wefalck

Knots and hitches are only used to temporarly fasten a line. In most cases eye-splices are used or seizings, when the rope would be too stiff to tie a knot or a splice would weaken it (as in the example above of the breech-rope). There are many specialised knots/hitches, but depending on the scale, they may be difficult to tie. In most cases I seem to get away with half- and clove-hitches, if required. A real splice would be a challange at most scales, but fake splices are easy to do. Personally, I prefer a fast-drying clear solvent-based varnish for securing rigging, as it can be easily softened with the solvent, if needed.

It works on my Safari 15.5 ... have to continue explore a bit more. Way back in December 1999 I was in Arlington for a conference and took the opportunity to visit a naval museum in the region. It seems that one was not allowed to take pictures. Otherwise there would be a record in my photographic diary (meticulously kept since 1972 ...). I have no other record of the museum, but my memory. However, I do not remember, which museum it was. It was accessible by public transport from Arlington, so much I remember. Anyone any idea?

Ahh, you should have popped into Gilberto Penzo's shop: http://www.veniceboats.com/ Some years ago, he published a book about the vaporetti: PENZO, G., Bocchin, A. (2004): Vaporetti - un secolo di trasporto pubblico nella laguna di Venezia.- 255 p., Venezia (Il Leggio Libreria Editrice). I do not own the book (not 'my' time), so I don't know, whether it contains plans. I did not find them quickly on his Web-site, but he used to offer plans separately on his site. Penzo also offers a laser-cut kit: http://www.veniceboats.com/Kit-vaporetto.htm

Valeriy, are the parts for the block hand-cut/-filed or photo-etched? The blocks look very good indeed. Judging by the matchstick, they must be about 3 mm long? I commend you for your perseverance in those dire circumstance! Keep fingers crossed!

Looks convicingly rubbery ...

To be honest, I don't like balsa too much, because it has a very directional grain and does not cut as well in small pieces. I have done some 30+ years ago a POB hull with bulheads in 0.25 mm brass, filled in with that stuff, which worked very well, because obviously the brass is so much more resistant to sanding than the Rohacell foam. The hull was some 35 cm long, so much easier to work with than a hull that is only just under 5 cm long. I did this at the time, because I wanted to have bulwark stanchion of the right thickness at the right position, which always a bit of a challenge on a flush-decked ship. The bulwark and other plating was made from 0.1 mm copper sheet to be able to simulate the rivetting. Yes, using slightly wider planks gave me more leeway to arrange the planking more uniformly. I see gig 2.0 coming up ...

Thanks, Pat! On with The Cutters As noted above, I will be following a somewhat different construction for the cutters. I will not create a rabbet by gluing doublings onto the keel-piece, but will attach the outer stem and keel, once the planking is complete. Hopefully, this will allow a cleaner run of the planks into the stem. Also, all the planks will be cut with a straight line on one edge. Template for laser-cutting the keel-pieces and the stem-keel-combinations I also decided to fill in the space between the bulkheads to avoid the (minor) cave-in that occurred in some places of the gig. The material should be softer than the bulkheads and I choose a hard foam going by the name Rohacell, which is essentially foamed-up Plexiglas and of which I have still many off-cuts from a project some 35 years ago. Three strakes on However, nearly half-way now through the planking I have my doubts, whether there were any advantages in doing that. It turned out to be difficult to sand down the foam (which in itself sands very well with diamond abrasives or just sanding paper) to the bulkheads without damaging them and therefore alter the shape. If the infill actually is low, it become actually counterproductive, as the planks will follow this shape, rather than +/- the tangent between the bulkheads. Three strakes on The bow-section is not so easy to get right, as it is quite full and there is a tendency for the planking to rise too high, when it comes off the bottom with little dead-rise. Again, I did not mark out the division of the strakes, but eye-balled it. It would be quite difficult to do with sufficient precision at this size. Not sure how it will turn out. Planking half-way up To be continued ....

I don't have a Dremel, but a 45+ years old primitive hand-held drill, the steel collets of which are of really good quality (like the PROXXON ones). It is used frequently for all sorts of grinding and polishing operations, less on wood, but more on metal. I am running it of a transformer with variable output and most importantly off a foot-switch (as all my power-tools), which gives you control without having to move the position of your hand on the tool. I also have one of those early PROXXON pen-size engraving tool, but I found the motor too weak, particularly when you reduce the speed to less dangerous (for the work-piece) values. My wife gave me for Christmas a cord-less (no-name) glass-engraving tool. While I like the idea of a cord-less machine as such, its speed-range is far too high and strangely enough you are at the highest speed setting, when you turn it on. Being cord-less it also cannot be controlled via a foot-switch of course - a sort of Bluetooth foot-switch would be a good idea actually. I keep quiet about it to my wife in order to not disappoint her, but I rarely use it. I gather she thought I could do some glass engraving, but that's not really my vocation. And I use these drills rarely for drilling ...

I cannot comment on its real usefulness, but I think it is still made. I saw it being offered on a Web-site not that long ago.

... that is my hope, but I started today the cutters, let's see how that goes.

BTW, in both, the Austrian-Hungarian and the German Imperial Navy, some boats carried a couple of large forks, looking like row-locks, with a stem long enough to clear the oars, in which the masts and sails were stowed, when not in use and being rowed.

It is always dangerous to back-extrapolate in time, but since at least the middle of the 19th century several navies published boat-handling instructions. I have, for instance, the copy of such a book for the Austro-Hungarian Navy of 1894. According to the above book, the boats were lowered with all the gear stowed in place. At this time it was not common anymore, to store boats in each other and most of the gear was kept inside the boats, when they were onboard. The larger boats were permanently kitted out with sails, water-barrels, bread-box, compass etc. The smaller boats were kitted out only for the intended operation. Basically the whole rig was stowed assembled and when needed the mast were stepped with all the gear attached. It was forbidden to go up in the masts, for any work on them they had to be lowered. Bowsprits were not used anymore at that time, so the whole rigging was inside the boat.

Done that too, but I think we made it only down to Mustique, if I remember correctly.

Thanks, gentlemen! Keith, the boat is 52 mm (2") long with an 11 mm (just under 1/2") beam. ************************************************************************ Painting the Gig The boat was given a few thin coats of white acrylics (Vallejo) all over with the airbrush - the results of which was quite sobering: all the imperfections that were not quite visible in the ‘raw’ state now began to stick out. The jagged edges from the laser cutting that seemed to disappear under the varnish are no rather visible. Also, using toilet-paper as the basis for the boat-cover was not a good choice. I used it in military-modelling in my youth to simulate tarpaulins, but perhaps then my standards were lower. I choose it, because I wanted something that looks limp and more casually draped, as can be seen on many photographs of the time. However, it turned out to be fuzzy on the surface and the edges in spite of being soaked in sanding filler. On the next boats I will try some Japanese silk-paper that I bought some time ago. I hope when it is wetted it will drape well. The completed gig on an ordinary port-wine cork I then brush-painted the boat-cover in thick white acrylic with tiny drop of Vallejo 71.288 (Portland Stone) mixed to it. This gives a very light off-white colour. I don’t actually know, whether these boat covers were oiled or painted canvass. According to the painting regulations for boats, the top two strakes where to be painted black. Due to the cover not much of them is visible, but I managed to tatter on a bit of black here in there. The completed gig on an ordinary port-wine cork I will now turn my attention to the other boats, considering the experience with this one. If they turn out better, I might try a gig 2.0. To be continued ....

Kevin, using black acrylics to fill the seams did not work for me. They are just drying too fast to be wiped off easily. I know that some people used oils for the purpose, but that makes it difficult for the following acrylic washes and the final varnish, as the oils are water repellent. I would rather use some black ink. If you have one of those old-style drafting pens, where you can adjust the line-widths, this might be useful for applying the ink. From the gloss varnish it should wipe off quite well, but may still leave a bit of 'haze' - I found that this doesn't do any harm. It would depend on the pride the master takes in his ship, but clippers in general were well-maintained (the premium freight rates paid for this) and so the decks may have been holy-stoned from time to time, navy fashion. I think I would go for a very light yellowish-reddish tint.

Going around at night in a dinghy, one can also have strange encounters: we were motoring back out to the boat in a moon-lit night in the usual condition of constrained perception, when suddenly there was a big splash. We first thought that we hit something, but when we switched on the torch, we saw a baby barracuda flapping on the floor of the dinghy. It had jumped out of the water and landed in the dinghy.

You need to work with very dilute washes, to the point that you barely see any paint on the brush, and to apply this to planks selectively to get a random pattern, but not too different. Opt rather for lighter shades. In my case I assumed the deck was teak, but you would have to check, whether CUTTY SARK's decks were teak or pine, I don't remember. Compare also photographs before and after the fire. And yes, a wash with burnt umber or other dark brown can bring out nicely the surface texture, but you don't necessarily want this on a well-maintained clipper-deck. At the very end I sealed everything with gloss(!) varnish and redrew the engraved plank seams with a 0.1 mm thick permanent marker. One could also use a pen and ink, I suppose. I wiped off any excess immediately, so that only the engraved lines were filled with ink - that's the reason for the gloss varnish, then the ink does not get into the surface roughness of the acrylic paint. Finally, I spayed the deck again with flat varnish and applied a very dilute white/off-white wash to tie everything visually together. The very last step was to spray on some flat varnish - such decks are basically flat and not satin. Quite a bit of work, but I think it pays off.

Reminds me of our trips to the Carribean, e.g. the BVI and USVI. Took the dinghy to on-shore bars and restaurants and after some drinks (the bartenders took a 1 pint plastic beaker and went up and down the shelves until it was 3/4 full - the rest was topped up with orange juice - a concoction called 'Force 12') we had to find our anchored boat in the dark. They all look the same, the hired boats. Eventually, we tied some towels to the rail, to look a bit more distinct ...

Kevin, why do you want to get surface texture on a wooden deck? At 1:96 scale plastic models one usually has to work hard to get rid of the misguided 'wood' texture molded in. Wooden decks are normally kept very smooth. The example below is in 1:160 scale, the bakelite-paper deck was lightly engraved with the plank seams and thent he wood character was achieved by giving each plank a slightly different colour, imitating the natural variability of wood. The piece was given a base-coat of Vallejo Model Air 71075 ‘sand (ivory)’ using the airbrush. In a next step single planks were randomly given a light wash with Prince August 834 ‘natural wood transparent’ or Vallejo Model Air 71023 ‘hemp’ (which turned out to be a bit too dark actually). In a next step randomly selected planks, particularly those ‘hemp’ ones were given a very light wash with Vallejo Model Air 71288 ‘Portland stone’. Another very light wash with Vallejo Model Air 71041 ‘armour brown’, toned down with yet another very light wash using Vallejo Model Air 71132 ‘aged white’, pulled everything together.

Thank you, I keep trying ... ******************************** Work on the Gig continued The planking progressed reasonably well, but I actually needed to more strakes per side to be able to go up to the sheer-line. Not good for strake counters … I attribute this to the wider overlap needed than expected. This was particularly the case, where there is a significant angle between planks, e.g. at the turn of the bilge. For the other boats, I will have to cut the planks a bit wider. Planking completed A few conclusions from this exercise for the other boats: - Cut the planks tapered only on one side, as they can edge-bend, when soaked in varnish - Cut the planks for 30 to 40% overlap not 20% as done in this example; this gives more flexibility to adjust the planks - Do not try to imitate full-scale practice by running the planks into a rabbet on the stem, rather attach the outer stem and keel-piece after the planking is complete and has been trimmed down to the rabbet line. Planking completed The planking now was cleaned up and the excess at the transom trimmed back. I tried to sand the jaggy edges a bit, but that did not work very well on the paper. However, in the varnished state it is not very visible. One has to see, when it is painted. The hull was lightly rubbed down with fine steel wool to smooth the surface. Then some spots, where touched up with some putty. Rubbing strake from 0.2 mm copper-wire installed According to the prototype cross-section, there was a rubbing strake added to the top-strake. It was ‘faked’ by attaching a 0.2. copper-wire below the last strake. Now the boat was ready to be cut from the base. The bulkheads were cut down and the keel-piece trimmed to a line that would be followed by the tarpaulin cover. There is a hoisting chain fore and aft to which the falls of the boat-davits will be hooked, As only the rop ring will be protruding from the boat-cover, this chain was simulated by a drilled together piece of tinned 0.2 mm coper-wire. It was hooked into a bulkhead and glued down with varnish. Boat cut free from the building base Most modellers seem to show the boats open, but most historical photographs show them covered. The design of the cover seems to vary a bit and I could not find information about this. Some photographs show the cover going down over half of the sides of the boat, with ropes apparently zig-zagging down to the keel and back up on the other side. Others seem to show a line going through a hollow seam to pull it tight around the boat. I opted for the latter to show more of the planking and the (later) paintwork. Gig with simulated cover I was debating with myself, whether I should first paint the hull and then add the cover, or the other way around. I opted for the second, as messing around with varnish, could damage the paintwork, even though it made it more difficult to hold the boat during (spray-)painting. Basis for the cover was a piece of ironed-flat toilet-paper that was draped over the hull and then soaked in varnish resp. sanding filler. It was smoothed down over the edges and down to the rubbing strake. Once dry the paper was cut back to the rubbing-strake with a new scalpel-blade. Underside of the gig showing planking I almost forgot the rudder, that seems to have been kept shipped, when the boats were suspended in the davits. It was drawn on the basis of BRIX (1883) and laser-cut to be laminated from two layers. The pintels turned out to be far too small to reproduced, but the respective bands were simulated by flattened, tinned copper-wire. Gig with rudder shipped The gig is now ready to be painted. To be continued ....

While I was talking ... one member there made me aware of this offer: https://timesavers.com/search.html?q=drills&go=Search Not sure whether and at what price they would deliver to Australia.

Pat, I posted an enquiry a week ago or so on a watchmaking forum about sources for spade-drill 'down-under', but unfortunaly no useful replies came forward. Sorry. Probably, that forum has mainly members from the USA and Europe.

Do you really want to spoil your model with sewn sails ? I would think twice about this, because they never look right. I would rather go for something like silk-span (Japanseide), glue and paint. There are various examples for such sails her on the forum. They look much more to scale.

Not 'my' time and my preferred aesthetics, but very impressive rendering 👏

Thanks, gentlemen ! Phil, this is exactly what I am going to do for the other boats. The original idea was to curve both sides, because I was not sure how well the 'planks' would bend across the wide side. However, once soaked in varnish, they can coerced into shape quite nicely without buckling. This is a learning process. Some 25 years ago I built a small clinker-dinghy in 1:60 scale like this over a wooden former with thin bent frames and planks from bakelite paper. I had the benefit of a plank layout, as I used the paper-model in Eric McKee's brochure on clinker-building as a basis. The bakelite paper can be sanded over the edges and feathered out for the plank above with a engraving chisel. That worked very well.