wefalck

Just an observation (without any reference to period or location): I have seen on many (contemporary) models water barrels that are not round but sort of oval in shape. A reason for this could be that they would not roll around like mad when come loose, but rather slide, giving the crew a chance to catch them.

wefalck

Actually, on the real thing there were no treenails in the decks. What you see (or rather mostly not, except when really standing on a deck) are wooden plugs that cover the holes drilled for iron bolts (at least in later ships). The plugs do not show end-grain (as would treenails do) but were cut so that the grain runs in the same direction as the planks. The idea was to make them almost invisible for  aesthetic reasons.

It seems to be a fashion among modellers to use treenails to show how much effort they put into a model. There is also some mechanical reason, as the treenail securely fastens the plank. Otherwise, I would ignore them on a true 'scale' model.

wefalck

As I noted before, the model is now at a stage, where it needs protection from the domestic elements. The first step was the base-board with the scenic surroundings. The second step is a glass case.

In spite of the hot weather I started this today – it turned out that the study/workshop was actually the most pleasant room in the appartment, but I had to restrict the lighting to a 100 W lamp ...

Scoring of the Plexiglas before breaking (it is still covered in its brown protective paper).

The construction of the glass case is inspired by the design MCCAFFERY describes in his book ‚Ships in Miniature’ of 1988. In the past I used silicate-glass for the purpose. Silicate-glass has the advantage, that it doesn’t scratch. From another project, however, I had a pile of 3 mm thick Plexiglas-sheets since 1980 in my materials hoard. My father then worked for a subsidiary of Röhm GmbH and we got the stuff quite cheaply. From that time I also have a copy of the very useful manual on how to work with Plexiglas.

Fixing the plate at the edge of table

Lucky for me, the panels for the case could be cut from those sheets with just a few cuts. In a domestic context, when you don’t have a big table saw, sheets of that thickness are best broken, rather than sawed. When marked the sheets are scored with a ‚cutter’ knife. Per milimeter of thickness it needs one go with the knife. It is important to score right to the edge of the sheet, otherwise corners may break out. The sheet then is clamped down with the scored line exactly at the table edge. Then, with a decided jerk, the plate is broken off. A clean, straight edge that needs little or no sanding before glueing is the result.

A clean broken edge

To be continued soon ...

wefalck

How are you going to make the nets ? I could think of some very thin ladies' stockings, stretched and stabilised with varnish. Do you have a better idea ?

wefalck

Thanks, Andy. I gather, you Toronto-guys know something about ice ... 

wefalck

After a longer break – due to a lot of travelling, here an update.

In spite of the high temperatures in our appartment, ice began to form in the harbour of Volendam. At the beginnig there were only a few floes, but the NE Wind pushed them together and piled them up in front of the dyke – pancake ice. The botter-crew tried to keep the ice away from the boat – ice is not so friendly to a wooden hull, but in vain. The low ridge of loose ice around the boat bears witness to the efforts of the crew with crowbar and broadaxe. In the meantime a continuous ice cover has developed, streaked with a few snowflakes by the wind.

As noted before, the basis of the ice surface is a piece of Plexiglas, which was stiffled with acrylic gel using a bristle brush. The next step was a bit of an experiment: in the past I created drifting foam and breaking waves using a sort of icing (no pun intended) made from sugar and wallpaper glue. As we now have acrylic gel and varnish, I tried out a mixture of sugar with these. The sugar in France is rather coarse, so I ground it down in a mortar. The sugar partially dissolves in the varnish and then recrystallises. The viscosity can be adjusted by mixing sugar and varnish in different ratios. It dries up milky-white. Using this mixture, the ice floes were modelled in several steps. Also, the piles were set into the ‚ice’ with this mixture.

Actually, several years passed by since the pictures in the previous post was taken. In the meantime the piles and other woodwork further weathered and became gray. Well, pastels and white watercolour accelerated this process. Vegetation has began to encroach on the dyke. Reeds root at its toe and grass began to cover the brickwork. The severe frost, however, has made the grass to wilt.

wefalck

Attention, the Proxxon FD 150/E doesn't have a leadscrew, so you will not be able to cut threads ! It is what is called a mechanic's lathe. The cross-slide has to repositioned by clamping it to the bed. Which means that the longest piece you can cut is not the bed length between the centers as in other lathes, but only the travel of the top-slide.

The good thing is that it has a conus for standerd ER collets, but the capacity of the ER11 collets is rather small at 7 mm. One has to remember though, that ER collets are made for toolholding and not workholding. They don't hold properly, when not using stock that is as long as the collet itself.

The backbone, i.e. the bed, seems to be the same extruded profile that is used for the column of their micro-mill.

wefalck 

By chance I came across this tutorial on wood-effect painting: http://www.uschivdr.com/online-tutorial/. The guy also sells decals that create the wood grain. Looks interesting ...

wefalck

Of course, it is possible to stick wood onto styrene. However, the veneers you would be using have to coarse pores and the surface is actually damaged by the process of cutting the veneer. The latter doesn't matter so much in full-size applications, but will be highly visible on a model. You would also need to sand, fill and polish the surface, which would be not so easy. Many wood polishes would, in addition, attack the plastic.

It is actually possible, to achieve quite convincing wood-looks by painting. On the Web you will find a variety of examples. Typically you apply a base coat of acrylics and then work with washes of e.g. oil paints. I am not showing the example of my Zuiderzee-botter here, because it is highly weathered, which is probably not what you are after.

Good wood has its price, which is one reason, why wood kits cost money - though not all seem to contain good wood. If you insist on wood, may be going for a small-scale scratchbuilding project is a good proposition. You are then in full control of everything.

wefalck

All models and paintings I saw have the bend up. Which also makes a lot of sense since rain- and spraywater would not get into the ends. As for catching musket balls, I don't think it makes any difference which way round they are put in, because they could hit up or down ...

wefalck

This may have varied from navy to navy, but most models of the time seem to show the hammocks bent to an U-shape. The picture below shows the somewhat later BELLE POULE in the Musée de la Marine, but practices remained unchanged for some 200 years.

These rolls consisted not only of the hammock as such, but also of the associated bedding.

BTW, 'children caly' is neither in my mental nor printed dictionary, what is it ?

wefalck

It seems, judging by old time recipes, that the old-time guys concocted all sorts of mixtures hoping to keep nasty creepy-crawlings and ravaging weeds at bay. Chemical, biological and microbiological knowledge was not yet very well developed and certainly not wide-spread among the mariners. They tried to conconct something nasty that remained stuck to the ships' bottom and prevented lifely things from sticking ...

I would also assume that on a ship such as the Endeavour they would run out of semi-industrial supplies, such as lead-white, at some stage. Lime can be produced quite simply in a short time by burning e.g. coral rocks in a kiln, but the production of lead-white requires slabs of metal lead, vinegar, acid-proof earthen ware and lots of time.

wefalck

No.

Lime - CaOH which slowly carbonises to CaCO3, is already in an oxidised state. Its colour is brilliant white and absolutely stable - see the White Cliffs of Dover.

Lead White - 2PbCO₃·Pb(OH)₂, contains lead in an oxidised state. Again its colour is brilliant white and it is very stable.

I am not aware of any other component that would oxidise to a respective white.

wefalck

If you are using an accurate vice with a vertical V-groove, you can also tighten the vice onto the rod held in a collet; then you lower the head of the drill press with the tilt-lock loose and it will automatically swing into the right position, when the vice touches the table; then lock the head. This may give you more accuracy, as the spindle nose of the PROXXON tools is rather small and it is, therefore, difficult to see, whether it sits flat on the reference surface, e.g. the top face of the vice.

wefalck

If you use a vice, you may want to actually square up to the fixed jaw of the vice, rather than the table. This (partially) eliminates additional inaccuracies introduced by the vice. I am using this kind of (grinding) vice:

Here you can use the surface of the fixed jaw to level the spindel nose against, or its vertical face, when using a rod in the chuck/collet.

This method is not absolutely precise, but quick and sufficient for most of our practical applications.

wefalck

@JMaitri, unfortunately I don't have a picture handy and no time at the moment to take one. However, there is nothing special, just a piece of drill rod (or in my case a broken-off carbide drill of 6 mm diameter) that is held in the drill chuck or (better) a collet. On the table there is a block with one side that is absolutely vertical to the table surface. You unlock the head/column and swivvel it until the rod touches in its full length the vertical face of the block. Voilà. Then you lock everything.

If you can run the head down so that the spindel nose touches the table, there is even a simpler method: just make the nose touch evenly the table surface. Voilà ancore.

wefalck 

... but it get less easily dragged/wiped off the work table, if it has some weight. I filled plastic models with lead shot or poured plaster into them. They would just sit more solidly on their (temporary) cradles.

wefalck

The idea of using a bent wire for tramming is a good one, have to remember it !

I normally use a piece of round carbide held in a chuck (or better: collet), which is pushed against a try-square or a block of which I am sure that the side is at a right angle with the surface that sits on the cross-slide.

wefalck

The white in these anti-fouling and anti-teredo concoctions was lime. Other ingredients included various oils, tallow, ground glass, and sulfur (as noted above). I don't think pitch was used here. Lars Brucelius also has some recipies, I believe, on his Web-site: http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Nautica.html

I wouldn't use modern replikas as an example, as they almost certainly use some modern paint for the purpose.

Around the Arab peninsula they still smear such stuff onto the bottoms of the various dhows. Have a look here for instance: http://www.omanet.om/english/culture/boats.asp (but note that some of the pictures where taken at low sun, so may look rather yellowish).

wefalck

Yes, sewing seems to be a fairly common practices among modellers. But it is not anywhere to scale. I prefer glueing as well.

I gather there are historical examples for both, painting as well as applications to create devices on sails. The same as for flags. Both techniques were used together also.

wefalck

It all boils down to controlled rusting and to stabilise the rust with lineseed oil. It is a sort of in situ oil-paint production that also protects against further corrosion. It only work though on cast-iron guns.

wefalck

I didn't know that he died, but had this suspicion. I gather this book is an excerpt of the 'building log' (minus the historical part) of

BEYLEN, J. VAN (1985): De botter - Geschiedenis en bouwbeschrijving van een Nederlands visserschip.- 223 p., Weesp (De Boer Maritiem).

wefalck

Andy,

That's a good link. These guys make an interesting array of fake fastenings. Bookmarked.

Well, I like to make as many things myself as possible. When I see a commercial product, I always think: if they were able to do, I can do it as well. I also find the delays, particularly when ordering from overseas, a bit frustrating. As I needed only about 40 fake bolts/nuts, it was not such a big deal to make them. And it costed me only my time, no extra cash outlay, as the brass nails have been knocking about for years in my drawer. If, I was to do a large wharf, yes, I probably would have looked for a commercial source.

wefalck