wefalck

I actually thought that our discussion ran around hardening the surface. However, what you are effectively showing here is the creation of balsa reinforced epoxy resin, i.e. a composite material. I am not surprised that the epoxied version is much stiffer.

Thanks for your appreciation ☺️ It may be worthwhile to paint the outside of the 'thin wooden edge' in the colour of the deck/waterway to simulate the angle iron that almost certainly would have run around the wooden deck - otherwise it would be rather exposed to splintering. The bollards would have been cast in one piece probably. It seems that the cast iron base often was put onto a wooden base and the whole assembly then was screwed down onto the deck. The screws probably would have gone through some structural element or at least there would have been a reinforcing plate on the underside of the deck. I have seen both variants, that bollards were screwed onto the steel waterways or onto the wooden deck (still having the wooden base-plate). If the bollards sat inside a bulwark and the waterways were cemented to form a gutter, the bollards most likely sat on the wooden deck, as the strain on the bollards would have cracked the cement, leading to water penetration and corrosion.

As this is probably going to be a decorative model, you are surely on the right track! It's only good to be conscientious of the artistic licenses one takes.

Looking at this, I was wondering, if one could make sort of 'snap-on' semi-functional ones, by designing one half with shallow dimples and the other with cone-shape protrusions - the two halves then could be fit together cautiously starting from one end - very much like a zipper ...

Sorry, missed that 🤭

It seems one reason that North American bison was eradicated was, that they were shot by the thousands and just the tongue cut out and the rest of the carcasse left rotting and to the wolfes ...

Ox tongue is a common cut in Germany. It is usually salted and eaten e.g. with Sauerkraut. We also have a particular sausage made with it. In Canada I had grilled bison-tongue - very tender and lean. The quality of the food for all crew degraded the longer a voyage lasted, as quite soon all the fresh stores exhausted and they had to rely on preserved stores. Not a lot of other options for food preservation apart from salting or drying ...

Today, I attended an all-day seminar on 'exchange in experience in restoration' organised by the Musée de la Marine, the Musée des Arts et Metiers, and the French Air and Space Museum near Le Bourget (the old Parisian airport), where the naval museum has its workshops, archives and storage facilities. I was surprised to learn that they use dual finishes on woods and metals: first a varnish and then a wax. Microcristalline wax (e.g. the brand 'Renaissance Wax') seems to be their universal weapon. The varnish seals the wood, prevents the metals from tarnishing, and the wax is a sort of humidity repellent.

The original question was 'why are they square', I believe, but nobody seems to have answered that yet: for the simple mechanical reason that the caps and cross-trees do not turn around the tops, when the standing rigging of upper masts is set.

At this time typically two options were used for planking steel decks with wood: either a gutter was formed with angle iron or a wooden water-way was screwed down along the circumference of the deck. Sometimes both methods were used and the deck planks nibbed into the wooden water-way. On flush decks, such as fore and aft on your ship, probably an angle iron would have been screwed down all along the circumference to protect the edges of the planks. The stanchions etc. then would be set into the wooden deck. Where a proper gutter was formed with two angle-irons, the space between them would have been filled with cement to form a rounded gutter and protect the corners of the angle-irons from rusting. The bulwark stanchions then might be either rivetted to the steel deck directly or through the wooden deck, depending on the width of the gutter. Coming on nicely, the project !

Actually, neither of them would have been 'tree-nailed' on the prototype. On the real thing, the planks would have been screwed down with sunk screws and the borehole would be plugged to make it as invisible as possible. The plugs were not tarred, but perhaps covered in some marine glue before driven in. The plugs were cut from the same materials as the planks and with the same grain direction. In this way the deck could be planed absolutely flush before varnishing it. I am watching this nice progress with interest !

Overhead trolleys were used extensively also on board of ships to move around ash-buckets, coal-buckets, and amunition. I liked your work on these overhead trolley-ways !

For a sanding sealer I use a German brand, Clou Schnellschleifgrundierung G1 (https://www.clou-shop.eu/clou-heimwerker/holzlacke/g1-schnellschleif-grundierung.html), but I don't think it is marketed outside the country, so this information might not be very helpful. For acrylics I mainly use Vallejo model color, Vallejo model air (for spray-painting), and again a German brand: Schmincke Aerocolor.

Today, genuine turpentine, the one sapped from certain species of pine trees is considered cancerogenic and rarely used anymore by painters etc. The production process is very labour-intensive and it is therefore expensive. Southwestern France was the major producer in Europe, I think. I am not a biochemist or microbiologist, so I may not be entirely correct here, but I think many of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contained in trees have antimicrobial effects, they are a sort of self-defence o the trees against microbial attacks. People have recognised this a long time ago and the tars were used to dress wounds, particularly also burns. Tar-based ointments were/are also used against microbially caused skin conditions, but I am not sure whether this is pine- or coal-tar, or perhaps both.

My point was that anything is possible, but not everything is efficient ... Personally, I use a nitrocellulose-based sanding sealer and then acrylics.

Agree with Roger, don't try to bend it, it is far too thick for its length. Even with heat treatment, there is a risk to rather break it. It is correct, that brass behaves the opposite from steel: heating it and then quickly cool it, will soften it. I am not an expert on the period in question, but the 'tail' looks far too chunky to me ...

Oxhide ropes were used well into the 19th century, particularly in applications when low-stretch ropes are required. Did read part of the Odyssey at school in the original language

A few basic rules and understanding what you are actually doing and why helps to sort the confusion - there are many roads that lead into Rome Just slapping on something, because it was written so in this or that thread is not likely to lead to Rome though ... Assuming that we are talking about 'painted' wood only: In principle you can put any paint on the raw (sanded) wood, but the wood will drink a lot of paint. Also, many paints take a long time to sufficiently dry/cure to let you sand them nicely - and you will need a lot of coats of paint with a lot of sanding in between. The purpose of 'sanding sealer' is to close the pores quickly with something that dries fast and hard, thus allowing you to sand the wood nicely after one or max. two coats. To this end the sanding sealer is 'filled' with something such as pumice powder. Without the filling the sealer would be essentially a varnish. After sanding the filler is essentially invisible, except perhaps on very dark woods. A primer is something completely different and wood is not normally 'primed'. Primers are formulated to somehow interact with the surface they are painted on in order increase the adhesion of the paint used. Thus metal primers undergo some sort of physico-chemical interaction with the bare metal surface that makes them adhere very well. In turn the primer provides the paint sufficient 'key' to attach well. Plastic primers may slightly dissolve the surface and in this way stick to it very well. Again the primer provides sufficient key for the paint to stick well. Personally, I am not using any primers, as I do build only static models that are not handled afterwards. Acrylics applied with an airbrush hold onto most surfaces well enough, when applied in several thin coats. In this sense I often apply the base-coat by airbrush and then continue with a brush, depending on the circumstances. The thin base-coat provide enough key for paint-brushing.

ox-hide ?

Yes, don't use the fibre-glass brush, it will badly scratch the copper. The plating can be polished using 0000 grade steel-wool. Acetone is a better degreasant than alcohol and also removes CA glue - but use it sparingly, as acetone penetrating the joints could loosen the bond between the hull and the copper. Also do not use CA to stick the copper to the hull - CA is brittle and the bond can break, when there is a temperature change. Perhaps not now, but in a few years time. It is better to use a contact cement. Not sure, what Renaissance Wax really is, but if it is a wax, it may be very difficult to remove, if you are not happy with the result.

BTW, Stockholm didn't actually control the trade in pine-tar. It was produced all over the eastern Baltic area and indeed in many parts of Europe, where there are pine-forrests - some days ago I posted on the forum a film that discusses how the Spanish ensured their domestic supply in the 18th and 19th century. The tar or pitch was not only used in a shipping context, but for a variety of other purposes, including medicinal ones. Stockholm exercerted a certain early type of quality control over the tar shipped from there by inspecting the quality and branding the barrels in which it was shipped - sort of 'Made in ...'. The tried to fetch higher prices through quality assurance and develop a sort of quality monopoly. However, pine-tar was successively replaced from around the 1840s on by coal-tar that became available in large quantities as city gas for lighting was installed. Coal-tar behave differently and usually is also darker.

I think you have two contradictory requirements there: either you (properly) varnish the copper and it will stay bright for many years, or you don't varnish and it will tarnish to a dull reddish-brown, if not touched. The traditional varnish for metal objects (silver, brass, copper, etc.), including those handled, is what is called zapon-varnish: http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Zapon_lacquer. I have model parts varnished more than three decades ago with it and they are still as bright as on the first day.

I gather we have a couple of archaeologists here on the forum, I think they should provide their view on the subject of interpretation of such finds ...

When rigging, I put a dish with some Lapsang Souchon or a similar smoked tea onto my desk in order to get into the mood 😊

Roger, I am familiar with the concept, but it would not work here, because in order to use it this way, you would need to stand right behind it, which is not really feasible in this case, because the boiler-room casing would be in the way.