wefalck

S.M.S. WESPE (HENK, 1895) History and context The WESPE-Class armoured gun-boats of the then young Imperial German Navy were born out of a tactical concept that dated well back into the Napoleonic era. The idea was to mount a heavy long-range gun onto a highly mobile small craft that would be able to retire into shallow coastal waters, beyond the range of even the heavy artillery of an attacking fleet. The addition of a steam engine and the increase in calibre followed the development of the time, of course. Adding heavy armour to the front (mainly) was meant to give the gun-boats a certain attacking capability. It also owes something to the floating batteries used in the defence of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars and to the armoured floating batteries used by the allied French/British forces during the Crimean War (1854-55). In fact, adding armour plating to a (rowing) gunboat was already proposed as early as the late 18th century in Spain, as documented by a model in the Museo Naval in Madrid, but apparently never put to work in full scale. S.M.S. WESPE, brand-new and still without the 30.5 cm gun (1875) At the time of the conception of the WESPE-class in the early 1870s a former cavalry(!) general was the naval chief-of-staff in Germany. The tactical dogma was ‘proactive defence’: an attacking enemy was to be awaited near home waters and fenced off. The main threat was seen in amphibian operations attacking the German coast. Thus, the landing of troops at strategic points had to be prevented. Long-range strategic and oceanic operations were out of the scope of the German naval planners of the time. There was a certain logic in this, as Germany, unlike Britain, is/was a more or less land-locked country and largely self-sufficient in many respects at that time. Overseas trade then did not have such an importance as in Britain or as in later globalising economies. Therefore, attempts to severe overseas supply chains was not so relevant. There was, indeed, active resistance from trade interest groups, particularly the merchants in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, to a navy that would engage itself overseas. These merchants relied on their network of friendly contacts and on sailing under a neutral flag. Hence, the WESPE-Class was designed to be mainly a heavily armoured gun-platform, giving long-range protection to the tidal North Sea harbours that are surrounded by mud-flats and to give mobile protection to the deep fjords of Schleswig-Holstein's Baltic coast. They would be backed-up by heavy artillery (and later fixed torpedo batteries) in coastal forts. The guns in such boats usually could only be trained by turning the whole boat. This seems more difficult then it probably was, because even in the old days of the rowing gunboats they would attack by rowing in a wide circle and when the intended target passed through the line of aim, one would fire. As the WESPE-Class was designed to let themselves fall dry on mud-flats, a possibility to train the gun itself was needed. This distinguished the WESPE-class from earlier boats of similar design in Britain, namely the ANT-, GADFLY-, and BOUNCER-class of the 1860s. Man other navies took up the same concept and there were examples in the Danish, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Spanish, and even the Argentinian navy. Some of the were armoured, while other were still constructed from wood or composite. S.M.S. WESPE under construction (HENK, 1895) Technical Description The WESPE-class comprised ten boats delivered in two batches between 1876 and 1880: WESPE (1876), VIPER, BIENE, MÜCKE, SCORPION, BASILISK, CAMAELEON, CROCODILL, SALAMANDER and NATTER. They were all built by A.G. Weser in Bremen. With a length of 46.4 m and a beam of 10.65 m they had a dead weight of 1157 t, drawing 3.37 m. The dimensions vary somewhat according to source, but this may be due to different reference points, such as length overall compared to length between the perpendicles etc. Two inclined double-expansion engines on two propellers gave a maximum speed of 11 knots. Their original complement was 3 officers and 73 crew. Steering was from a stand on the hut and an emergency double steering wheel abaft. Very early on they were also retrofitted with an electrical generator. The WESPE-class were the first German warships (and indeed among the first of any warship) that did completely without auxiliary sails. As the consequence they only had a light mast for signalling. In spite of sporting quite some leading edge technology, they were only of limited seaworthiness and their handling was far from perfect. This resulted in them being given a collection of rather unfavourable nicknames. They were also not very popular with their crews and officers due to the cramped conditions below decks, but then they were not meant for long voyages in the open sea. Admiralty illustrative drawing (before 1883) Armament The main armament was a single 30.5 cm rifled breech-loading gun designed and manufactured by Alfred Krupp AG in Essen. At the time the WESPE-class boats were designed, fast torpedo-boats did not exist yet – the automotive fish-torpedo was just being developed. When in the mid-1880s small torpedo-boats became a tactical reality, some form of self-defence against them was necessary and two bronce(!) 8.7 cm/l24 breech-loading guns in ‘disappearing’ carriage and two 37 mm Hotchkiss revolving guns came on board. In fact, very early on (1883) also two 35 cm underwater torpedo launching tubes were installed to increase the attacking capabilities. Instruction model for the Rk 30.5/l22 on the Danish HELGOLAND in the Orlogsmuseet Copenhagen on a carriage similar to that of the WESPE-Class Scale The scale chosen for the model is 1/160, which admittedly is somewhat unusual for a ship model. However, the reasoning behind this choice was that a large selection of N-scale railway figures is available that eventually will crew the ship. There are also space and portability consideration, which are important for someone, who has to move from time to time for professional reasons. The model will be a waterline model. This will allow a scenic presentation of the finished model. Besides, the hull below the waterline is not quite so graceful. Above the waterline the hull is also more or less prismatic, with vertical bulwarks and virtually no sheer. These parameters together call for a bread-and-butter construction. Artist’s impression of a WESPE-Class gunboat (1891) Sources Owing to the loss of most of the archival material from the former Admiralty Drawing Office during and after the end of WW2, detailed source material is rather scant. Some lithographed drawings that must have been made before the major refit in 1883 have survived and serve as a basis for the reconstruction. The Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Freiburg i.B. has some drawings, but unfortunatelly they only pertain to a much later refit of S.M.S. NATTER. However, the WESPE-Class was a bit of a novelty at its time and some Detaildrawings of bothm the ship and the armament, have found their way into textbooks of the time. Relatively recently a very detailed original drawing of the gun became available on the Internet from a private collection (www.dreadnoughtproject.org). Historic photographs from the early days of the ships are quite rare and mostly of not so good quality, but some reasonably good ones from the end of their active life have survived. Based on the information that was available in the 1980s Wolfgang Bohlayer drew and published a plan of S.M.S. WESPE as she might have looked like after the major refit in 1883 (available from VTH, http://shop.vth.de/wespe-1876.html). Based on the information available today, this plan would need to be revised in some details. The available information is summarised on the page on the WESPE-class on my Web-site: http://www.wefalck.eu/mm/maritime/models/wespe/wespeclass.html To be continued ...

Thanks, gentlemen, for the kind words ! ******* Work on the actual botter model continued with a few pieces of equipment as shown in VAN BEYLEN’s book: a long and a short boat-hook, the the tiller, a shovel-shaped bailer, a handspike for the spill, the pennant that goes onto the mast-top ... and the ‚afwasbak’, a wooden box for doing the washing-up, or sorting fish, together with a teapot and couple of mugs in white emaille. Loose pieces of equipment (the teapot has a diameter of 2 mm !) The teapot and the mugs were turned from brass. The spout and handles were soldered or glued on, while the pieces where still attached to the stock, as was done the painting. The pieces were then parted-off back on the lathe. The teapot has a diameter of 2 mm ! And now getting ready for the final lap ...

You may have also accumulated some scale inside the heating coil, which prevents proper heat-transfer to the tip. Try to clean it out before inserting the tip.

The cheapest and probably most permanent (after carving the sea from wood) is the use of plaster of Paris mixed with some wallpaper glue. Apply it in several layers to build up waves. The piece then can be sealed with woodfiller before being painted using e.g. acrylics. Breaking crests etc. can be modelled using a mixture of sugar(!) and acrylic gel or thick wallpaper glue. Finally glossy acrylic varnish is applied where the water would be shiny or acrylic gel is dabbed on where the water is disturbed e.g. by a gust of wind.

Thanks ****** The Marker fisherboy also needed a couple of wooden buckets to carry suspended from the joke. These were turned from clear Plexiglas and only hollowed down to the assumed water-level. The buckets are suspended from rope made from fly-tying yarn on my own ropery. The painted fisherboy The painted fisherboy The painting was carried out in Schmincke AeroColour, Vallejo and Prince August acrylic paints. Some of these paints are meant for application by airbrush, but give nice washes, when applied by brush. Also the uncovered parts of the bodies, such as the faces were painted in acrylics. In the past, I used artists’ oils on 1:35 scale figurines successfully, but it didn’t work here. Perhaps the oil paints had been oxidised already somewhat, considering that they already spent several decades in their respective tubes. Sinces the heads are only about 2 mm high, painting the faces was quite a challenge. The painted young mother from Volendam The painted young mother from Volendam The painted young father from Volendam The painted young father from Volendam The painted man pushing a sleigh from Volendam The painted old woman on a sleigh from Volendam For the last two figurines a push-sleigh was fashioned from 0,5 mm polystyrene sheet, based on the examples from the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen. Such push-sleighs were cobbled together by there owner according to their needs, to be used to transport goods, equipment for ice-fishing and also for transporting people. They can already be seen on Dutch paintings from the 16th century. In fact, a winter-themed exhibition in 2009 in the museum gave me the idea for this scenic setting.. Push-sleighs in the Zuiderzeemuseum Enkhuizen The unpainted push-sleigh The painted push-sleigh sitting on a 1 Euro-Cent coin The push-sleigh in use As always macro-photos show in unforgiving and glaring clarity all imperfections and the dust that had already settled on the figurines Looking at them from a normal viewing distance of 20 to 30 centimetres is much kinder to them ... Just to remind you, the figurines stand about 18 mm tall !

I would be rather cautious with anything that contains massive amounts of plasticisers. They diffuse out and will leave behind a brittle mess. Another problem will be that such material doesn't have lot of tearing strength, so it will be difficult to attach boltropes, blocks, sheets etc. when you have to make holes close to the edge.

It's not 'my' period, so I am not really on top of the literature. However, around the preservation of the cog remains in Bremerhaven a large body of research has developed. There has been a very detailed study on her, but I believe this book is rather expensive, if you can get hold of a second-hand copy. Otherwise, there are also some books meant more for public consumption. You might have a look at the Web-site of the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven: http://www.dsm.museum/service/publikationen/schriften-des-deutschen-schiffahrtsmuseums/die-kogge.4286.de.html http://www.dsm.museum/service/publikationen/schriften-des-deutschen-schiffahrtsmuseums/die-kogge-von-bremen.4720.de.html

I would need to file through some books in order to see, whether I could find something useful, but I have no time at the moment. The circumference is somewhat proportionate to the size of the sail and the weight of the canvas. On a schooner's mainsail, I would think that the circumference would be rather in the order of 4 to 5". The largest circumference would be at the luff and at the head. If the foot is loose, the diameter may be less than the luff one, or the same, if it was marled down onto the boom. The leech bolt-rope would have the smallest circumference. Incidentally, you actually need the boltrope on the model in any case in order to form the eyes for attaching the sheets etc.

The traditional dress of the Volendam people is somewhat different from that of Marken. The men wear long baggy black trousers, which gives them a very distinctive silhouette. The upper body is covered by a shirt and a tight-fitting jacket, which is often of some pale red colour, but can also be black. In winter a sort of pea-jacket may be worn, which is black with blue lining. During the winter a fur-cap is worn. Volendam fisherman in winterdress (© www.geheugenvannederland.nl) Young woman from Volendam (© www.geheugenvannederland.nl) Young woman with baby (© www.geheugenvannederland.nl) Old woman from Volendam (© www.geheugenvannederland.nl) The women wear long skirts over which a full-length apron is tied. The skirt is either dark and then a white or striped apron is used, or the other way around. The upper body is covered by a tight-fitting jacket under which a shirt is worn, that may be visible at the decolltée. According to photographs and drawings there are many variations, particularly for work-day dresses. The sleeves of the jacket for adult women were only 3/4 length and pushed back to the elbows. In winter knitted pull-on sleeves may be worn, put the fisherfolks were a hardy folk. The most distinctive feature in the women's dress was the white lace bonnet with starched and turned-up flaps at the sleeve. The original Preiser-figurines for the young couple with baby The original Preiser-figurines with the woman on the sleigh Both sexes wore wooden clogs – the shape of which varied between villages - as everyday footwear, but leather slippers and pantolettes were also used, particular to church on Sunday (BTW, Volendam is an oddity, being a catholic village in a largely protestant country). Due to the fact that picturesque village and its equally picturesque inhabitants drew many artists and tourists from the late 19th onward, the Volendam costume became the best known and 'typical' Dutch folk costume. The young mother from Volendam in base-coat The young father from Volendam in base-coat The first pair of Volendam folks is a young couple that has a stroll on the dyke, while she is carrying their baby. The second pair will be a younger man who pushes an elderly woman (his grandmother ?) on a sleigh across the ice. A quite common and convenient mode of transport in cold winters, as seen on paintings from the time of Brueghel and well into the 20th century on photographs. The young Volendam man, who will be pushing the sleigh The elderly Volendam woman who will be sitting on the push-sleigh The close-up photographs reveal again that the figurines still have to worked over and cleaned up.

Not sure, whether this applies to North American fishing schooners, but on many ships the bolt-ropes were of different circumference on the different sides of a sail, depending on the expected strain. In the 1:48 scale this should be quite visible.

If you (or other admirers) were always standing a meter away from the model, you could probably omit a lot of detail. The problem is that the observation distance of models varies, so you have to cater for even the case when someone sticks their nose almost into it (or as close as any glass case may allow) ...

I realise that I haven't posted any updates for a while. Well, mainly because not so much happened in the last few months, being 'distracted' by a workshop re-organisation and make some more machine tools. ****** The crew of a botter also consists usually of a boy, often a young relative of the master or the mate. The set of Preiser figurines used also comprises a smart hotel bell-boy, who now has to get used to much lesser sweet life in the rough outfit of a fisherman. Instead of carrying the hat-box of an elegant lady he now carries to freshwater back to the boat in two buckets suspended from a joke. Volendam fisherboy carrying a joke (© www.geheugenvannederland.nl) The original Preiser figurine of a bell-boy The Preiser figurine was worked over by carving and by adding details in Milliput clay, such as the typical wide Marker ‚knicker-bockers’ and the clogs. The spencer-like jacket remained almost unaltered. The joke was carved from a strip of phenolic resin. The joke The boy in base-coat The figure was given a base coat in white acrylics. The macro-photo shows in frightening clarity all the imperfections. When you hold the figure in your hand in normal viewing distance it actually doesn’t look too bad. Still, it has to be worked over at various places. BTW, the figurine is about 15 mm high.

Our aesthetics are still dominated by the 18th century classicistic scholars and the re-discovery of medieval and earlier art in the early 19th century. At that time much of the original paint on buildings and other artefacts had crumbled away and faded. Hence, we tend to expect either the 'pure' material (wood, marble, other stone), rather than a colourful paint-scheme. Modern archeological techniques, however, have revealed many traces of paint that allow us to reconstruct paint-schemes and painting techniques. As a result, one must assume that many ships and buildings over history were painted in rather garish colours. There is no comprehensive study on colours and paints used in decorating and preserving ships. It is quite certain, however, that the dominant pigments were mineral ones because they were cheap and stable. Many plant-derived pigments, particularly reds, are not permanent, i.e. they will fade when exposed to sunlight. Yellows, brick-reds and browns are all iron(hydr)oxides that are derived from natural ochre that has been heated to varying degrees and they are relatively cheap. Blues and greens can be derived from cobalt- or copper-containing minerals or synthesised from salts of these metals. They are more expensive. White, being derived from chalk or lime is cheap too. This gives you the main palette and other colours can be produced by mixing pigments. As we all know, due to the long-wave light absorption by the water vapour in the air, colours appear to become more blue and paler the more distant you are from the painted object. In order to sufficiently impress across the typical viewing distance of several hundred meters you have to use a more garish paint scheme. Of course, if you reproduce this on a model that is being viewed from a short distance, it may not be very pleasing aesthetically to the modern beholder. Even modern replicas, such as the UTRECHT statenjacht or the frigate HERMIONE are not really pleasing to the eye that has been trained by museum models and old paintings. Old paintings are another problem. Often the varnish on them tones down the original colour scheme. I have been shocked, when I discovered the original bright colouring in some paintings that I have known before their varnish was stripped off and they were cleaned.

In general, everything that is permanently (e.g. splicing or sewing) fastened to the sails would disappear with them in the sail locker. In more modern times blocks and ropes are attached using shackles, so it is often easier to unshackle these, rather than to unravel all the running rigging. Under those circumstances you may find that on some sails halliards, downhauls, sheets etc. are hooked into each other and tightened in a way that sort of outlines the shape of the sail. However, this may up to the fancy of the master, mate or crew. Something similar may done with other parts of running rigging, i.e. the part the attaches to the sail is shackled or hooked onto an easy to reach place, but otherwise left up.

People had to use what was available. However, oak would be rather heavy and not very elastic. Therefore, some sort of pine was usually preferred. And, indeed, most prototype woods are unsuitable for models due to the coarse grain and/or open pores.

My understanding was that these chains where there to catch the rudder in case it became unshipped. The festooning has the purpose to reduce the jerk, when the rudder is being dragged along. The chain would be lightly secured to the first pair of rings. Breaking these ropes takes up some of the energy that otherwise would be transfered to a single pair of rings.

I have been using a similar method for years, using either model-plane silk or silk-paper. The sails are either made as a whole or by pasting together individual cloths and adding the doublings. Here is description: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/68-zuiderzee-botter-by-wefalck-artitec-resin/?p=47886

0.2 mm soft copper-sheet. Rivets were made using a specially prepared taylor's embossing wheel on a piece of linoleum. The slight distortions from the process were flattened out by rubbing with a hard-wood dowel over the back. 1/60 scale tug model from the late 1860s.

I gather you meant to grind the point of the needle flat ? What do you mean by 'deactivate the safety on the syringes' ?. Normally, the needle detach easily by turning them and pulling. Some also have a so-called Luer-Lock mechanism, which is short thread. You just turn the needle and it comes off.

As twintrow pointed out, 'French Polish' is a process, not a material. I think Underhill meant to wipe-on thin layers of diluted varnish (shellac-based as it were), rather than brushing-on a thick coat of 'boat varnish', that may contain a lot of additives to make it viscuous and to fill it. Personally, I use only woodfiller, which essentially is a slightly filled nitro-cellulose based lacquer. It helps to fill the pores, deepens the colour and sands well (which is its main purpose). However, I am not sanding it, but use different grades of steel-wool to rub it down, finishing off with a 0000 grade. This results in a satin finish that appears to sit 'in' the wood, rather than 'on top' of it. Parts too small to rub down with steel-wool I may turn with pumice between my fingers until they appear matt; I then polish them with a felt-, cotton- or chamois-wheel in the hand-held drill to a satin finish. Again, you rather polish the wood, than to slab-on a glossy layer.

If possible, a lot of the gear that may get loose during the combat and hinder the movement of the ship was left ashore, when a seabattle could be planned. That is also a reason why ships got into trouble in bad weather after a battle. They were not sufficiently equipped anymore.

Also, when you are sewing something like sails, you want a large flat machine table, so that you can control the movement of the fabric. Otherwise it might be difficult to sew a straight line or a gentle curve, if needed.

Have been given one and they are useless. No power and precision. Apart from that, I wouldn't sew sails anyway, unless I would be building 1:10 scale or so. The stiches are grossly overscale with any practical needles and thread.

Geoff, I am not French and don't have (in person) contacts to modellers here. My work happened to bring me here.

Actually, wooden masts on 'modern' (i.e. from the late 19th century on) yachts often were not round, but oval or drop-shaped. There are several reasons for this: a) it increases the strength in longitudinal direction; it improves the air-flow to the sail, reducing eddies behind the mast; c) when using hoops for attaching the sail, it keeps it closer to the mast in the upper part; d) in the late 19th/early 20th a sort of T-slot was cut into the back of the mast, allowing the sail to be attached by feeding-in the bolt-rope (the same way as on modern, extruded aluminium masts).