wefalck

Every organic solvent has a smell and some of them smell quite nicely (no, I am not a 'sniffer' ...). It depends on how big the area is to which you apply the glue. The main point is, whether the glue does the job. And: traditional hide glue does not necessarily smell very nice either.

That could be. In Germany the classical polychloroprene glue is Pattex and in my youth it was sold in tins. However, it was much for 'stringy' thatn the stuff in the video.

Laser-cutting results in a slight kerf, but this doesn't account for the observed gaps here. Due to the kerf, forward bulkheads should face forward with the side that that was down during the cutting process and vice versa for the rear bulkheads.

As always, the answer to the original question depends on what kind of model you are thinking of (and on the scale): for a model that shows off your artesanal skills, blackening is probably the way to go, while for a model that depicts the real life appearance of the prototype, painting may be more apropriate, as this is what would have been done in real life. I agree with 'grsjax', that blackening provides a better key for paints, particularly also acrylics, than the bare brass or copper. And: if the paint chips during subsequent handling, this will not be so visible.

Keith, how is the attachment lock into the T-slot of cross-slide ? I don't seem to see any screw that pulls the fixed part down onto the table, against the T-nuts.

Ah, someone else, who got out the ball-turning attachment. Will be showing some results in my log soon. Would you mind showing your attachment to satisfy my curiosity ? Very nice anchors, indeed ! Will they stay in brass, or will you blacken them ? If the prototypes were galvanised, chemically tinning would also be an option.

Just discovered this log - beautiful wood- and metal-work indeed. Will keep following further progress !

Matching paints from different manufacturers really will be hit and miss. Not only will pigments be different, but as binders and solvents will be different, their levels of sheen will also vary. I think really the best strategy is one you already used, namely to decant a bit from the spray-can into a container. If you can find one with a tighly closing lid, then you may be able to store it for weeks or months, making the procedure less wasteful.

Follow Roger's suggestion of filling up the spaces between the 'bulkheads' with some scrap wood that is a tad softer than the plywood. Many kit-builders do this and make life a lot easier ...

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Well, I am actually an expat from Germany, but my wife is French On a ship like that the helmsman would standing besides the tiller, not in front of it, as you may do on small sailing boat, in order to be able to steady the tiller with the whole body weight. So I would think that the tiller should be a tad longer than drawin on the plans, but not so long that it would touch the bulwark, when put over hard.

I think we had this topic somewhere else before ... Anyway, there are extremely fine silk fabrics for silk-screen printing. I gather one can get them in art-supply stores, but also in the famous bay. Haven't tried them myself yet, but I believe this was the main use of the fabrics also used for covering model aircraft.

Also did some googling and realised that my chemical/mineralogical knowledge crossed with what are marketed products. Today, TiO2 pigment is produced mainly from a mineral called rutile, which apart from being crystalline TiO2 can contain significant amounts of iron oxide. The iron oxide is removed by an acid leaching process, depending on how effective this process is, traces may remain, giving the pigment a slightly yellowish stain. It appears that some artists like this pale beige colour and it is marketed as such, as 'unbleached' TiO2. The purification process has actually nothing to do with 'bleaching', which is an oxidation process.

This wanders a bit off-topic, but I wonder what is meant by 'bleached' vs. 'unbleached' titanium ? Titanium oxide (TiO2) is one of the whitest pigments that we have. Also, due to the production process it is very pure and then very stable as a chemical compound. So, I wonder, how it can be bleached.

Hide glue is normally used warm, isn’t it ?

In the video below on the assembly of SHIPYARD laser-cut blocks the guy uses a liquid, honey-like glue, that seems to set quite rapidly. What kind of glue may this be ? Wrote to the guys a week ago, but no response yet ...

As I am currently working in 1/160 scale and struggling to produce blocks, I gather I know what I am talking about: you have two issues to tackle here, namely - you need sources on both ships that provide you with the necessary rigging information, such as LONGRIDGE, C.N. (1933): The Cutty Sark.- 440 p., Kings Langley/Herts. (Model and Allied Publications, reprint 1975). MARQUARDT, K.H. (1995): Captain Cook’s Endeavour.- Anatomy of the Ship Series: 136 p., London/Annapolis MD (Conway Maritime Press/United States Naval Institute Press, Annapolis). - you need to find a way to manufacture the hardware in quite large quantities. McCaffery, quoted by Allan above, works in really small scales, perhaps half the size of your scale and uses wire for the standing as well as the running rigging. He essentially simulates blocks and dead-eyes with paper discs. For blocks he uses oval punches he makes himself. I am currently experimenting with laser-cut paper, but these experiments have not yet had the desired results. Building up the blocks with styrene sheet the way other people build up them up with layers of wood strips could be an option at such small scale. Styrene has the advantage of not having any grain and texture that would make small pieces fragile and be out of scale.

I can't put my hand on that immediately, but I have seen estimations of sail-cloth weights. It is not so straightforward, as they were numbered and each number refered to a cloth of a certain weight per bolt, that is the roll of fabric of a specified lenght and width. The specifications varied from navy to navy and also where they obtained the fabric, if it was not manufactured in the navy's own manufacture. As for rope, the thickness of a fabric is difficult to define, as it changes with the amount of stretching and the humidity. For this reason, today the thickness still is indirectly given by the weight per unit area (e.g. square metre or square yard). With information on the specific weight of the yarn used and the thread-count, one can make some rough 'guesstimates' of the thickness. However, I would hazard a guess that even the coarsest canvasses would not be much above 3 mm or 1/8" thick, typically less. A german colleague puts a special paper-repair fabric between two layers of silk paper that is arranged in overlapping strips. This repair-fabric is extremely thin (I think about 10 g/sqm) and impregnated with a heat-activated acrylic glue. The resulting sails have the visual appearance of the real thing and are translucent like the real thing. They sails also can be wetted to drape them and thus show them e.g. limp. However, for furled sails I would probably rather go for silkscreen as Allan suggested. Depending on the scale one may even go for paper maché or modelling putty and just make the 'dog ears' in silk-paper or painted silkscreen. What counts is the correct appearance, not what's inside

Depending on how sharp the bow (and the stern here) are, the overlapping section of the lower plank would be sharpened out to near zero over a distance of several plank widths - is it that what you did ? I agree, that clinker-planking can be a bit of challenge, but if it worked, it is very satisfying.

These forged items can be really a pain to fabricate - either a lot of filing/milling from some thick stock or some ingenious way to puzzle them together ... this is, I think, where the power of 3D-printing, perhaps as pattern for investment casting, comes in - but it does take away the charme of well-executed artisanal work

Are you French ? Well, I not normally buy supplies in model stores (anymore), for two reasons: - in many cases these are ordinary materials sold there at elevated prices - I don't buy parts, but make them myself. The last model shop in Paris that I was aware of and that had materials for ship models closed a couple of years or so ago. Certain woods, metals, paper and plastics you can get from BHV or from Rogier & Plé (the art materials dealers). For metals there is also Metaux Tartaix in the 4th Arr. Otherwise you may have to mail order.

Normally, the hole is not covered in this kind of arrangement, particularly, when the tiller is on the upper deck. In bad weather you have a lot of water on the deck anyway. However, the hole appears to be rather large. It needs to be just big enough to allow the full movement of the rudder stem.

Are you going to change the tiller ? I suppose you can unhinge the rudder ? The drawing of the kit shows the version of the rudder with a tenon at the head. You take the rudder and file such a tenon with a shoulder. Then you take a piece of wood about three times as wide as the rudder tenon and as thick as the tiller needs to be. Drill a hole for the tenon and file it rectangular, so that it fits precisely over the tenon. Then you can shape its outside of the tiller. It helps to make yourself a sketch of the rudder with the tenon and the shoulder so that you get the angles right - if you don't put a curvature into the tiller, the angle must be such that the end of the tiller is about 2 cm (= 1 m in 1:50 scale) above the deck.

In principle, it makes sense to have the binnacle windows facing forward, because this protects them from following seas. In this position, however, one would need to have two people to steer the boat, one at the helm and another reading the compass and giving directions to the helms-man. As to the davits: perhaps the dinghy was meant to be stowed hauled clause to the davits, rather than being suspended under them.

Is this your model ? The tiller looks a bit short. In order to work it, one would have to stand on/walk over the hatch. This is not unusual to have to walk over obstacles, but having to stand on the hatch most of the time would be somewhat inconvenient. There are two typical ways in which the rudder is connected: either there is a mortice in the rudder head and the tiller has a tennon, or the other way around. The end of the tiller end should be at about hip height, so often tillers are curved somewhat, to bring the end to that height. BTW, the box with the bell on it, is it facing the right way around ? I gather this is the binnacle stand that should open towards the helmsman. And, the stern davits look a bit too much forward; I think they should protrude further to allow the dinghy to be properly suspended.