wefalck

This diverts the thread somewhat, but considerations of materials' use and their longevity are important. There has been a discussion on this topic on MSW 1.0. You may also want to consult this article on the Web-site of the Nautical Research Guild: http://www.thenrg.org/here-today-maybe-gone-tomorrow-dana-wegner.php Some museums refuse to accept models in which lead has been used, either when commissioned or even when donated. Metallic lead is not a very stable metal and will chemically react. A particular problem is lead in the presence of acetic acid, such as released as fumes from silicone rubbers. The lead will from lead acetate and just crumble away. I would shy away from using silicone rubber for the very reason that it perpetually gives off acetic acid. Seas made from it or sealings in cases will cause problems down the road. I know that some eminent modellers, such as McCaffery, suggested it in building cases, which is quite strange given that he is otherwise quite preoccupied with the durability of materials he uses. A twice-daily air-exchange is quite difficult to achieve consistently for a case in a home environment. It would mean some forced ventilation presumably. I think the important point is to allow air-exchange in order to avoid the build-up of humidity and, hence, condensation. In a home environment dust is the main consideration. The inward migration of dust can largely be prevented by felt-seals and/or creating a tortuose air-path between the base and the glass-case itself. I never had any humidity or dust problems in the cases I constructed. However, they were always in a properly heated appartment. wefalck

Thanks, dafi and Pat, for the encouraging comments - not that I am very discouraged though Well, like many of my tools, the micro-crochet hooks are accidental finds, not stuff you can buy at will. I appropriated them, when we cleared out the house of a deceased aunt or one of my grandmothers, I don't remember exactly. I suppose they were meant for making crochet-lace. In the old days ladies decorated their handkerchieves etc. often with lathe borders. I just love these old-time tools and many are of much better make than what you can buy today. wefalck

The rigging of the foresail was a rather painful process. My paper-sail turned out to be not quite fit for the purpose. They would be good to represent sails billowing in the wind. However, for representing sails that are hanging limp from the rigging in order to dry this technique is not quite suitable. In the past I made similar sails from ‚silk-span’, i.e. the silk cloth that is used to cover model airplane wings. These sails could be draped quite well, but the material would have been still too thick for sails in the 1:90 scale. The foresail set for drying Details of the foresail rigg So I toiled, sweating blood, but am still not really satisfied with the result. The foresail simply looks too stiff. I also had too cheat a bit in the area where the sail is pushed together above the dead-eye. Due to the rather forcefull procedure of folding the sails some of the hoops on the which the foresail runs on the stay were ripped off. There are many area where some touching up is necessary. Forestay set-up with dead-eye Halliard/down-haul belayed on mast-cleat On the botters everywhere half-cleats were used. This makes belaying a bit tricky on a model and somehow doesn’t look quite right, though I followed the sketches in BEYLEN (1985) Fore-sail sheet Forestay set-up with dead-eye A shortcoming often seen on shipmodels is that the running rigging seems to be sticking out of the block, i.e. it doesn’t run properly around the sheaves. The reason, of course, is that usually only a cross-hole is drilled, without attempting to shape the sheave. The rather elaborate procedure of block-making described earlier was intended to remedy this. Looking at the pictures, however, it seems that I only have been partially successful. Fore-sail sheet Masthead with the head of the foresail rigged with a sheep’s head-block And finally here a selection from my arsenal of rigging tools: Rigging tools (from left to right): straight watchmaker’s tweezers, bent tweezers, stamps-tweezers for draping sails and straightening wires, two antique micro-crochet hooks to pull on rigging, pin-vice with forked needel for pushing rigging, pin-vice, sewing needle for making fake splices, micro-scissors, microscopy-scalpel. Next the main-sail will go on. Another problem case ... wefalck

I am cutting the rough mitre by hand and then grind it to an exact fit on the flat side of a grindstone. You have to have a table with a mitre-guide on your grinding machine. wefalck

Yep, I have been also using crochet hooks for ages. Inherited a few tiny antique ones from my grandmothers and aunts. They are very useful to catch lines e.g. when belaying. wefalck

Rubber doesn't keep out the dust very well, I think felt would be better. I use self-adhesive felt, if needed. If you design it that way, that the top panel rests on the side panels, you will not need to worry too much about the glass not sticking to the brass frame. wefalck

Rather than emery-paper, I use steelwool in between coats. Beware, however, of the tiny bits of wire that may be left behind in corners and only show up, when you take photographs. You may want to go over the model with a strong magnet to catch these. wefalck

How big is your case ? For small ones, say up to 30 cm or so long/high you may not need to solder at all. I just cement the glass together and cement the brass angles on. Your half-inch square brass may be a bit heavy for this. In order to be an effective protection, you will have to somehow seal the glass or acrylic glass panes into your frames. Have you thought about this ? wefalck

Thanks, Pat. Actually, I don't find the scale that small and others (e.g. dafi here) are working at similar scales. A colleague on a German forum pointed out to me that botters usually had an iron rod as forestay. I was aware of this arrangement, but somehow I assumed that these rods with forged-on eyes were introduced later, together with a set-up by lacing or a bottle-screw. I assumed that the somewhat antiquated arrangement with a deadeye would be used together with a wire-rope stay. With this idea in mind I misinterpreted the drawings in BEYLEN (1985) und DORLEIJN (2001). I re-reviewed the historical photographs I have and as far as can be seen the forestay indeed is an iron rod. I corrected this now and re-rigged the fore-sail with a 0.15 mm diameter wire with soldered eyes as stay. Fore-stay made from a ‚rod’. wefalck

What period are you working on ? Be aware that, after jack-stays werer introduced, the sails where furled on top(!) of the yard and not below. wefalck

A couple of thoughts: - in order to look to scale when furled, the material for the sails should be of scale thickness; for most, but the largest scales, it is virtually impossible to get woven cloth of suitable fineness due to the limitations of thread-size and weaving practicalities. - one answer is, as noted before, to make the sail shallower/shorter. - actually, as only the outside and the clews will be visible, a narrow piece of cloth draped around a suitable filler, e.g. made from papier-maché or modelling clay may be the better solution. - other people, like myself, make the sails from silk paper. - most text-books decribe naval practice; in the merchant navy things may not have been as 'ship-shape and Bristol-fashion'. - each navy had its own rules for furling. - the way of furling depends on the shape of the sail, which in turn depends on the period; the relatively rectangular and shallow sails say of clipper-era ships were not furled towards the mast, but parallel to the yard (with no bulge in the middle); the earlier trapezoidal and deeper sails were furled towards the mast, resulting in the characteristic bulge in fron the mast. wefalck

Make one ... I had contemplated using a curtain rail as the basis, before the optical bench came my way. Many people use wooden boards and threaded rod for the bodies. All can be done with a hand-saw and a drill-press. The ropewalks of old also were not pieces of precision engineering (ignoring the big industrial ones, such as the one in Chatham Dockyard). Mine was designed for making ropes from extra-thin fly-tying silk. wefalck

Now the rigging begins in earnest. As different sizes of rope are needed for the various parts of the rigging, they are made on my ropewalk as the rigging progresses. A special difficulty arose from the fact that fore-stay and fore-sail have to be set up simultaneously: the eye-splices of the stay do not fit throug the hanks of the fore-sail. Hence the stay has to be first reeved through them and then hooked into the hook of the dead-eye. This operation cannot be performed on the worktable, but has to be carried on the model. Rigging of the fore-stay In a first step the various blocks, namely the sheep’s head-block for the fore-sail halliard had to be hooked into the bolt-rope and a single sheet-block with second eye had to spliced to the clew of the fore-sail. Fore-sail with hallieard and sheet read to be set The halliard is an interesting item, as it also serves as a down-haul, i.e. it sort of endless its ‚free’ end is spliced around aone of the hooks of the sheep’s head-block. In real life the halliard is a pointed rope, meaning it becomes thinner at the ‚free’ end. However, this cannot be reproduced seriously at the 1/90 scale. Head of the fore-sail with halliard and down-haul The sheet is also lead in an interesting way. It is lead like a gun-tackle, but the second single block inboard is missing. Instead, the sheet is lead around the groove of a half-cleat on which it is also belayed. Clew of the fore-sail with block attached (actually, the block should have been spliced into the bolt-rope, but I didn’t notice this when making the sails) BEYLEN (1985) describes alternatives for the arrangement of the fore-sail sheet, some of them lead like a gun-tackle, but with one or even both single blocks missing. He does not explain the rational for the absence of the blocks. The increased friction would be of advantage when holding the sheet in strong wind, but would make it more difficult to haul it in. wefalck

Indeed silver paint tends to be a bit to shiny (though new galvanised parts are rather bright in real life). I tend to start off with a layer of silver and then apply a wash of umbra to tone it down. Or, I start off with black (or gun metal) and then apply a thin coat of what is sold as 'rust' paint (e.g. Vallejo), which essentially seems to be a mixture of silver and umbra. One has to experiment to get the right sheen and tint. wefalck

Elia, I consulted a 1903 German textbook on rigging (written by F.L. Middendorf, who designed the 5-mast ship PREUSSEN) and he says that in the past (counting from 1903) ash and elm was used with sheaves from ironwood or bronze (or cast-iron for wire rope). Actually, for blocks with internal straps (which came into use in the last quarter of the 19th century) the wood is not so important. The wood there is not load-bearing and just serves to prevent the iron 'cage' of the sheave from fouling and chaving rigging and sails. So, I guess you can paint the blocks in any tint you like. wefalck

Blocks with internal iron strops are a pain ... so far I have not had a good idea how to make these, particularly in smaller scales/sizes. There is just not enough 'meat' at the top of the blocks to glue in the eyes or hooks. At the bottom end this is not an issue. I don't think blocks and mast/spars would be of the same colour. They would have be made of different kinds of woods. In the late 19th and 20th century blocks also were often painted, e.g. white or 'mast colour'. wefalck

Nothing is 'permanent' in life ... except stains on your favourite trousers Actually, sometimes(!) incompatible paints and varnishes can be used when applied by airbrush. The respective solvent evaporates before any dissolution and diffusion of the underlying paint can occur - provided one applies thin coats only. This is also a method to applly several layers of the same paint or varnish that would dissolve previous layers when applied by brush. In any case, I would try it out on a test piece. wefalck

Right - acrylics are not resistant against ethanol/methanol, which is the solvent in traditional shellac (... a lot of cabinet-makers in the old days were alocoholics ) ... For same reason one should be cautious with alcohol-based varnishes that are sold in spray-cans e.g. for water-colours or pastels. wefalck

Britannia metal probably is best primed, as the tin alloy has a slightly hydrophobic surface. This holds particularly when using acrylics. On the model of the Zuiderzee-Botter I spray-painted the homemade Plexiglas-blocks in a light tan and brushed on washes of burnt umber acrylics. They then were sprayed in a semi-gloss varnish. I would avoid simulating any wood grain, as for good reason tough fine-grained wood would habe been used for blocks. Another method of painting I used is to first spray-paint the blocks in a light tan and then to apply a solvent-based tinted wood varnish. wefalck

The old painter's rule is fat over lean, meaning never use water-based paints or varnishes on oil-based paints or enamels. In other words, you can use almost anything on acrylics. I don't know anything about the brand of the varnish you mentioned, but presume that it is acrylics-based. Acrylics may need a certain time, some days, to fully harden. They may de-swell, giving off excess water during this time. So it would be a good idea to postpone varnishing a few days or even weeks to avoid tensions between the layers. If, however, paint and varnish are similar products, it may be a good idea to apply the varnish layers quickly, as they would better key into the fresh paint. wefalck

Not much progress on the Botter-model since I came back from vacation. Once reason is also that in the meantime a little item ordered in China had arrived: Ever since I came across the LED ring-lights for cameras and microscopes, I thought something like this would also make a good illumination for the milling machine. However, all these lights were to big and too expensive for the purpose. With my limited electrotechnical and electronics knowledge I did not dare to put something together myself. Then I became aware of the so-called 'angle eye' cosmetic tuning parts for cars. Apparently, these are fitted around the bulbs in car headlights to give the headlight a aetherical appearance. They are produced, guess where, in China and sold via ebay at a price at which I cannot get the components, not considering the hazzle of soldering everything together. I ordered a couple (for obvious reasons they are always sold in pairs) and fabricated a lamp around these rings made from epoxy base-material. The components of the lamp As I wanted to protect the LEDs from oil splashes I chose a Plexiglas-offcut of suitable size and bored an annular groove into it. The groove has a shoulder on which the epoxy ring rests so that the LEDs do not touch the front cover of the lamp. Turning the lamp body The outside of the lamp was milled to shape by holding the body in a three-jaw chuck mounted on my upright collet-holder. Shape-milling the lamp body The backside is covered by a washer-like lid turned from a piece of bakelite sheet. Into the 'handle' of the lamp a neodynium magnet was embedded that holds the lamp to the spindle of the milling machine. Turning the lid The lamp was painted using a stainless steel acrylic paint. The finished i-Mac-style lamp As LEDs require a current-stabilised power-source, I ordered, again from China, a small electronic transformer or 'driver' for LEDs. The lamp in action More: http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/attachments/attachments.html#Ring-light Now work on the model recommences ... wefalck

I have used artist's acrylics (by the German manufacturer Schmincke) for some 30 years for air-brush application (it comes in bottles with the right consistency to be applied directly). More recently the Spanish manufacturer of artist's paints Vallejo, came onto the market with a good range of modelling air-brush-ready paints. I use the same paints also for application by brush, but this needs priming on certain materials. I also use traditional artist's oil paints, e.g. for painting details on figures. wefalck

This is an air-turbine. You need a good compressor for it ... wefalck

You may want to go through this Web-site: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/. It concerns figures that are nominally 1/72, but in reality there is quite a variability of the 'average' height chosen by the various manufacturers. You may find an 'oversize' set that is more towards 1/64. Otherwise, dive into virtual 3D-computer modelling and have the results printed in real 3D. I believe that 'anatomical' virtual 3D people are available as a starting point. Could be an interesting small business idea ... wefalck

Historex only works in the 1/32 or 54 mm scale. The problem is that 30 mm is the classical flat figure scale and rarely any fully round figures were produced. For a short period there were one or two UK manufacturers (one of them had been later sold to Sweden, I believe). They had an outlet in Shepherd St., Central London, but have long gone. wefalck