wefalck

These were actually merchant navy 'cadets', not naval ones. At that time the thought was that future merchant steamer officers still should get 'proper' training on a sailing ship. Fairleads are there to keep a rope in place, rather than to change severely its direction, for which blocks should be used. I am not too familiar with the deck layout of these ships, but it may be that the cadets were kept occupied with hand-work, while normally at that time winches were used. So you may need a lot of cadets pulling on ropes and you may need to deploy them at various places due to the limited deck spaces. Thus you may need to lead the rope in question from one place to another. Just a wild guess.

Your workbench reminded me of this display of the Grand Banks fisheries museum in Fecamp/France: I like your systematic approach and the tilting building jig 👍🏻

Yep, that fish-trap looks good 👍🏻 For what kind of fish is used here? Over here in Europe, I think it is used mainly for eels and crab/crayfish/lobster.

Some people use oil-paints for washings, but I personally prefer acrylics or sometime simple water-colours. Acrylics have the advantage that different layers dry rapidly and are not affected by subsequent washes, while in the case of water-colours in particular it is not possible to have several layers. You can have several layers of oil-washings, but you have to work fast and there may be quite long drying times in between. For acrylic washings I use a dish with a bit of water in the middle and dabs of (pre-diluted for the airbrush, such as Vallejo ModelAir) paint. I wet a soft brush, dab the tip into the paint and then make a very dilute mix that is then applied to the model. Then I quickly empty the brush on a paper towel and wet it again to push the paint where I want it. If there is too much, it can be picked up again with a very wet brush. I apply were little, let dry, examine the result, and if needed have another go half an hour so later. Repeat if needed. Typically, I have black, dark grey, white and burnt umbra on the palette, but it depends also on the subject. Dark green may be added, to represent algae, or rusty red for exactly the same effect. The other option are pastels. I am lucky to have inherited from my father a large set of artists pastels (they tend do be quite pricey), but mainly use again the same colours as above. I think this is about all you need for ship models. They sell sets of 'weathering powders' for military and railway modellers, but most of the colours you probably wont need. Pastel sticks are available individually from artists supply shops. I rub a bit of pastel on a 240 or so grit sandpaper and take the resulting dust up with an old brush. Some people use bristle brushes, but I use old hair brushes as they are easier on the underlying paint. With the brush the dust can be applied to the desired areas and rubbed in. It doesn't work on glossy paint, matt paint is the best. However, it is nearly impossible to remove it dry, you will have to wash it off. Otherwise there will remain a light haze, but this may be exactly what you want. Excess powder can be simply blown off. Pastels have to be the very last step, as adding washes afterwards would either wash the pastels away or turn them into some sort of paint. I like the pastels because they have a sort of 'velvety' effect and surface that cannot be achieved with washes.

It's less the craftmanship aspect than the curse of working on a model of a prototype that is reasonably well documented. There are always things one doesn't get quite right and usually one spots those only on the photographs of the finished object ...

Thank you very much again, gentlemen, for your kind comments! Keith, I am not sure that photos in the 1870s would have been more grainy and less focused. At that time photographers still had to use large-format glass-plate negatives, even wet collodium plates. Given their size of nearly A4, they and the care taken when focusing on the ground glass-plate before inserting the actual photographic plate, they images tend to be extremely well focused and also with a great depth of field. We tend to see such pictures in printed form in books etc., where much of the original image quality is lost. For the fun of it I superimposed the very first photograph of S.M.S. WESPE, an engraving that obviously was based on this photograph, and a somewhat ‘photoshopped’ shot of the model (without spending to much time on that):: … perhaps I shouldn’t have done this, as I no discover things that could have been done better 🫣

Just to chime in: I love to see such subjects modelled that are humble, yet indispensible to the operation of the harbours and other facilties on which the ships depend that we usually chose as subjects. I also love these 'technical' subjects of the steam-age, I mean the real things, not the steam-punk caricatures. Looking forward to the completion of the project.

A few glamour-shots of S.M.S. WESPE Finally, I managed to go into town to buy a suitable paper as backdrop for the glamour-shots of the whole model. Here they are without further comments: And also two shots in black & white:

I gather in some cultures they make 'sewn' baskets from coiled-up braided strands of whatever fibres are available. Each layer of the coil is sewn to the one below. Otherwise, I can offer a high-tech solution that might be adapted to the availability of tools: For the Botter-model I needed a couple of fish-baskets and I decided to weave real baskets, well almost. For this I needed a tool that would give the basket its shape and allow me to handle it while weaving. So I turned the little implement below from a piece of 5 mm diameter aluminium and drilled a 2 mm hole all the way through it. It will allow me make two baskets simultaneously. The material for weaving is another issue. I would have like to use wire, but it would have been difficult to actually weave with wire. So I used some thin cotton thread for the stakes and fly-tying yarn for the weave. First the ‚stakes’ were put into place by winding the thread around the form tool in a continuous series of loops, passing the return part through the middle of the center bore of the tool. This then was woven out with the fly-tying yarn using a sewing needle. The rim is a bit of a fake: normally the stakes would be bent back one over each other to produce a stable and decorative finishing. Here I made a double row of half-hitches with the weave, i.e. the fly-tying thread. Once this was finished, the ‚basket’ was soaked in wood stain and then a few dabs of matt varnish were applied to secure the weaving. The stakes with the exception of two on each side then were cut off flush with the rim. The remaining stakes were twisted into looped handles. Finally the stakes were cut around the hole in the bottom of tool. A bottom of the basket was faked by closing the hole with a good drop of white glue. The baskets then were weathered using acrylics paint (umbra). I am sure that this technique can be easily adapted to a larger scale. You were already half-way there ...

That came out pretty neat 👍🏻 Do they drill holes through the stones(?) used as weights, or do they strap them on? For the latter option you could find some small stones and tie a thread around them as if you would tie up a parcel. The loose ends you then can knot into your net. Alternatively, you could try to get hold of some shredded cork. Not sure, whether in your part of the world there are any model-railway shops, but if so, they may sell shredded cork in different size grades. If not, you may need to empty a couple of bottles and shred the cork yourself. The cork-rocks can be easily drilled (if that is the method of attachment) and painted up to resemble rocks.

Impeccable metalwork as usual 👍🏻 However, somehow I don't see the the two chain-wheels, that should have depressions for the chain-links ...

... the same was probably said, when manual lathes and milling machines and powered saws were introduced. The question is: what is our objective - to build better models or to develop manual skills? On the other hand, if you want to show bare metal or wood, there is no 3D-printing option (yet).

In case you are not happy with the way the net turns out, other materials to consider would be ladies' stocking or pantyhoses. You may need to look for 'patterned' ones for larger mesh sizes. They can be staked out on a board to stretch the meshes and then ligthly sprayed with varnish to keep the meshes open, but not so much soaked as to make them too stiff. If your wife doesn't wear a suitable colour, the material can also by dyed. I have used this method for a 'tanned' net, albeit at a much smaller scale (1/90):

Just to mention and without wanting to imply anything, in the past I have simulated such pipe insulation with twisted strands of asbestos wool by winding cotton thread around the wire and soaking it in varnish:

Not sure that the inhabitants would have appreciated this ... wasn't the boat operating in a tropical climate?

Relatively? May be you are still think of thinning the leading edges? What ever the conclusion, it it a nice piece of metal-workmanship 👍🏻 I actually wondered, whether the five-bladed propeller was a more recent addition to the boat? I would think that the original arrangement would have included a three- or four-bladed one?

Aren’t many of such titles now available as free digitalisations?

I seem to remember that the Roman ships were more heavily built than the Punic ones (or the earlier Greek ones in any case), as the Romans were not a seafaring nation at all and wanted to transfer their land-battle tactics to the sea. Hence they manned their ships heavily with soldiers, fitted them with a sort of drawbridge to grab enemy ships and deploy those soldiers in hand-to-hand fighting. This probably means more ballast to keep the ships stable. Also, I believe, the Roman ships were rowed by slaves, who were kept on board at all times, so that infrastructure for sustaining them was needed. Not sure about the Punic ships. The Greek ships were rowed by free citizens of the respective communities and typically disembarked in the evening, as the ships would be pulled up on the beaches. Greek tactics mainly aimed for ramming the enemy ships or at least break their oars. Very few extra soldiers were on board. These tactical requirements would have resulted in comparatively light ships only.

I have been to the Hellenic Maritime Museum in Piraeus/Athens a couple of days ago. And there, on the room dedicated to the ancient Greek warships, it was noted that the captains of a trireme etc. were obliged to salvage the ram in case their ship went down. It was also noted that the construction of the galleys would mean that they float on the wood and not sink, once pierced, which would explain, why no rams so far have been found at the sites of major seabattles, such as Salamis. Obviously, this did not apply to Roman or Punic ships.

Yes, but these are secondary sources with specific temporal and/or regional focus. One should not forget this.

Thanks, I was aware of this work. Interestingly, their terminology differs in places from the one used in maritime circles - but this is rather a discussion for a German forum (where we already had it, I think).

I have put together a lis of published literature specifically on masting and rigging. There are some more titles in addition to those already mentioned: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/maritimebibliographies/masting&rigging-bibliography.pdf Those marked with 'E' are available in digitised form, but you would need to look for yourself for a link.

When I serve splices etc. I start with either a clove-hitch or an overhand-knot and continue with half-hitches. The half-hitches make sure that the turns stay tight on the served area. To secure knots, splices and servings I use a fast-drying varnish, similar to nail-varnish, but the old, solvent-based variety, not the modern acrylic ones. In this way, everything can be loosened, should the need arise.

Yes, alloys can be deposited galvanically. It’s regularly done for objects such as furniture or lamp fitting. The electrode should be brass of the copper to zinc ratio that you want on the final product, which determines the colour, ranging from reddish (high Cu) to yellowish (high Zn).

I gather areas, were the load would be high, e.g. from the pivoting and firing guns, could have closer spaced frames, dito., where boilers and machinery are located. In the bow, the cant-frames are spaced closer to better take up the stresses from diving into the sea. On the other hand, uneven frame spacing would also cause uneven stress distribution along the hull, with some areas being stiffer than others. This should lead to higher stress on wales, stringers and the hull-planking in these areas. By then the spacing is already quite close, so that there may not be a quantitatively significant effect. When you say 'bent' frames, you mean they really steam-bent such big timbers, as you would in boat-building?