wefalck

Saw undersize and then sand/file to the correct dimensions. wefalck

Neutral grey would have the effect of toning down the 'brilliance' of a colour, without changing its spectral properties. I guess, when painting a wall etc. in red on a white basecoat, the effect could be just too stark. A grey basecoat would reduce the 'brilliance' of the red without changing its tone. For small parts on a small modell, however, you may want a brillian colour, but it depends on the circumstances. A too brilliant red may make a part jump too much out from the rest of the paintwork. It also depends on what other colours are nearby: a brilliant red spot on a green background, for instance, would appear to be floating on it, which is not what you may want. So toning it down with neutral grey would bring it visually down into the same surface. wefalck

Just a small update on the scenic setting today, too much travelling and other activities recently. With the Plexiglas sheet to simulate the ice in place, the positions for various piles that carry the planned jetty were marked out. The design of the jetty followed that seen on various historical pictures (see my Web-site). Holes for inserting the piles were drilled throught the Plexiglas into the wood. I cut some square strips of soft wood on the table saw and from these 'piles' of the appropriate length were chopped. The wood was roughend and shaped using a rotary steel-wire brush in the hand-held drill. Cross-pieces etc. were shaped from the same wood. wefalck

I'm on the third coat now and the blue molded plastic is still showing through. To get a good coat of red you will need to prime it in white, ... The cause and the cure: many red pigments do not have enough 'body' to provide full coverage. By definition red pigmentes/dyes reflect/permit only red light. The blue plastic only reflects blue light. So, after going through the red paint almost no light arrives that can be reflected by the blue plastic and it appears sort of black. Providing a white or (neutral) grey underpaint means that all the light travelling through the red paint can be reflected. wefalck

I just noticed that when re-creating the building log from MSW 1.0 I missed out part of the work. Perhaps because it concerns some small and delicate parts that look simple, but are not so easy to manufacture at this scale. Well, the smithy of the boatyard has been busy and turned out various pieces of ironwork for rigging and other purposes: The mast is held in its tabernacle by a latch hinging on eyebolts. Mast tabernacle There is a complex piece of ironwork that guides and holds down the running bowsprit (which will not be shown on the model, as it was normally left home during the winter season, when a reduced rig was used). The ring was turned from a piece of brass rod, while stay was fashioned from a piece of steel rod on both the lathe and the mill, as it has partially a square section. In fact, various parts of the ironwork do have square sections, inter alia to prevent them from turning, or because they have made from square bar, hammered to a round cross-section where needed. Bowsprit guide The leeboards are held by sort of square rings that slip over the leeboard-bollards. These rings were made from brass strips soldered together and filed to shape. The leeboard pivots on a bolt that is held by these rings. Various ironwork A major challenge were the various belaying and thole pins. On the prototype their maximum diameter is just under 40 mm, the cylindrical sections generally being around 20 mm. So, in the 1/90 scale this means they are 0.2 to 0.4 mm in diameter, with a length of 3 to 4 mm. There are five different types and the literature (VAN BEYLEN, 1995; DORLEIJN, 2001) gives the typical dimensions and shapes for each them. Turning them from the available brass was impossibe, so that 1 mm steel wire was used as starting material. Even then turning them flying, i.e. supported only in a collet in the headstock proved impossible. This lead to the design and manufacturing of a tailstock-held micro-steady. The spherical parts on the pins where shaped free-hand using files and strips of abrasive paper. Belaying pin Specially made micro fixed-steady for turning small slender items on the watchmakers lathe. wefalck

I am using a piece of thick cardboard on which I put the sail drawing. The whole then is wrapped in clingfilm, making sure no creases appear in the area of the sail(s). wefalck

I have used the same technique for larger scale sails (1:60), but used very fine silk cloth that is commonly used for model airplanes. I first prepared a sheet of impregnated silk and then cut the individual sail cloth from it. These then were again stuck together with the sanding sealer. The cellulose-based sealer has two effects, one is that it fills up the structure of the material, making it less coarse looking, and second, you can correct the positioning by applying thinner. Otherwise, diluted white glue would do a similar job. wefalck

I was actually wondering about this, but it seems that the Volendam dyke hasn't changed much in profile. The buildings on the dyke front (e.g. the auction? house) are still there, the slope neither and on the back there wouldn't have been any space to make the slope less steep because of the house immediately behind it. wefalck

druxey - yes it is a cellulose-based sanding sealer Thanks, amateur, for this bit of information. I have been trawling the Web, but couldn't find any data on the height of the (astronomical) tide in the Zuiderzee, but guessed that it would be probably in that range. With the scenic setting I am taking a few artistic licences, mainly so as not to overwhelm the real subject, the botter, and to keep the size of the display reasonably small. So the jetties and related infrastructure are not as high as they probably should be, the slope of the dyke is too steep and the dyke is too low (if I remember right from a couple of visits, the crown is about 5 m above the present-day Ijsselmeer level), plus, as amateur noted, it should not be covered in brick. In spite of this, I think in the end the overall impression will be reasonably authentic, giving context to the model. wefalck

You put me into a dilemma now ... yes, it seems to be hardrock on the slope and bricks only on the dyke's 'crown'. I am also aware that the slope in the model is far too steep (dykes' slopes have become shallower and shallower over the years). Considering the amount of time I spent on it, I am not going to break it up again. 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