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wefalck

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Everything posted by wefalck

  1. wefalck
    Are you trying to make furled sails or clewed-up sails ? Your 'attempt 3' shows actually a clewed up sail ... I would also check out how sails were 'bent' to the yards at that time, befor jackstays came into use. The thread you used seems to be a bit oversized for the purpose.
  2. wefalck
    As I work only with small-scale models, I don't need a lot of paint. For this reason I use nowadays almost always acrylics pre-diluted for airbrushing. Per volume/pigment, of course, they are relatively expensive. I just take a dab of the acrylics in a small glass dish and add a drop or several of water. This then apply to the model and distribute it quickly with a wet brush. While the paint is still liquid, you can suck it up with a tissue. However, once the paint is dry, it becomes waterproof. This happens quite fast, so that one can apply the next wash quite quickly. One can, in principle, redissolve acrylics with acetone, but you may then attack all other layers of paint as well. So one has to do this with caution.
  3. wefalck
    'Gallica' is the digital access system of the Bibliotthéque Nationale de France (BnF). There the link to the PDF is: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k11684265.r=vence voile latin?rk=64378;0. Everything the BnF puts out is public domaine. I have a reprint, so I did not check before.
  4. wefalck
    If I may, a couple of suggestions: - it's quite natural to have more dirt inside the difficult to clean areas around the bulwark - you could always touch up the white paint inside the bulwark - this would have been done on the prototype as well - I think the lettering sticks out a bit too much, it could be toned down with a washing of paint - I use very dilute washes of burnt umber acrylics for wheathering, in this way you can build up the right level quickly and safely At this scale you might want to fit a real sheave into the mast-top actually. Still probably the best source (albeit in French) on the lateen-rig and its use is VENCE, J. (1897): Construction & manœuvre des bateaux & embarcations à voilure latine.- 139 p., Paris (Augustin Challamel Editeur, reprint Editios Omega, Nice). Not sure, whether there is a digital copy floating around the Internet.
  5. wefalck
    The concern about the visibility of the grain aside, it probably depends on the scale and type of the model and whether you are thinking of bent or sawn frames ... otherwise, what works for you on the practical side and what pleases you visually should be the guide. Perhaps from trials to test the workabiliy and how it looks with the desired finish would be sensible before embarking on full-scale parts production.
  6. wefalck
    Some people / navies like to have a rope-ring or something like this above the leathering to prevent the oar from slipping out of the thole. In other places this is frowned upon. I gather this is what Jerry was referring to ? Such a ring is usually a tight-fitting single or double 'Turk's Head' (well, today rubber rings are used). There are instructions for tying Turk's Heads on the Internet or in books on knots. At a 1/25 scale it should not be too difficult to replicate.
  7. wefalck
    Difficult, if you are city-dweller in an appartment ... I once kept a branch from a cherry tree in my parents garden, but never found a way to have it cut up.
  8. wefalck
    This putty has some weird rheological properties. If you deform it slowly it act like a putty, when say form a ball and let it drop to the floor, it bounces off like a rubber ball, but when you hit it with a hammer, it crumbles away. Perhaps, when you try to pry it out of crevices with some instrument it thinks it has to become stiff and doesn't move ... I think, I would have gone for some low-tack modeller's masking tape, such as that sold by Tamiya. Anyway, she comes along nicely !
  9. wefalck
    These kinds of weathering techniques are not often seen in our realm ...
  10. wefalck
    Actually, I think you would need one cleat only, one on the mast to belay the halliard for the sail. But not even that may be needed, as one could tie the halliard simply to the bench. Sheets on small boats are never belayed, so that you can let it go immediately in an emergency. However, a half-cleat on each side, or something like that, might be useful to lead the sheet around and ease the strain somewhat. There is no information on how it was done on the real thing ?
  11. wefalck
    Ah, these stupid SSL-certificates are playing up again, when I am linking to my own Web-site. I directly uploaded now the image. Thanks for letting me know, Eberhard
  12. wefalck
    The snow-rig seems to have fallen out of fashion around the middle of the 19th century and its prevalence seems to have been unevenly distributed across the European regions and North America. One reason, why one does not see many old models of snows is perhaps, that this is a rig largely associated with smaller merchantmen and not too many models of them were built at the time or have survived. On ship portraits, however, it is quite frequent. Here is an interesting arrangement on the snow ELISABETH (1839) of Altona (Hamburg). The model was built in around 1900 from old plans by shipwrights and rigged by real riggers etc. The snow-mast is actually stepped on the gaff and not on the deck ! More pictures from this model in the Altona-Museum here: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/hamburg/altona.html
  13. wefalck
    Doesn't it lift off the paint ? Or may be not, as it is supposed to be made from some kind of silicone.
  14. wefalck
    Apropos the rudder: it had to be capable to be unshipped very quickly when the boats where beached, particularly, when there is any degree of surf. As the rudder extends below the keel, you would hit the sand and either damage the pintles or it might become unshipped by itself and lost. At many of the shallow coastlines from which these boats would (have) operate(d) there is a shallow sand bar about 50 m from the actual beach that may have only a foot or so of water on it. You wouldn't be able to pass the bar with the rudder shipped. Another reason is that the incoming surf would hit the rudder and swing the boat around so that its broadside would be hit by the waves - a dangerous situation ... Haven't seen magic putty for more than 50 years. Didn't know it still existed and that modellers use it to mask for spray-painting. May have to look into getting some.
  15. wefalck
    Actually, the good old door locks, whether set into a mortice or screwed to the inside of the door are not too complicated. I found an image on the German Wikipedia that shows the inards (and the one or two locks that I took apart looked very similar indeed): The square hole on the top is the one for the door knob or handle. C is the template for the key - in this kind of lock the bolt can be moved with any hook that fits through the template, i.e. they are easy to pick. The key is inserted with the nose down, when you turn it up, it moved the notched bolt to the right and lifts it against the spring (b) loaded latch. You can turn the key twice, moving the bolt deeper into the mortice in the door-frame. The manual bolt (d) is not normally available in locks fitted into the door. For a lock terminology have a look here: https://www.timpsonlocksmiths.co.uk/locksmith-terminology/ I don't think it would be too difficult to reproduce a simple working lock as per above sketch in 1/12 scale. It would be probably about 12 mm high, 10 mm wide and 3 mm thick. The body would be two plates held apart by studs. You may probably get away without the springs, or make a simplified arrangement.
  16. wefalck
    It all depends on the materials used. Perhaps the safest way would be to rub down the affected areas with steel wool and apply more varnish to blend the area in with the rest.
  17. wefalck
    Not sure, I understand the problem well. There are three basic types of locks: - the kind of box that is screwed to the inside of a door and the latch runs into a U-shaped part that is screwed to the door-frame - my father used to call this cow-shed lock - the traditional style, where the box-shaped lock slides into a mortice in the door and is screwed down to the narrow side of the door, for which purpose the box has longer flat piece of metal attached to its narrow side; the latch runs into mortice in the frame that is re-enforced with a metal plate - the zylindrical security locks that a set into a bore of the door and the latch runs again into a mortice in the door frame. So what do you actually want to model ? The whole lock with its mechanism ?
  18. wefalck
    Gentlemen, Thank you very much for your kind words and praise ! I think that not scale is the problem, but rather the limitations are due to materials availability, its workability and perhaps also skill, but certainly patience. If I was working at, say, a scale of 1/48, I would want to put roughly three times the amount of details in - which then would also take roughly three times as long. On the gun there were a lot more details that I could have added, based on the available information, but it was physically (at least for me) not possible. For me the material really is the limitation, there are vitually no wires of less than 0.05 mm diameter, and if so, they would be physically almost impossible to work with. I have drills down to 0.1 mm diameter, but drilling holes with less than 0.3 mm diameter is, depending on the material, a real challenge. I can turn short stubs down to 0.1 mm, but it is very difficult to make longer parts with less than 0.3 mm diameter in steel, let alone in the much softer brass. For such operations one would need much bigger machines with well-balanced, vibration-free spindels etc. The next update will look into ammunition for the gun and its handling ...
  19. wefalck
    Why would you want to have vertical streaks on the copper plating ? There is no reason unless you are making a model of a dry-docked museum ship. Normally, the copper plating would have a fairly uniform dull brownish colour, with perhaps some whitish stains between the 'wind and the water'. If there were any streaks, this would be more likely plus or minus horizontal, following broadly the flow-lines around the hull. The greenish copper patina only forms, when the copper is exposed to the atmosphere, but not when it is immersed into seawater.
  20. wefalck
    Protecting the top-ends of frames certainly is a consideration. Otherwise, I would start from those strakes that are most visible and have to be perfect, working towards areas that may be covered in paint later anyway. In theory, when the strake are carefully planned and marked out, it should not really matter in which direction you are working.
  21. wefalck
    Whatever glue you are using, just make sure that there is no loose carbonised wood dust left. The discolouring of the wood should not have an appreciable effect. Personally, I stay away from CA unless it is a shape-locking bond and even then I prefer PVA. CA is easily sheared off, unless it really forms a structure that interlocks between the two pieces of wood.
  22. wefalck
    I don't think so, but it is definitely true that there is a kind of resemblance between many boats in the Western Mediterranean, that is west of Malta.
  23. wefalck
    Good to hear that you are safe. (More rural) Canada doesn't seem to be hit so hard (Canadian friends in Ontario assure me) compared to other parts of the world, but one never knows. I go a bit concerned, as there had been no updates here on the train project either.
  24. wefalck
    Historically, the French coast and some of its hinterland from the Spanish border up to roughly the fortress of Salses belonged culturally to Spain, being part of the 'Kingdom of Mallorca', which included parts of modern Catalonia. The Pyrenees weren't quite such a cultural divide as one may think, particularly along the coast, where they could be easily crossed. If you search for 'Sorolla boats' you will get various pictures by the Valencian painter Joaquin Sorolla on these Catalan/Valencian boats, including them being hauled out by oxen.
  25. wefalck
    Any progress on this front ? I also noticed that Michael seems to have last logged-in in mid-August. Hope everything is well ?

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