wefalck

Not a bad idea ! The only thing that would worry me a bit is that the LEGO-pieces would not be resistant to solvents. Gave my big childhood box of LEGO away to a little boy whose mother helped my mother to care for my father in his old age (not having children of my own), but kept my meccano set (the German equivalent of it) for making experimental machinery.

The answer probably is that almost everything inside a ship at that time was moveable, except perhaps for some deck pillars. So stairs could be moved out of the way and hatches covered with gratings.

Any conclusion on this ?

On first sight, this indeed looks like an 'open heart'. However, the fact that the internal opening is round is a bit strange. Normally, part on which the lanyard rests would be straight, perhaps with shallow grooves, to make sure that the individual turns of the lanyard do not check each other. In the present configuration the lanyard turns would have the tendency to squeeze each other, thus making it difficult to set it tight. One would need to find similar images in the 19th century literatur to corroborate this shape of 'open heart'.

Downloaded it, but also only looked through it diagonally ... I seem to remember, however, that I noticed that she is not so familiar with ships as such ...

Well, as they say: life sometimes gets in the way of modelling ... good to hear that and not that something got in the way of your life ...

You can start your project from any point in the 'value chain' (as economists would call it), cutting the tree yourself, mining your own pigments, planting your hemp, ... depends on the practicalities, your space, time and abilities ... Having said that, I don't bother with mixing my own paints, there are people with industrial equipment that can do it much better and more consistent in quality. Some long-standing specialised artist paint suppliers have branched out into the model market, e.g. Vallejo (Spain) or Schmincke (Germany). I found that even their quite dilute airbrush-ready confections keep for decades. Coming back to the original question, the added- or any value of buying sets: I would not buy sets, not even something that you put yourself together on speculation. Just buy what you really need at the moment. Saves space, money and frustration, if you find that something has gone off that you never needed before. I broke my own rule twice: way back in the early 1970s, when I discovered that the Humbrol range over in the UK was much bigger and cheaper than in Germany - still haven't opened some of them, and back in the mid-1990s, when some Schmicke paints were sold out in a closing down shop at 20% of their original price ... finally made use of one of them after all those years.

The photographer must have come through (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Tunnel)

I prefer fast-drying solvent-based lacquer (zapon lacquer, as used to protect brass and silver from tarnishing) for this purposes. It is basically invisible and can be loosened with a drop of acetone, if needed. It can also applied in small quantities with a fine brush.

The lettering was mostly incised into the wood, if I am not mistaken, and the laid out in paint. If you find someone with either a CNC-mill or a laser-engraver, you could have this done for you on suitable material. Seal the material with lacquer, smear the paint into the engraved letters and wipe the rest off.

One could try to apply acrylic paint pre-diluted for air-brushing with a good old drawing pen or with one of those funnel-like 'pens' that was used in the old days for technical drawings and lettering (some time ago there was a thread here on MSW on these drawing instruments). Both tools would require frequent cleaning, as the acrylics dry very fast, of course. The problem of diffusion into the white paint may remain, but is likely to be less grave for acrylics than for the much finer pigment particles in India ink or let alone dye-based inks. The white acrylic paint layer remains slighly porous, sucking in some of the black ink due to capillary effects. One should let the white paint dry for several weeks to give the acrylics molecules time to cross-link properly and for the residual water to diffuse out (it becomes trapped in the acrylics to some degree, which is why acrylics stay relatively soft for quite a while).

The fire/explosion hazard aside, where does the fan blow to ? One in general avoids raising dust during spray painting. However, unless the workshop is really meticuously cleaned and dedusted before spraying, it is likely that the fan will do more harm than good. If you a concerned about over-spray, put some absorbent material around the inside, but I don't think this is really necessary. For your personal protection use a face-mask that absorbs droplets/particulates. As Kurt was saying, filters do not normally absorb solvent vapours, you would need an activated carbon filter (as per gas masks) for that. BTW, I am using just a cardboard box for my occassional small-scale spraying operations. Never found over-spray outside of the box.

The loose ends should be long enough so that one can grab them to tuck on them. In the above drawing they seems to be rather short. Remember that your fingers become very clumsy, when it is cold, wet and the snow is blowing into your face ... on the other hand, too long loose ends are flapping around in a storm, constitute a safety hazard and add to the wear of sails and the rope itself.

The 'Atlas' was never published as a book as such. In fact, it was a collection of loose lithographs that was being added to from time to time. No one institution seems to have a complete collection. The French Service Historique de la Defence (SHD) in Vincennes/Paris has one pretty complete collection. The Musée de la Marine in Paris too. However the Musée des Arts et Metiers in Paris has a collection that has some sheets that are not in the other collections. The Universit of Genoa in Italy also has a quite comprehensive collection: https://duilioship.unige.it/ There is also a collection of thumbnails of it on http://www.shipmodell.com/index_files/0PLAN_ATLAS1.html

Thanks to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, everything will crumble away eventually ... just a question of time. Not all modern materials are bad and deteriorate quickly - otherwise we wouldn't need to worry about plastics in the environment. The problem are plastics that contain plasticisers. They gas out with time and the remaining material becomes brittle. There is also the problem of UV-exposure that can brake bonds and cross-links in plastics, leading to their degradation. Certain quality plastics on the other hand are very stable, such as phenolic resins ('bakelite') and methacrylates ('Plexiglas'). We have bakelite artefacts that are well over a hundred years old by now and that are as good as new. Plexiglas has been around only since the 1930s, but we have still a lot of unaltered artefacts from WW2 and before. Often it is not the material itself that is a problem, but their combinations. We generally credit the artisans and artists of old to have been better in choices, but this is not always true - keeps the art restorers and conservators busy. Think of silk for sails and threads, certain dyes and inks (e.g. iron gallus ink) that corrode the paper, etc. Virtually all natural organic materials are biodegradable ... A big problem are post-1960s artworks, when 'artists' began to experiment with new materials and techniques and combinations thereof. Such works can be a real headache for the conservators - from the aesthetic point of view perhaps they shouldn't worry too much

Weren't these articles on the NRG home-page for a long time ? At least I have been aware of them for some ten+ years. While I have been advocating in principle the conclusions, the problem is, that many of the 'safe' materials and practices are not very useful for the miniature or small-scale shipmodeller, particularly, when building ships from the last quarter of the 19th century on. They are just not practical. One recommendation, however, that is important to heed, is to use as few different materials as possible in any one model.

No update since early August ! I hope this is due to the holiday period and not to something serious ...

I like these small, local craft ... BTW, as I am collecting books on such small local boats, I did a quick search on the Web and it may be that the above book is still available: https://batdok.com/produkt/batar-i-bohuslan-del-1/ There is also information on similar (or the same ?) boats here: https://digitaltmuseum.se/011024268188/bat Not sure what the generic term is in Swedish, but in German such clinker-built boats with a small transom forward and no keel, but a bottom plank would be called 'prahm'.

My German sources indicate no through-bolting, but just wood-screws. The screws were supposed to be 6" apart. Whether the rails can move depends on how hard the wood is underneath and how well supported the deck planks are.

" ... he suddenly had the "umbrella handle" in his hand" - I seem to vaguely remember that this happened to someone I know too. My sister also had a R4 for a while, but I don't think it was her - her's lost a front wing while driving

It has perhaps also something to do with patience. I myself am very patient, when I can be reasonably sure of the satisfactory outcome of an operation, but become rather impatient, when I am not sure - rather counterproductive, I know. If I had to shape spars by hand, I would be rather unsure that I get it right the first time, which surely leads to scrap. If I do it with the aid of a machine tool, I know that my own, uncontrolled movements are eliminated and success only depends on how cautiously I turn cranks and plan the machine movements.

Machines are for clumsy people like me ... I would indeed start with round stock and mill on squares with my milling machine and the dividing head. I also think that, when you are working on more modern ships, where machines were used to make them, you need some form of machine tools to reproduce the exact shapes required. This is not to say, that there aren't some gifted individuals who are able to produce geometrically exact shapes (round or other) just with hand-tools. For most other people the difference will be visible.

A filing rest basically consists of two (normally hardened) rollers that can adjusted in height. Opinions diverge, as to whether the roller should be placed outside the workpiece or the workpiece in between them. I think both ways work. Here is a more or less random example from the WWW: Here a guy makes such a filing rest for his Taig-lathe: http://www.deansphotographica.com/machining/projects/filingrest/filingrest.html The design probably could be simplified and adapted to the Unimat. You either need a bridge between the two bars or make it as an attachment for the cross-slide. There is one available commercially for the Sherline, but the price is indiscently exaggerated. The height is adjusted by a nut and a locking nut: You then also need a kind of brake or stop for the headstock spindle. There are many different ways for doing this ...

Don't know what lathe you have, but having/making some sort of dividing stops at the spindle will be a very valuable modification to the lathe. The watchmakers have what is called a filing rest as attachment for their lathes, which allow to do exactly what you want to do, namely filing square flats onto round stock. If you are interested, I can provide more details.

If it's cast iron, judging by what looks like rust, it could be the knob for a door of an oven or stove.