wefalck

Amateur, you are right (after all I am sort of also working/teaching in coastal protection). However, I couldn't find any photographs from Volendam that showed the face of dyke in front of the town. I was also wondering, whether in the last quarter of the 19th century hardrock was imported in sufficient quantity into Holland. I guess the basalt from the volcanic mountains near Bonn at the river Rhine would be the closest source. I know that e.g. Scandinavian ships brought granites as ballast. wefalck

The dyke section was covered in a thin layer of wall-repair putty from a tube that I had around by chance. Otherwise, I would have used plaster of Paris mixed with some wallpaper glue, which improves its sculpting behaviour. Once the putty was dry, it was sanded down smoothly and then single bricks engraved by rows with a needle held in a pinvise. The fact that corners broke out of the bricks was approvingly tolerated, as it will enhance the weathered appearance. Baseboard with sculpted dyke Close-up of the engraved bricks In order to reduce the porosity of the putty and the wood the whole surface was treated with cellulose-based woodfiller, before the dyke was airbrushed in English Red (Schmincke AeroColor), while the water area received a basecoat of burnt umber, partly mottled with black. In a next step individual bricks were picked out with blue and brown washes to enliven the dyke surface. Since the acrylic paints dry satin, the whole was lightly sprayed with Winsor & Newton acrylic matte varnish. A restrained weathering using artist’s pastels followed. Painted baseboard The brick surface of the dyke The model of the botter in place wefalck

Thanks for the kind words ! @mtaylor: the carving isn’t actually mine. The figures are based on commercial products by Preiser (http://www.preiserfiguren.de) that were modified using putty etc. The building has now reached a stage where I need to think seriously about protection against dust and mechanical damage, which is not so easy once the mast has been erected. Therefore, I started with the building of the scenic display, around which a display case will be fitted. The basis is a piece of blockboard Harbour and dyke in Volendam (www.geheugenvannederland.nl) The ‚story board’ for the scenic display assumes that the Marker botter is moored at a jetty in front of the dyke behind which Voldendam hides from the Zuiderzee. The botter is ice-locked in Voldendam. The dyke runs obliquely through the scene and was given a frame from pinewood cut-offs and filled with balsawood. Baseboard and core of the dyke The frozen Zuiderzee consists initially of a sheet of 2 mm Plexiglas. A screw piercing baseboard and Plexiglas will eventually fix the model in place. Trying out the model in place All wood parts were dyed in mahagony and varnished as will be the other wooden parts of the display case. Baseboard dyed and varnished Once the varnish is dry, this report will continue. Wefalck

The actual painting proceeded with Schminke-, Vallejo- und Prince August-Airbrush paints, but of course using very fine (10/0 and 5/0) brushes. The painted skipper But I had to fight with the brushes. The art materials department in the famous Bazaar de Hotel de Ville (BHV, www.bhv.fr) which has the best DIY department in Paris wasn’t the same anymore after a recent revamp. It turned out to be very difficult to find such fine brushes in Paris, but I needed to replace some worn out ones. Eventually I ordered some via ebay in Germany. Their rather fat three-sided handles looked as if they would be very comfortable, but their turned out to be really ‚rat-tails’. I gather you get what you pay for. Also: one should really try the point in the shop, which is obviously not possible when ordering through mail. The back of the painted skipper The painting technique was largely the same as for bigger figurines. However, at the 1/90 scale one needs to simplify, particularly when painting the faces. Thus, the eyes were indicated only by the shadows beneath the eyebrows. This I learned from Canaletto, who was able to render a very lifely population in his Venice pictures with just a few strokes of his brush. The effect is calculated form normal reading distance – on your computer screen the 18 mm high figures appear several times magnified. Painting the faces in acrylics was an experiment. The open time of these paints is just too short for painting soft transitions and I will return to artist’s oils for this. The painted mate. Photographs show you the coarseness of your work glaringly. Observed from normal reading distance, I believe, the figures look quite convincing. The painted mate from the back. The scenic setting will be eventually populated by a boy belonging to the botter, a Volendam couple enjoying a walk on the dike and another couple, where he is pushing her in a sledge on the ice. wefalck

I have been watching the development of these techniques for five or six years now and slowly gets to the resolution I need. Around 2007 the institute I was working in at that time bought a 3D-prototyping machine, but there were two many 'steps' on the parts still at that time. I got some basic AutoCAD training there out of European Union's taxpayers pockets though I think I will have to re-hone my CAD skills soon ... Another avenue for access to machine time could be the FabLabs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FabLab. wefalck

Thanks for publicising my pics Perhaps the most comprehensive treatment (albeit in Dutch) in literature of the boeier is this one: VERMEER, J. (2004): De Boeier. – 528 p., Alkmaar (De Alk & Heijnen Watersport). The books contains numerous lines drawings, including one for DE SPERWER, if I am not mistaken. Larger versions of these and other drawings are available through the Dutch Modellers' Association: http://www.modelbouwers.nl/tekeningen.php wefalck

Walt, I seem to have seen brass sheaves by various modelling suppliers on the Web. Whether these would be viable sources depends on the cost of shipping, I suppose - and what size you need. As I do tend to make such things myself, I cannot be more specific. Google seems to turn up a few links. wefalck

True, if you don't have access, for whatever reason, to raw materials, you have to make do with what you have. I just wanted to warn that plastics in consumer products often are of low quality, contain a lot of plasticisers and, therefore, are not very durable. One has to be aware of that, when building a model. wefalck

OK, recycling is fashionable and a good thing to do. On the other hand, there are better and more durable plastics in rod-shape available. wefalck

What red do you use ? Some reds are made up from dyes, rather than pigments. So whatever you do, they are more washes than solid coats of paint. This is not a question of manufacturer or enamel vs. acrylic, but a question of the ingredients used. wefalck

Thanks, gentlemen, for the encouraging comments. As noted at the beginning, the model will be presented in scenic setting. The ‚story-board’ for this reads like this: a botter from Marken (around the late 1800s) got caught out by ice and made it only into the port of Volendam, where it is locked up now by a solid sheet of ice. It is Saturday afternoon. The crew keeps themselves occupied with some maintenance work, while some Volendammer folk enjoy the cold, but bright winter weather during a walk on the dyke or on the ice. This story was inspired by a winterly visit to the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen followed by a drive along the dyke down to Volendam. The Ijsselmeer (then Zuiderzee) was covered in pack- and pancake-ice. I don’t the traditional costume of the women of Marken aesthetically not so pleasing – they had their neck shaved, while long temple-locks dangled from underneath their coifs or caps. The costume of the Volendamm women- and men-folk on the other hand is what we consider ‚the’ traditional Dutch costume. Volendam actually is rather atypical, as it is a catholic ‚island’ in largely protestant surroundings. However, the pictoresque setting and people as well as increasingly easy accessebility resulted in many painters coming here, so that the Volendam images became icons of the Low Lands. Later, the Dutch tourist board and other marketing organisations perpetrated these images. The above story allows me to show the Marker botter (Volendam mainly used a slightly different variant of it, the kwak, and the Artitec prototype was a Marker botter) in a Volendam setting. The winter setting allows me also Breughel citations of winter pleasures, albeit in a more modern environment. Marker master-fisherman (© www.geheugenvannederland.nl) Marker mate (© www.geheugenvannederland.nl) In between the work on the botter model, I turned my attention to the botter skipper and his mate. To this end I obtained second hand a set of Preiser-figurines (http://www-preiserfiguren.de) ‚Various Occupations’, from which I selected two suitable personages. These were carved and sculpted so represent Marker fishermen in their traditional work-a-day outfit. This outfit consist of woolen or linen culots, worn with long dark-blue stockings. The upper body is covered by dark, woolen shirt with a low upright collar or a turtle-neck sweater. Over this in the winter a short, spencer-type or a pea-jacket was worn in the winter seaason. The fishermen appear to have been a hardy species so that one doesn’t see jackets too often on winter-photographs. But they also had woolen underwear. The feet were protected by the iconic wooden clogs. The shape of the clogs varied from village to village. When working the net or doing other wet work, the lower leg were protected by gaiters that reached over the clogs. The characteristic male headgear in Marken was either a black, round (often rather battered) felt-hat or small black képi with a narrow shade. Scan of the Preiser box The Preiser country-gentleman or whatever the figure in long boots is mutated into the skipper with the aid of a scalpel and putty. By the same method, an apron-clad drayman with a peaked cap mutated into a fisherman’s mate. The culots were sculpted using putty, while other features, such as shirt collars fell victim to the scalpel. The clogs also were sculpted in putty. Fisherman ready to painted Fisherman after receiving a base-coat I haven’t done any figure-modelling for years so my arsenal of materials was a bit limited: I just had a 40 year-old tube of Britfix ‚customising body putty’, which to my surprise still was useable. A 20 year-old pack of Milliput ‚grey’ was not quite so fit anymore. The base-coat in terracotta acrylic paint shows up all the places that need to be worked over again. However, remember this is 1/90 scale and the figures are just about 2 cm high and hence appear on the computer several times magnified. Fisherman’s mate ready to painted Fisherman’s mater after receiving a base-coat To be continued with the actual paint-job. wefalck

The work on the model is frequently being interrupted by travels and other activities, e.g. working up the pictures taken during my travels. It continued with the painting. The actual painting is a rather complex procedure and I have not documented all intermediary steps. The first step after the base-coat was to apply a coat of nitrocellulose-based wood varnish in oak. The idea was to simulate to some extend the surface treatment of the real wood, though with somewhat different materials, in order to create ‚depth’ of the wood surface. I used this method successfully in the past on small parts. Here, however, the problem arose that a second coat or touching up would dissolve the first coat. On the next model I will apply the varnish by airbrush or use an acrylic varnish. The varnish was cautiously matted with steelwool and a glas-eraser pen. Then the wale and the registration board were painted in black acrylic. The registration number was painted freehand in white acrylic. The next step then was a juidicious weathering/washing in burnt umber acrylic to simulate the surface treatment with Stockholm tar. In order to simulate the coal-tarred underwater body burnt umber was applied in more covering layers. Individual parts, such as the spars, the leeboards, the rudder etc. were treated in a similar way. In oder to achieve a uniform degree of matt-ness, everything was coated lightly with the airbrush in Winsor&Newton matte acrylic varnish. White, beige and black pastels were applied with a brush and Q-tips to simulate grime and salt. The quarter deck and floorboards also attain in this way a nice greyish worn appearance. The various ‚ironwork’ received a base-coat in black acrylic with the airbrush. Then a mixture of ‚metallic rust’ (Prince-August Air/Vallejo) and burnt umber was then applied with a brush. The parts thus receive a certain patina – in real life they were painted black, painted in lineseed-oil or left bright. On places were the ironwork would have been bright from use a soft pencil (6B) was rubbed, which results in a subtle metallic sheen. wefalck

I guess you are looking for end- or slotting mills. What widith is the slot ? End-mills at a reasonable price go down to 1 mm diameter, but are actually made for metal. There is a limit to the depth of the slot, as the end-mills usually have only a useable length of 3-4 times the diameter. There are also two-fluted carbide end-mills with a diamond cut at the sides, but I believe they are only made down to 2 mm diameter. You would need an x-y-table to be able to do the milling. Pushing end-mills through by hand will sooner or later result in their breakage. Another method would be to drill several holes along the slot and then to chisel out the material in between. You would need to grind your own chisel from a piece of tool steel or modify a small cheap screwdriver. The blade of the chisel should be the width of the slot. wefalck

The classical surgical/laboratory stainless still is 18/8, which means 18% Cr and 8% Ni. The variant of steel alloys is legion and there are many more alloying metals in use, such as manganese (Cr-Mn-steels are in addition to Cr-Ni-steels used make armour plates for ships). There are also Ni-Cr-alloys without iron, which are used e.g. as resistance wires and in electrical heaters. The wellknown miniaturist modeller Lloyd McCaffery swears by them for making standing rigging - they don't corrode and don't sag like copper. The oxidation behaviour of copper alloys is quite complex and depends on the environmental conditions and the history of the oxidation process. So the effect of blackening agents is difficult to predict. However, the trades supporting sculptors working in bronze do know very well how to control the process of patination and there are textbooks and recipies available (also in the Internet). Nickel silver (also called German Silver, Alpaka, Argentan, Maillechort) is an interesting material (60% Cu, 20% Ni, 20% Zn) that has similar machining properties to brass. Unfortunately for us modellers, it is not available in the same variety of shapes and sizes as brass. It would be very useful for parts that have to stay silvery. Otherwise it is used in large quantities industrally, mainly as the base metal for silver-plated cutlery. Because it tends to be harder than brass, very thin photoetched parts are often made from nickel silver rather than brass. wefalck

Well, not exactly. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, while bronze is an allow of copper and tin. While brass usually only contains Cu and Zn in varying ratios (tombak is a high-Cu brass), bronze may have additional components, such as silicium (Si), aluminium (Al) or mangan (Mn) to enhance its corrosion resistance or its properties as bearing metal. In general, bronze typically is more corrosion resistant than brass, which is why it is used e.g. for propellers. Hardening or annealing brass is just the reverse of that for steel: quenching it after heating will soften it, while letting it cool down slowly will harden it. Particularly bronze can be hardened by hammering (see bronze age weapons) or pressing it (the Austrians used hardened bronze for their guns, while everyone else switched to steel). wefalck

Both, gravers and woodworking chisels/gouges, these day tend to made from HSS. The main difference is the cutting angle and the way how they are offered to the work. The cutting angle of gravers is about 45°, while that of woodworking tools is much smaller. Woodworking tools are offered to the work normally with the bevelled side towards the material, while gravers are used the other way round. In fact, the angle with which gravers are applied is similar to the clearance angle on a lathe tool. If one applies a graver to wood, there is a high risk that they dig in. I am not a woodcarver, but noticed that gravers would be useful, when cleaning up convex surface, where it might be difficult to find the right angle for a wood chisel. With caution gravers can also be used as scrapers on wood. The more homogeneous a material is, the better it can be worked with a graver, so bone or ivory are good natural candidates, as are synthetic plastics. Apart from diamond and square shaped gravers for lathe work (traditionally watchmakers mainly worked with gravers) I have engraving gravers of varying width. It is important to have an absolute flat cutting face, which is not easy to maintain, when grinding/honing by hand. There are various devices on the market that are intended to keep the face flat on the stone or the diamond pad. wefalck

Thanks for the kind comments. Actually the sails are rather stiff and water wouldn't do anything on them, as the tissue paper is now impragnated with varnish and covered in acrylic paint. On the other hand the original sails also would have been quite stiff, at least stiffer than untanned sails. Now the building has progressed far enough to be able to apply a base-coat of paint. After some preliminary trials I decided on a light terracotta as a base-coat for the hull, while the spars were painted in ‚bois’ (i.e. wood, Prince August Air). On top os this oak-tinted varnish will be applied to give the ‚wood’, that in the original was painted with tar and harpeus (a mixture of wood-tar and lineseed oil), some depth. The different base-coat colours where chosen to differentiate between the different woods, i.e. oak for the hull and pine for the spars. The matte base-coat makes visible the ‚rustique’ style of modelling by Artitec and also any imperfections in building. Photographic images even further enhance any imperfections that are not so obvious to the naked. There is a need to work over one or the other part. wefalck

I think we are mixing here two issues, what was done in real life and what to do for models. Garward, you were talking about models, while dafi was talking about the real thing. Yes, some of the 'quick blackening' agent contain selenous acid. wefalck

Contemporary to whom ? To us or the time of the prototype ? Actually, I don't think that bronze (not brass) guns where painted as the material is quite corrosion resistant and develops a protecting patina. Cast iron and steel corrode differently, due to the graphite content in the former. I believe cast iron was often painted on an artificial patina. The controlled 'rusting' means a passivation and a better key for the paint than the bare iron. When steel came into use in the second half of the 19th century, gun had become precision instruments that required a more controlled protection. The browing with vinegar etc. is not just throwing the acid over it, but it was applied carefully, sparing machined surfaces that had to retain their dimensions, such as seats for sightings, elevation mechanisms, or the rifling. However, some navies seem to have also painted their steel guns. In fact towards the end of the 19th century, when grey became ubiquitous, this became the general practice. wefalck

Thanks for the praise I am a bit apprehensive as to how they will stand up to being folded and crumpled when in a half-lowered state. As I said before, billowing or furled sails are not so much of challenge compared to limp ones, just hanging there to dry ... wefalck

Don't know. Would depend on the brass. I also don't know what colour solid copper-acetate (which is what you probably would make) has. To be on the safe side, I would use a commercial browning or blackening product. I do have an old-time recipe book for such concoctions used to create patinas, but in most countries, due to health and safety regulations, the chemicals needed cannot be obtained easily by private individuals anymore. In consequence the traditional technical chemist's stores have died out. You can also search the Internet for 'patina'. I have not tried this on gun barrels, but a good way of simulating the 'browning' could be to chemically blacken the parts and then give them a wash in 'burnt umber' mixed with a drop of 'gun metal'. I have done this on black paint and it looks quite convincing. The chemical blackening also provides a good key for acrylic paints (if you don't touch it with greasy fingers). wefalck

The vinegar for internal cleaning of brass and cast iron barrels was used to dissolve the residues of black powder. Normally, it was a three-stage procedure: vinegar, (sea)water, grease/tallow. wefalck

Personally, I don't like sewn sails. Particularly the hems tend to be grossly out of size, as the cloth thickness is way overscale. Anyway, if you do insist to sew, it is helpful to pin (or glue) the cloth down onto a piece of silk paper (the type used to make carbon copies in the age of the typewriter). This prevents the cloth from being pulled out of shape by the machine. It also facilitates sewing a predetermined path (not always straight for sails !), because you can draw the pattern on it. The paper can be ripped out easily after the sewing has been completed. On the same line, I have simulated in the past boltropes by reducing the stitching step to almost zero, i.e. to the diameter of the thread, stitching effectively a beading onto the cloth. The sail was cut out after the paper backing hat been ripped out. The beading can be stabilised with a bit of clear varnish to prevent it from becoming undone. wefalck

Frome a late 19th century German source for steel guns: rub down the barrel repeatedly with vinegar. Once a firmly attached brown iron-oxide layer has developed, paint in lineseed oil. To be rubbed down with a cloth soaked in lineseed oil for maintenance. Be sure not let the vinegare etc. into the barrel (particularly in the case of rifled barrels). This seems to implicate that the barrels were of a satin brownish colour, which is also evidenced by contemporary paintings. Cast iron guns, according to the same source were to be painted in oil paint. wefalck

Continuation in small and sometimes tedious steps. The sails were further completed by adding cringles and eyelets. For the cringles the sail was punched with a needle to simulate the eyelets. A piece of 8/0 yarn was threaded through, twisted with itself and secured with a blob of lacquer. The free ends were threaded cross-wise through the second eyelet and secured with knots. The cringle was secured with a bit of lacquer. For eyelets in the sail itself blobs of acrylic gel were set on both sides and once dry punched with a needle. Sails ready to be painted The foresail runs on small iron hoops along the forestay. These were reproduced by small rings of copper wire that were sewn to the cringles using 16/0 size yarn (Veevus, http://veevus.dk]http://veevus.dk). Hoops of the foresails There are various eyelets in the sail, e.g. for reefing points. These were immitated by a drop of acrylic gel medium glue on both sides of the sail that later was pierced with a needle. The painted sails The sails then were checked for any joints having come loose and more wood-filler was applied if needed. Now the sails were ready for painting. The original sails were tanned. Hence, a terracotta colour ('terre' by Prince August Air, http://www.prince-august.net) was chosen as the base colour that was applied with an airbrush. Once on the model some weathering and shading will add more plasticity. The eyelets etc. were ‚metallised’ by turning a soft lead pencil in them. ’Sailmaking’ tools wefalck