wefalck

This is off-topic, of course: I spent the last 25+ years helping governments and intergovernment organisations to sort out such mining legacies and to prevent them in the future ... Back to the shipping lane dredges (which can be also environmentally problematic ...)

I like the high-tech roller ..,

As a geologist and environmental scientist, I am well aware of them. There is a sort of reality TV series on Discovery Channel on artisanal mining operations with such dredges. It makes me shudder, when I see the environmental havvoc they are causing ... 🤯

I have been collecting plans for dredgers for many years. I was particularly interestedin the chain-bucket dredgers, as there would be lots of visible mechanical parts to make on the lathe and mill. The subject dredger is rather curious in the sense that the suction/cutting head could only move up and down. Normally, there would be a sort of ball-joint that would allow the head to swing in arc. Here the whole barge is pivotted on the ‚leg‘ in the rear and swung around. I suppose it would be moored off the business end and pulled to the left and right and forward too. However, I don’t see the usual winches. will keep an eye on the progress.

Missed the start of another ‚Baron‘ ... difficult to keep up with the pace. 😉 Here are pictures of a couple of bragozzi in the Museo Storico Navale in Venice: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/venezia/museonavalevenezia-3.html

Thanks, Keith, for the nice words, but I had the feeling that it was more a tinkering than an engineering job in the end ...

It saddens to think that most of the people on board in the film perished a few days later ... I noted that the names of the tugs have been 'whitened' out - later war-time censorship ?

If wood grows fast, it means low density - just a question of metabolism and thermodynamics, regardless of species ...

Imagna, I am not at the painting stage yet. I tend to complete most of the parts, before painting anything in order not to damage any painting while fitting and handling parts. For painting, I use high-quality acrylics readily diluted for air-brushing. Apart from ensuring that there is no grease on the surfaces, e.g. from one's hands, by wiping with aceton (if this can be done safely - not on parts cemented together with lacquer, obviously) I do not make any special surface preparations. Acrylics usually stick very well to the surfaces of the materials I use, when air-brushed. Once painted, the parts are handled as little as possible to avoid any damage to the paint coat and not to leave finger prints that may alter the sheen (if matte paint is used).

Thanks all. Well, I just put the ladder in for the photograph - have to pay attention not to mess things up, when the pieces finally come together after painting.

After many trials and tribulations I completed the awnings over the hatch that leads down into the the deckshouse. Such hatches were protected by railings made from polished brass tubes with connectors cast in brass. The railings had sockets into which arched awning stanchions could be fitted. The hole arrangement could be dismantled in order to be able to cover the hatches in very bad weather. The old photograph shows a similar arrangement on an austro-hungarian warship of the same period. The contemporary drawings of SMS WESPE show such quite complex hatch-cover. Hatch and its cover on board of an austro-hungarian warship of about the same period I first attempted to turn the stanchions from brass wire or small brass nails, but both materials turned out to be too soft given that they are 5 mm long with a diameter of only 0.3 mm. Even my sophisticated steadies didn’t work. In the end I had to fabricate them from 0.3 mm with 0,5 mm sections of 0.5 diameter brass tube slipped over them. The upper connectors were cross-drilled in the dividing head on my micro-mill for the 0.2 mm horizontals. I also attempted to turn 0.7 mm diameter knobs to fit onto the stanchions using a specially made cutting bit. While they turned out reasonably well, it proved impossible to fit them – I lost them faster than I could make new ones ... the knobs are simulated by tiny blobs of of white glue, painted in brass. Acceptable at normal viewing distance, but pretty awful in close-up photography. Attempts to provide the stanchions with sockets for the awning-stanchions failed and I simplified the construction by just making a wire-loop at the end, that slips over the stanchions before the knobs were made. The knob in the centre was turned and cross-drilled. The hatch-coaming was fabricated from two layers of bakelite so that it would rest on the deck. The corners were drilled 0.3 mm for the stanchions. Assembly proved a major challenge for my patience and took me several evenings. Luckily, SMS WESPE has only one such hatch cover. The whole structure was assembled using lacquer. It would have been better to solder it, but I wanted to keep the polished brass appearance – nothing looks more like metal, well, then metal ! Nevertheless, I have some very good metallic paint made by a Czech company (http://www.agama-color.cz/en/products/colours) that was used on the knobs. The model representation. The hatch is 7 mm x 11 mm – close-up photographs are unforgiving To be continued soon(?) ...

Yes, I will try to reproduce the finish of old museum models, say with visible brass nails in the planks etc., but probably no sails. I have to deal with the somewhat rustique appearance of the planking. Saw the UTRECHT once moored in front of the museum in Amsterdam (and have your book).

Yes, Artitec makes good stuff. I have had the 'statenjacht' sitting on my shelf for 10+ years. My knowledge of 18th century shipbuilding is rather limited, but I find the type aesthetically pleasing and of manageable complexity. I plan to complete it one day as a 'model of a model', rather than a realistic depiction of an actual ship.

Sometimes I felt (and still feel) guilty to have started from a kit, rather than from 'scratch', particularly after I had amassed probably most of the literature that is available, plus numerous pictures from preserved specimens. On the other hand, it depends on the purpose of a model, whether you want to demonstrate your craftsmanship or, whether you want to create a true to the prototype miniature as possible, based on research. I gather in the latter case, it is not so important what is 'underneath', if the appearance and details are as correct, as possible.

Actually, with due diligence one should have noted down all the details at the moment the deal was concluded. I would just wait a week and see, whether the item arrives. Still, it makes me wonder, why someone sells a (new?) MF70 at 45US$, while the normal price is ten times that. Looks a bit suspicious.

Going to look 'ship-shape Bristol-fashion' in the words of Dana ...

As a frequent user of ebay, I don't quite understand the problem. Did you get your mill or not ? The seller should have your address, so he can mail the mill, once he has received your money. Personally, these days I avoid any other method of payment, but PayPal. Even though, it does not fully protect you or the seller. There is a glitch, however, in the ebay-system: there is no formal way for the buyer to acknowledge the receipt of an item in a way other by leaving feedback. I recently had the situation that I bought an item, paid for it, the item was marked as 'shipped' and then the seller cancelled his account. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the seller was actually not located in Germany (as stated in his ebay account), but in one of the Baltic states. Hence, I had two uneasy weeks (I expected the parcel to arrive from Germany in France in two to three days, as usual), but finally the item arrived. There was no way to check on the seller, as he had closed his account. Ebay should not permit to close accounts, until the last buyer has confirmed the receipt of the item ...

There may be 3D-printed ones. Check e.g. Shapeways. Two-bladed ones may be more difficult to find.

Like so many things it depends on the period. Not sure, whether this is correct for your case also, but at least from the middle of the 19th century on 'gripes', i.e. flat iron hooks with an eye at the other end, where hooked over the rails of the boats and lashed down to eye-bolts or something else convenient. Another method is to to put a wooden bar across the boat that has notches for the rails. This bar then is lashed down to a convenient point. Although the cradles lock the boats into place to some extent, it is important to prevent any sideway rocking movement, hence the notches in the bar.

COMTE, P. LE (1842): Praktikale Zeevaartkunde en theoretische Kennis: voor Handel en Scheepvaart.- 2 vols., text and atlas, VIII+313 p., pl., 118 pl., Amsterdam (G. Hulst van Keulen). https://books.google.fr/books?id=0VEx-qBg6XwC&pg=PA263&lpg=PA263&dq=COMTE,+P.+LE+(1842):+Praktikale+Zeevaartkunde&source=bl&ots=hDIPInI0tP&sig=ACfU3U38cEzogvPXcxkUYXl1R21zrJlt8g&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjI8P_qtNDkAhUIkRQKHclsBOAQ6AEwEnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=COMTE%2C P. LE (1842)%3A Praktikale Zeevaartkunde&f=false KLAWITTER, K.G. (1835): Vorlegeblätter für Schiff-Bauer für die Königlichen Schiffbau-Schulen.- 40 p., Berlin (Petsch). https://www.graphikportal.org/gallery/encoded/eJzjYBKS52JLzMmJT0kV4vTOSSzPLClJLZJidvRzUWIuycnWYgAAmNkJCQ** Four more classical German works on the subject: BOBRIK, E. (1848): Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde, Schiffgebäudekunde, Zurüstungskunde, Manövrierkunde, Ankerkunde, Tafeln zur Schifferkunde.- 604 p. + Tafelband, Leipzig (Nachdruck 1978 bei Horst Hamecher, Kassel). BOBRIK, E. (1848): Vom Tauwerk und seiner Zubereitung zur Taakelasche (aus Handbuch der praktischen Seefahrtskunde.- 24 p., Leipzig (Nachdruck 1975 bei Verlag Egon Heinemann, Norderstedt). STEINHAUS, C.F. (1858): Die Schiffbaukunst in ihrem ganzen Umfange – I. Theil: Die Theorie der Schiffbaukunst, II. Theil: Die Schiffbaukunst in der Praktik.- 158+170 p. + VI+IV pl., Hamburg (P. Salomon & Co., reprint 1977 Horst Hamecher, Kassel). STEINHAUS, C.F. (1869): Die Construction und Bemastung der Segelschiffe.- 137 p., Hamburg (L. Friedrichsen & Co., reprint 1977 Horst Hamecher, Kassel). Unfortunately, I am not aware of any downloads for these important works.

Apologies to Keith, we shouldn't really high-jack his building log ... Thanks for your appreciation, I'll do my best. Well, due to the scarcity of resources the Inuit had to be opportunistic in the use of materials. Bone was used for certain parts regularly, such as toggles and certain high-strength or wear pieces (say sheathing underneath the bow and keel to protect it from the ice). I think whale-ribs were also used in kayak construction, but wood was prefered, as it could be more easily shaped to suit the users needs - kayak were 'made to the measure' of its owner. In several works it is described how a master-kayakbuilder would chew the wood of the ribs in order to allow it to be bent into shape ... ! I have put together a bibliography on skin-boats some time ago, which you can download here: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/Marine-Forum/Skin-Boat-Bibliography-190911.pdf Probably the most useful reference is Chapelle's part on skin-boats in ADNEY & CHAPELLE (1964). Back to the GERMANIA now ...

Thanks Keith. Good to see the internal structure. Most museums exhibit usually complete boats. The Inuit not only used driftwood, but also began to trade-in sawn timber from European whalers, when these began to appear on the Greenland coasts in the later 17th century. Whether they obtained sawn timber from the Viking communities until the regular connections with Norway died away in the 13th century and whether this may have influenced their building techniques is not known. However, contacts between Inuit and the Viking communities resp. their descendants seem to have been generally hostile.

Well, the reason Trump went for it are the mineral resources ... one of my activities in the arctic institute was to help develop mineral resources in a sustainable and socially responsible way. In the wake of my work in that institute, I got quite interested in the traditional kayaks and collected a good number of printed resources on them. At some point our institute was presented with a kayak, but it wasn't terribly original anymore. Together with a number of colleagues I developed a course for a master degree in 'arctic studies', aiming to train students inter alia in sustainable management of resources and cultural awareness. We had a series of 'bonus' classes and I put together a lecture on the various types of boats used in arctic waters, including kayaks, umiaks, and others. So, if you have some kayak pictures, I would be interested ... Ah, and yes, I am looking forward to your progress on the GERMANIA !

We have the tendency to pull all standing rigging taught, which in fact is only partially correct. Although in real life, the rigging would have been pulled taught, the weight of the material would pull it into a catenary, which is quite visible on photographs. This is not so easy to reproduce without looking untidy. I would also consider the relative humidity during the conditions under which you are building. High humidity tends to tighten rigging made from natural fibres due to water uptake and swelling (which is counter-intuitive), while lower humidity tends to slacken it. You account for this in order to not have surprises during different seasons of the year, if these entail large humidity variations.

The Greenlanders must have been really offended - considering that they managed only a few years ago to achieve a relative independence from Denmark (which continues to subsidize them). Worked for some years in a French arctic research institute and had a number of students from Greenland. Nice guys mostly. Never managed to get to Greenland myself unfortunately ...