PierreJean

,
As the title of this thread is "Nautical Fiction Writers" I feel that this is on topic (just).  I've read POB, Stockwin, Reeman, all the authors mentioned in the previous posts.  They all have their good as well as bad points.  It's a matter of taste which you prefer.
 
Two much more recent nautical books were written by the Dutch writer Jan de Hartog.  The one is entitled "Captain" and details the life of a salvage tug during WW2.  I found it brilliant, here is a review that I found on Amazon:
 
" It’s an incredible chronicle of a converted tugboat used to rescue sailors from sunken convoy ships in the North Atlantic in World War II.

More important, it is the story of a man’s growth from innocence to fear to terror to cowardice to finally conscience and understanding of the inhumanity of the wanton, mass destruction of human life in modern warfare. The Captain presents a convincing argument for conscientious objection to war."
 
The other book loosely connected, is called (here I'm having a senior moment)  something Jim (can look it up on Google) but I haven't read that one.
de Hartog wrote a number of other books (not nautical), all worth reading.  I think he is a much overlooked writer.
 
Regards
Pierre

,
As the title of this thread is "Nautical Fiction Writers" I feel that this is on topic (just).  I've read POB, Stockwin, Reeman, all the authors mentioned in the previous posts.  They all have their good as well as bad points.  It's a matter of taste which you prefer.
 
Two much more recent nautical books were written by the Dutch writer Jan de Hartog.  The one is entitled "Captain" and details the life of a salvage tug during WW2.  I found it brilliant, here is a review that I found on Amazon:
 
" It’s an incredible chronicle of a converted tugboat used to rescue sailors from sunken convoy ships in the North Atlantic in World War II.

More important, it is the story of a man’s growth from innocence to fear to terror to cowardice to finally conscience and understanding of the inhumanity of the wanton, mass destruction of human life in modern warfare. The Captain presents a convincing argument for conscientious objection to war."
 
The other book loosely connected, is called (here I'm having a senior moment)  something Jim (can look it up on Google) but I haven't read that one.
de Hartog wrote a number of other books (not nautical), all worth reading.  I think he is a much overlooked writer.
 
Regards
Pierre

,
As the title of this thread is "Nautical Fiction Writers" I feel that this is on topic (just).  I've read POB, Stockwin, Reeman, all the authors mentioned in the previous posts.  They all have their good as well as bad points.  It's a matter of taste which you prefer.
 
Two much more recent nautical books were written by the Dutch writer Jan de Hartog.  The one is entitled "Captain" and details the life of a salvage tug during WW2.  I found it brilliant, here is a review that I found on Amazon:
 
" It’s an incredible chronicle of a converted tugboat used to rescue sailors from sunken convoy ships in the North Atlantic in World War II.

More important, it is the story of a man’s growth from innocence to fear to terror to cowardice to finally conscience and understanding of the inhumanity of the wanton, mass destruction of human life in modern warfare. The Captain presents a convincing argument for conscientious objection to war."
 
The other book loosely connected, is called (here I'm having a senior moment)  something Jim (can look it up on Google) but I haven't read that one.
de Hartog wrote a number of other books (not nautical), all worth reading.  I think he is a much overlooked writer.
 
Regards
Pierre

,
As the title of this thread is "Nautical Fiction Writers" I feel that this is on topic (just).  I've read POB, Stockwin, Reeman, all the authors mentioned in the previous posts.  They all have their good as well as bad points.  It's a matter of taste which you prefer.
 
Two much more recent nautical books were written by the Dutch writer Jan de Hartog.  The one is entitled "Captain" and details the life of a salvage tug during WW2.  I found it brilliant, here is a review that I found on Amazon:
 
" It’s an incredible chronicle of a converted tugboat used to rescue sailors from sunken convoy ships in the North Atlantic in World War II.

More important, it is the story of a man’s growth from innocence to fear to terror to cowardice to finally conscience and understanding of the inhumanity of the wanton, mass destruction of human life in modern warfare. The Captain presents a convincing argument for conscientious objection to war."
 
The other book loosely connected, is called (here I'm having a senior moment)  something Jim (can look it up on Google) but I haven't read that one.
de Hartog wrote a number of other books (not nautical), all worth reading.  I think he is a much overlooked writer.
 
Regards
Pierre

Never said you shouldn't manage risk, just that saying something is toxic does not necessarily mean that it is.  Most government agencies use the "precautionary principle", i.e. that if someone thinks something might be toxic better to list is as such rather than take any risk.  It is just another cya move. 
 
An example, Professor Blowhard of Grants-r-Us U, head of the questionable science department issued a statement that dihydrogen oxide has been determined to be toxic in rats and should immediately be banned or at least strictly regulated to avoid risk to humans.  Professor Blowhard determined this by an experiment using two test groups of lab rats consisting of 6 rats in each group.  The first group was placed in 1 liter chambers filled with dihydrogen oxide and the control group were placed in identical chambers filled with air.  The first group all died after struggling desperately for a few seconds.  The control group all survived with no ill effects.  This 100% mortality in the test group is very strong evidence of the toxicity of dihydrogen oxide.  Professor Blowhard is asking for a 100 million dollar grant to study the affects of dihydrogen oxide on humans in areas such as Hawaii, Tahiti, and other areas where large groups of humans are exposed on a daily basis.  Professor Blowhard and his grad assistants Wendy, Bunny and Sue will spend the next several years visiting these areas and accessing the impacts.
 
A bit over the top but you would be surprised at just how many studies used to classify substances as "toxic" are no more extensive than my humorous example.

Dan's excellent work on his chain pumps prompted me to post these photos from Model No. 43, the Swan class model in the Naval Academy Museum collection. Keep in mind these chain pumps were made over 250 years ago by hand. No photo-etching. Of course these Navy Board models were built by teams of the best craftsmen of the time and the chain pump was no doubt made by a master jeweler.
 

OK, here is what I did and the results.
 
I clamped the glued up piece (started with the 'burnt to bare') in a wood vise. I used another piece of wood leaning against the top part and hit it with my calibrated hammer. I did the same thing with the other two, hitting it with about the same force.

 
All three pieces sheared where I had clamped it and none broke at the glue joint.

 
I then tried to break the remaining parts with pliers. Indeed the 'bare to bare' splintered some more but not at the glue line (top left). The 'burnt to burnt' (right) broke a sliver at the glue line, and the third one ('burnt to bare') did break through the burnt joint leaving burn marks on the bare side.
It felt like it took about the same amount of force to break each one.

 
My conclusion is that it makes very little difference if you sand the burnt edge or not. Al least with the glue I used. I suggest that others might try something like this with other adhesives.

Try reading the information sheet given with prescription medicines for side effects - I take a couple one for blood pressure, the laugh is we take these to either control or cure a medical condition.
 
I have worked with chemicals for most of my working life and trained and qualified in chemistry, all substances should and are assessed in their intend application and must always be treated with respect and not abused.
 
Norman

This almost makes one give up this hobby.
If every housewife read the MSDS for the household products she has on the shelf, our laundry would not get done and our food would be very bland, while the carpeting and tile floors would be filthy.
 
I have always taken the standpoint that with diligent care and washing my hands after handling 'dangerous chemicals' I have a good chance to live to be a hundred (24 more years to go).

Hello to all, i, like many others lost my first log in the big collapse of the page. I post again a few pictures to show the progress. Now - after 2 winters, i'm almost ready. There are only a few litle jobs left and i still have 3 foresails to attach. It is very complicated to sew the bolt ropes on the sails.   (This is not my favorite work.)But I love it to study the construction reports for hours.
 
I'm glad that the page is back!!
Regards from Germany
Volker
 

The green covered edition referred to by Brian C is the second, revised edition published by SeaWatchBooks. This edition was published in 2010 (the first in 2007). It's an excellent production that does justice to the unique collection of models collected by the Kriegstein brothers over a number of years. The models are an inspiration. Indeed, most models are or should rightly be called works of art.
 
As samueljr writes, the models in this book were all built without power tools!
 
Yet again, SeaWatchBooks are to be congratulated on a first class production - and the authors on sharing their collection with us. I highly recommend this book!

Tomas----
I owned one once, but had to close. The wretched customers spilled glue on everything, often attaching themselves to the glassware permanently. They never had any money, always yammering about "saving for the Agamemnon", whatever THAT meant. Then,one night, I hired the Rolling Stones to play, and the customers walked out because the band refused to play "chanteys and hornpipes". They also had an unnerving tendency for self-mutilation, with one bizzare woman taking an xacto to her own hand....horrible. The last straw: Every time I served a nice tall mug of hot Irish coffee, the bastards would stick planking in it.
I don't need that kind of grief....
john

I found one of the most  useful "tools" for rigging is  a needle threader . I bought about 4 at my local haberdashery and found them invaluable for threading lines through 2mm blocks. I made one longer by soft soldering the thin wire to an extension so I could reach hard to get at blocks. I made something similar to a crochet hook using a thin wire with a small hook at the end, the other end epoxied into a small piece of dowel.
Pierre

I found one of the most  useful "tools" for rigging is  a needle threader . I bought about 4 at my local haberdashery and found them invaluable for threading lines through 2mm blocks. I made one longer by soft soldering the thin wire to an extension so I could reach hard to get at blocks. I made something similar to a crochet hook using a thin wire with a small hook at the end, the other end epoxied into a small piece of dowel.
Pierre

Bogey,
 
    I believe that is the method used by the folks in the Southern Hemisphere.     

I level the surface the model sits on, in this case the build table.  This is the base.
 
The waterline is marked at the bow and the stern.  I measured up the sternpost from the heel for the aft mark, and propping the hull so that it was the right height from the base at a certain station, measured up the stem from the base for the forward mark.  In the picture you see a stick under the keel holding the bow up.  I measured from the heel aft, going forward on the plan to where the keel was the height of my stick above the baseline, 3/4" in this case, and simply placed the stick so it's aft side was at this mark on the keel.
The hull is then securely propped so that both marks are the same height from the base.
 
The hull is also leveled side-to-side using a bubble level - that's why the base has to be leveled first.  If your construction was accurate and symmetrical, you should be able to measure from the base to some point up the hull and get the same measurement on either side.
 
You need a block the height of the water line minus half the width of the pencil.  I cut the block to the waterline, put the pencil on it, and measured the distance between the two marks, and cut half that off the block.  Check it and cut it till it's perfect.  If you cut too much, shim it back up with card stock.  Check the pencil at both fore and aft marks.
 
The block has to be large enough to be stable while you move it and for the pencil to rest on it securely.  The pencil needs to be long enough to reach up under the bilges at the quarters without the block bumping the hull.
 
The waterline doesn't have to be struck in one movement.  So long as the hull is secure from movement, the block rests flat on the base,and the pencil lays flat on the block (remember it's usual octagon shape here), it should be perfect no matter where you start.  Note in the pics I actually struck it more than once 'cause I wanted it dark enough to see through the fiberglass that would cover it.
 
It's sounds complicated, but then a detailed explanation of tying a shoe lace would sound complicated too.
 
 

The single blocks are made the same way but with a  line from the bottom of the block and the large wire (which I use to form the becket) moved 90 degrees (or parallel to the block). 
 
The block is placed on the jig.

 
The line is attached in a similar fashion but with the rigging line extending past the block.

 
With the attached hook.

Endeavour replica furled sails look compact.

Hello, all –
 
My name is Peter.  Dan is working in the shipyard so he asked me to give you a tour of the completed Swan 42.  As you can see, I brought with me the world’s largest dime for a bit of size comparison.  Since the last segment of this build log we have installed all of the various pieces and subassemblies that were created before, set up the mast, boom and rigging, and installed her on a custom made presentation base ready for delivery.
 

 
So let me show you around, from bow to stern and bottom to top.  Here she is, neatly balanced on her keel bulb.  You can see just how tall her rig is.  The laminated wood mast rises 62 scale feet from the deck, some 20 feet longer than the hull itself.  The spreaders which set up the shrouds are of different lengths and are set at different angles to the mast and to vertical.  They are cut from brass sheet, given a layer of epoxy and then faired to their aerodynamic shapes.  The standing rigging is 0.012” stainless steel beading wire, which is too small to see in this photo, but will show up later.
 

 
Here is a view of the entire deck.  If Dan did his job well there should be nothing that draws the eye and disrupts the overall impression of being aboard the actual boat.  He always says that it has to obey the Rule of 3 – it has to look good from across the room, with detail work that makes you want to see it much closer.  Then it has to look good from 3 feet away, like the point of view of this photo, with new and interesting details to see.  And then it has to look right from 6 inches away, with even more details that create the ‘texture’ of the actual boat.
 
  
 
Of course, the hull and deck have to be symmetrical, so we checked it repeatedly as the mast was being installed.  Here is how it came out, viewed from the middle distance.
 

 
Now let’s move in to the 6 inch viewpoint and look around.  At the bow is the pulpit.  Dan has explained how this is made from brass tubes that are assembled, soldered and electroplated in chrome.  Now it is installed with small feet at the end of each leg made from chrome foil.  The jibstay is made up from beading wire with a sleeve of insulation taken from black speaker wire.  The furling fittings at top and bottom are simply made up from a short piece of tubing and punched discs as caps.  The railing is 0.009” silver beading wire which is turned back on itself and seized with black fly tying thread. The lacing is also fly tying thread, which is looped over the top rail and then goes through some tiny eyebolts set into the deck.   
 

 
The railing stanchions are turned and tapered brass rods with holes drilled for the railings.  The support bar is a thinner brass rod soldered to the upright and bent to shape.  The base, feet and other fittings are chrome foil.  The turnbuckles are made up from sections of 0.04” brass tube that surround and secure the beading wire shrouds to a pair of large deck eyebolts.  All of the brass is electroplated like the pulpit.
 

 
Amidships is the mast, boom and boom support arm (vang?).  The running rigging is color coded so that during a race there is no confusion or delay in identifying the right line to haul.  The halyards travel mostly inside the mast tube, then emerge not very far above the boom, run down to single blocks at the foot of the mast, through a wide flat tunnel under the cabin roof, up and through the line clutches and then to the winch.  Here they are displayed as if for dockside presentation at a regatta.
 

 
The boom is laminated wood, attached to the mast with a hinged and pivoting fitting of machined brass pieces.  The arm is constructed from three pieces of telescoping brass tubing with a double block slung underneath on a brass crescent fitting.  The pink vang line runs from the port side camcleat near the aft cabin handrail to a single block secured to the deck, then through a single block on a strap tied to the lower hinge fitting for the boom arm, back and forth between the upper triple block and lower double block (note how the line switches from under/over the triple block to over/under during its second pass), then out a matching set of single blocks and camcleat on the starboard side.  All of this is just to get the purchase to haul on the large single block whose line reeves through several pulleys inside the boom arm. The mechanical advantage of this setup must be immense.
 

 
Much of the rest of the deck details have been shown before, but here they are all installed. 
 

 
The wheel pedestals are set at a 10 degree angle to vertical.  The main sheet traveler track and car are rigged for use with the main sheet running up to blocks attached to the fore and aft ends of the boom.  At the extreme aft end of the deck is the hydraulic tensioner for the backstay.  Again, this is telescoping brass tube and rod, securing the backstay which is heavier beading wire painted to simulate the Kevlar coating.
 

 
Below the waterline is the keel fin, keel bulb, and rudder.  All are carved from basswood, sealed and painted.  Between them is the small propeller for powered maneuvering in port.  The blades of the prop close like a clamshell when not in use and stay most of the time in this streamlined configuration.
 

 
Finally, at the very top of the mast are the instruments that read wind direction and speed.  This data, along with that from other sensors, is displayed on a series of screens mounted on the mast below the boom that you can see in other photos.
 

 
So there she is, completed and mounted.  Here are a few overall photos.  It has received some critical praise from owners of the actual boats and hopefully will be accepted for display in the Model Room of the New York Yacht Club.
 



 
The shipyard is now moving back in time 300 years from 2005 to 1705 to build the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a 20-gun light frigate that was the flagship of the pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard.  It is being excavated underwater at Beaufort Inlet in North Carolina.  Go to http://www.qaronline.org/History/TheShipwreck.aspx   Look for a build log here in the future.
 

Oh, Man...... Here we go. Madame Anja is going to throw my butt so far off the site after this post that I'll be lucky to be building ships from walnut shells, plasticine, and toothpicks..... All that follows is opinion, needless to say, with the odd fact creeping in. First, I HATE acrylic artist paints. I hate the colors, texture, dry time, smell, feel, taste, and everything else about them. For some genetic reason, I was born to play with oils-- paint it, wipe it, smear it, lick it, snort it, shoot it--- whatever it takes. The colors are infinitely better, there are dozens of interesting media, and they give you time to adjust color, shading, highlights, etc.
OK,OK--- my kink. But there are some principles that apply, regardless of paint type. As Brian says, choosing colors needs care, and will require mixing, more than likely. Those bulwark reds and Nelson Fashion ochers, ie., need a lot of thought to look right, and as is being spoken-of in the weathering thread, all colors change with time and weather--- quite dramatically. All kinds of fading and patination occur quickly in the marine environment--- do we want to show that, or not? Black ain't black and white ain't white, and all stops in between..... Second, this business of gloss stumps me, as well. In my brief spate of film work, there was a guiding rule---no gloss. If you intend to photograph your model in any serious way, gloss is ruinous. Also, it's understood that gloss makes a model look smaller. Eggshell is as glossy as it should get.  Even you guys who polish the hell out of your coppering--- I don't get that at all. But, as always, different strokes...... What I want to see is a piece of craftsmanship that crosses over into art--- I want the model to say something, not just sit there as an ornament on a shelf. I want the viewer to be sucked into a story, a dream of another time and place, a world within a world. I mean, we work our asses off on these filthy things for years at a time--- don't we finally want them to have a life of their own, greater than the sum of their parts?? Greater than their creators??? There is a magic that is possible to achieve in this avocation. In the 60's, I worked one summer for a ship modeler in Laguna Beach, Ca, named Ed Sims. He could be cranky, and generally treated his potential customers like idiots, but there is a ship of his for sale on line, and when I look at it with its blue green copper and carefully faded paint, I think what a great man Ed was. These are legacies of beauty, folks.
 
All right, all right---- I feel the hot breath of the dominatrix Anja and her cat-o-nine, ready to turn my quivering flesh into strawberry jam. Set up the grating, boys!!
john

Hi Richard
I'm guessing this has drifted a little off the subject of your log - Syren. I don't want the following to further the discussion in your log - it could/should be sent to another forum - but I do want to say this...
 
Although I have no experience of power tools, I find a knife, a file and some sandpaper can do everything I want. Why buy all of this expensive stuff when you are not sure what to use it for? Keep your money in your pocket in my opinion. Power tools do not make you a better builder, they are just tools. I have no intention of ever using a power tool to make a model (I'll probably regret saying that...I'm tempted by a mill but only just tempted) and I like my models just fine. So do some other people...  I also find that without power tools my work space is easy to maintain - I don't need a lot of space.
 
I guess my point is that these machines might improve accuracy and speed but you are better off developing the accuracy by hand and then only look to the machines for increased speed and  (maybe) improved accuracy. In this hobby there is nothing a machine can do that you can't do by hand, my opinion again. You have only to look at the amazing models from the 18th C, made without power tools to get the point.
 
My preferred sequence is first knife, then file, then sand - seldom and with great care. For bigger pieces add in a hand saw at the front end. You'll spend longer figuring out how your machines work than it takes to do the basic woodworking.
 
Anyway - to get back on your topic. Your build looks very challenging and I look forward to your updates. Keep it simple and build! She's a beautiful ship.
 
Cheers
Alistair

The building board that Constellation had been attached to since 1999 and the Pride of Baltimore was built on, was showing it's age.  It had it chips and dings repaired, holes filled, was sanded, and given a couple of coats of flat white paint.  It was then marked with a center-line and lines for each of Macedonian's stations.

 
Each plywood form was attached to a strip of wood to allow it to be stood up and attached to the build board at it's station line.

 
It wasn't really clear to me how the stern came together based on the drawing, but studying several of the fully framed models here on MSW helped me figure it out, and how to deal with it in my particular, and peculiar construction method.  Forms were devised for the construction of the stern and the aft perpendicular form was discarded.
 
 
A keelson was cut from 1/4" plywood and corresponding notches were cut in each form to receive it.  It isn't glued or fastened to any of the forms as it will become part of the model where the forms will be removed.

 
The edge of the forms are taped to prevent the planking from being glued to them, and a batten was nailed to the lower diagonal to steady everything.  Planking then began with 1/8" x 3/8" pine strips starting at the sheer strake.  I used 3/8" common nails to hold things in place.  I used smaller nails on Pride of Baltimore that were almost like straight-pins, but these bent so easily they became quite frustrating.  The next strake was glued to the sheer strake, and pinned and clamped in place.  This, basically, is how all the planking was installed; each strake glued to it's predecessor and finally to the keelson, stem, sternpost, and counter forming a wooden shell of a hull.

 
 

Hi
 
Quite a while ago I built this "freestyle"cutter to no particular plan but some rather sketchy drawings on scrap pieces of paper. It is 1.4 meters overall from stern to bowsprit.
 
Irun it on a six channel transmitter, though I only really use three channels - one for rudder, one for the sail winch and a third for the emergency motor (fwd only) in case I'm becalmed in the middle of the pond. That has happened occasionally.
 
I'm still learning how to attach files but I hope that the second picture shows the sail winch working on a "closed loop"system. The mainsail sheet is attached to one end of the loop and the jib sheet on the other.  
I did experiment with a second winch to control the flying jibs but found that that was more trouble than it was worth. They now are both on loose sheets and they move over the forestay by wind power.
There is a lot of good information to be found on another forum: www.modelboatmayhem.com.
Hope this helps.
Pierre

Actually, on the real thing there were no treenails in the decks. What you see (or rather mostly not, except when really standing on a deck) are wooden plugs that cover the holes drilled for iron bolts (at least in later ships). The plugs do not show end-grain (as would treenails do) but were cut so that the grain runs in the same direction as the planks. The idea was to make them almost invisible for  aesthetic reasons.
 
It seems to be a fashion among modellers to use treenails to show how much effort they put into a model. There is also some mechanical reason, as the treenail securely fastens the plank. Otherwise, I would ignore them on a true 'scale' model.
 
wefalck

I prefer to have the masts perfectly aligned and firm 'before' setting the rigging. So I take every precaution to align and glue them as firm as possible. I prefer not to worry (or worry less) with yet another thing such as mast alignment while working on my rigging.