ship, and "dredge anchors", which are required for the dredging activity. The dredge anchors are waaaaaaaaaaay larger than the nautical anchors and weigh 60t, with the option to add another 30t of ballast in order to give more holding power in difficult soil. They called Stevshark anchors and are normally used to anchor floating structure on a (semi-) permanent basis offshore. I had to make tiny versions of it and the only reason I could produce something resembling the real thing, is that in reality they are quite huge. When not in use, they are stored in the anchor chairs on each side of the vessel below the anchor boom. You can compare to the guys walking by... And here is my version of them. Each anchor is made of 7 parts for now. I'd like to add a bit more detail, but am somewhat reluctant to screw it up. Would also hardly be visible inside the bottle I guess. And both of them, laying on their backs. It's my intention to have one of the anchors in the midst of its deployment sequence, with the anchor just on the bottom, while the other anchor would be hanging around waterlevel/epoxylevel underneath its anchorboom. Up till now I've always had in mind to have the PS anchor deployed, but now that I think of it, perhaps its better to have SB deployed... Something to think about. Finally possible to paint, so I'm preparing to put some primer on the hull.