wefalck

In my understanding a 'knot' is within a rope or between two rope ends, while a 'hitch' is a 'knot' used to secure a rope to an object.

In German we make similar distinctions. 

Yes, I took those for granted ...

I am actually sometimes wondering, whether kits do not make the task of building too daunting.

If well designed, everything should fall into its place, but you really have to be able to follow the ideas of the designers in addition to understand the ship itself. That's a double task.

How is this supposed to work ?

Whatever the intended way of use, I cannot see it being used 'on board' of a model, where you would often need to reach deep between different other parts of the rigging.

BTW, the amount of knot-making on a model is often overestimated. There are very few places where 'knots' actually are needed (attaching sheets to sails comes to my mind, for instance). In most cases eye-splices, seizings or lashings are used (which may be indeed finished off in a knot). Belaying is a form of knot-making, but not really.

There are also triangular scrapers with the 2.34 mm shank of the standard burrs, which can be conveniently held in a pin-vise.

Long before I learned about all the fancy jeweller's and engraver's tools, I bought a couple of cheap, about 2" long screwdrivers and ground their ends into chisels/scrapers for cleaning out soldered corners.

It is not clear what happened during the War, who actually was responsible for the museum going up in flames. What remained are some metal and stone artefacts. These are displayed in the reconstructed museum building together with models of the ships.

Unfortunately, the museum was closed during the winter 1991/92, when I lived in Rome, so I did not have an opportunity to visit it. Being out of town, it is difficult to reach without car.

Also some looting occurred during the War and a piece of the marble flooring of one of the boats has been found in NYC set up as a coffee-table: 

It's in an way quite amazing what notoriety the guy achieved in less than five years of reign. He didn't make it to his thirties ...

Interesting, I have never come across such wear-stripes on a gaff. How are the sails attached to the gaffs then, with hoops ?

When I see these 'outbuildings', I wonder, whether they employed shipwrights or country-side carpenters ... 🤔

Yes, in many harbours they have an area set aside for this purpose. Two beacons are set up to align with true North. The ships can turn in a full 360° circle in this area while taking simultaneously compass readings and observing the beacons. On this basis a deviation table for the ship with its current load will be established. There is also specific flag signal for ships undergoing this procedure to give the right of way.

Whether right or wrong - nice piece of miniature shipwright's work 👍

In these years, before compass compensation arrangements were introduced in the 1880s, it was common practice to put one or more binnacle onto a high pedestal.

I wonder, where they put the binnacle after the aft observation bridge was constructed. This metal structure certainly would have not been helpful for reliable compass readings. Many ships of that period would have had also an emergency steering wheel somewhere there, above the tiller.

I didn't go through my pictures of the SOLFERINO, but wondered where the main steering position was. The main command position moved forward, close to the engine, when ships were expected to engange in battle mainly under steam. It became important to effectively control the engine. Some ships had the steering position inside the conning tower. However, the relatively large mass of iron, would have made compass readings rather unreliable. Not sure how they handled that problem in the times before compensation for declination and inclination.

As a weapon they were used at least since the Middle Age. There were meant to poke between armour plates and to pull knights off their horses. So, I would assume that their civilian use has been around also for a long time.

I love those little details. Laudable ambition !

I would have thought that the seawater tank would serve the toilets, the freshwater would only be used as drinking and cooking water.

What pumps would have supplied the stand-pipe ?

On 1/14/2022 at 1:48 AM, knightyo said:

I learned the hard way to have a healthy respect for non-powered tools as well.  Back in 2008 I lost my grip on a piece I was carving, and within milliseconds, cut the tip off of my middle finger.  The tip grew back, but feels very strange to this day whenever it makes contact with anything.

 

Alan

When cutting something with a knife, a chisel, or something like that, while holding the piece in my hand, I always visualise first the possible trajectory of the tool, should it slip ... it may then not always the most convenient and strongest holding position, but the blade certainly will not end up in some valued body part 

The relative resistance of your two hands, the material, and the blade may not be easy to judge. Also the trajectory of the blade in the material may be controlled by a varying strength of the wood (man-made materials normally have a homogeneous distribution of strength).

Love those old trams, but find these kits rather large - creating display space problems ...

As to cutting the clear plastic-sheet: I don't know what material was supplied, but one can get on certain materials cleaner cuts by scoring it with a scalpel and then breaking it off over a sharp edge, e.g. a steel-ruler at the table edge. For small adjustments I use diamond nail-files. They are cheap, have two grades of diamonds, and can be easily obtained in various sizes.

Are you painting the acrylics onto the unprepared wood ? You will get a smoother surface by applying one or two coats of sanding filler first and then rubbing it lightly down with fine sandpaper. This prevents the wood from swelling, when the acrylics are applied.

Looking forward to further steps ...

Ahh, a monoposto - from a time, when racing cars sounded like racing cars and not like sick and excited VW Beetles ...

These boats had indeed a very lofty rig. There is not a loft of wind here in the Paris region and in addition the Bassin d'Argenteuil is surrounded by high trees (e.g. poplars as can be seen on many of the Impressionists' paintings). Plus, the main westerly wind direction is blanketed by the range of wills to the South and West of the river. I gather that these hills also make the winds blowing downwards with eddies forming in the valley. The Northern side is mostly flat, but the Seine has cut into the old flood-plain a few metres. Overall not a good sailing range, but it was easily accessible from Paris.

While in later years 'real' yachts with quite deep keel were sailed on the Bassin, a boat with a drop-keel and 'live' ballast is more appropriate for a river, such as the Seine. This limits how high you can make the rig in order to not create a too big fulcrum - although a high rig might catch more wind in the valley. I gather that is is why they extended the length of the rig, in order to be able to set more sail. During races these boats needed quite a bit of live ballast. I seem to remember seeing photographs that showed four people on board, but I don't remember, whether sandbags were still used on the Clippers.

Nice 'iron'-work on the bowsprit, btw 👍

I have not done any military modelling since my early 20s back in the mid-1970s, but I do recognise and appreciate a good paint-job 👍  Techniques have come a long way since, when 'dry-brushing' was all the rage among modellers.

I always wondered, whether all these speciality products are really worth the money ?  In many cases they just seem to be diluted paints or specially packaged and labelled pastels. 

I didn't have the time to sit through the videos - how did you the excellent wood effect, what paints (I don't mean brands) did you use for it ?

Yep, cast-iron is the thing. Makes it difficult to move things around, but that's a good point also.

I have seen this brand of tools/files around, but can't really say anything on their quality from personal experience. The manufacturer NIQUA (https://en.niqua-shop.de) caters for the jewellery industry, so for a professional market.

One has to pay attention though, as many manufacturers have different tool lines for markets with different purchasing power.

As a confirmed tool-junkie I like the ancient planer in the background

The usual high-quality work 👍

Coming on nicely !

I quite admire the designers of such kits. Doing a one-off and tweaking things to fit is one thing, but here you have to get it completely right so that the customers do not complain about poor fit etc.

I remember those folding seats along the corridors from the old days. Today there are mostly open-plan coaches with no corridors.

Depends on what material you want to part and what diameter.

BTW, small lathes don't have a lot of torque. A good old-time method for larger diameters (say > 5 mm), albeit today frowned upon by the HSE, is to to make a first cut with a parting tool and then to finish off the parting with a fretsaw at low speed. It also saves you material as otherwise you will have to make stepping cuts to prevent the parting tool from becoming jammed.

It seems that prototype practices varied over time and region (as always). However, if anything was gilded than it may have been only certain details or elements, to provide highlights on otherwise decorations painted in ochre.

Conversely, contemporary models often show a more liberal use of gold, being decorative objects already in their time. 

I gather, the question is, do you want to show the ship as she appeared in real life or do you want to create a decorative object ?

Lovely little boat. Would like to have one in full size

Only now discovered this project and will follow with interest ...