wefalck

"... as using seal skin would land me in federal prison." ... and I suppose it would be difficult to rope-in female family members to 'tan' the skins be chewing them 😁 I didn't realise you were that H. Golden 👍🏻 I haven't updated the literature list for quite a while, basically since I left that institute, I think. They have a master-course on artic studies (pretty broad) on which I used to teach and as a sort of extra I also gave a lecture on arctic boats. The director of the institute also is the director of the Malaurie Institute of Artic Research in Monaco (https://miarctic.org) that takes care of Jean Malaurie's legacy.

Yes, after reading through it diagonally, it appears that Miller deals with making scale drawings of ships, which are indeed 2D-'models', but not models in our sense. So the call is open again, for early books on building(!) shipmodels.

Happy New Year to all !

Two hours and forty minutes to go for us

Wasn‘t it particularly used to obtain weather reports and when getting close to home to get orders to which port to go?

Yep, I knew these aftermarket offers. I made myself a ring-light for my mill many years ago on the basis of so-called 'angel's eyes' that are used in cars: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light. The problem I have with these angel's eyes is that they cold-white, which does not go well with my prefered warm-white workshop lighting (it's a hobby-setting, not an industrial one, and should be comfortable and relaxing). A yellowish tinted acrylic glass cover instead of the clear one would have solved that problem ...

I am actually zapon-varnish for this, which is what is traditionally used to protect silverware (not cutlery, but other objects and tableware that does not need 'washing up' on a regular basis), but also decorative brass items. Objects can be either dipped into it or it can be brushed on. It forms a nearly invisible very fast-drying surface film. I am not sure, whether it would be (still) available in the USA, as it contains various organic solvents.

Very pleasing run of the planking and nicely executed!

Brass tends to have a sligthly 'waxy' surface, an oxidation film that forms very fast and can really only be removed mechanically. Therefore, brush-painting it with water-based paints, such as acrylics can be a pain. One basically pushes the paint around the surface and it doesn't want to form a continuous film. However, when applied by airbrush, this is not normally a problem. There are also special primers for brass or you may try a very dilute solution of shellac as primer.

In another thread we got a bit side-tracked and started talking about when books on shipmodelling came onto the market. The oldest I am currently aware of is this one: Chapman, C. (1869): All About Ships and the Way to Make Models of Them.- 2 Vols.: 68+68 p., 3 pl., London (Wilson). Vol. 1: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QafQYVIVxto10ATpCWcm3H87dEieZEqj9nbUmRVHXSIBrfcXvQx4GNaH5t1_3hHMYOMl3_XWvJWCfpEMzmdEwJLOSZjgpNKg_FbtZHlnd_hfxXRZGD8ybJ23859QgUQQBchREPQMkk39UUPsXVIYWMr-iM0wdmke3v0yXJe__ltCYBs7e8aOdRw4UpotZw5n5WHQzuNwY-S3aMxJRO8I0FrdjwL7_AreC8CTCjNIcTb3EkVIZNKf2KMm0yb-qa4-bgFwAQxwOqfQ82OkFpWRX8wutnEn0g Vol. 2: https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qafw6gLcfJm9KhfH4itZesC_Yl6tANR0m_E8ZFGspk9DGOUe68Ck2tCvV7OyYRh9T_YnfPxTkrX045kW_l1EO7pbqd3onk5cC6XMB38zN4bfW8mHPfcg8EkePtBEOB_4uLJZs0Poa3nO9_EPnsdDhRGuw9xY3PkgdA7WRsXrw9r-zIf2zah_0aHFMj8XxOcLIGUTfen6SRH6gpXlR1Z2t8iaC0t2Vw9a2A9UACZjTpG6njr0dKHPG-Y2uGgitCpP7IvRzooXDFbOUQ7nKvxKwTt-Zkm8GxFg7FVqtpl6qKGk_pKUHrY The scan of the 2nd volume contains the properly scanned plates! Who can beat me ?

These kayaks look very realistic 👍🏻 I don't remember, did you already describe how they were made? Since I worked for some years in one of the French arctic research instutes (long story how this came about), I got interested a bit in traditional skin-boats and began to collect literature on them: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliographies/skin-boat-bibliography.pdf. I had a Greenland kayak lying in the corridor in front of my office.

Your tin-plated parts look very good and simulate stainless steel very well. Just the right shine for a model. Personally, I would glaze the windows e.g. with some acrylic glass or microscopy cover glasses.

Well, hand-cranking is what moves any manual milling machine or lathe. For some milling machines you can buy electric drives for the x-axis (or make one yourself), but this is for long, end-to-end surface cuts only. The other option is CNC, which requires a lot of programming and typically is not worth it for one-of parts (you end up making several trial parts before all parameters are set righ). I never worked with a MF70, only played around on it in shops, but have the feeling that the hand-wheels are too small for the pitch of the lead-screws. Personally, I would replace them with slightly larger ball-handle cranks, which give you a better feel when doing precision work. In that way you also get rid of the sloppy, turning handles that are detrimental to a good feel of what is going on at the milling cutter.

As for most of us, our collaboration was required for various Christmas-related preparations, such as grocery shopping, decoration, cleaning the silver, but also kitchen-work, which ate into the workshop time. But it is a good and enjoyable time of the year. Workshop activities resumed with Fitting the deck Or rather cutting out the openings for the deckhouses etc. When I prepared for the layout and put the previously prepared deck onto the drawing, I realised suddenly that the engravings of the planks at stern were not symmetrical to the middle line and very noticeably so now. So, it was kind of back to square one with cutting a new deck and fitting it to the model. Using the old one has template sped up things, but there was still an evening of sanding and fitting and sanding again, etc. lost. Then also the planks had to be engraved again, this time taking utmost care not to get it wrong again. This has now been the fourth incarnation of the deck … Then I started to tackle a job that literally has zero tolerance for error, meaning that the cut-outs for the deckhouses had to be a snug fit and there is no way to correct any inaccuracies. If there was any gap, it would have been again back to square one, with lots of possibilities to get something wrong again. After some rough layout, holes were drilled into the square, where there will be an opening and cuts were made with a scalpel and sufficient margin around the edges. Two diagonal cuts allowed to break out the waste in form of triangles. The openings then were cautiously widened by filing and frequent test-fitting until a snug-fit all around was achieved. By taking time, this went smoothly and without further incidents. The deck and the deckhouses are only temporarily installed and will be carefully adjusted during the final installation. I now need to make a temporary mast to determine the exact location and shape for it deck opening. This allows me also to determine the position the pump and drill a hole for it. To be continued …

Merry Christmas, Keith, and a good start into the 2026 modelling year!

During my first visit to the USA in 1984 or so, I think it was in one of the East Coast university towns, I noticed strange vertical seams along the classical Doric columns of the grand porch of a building, knocked on it to confirm my suspicion - and indeed it sounded woody-hollow 😲

A nice project and for European eyes rather exotic (though we know that style from 'Western' films, of course). Pure wood structures are quite rare in Europe, except for log-cabins in certain mountain and nordic areas. Somehow it would have been more sensible to design the shop as an insert with three walls that is slipped into the basic structure, once kitted out, from underneath or above.

I wish all followers of this building log a peaceful Christmas and a good start into the New Year 2026!

Mikro Kristal Clear is an acrylic gel, I believe. It has been formulated originally for railway modellers and has been used by them to e.g. glaze locomotive windows for decades ... it's always useful to look out in other domains of modelling for useful materials and tools. Another option for glazing is the special UV-curing cement that is used for acrylic glass. It's kind of liquid acrylic glass and can also be polished like it.

If you recommend products, keep in mind, whether they may be available in other parts of the world and perhaps at what price …

I had a quick look at the technical note on their Web-site and according to this it is basically PVA filled with ground-up calcite and talcum (the latter presumably improves the 'flow' when working it). So there shouldn't be a problem when painting over it with acrylics unless you really soak it in paint - one should apply in thin layers anyway. I am surprised to hear about problems with Clou wood putty. I have used their products for decades and for me they are among the best on the market. A glitch could be that under pressure from the ecologists, they gradually move away from organic solvent-base formulations to acrylics-based formulations. In the case of putties this should not really be a problem - another case are the sanding fillers, that do not penetrate as well as the original ones. I would suspect that the putty was applied in a too thick layer and had not fully cured before being painted over.

I actually use what the watchmakers call a jewell-setting tool, for which I turn anvils and punches as needed. It has a micrometer stop so that I can set the exact distance between the anvil and punch in order to not squash the thimble.

I am giving in to the temptation to divert this thread with another method that I have used occasionally: cored solder-wire. Push a wire into the core to avoid distorting the solder-wire while cutting sliced off. The rosin core can be washed out with a solvent. Flare one end slightly, make your eye and then flare the other side. Finally, both side can slightly peened over the rope. Core solder-wire is sold down to 0.5 mm diameter, I think. For a more sophisticated approach, you can also consult @archjofo's building log on his CREOLE.

Me too, I love those frilly ventilation grilles 👍🏻 I have been following on/off that YouTube channel on rebuilding and fitting out the TALLY HO, that probybly most of you are aware of, and recalling how they were struggling to get all the furniture etc. to fit makes you appreciate how difficult this is in a model ...

This is what I tried to imply with my previous post. However, in the case of cogs, which was the subject of the original post, the scope is narrowed largely to northern Europe, so cogs indeed seem to have ventured into the Mediterranean (e.g. in the context of transporting Crusaders). Geologists have deconvoluted (or at least tried to) the different ice-flows during the different glaciations, so that we roughly know where around the northern European coast which kind of boulders from which origin can be found. If I now find in a wreck boulders of different rock species, I can to some degree locate the areas where the crew had picked up these boulders or in other words the 'ports of call' - this is assuming that no transfer of ballast has occurred between ships. There has been also for centuries, if not millenia, an extensive trade in stones of particular properties. For instance, mill and grindstones from sandstone deposits on Bornholm or the Rhineland can be found all over Europe. The rough-cut stones may have been transported as ballast or finished products partially replaced ballast in ships loaded with other products. Mapping such trade-routes is a specialised field in archaeology and history, drawing on geological, petrographic and mineralogical expertise.