wefalck

I like the idea of drilling a block for the brass collars and then slice off the rails !
 
At some stage, I will be faced with the task of making a pin rail for 0.2 mm belaying pins and drilling multiple  0.2 mm holes can be a drill-consuming task. However, as there is brass-tubing with 0.2 mm ID (I think), drilling 0.3 mm holes is less daunting.
 
I had actually considered making the pin and the collar in one piece and inserting this into the pin-rail. Also, the pin would be thicker and easier to make. It's a bit of cheating, put one has to be practical ...
 
I am rather surprised that they used a hex-nut on the rail-stanchions, as its corners can lead to chafing of the ropes.

Just a guess, as don't know, how the foresail is handled: if you lower the gaff, the angle may change, depending, how co-ordinated the two halliards are handled; there is the chance that the gaff comes down plus/minus horizontal, so it would have to still clear the space between the two masts, i.e. its maximum length has to be less than the distance between the masts.
 
I have seen quite a few illustrations that shows the gaff being lowered in a rather haphazard fashion ...
 

Sails are rigged and guard rails are installed.   For the rail wire I used rope soaked in chrome paint except for the entry area which is rope hooked to the stanchions.  I have a few more rope coils to make and glue in place, otherwise ready to ship.    
 
Note in the second photo it is clear that there is a pretty large gap (4 feet) between the upper aft side of the fore sail and main mast.  The gap on the model is actually a tad smaller than shown on the sail plan.  I have no idea if this gap is to aid in sail handling when tacking and so forth or for some other reason. Perhaps it has something to do with allowing the wind to leave the aft side of the foresail without crossing over and directly onto the main sail and creating eddies or some other disturbance with the wind already coming directly on the main sail. I would love to hear from anyone that knows why this gap would be so large.   I see this same gap on every sail plan of the schooners in Chapelle's American Fishing Schooners so I am sure the design is correct, but would like to know the reasoning.  Even if the foresail extended back another 2 feet or more, there would be a lot of clearance to swing the boom and gaff to port or starboard once the fisherman's sail was down.   Allan
 
 

 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 

(Some) silk has indeed a bad reputation among museum conservators and there are many models with decayed silk flags. It is a question of how the silk was treated after the worm has been killed in hot water and the cocoon unravveled. Some dyes are also acid-producing and lead to the destruction of organic fibres. Man-made 'silk' would not necessarily suffer from these problems.
 
However, as one effectively creates a compound material with the silk embedded in an acrylic paint film some of the problems should not occur or be delayed. The UV-exposure, for instance, would be greatly reduced.

Time for another update. I hope you are all well and that your Christmas won't be too disrupted by the pandemic. 
Pat - thank you for your comments.
 
So I moved on to something different.  On each side of the fore and main masts are a pair of pin rails - 4 in all, and all identical. I have fairly decent photos.
 

 
I was able to scale the dimensions from a combination of photos and a little plan detail. As usual I made a sketch.
 

 
Each rail has 8 holes - 6 for pins and 2 for the legs. The rail height is 0.6" and they are 1.25" long.
 
I started with a block of mahogany which I cut to size and then I drilled the 8 holes.
 

 
The pins will fit in brass collars .04" internal diameter and .092" outside diameter. I pressed and glued 6 pieces of brass tube into the mahogany to create the collars.
 

 
I then sliced off the 4 rails.
 

 
The legs were turned from brass rod 1/8" diameter.
 

 
The legs were bored to take spigots ( at both ends) for mounting to the deck and attaching the rail. I also turned up some small mahogany plinths before assembling the various bits.
 

 
I also turned the brass washers which fit over the upper spigots and below the retaining nuts.
 

 
I ground a piece of 1/4" tool steel into the profile of the belaying pin handled then started manufacturing the 24 pins. They were turned from 3/32" rod.
 

 
I am on cooking duty tonight so I must stop here. More to follow shortly.
 
 
 

Thank you Keith.
 
Dinner is delayed so I will finish the post.
 
I machined flats on a 3/32" rod to form a hexagon and then parted off 8 retaining nuts. These were glued in place and then the pins were inserted into the rail.
 

 
 

Thank you to all for the likes.
 
All the completed deck elements are now permanently glued in place.  
 
 
I got the steam whistle turned and mounted. 
 
 Rear coal scuttles
 
 and forward coal scuttles completed
 
A couple of deck shots showing recently added eyebolts, steam whistle and coal scuttles.


 
The deck is starting to fill. I still need to add three chest, three water buckets and a couple of vent pipes.

Yes. I think several people did it here on the forum. Check out 'dafi's' HMS VICTORY project for instance.
 
You will have to remove first any moulded-on plating to create a smooth surface.
 
Another question is, what kind of style you want to present your model in. In real life, the copper below the water-line would have been a dull reddish brown colour after a few weeks in the water. Around the water-line, between the water and the air, you would see some green oxidation (copper sulfate) and some white salt-stains etc.

We had this discussion some place else, I think, already ... anyway, it seems that the friction in the gun tackles also transform a considerable amount of the recoil energy into heat. The breech rope was sort of the ultimate stop, as also the movement of the gun depends on the movement of the ship after the gun is fired. In later times, when slide carriages with different types of recoil brakes were introduced, the breech rope lengths were reduced to a minimum. There is a balance to strike between the maximum allowable strain on the parts of the gun and the breech-rope on one hand and the space for the movement of the gun on the other hand. Also, the further the gun moves away from the bulwark, the more difficult it becomes to control and bring back into loading and firing position.

Hi ASirWnt2C,
 
According to Lavery in his book the Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War breechings were 3 times the length of the Gun Barrel. However,this is for English Ships but I suspect US Warships were similar if not the same .
 
Dave 

Dave has it as it was pretty much "standard" but not always.  One difference, for example, is the French.  The breach rope went through the carriage and not around the breeching knob as other countries used.

Again for RN ships, but I am sure there will be an equivalent for the USN guns, the breeching rope sizes were tabulated and published.  The following is from 'The Sea Gunner's Vade Mecum_Robert Simmons (1812)"
 
cheers
 
Pat

Thank you very much indeed for your kind comments !
 
These boats were not very stable gun-platforms and presumably very wet in any kind of weather up from dead-calm. Both, the North Sea and the Baltic tend to have short, choppy seas.
 
************************************
 
Display case – completion
 
The display case was given a wooden plinth or frame from four strips of wood with 10 mm x 20 mm cross section. They were carefully cut to length with a mitre-saw and glued together ‘in situ’ to obtain a close fit. The wood was sanded, slightly watered, sanded again and then stained in a light mahagony colour. I decided to follow a simplified French polishing procedure. The wood was given a coat of sanding sealer and lightly sanded, so as not to sand through the staining. Shellac was applied twice with a soft cotton ball and the surface lightly rubbed in between with 0000 grade steel-wool.
A short while ago the mail-ordered brass profiles arrived. I used a 2 mm x 4 mm rectangular cross-section for the bottom frame and 4 mm x 4 mm x 0.5 mm L-profiles for the corners. The bottom frame was first cut to size and the 45° mitres ground on my micro-grinding machine. These allows to achieve a perfect fit at the corners. The four stiles were polished bright with steel-wool and degreased with acetone before glueing them into place using ordinary craft glue of the UHU-brand (it’s solvent-based general glue). The next to go on are the four upper corners. The L-profile are sawn to length, the corners cut away with a side cutter and the precise mitre ground on. During the fitting and re-fitting the stiles are held in place with short lengths of low-tack tape. After glueing these into place, the four vertical corners can be tackled. First the two mitres are fitted into the existing corners, but each stile is cut a tad too long to have material for fitting. It is easier to grind them to length on the square lower end, then on the mitred one.
 

The finished display case
 
The Plexiglas and the wooden frame had been pre-drilled on the two narrow sides for a couple of brass screws that will eventually hold the case to the MDF-bottom.
 
The seascape will be tackled just before painting the hull, so as not to damage the paintwork while sculpting the sea around the hull.
 
To be continued ...

Display Case
 
The project has progressed to a point, where soon major parts will be painted and then will have to be protected from dust during the further building process. Hence, I constructed a Plexiglas display case. From another project some 40 years ago I had lots of 2 mm sheets of Plexiglas left over that I now put to good use.
Ideally, the sheets would be cut to size on a table saw, but I do not have one big enough. However, Plexiglas up to 3 mm thick can be scored and then snapped. A procedure recommended by the manufacturer, if you don’t have a suitable saw.
 
I put a sharp-edged angle-iron along the edge of the work-bench, laid the Plexiglas with the marked-out cutting line exactly over the edge and a heavy steel-ruler exactly (minus half of the thickness of the cutter) over the line and clamped the assembly firmly down. The sheet is then scored a few times with a box cutter, followed by a cutter with a hooked blade until a groove 0.5 to 1 mm deep is made. Finally, you grab firmly with both hands (the faint-hearted may use leather gloves) the part sticking out, take a deep breath and with one decided jerk you break it off. The result is a clean, straight cut with only a little kerf that needs little cleaning up.
 

Arrangement for snapping Plexiglas sheet in a similar case
 
In theory, the kerf is desirable. When professional make such Plexiglas cases, they mill on such a kerf to provide room for the cement. The kerf should face inward.
 
The cement used was Acrifix 192, one of the proprietary cements for real Plexiglas. It is essentially, liquid, uncured Plexiglas and will have the same refractive index once cured so that joints are invisible, when executed professionally. I know the theory (as I have a full version of the manufacturer’s handbook), but my practice is far from perfect. I found that the very old Acrifix 192 I was using has a very short open time and curing begins as soon as a light quantum hits it. Unlike for other formulations, curing is set off by visible light and not only by UV light. It is also very runny and it is easy to smear it over places, where you don’t want it to go, basically fusing into any Plexiglas it hits. So I used it rather sparingly to be on the safe side.
 
The less than perfect joints don’t matter too much, as the corners will be covered, according to my house-style, in L-shaped brass edges. Still have to mail-order them in Germany, as I have not found a affordable source yet for milled (not drawn !) L-shaped brass here in France. The edges will also add to the strenght of the assembly. There will be also wooden, polished plinth.
 
The base is a piece of 16 mm fibre-board that I happened to have lying around. The Plexiglas case will be secured to it with two screws eventually.
 
The case will be completed at a later stage, as for the moment only its function as dust-cover is important.
 

Plexiglas case in its raw state
 
 
To be continued ...

Anything below the waterline would be, depending on period and location, covered in tar, some white concoction or copper-sheathed. So none of the caulking, if there is any, would be visible at all.
 
One should perhaps also distinguish between caulking, a particular multi-step process using on planking, and covering the end-grain of wood in tar before assembling scarphs and the likes.
 
Caulking on hull-planking could be also visible, when certain strakes for esthetic reasons were scraped clean and then oiled with some light-coloured concoction, which was fashionable in some areas and at certain times.

And, apart from deck-planking, this is only relevant, when you want to display your artisanal skills, rather than showing a 'real life' representation of the prototype. On a real ship, virtually all of that structure would disappear under thick coats of tar and paint ...

Anything below the waterline would be, depending on period and location, covered in tar, some white concoction or copper-sheathed. So none of the caulking, if there is any, would be visible at all.
 
One should perhaps also distinguish between caulking, a particular multi-step process using on planking, and covering the end-grain of wood in tar before assembling scarphs and the likes.
 
Caulking on hull-planking could be also visible, when certain strakes for esthetic reasons were scraped clean and then oiled with some light-coloured concoction, which was fashionable in some areas and at certain times.

And, apart from deck-planking, this is only relevant, when you want to display your artisanal skills, rather than showing a 'real life' representation of the prototype. On a real ship, virtually all of that structure would disappear under thick coats of tar and paint ...

The Glowforge ones seem to be relatively serious one with a 40W CO2 laser, requiring proper ventilation etc. They also seem to have a serious price tag, starting from US$ 2500 (not sure about price over here in Europe ...). Perhaps one day I will upgrade, but for the time being I am making do with a cheapo (100 €) 4W diode laser and a 80 mm x 80 mm working area. Limited capabilities and precision, but it helped me to produce some small parts with complicated shapes that would be difficult to make in a different way.

Anything below the waterline would be, depending on period and location, covered in tar, some white concoction or copper-sheathed. So none of the caulking, if there is any, would be visible at all.
 
One should perhaps also distinguish between caulking, a particular multi-step process using on planking, and covering the end-grain of wood in tar before assembling scarphs and the likes.
 
Caulking on hull-planking could be also visible, when certain strakes for esthetic reasons were scraped clean and then oiled with some light-coloured concoction, which was fashionable in some areas and at certain times.

Here are some more references to Indonesian boat-building. Some of them may be digitalised by now, but I didn't check, as I have most them in hard-copy:
 
Dijkstra, G., Kampa, T. (1984): De traditionele zeilvaart in de maritieme ontwikkeling van Indonesië.- Spiegel der Zeilvaart, 1984(5 and 7)
 
HAWKINS, C.W. (1982): Praus of Indonesia.- 134 S., London (Macmillan Books).
 
HORRIDGE, G.A. (1979): The Kongo Boatbuilders and the Bugis Praus of South Sulawesi.- p., London ().
 
HORRIDGE, G.A. (1979): The Lambo or Prahu Bot - a western ship in an eastern setting.- Maritime Monographs and Reports, 39: 41 p., Greenwich (National Maritime Museum).
 
HORRIDGE, G.A.; SNOEK, C. (1985): The Prahu. Traditional Sailing Boat of Indonesia.- 112 p., Singapore (Oxford University Press).
 
HORRIDGE, A. (1987): Outrigger Canoes of Bali and Madura, Indonesia.- 178 p., Honolulu (Bishop Museum Press).
 
NEYRET, J. (1976): Pirogues Océaniennes, Tome II – II. Polynésie, III. Micronésie, IV. Indonésie, V. Inde, VI. Autres Continents.- 315 p., Paris (Assoc. des Amis des Muséés de la Marine).
 
NOOTEBOOM, C. (1932): De boomstamkano in Indonesië.- 240 p., 101 photographs & 25 ills., Leiden (N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij).
 
Zimmer, H.-J. (1993): Beschrijving van de modelbau van een Pinisi, een Indonesisch zeilshchip.- Modelbouwer, 1993(1).
 
 
 
 

The Glowforge ones seem to be relatively serious one with a 40W CO2 laser, requiring proper ventilation etc. They also seem to have a serious price tag, starting from US$ 2500 (not sure about price over here in Europe ...). Perhaps one day I will upgrade, but for the time being I am making do with a cheapo (100 €) 4W diode laser and a 80 mm x 80 mm working area. Limited capabilities and precision, but it helped me to produce some small parts with complicated shapes that would be difficult to make in a different way.

If you use a fast-drying solvent-based varnish or sanding sealer, it is easy to stick parts on with exactly the same varnish. Nearly no need to hold things in place while a glue is drying/curing.
 
I am first (laser-)cutting parts and then soak them in varnish. Resoak them after sanding.

If you use a fast-drying solvent-based varnish or sanding sealer, it is easy to stick parts on with exactly the same varnish. Nearly no need to hold things in place while a glue is drying/curing.
 
I am first (laser-)cutting parts and then soak them in varnish. Resoak them after sanding.

Not at all, no soldering. As I wrote above, the stiles are simply cemented on using the brand cement UHU Alleskleber. Seems to hold on well for several decades now on glass and some five years on the first case I built from Plexiglas.
 
I must admit, that I took the design from McCaffery's book on Miniature Ship models. He uses silicone to cement together the glass panes, as well as to stick on the stiles. At one time I found that I ran out of silicone and because of the weekend resorted to UHU. It is much easier to clean up than silicone, which tends to creep around (which of course is the purpose). Also, although McCaffery is really preoccopied with the longevity and stability of materials, he kind of ignores the issue of acetic acid fumes that form, when silicone cures and penetrate into the case.