wefalck

Ab, I gather you read German ? I think you have been in touch with the German colleague who sails as 'Schmidt' in various fora ? He has experimented quite successfully with a lamination method for sails: https://www.segelschiffsmodellbau.com/t7592f815-Laminatsegel-fuer-Modelle-im-kleinen-Massstab.html. Essentially, Japan silk is laminated between two layers of Filmoplast R. Filmoplast R is an extremely thin paper with a thermo-setting glue on one side. It is being used by book-restorers to stabilise nearly invisibly torn pages. This laminate can be wetted and pulled into shape, but does not tear, as plain paper might do. It probably can also be tinted with washes of acrylic paint. I have not tried this method yet myself, however, as I have not been able to obtain Filmoplast R here in Paris. The art-shop that normally stocks it, had run out of supplies, when I tried a couple of months or so ago. I gather with your connections to the museums and restorer, it should be easy to obtain. Here is a link to the manufacturer's Web-site: https://www.neschen.de/product/filmoplast-r/#pdetails. I was always fascinated by the way sails hang down limp and in folds, when half set for drying. So different from the belowing sails one usually sees on models. I will try to reproduce such effect in my next project ... one day.

Did some canoeing on Ontario river with friends in Deep River, but completely missed out on the museum in Peterborough on my way down to Toronto. Did it exist already in 2007 ?. The classical book on canoes is btw: ADNEY, E.T.; CHAPPELLE, H.I. (1964): The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America.- XV+240 p., Washington, DC, U.S.A. (Smithsonian Institution Press; reprint 2007 by Skyhorse Publishing Co., New York). And a superbly illustrated book about Adney's canoe models: JENNINGS, J. (2004): Bark Canoes. The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney.- 152 p., Richmond Hill, Ont. (Firefly Books).

Mica is a layered silicate. There are two varieties the light coloured muscovite and the dark biotite. The silicone dioxide molecules are sort of arranged in tretraeders that form layers along which the mineral cleaves very well. To the contrary, the layers hold together very well and are rather stiff. Hence one cannot bend the mineral and it break easily. Traditionally, muscovite was used in some parts of the world, including Russia and notably Moscow, hence the name, to glaze windows. As it breaks less easily than glass it was used on ships. It still is used due to its temperature resistance to cover peeping holes in furnaces. I don't think it would be very suitable for modelling except for glazing windows and lamps.

I use a cardboardbox to catch overspray, but then I am working so slowly that I need to paint perhaps once a year or so. Rattle can spraying is done outside against the box to catch overspray too.

Druxey, this material is much harder then styrene and files/sands well. However, it is also more brittle and sawing has to be done with caution. Sheets of up to 0.5 mm thickness can be scored with a scalpel and then broken for straight cuts. Unlike thin metal sheet it doesn‘t dent, but is as smooth as metal without preparation. I would perhaps prefer acrylic glass, but that is not available down to 0.1 mm thickness. Acrylic would glue better. However, I found that the bakelite glues well with CA - I clinker-planked a little boat with it some 25 years ago and it does not show any signs of deterioration. The glueing with laquer is likely to hold up well too, as the lacquer is known to be very stable. The bakelite paper also paints well with acrylics without any special preparation.

Thanks, Keith. Way back in post #32 I am making cores for skylights from Plexiglas and discuss the techniques. It is straightforward: you just have to face off the rod with a very sharp tool, then, if really needed, I smooth with a very fine 'rouge' paper attached to a flat surface (kind of emery file, but with 'rouge' paper), holding it flat to avoid rounding the edges; finally I use a tiny blob of metal polishing cream on a folded piece of toilet paper.

Got the HMS BEAGLE kit around 1966, when I was ten, and built it then, 'oob' as one would say today. Got the HMS BOUNTY kit around 1970, I think and started to built it. In 1972 I first visited the NMM in Greenwich, which was a revelation then. They had some drawings of the BOUNTY on display then and I got the permission to take pictures. However, I didn't know about the archives and how to get access to them at that time. Already, when working on the BEAGLE, I didn't like the plastic shrouds, but didn't know any better. Still using the dead-eyes from the kit, I properly (well, more or less) rigged the shrouds and rattled them down with ratlines. But then the project ground to a halt, because I just could not come up with a solution for blocks of a sufficiently small size with my limited experience and tooling. No Internet to be even dreamt of I still have the model, boxed up, but I don't think I will ever complete it, because I recognise my juvenile mistakes and would need to completely redo it. Good luck with your project !

Thank you ! ************* Doors in the foredeck and the decks house Foredeck and decks-house were accessible through various doors. These were cut from 0.1 mm bakelite paper with the laser-cutter. The hinges were laser-cut from thin paper. In both cases various tries were needed with different cutting parameters and slightly altered drawings in order to arrive at the correct size. Die parts were assembled using zapon-lacquer. Zapon-lacquer was also used to glue the door into place. Laser-cut doors from bakelite paper before clean-up On historical photographs I noticed that each door had a narrow step. These were represented by shaped and laser-cut tiny strips of paper. View of deck-house and back of the fore-deck with the doors installed Once the door were in place the hole for the bullseyes were drilled out. The laser-cut hole served as a guide. Once the boat is painted, the glazing will be installed in form of short lengths of 1 mm Plexiglas rods. The front of the rods will be faced and polished carefully on the lathe. At a later moment also the door-knobs will be turned from brass and installed. P.S. Apologies for the somewhat poor quality of the photographs, but I have been too lazy to take out the SLR camera and took them with the telephone. To be continued ...

The pigment is iron-oxide-hydroxide (FeOOH), called ochre. It can be found as a mineral, but also produced synthetically. Natural minerals vary in colour from yellow (ochre) to a blueish red (ochre), depending on how much crystal water the mineral contains, what kind of impurities and how much residual clays perhaps. A classical source was the Roussilon region in southern France: From: https://www.francetoday.com/travel/travel-features/provence_travel_why_is_roussillon_red_fact_and_fable/ All artists' and modelling paint makers have various (red) ochres in their range.

I have seen this 'do not part off with the tailstock supporting the free-end' in various textbooks, but never understood why ...

Normally such small machines are fitted with an universal motors, but I take your word for it, that the sanders have an induction motor. Of course induction motors can only be controlled with inverters. As I said, these phase-cut dimmers are for resistive loads.

Put a dimmer before the machine. You will loose some torque, but gain a cheap speed-control. In fact, I am running some of my machines from an extension cord with momentary foot-switch and have a 'plug-dimmer' in the socket, into which I plug the machines. Allows you to preset the speed and start/stop the machine with the hands free. Everything that is effectively a resistor, incandescent bulbs, motors, soldering irons, etc., can be controlled with such dimmers.

Paints come in different qualities, meaning the pigments used can have different quality and can be ground to different fineness and homogeneity. Higher quality paints obviously have better pigments finer ground. Higher quality has its price though. In general, the paints sold to modellers are of higher quality, particularly those derived from and made by companies that originally catered for artists, e.g. Vallejo (Spain) or Schmincke (Germany). These paints typically achieve better coverage with fewer coats, thus keeping your details and shapes crisp and clear. Therefore, it is not such a good idea to use industrial or general purpose paints on static models at least. For working models that may see relatively rough handling the logic could be different. Artists' and modellers' paints also come in so many different colours that it unlikely to not find a suitable one for prototypes before standardised paints/colours were introduced sometime after the end of WW1. Paint compositions and recipies varied even within navies, so ships may not have looked as uniform, as we today tend to think.

Collets increase the precision when re-chucking and also are much safer to work with than 3-jaw-chucks. Not sure, where the repeatedly given advice comes from, not to use a tail-stock during parting off. It will be impossible to cleanly part off longer pieces (say more than 4 times the diameter) without support, as any imbalance will make the part wag like a dog's tail, once you get down to say 1/10 or less of the original diameter. Another thing modern mechanics (and instructors) seem to frown upon is using a hacksaw or a jeweller's saw for parting-off. Our model-engineering or watchmaking lathes are not rigid enough for more serious parting off jobs. On larger lathes this is done with an tool upside down in a rear toolpost, but the smaller ME lathes are not normally equipped for this. Old-time mechanics 'vademecums' suggested to start the parting cut with a grooving tool and to finish the cut with a hand-saw. This is what I have been doing for 30+ years. Saves you a lot of hazzle and material(!). This is another reason, why I prefer collets over chucks - no risk to get caught in the jaws. When sawing or filing (another old-time practice, now discouraged in textbooks) with the lathe running, make sure that your body and face is not in line with the saw, so that in the event of a kick-back it does not hit you ! Re-chucking a piece with a wooden dowel in order finish off the other end of the piece is likely to cause re-centering problems. It may be ok for filing, but almost certainly does not work for turning, let alone CNC operations. It might be easier for CNC operations to turn a gun in two parts and solder the pieces together.

You mean paper filters ? They are rather thick, arent't they ?

Plastic is not plastic. The plastics used in extrusion printing are probably too soft for masts and yards. The UV-curing resin technique uses acrylics, which is much stiffer, but as Ron already noted, also more brittle, particulary in thin sections. I don't it is necessarily the ideal material for small masts and yards. In more stable sizes the printing cost would be probably prohibitive. Another aspect to consider is that 3D-printers lack the fourth axis, i.e. the one by which the part produced is rotated. You will have the digitation steps on the part, which is unavoidable in this technique, though the thicknesses of printing layers are being reduced as the technique evolves. One could perhaps 'grow' the spars vertically from their support. CNC-milling could be interesting option, provided that the mill has a fourth axis, that is a CNC-dividing head and matching tailstock. Working on long slender parts is always a challenge and one would need some sort of steady to support the part during machining. That is not a problem to configure for a conventional milling machine (see below), Milling operation on a mast made from steel rod but is more involved on a CNC machine, as you would need to constantly adjust the height of the steady. One could do the process semi-automatically by stopping after each run, adjust the steady, and then start the next run.

This is a discussion that seems to pop up over and over again. Perhaps the Administrators can 'pin' it up permanently for quick rerefence to the different techniques ? Two comments that I made before, I think: - the short plugs over the bolts that hold down decks (not actually tree-nails, which are used to hold planks to the frames etc.) are cut from the wood so that they show the grain across them - they don't show end grain; there are two reasons for this, one technical and one aesthetic: end-grain is prone to rotting and the idea was to make them as less visible on the deck as possible; shipbuilders and -owner wanted to have a clean-looking deck. Also, with the typical maintenance by 'holy-stoning' decks using blocks of sandstone, the harder end-grain would soon stick out over the deck. - model building seems to follow conventions and fashions and seems to have done so for centuries; modern model builders often try to reproduce historic models, rather than historic prototypes, they make models of models, rather than models of real ships; this is ok, but one has to be clear with oneself about the intentions and should not mix styles, or the results look odd; so, on a real ship one would barely see the fasteners (see above), therefore, on a realistic representation one should not see the fasteners either; conversely, on artisanal type models, the visible fasteners are either due to the techniques used (at the time), or intend to show the builder's diligence and skill.

Actually, yes, these carbide drills are available 'used' quite cheaply. In various manufacturing industries they are replaced by 'pre-emptive' maintenance before they really get worn. It is cheaper to regularly change the drills in production than to throw away poor or damanged parts. The drills are still good enough for our applications.

These carbide drills are very brittle. There are HSS drills down to 0.1 mm with shafts of 1 mm. Normally, they are ridicously expensive, but I got boxes full of old 'new' stock through ebay from a workshop sell-out or something like this. Standard HSS twist drills with a shaft as thick as the drill are available down to 0.3 mm at a reasonable price. I only use my carbide drills, when I am sure that they won't wander or slip. People make themselves cross-drilling jigs. This can be a piece of square rod in which you drill a hole lengthwise of the diameter of the material to be drill and another one exactly perpendicular and centric to the first one. The material around the lengthwise hole doesn't have to be very thick. It should just prevent the drill from slipping off round material that is difficult to centre-punch and keeps your drill on centre line. It can also be helpful to flatten the area to be drilled with a small end-mill that cuts across the centre. This give the drill less chances to slip.

A side question: how do you do the powder coating actually ?

I have been thinking of the SPRAY, but is it was presumably lost with Slocum at sea, I thought there wasn't much information on her. However, there was a replica of her, but I don't know on what basis. I vaguely remember that there was also a writer's boat in the Vancouver Island Maritime Museum, but their Web-site is quite difficult with respect to finding particular artefacts. Was it perhaps the SPRAY replica ? After all Slocum was Canadian by birth.

An alternative to an octogonal collet block could also be a collet indexer for e.g. 5C collets: I fashioned something like this from an old collet-holding taistock from a watchmakers lathe by adding a ring with rows of 6, 8, and 10 (should have made 8, 10, and 12) indexing holes and a stop on the body: Unfortunately, it cannot be mounted vertically, but then I have a vertical collet holder that can be centred on my rotary table.

Another one tricked ... 👹 ... it is actually a low resolution photograph worked over in picture editors on my iPad and Mac. I outlined the main contours (the ApplePencil comes handy for that) in a transparent layer and using the 'watercolour' function juidicially in Photoshop before merging the two in Photoshop on the Mac. Should really become honest again and redevelop my skills with the pen and brush

I just eye-ball the size and then try out the most likely bits - they are all stored in one place. Probably less life-time spent on this procedure than meticously labelling all the screw containers.

On many fishing boats one sees them kind of hanging in the bows from the capping rail with shank in-board. On the other hand, when approaching the ship it would have been probably completely taken in so as not foul or chafe anything.