wefalck
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Everything posted by wefalck
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Brian, to add to your arsenal of ideas: - styrene sheet with seams engraved into which one lays fly-tying thread - there are also commercially available 'weld-seams' as decals, but their scale may to large (1:35) and they may be rather pricey for such large hull. -
Just read the (reconstructed) CV of a master born in 1706 on the Amrum island (North Sea coast of Germany), who first put to sea at the age of 12 - most men of that island were mariners, as agriculture was poor and not many other occupations neede. He sailed out of Hamburg and three years later was captured by pirates from Algiers and sold as a slave. After another three years he was bought out of slavery and then moved up the ranks, eventually becoming a successful master in the triangular trade between Denmark, West-Africa and the Danish Westindies. So successful that he could retire as the richest man of Amrum at the age of 42. In less demanding environments, boys would not enter the service before their 'confirmation' (i.e. the protestant version of the First Communion), in the 18th and 19th century around the age of 14. That was the age when one would leave school to become apprenticed. As noted before, boys from very poor families would probably lie about their age ...
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MDF is rather stable as long as you don't soak it in water. So it is important that in particular the edges are sealed or not exposed. Bulkheads from MDF shouldn't be a problem, as the planking/plating will cover the cut edges. I gather the boat was welded? Perhaps covering the wooden planking with thin Bristol-board would save a lot of time in filling and sanding and the individual plates could be simulated that way. Otherwise, I used copper foil (as in copper-sheathing wooden ships) to simulate on-off riveted plates. Could be used for welded hulls as well. The welding seams could be simulated by engraving or embossing. Modern boats like this are not my subject area, but I am curious, how you will tackle this project.
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On the glass on ships, I always wondered, whether they kept the glazed windows at sea (and in battle, of course), or stored them below. Glass still was an expensive item in the 17th century. In fact, often Muscovite was used instead, which is a natural mineral and can be split into very thin sheets. Muscovite is much more elastic than glass, but less clear. Today it is still used as high temperature-resistant looking glasses in furnaces and the likes.
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Half-cut away model showing a (non-working) scale steam-engine and boilers? These old steam-yachts are a lovely, steam-punky sort of crowd ... some years ago, we happend to be in Nice, when a childhood friend of my wife called her to wish her 'Happy Birthday'. When she asked, where he was, he said "in Nice" (he works on 'super-yachts' as an IT engineer). When we asked, where to find him, he replied "that's easy, just look out for the biggest boat in the old harbour, where normally cruise-ships berth". However, in spite of the 'glitz', helicopter and all, I found the old 1920s steam-yacht on the other side of harbour much more classy and desirable ...
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Keith, perhaps you should put a cheap tablet or something like that to the model that shows images of the path and also images of those things inside that are barely visible? Otherwise, I can only echo, what the others have already said 👍
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I am not so familiar with 18th century rigging practice, but brails on the mainsail (no. 24 and 25) are definitively needed to reduce sail area quickly. However, you need to decide, whether the vessel would have had a standing or a lowering gaff. If the boat has a lowering gaff, it probably does not make much sense to lead an other running rigging, such as bulins or topgallant braces towards it. I would also doubt that there have been bulins (21/22) or even topgallant braces (10). On British cutters of that period the topgallant braces were led towards the end of the jibboom and belayed at the spill. The topsail- and topgallant yards may not have had braces at all, as the were set flying (at least the topgallant) and would come around together with the main yard. Aren't there any backstays for the topmast? Just having a stay would not be enough to steady it, as the main force is from behind and sideways.
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Could you please provide some background information, for instance what model you are talking about? Then people can give some more specific advice. The rigging consists of many different sizes of rope, depending on their function.
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Harriet McGregor by Boccherini
wefalck replied to Boccherini's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1851 - 1900
Grant, it wasn't meant to be a 'lesson', just some observations. If sources tell you that the binnacle had (at some stage) Kelvin balls, that's it then. Ships change over time, so it is extremely difficult to represent a particular ship 'correctly'. Your sources from different times may show you certain features, but unless you have corroborating sources, you cannot know whether at another time the same features were present. So you may indadverntely create anachronisms simply because you don't know any better. That's the fate of any modeller. Contextual historical information, say the date of the Kelvin patent, can help you bracketting the time, when certain features could be present on a particular ship. -
Would be interesting to read the technical information sheet for this. From the description I would guess that is is a pure acrylics solution, no pigments and fillers. In this sense it is a primer, rather than a sanding sealer. How does this stuff sand? My experience is that acrylics are too soft to sand well or at least one has to let them cure for weeks.
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Harriet McGregor by Boccherini
wefalck replied to Boccherini's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1851 - 1900
Nice work on the binnacle/compass! These 'Kelvin-balls' are there to correct the 'deviation' (horizontal deflection) of a compass caused by iron elements used in the construction or of iron articles in the load. Ther is also a vertical deflection called 'inclination' that is compensated for in later magnetic compasses. On road-steads there was usually an area set aside so that ships could steer a full 360° circle while making compass readings and observations of two given landmarks at the same time. This allowed to plot the 'deviation' of the compass readings from the theoretical readings. This plot was used to adjust the 'balls' in order to minimise the deviation. In the absence of such adjusting features, the 'deviation table' could also be used during a voyage to correct the course. I am not sure though, whether a wooden sailing ship, such as HARRIET McGREGOR would have had at that time this kind of correction features. There were older correction features, but they are not as prominent. -
Shellac is also a traditional cement used by jewellers and watchmakers. The latter use it in molten form to stick (temporarily) metal parts together. Dipped in alcohol, the parts separate. A while ago, I got myself shellac-flakes and dissolved a lot of them just in a few millilitres of alcohol to make a cement with honey-like consistency. It grabs quite well, but it takes quite a while for the alcohol to evaporate. When working with it, the 'open' time is quite infinite, giving you lots of time to adjust parts. As any excess can be wiped off with a brush dipped into alcohol, it makes for a neat cement.
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It seems that some of the more precious decorations were actually removable at least on some types of ships. They took them off before putting to sea seriously or going into battle. The Musée de la Marine here in Paris has inter alia a collection of decorations from an 18th century chebec that survived, because they were kept in storage in the arsenal of Toulon. Sometimes such carved decorations were also recycled for new ships. From a socio-economic perspective, battle- or storm-damage provided the shipyard and arsenal workers with their daily bread.
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The point of a wood sealer or sanding sealer is that it should penetrate into the wood. There are two properties that help this process, low viscosity and good wetting behaviour. These are properties that PVA doesn't really have, it has, if undiluted, a high viscosity and being 'polar' (sorry for the chemistry-speak), it is being repelled from more or less resinous wood. Good sanding sealers are based on some kind of organic solvent (which includes alcohol in the case of shellac) and quite thin, so it really soaks into the wood, rather than forming a layer on top. A sealer has to be 'worked' into the wood - in the old days shellac was applied with a 'tampon'. Modern sanding sealers are usually applied with a bristle-brush. So, application by air-brush would be counterproductive.
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US 6” gun by RGL - FINISHED - Panzer Concepts
wefalck replied to RGL's topic in Non-ship/categorised builds
I am always a bit surprised, how 'spidery' early US American tractors look in comparison to their European cousins. I gather they used more fabricated parts than castings. -
A university friend of mine some 40+ years ago built a side-car for his antique BMW motorcycle from scratch. He got somewhere the original plans and some parts, such as bearings and the wheel, but the rest was built from scratch. Somehow he managed to sell it to the licensing authorities as a restored/recovered original ... I had a lot of trust in his engineering capabilties - have been the first passenger in it 😇
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I think the question referred to the drain-pipes that drain the water-ways, rather than openings for mooring ropes etc. These drains or scuppers would be flush with the deck, sitting in the corner of the water-way and have a diametre of around 5 cm/2".
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Over here in Europe you would have a hell of a time and spend an awful lot of money getting the certificate to drive it on public roads ...
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You made think of rosin-cored solder. However, beware of the issue with lead-corrsion on models. Otherwise, solid lead-free solder-wire might be an option. One would have to drill a hole through, insert it into the pre-drilled hole in the hull and shape it with suitable tools. Copper-wire drilled out and treated as above might be third option. It would need to be annealed several times in the process to keep it malleable. It would then need to be painted, unless you assume the scuppers were bronze/copper. For small scales, I just drilled the hole into the hull, flared it out with diamond burrs etc. and then turned a soft lead-pencil in it to give it the look of a lead pipe.
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What scale is the model in, around 1:20 I would guess ?
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Split ring making process
wefalck replied to Dave_E's topic in Metal Work, Soldering and Metal Fittings
Brass in electrical cables? I suppose this is soft copper. Sometimes it is tinned copper, which is good, as it makes the wire stiffer. In fact, one can buy tinned copper wire down to 0.1 mm diameter, but it is quite difficult to find. For certain applications the tinned wire has the added advantage, that one does not need to paint it. -
Split ring making process
wefalck replied to Dave_E's topic in Metal Work, Soldering and Metal Fittings
Well, copper wire is normally available in electronics supply shops down to 0.05 mm diameter. Silver wire you can get down to 0.02 mm I think, check on ebay et al. for 'jump wire' - they are used to repair broken connections on circuit-boards of mobile phones for instance. All these wires are very soft and deform easily, also such thin wire break very easily. NiCr (Kantal) wires are also available down to 0.05 mm diameter, I believe, but they are very hard and springy and difficult to cut. -
Harriet McGregor by Boccherini
wefalck replied to Boccherini's topic in - Build logs for subjects built 1851 - 1900
It seems that carpenters then wanted to show off their skills - which today presents challenges to the modeller Making the curved recesses in the sliding cover to follow the curved rails is not so trivial. Job well done 👍 -
Pat, I gather this publication by Clifford (https://books.google.co.mz/books?id=dzMDAAAAQAAJ) is based on his patent(s) and served to encourage its exploitation. We have not followed this further, but it appears that in the end it was not used in the German navies. I gather one reason is, that the mechanisms occupies quite a bit of space in the boats. In Admiral Pâris' reports on the world exhibitions in London in 1862 and 1867 there are also various quick-release gears illustrated, but I have not found yet good scans of the plates. I still have some photocopies from a copy of the book in the library of the Zürich Polytechnic, when I was a student there in 1977 ...
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