wefalck

I guess wire is easier to coerce into shape ... I found it very difficult to twist three wires into a uniform 'rope', slight differences in tension make the wire with the least tension bulge ...

if it had to be really fast: every sailor had a knife in a sheath on his back so that it could be reached by both hands ...

My sailing instructor in 1971 told me to have the loose end always on the outside and the standard German textbook on ropework for yachtpeople (first published in 1953, got the 1969 edition) warns against having the loose end inside, because it can rub against the bollard etc. and become damaged ... Apropos books: I build up a considerable library of contemporary and antique books, but found that it has become devalued quite a bit (apart perhaps from the collector's value), because many of them can now be downloaded for free on the Internet. Still it is nice to have them on the shelves around you

Just catching up again with this wonderful work !

Going to be interesting. I am not very familiar with the 17th century, as I am more into the 19th century. It is interesting to see how either a type evolved over time or how a denomination shifted from one type to another. In any case, the boeiers of the 19th century look rather different from those of the 17th century and also have a different purpose, being either a short-distance private conveyance or pleasure boat (equivalent to a horse-drawn carriage in less waterlogged parts of the world), rather than being a freight ship. I always found these Dutch boats somewhat bizarre and ungainly - but got to love them during my years in Noord-Holland ...

In Europe, we don't seem to have these 'For Sale' signs for sale - indeed, in some countries they are forbidden in order not to deface the looks of streets For a cheap alternative to a styrene sheet, you can also coat a piece of paper in sanding filler, which will give you a similar non-absorbing surface. In general, it is a good idea to test the appearance of a painting scheme on some material of similar surface roughness to were you want to apply it. Surface structures can be a curse and a blessing - mostly a curse, I think, because they are usually grossly overscale. Figure painters, particularly the 'war-gaming' fraternity, seem to like them, because you get a lot of (pseudo-)detailing with a simple dry-brushing technique. Personally, I like acrylics, because they dry fast, so that you can work fast without washing off previous layers of paint. Other people work in artists' oils with very good results, but this requires more patience, as you will have to wait for several days between washes and there is always the risk that the high solvent content (turpentine) of a wash dissolves a previously layer, when you insist too much with a brush. Working with multiple layers of washes has the advantage that you can built up slowly the desired effect and that you can wash/rub off the layer you worked on while it is still wet, if you don't like what you did. The process gives a lot of control over the effect to be achieved. Adding washes at particular places allows you to control the hue or saturation of colours, depth of shadows and strength of highlights. You can mix this with other media, such as pastels or coloured pencils, e.g. for highlighting edges.

Actually, I think every shipmodeller should have a book on knots/hitches on the bookshelf for reference (and doesn't quite need to be the 'Ashley'), even though a lot can be gleaned off the Internet these days. There are also several Web-sites that illustrate, how they are tied. Search for instance for 'animated knots'. However, beware that these sites are not always 100% fool-proof and sometime perpetrate common mistakes. For instance here: http://www.animatedknots.com/bowline/ the bowline knot it done incorretly with the loose end inside the loop, which can make it difficult to untie, if it becomes wedged between the loop and the bollard ...

'Marbleing' and 'Wood-Graining' were actually specialisation in the painters' trade, but have largely died out after WWII with Resopal and Melamin taking over as false wood surfacing. It still seems to enjoy a certain popularity in the UK, judging by the fact that you can buy instruction books on it and some of the tools, such as special rubber combs, rollers and brushes to imitate wood grain. I have one of those books and others on faking materials. If you have a chance to visit the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen (NL) to see their collection of traditional Dutch boats, you should also pay the old painter's shop a visit, where they demonstrate the techniques of marbleing and wood-graining. BTW, your fake (I hesitate to use this word these days ... the French faux seems to be less loaded ) looks really good, Druxey.

A ring-light is definitely a most useful attachement to any mill. I found the microscope-ones to bulky for my machines and thus fabricated one myself. The basis was a so-called angel-light, an LED-ring to be installed in car head-lights that you can buy for a Euro or so from ebay, plus another couple of Euros for a small electronic transformer ('LED-driver'): http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light Not sure that I would go for the Sherline 8-axis configuration. Tramming the column to be vertical can be a pain. I would rather go for tilting vice or the Sherline-native tilting mounting plate. I would agree that a rotating table is a useful implement, if not even a must ...

I am actually using paints pre-diluted for the airbrush. I put a drop into a glass mixing palett and water into an adjacent cup. The paint is diluted in the brush and applied. If needed, I take more water into the brush and distribute it. As long as the acrylic is wet it can be diluted or washed off again. Once dry, the paint is permanent and more washes can be applied without removing the previous ones. The trick is to build up the desired effect from several layers.

Actually, my 'workshop' is a 3.5 sqm (= 36 sq ft) corner of my office, where I earn my living. I made some small (1' by 2') workstations, like the one above, for the heavier, metal-working machines. The other machines are kept on shelves around.

Got some shelving in solid beech staves cut to size, or you may find cut-offs from similar kitchen tops. I sanded them nicely and gave them a coat of cellulose sanding filler, which was rubbed down with steel wool. This gives a nice satin finish that is quite resistant to oil, easy to clean and pleasing aesthetically. Otherwise, I made boxes or under-bench cupboards with drawers for the numerous attachments and tools one tends to collect with time. For the spindle tools (chucks, collets) I turned the drawers upside-down and drilled holes for the shanks into them:

I got one of those mechanical edge-finders, but nearly never use it. In most cases I either take the shaft of a broken carbide endmill into a collet and slowly move the workpiece up against it until I feel the resistance, or for scribed marks, I use the the very sharp tip of a conical burr close above the surface to aim from two directions along the scribed lines.

I think we had this question here before. Below a 'resin' model on which the technique chj mentioned was applied: I begin with a sprayed on base-coat of acrylic paint, in this case 'Wood' from Vallejo; over this washes of burnt umber and black acrylic paint are applied; for a weathered look you may want to add a light wash of white too; depending on the kind of wood you want to simulate, you may use a more reddish or yellowish wash; you can also water-based wood stains as washes on flat acrylics - do not use alcohol- or solvent stains, as these may dissolve the acrylic paint. Base-coat applied with an airbrush With washes of burnt umber, black and white

Is there a (free or nearly free) software package like DelftShip that would run on an iPad pro ?

Well machined !

Well, actually, the varying colours of cotton vs. hemp sails were noted here already: https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/15584-a-method-for-making-panelled-sails-using-paper/&tab=comments#comment-486775. Older sails also tend to be lighter in colour due to bleaching by chlorine radicals from the seawater and strong UV-irradiation. And here is how I made paper-sails from inndividual panels in 1/90 scale: https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/68-zuiderzee-botter-by-wefalck-finished-artitec-resin/&do=findComment&comment=47886. I have used the same technique also with silkspan in 1/60 scale.

These needle threaders seem to be an obvious solution - but I realised early on in my carreer that they cannot really work on scale(!) blocks, because in addition to the double thickness of thread you have the double thickness of the wires - in reality, however, the clearance in the shell of the block is not more than about a quarter more than the diameter of the rope for which it is made. Enlarging holes in model-blocks to suit, blows the idea of scale out of the window. The only solution is to stiffen the end of threads. My personal choice for this is fast-drying lacquer, such as solvent-based nail-varnish - I keep the use of CA to the absolute minimum, I almost hate it. With the lacquer you can also twist the end between your fingers to tighten it up - not recommendable with CA

The steps will always remain an issue and the more so, if the printing plane is only slightly tipped with respect to one of the axes of the printer. This is inherent to the technology and will require some 'post-processing' for the foreseeable future on all filament printers at least. As noted before, I looked into this technology on and off for the past dozen of years or so, because I was attracted by the theoretical possibilities. Somehow I came to the conclusion that in our case it is probably best suited to print basic, but shapes with complex curvatures. Just as you would get raw pieces from a foundry and finish these using traditional machining techniques, such as turning, milling, or grinding. Generating complex surfaces using a digital technique, whether additive (3D printing) or substractive (CNC milling) will leave you at our scales always with the stepping issue, but will move the most difficult part to the computer.

Ed, you should actually put a scale figurine next to all the iron work in the photographs - it strikes me how massive these forged parts must have been on the original. I gather the yoke would have been something like 2 m (7') across ...

I have watched the development of the 3D-printing technology for consumers over the past 12 years or. While it is true that things have become a lot cheaper and more accessible, there are inherent physical limitations for each of the technologies (e.g. filament application, localised UV-curing, etc.) that are expensive to overcome, because of the precision required for the mechanical parts. I think the 'digitisation' effects on surfaces that intersect the axes of the printer will remain a problem for filament printing, simply because the filament has to have a finite diametre. Here the spatial resolution (and some other effects) of localised UV-curing will be the challenge. It is a bit of a Catch 22 for parts such as the funnel: we have the surface details, the rivets e.g., but cannot smooth the surface in between (easily) because of those details. For parts without surface details, this is less an issue, of course. Orienting the part to be printed so that the stepped surface becomes less obtrusive would be a good strategy. This made me think, whether anyone actually has tried a sort of hybrid process: adding surface structures and details on the printer onto a machined basic shape. In the case of the funnel one would need actually a 4th axis of movement in order to rotate the piece under the printer head. Or one could print the detail onto a suitable carrier foil and wrap this around a core for the funnel. I know that you can buy 'rivets' printed onto decal-sheets - something along these lines, but less fragile than decals. Just thinking aloud ...

Yes of course: Picture doesn't necesserily mean photograph ... there were other media in these pre-smart-phone-selfie-era

This seems to apply to the industrial nations and the Nordic countries and N-America only. It also depends apparently strongly on the amount of manual labour and nutrition, hence on social class. The working classes seems to have been shorter at all times than the higher echelons of society. As the navies recruted themselves more likely from middle to lower echelons, they were likely to be shorter on average. I am 1.80 m (5'9") and it was a rather interesting experience to walk the streets of say La Paz in Bolivia, where most people seem to be +/- 1.60 m (5'3") ...

Until the general adoption of the metric system, which began to radiate from France in the second quarter of the 19th century, every country had its own definition of inch, foot, mile, pound, ton, etc. It seems tha Napoleon I was about 1.69 m, which was not very tall and smaller than a lot of the people, who surrounded him, judging by pictures. He was also of a more stocky built, which gave probably the impression to be smaller than he really was.

In German we have a saying: moving house three times is as bad as burning down once ...