wefalck

Too bad, but at least the thumb is still there 😇 ... I gather, we are patient until your thumb mends.

In the fabric trade there are also so-called thread-counting loupes that are grated for measuring or measuring-loupes with grate in fractions of millimetres. I don't have one, but know that some colleagues use them successfully.

On the other hand, modern authors have to draw on either printed sources of the time or on archival material. Over the last few years many, if not most, of the printed sources have become available as digital copies through national libraries. Unfortunately, for most of the works that were digitised on behalf of Google they did not bother to unfold the plates/tables and, therefore, such copies are often pretty much wasted effort. The BnF usually does a good job in digitising their works. The main value of modern works is having evaluated archival material (if really done), as this typically (still) is not accessible remotely. Archival work is time-consuming and costly, when involving travel. Otherwise, if the research was done properly, the reference list may be the most valuable part in modern works - useful to give indications where to look further.

It is indeed all about the capacity to transfer heat relative to the amount of metal that needs to be heated. The rule is to heat the metal and not the solder, but on the other hand, a drop of solder transfers heat much better than the tip of the iron alone, because the touching surface is bigger. In fact, when looking at how electronics guys solder, they don't grill their wires and components, but just touch the pre-tinned joints for second with the iron with a tiny blob of solder. Chemically pre-tinning is also a good preparation for soldering and does not add real thickness. I have systematically pre-tinned my (home-)etched parts before soldering.

What do you mean by 'making your thinner'? Normally, thinners are a simple chemicals, such as (distilled) water, alcohol, acetone or white spirit. OK, you could do a bit of moon-shining and make your own alcohol or distill some water, but the others you cannot make at home

From my literature list for the 19th century. Most of the pre-1900 works are available as digital copies e.g. from the Bibliotheque Nationale: Busquets i Vilanova, C. (2013): El cañon naval pesado. Medio siglo de poder naval.- 247 p., Madrid (Edita Real del Catorce Editores). Cavalli, J. (1849): Memoire sur les canons se chargeant par la culasse sur les canons rayes.- 88 p., Atlas (missing), Paris (J. Corréard). Carrasco, A. (1887): Memorial de Artilleria de Bronze.- Madrid. Carrasco, A. (1889): Memorial de Artilleria de Hiero. CORNULIER, E. DE (1841): Memoires sur le pointage des mortiers a la mer et sur les améliorations de système des hausses de marine.- 238 p., 3 pl., Paris (Correard). CRONEAU, A. (ca. 1893): Canons, torpilles et cuirasses. Leur installation a bord des batiments de combat.- Encyclopedie scientifique des aide-memoires, section de l'Ingénieur: 202 p., Paris (Gauthier-Villars & Masson). DELAUNEY, J.F., GUITTARD, A.C.A.J. (1889): Historique de l'artillerie de la marine 1692-1889.- 328 p., Paris (D. Dumoulin). DELESSAEY, A. (1890): Cours speciale le matériel de côte, à l'usage des cadres de l'artillerie de la marine.- 274 p., Paris (Imprimerie Nationale). GADAUD, L. (1869): L'artillerie de la marine française en 1868.- 157 p., ? pl., Paris (Arthus Bertrand). GADAUD, L. (1872): L'artillerie de la marine française en 1872.- 160 p., 90 figs., 2 pl., Paris (Arthus Bertrand). HENNEBERT, E. (1887): L’Artillerie.- Bibliothéque des Merveilles: 329 p., Paris (Librairie Hachette et Cie.). JAMOIS, T. (2011): Indret, manufacture de canons pour la Marine (1777-1827).- 119 p., Paris (Centre DCNS de Nantes-Indret). LAFAY, J. (1850): Aide-memoire d'artillerie navale.- 721 p., 50 pl., Paris (J. Corréard). LEDIEU, A., CADIAT, E. (1889): Le nouveau materiel naval.- Tome premier: balistique, agentes explosifes, canons et mitrailleuses, hydraulique de manoeuvre pour l’artillerie, fusils, électricité en marine, piles, accumulateurs, dynamo et magnétos, lumière et éclairage èlectriques, torpilles.- 762 p., Paris (Vve Ch. Dunod éditeur). LEDIEU, A., CADIAT, E. (1889-1890): Atlas du nouveau materiel naval.- 2 vols, 4 p. + XXXIV pl., 4 p. + XVII pl., Paris (Vve Ch. Dunod éditeur). E Lewal, M.L. (1863?): Traite pratique d'artillerie navale et tactique des combats de mer. Tome Deuxieme. Guide pour l’instruction des batteries des vaisseaux. Pointage et chargement, manoeuvres, exercices et tirs des batteries des gaillards des vaisseaux. Instruction d'une deuxième batterie. Instruction d'une première batterie armée de canons rayés. Manoeuvres des pièces d'embarcations et des batteries de canons rayés employées à terre. manoeuvres de force à bord et à terre. Données d'expérience sur la manoeuvre et le tir des bouches à feu marines.- 400 p., 1 pl., Paris (Arthus Bertrand, éditeur). E Lewal, M.L. (1863?): Traite pratique d'artillerie navale et tactique des combats de mer. Tome Premier. Recherches et donnees d'experiences sur installation, le pointage et le tir des bouches à feu marines. Sabords. Champ de tir. Appareil de pointage. Écouvillons. Gargousses. Inflamations accidentelles. Culots et crasses. Dégradation des lumières. Valets. Étoupilles à friction. Installation des vaisseaux anglais. Données d’experience sur le tir. Mesure des distances. Déviations dues à la vitesse. Passages des poudres et projectiles.- 484 p., 6 pl., Paris (Arthus Bertrand, éditeur). NICOL, E. (1894): Traité d'artillerie à l'usage des officiers de marine.- Bibliothèque du Marin: 349 p., Paris/Nancy (Berger-Levraulet et. Cie.). PAIXHANS, H.-J.. (1822): Nouvelle force maritime et application de cette force à quelques parties du service de l'armée de terre.- 458 p., 7 pl., Paris (Bachelier). VERDIER, M. (1837): Nouveau manuel complet de la marine. Seconde Partie. Manoeuvres du Navire et de l’Artillerie.- 288 p., Paris (Librairie Enciclopédique de Roret). VIGO, J. (1947): Historia de la artilleria Española.- 3 vols.: Madrid. I have also some official works on the French naval artillery covering roughly the period 1864 to 1890 with very detailed drawings, but I gather you be more interested in the time up to the 1850s? Lafay would then be the authoritative source for the period 1830 to 1850 and the book is free to download.

Where are you going to put the ship on the stocks? This scenic setting is coming on very nicely 👍

How did you the dividing lines between the colours, free-hand or with more masking?

Keeping all that brass bright, will be quite a bit of work

Ahh, that's not a 'primer' in the technical sense. In art it would be called under-paint and was indeed used by the Old Masters, say green under areas of skin to provide depth. Now I understand your point. I also use 'under-paints' or base-coats, when a model is made up of different materials to have a common starting point for the actual paint, if it is with a pigment that may not be covering very well, say red for example.

Yes, acrylic primers may not adhere very well to 'non-polar' surfaces, such as metals or most plastics (with the exception of acrylics/Plexiglas/Perspex). Solvent-base primers do better here. We have over in Europe also pure acrylic-solutions, without anything added, that are supposed to be good primers for metals. I rarely prime, as it is not really needed for static models, so I don't know, wether is any advantage in those pure acrylic solutions.

But the primer is the thing that normally provides the 'grip'. I don't understand why you want a 'sealer' and a 'primer'. If you use the acrylics as a primer, you can go on painting on these straightaway.

Learned that in my teens

Have to try that - have both Tamiya masking tape and a selection of soldering irons of various sizes and a small (reflow) heat gun for no-touch soldering.

Why would you apply an acrylic 'sealant' on metal - sealing metal against what ? Normally, metal primers are there to increase the adhesion of paint to metal surfaces, for instance by slightly etching them. I can understand the use of a primer on certain plastics, if you want to continue with organic solvent-based paints, but acrylic 'sealants' are probably based on a polar solvent, such as water, which do not show very good adhesion to non-polar surfaces that most plastics have. So what are the advantages of using acrylic 'sealants' on plastics?

What masking tape are you using? In the past I tried painters' masking tape but the glue on it melts and leaves some residues that are not so easy to remove.

Wasn't meant to be a challenge, just an observation from various paintings. While in a way counter-intuitive because of the top-weight during the launching, it was probably easier to step the masts early on: you don't have to lift them that high and there fewer things to damage in the process. To lift the masts into the cabins requires some pretty tall sheerlegs as well.

Well, what praise can one still add ... 😲

One should dive into the files of the military archive of the state archive in order to see, whether any reports of the commanding officers have survived. My understanding is that the commanders had to send report to Berlin after each commission (the boats were not kept permanently in commission). Such reports still exist for instance for the Prussian gunboats of the early 1860s. With the twin-screws the boats may have been able to wiggle themselves out of the mud.

In my case, I would only be able to post stamp-sized pictures

I think the original idea was to reduce the turning circle following an attack. Torpedoboats and destroyers would approach their target at high speed, fire their torpedos and then turn away quickly to get out of the range of the artillery of their targets. The long narrow hulls would make torpedoboat very slow turners.

Thanks, Keith .... Well, while it would have been possible to fire gun something like 30° to either side, training the gun was not a very fast and precise. In fact, there were a number of men cranking away under the barbette, while the gun-captain could engage through some sort of reversing gear the lower carriage with this cranking sytem. In this way he could train the gun left or right with the help of a lever. However, I think the normal tactics would have been to keep the gun steady and then approach the target in a shallow arc - when the target went through the sights, the gun was fired. This would have been also the tactics for the Rendell-gunboats of the RN. In addition, the WESPE-Class was twin-screwed with two independent engines, so using the engine-room telegraphs, the boat could also be turned slowly by going forward with one engine and backward with the other, again waiting for the target passing through the sights, rather than training the whole ship onto the target. I think the reason, why Middendorf (who later went on to design the five-mast ship PREUSSEN) opted for the central pivot carriage was, that another tactical concept was to allow the ship to fall dry on the tidal flats of the German Wadden Sea and be used as a sort of detached fort, keeping the enemy out of range from the coastal towns and fortifications.

What kind of 'stainless' steel then and what kind of blacking?

One can blacken carbon steel, that's what gun-smiths and toolmakers do all the time, but per definition, you cannot blacken stainless steel (blackening after all is a metal 'stain').

Some 43 years ago I published and article (in German, sorry) inter alia on this subject: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/tips/FALCK-SM-5-80.pdf. I cut out the sail from the silkspan (in this case the fabric) with a 2 cm margin or so and suspended it from four pins over a board. Then the paint was put on with caution. The process was repeated from the other side, once the paint was dry. Today, I am actually building up the sails from individual panels that are stuck together with varnish. It's easy to avoid any creases that you cannot iron out.