wefalck

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).

You may also note that the method of rigging footropes changed with time. From about the middle of the 19th century on they were attached to a second jackstay (the first one is for attaching the sails) running a bit behind the top of the spar. This jackstay was an iron rod held by eyebolts screwed into the spar. From the last quarter of the 19th century on the whole foot-rope/stirrup assembly was made from wire rope. Particularly the foot-rope needed to be wire to reduce wear, as seamen began to wear shoes/boots more commonly. Electronic shops sell copper wire from 0.05 mm on spools or you may look into this on-line-shop for a more consistent supply of wires. You can also make the stirrups from a rope stiffend with varnish, attached with a fake eyes-plice to the jackstay and with another fake eye-splice at the end for the foot-rope.

It is an almost unavoidable physical phenomenon that wood or ropes darken in colour when soaked in something, be it water, glue or varnish. The liquid changes the way how light is reflected out of the pores. So the answer is to use as little as possible and to try to avoid soaking it completely. I am using fast drying solvent-based matt varnish for the purpose. This has the advantage that you can soften it with a drop of solvent in case you are not satisfied with what you did. Using PVA or CA, you basically have only one shot. The wetting properties of solvent-based varnish are also better than those of (diluted) PVA.

I would always install a speed-control. You may be working with different materials that require different operational parameters. For a serving machine it is important that you can control comfortably thread while it is wound around the rope to be served. So, it should not be running too fast. I also would install a foot-switch for the machines. This leaves your hands free for all the manipulations. While I generally prefer on-off foot-switches on my machines in order to allow me to pre-select speeds, in the case of the serving machine, a foot-operated speed-controller may be useful. It allows you to slow down or speed up (as on a sewing machine) as may be needed.

There exist diamond-(honing)files for metal, but they tend to be rather expensive, as their manufacturing process and construction is different from the cheap chinese diamond-studded tools. There are also diamond-studded sharpening and honing plates for knives, cutting tools, and gravers on the market. wefalck

Many traditional fishing boats with gaff-sails and -topsails don't have them. Even when they have a square foresail (which would be lowered to the deck for furling/unfurling. It is a question of how often and how many men you would need in the mast. If the gear is small enough that one, or may be two men are sufficient to sort out gear aloft, the bosun's chair is probably a safe and fast option. It would be needed mainly if something fouled aloft in a way that gaffs or other spars and sails cannot be lowered to the deck. In this case the work is likely to be done close to the mast. wefalck

OK, I am not a professional mechanic, but I never heard of files made from HSS (or tungsten carbide). Files are made ('cut') by driving (mechanically) a chisel into the soft steel that raises the teeth in a pre-defined pattern. The steel then is hardened and tempered (to straw colour, if I remember correctly). This process would not be possible with HSS or carbide. Perhaps the teeth could be formed by grinding, or in the case of carbide during the sintering process (still requiring grinding). A rasp for wood has single, sort of triangular teeth, while metal files have ridges of teeth, rather than single teeth. Finishing files have the ridges in only one direction, while roughing files are cross-cut in two or even three directions. I have used diamond-impregnated nail-files on wood long before diamond-files came onto the (modellers) market. They work well and give a good finish, but are not so easy to keep clean. I would use them only for finishing, not for removing significant quantities of material. wefalck

I don't know anything about these specific vessels, but ratlines would only be needed, if crew had to go into the mast on regular basis for working the sails (e.g. for furling them). On smaller boats all the sails would be operated from the deck, so there is no need for ratlines. In an emergency, a crew would be aided/hoisted up in an bosun's chair, just as it is done on modern yachts. wefalck

Wish they would do them down to 0.3 mm diameter or so … difficult to modify existing pliers in that way. wefalck