wefalck

Well, a snow (or Schnau in German) is a special variety: it has a sort thinner mast attached to the back of the main-mast, the snow-mast. The purpose is to allow the gaff to be lowered without interfering with the parrel of main-yard. Occasionally, multi-masted or even barques had such snow-masts fitted. The snow-mast largey disappeared in the second quarter of the 19th century, at least over here in Europe.

Nice project, I will keep following it ... Talking about building logs: I have been following this YouTube channel for a while. That lady(!) is currently building one of the bigger Stuart kits, with lots of good ideas for set-ups of awkward parts etc. -

For rigging work I use Castrovejo eye-surgery scissors. They come in various sizes and straight (pictured in one of the earlier posts above) and curved, which is good for close cuts. I also use a holder for broken-off pieces of razor-blade, again from the surgical department.

I was also hurt by this crash (which seems to be a long, long time ago ...) and henceforth drafted my building logs in MS Word first, to be copied and pasted into the Forum. In this way I have a record of my respective contributions. However, I do not keep such records on comments I make in other threads.

Jon, I think the subject can be a treacherous field. Today, we seem to have a relatively clear terminology, even though there are differences in usage between the US, the UK, and continental Europe. However, if you go to historical records, the terminology tends to be less clear. The same ship may be referred to in different records by a different classification. In addition, there were in the past various rigs, that we today would consider sort of hybrid forms and that do not fit our modern terminology very well. The hermaphrodite brig is a good example, as already the name indicates, something 'in between'. Arguing about terminology is rather futile. I don't have strong feelings about the subject and only stumbled about it here, because for me the 'brig' is one of the relatively clear definition, because it is a vessel with two full-rigged masts, i.e. masts with top- and top-gallant masts. As soon as one of the masts only has a top-mast, things tend to become more complicated. And don't think of the Mediterranean, where the so-called Polacca-rig, i.e. where at least mast and top-gallant were one piece ... Carry on with the good work and research !

Too bad, if you are not on FaceBook and are wondering what is going on ...

Pat, good to see more progress here and welcome to the club of close-up-photography-haters Could it be that the booms were actually stowed somewhere on deck? Lower stun'sails typically were only set on long-haul tacks, in a chase etc., so actually not very often. In harbour they may also have been used as boat-booms, i.e. the boats were tied to them - there would a safety line running above so that the crew could run along the boom and then climb down into the boats using a rope ladder. In any case, it seems to be more likely that this gear was stowed on deck, where it would be also less exposed to the action of the sea.

It's actually a sort of intermediate between staining and applying translucent washes with an airbrush. This is an established technique among plastic modellers. There is nothing wrong with that. It's just that the model was quite poorly built (look at the gaps under the capping rails) and the colour-scheme reminds me of those 'decorative' or 'tourist' models of old ...

It popped up on my YouTube recommendations and I watched it - not impressed, to be honest ...

Ah, I like those small mid-19th century merchant vessels! Will be following further progress. Just wondering, why you call her a brig. According to the terminology I learned, she would be a schooner-brig, because she has one full-rigged mast and a schooner-mast with a top-mast only, no square sails and no topgallant-mast. A brig would have two full-rigged masts.

Again, another very nice 'Baron' ! I love those small sailing craft from the southern shore of the Baltic. Some years ago I organised the annual meeting of our German Association for Shipbuilding History in the Nautineum, a museum of Baltic maritime history on Dänholm Island, just off the old Hanseactic city of Stralsund: https://www.nautineum.de/sammlungen/fischerei. The have a nice collection of regional boats and the centre-piece is a (replica) Zeesboot. In fact, quite a few of these have survived (through the GDR days) by having been converted to pleasure boats.

Masochist, well that's probably true ...😈 It would take me years to get that far building it the traditional way ... I would probably give up, getting lost in the complexity of the project.

Try art-suppliers or (Internet) shops for paper and book restorers, they use such paper to double up damaged pages, for instance. Did a quick search: https://store.bookbinding.co.uk/store/category/95/456/Conservation-Grade-%26-Weight/ There must be many more shops like this.

Not bad, but I think at that time the oil-skins and the south-wester would have been a dark grey or something like this.

Kevin, I think the picture is misleading, because it was taken against the light, at around midday with high sun, and a bright background - then all sails look rather dark and all shadows blueish (as you can on the shaded white stripes on the hull). In reality the sails are off-white.

As far as I remember (I have seen her a couple of times) the sails of AMERIGO VESPUCCI are (off-)white, so I am not sure that it is a good idea to tint them in some unsual colour. Would certainly give the ship a 'Disney' appearance 😲 Where is the problem with 27 sails, the only limit is your patience ... The thinner the paper, the better. In fact, even the thinnest silk-paper is likely to be too thick, when considering real scale thickness. Furled panneled sails are possible, but you may need to make them somewhat shorter in order to bring the furled volume to the scale volume. I have done it, but you may be struggling with seams breaking open (I know this from experience). One could explore another strategy for those tighly furled sails in navy style: when furling, the sail would be embedded into a sort of pocket formed by the top-part of it; this is to keep water out of it; for the same reason the sail is stowed on top of the yard; one could sculpt this 'sausage' of sail in polymer clay or something like this and just wrap short lengths of silk-paper around it to simulate the panels.

... and chosing the right materials 😉

Only now read about your mishap with the boat. I would use a good coat of Teflon-spray as release agent or a coating with candle-wax. Personally I don't have much experience with epoxy-resin. I am not very fond of two-component materials actually due to their short time in which they have to be applied. I know that various German modellers successfully used the stockings-plus-epoxy technique to mold boats, ventilators and such stuff. While I used a slightly different technique on my boats (the boats being clinker-built), I can confirm Bob's suggestion that paper soaked in shellac (or some other lacquer that dries hard) makes for a good composite material that can be almost treated like wood. Another option in which you can recycle your plug would be something like vaccum-forming. Well not actually vacuum-forming, but quickly pulling a heated-up sheet of styrene over the plug. There should be some description to be found on the WWW. If not, I could give a quick run-down of the principle.

In the meantime I am healthwise quite normal again. Progress was hampered by a short business trip to Germany ... ********************************* Further completion of the cutter The hull was now cut off the ‘building-board’ and the infilling and the bulkheads shaped in a way I think the tarpaulin-covered sailing-gear, oars etc. which would be stowed in the boat would have looked like. The hull with the shaped ‘interior’ The use of toilet-paper to simulate the tarpaulin had only be moderately successful, but I remembered just in time, that a few months ago I had purchased some very light-weight (9 g/m2) Japanese silk-paper as a basis for sails. Very light-weight Japanese silk-paper An appropriate piece was cut, draped over the boat and thoroughly wetted with zapon-varnish. It was glued in place so that it just covered the top-strake down to the rubbing strake. Once dry, it was trimmed back with a new scalpel blade to just the rubbing strake. The cutter with tarpaulin in place, before painting Installing the rudder while the gig was on the davits turned out to be misconception on my side, the boats were stowed with the rudder unshipped. So this time I only simulated the lower pintle with some flattened wire and a wire upright. Finally, the cutter was ready for painting and was given a good coat of Vallejo model-air ‘white’ all over. The painted cutter In the next step the second strake from the top was painted in black, as the regulations in force at the time demanded that the two topmost strakes to be black. The painted cutter The tarpaulin the was given a wash of Vallejo white with a dash of Vallejo model-air ‘hemp’. Finally the two hoisting-rings made from twisted, tinned 0.2 mm copper wire were installed. The painted cutter To be continued ....

Thanks, Valeriy, that's a good find. Have to download the drawings. I have just got published an article (in German) about the various early mechanical machine guns in naval use. While preparing the article, I came across this guy on YouTube, who has done nice animations inter alia of the workings of various early machine guns: https://www.youtube.com/user/vbbsmyt

For use against torpedoboats Maxim also developed a 37 mm version (to replace the mechanical Hotchkiss revolving gun of the same calibre), which was produced by Nordenfeldt in the UK and later by others. Because of its sound it became also known as 'pom-pom' gun. From Wikiwand The cooling sleeve around the barrel was made from brass, because early versions of the 8 mm machine-gun were actually water-cooled, i.e. a rubber tube was connected to each end and cooling water run through. I gather certain parts of the mechanism were made from bronze because the coefficient of friction between this metal and steel is relatively low and no lubrication is needed. Corrosion resistance is indeed another consideration. Respective parts of mechanical guns of the time (Gatling, Hotchkiss, Nordenfelt, Gardner) and used in the navies were also made from bronze and brass. Later, as everything was painted grey all-over corrosion resistance became less relevant (see picture above).

Thank you to all of you for your kind wishes ! It seems that we have here in France a new subvariant of Omikron that is more contagious, with a shorter incubation period, but generally weaker, but symptoms of longer duration. The paradoxical situation is that the number of daily new cases is four to five times higher than at the beginning of 2021, when we went into full lock-down, but the government basically lifted all restrictions - masks are only required in public transport. Perhaps they think with 70% of the population vaccinated, they can manage the number of cases having to go into intensive care ...

David, Canson is indeed a French manufacturer, who's traditions can be traced back into the 16th century and the Brothers Montgolfier were members of that family. The company offers a broad range of technical and fine arts papers. It seems that in Germany a heavily calandered and dyed in the material paper is sold under the denomination 'Canson-Paper', which is why I used this term. In my case it is their Iris® Vivaldi® with a weight of 120 g/m2, which is perfectly smooth on both sides. And: thanks for the kind comments !

Work on the cutter stalled for a good two weeks due to an unexpected event: we went down to Spain to spend a week there and – in spite of all the precautions and safety-measures we took for the past two-and-a-half years and having been vaccinated three times, on the flight the virus caught up with me and my wife. Flu-symptoms with throat-ache, a light fever and general fatigue. We had to extend our stay by a week, until we tested negative. Still rather tired and bothered by a cough … at least we can relax a bit more for the next half year or so until the immunity declines again… ********************************************************************** Planking of the cutter continued … This work continued as before, eye-balling the run and spacing. I am not sure that I got the spacing at the bows quite right, as the planking is sweeping more up at the bows, than expected. As noted above, the forward section was more difficult than the rear section. Clamping the planks tight at the bows Once the planking was complete, the stem- and stern-post (or rather the deadwood) areas were cleaned up and sanded to match the stem- and keel-pieces. The planks were also sanded flush to the transom. Planking complete and cleaned up Planking complete and cleaned up The stem-keel-piece was laminated from three layers of laser-cut Canson-paper and lacquered into place on the boat. The outside contur was then cleaned up using a diamond nail-file. These files are very useful for the purpose. However, after a few strokes the freshly exposed paper has to be consolidated again with varnish to prevent it from fraying. Like the gig, the cutter had a rubbing strake running along the lower edge of the top strake. This was simulated again using a 0.2 mm copper-wire lacquered into place. Due to the charring from the laser-cutting process, it is difficult to see, whether there are any gaps between the stem-keel-piece and the boat as such. I probably will apply a thin coat of paint to be better able to see any imperfections, that then will be filled with putty. The completed cutter The completed cutter The completed cutter Overall, I a reasonably pleased how the cutter turned out so far and the strategy to attach stem-post and keel after planking is complete has paid off. To be continued ....

I used silk fabric for model airplanes in the past, I think it was 14 g/m2. I put the stuff into a cardboard frame and worked/dried it horizontally, so no issues with not uniform paint distribution. While I don't sew sails anymore, this silk fabric sews better, when you back it up temporarily with some silkpaper - paper is less prone to be distorted when transported through a sewing machine.