-
Posts
6,459 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by wefalck
-
Perhaps you should have had breakfast first ... I am terrible without breakfast ... I gather you used PVA glue ? That will swell the paper. I can think of two solutions, either take something very thin as backing, such as silk-span, or to use a non-waterbased lacquer/glue for the purpose. If the panelling is to be varnished without dyeing, you may want to apply sanding filler on the 'good' side first to avoid uneven spotting while the parts are glued together. The sanding filler can also be used to stick the panels to the paper backing. Once dry turn the whole thing around and give it good coating with the filler from the back, that should result in a pretty solid assembly.
- 2,207 replies
-
Is there a Beginner’s Guide to Metal Work?
wefalck replied to VTHokiEE's topic in Metal Work, Soldering and Metal Fittings
Looking over the fence is sometimes useful as well: the railway modellers tend to work a lot in metal (brass, copper) and you will find all sorts of advice on the Internet. Another fraternity that does a lot of metal work are the fashion-jewellery makers ... For solders with melting points below 450°C I use a hot-air soldering gun, that I got for less than 50€ from China. You don't mess around with an open flame and don't need to physically touch your soldering set-up. -
Replacement motor for Preac saw
wefalck replied to Kevin Kenny's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
As for replacement motors in general, it may be a good idea to look into the high-torque motors for electro-scooters. Their arrival on the market means that spare motors are now cheap and easy to come by. There seem to be 12V, 24V, 36V and 48V brushed versions available on the wellknown on-line market places. High torque means chunky motors, so you will have to see, whether it fits into your existing equipment. -
As stated above, cast-iron cannon balls were sand-cast, which results in approximate diameters only. Hence, cannon-balls had to be calibrated using specific sets of calipers (for larger balls) or wooden screens. Undersized or oversized ones were returned to the furnace. Sand-cast balls also had to be cleaned carefully from any adhering sand (a process which appears to be depicted in the 18th engraving shown above) to avoid eroding the gun-bores. They would wear oval quite quickly by any adhering sand. The cannon-balls would be calibrated again upon arrival on board by e.g. the master-gunner in order to make sure that they fit the guns of the ship. I believe some sort of forged-iron cradles were used to move cannon-balls around. These consisted of a ring with two handles. For larger balls the handles may have been extended into handle-bars so that four people could carry them. Not sure how these were handled on the ladders in the hatches. Musket-balls and the likes were cast from lead in steel-molds two or three at a time. These were kind of prongs with two half-spheres drilled out/engraved on each side and a funnel. The flash and the spigot from the funnel would have to be trimmed off by hand with a file. As the shrinkage during the casting process depends on accessories in the lead, also the musket-balls need to be calibrated. Musket- etc. balls would also be produced in the arsenals, but ships would have carried lead ingots, casting prongs, calipers etc. Privat guns would often be supplied with a complete set of tools to make your musket- or pistol-balls. Shot-gun pellets were cast by pouring lead through sieves in the said towers. Sometimes disused church-towers were acquired by contractors for that purpose, as the still existing Tour St. Jaques in the middle of Paris.
-
Mark, hand-brushing of acrylics is rather difficult (at least I am not good at it), because the medium (water or water/alcohol mixtures) has a low viscosity compared to the medium in e.g. enamels (oil/organic solvent mixtures). This means that it is very difficult to apply even and thin layers with sufficient coverage - you push away the newly applied paint too quickly. There is also no time to even out the layer, as you would do for enamels/oil paints, acrylics cure just too fast (I tried my hand at artistic painting with acrylics, but am too slow - the paint cures/dries on the brush). The away around it is to apply numerous very dilute and thin layers (Vaddoc talks about up to a dozen), which is tedious and time consuming. Then there still is the risk of paint accumulating in engraved details etc. The power of acrylics is in air-brushing. Compressors and spray-guns have become so cheap and ubiquitous that the investment should not really be an obstacle. I found that two to three layers are in most cases sufficient. Being lazy and not trusting my mixing capabilities, I normally use paints pre-diluted for air-brushing. They are relatively expensive, but then we don't paint square-metres. Vallejo were originally manufacturers of artists paints and their products for modellers show that. Personally, I use also a German brand (Schmincke) with a similar pedigree. The colour ranges in these pre-diluted paints are more limited than that of their other acrylics, but for 'historic' shipmodelling subjects this should not be a problem - we normally do not have to reproduce 'standard' colours as used on aircraft or military vehicles etc. For an occasional user, like me, mixing one's own colours and keeping perhaps stocks of them is not really working. The pre-mixed and -diluted paints keep in the order of years or even decades, while home-mixed ones disintegrate in the matter of weeks.
-
Mini Lathe recommendations?
wefalck replied to jfinan's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
Some time ago I bought a cheap (around 25€ from China) independent 4-jaw-chuck in die-cast zinc (I think) with a view to make jaws in POM/Acetal and/or to machine the existing jaws down for screw-on jaws in different materials and shapes. Didn't get around to do this yet ... -
Mini Lathe recommendations?
wefalck replied to jfinan's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
I would have some reservations against a self-centring chuck made from plastics, but I think in reality the jaws are invdividually adjustable on this one. Plastic jaws (not necessarily a plastic body) are good for delicate parts, when metal jaws could easily mar them. I don't know what this chuck is made from, but one could make quite a tough chuck from, say, POM or Acetal ('silent' gears are made from this). -
Yes, shaping parts from the solid in this way is not terribly material-efficient, but allows one to hold complex parts securily while machining. This was for me one of the reasons to build my micro-mill with an integral dividing head. I envisaged in particular to shape such parts from round stock - holding the stock in a collet also provides for easy transfer between the milling machine and the lathe.
-
Viking ship rigging ... What’s this called
wefalck replied to Srodbro's topic in Masting, rigging and sails
'shroud attachment' is the literal translation of 'Wantenbefestigung', but this is just a description of its function, not a proper term. The link above is a Swedish Web-site using an old German reference. Fircks is not really a specialist for Viking-age shipping, he just pulled together various informations. Actually, I doubt that we can ever know what the parts are known, because there are no contemporary written sources that match the archaeological finds. I am not an expert on Nordic shipping, but perhaps there is somewhere an equivalent modern part in use. Its modern name then may be derived from the old term ... -
Mini Lathe recommendations?
wefalck replied to jfinan's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
A main criterion for me would be, whether you can have pull-in collets on a lathe, which means mainly that the spindle is fully bored through. In this case you can make adapters for such collets, if they are not readily available. Collets that have to be tightened with a nut from the front (such as the ES) are really only for spindle tooling and not for workholding. The nut also gets in your way. Collets are a so much safer option for working on small parts than three-jaw-chucks. Coming back to the original question: it also depends on what means 'several accessories'. Kitting out a lathe properly easily doubles the purchase price. I am not sure that these Chinese lathes are a good option for someone, who does not have some experience and knowledge of machine tool adjustment and maintenance. I have heard (and Bob referred to this above) that they often bang them together without proper cleaning after casting and machining. They also don't seem to be properly adjusted. I would consider them as a sort of parts kit in advanced stage of machining. When you are happy with that, you probably can turn them into a useful tool, but you have to be aware of that caveat. -
Mini Lathe recommendations?
wefalck replied to jfinan's topic in Modeling tools and Workshop Equipment
To what ? -
It probably depends also on where in the world you were. In some places access to oil was easy, while in others not. In the Mediterranean olive oil has been available since antiquity, while in the North vegetable oils were less readily available. Here animal tallow was used to make candles. However, commercial whaling from the 17th century on made whale oil accessible to northern Europe. At some stage also sunflower oil became available. The commercial exploitation of mineral oils from the mid-19th century on changed the game. Since then petroleum was the main energy source for lighting until electricity was introduced in (steam) ship from the 1880s on. Sailing ships, however, retained petroleum lamps up to the end of commercial shipping under sail due to the absence of generating power.
-
Edge Gluing Planks?
wefalck replied to turangi's topic in Building, Framing, Planking and plating a ships hull and deck
I gather, once you have applied a sanding filler (perhaps inside also) no retrospective 'edge glueing' will be required anymore. The sanding filler will probably turn your hull into a quite solid shell. -
Thin hull planking
wefalck replied to Gerarddm's topic in Building, Framing, Planking and plating a ships hull and deck
I would not go for 'veneer' in such small scale. Veneers are usuall cut tangentially from tree trunk using something like a long knife. This 'peeling' process results in a very open grain and partly destroys the structure of the wood. If it has to be wood, then it should be cut from the solid. Does it really need to be wood ? If it is a full hull model and to be painted, it doesn't really matter too much what is underneath, if you are interested only in the result, rather than showing off your craftmanship. The 1:72 scale is not all too small, have a look at Ed Tosti's YOUNG AMERICA build-log in the same scale. -
HMCSS Victoria 1855 by BANYAN - 1:72
wefalck replied to BANYAN's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1851 - 1900
Pat, without your markings I would have interpreted the photograph so that the heel-chock sits in the more inward position. The jib-boom seems to be somewhat tapered on its top. I think I have seen this on other ships. From the second quarter of the 19th century on it seems that jib-booms were gradually extended to eventually doubling the bowsprit to account for the higher loads due to taller masts. I would also go for an iron-cap. Though the navies have been quite conservative re. technology for a good reason, namely the ease with which battle- or storm damage to wooden parts could be repaired away from a base, iron was the fashion of the day. And if the iron cap was lost or damaged, they still could make a replacement one from wood.- 993 replies
-
- gun dispatch vessel
- victoria
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
I love these little 0-4-0 engines, but don't like the British saddle-tanks too much, they look bizarre by continental European aesthetics. What's your's going to be ? I have started to collect some material on the French Corpet-Louvet and the British built Neilsons for a potential future project. When you say 6" by 1" you probably mean scale-inches, i.e. 3/4" by 1/8" in reality ?
- 2,207 replies
-
Well, my wife made it very clear, before we got married: models only in my study ... which really limits me to small sized models. This can mean either a larger ship at smaller scale, or a smaller boat at larger scale. For convenience sake, I limit the size of my models in a way that the profile drawing/side elevation fits onto an A4 paper, which means that I can print the drawings off an ordinary laser-printer. As I like to display the models in an appropriate environment, I prefer 'railway model'-scales, because of the figurines available commercially (usually from German company Preiser). This means 1:160 for larger ships and 1:87 for boats.
-
I also found that the iPhone produces quite good close-up pictures with much less hassle than my big SLR with all the gear.
- 2,207 replies
-
One can get brass sheet/foil down to 0.02 mm thickness - check out the usual coastal fishing grounds ...
- 2,207 replies
-
HMCSS Victoria 1855 by BANYAN - 1:72
wefalck replied to BANYAN's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1851 - 1900
Our knowledge about how the steam-side of these ships was operated seems to be rather limited. You not only have to hoist the ash-buckets up to deck-level, but also carry them across the deck and then discharge them overboard. There must have been some sort of ash-chutes already. At least in the mid-1870s these were installed on both sides, so that you could always discharge to lee. It seems that during the time the ships were flush-decked, the buckets were indeed carried by hand. When ships began to receive engine-houses and other superstructures, typically some sort of overhead rails were installed along which the buckets could be moved. I don't recall having ever seen any ash-hoisting installed on a model. Perhaps you could contact the Portsmouth guys and see, how they think this problem was solved on HMS WARRIOR. She is a few years younger, but essentially of the same structural layout. I don't recall any such information in the books about her I have in my library.- 993 replies
-
- gun dispatch vessel
- victoria
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
HMCSS Victoria 1855 by BANYAN - 1:72
wefalck replied to BANYAN's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1851 - 1900
Yes, these Victorian skylights are masterpieces of joinery and a challenge to model, particularly at such small scale. Building them around a acrylic glass core would also have been my method of choice. A few months back I confronted the same problem. In one case I etched little grooves into the inside of the 'wooden' frame to provide for the uniform spacing of the bars. In another case I milled the grooves into a raised part of the acrylic core and built up the panelling with styrene sheet. The bars are/will be short sections of very fine brass wire lacquered in. Lacquer has the advantage over e.g. CA glue that I can adjust the wires, if needed. Painting them without messing up everything will be a challenge still lying ahead. And I agree, you did a good job on those skylights ! P.S. (added after I read druxey's comment) - tools indeed have to be sharp and should have a relatively steep rake; it is, however, also a question of the material, as not all acrylics are exactly the same; I occasionally found that people are trying to sell other clear plastic as 'acrylic glass'; personally, I am lucky to still work from a stock of original Plexiglas, obtained directly from the manufacturers, when my father was working for a daughter company to Röhm GmbH, as it was known then.- 993 replies
-
- gun dispatch vessel
- victoria
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
Well, deep-buttoned green leather has something to it ... sitting on some, while writing this
- 2,207 replies
About us
Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research
SSL Secured
Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured
NRG Mailing Address
Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917
Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)
Helpful Links
About the NRG
If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.
The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.
The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.