yvesvidal

Rusty and Paddy...thanks for looking in and the nice comments...
 
Was able to get the treenails done in the lower planks and 1 side sanded....
I am satisfied with they way they have turned out..think will look better once the clear coat "oil" is applied
 

 
Before moving on decided to fair the out side before to mush was in the way on the inside. Was a little worried about the way I decided to do this, but figured the worst
that could happen is that is falls apart and I start over.    But it held up really well  
 
Used my 5" orbital sander starting with a 40 gritt and moving up to a 220 gritt.
Done this outside using my porch railing and a old pillow
 

 

 
Once I got up to the 220 gritt I moved it to my leg for better control
 

 
So here is where it stands as of now
 

 

 

 
Have not yet decided on whether I will leave any of the framing exposed or plank the whole outside. Framing just doesn't look that good to me and I might just cover up the mess.
 
Time to look at the prints will be starting the lower deck framing next.
 
 

Today's progress on dead eyes. I used a black paint to cover the brass wire.  I have just ordered a blackening liquid so I hope that the results will be btter than the paint.
 
 
I think that I have achieved my goal. The dead eyes are in the line. I tried to tie the ropes carefully looking at the book written by Lennarth Pettersen. 
 
It takes a long time to do it. The whole outlook shows her as if she was a very old vessel. That's my point to show Santa Maria as an old ship.
 
Here are some pics. Enjoy
 
Feel free to comment. I'd like to make this bulding log alive. Help me do this please. 

I thought you might like to see a few more pictures of the (slow) progress on my Sherbourne. The pictures were actually taken about a month ago, and my wife and I are now at our cottage, so work won't resume on her until the autumn.
 
I've now finished the shrouds apart from the ratlines, which I'm leaving off for access until later, and have in place some of the running rigging, including the burtons, top rope, boom topping lift, and throat and peak halliards for the mainsail. The latter is bent to the gaff and brailed into the mast:
 

 

Belay Pins
Although the Practicum doesn't call for the belay pins to be installed at this stage, I thought it wise to do so while it was still free and clear of any other items that may be in the way later. The belay pins were insert and glued to the forecastle top rails. It was at this point I realized that I had forgotten to drill the belay pin holes in the forecastle center rail. Well, it wasn't done for the quarterdeck center rail and I had to drill those, so I hoped it wouldn't be too big a problem now. I marked to position for the holes with a pin and drilled pilot holes for eight pins in the quarterdeck center rail figuring the rail is a delicate structure. I didn't want to put too much pressure on it. Then I drilled the holes again so that the belay pins would fit. Surprisingly, this worked without a hitch. Once the forecastle center rail was solidly glued, the same process was repeated only this time there were only six belay pins according to the Practicum. What was weird here is the Practicum showed all three pins (per side) in between two stanchions. The Mamoli plan showed two pins. I went with the Mamoli plans because three pins seemed a bit crowded and two pin holes between stanchions also matched the quarterdeck center rail. I installed only six belay pins as per the Practicum. If need be I can install more as the holes for the pins have been drilled.
 

And before the CA glue completely set, both completed rail assemblies were installed onto the bow. This allowed me a little wiggle room to insert the brass pegs on the bottom of the stanchions into the holes on the bow and make any necessary adjustments.
 
While the CA glue for the forecastle top rails was setting up, the forecastle center rail was installed.

You will notice in the image of the rails above there are markings for drilling the stanchion tenon and belay pin holes. First the stanchion holes were drilled and dry fitted with the stanchions. This in turn was dry fitted to the bow. The image below shows just the starboard. The same was done for the port side.
 

Hello
 
With my first build log[1] on hold for a year, it's time to sail into new and uncharted waters (and then sink there).
 
First of all I'd like to say thanks to all the people who popped in with a thumbs up when I presented[2] my idea
 
 
 
What I'm giong to build is this: A lit diorama, in a box, of an ROV investigationg an old wooden wreck in the blackness of the deep sea.
 
The inspiration for the project comes from two places. Firstly, from the abundance of remarkable wreck discoveries in the Baltic sea in recent years.
And secondly from an "art" project I abandoned some years ago - diorama night lights. I thought it would be cool if you could lie and gaze at some scene, say, your favourite street corner, while you drift off into sleep.
 
Now the night lights are back, but they're Wreck Lights now. Yes, Wreck Lights, That's what I'm going to build. 
 
The scale will be fairly small - it would be weird to have a night light the size of grandma's telly ... 
 
 
What I'm aiming for as far as the wreck itself is concerned is something like this:
http://www.hydro-international.com/issues/articles/id1236-The_Ghost_Ship_Expedition.html
 
It might be cool to do a fluyt. I really like fluyts, wrecked or not.
 
 
Any tips, sharing of thoughts, reference material etc. is of course much appreciated.
 
Lastly, I've done a silly illustration to show you what I have in mind (I won't build the kid ...)
 

 
 
[1]http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/3046-toy-ship-by-farbror-fartyg-inspired-by-large-17th-century-ships/
[2]http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/3063-wreck-site-diorama/

Started the rigging.all looks a bit messy,a bit like Spaghetti Junction.
 
                                                                  
 
                                                                          

A real problem in having a model kit in such an odd scale, 5/32", is that you will have a hard time finding replacement twelve and six-pounder cannon in 1:76 scale if the kit guns are done poorly, which apparently they are. Had MS designed the Essex kit in the more common 1:64 scale, the same scale as Portia Takakjian's classic Essex plans and booklet, then you could use a commercial set of 1:64 Essex cannon already available.

Thank you mates....
Having decided to go with “Kilkis”, I started gathering information from wherever I could find them.
Again my Greek friend Falieros (an acclaimed modeler), from his personal collection, provided me some incomplete drawings, which along with information and photos from the magazine “Warship Profile no 39", gave me what I needed to re-draw the hull lines.
I chose to build the model in the scale of 1:100, not only because this is my favorite scale, but also because at this scale, the model will reach the 116 cm (45.6693 inc) very convenient length, that will allow me  to carry it easily it in my cars’ back seat…
For those who are not familiar it's a big torment when you have to carry such a model in a trailer or on the roof of a car...
So for one more reason I felt happy... 




I proceed with the “bread and butter” method and the first planks are set.
A difference from the previous models of mine is that in the middle of the first planks, I placed a vertical plank shaped as the side view of the hull.
By doing this, I have a guidance but also a support, when I’ll be placing the rest of the horizontal planks, shaping the hull.
 


 
Thanks

Figuerres:  You're right about the lantern. See below.
 
Thanks, Russ. If you do enough of those coils, you start to get the hang of it.
 
Final details and the finished model:  Although they weren't actually the very last items done, I'm treating the lantern, the anchors and the flagstaff as the final details. The lantern was made from an old street lamp that I found in my model railroad scrap box. The lamp portion was heavily reworked and the brackets were made from brass rod and brass strip. The anchors were made using the kit castings with the stocks made from boxwood. The cable was run back over the bitts back to the main hatch. The anchor bouys were made from pieces of tapered dowel and then rigged. The flag staff is shown on the plans, although it seems awkward with the boom. I chose to install it mostly because I liked the way it looked. 
 
Photos of the finished model follow the photos of the final detail work.
 
Bob

Bowsprit and Lower Masts:  This covers the work done to make and install the bowsprit and lower masts and the standing rigging for them. I first made and installed the bowsprit and jib boom and then the gammoning, bobstay and shrouds. I made and installed the boomkins and added their shrouds and blocks. After that, I made both lower masts and installed them. The lower deadeyes and chain plates were added. The standing rigging followed, beginning with the main pendants, shrouds and stays and moving forward to do the fore pendants, shrouds and stays. I prefer this order because it leaves the most access to the work. I chose to do the ratlines later. Eyebolts and blocks for later rigging were added as convenient.
 
Boxwood was used for all of the items such as the trestletrees, crosstrees, tops, caps, hounds etc. I used the kit deadeyes, but made the hearts from cherry. Unpainted portions of the work were stained golden oak and finished with Wipe-on Poly. Painted portions were done with Pollyscale steam power black.
 
Bob

The same is true with model railroading. The success of Lionel and MTH is clearly indicative that the most important is not the accuracy or prototypical appearance, but the fun you can derive out of it. In O scale (1/48), they even invented a third rail in the middle and guess what: 85% of the market in that scale is 3 rails. Only a minority of anal retentive people are searching for the absolute perfection and accuracy.
 
Yves

Tnx Anja. Right words
 
Continuation
Deck hatches and openings for anchor rope:
 

 

 

Continuation:
 
Making planks for deck:
 


 
Holes for water from deck:
 


 
One hole is higher which will be seen better when I glue plank which is in line with deck. Well it isn't first mistake and won't be last I'm sure
 

Hi all -
 
Thanks, as always, for the compliments.  It is coming along slowly but well, I think.  The past several weeks have included the July 4th long holiday and the move of my son and his family from Brooklyn to Michigan, which took me away for some time from the construction yard. 
 
Mostly I worked on the railing fixtures at the bow and stern.  These are not only complicated three dimensional metal pieces, but require detail soldering and electroplating.  Many almost completed, or even fully completed iterations were discarded before acceptable ones were fashioned.  Without dwelling too much on past mistakes, here is how it went -
 
The fixture at the bow consists of a top bar that bends around the bow and then bends down to becomes the aft two of the four angled legs that support it.  The pair of legs on each side is connected by a low bar as well.  Here is what it looks like on the boat.
 

 
The plans provided gave only a profile view, but I found a detailed deck fitting drawing which shows the plan view. 
 


 
Similarly, the stern fitting has a top bar that bends at almost a right angle around the corner of the transom and becomes a short foreleg and a much longer transom leg, with a vertical piece and horizontal pieces connecting everything together.  Here it is on a boat
 

 
And here from the plans and drawing
 


 
To match the dimensions, I used brass tubing of 1mm o.d. and internal diameter of 0.020".  I could have used solid bar stock, but using tubing provided a lot of advantages during construction.  Here is the setup for the bow fixture, surrounded by my soldering tools and supplies.
 

 
I do most of my soldering with this inexpensive "Cold Heat" device that I heard about through an infomercial on TV several years ago.  This is the first time that I am using it for a commissioned model.  It is a battery powered resistance soldering unit made for the miniatures or jewelry market.  It works by passing an electric current between two carbide electrodes set in a "cloven hoof" configuration with a small gap between the electrodes.  When both tips contact metal the current flows between them, heating the metal by induction, or resistance in the metal.
 
For the solder I use Tix brand high-silver content solder along with Tix brand flux.  Both can be bought at Micro-Mark and other suppliers.  The solder comes in sticks, which is easily cut in pieces about 1/16" long.  Although it is easy to cut, once melted and cooled it is quite hard and strong.  Also, since it has a lot of silver it electroplates much like the brass tubing.
 

 
The dimensions of the fixture was figured out from the plans, opened up as if lying flat, and drawn onto a piece of scrap basswood.  Pieces of tubing were cut to length and bent to shape.  At the appropriate spots I drilled angled  holes through the top bar and the forward legs.  0.020" brass rod was fed through the holes, the tubing pieces strung in place, and the entire assembly was secured in place with thumb tacks.
 

 
In this closeup you can see that at the joint on the left there is a piece of the solder resting on the joint.  Actually, the joint was painted with flux, which gets tacky and holds the solder in place till it is heated.
 

 
Now the Cool Heat tool is turned on and the tips straddle the bar next to the joint.  In a few moments the flux sizzles, then the solder softens and sags.  Do not remove the heat, but wait until the solder melts completely and forms a shiny dome over the joint.  Remove the heat and the solder will flow into the joint, filling and securing it.  There is a soldered joint at the right edge of the photo.
 

 
Once all of the joints have been soldered the extra connecting pieces of the rod were clipped off and the joints were filed to remove any excess solder.  Taking a deep breath I folded the piece around a suitably sized dowel to form the rounded 'pulpit' that goes around the bow.  Fortunately, all of the joints held.  Now the legs were trimmed to final size so the fixture sat level and in the right position.  With a wire wheel every bit of the fixture was polished in preparation for chrome electroplating.  As with painting or other finishing, the surface preparation is key.
 

 
The electroplating kit was set up as I described before when making the handrails, and the piece was dipped for only 15 seconds, which gave it a very nice silvery finish after rinsing and polishing with a cloth wheel.
 

 
And here it is installed on the model.  Using tubing also allowed me to insert brass rod into the lower ends of the supporting legs which were bent to drop into holes drilled into the deck.  This creates a 4-point mechanical attachment for the piece, which should be enough, even at the vulnerable spot at the extreme bow. 
 

 
The stern fixtures were build up in much the same way.  After the design was calculated and drawn, brass tubing was bent to the shape of the top bar and legs.  Holes were drilled for the 0.020" rod which was used as an armature to hold the tubing pieces in place.
 

 
And here are all of the joints soldered.  Most are good, but you can see that the joints at the central crossing are a little starved for solder.  Flux and another piece of solder were used and heated, and the joint was filled quite easily.  The loops for the wire railings are made of the same brass rod as the armature and soldered in place.
 

 
Now the fixture was bent to its final angle.  This is where a number of fully soldered fittings died.  The bend of the lower bar is just too close to the central joint, which fails time and again.  I finally resorted to leaving off that piece of tubing and bending the top bar alone.  Since it is a continuous piece of metal there was no failure.  Now the lower bar piece had to be pre-bent, trimmed to size, and set in place with the internal rods.   These last joints were soldered to complete the construction.  Here are the mirror image fittings, the one on the right has the attachment pins installed. 
 

 
As with the bow fixture, these were cleaned up with a file and then polished with a wheel before electroplating.  And here they are set in place.  I just have to add some feet to the legs, which will be small pieces of chrome foil and they will be complete.
 


 
Next I will make up the individual railing posts before turning to the mast and rigging.  But I have to do some work on another project the rest of the month, so I will post again in August, when I should be almost done.
 
Until then, be well.
 
Dan
 
 
 

A few little progress: access ladders and a couple more knees.

The ladders are built using the leftovers of the main clamps. They are
respectively 4.3 mm long and 4.5 mm long. Width is 1/2 inch or 12.7 mm
for the rungs. I decided to install 4 rungs/steps on each.



The basswood of the ladders is first wiped with Wipe-on-Poly to remove some
of the grain and prepare the wood to staining. I am using these tricks
from Chuck Passaro described on his multiple threads about building
Syren and Confederate. The wood is then stained with Sherry Min-Wax. It
is very light in color and will stand out better in the dark confines of
the inside.

Small paper strips are cut and glued to simulate the
metal parts used to secure the ladders to the floor and frame of the
ship. Tiny drops of AC glue are supposed to represent bolts or rivets.
Mine are not too realistic and I should use liquid AC next time instead
of the Gel glue. It may create a rounder and fuller bubble.

The ladders are installed in the hull, leaning against the well. The front Ladder:



and the rear ladder:



Finally, I made two more knees and used again the in-between parts of the main
deck beams (from the laser cur sheet) to build the intermediate beams:



With the ladder installed and pretty much the interior of the ship finished,
I can move ahead and finish building the deck beams. Once this is done,
access to the inside of the hull, will be almost impossible with my big
fingers....

Yves

Thank you Craig. You may actually catch up with me at some time, as I am not very fast and have no more than 15 to 20 minutes per day to dedicate to this build.
 
Anyway, I finished the stern and here is again a full picture of the craft showing the intricacies of the beams and carlings. Quite beautiful, I must say (Hey, it is okay to be happy and proud of what we are doing....):

 
A close up on the stern. The rudder axle box has been completed and sanded flush with the rest of the deck:

 
Although, the plan does not mention anything about it (or I could not find it), the inside of the transom is planked on the real boat. Therefore, we are going to plank it as well. I am leaving a small gap between the last deck beam and the planking to insert the little strips that will be used to plank the deck:

 
The transom planks have been soaked in warm water to ease their bending. The central pins are pushing upwards, whereas the side pins are giving some curvatures to the planks. We are almost finished:

 
A little clean up of the excess of white glue in the groove seems like a good idea, before it dries. The outside part of the transom will be planked as well, as is the real boat. This will be for a next and upcoming installment of our Emma C Berry saga in ten zillions parts.
 
Yves

Final pictures for a little while, of this project. Details of the bow and the bowsprit holder:
 

 
and an overall view:

 
Hasta la vista.
 
Yves

Well have all the gun port and sweep port framing done on both port and starboard, and also did the stern framing. Just finished painting all the ports with model shipways red.
 
Everything is faired at this point, I am not really sure if I have taken enough off of the stern filler pieces. I have a picture of it posted below, so if anyone can give me any tips that would be great. 
 

 

 

Royal Caroline on her base

 

Thank you for your comments, dear friends, I am glad you like my work.
 
I am pleased my work can help you.
 
Today I took some pics of finished decoration, so you can enjoy them in a better quality.

Hello dear friends!
Thank you very much for your comments and kind words, I appreciate them a lot. I am pleased and honoured.
 
To Ruslan: No problem, here is a pics and link, what material it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fimo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_clay
 
Hello Sjors, thank you for your attention and comment. I like making ship models of paper, that´s no problem - for me it is easier than wooden models. For paper models and clay sculpting there are not needed special tools, so I prefer to create with these materials. I build paper models about 30 years and really enjoy it. Still there are some things, I should improve, but the most important to me is an idea, that this is a hobby a and i can relax and share it with friends.
Take care and kind regards to you and Anja.
 
 
To Michael and David: Thank you friends, yesterday I finished  decoration on the hull, so now I have a bit time and can add here new pics and description. I am glad, you like it.
 
To Christian: Soon I will bring the pics with RC figurhead - it was quite difficult to shape it, but fortunately I managed it.
 
 
To Crackers: That is kind of you and your wife, give my regards to her and please send my word to her, I appreciate her attention a lot.
You have got beautiful pets as well. My parrot often sits on my shoulder and likes watching, what I do currently... Or sometimes lies on his back and has a fun....
 

 

Here is another tutorial, I'm on the first picture shaping current decoration. Good light is very important so I often work on the windowsill.

 



Done....

Today I am bringing a tutorial how to make various sculptures, this time it is a fish, which will be placed in front of the quarter gallery on port.

At the beginning I prepare the material/clay, it must have the necessary softness, which is achieved by molding in the hand or between fingers. Create a basic shape for the decoration with a slight overlap.
 

Use appropriate tools to shape the clay, I use tweezers, tip of pen or micro pencil, knife and also my fingers...


Various details are often added from smaller pieces of clay, which are shaped separately.