wefalck

Good job on what is usually the most difficult plank on a boat. Not sure, whether it is due to the perspective of the photograph or real, but there seems to be an upward curve between the last two bulkhead - I hope that doesn't cause you problems in the further planking, because I have the feeling that the next plank may end up having to have to be narrowed in that area ... or in other words the garboard plank should have gone higher up on the sternpost perhaps

Now only the probing valves are missing (just kidding) - the things looks very convincing at this small scale!

'Proper' carving or not, I think it turned out 'the' thing 👍🏻 The rush to get the dolls' house finished in time reminded me of a story my paternal grandmother used to tell of my grandfather trying to get some buildings for my father's train set finished (back in the later 1920s) and the oil-paint wouldn't dry in time for Christmas ...

I agree with the others, the boiler looks the thing! Is this going to be final disposition? Somehow I have the feeling, that the stokers wouldn’t have a lot of room to work - or was the boiler by chance oil- fired, I don’t remember what you wrote. Oh yes, and a good start into 2025 and continuation 🥂

I think there is not a really good translation for 'Stander' as in 'Vorstander' etc. The tackles are generally referred to as boat-tackles, I think. 'Manntau' I would translate simply as 'man-rope'. However, I stand to be corrected here. Good work. I know, you got the boats from someone else. How are they actually made, 3D-printed? The lapstrake planking looks neat, perhaps a bit too thick.

Incidentally Norbert Weismann, who is one of those who intensively researched Arab vessels, particularly those of Oman, over the past 30 years just started publishing a series of articles on the Sanbuq (albeit in German): WEISMANN, N. (2024): Der Sanbuq DHI'B.- Das Logbuch, 2-2024: 158-165. Weismann discusses the origins and characteristics of Sanbuqs. The kit seems to be based on a lithograph in PÂRIS's 'Souvenirs de la Marine', Plate 57 in the first volume, which in turn is based on a drawing by LeMasson of 1865 (preserved in the archives of the Musée de la Marine, Paris). This appears to be first detailed western drawing of a Sanbuq (spelling varies depending on the transcription into which western language). LeMasson was involved in the construction of the Suez Canal.

I make myself a drawing of the layout of the ratline and place this behind the shrouds. This helps to space them equally and also to detect quickly, whether the shrouds become distorted by the process. Prototype fashion, the ratlines are not tied to the first and last shroud, rather there would be an eye-splice that is lashed to the respective shroud. You can fake this by a modified knot, where the loose end returns back parallel to the ratline.

Now, with the successfully launch completed, I also switched over to this project of which I had been only vaguely aware up to now ...

What would worry me is that the boats are very close and hit each other and the rowers in the water. I gather life-vests would prevent the rowers in the water to duck through the surf, but on the other hand being knocked unconscious could be fatal ... I would rather watch this from a deck-chair on the beach!

That's a leeboard, there is one on each side. As the name suggests, when sailing the one in lee is lowered and the one to windward raised to prevent drifting. Very common on flat-bottomed boats without protruding keel. Mainly used in tidal waters.

On the topic of cheap vs. expensive: obviously you get what you pay for, but often it is also a question of fine-tuning and adjusting. It pays to delve into some old-time mechanics' instruction books that give tips for adjusting machines to increase their precision and performance. One should also not forget that lathes and mills are self-replicating machines, meaning that you can replace sometimes crudely made parts in a machine with more precise and improved parts made on the very machine ... there are lots of ideas and instructions for this on the WWW.

I believe the original one was made by the same guys that made the Unimat lathes and marketed from some time of the later 1980s on as UNIMAT 1. It was essentially meant to be an educational toy. It was all-plastic with a fairly weak 12V electric motor. All plastic means that it was not really suitable for metal work, though they did show examples of metal work. It is still made and marketed by https://thecooltool.com in Austria, near Vienna. Later a metal version, UNIMAT MetalLine, was brought onto the market, which is a more serious proposition and can be used for light metal work. Over the last decade or so plagiarised versions of Chinese origin also appeared on the market, which cost half or so of the original one. In a way such combinations sound attractive, as one needs only one motor unit and can put together a wide variety of machines, such as lathe, horizontal mill, vertical mill, coordinate drilling machine etc. with one kit. From experience, however, I can say that in a production flow in shipmoldelling it may not be very practical, as you may have to move a part between machines for several operations and by reconfiguring the machine you loose the original set-up and, hence, precision. It is also time-consuming. I cannot comment on the precision and rigidity, as I never had or operated one, but have the feeling that their claims are a bit exaggerated. These machines also seem to be quite expensive for what they really are.

I know from experience what is is like to try to bring a boat off the beach through the surf and I would rather not do it, if I don't have to ...

Did you mean to point to the tackle? The resolution is not high enough to see clearly where that tackle leads to. It could be either a backstay that can be cast loose so as not to interfere with the mainsail when sailing before the wind or it could be the tackle to lower and raise the leeboard. Normally, on Dutch ships, the tackle for the leeboard runs horizontal along the rails though.

Progress has slowed down due to travels and other, pre-Christmas activities ... In the meantime:

Ahh, as in ‚slop house‘, where they sold cheap food.

Just out of curiosity: what is a 'flop house'?

Brass photo-etched parts are usually intended to represent something else than flat (or folded) sheet-metal parts. So I would venture the guess that in most cases they would require some surface treatment, such as chemical blackening or painting. I can't think of too many brass sheet-metal parts on a real ship. Typically, brass or bronze cast parts were used. However, in some cases PE bits may be tweaked to look like cast parts, e.g. bronze reenforcements/cladding on bollards or pin-rails and such. There is a certain 'artisanal' style of models that are mainly intended to show off the workmanship of the builder, where the materials are left unpainted. In such cases one could perhaps leave PE parts untreated, but they may require some special varnish (zapon lacquer) to prevent them from tarnishing. Otherwise, I can't really see a reason to leave PE parts untreated. Often, PE parts need to be soldered together and in an untreated state the solder tends to show up unsightly.

For working on concave surfaces, you may also want to consider so-called riffler files resp. rasps. Here are a couple of random example from the WWW: Rasps are intended for wood, while files are primarily intended for metal, but can also be used on wood. They come in many different shapes (and price levels).

Have you ever tried chemical tinning? At least over here in Europe we can buy such solutions from both, model supply and electronics supply houses. It kind of makes parts looked like steel, which they would be in real life.

I think the overall impression is very good and looks 'disorderly' realistic. I agree, however, that the bunch, just before the first roband from the bottom, should be hanging down more and be less folded up and follow more gravity ... Perhaps it is helpful to do what painter would do in such a situation: they would take a broomstick and a bedcloth or something like that and make a nearly full-size prop-up to study the folds and draping.

... try also a fake splice on the strop with some serving using e.g. fly-tying thread. A worthwhile exercise. I don't know anything about these commercial blocks, but milling grooves for the strops would be a rather difficult and costly operation. Leaving the blocks without gives the purchaser also the option of using them for metal-stropped or internally stropped blocks. Filing a groove with a very thin (1 mm) jewellers needle file is not difficult.

OK, this is the notorious first planking (I wonder, why kit manufacturers still go for it, while there are better methods to create a solid foundation for the 'real' planking. However, It may have been better to begin planking prototype-fashion from the garboard up. This give you a better feeling for the run of the planking in general and how it is supposed to rund against the keel and the stem. I would consider this for the 2nd round of planking. It is also a good idea to have a look how the planking is/was done on the real thing. One of the places where traditional dhows were built until quite recently is Sur in Oman. Just 'google' with 'dhow sur oman' and lots of pictures and videos will pop up. You will have to search for images with a dhow under construction, as at completion the hull below the waterline was smeared with a concoction of quick-lime, coconut-oil and what not against the attack of Terredo navalis and you cannot see the run of the planking.

It doesn't need to be a structural thing. If you look carefully, not all the planks are the same width at all. Perhaps they just used what they had or the width worked out better with cut-out for the hatch - one tries to avoid to have to caulk around a notch for the hatch, when you can run the plank straight along the edge of the hatch.

Standard sailmaking practice calls for the boltrope being sewn on top of the sail (usually the port side), rather than the edge. Was this also the practice for these sails? that would give a larger contact surface, than just the edge. Fabric glue might be good solution, but when the boltrope become unstuck, you can also re-attach after furling the sail at places, where it visibly has come off. Done that myself.