wefalck

Did you look at images on the Web ? OK, views of what VICTORY might have looked where and when are changing as research progresses (see 'dafi's' building log), but Longridge's book on Nelson's ships might still be a good starting point.

Cutting a template from steel certainly is an option, but may be rather challenge in itself to do. Unless you use the template as a scraper, some cardboard or a piece of styrene may be sufficient. I would draw the shape for both sides in the correct size on the computer, print it out (checking again for the correct dimensions) and glue it onto the part - then work your way up to the lines.

The square mesh was a concession I had to make to practicalities. The fabric is so delicate and slippery, that it would have not been possible to pull every other thread.

The Chinese are quite capable of manufacturing high-quality products - but, as always, quality has its price. Countries seem to go through a certain cycle, when they enter a market. Way back in the later 19th century German manufacturer tried to compete through the price with British products, which resulted in poor quality (plus the technological catch-up as well) and poor reputation; later quality and, hence, price had to be ramped up to stay competitive; the 'Made in Germany' originally meant to be a warning imposed by British importers, became a sign of quality. Post WWII the Japanese went through a similar cycle; they first targeted the low-quality mass-market - I still remember that in the 1960s we frownd upon cheapo plasticy toys and other goods with the 'Made in Japan' cast into them; now they are among the leading manufacturers in the World. There are signs that the Chinese will go the same way.

... and actually, from such a low point in the sea, you don't really want to see this - or may be you are glad, when a ship comes in sight ...

Folding tool update After the first use of the tool, I immediately made a couple of modifications, which however, I had expected to introduce anyway. When working with cardboard or paper one needs to ‘overbend’ the folds somewhat, so that they stay at the desired angle. This is different to working with soft sheet-metal. Styrene sheet also will have this spring effect. Therefore, the folding edges were given a 10° clearance angle. An angle of 15° may have been even better, but it works with the 10°. The edges are not really weakened by this. The second modification was to place a spring washer under the folding ruler. I had in mind to do this right away, but could not find them in the first place. The washers lift up the ruler a bit, so that it is easier to slip the material under it. Gun operating platforms and gratings The gun is mounted effectively on a turntable, so that platforms for crew are needed to give them access to the gun, while is being trained left or right. These platforms are made of wire gratings that are placed into angle-iron frames. The frames are suspended from the lower carriage by brackets. The pictorial evidence (photographs, drawings) is not detailed enough to fully understand what the brackets actually looked like and how and where exactly they were attached to the lower carriage frame. Some additional information is given by the Danish instruction model and the Russian clones in Suomenlinna fortress, but the carriages of these guns differ in detail from that on SMS WESPE. So the reconstruction of these platforms remains somewhat conjectural. Crew standing on the gratings and operating the gun Gratings of the Danish instruction model Detail of gratings on a gun in Suomenlinna fortress There are 13 gratings and steps in total, plus the platform for the gun-layer. The original plan was to photo-etch the frames from brass sheet, but with the arrival of the laser-cutter I changed this plan. The drawings were modified accordingly. The obvious solution to simulate the angle-iron frame was to design an open frame and then fold-up the vertical parts of the angle. However, it proved impossible to fold the narrow, 0.3 to 0.4 mm strips consistently and without distortions. Not sure this would have worked with the PE parts either. It was then decided to make the open frame and the vertical parts separately as narrow strips and glue them together with lacquer. After several iterations of drawings and laser-cutter settings to arrive a workable width of the strips etc. I arrived at an acceptable solution, albeit the ‘angle-irons’ are somewhat over-scale. Example of a drawing for the gratings and their supporting brackets Assembly was a slow and nerve-wracking process. I did not manage to do more than one grating per evening and it involved a lot of (mental) foul language. Eventually, I got them all together. Zapon-varnish was used throughout the assembly. The finished parts are surprisingly strong. First Version with engraved surfaces of the platform for the gun-layer Final Version of the platform for the gun-layer (5 mm grid on the cutting-mat) The original plan was to simulate the wire-mesh of the gratings by real wire-mesh and I obtained from wires.co.uk some really fine mesh in brass and steel. The idea was to pull every second wire in one direction, as the original mesh was rectangular. It proved, however, very difficult to cut such small pieces (sometimes only 1.5 mm wide) from the wire-mesh. Then a present to wife in form of a box with various (fruit) teas came to my rescue: some of the teas came in bags made from extremely fine but lightly woven fabric. I do not know what material it is, but as it dissolves in acetone, it is probably cellulose acetate silk or Rayon. Such fabrics are also used in silk-screen printing and I had not chanced upon the tea-bags, I would have looked there. This silk-screen or fabric can be precisely and easily cut with a new scalpel blade. The small pieces of fabric were dropped into the frames and fixed at the edges with a light touch of varnish. Tea-bag fabric The platform for the gun-layer is a more complex structure. A 5 mm sheet-metal armour shield is meant to protect him from shrapnel and small-arms fire. The armour shield is reinforced at the edges with rivetted-on metal strips. The original plan was to produce this as a surface-etched part. I realised that the laser-cutter interprets half-tone images as instructions to modulate the laser power so that it does not cut all the way through. Laser-engraving in other words. It did produce the desired effect, albeit with the engraved surface being rather rough due to the digitising effect. However, this part then was so thin and flimsy, that it would not stay in shape, when attempting to shape the round corner. I reluctantly accepted that it would be somewhat over-scale in thickness and cut the armour shield and the reinforcing strips separately. They were glued on top of each other with varnish and then the round of the shield formed over a rod. Folding and gluing completed the process. The collection of gratings and steps I am not entirely happy with the result and tend to think, that etched parts may have looked finer. But then their assembly would have required a lot of very delicate soldering work – I don’t trust CA for metal/metal bonds too much. On the other hand, attaching the gratings to the lower carriage frame is likely to be easier for the cardboard parts than for brass parts. Before that can be done, I need to add the wheels, which requires a lot of handling ... To be continued ...

So you don't know the hole diameter in the saws ? At least on my PROXXON the fence is a weakness. I gather, like any other manufacturing company, PROXXON has/had to strike a balance between the cost of production and the price at which their products can sell in the market. For many years they were the only manufacturers of hobby machine-tools that were somewhere between toys and 'real' machines at an affordable price. I have had some of their machines now for well over thirty years. Not sure what industry you are/have been working in, but as a German I am almost inclined to take a bit offence at these wholesale comments on German design. I gather some industries do quite well and have turned out products that are still in use 100 years after their manufacturing (I am thinking e.g. of my watchmakers lathe).

Love it ! The strange thing actually is, that probably very few people would have really seen such a scene, traffic was not that dense.

Looks like a Chines copy of the PROXXON - with the same design shortcomings, such as the fence that does not go through and is not fixed to the rear. The motor though seems to be a lot stronger, as the one of the PROXXON is only rated at 150W, if I am not mistaken. Does it take standard blades, i.e. with a 13 mm or an 8 mm hole instead of the proprietary 10 mm hole of the PROXXON ?

👍👍👍

Very nice rendering ... and you are right about dioramas (or rather scenic settings, as a diorama by definition actually is a box with a background, like a theatre-stage), sometimes I see years later things that could be added .... This Swiss guy perhaps is one of the best scene-builders around: http://www.feldbahn-modellbau.ch . Very inspirational.

Keith, did you ever try 'focus' stacking ? Using a tripod, one takes several photographs with different focal points. Software packages, such as Photoshol (LE) have a function that allows you to superimpose several images to create one image with continuous focus.

Impeccable brasswork, as usual. It seems that the yacht-designers chose a rather complicated solution for the back of the benches. On British railways (I think) and in parks I have seen simple solutions with just one bar and stoppers on either side.

People are always fast with 'buts', but I would be somewhat cautious with this kind of vinyl floor tiles. I did my mother's porcelain-painting workshop floor with them and with time two issues emerged: a) the adhesive started to ooze out between the seams of the tiles and obviously started to attract dirt, resulting in an ungainly appearance of the light coloured floor b) with time also some corners of the tiles started to lift off and became ripped off in high-traffic areas. Not sure whether this was a fault due to my inexperience as a floor-layer, or is an inherent flaw of the material. The dirty seam problem probably could be abated by laying single black and white tiles, as then the seams would not be very visible. Otherwise, I personally would rather go for a wooden/laminate floor ... more forgiving, when tools drop or paint/solvents are spilled. It can also be refurbished by sanding and revarnishing.

As a teenager I started Revell's BOUNTY, but was not happy with these rubbery plastic shrouds. My knowledge was rather limited back then, but I looped the shrouds around the moulded deadeys prototype fashion. At a 1:120 scale I did not see a way to replace the moulded deadeye/lanyard assembly. With dry brushing one could probably make the moulded lanyards look quite convincing. As always, a picture or two would help to illustrate the problem and put others into the position to give more specific advice.

Don't know what happened, but I managed to completely miss this until just now 😱 Excellent rendering of the Pâris plans !

Fluorescent tubes become slowly obsolete and are replaced by LEDs. The jury is still out as to their relative environmental impact and resources requirement, but one thing is for sure, they only need a fraction of the operating energy. The stroboscopic effect is only relevant in conjunction with rotating machinery or (old-time) computer screens that have a refreshment cycle near the 50Hz/60Hz or multiples thereof. As with all lamps, they have to be designed to diffuse the light in order to avoid too stark shadows. I am currently using an 'architects' lamp for a single bulb, but replaced the bulb with a high-power (100W equivalent) LED-globe. The fluorescent tube in the illuminate magnifier stays until it burns out and will then be replaced by LEDs. These days you can get LEDs with virtually any socket that is used for traditional incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs, or fluorescent tubes. The architects lamp is good for draughting and working on flat pieces, but still does not illuminate surfaces very well that are turned towards you and it is not always possible to orient parts you are working on with the respective surface up. So I am looking for a light source that comes from my back, but without throwing my shadow onto the table. I have put my writing desk perpendicular in front of the window, so that it is to my left. That's a good arrangement for hand-writing and -draughting (both of which I rarely do anymore), but when manipulating parts, we are typically working with both hands. So this needs to be considered as well.

One thing I have noticed as I am getting older: I also need more light from the front onto thing that I am working on. The under-cabinet lights (as in the kitchen) are good, but somehow they put shadows from behind onto objects you are working on. Perhaps not so much an issue when you are standing and looking down onto the bench, but irritating when you are, like me, work seated. Not sure, what the ideal solution would be. Perhaps some LED-panels somewhere above the head where the chair is, so that one does not oneself cast a shadow onto the workbench. I am in the process of designing a workshop in our new apartment, so I am watching this space ...

Limp sails, half-hoisted for drying are so much more difficult to represent, than the dramatic billowing ones, but I think you are getting there ! This begins to look rather convincing. While pottering along with my current project, I have been looking at various images, including van de Velde paintings and mid-19th century photographs, to get a better feeling for how limp sails drape over stays and the kind of folds and creases they have. My challenge then will be that I am/will be working at 1:160 scale. At any scale the problem is that the materials that are available to us are at least one order of magnitude too thick compared to the prototype and the the stiffness of the fibres does not scale down. This means that the material, whether textile or paper, does not crease and fold as intricatly as it should. Even on those billowing sails one would normally see fine creases raying out from the corners - they are never as taught as the modern plastic yacht sails. This will require almost something like sculpting in 3D, using e.g. tweezer, while the material is drying. I will also experiment with painting, acrylic washes, as figurine painters use to depict fabrics or indeed any painter, with the difference that the substrate is not flat, but in three dimensions. @Schmidt has been continuing with his paper experiments and he tries to achieve the transparent effect one observes when viewing a sail against the light. His recent results look quite promising: https://forum.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1874&start=75. He also works in 1:160 scale for theses models, btw.

Something to look forward to every second evening or so 👍

We had this discussion somewhere else on the forum: either nitrocellulose varnish (known under the name of zapon-varnish also, which is used to protect polished silver and brass from tarnishing) or a shellac solution. It does not appreciably darken the lines, particularly when used diluted.

One would indeed need to know what (type of) vessel we are talking about. In European commercial vessels for much of the 19th century the light upper yards were often set flying, with no parrel. Sometimes also a kind of vertical stay parallel to the top-mast was used on which the yard ran with a truss into which an eyes was spliced. Weight of gear was important in trading vessels with small crews.

I am a bit pressed for time at the moment and cannot extract relevant works from my literature list, but you are welcome to browse it here: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliography.pdf. Beware it is long document ...

As I always say: nothing looks more like metal ... than metal However, not everyone has access to certain tools and techniques. Tampon galvanising kits for copper, silver and rhodium are avaialble from jewellers supply houses. They also supply the materials for polishing and buffing, which is not really difficult.

If you could show what the windscreen looks like and and what cross-section the frame should have, one could give some more specific input. I gather you will have two challenges here: a) to shape the frame, and b) to get the shiny chrome finish it presumably had. I assume that it would have been framed with some sort of U-shaped profiles. Depending on the scale of the model, you may be able to buy something suitable in brass or styrene, otherwise you would have to fabricate it yourself. This profile would need to be coerced around the windscreen, or perhaps some sheet metal former to avoid scratching the windscreen. It would need to made in section to allow insertion of the screen material. Brass you could then take to a company that does chrome-plating, or you could spray-paint it using some high-quality metallic paint, such as Alclad, as you would do for styrene. A completely different route would be to build the frame around the existing windscreen with narrow strips of styrene. After masking off, this can be painted again with Alclad paints or something similar.