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Der Alte Rentner
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Everything posted by Der Alte Rentner
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Hi Rita, Thanks for checking in, and thanks for the donut and coffee. See you in a few.. -
Hey Gregg, if you take a close look at the section above, you'll see that I do not have the two sheaves that the plans call for between that large wood cleat towards the bow and the two small cleats at the stern. I took a look at the plans to see what impact not having those would have on me when it comes to rigging, and the answer to that seems to be, who knows? I only bring this up to you because you are just starting out, and it won't be long before you're constructing the bulwarks. You might want to think about dealing with the sheaves at the same time.
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I'm finally populating the spar deck with blocks and carronades. Four down.
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Eyebrows fabricated. Belaying pin decision made.
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I was wondering if I should try to emulate the concave curves on the bottoms of the eyebrows. That's how the parts in the kit are shaped, as is the curtain in the bottom photo you supplied, Jon. However, the top photo suggests that I can leave well enough alone, as that curtain bottom is quite straight. P.S. I was glad to see that the gun deck cannons are protruding well out of the closed lids. I was thinking perhaps they looked odd that way on my build. Now I'm considering producing red plugs with stars in the center. Geez, do I have too much time on my hands? 🤔 Lastly, I didn't include the first photo you provided above, but that one shows the chain plate, deadeye, and channel details quite nicely. These are on the to do list for the coming weeks.
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The experiment with the paint was a complete failure. I'm not going to bother with photographs on that.. I revisited the Boxwood curtains (meaning I fabricated another 30 plus blanks, this time 1/16" (1.6mm) thick) and got almost spot on to the dimensions of the Britannia pieces. The bit was perilously close to the vise on the final cut, but production begins after I post this entry. They will be stained to match the planking behind them. Thanks again to Mustafa for sharing his technique.
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Gregg, I agree with you about KISS principle. (..and with Jon, about consistency of color.) My problem is, I think my wooden eyebrows are still too thick. I don't know if I can get them down to 1.4 mm in total thickness. So, I'm going to the paint store now to see about getting the exact same brown as the stain, and painting the Britannia parts that color as my final test. It might actually be quicker for me to deal with metal then mess around with 30 wooden curtains on the milling machine. P.S. had I known that my choice of going with a "natural" finish was going to pose this many problems, I might have opted for the black/white theme, like everyone else. Oh well..
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USS Constitution by mtbediz - 1:76
Der Alte Rentner replied to mtbediz's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1751 - 1800
Sorry to interrupt your summer hiatus, Mustafa, but, can you tell me roughly the thickness of this curtain? I tried pounding 1 mm wire and ended up with something like 1.25mm. I'm just trying to decide if my "eye brows" are oversized at 2mm. BTW, The Britannia castings provided by Model Shipways are 1.38 mm. Yours Mine
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🤔 eyebrows? If so, which ones? Or pass? This one is a definite fail. I used the same stain that's on the planking behind the curtain, but it doesn't take well to the primed metal. I don't like the black underneath the gold rim. Maybe if I switch to the brown paint on the one below? Chocolate brown spray paint. Not half bad actually.. But brass paint looks better. Gold paint. Borrowing a technique from Mustafa, this is Boxwood stained the same as the planking behind the curtain. Unstained.. None of the above. (To be honest, I'm leaning towards this option.) I'll think about it on my ride back home..
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Purely in terms of scale, I have to agree.
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Not being able to focus on tasks at hand at the shipyard today, I saw this in your list of finished models and popped over to have a look-see. Quite the accomplishment to knock the entire build off in 10 days. Or did you just post after the fact? Beautiful work, either way.
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One more decision to make. Which belaying pins to use? I spent some money and got delaying pins from Syren. Here's a close-up of the Model Shipways version up against the Syren pin. In the close up, Syren pins looks more realistic. But to the naked eye, the Model Swipways pins shine (pun intended). If I go for the latter, I'll have to order more, since I hit the supply pretty hard for the quion handles.
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Now, why didn't I catch this last month? XKen may have an absolutely brilliant approach to stropping blocks! In my idle time, I'm going to try this myself to see if it's as clever as it looks.. I'm researching how best to make chainplates. Since I won't be painting them black, I'll need an approach that keeps the brass looking good. Anyone with links to methods that might fit the bill, please chime in.. .. and as long as I'm soliciting opinions, thoughts? I think I like it. But I'm not 100% sure. Plan B would be to paint the wrinkled part of the eyebrow flat black, leaving the brass colored arch. Plan C would be to try to use the same stain I used for the dark planking.
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Thank you Gregg. Any thoughts on whether to put a couple of coats of poly on all the brass? Or let them age?
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Another decision made - pin rails before tackles and breech lines. It seemed to me I would have a difficult time positioning the rails once the carronades were glued into place. So, after I completed fabricating the breech lines, I fabricated and installed the pin rails. I finished the tackles and breech lines lines, but I think I'll have to hold off on rigging the guns until I get the cleats installed and make sure I haven't overlooked any eye bolts that need to be placed somewhere on the bulwarks.
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In your leaving the spa deck open to permit viewing the the gun deck below, is the intention to leave the planking, and I apologize for not having a better word for this, ragged? As far as the carronades are concerned, the beauty of the selection you made is that you bypass the obstacle of the overly wide waterways. Unlike mine, your guns will actually poke through the gun ports. Good choice!
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You are correct, Haiko, the answer is in my build log. And you don't even have to look that far, just scroll back towards the top of this very page - Posts 759 and 762. The answer is, Ropes of Scale and Syren. For what it's worth, I chose .6 mm beige from Ropes of Scale for the breech line. It's a tight squeeze through the eye bolts, so I treated the tips of the line with C/A glue, let it dry, then sliced at a 45° angle to facilitate a pointy end to pass through the eye in the eye bolt. For the tackles I used .45 mm.
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As nice as your first planking looks, I don't really think you need much by way of advice to deal with the second planking. I too have sought books on planking techniques and downloaded several articles from the MSW site. In the final analysis, I ended up incorporating techniques gleaned from other build logs. I devoted a lot of space in my build log to planking, as you know because you've seen these. I'm not necessarily holding myself up as the expert in the field, but I think I managed fairly well. Have a second look, and see if that gets you started. You will need a proportional divider and some variation of a spreadsheet, if you want to do proper job of tapering.
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Once again, my apologies to those who have done this before. I'm documenting the procedure for creating the breech lines for my own use later, when I copy from these posts to my personal build log. Still, there might be one or two newbies out there who might benefit from this exhibition. To free up my hands for the seizing, I literally bolted two Proxxon vices to my workbench. The rest should be self-explanatory. Note: the carronade is not glued in. This was just a test fit.. I started working on the pin rails as well, but have yet to decide which I will install first - the pin rails or the carronades. So, I will make the breech lines first and postpone the decision until the later.
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Thanks for checking in. Hope to see you back in action soon. Good luck with the Orchards. Coincidentally, some nephews of mine just bought an apple orchard in a small town outside of Erie, Pennsylvania. It's very recent news to me, so I don't have much by way of details, except that I've been told it's a lot of work. Back to the first course of planking: Remember, this doesn't have to be perfect. Use filler and sandpaper and make your life easy. And because you will have a decent foundation for adhesives, the next layer will be much easier to deal with than direct plank on hull construction. Best Peter
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USS Constitution by mtbediz - 1:76
Der Alte Rentner replied to mtbediz's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1751 - 1800
As I'm contemplating my next steps, I'm looking through build logs of others to see what the best order of construction is. In your case I noticed that the cleats and belaying pin rails all went in long before the carronades. In your experience, is it easier to install the carronades, bow chasers, breech lines and tackles after the belaying pin rails and cleats? My thought is, it should be easier to rig the tackles and breach lines without obstacles on the bulwarks or deck. Am I wrong? -
We haven't heard from you in quite a while. I imagine that you're into some deep dive on some point of research and that will be seeing the result of that fairly soon?
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I appreciate the compliment, Mustafa, but I'm never going to catch you. Unless you stretch your summer vacation into December. Then maybe I'll have a chance. 😁
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No joke! Worse, maybe because I had a couple of coats of poly already on the carriages, the CA glue set super quickly. No room for error! I actually rehearsed picking up the straps before applying the glue to the carriage. I did drop two, but because I had the glue on the carriage and not on the strap, I just picked up a replacement strap and got the job done. For what it's worth, I tried really pointy tweezers first, they were a fail. An old fat blunt pair of tweezers held much better.
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