wefalck

It seems to have been a very common arrangement until the end of the 19th century on smaller vessels, before steering-wheels were also introduced into them (often only together with motorisation and cutting down the rigs).
 
@Dr PR is right with his interpretation. It's a kind of dampening device and allows a single man to control the tiller on relatively large vessels. There is enough slack in the rope to take a turn or two around a pin (which only protrudes on the top) or knob at the end of the tiller to effectively stop it. Slackening the turn allows one to adjust the rudder. Casting it loose allows faster movements. Two blocks at the end of the tiller seems to have been more common than the sheaves.
 
Many more or less contemporary models show the pin/knob, but the control rope is not always rigged. Sometimes, it seems, only simple ropes, without tackle were used, to simply steady the tiller.

It seems to have been a very common arrangement until the end of the 19th century on smaller vessels, before steering-wheels were also introduced into them (often only together with motorisation and cutting down the rigs).
 
@Dr PR is right with his interpretation. It's a kind of dampening device and allows a single man to control the tiller on relatively large vessels. There is enough slack in the rope to take a turn or two around a pin (which only protrudes on the top) or knob at the end of the tiller to effectively stop it. Slackening the turn allows one to adjust the rudder. Casting it loose allows faster movements. Two blocks at the end of the tiller seems to have been more common than the sheaves.
 
Many more or less contemporary models show the pin/knob, but the control rope is not always rigged. Sometimes, it seems, only simple ropes, without tackle were used, to simply steady the tiller.

It seems to have been a very common arrangement until the end of the 19th century on smaller vessels, before steering-wheels were also introduced into them (often only together with motorisation and cutting down the rigs).
 
@Dr PR is right with his interpretation. It's a kind of dampening device and allows a single man to control the tiller on relatively large vessels. There is enough slack in the rope to take a turn or two around a pin (which only protrudes on the top) or knob at the end of the tiller to effectively stop it. Slackening the turn allows one to adjust the rudder. Casting it loose allows faster movements. Two blocks at the end of the tiller seems to have been more common than the sheaves.
 
Many more or less contemporary models show the pin/knob, but the control rope is not always rigged. Sometimes, it seems, only simple ropes, without tackle were used, to simply steady the tiller.

This metal-work looks so convincing 👍🏻
 
Indeed, welded construction is not so easy to reproduce. Perhaps, I would have soldered this over a mock-up of the bow to give the flanges the right angles and distances. There are solders of different melting points, which requires a temperature-controlled soldering iron. The railway modellers who build locomotives from PE brass parts are masters of this art. 

I agree, seemingly to scale, it still seems out of proportion. Also, they are more likely to be found in larger towns or cities.
 
These columns were invented by a Berlin printer named Ernst Litfaß and the first one was installed in that city in 1854. From there the concept spread all over the world. They often had dual uses, e.g. as transformer stations or covering access staircases to the sewer system. There is a famous scene in the film The Third Man, when Harry Lime slips into one in Vienna - the grand sewer-sytem was notoriously used by criminals to hide or gain access to houses. The Vienna police used to have a specially trained and equipped 'Kanalbrigade' to combat this (they appear also in the film). 

Thanks everyone.
 
More metalwork: this time the bowsprit chain plates. The whisker stay chain plates are pretty straightforward, note the portholes openings have been cut. 0.8mm brass sheet, which is probably a little heavy.

 
The bobstay chainplate is more complex, & it became clear that with my simple kit multiple solder joints in this case would be very difficult, so I made the main parts from one sheet (0.5mm), with back-mitres so it could be folded & then soldered to fill & stabilise the folds. Then the chainplate cleat was soldered to the edge, tinned etc (cleat 0.8mm thick). A paper template was used to confirm the fold angles, as brass is only happy to be folded once, & solder never.... The fixings are some 1mm diameter brass rivets approximately 7mm long, so a 1mm hole, add some CA glue & press the rivet into it. The back-mitring was done with a jeweller's saw & also a small file with a square cross section. The mitre is also slightly wider towards the edges, so that the main piece could be curved to suit the stem profile.
 
The side flange fixings are some unbelievably tiny brass nails, too small & I could hardly pick them up.
 

 

 
 
 

I think your scene is pretty crowded, busy and colourful as it is, the column seems to both disappear in the activity while reducing the “breathing space”. 
 
It might fit better in a simpler, larger, scene.
 
Andy

Thanks, all!
 
I next marked out the remaining strakes. The uppermost looks narrower because it will extend up to cover the edge of the false deck.

 
And I added the next strake. At this point, I'm having a difficult time clamping at the transom. It's also worth noting that, while I've been able to get the visible lower edge of the planking fairly smooth, I'm still having trouble getting the upper edge smooth where the planks join. Not that it matters, as it ends up covered, but still. Hats off to those who have done a clinker-planked open boat, that would be a lot trickier!

Excellent metal work as usual.
 
What do you use as heat-sink to prevent parts already soldered from falling apart?

Getting the rudder together, finally. A glue-up of some cedar (Western and Port Orford) scraps will do nicely.  The sinuous tiller is a 5-ply lamination of some sapelé strips from a salvaged kit. 

I use dots of glue to mimic drift ends and other fasteners; they diminish a bit while drying, but if they are nice round drops they approximate hammered rivets or drifts nicely. In the back ground are the pintles, formed of bamboo and paper. 

Below, the rudder has its pintles in place. 

Mostly completed rudder and tiller below, former with first coat of paint, and latter with integral sheaves, belaying pin, and ring bolts.
Stanchions for the steering ropes are also shown. I hope to hang it and rig it by this time tomorrow, then more rigging aloft. 

Personally, I swear by silkspan. You can buy it all over the United States, and I'm sure eBay or Amazon sells it. I have used multiple different thicknesses of silkspan and never, ever had any issues even when the material was wet. The only tears I have had using silkspan sails were completely my fault and not that of the product, and were pretty easily fixable because they were small. Making a scale-accurate sail never takes me more than about a day. You can even replicate things like tarpaulins using silkspan- really any cloth product present on a real ship can be accurately represented. 

Thank you for the advice re the glazing of the portholes, & I have taken that advice. Also, I did pick up an error in the portholes as previously made, which has now been corrected. I went to the boat to confirm the setout of the portholes & saw that the glass is actually set back from plane of the hull, I assumed it was in the same plane - soooo, back to the drawing board. I was able to salvage the rings, they were the part that took some time. So, now remade & awaiting some 1mm acrylic sheet.
 
I will work out some way to increase the gluing surface area for the acrylic, probably some tabs that glue to the outside back part of the tube.

 
And all done. Some of them in the photo below  appear to have flaws in the soldering joint - that's just a trick of the reflections, the joints all came out well.

I welcome all forum members to the new year, and I hope it brings only good news.   
And I'm continuing construction of the cruiser model. Wooden deck planking.

Happy New Year to all !

Two hours and forty minutes to go for us

Wasn‘t it particularly used to obtain weather reports and when getting close to home to get orders to which port to go?
 

Completed the rigging on the masts. I will not glue the masts. They will have a tight fit.
I used diluted white glue for the rigging. Takes time but better than CA which is too stiff and probably not durable. 

Zu Mondfeld or not is a question of what you are looking for, information to a specific period or a general introduction? In his later years he tried to stylise himself as the guru of shipmodelling, but a single person can hardly cover all the periods in sufficient depth. So, one has to take what is written in the books with a pinch of salt and corroborate the information against period books for instance.

Zu Mondfeld or not is a question of what you are looking for, information to a specific period or a general introduction? In his later years he tried to stylise himself as the guru of shipmodelling, but a single person can hardly cover all the periods in sufficient depth. So, one has to take what is written in the books with a pinch of salt and corroborate the information against period books for instance.

Zu Mondfeld or not is a question of what you are looking for, information to a specific period or a general introduction? In his later years he tried to stylise himself as the guru of shipmodelling, but a single person can hardly cover all the periods in sufficient depth. So, one has to take what is written in the books with a pinch of salt and corroborate the information against period books for instance.

Curious. I've never known real Silkspan to tear like that. It is, in fact, very strong. Are you sure that this was, in fact, SilkSpan?

Zu Mondfeld or not is a question of what you are looking for, information to a specific period or a general introduction? In his later years he tried to stylise himself as the guru of shipmodelling, but a single person can hardly cover all the periods in sufficient depth. So, one has to take what is written in the books with a pinch of salt and corroborate the information against period books for instance.

Zu Mondfeld or not is a question of what you are looking for, information to a specific period or a general introduction? In his later years he tried to stylise himself as the guru of shipmodelling, but a single person can hardly cover all the periods in sufficient depth. So, one has to take what is written in the books with a pinch of salt and corroborate the information against period books for instance.

There have been several threads quite recently discussing the various, closer-to-scale materials and methods for making sails.
 
Silkspan and modelspan can mean different things in different parts of the world: it can be long-fibre paper originating in Japan (going down to 9 g/m2 weigh) and it can be a relative loose-woven light-weight fabric (as low as 14 g/m2). The original use of the latter probably was for serigraphy or silk-screen printing. There was a time, when both material were readily available from model shops, but have been replaced by various plastic films, I think.
 
I first had the idea of using the fabric some 45+ years ago, when working in 1:60 scale. I saturated it with casein-paint (in those pre-acrylic days) and cut the sails from this. Later, I did the same with fast-drying varnish, cut individual panels from them and mounted them to give the sails. Douplings were also glued on using varnish. The assembly was then spray-painted with acrylics. Putting the sail together from individual panels just gives a hint of the seams due to the light shadow along the edge. The sails are not translucent though,
 
In smaller scales (say 1:100) the fabric is too coarse and still too thick, so I used the same method, but with the paper. Although the varnish makes for a relatively strong bond, this method is more suitable for set sails, rather then brailed or furled ones.
 
In all the cases the bolt-ropes were glued on after the sails had been painted.
 
In my new project at 1:160 I will try @druxey's method with seams drawn-on using a bow-pen, as the sails are to be displayed hanging loose and being draped over stays etc. for drying. Sails made from individual panels would be too stiff for that purpose.
 
I think the general consensus these days is that, unless you are building a working model, sewn fabric sails are just out of scale in most cases and modellers should abandon this age-old idea.
 

Brian,
 
Thanks!
 
This type mechanism was common for life jackets on US Navy ships. The top is a lid that hinges up, allowing life jackets to be tossed in after use. The bottom is a door that hinges down, allowing the life jackets to tumble out on deck. I have studied the blueprints on the Cleveland class cruisers of WWII and the MSI blueprints of the 1950-60s. One thing they have in common is that the lever that pulls down to open the bottom door was held in place by an ordinary US Navy issue 1/2 inch (12.5 mm) fuse clip. Two of these were used in electrical circuits to hold a cylindrical fuse. Just one was used to hold the 1/2 inch diameter life jacket release handle.
 
The MSI lifejacket locker had to be located above a place on the main deck that was open and easy to get to but not in a passageway. As you will see as the build progresses almost the entire main deck was covered with equipment or stowage lockers. About the only place suitable for the life jacket locker was above the fire hose station at the rear of the main deck cabin. And there was nothing else attached to the rear of the stack which was directly above the fire station, so that was a convenient place to mount the locker.
 
The Cape had a crew of 19 enlisted and 3 officers. The life jacket locker held 25 CO2 life jackets and 3 "fibrous glass" life jackets. I guess the three fibrous glass life jackets were for the officers. They didn't need a charged CO2 cylinder. There were 6 spare CO2 life jackets in case some didn't work.
 
The ship also carried two 15 man inflatable life boats and a 12 foot (4 meter) "wherry," a small boat with an outboard motor.