Mike Y

No pictures today, just comments.... i was continue working on frames and some results were not ending up quite satisfactory, so will play with other way of making frames, basically using a "traditional" or Underhill' method.... will see how that goes... For now I am using a spare wood for testing, saving good wood for later. I have to run planks thru planner anyway since my pear wood came in 6mm thickness which is more that needed for frames..
 
Happy modelling..

Today I worked on building board and decided to try a perfect 90 degrees parts... yes, Lego blocks... those darn neighbour' kids are running fast, who would say that for small kids ... just kidding of course...

I like using Lego in ship building as much as can just because of its perfect square you can count on and ability to fit it in any weird angle possible.. Anyhow, this is my test and we will see how it goes; the only drawback at this moment is that I cannot find a perfect lego size distance for a keel so need to improvise a bit by adding few wraps of painter's tape to hold the keel nicely and tight.









In case, old fashioned pars are here to assist...



Then I started to work on frames, just to break a routine.. a glass cutting board are placed on the plan and frame parts are laid down and glued.




The ends are sanded a bit using hand sander 



And first one waiting for final fitting test and send is here..



Happy modelling..

Removed the aft deck to find more ballast and more sytrofoam in the inaccessible aft compartments, and also a time capsule note for posterity...... 😏
 
Aft compartments, with rudder linkage.

Here's how much metal ballast was enclosed aft.

Speaking of posterity.....

Here are the timing gears and belts involved in pivoting A and B turrets in unison.

I laser cut a plywood baseplate to set A and B shafts at the correct centres for the first belt, and also set the micro servo's arm axis at the correct centres for the second belt to B shaft. I hope to assemble and test tomorrow.
 

Once again, this topic is deeply buried in my building log on S.M.S. WESPE and not everyone is interested in ships from that period. However, the propose method my give ideas to other builders of miniature ship models.
 
Wooden steering wheels are complex assemblies, typically made up of a hub, a rim and the spokes. There may be metal reenforcing parts that prevent heavily strained parts, such as the hub, from splitting or keep segments of the rim together.
The spokes are long, slender items and are usually turned to a decorative profile. Where they meet the rim, they are square in section and fit into the hub with kind of wedge-shaped tangs.
 
Making such wheels in small scales/sizes, say with less than 10 mm diameter, can be quite a challenge. Here a method is proposed in which the wheels are built up from layers of laser-cut paper.
 
After some tests with my small 3W laser-cutter, 120 g/m2 weight so-called Canson-paper, which is 0.15 mm thick and has a smooth surface, turned out to be the best choice. It cuts well with this laser-cutter, as it is not ballasted with inorganic material, such as barytes, which do not burn or evaporate. If one has a more powerful laser-cutter and a suitable exhaustion, one may rather work with styrene.

The freshly cut wheels (I use a roof slate as cutting support)
 
As usual some trials were needed to determine the right cutting parameter combination of contrast, laser-power and cutting depth. The cutting software works with bit-images and one should assume that for a simple B/W-picture the contrast should be 100%, but somehow changing the contrast setting changes the width of the cuts. For this reason, the final dimensions of the parts depend on the contrast setting. 
 
Laser-cutting is contactless and the cut-out parts are not moved during the cutting process. Therefore, it is possible to cut them out completely and in contrast to the photoetch-process they do not need to be attached to some frame.
When designing the image with which the laser-cutter works, one needs to consider all these factors that sometimes can only be determined by trial and error. 
 
The wheels are built up from several layers in order to simulate the joinery work and to arrive at the desired 3D-rendering. Two core parts are thickened by two more layers the outline of which was drawn a bit smaller to simulate the profiling of wheels and handles. A further layer on each side simulates the rim and hub. The individual layers where first thoroughly soaked in fast-drying varnish (Zapon-lacquer), which impregnates and stiffens the cardboard. Then they were sanded smooth using a fine diamond (nail)file. The same lacquer is used to cement the layers together. Unlike many other glues, this lacquer only forms a very thin layer, not adding to the thickness of the material. They are adjusted while the lacquer is still wet and the layers squeezed together. For this flat tweezer as used by stamp collectors proved very handy. Of course, a piece of wire or a drill of suitable thickness are used as axis during alignment of the layers.

Assembled wheels (the grid on the cutting mat has 5 mm spacing and the drill 0.8 mm diameter)
 
Once completely dry, the wheels are given another coat of varnish as preparation for further shaping. This can be done with very fine and thin watchmaker needle-files. Thus, the spokes and in particular the handles are rounded as much as possible. If necessary, the procedure is repeated after another coat of varnish to prevent the paper from fraying. Building up the spokes from several layers already helped to achieve this effect.

Steering-wheels with brass facing for the rim
 
Some steering wheel have brass-rings screwed to the front face of the rim to reenforce it and perhaps also for decorative purposes. While this can be painted on, it looks more realistic, when it is made from real brass (remember: only real metal looks like real metal 😉 ). The obvious way would be to etch these from brass shim – but when going through this process, the whole wheel could have been etched, again in several layers that are then soldered together … Another route would be to cement brass shim-stock with CA glue to a so-called wax-chuck and to cut out the rings on the lathe. Cutting forces are quite high on the soft shim-stock and experience shows that it is not likely to work. A proven third route is to chuck a suitable piece of brass rod into the lathe, turn down the desired outside diameter, bore out the inside diameter and then part off very thin slices with a sharp and narrow parting tool. It is possible to produce a brass tube with 0.3 mm wall thickness and part off rings of 0.1 mm thickness. After a few trials to get the settings right, this will work fast and repeatable and result in undistorted rings. The rings are deburred on 600 grit wet-and-dry paper, ground finely on an Arkansas-stone and polished on a piece of paper with some brass-polishing compound. The brass rings are cemented onto wheels again with lacquer.

A pair of steering-wheels provisionally assembled and the component parts
 
The wheel is no ready for painting. An all-wood wheel can be readily spray-painted, but for a wheel with a brass-face rim, I would recommend brush-painting in order to avoid covering the brass in paint. With the brush mishaps can happen, but that little amount of rogue paint can be carefully scraped off with a scalpel. The paint further helps to define the round spokes and extra paint can be added to enhance this. Unfortunately, it often only after the first coat of paint that imperfections become visible. With some extra paint these may be evened out.
 
The wheel is finished with a rope drum, hub covers etc. which are turned from brass rod. 

Double steering wheel on a stand and grating also assembled from laser-cut parts
 

Thank you albert.
I started planking the hull under wales. But I soon found out that in order to finish gluing the planks in the stern area, it is necessary to glue the planks on the stern first.

Nailing wales.

Few lessons learned:
1) Flattening the surface with a plane is quite tricky, since you bump into some cross piece with a risk of a chipping. Next time -  make carlings the right height from the start (with just a tiny bit of margin for sanding)

2) Used mill to make notches for ledges - it is not worth it. The positioning is overly complicated, and the notches are quite shallow, so even a 1mm mill does not go deep enough, resulting in a semi-circular notch that is too narrow.
In the end a manual markup and chiseling worked much better.

 
The final step is my favourite - a little bit of sanding magic.
This time I tried fine grits of mesh sanding pads - they are amazing! 

Before/after sanding. Isn't it awesome? There is a method to hide all imperfections like they were never there. Like a make-up for parts  

 
The whole asymmetrical layout idea is a bit questionable in the narrow area, but I still think it's the best option for asymmetrically planked model, and the offset would be much smaller once you leave the "bottom of the hold" part with a very steep planking angle.

Looks like a render, isn't it?   
I tried to use a different kind of pear for carlings and ledges, but the contrast is too subtle, will try a more contrasting wood next time!

Albert and Mustafa, thank you for the encouraging comment and everyone else for your likes. This weekend I was visiting France with the German delegation and was able to take part in a great meeting with my French colleagues. Here are a few impressions.
 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few progress. 
still reading and learning ...

Today I was working on # 5 transom timber, for the third time... First two attempts were not good in few different reasons. Must say envy people that are done with a part in a first attempt; that is my long term goal when POF are main focus...

First i made several copy of several templates that will be used throughout the process... The timber on the top is one of failures, excuse me, actually one of the learning curves..


Two planks were glued together to obtain required thickness, in my situation, 8mm
 




Once it is dried, template were glued on... and cutting was done, following the curve of a top template.





The first top template was removed with sanding, so new is glued on.




Then bottom was cut and sanded off..




......

the Skylight
 

 
The construction plan of this hooker ship does not feature any deck furniture. There was a deck plan though, so I could at least determine the exact size and placement of all the hatches. I already put all the coamings on the deck. The area of the ship right underneath the rear hatch, was probably used as living space that would need ventilation and light. So I think the hatch cover was build as a skylight. But because it was a fishing boat, it can't have been very fancy.
 

 

 
A butterfly-skylight with plain wooden covers.
 

 

 

 

 
Best regards
 

the Companionway

The companionway, like most of the deck furniture, was not on the construction plan. However the location and the exact size of the hatch were. So I had to come up with a shape. After scanning through a bunch of paintings and drawings and models of roughly that period, I sketched a few of the possibilities. In order to get a bit more specific, I took the plan that Ab Hoving used for his fishing hooker by Fredrik Henrik Af Chapman. 
 

 
It is a bit hard to discern but there is a faint dotted line describing the shape of the structure. After I subtracted that small shape from the Chapman-plan, I made it fit on the side-view of the van Zwijndregt hooker. After that I modified it slightly into an arched roof (blue line) without deviating too much from that original shape.
In the search for contemporary companionways I came across pictures of a wooden sailing ship called 'the Phoenix' which had a version with an arched roof I thought would match the hooker ship nicely. 
 

 
The reason I used the Chapman-shape as a base, was that by now I knew that hardly anything on a sailing ship is designed randomly. The companionway on the Chapman hooker is much lower than the one on the Phoenix. Probably because the bowsprit starts at the main mast in this type of rigging so everything in front of the mast had to stay under it. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
best regards,
Rik

Good morning everyone,
the work on the Le Rochefort is coming to an end. A few small things will be done in the next few days, but nothing earth-shattering before the summer break begins. The Admiralty and yours truly are heading south and we will spend two lovely weeks on the coast of Croatia. Now a few final pictures, this time in original size with all the parts made so far and shown dry on the ship. This will also be the construction stage with which I will attend the international meeting in Evian in October. What still needs to be done after the holiday is the construction of the transport and exhibition showcases. I would like to thank you again for all the comments and likes, but also for the odd tip and the odd criticism, which is just as important as praise.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I finally get this little bugger #4 done; it took me several attempts and I think I have it correct but we will see down the build...
So far if I put together all bad parts I made, I might ended up with one good pear wood board .

Anyhow, next is work on #1 timber...







Happy modelling..

Then onto the windlass. In the case of this hooker ship, the windlass does not show on the plan but from pictures, like the ones in post # 41 above, I knew it had to be there. I had consultation with Ab Hoving about it and he assured me the ship would have had one and he advised me to take a look at his building log of a similar ship at this forum. In the pictures as well as in Ab's log I noticed the riding bitt was sort of integrated with the bulwark. That 's probably why it wasn't drawn in the van Zwijndregt plans (while on other occasions he does include the riding bitts). Ab told me that the curved shape of the bulwark at the bow was filled up with pieces of wood which are called cheeks. The next picture shows you a piece of the deck plan and where the winch is supposed to be located.
 

 
Based on this I could determine the length. For the specific shape there are a few great examples of windlasses at the Rijksmuseum. Here is one of them.
 

 
I read somewhere there are even differences between windlasses from place to place. Apparently the Dutch ones often had a slight curve, like the one in the next image. That is not surprising since everything on Dutch ships seems to be round and bulky. Like it is their style. 
 

 
If you look at the grain of the wood, it looks as if it is made out of one piece instead of being composed out of eight parts. So now that I had an idea of the size and the characteristics, I made a test version from a piece of oak.
 

 
Here you can see it with the ratchet wheel and square wholes for the bars. 
 

 
Then I installed the cheeks to the bulwark and did a test run.
 

 
I decided that the test version was actually  good enough and I made it the final version. Then I made the peg that stops the winch from rolling back (I couldn't find the proper term for it, please fill me in if you do know it) and its casing.
 
 
 

 
Here are the pieces that lock up the windlass. There is probably a name for them too (once again don't hesitate to fill me in).
 

 
And here is the whole assembly mounted on, including catheads.
 

 
best regards,
Rik Buter

A short update. In this photograph the planking of the deck is almost complete. After that I wanted to finish the bulkhead or the front piece of the cabin. Maybe bulkhead is too big of a word for that. Traditionally the Dutch ships used clinker built planks for that area, like in this drawing of van de Velde.
 

 
That was about a 100 years earlier than the hooker ship, however you see the use of clinker building often return in the cabins they put on galiots and 'kofschepen' and other types of vessels in the 18th century. Like on this beautiful model of a 'smak' built by Willem Vos.
 

 
So I tried it on the hooker as well. It is just a small element. I also finished the entrance of the cabin and fit the waterways and the mast partners of the mizzenmast.
 

 
greetings 
 
 

the Rudder
 
Here is a close-up of the rudder on the construction drawing. At first I had no idea what the piece on top of the rudder was. I mean what it was supposed to represent. It turned out it was a 'roerklik'. 'Roer' is the Dutch word for rudder, but 'klik' I have no idea. I once had an aunt with the word 'klik' as a nickname. Also in her case the origin or meaning of the word is unbeknownst to me. Her first name was 'Ko' so it did sound rather catchy.
 

 
On a visit to the 'Fries Scheepvaart Museum' I found out about these 'roerklikken'. It is a decorative element on top of the rudder. The three cylindrical shapes are barrels in the colours red, white and blue of the Dutch flag. Together with the stalk-shape it forms a three-leaf clover. As I understand it, the three-leaf clover motif was used for fishing vessels. Hooker ships that were going to be used as merchants had the head of Mercurius on their rudder. In Roman mythology he was the god of trade and profit, so that makes sense. Normally he is portrayed wearing a winged helmet. On the Dutch rudders however, he also wears some sort af animal head. 
 

 
Here are some examples of 'rudderheads' at the Fries Scheepvaart Museum. Especially the one in front is very well sculpted, I think. I wonder why they wear those animalheads though and also what kind of animal they tried to sculpt. I know that Hercules is often portrayed wearing a Lion skin.
 

 
Here is a beautiful example of an engraving by Goltzius.
Now the names Mercurius and Hercules are not that incredibly different. Back then all the instructions to the executive personnel were given verbally. I can easily picture a situation in which the ever resourceful sculptor, upon a visit by the master shipwright to examine the progress of his work, having to turn manes into wings. That might explain the ambiguous  features of the animal cap. After that a tradition was born.  Speculation of course but there must be some kind of explanation for the creation of these decorations, the 'roerklikken' as well as the 'roerkoppen' because they are applied very consistently.
 

 
I'm wandering off. For the rudder of the hooker I started with the hinges because I didn't know what they exactly looked like and I didn't have much experience with soldering. I came upon a very helpful video of Kevin Kenny on this topic. Thanks Kevin Kenny! I started with the gudgeons.
 

 
 

 
Then the rudder itself.
 

 
Pintle.
 

 
The tiller and the clover decoration.
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
Best regards
 
 
 
 

After the planking was finished, I painted the hull and applied the first wash. 
 

 
Then I went on to draw the waterline.
 

 
But then I remembered that on the drawings of the van de Veldes the wales always dip into the water for a while at the lowest point.
 

 
Like in this drawing of an English yacht of about the same dimensions as the hooker ship. So I decided to put on another waterline.
 

 
Then I painted it, but I made the mistake to use acrylic paint. 
 

 
My plan was to apply several thin coates and keep it somewhat transparent. Normally when you paint a painting, acrylic paint is well suited for making transparent layers or glazing. However here on the model it dried so quickly that I couldn't get an even coat without stains. Also sanding it slightly down didn't work out well because acrylic paint is just a plastic coat on top of the wood. It doesn't penetrate. I should have used an oil based paint.
So in order to get a nice and plain coloured bottom of the ship, I had to apply three layers which made the coat way too thick.
Also the second waterline turned out to be too high. I tried to find images from which I could determine the waterline better.
 

 
I found out that in most images the waterline is at least one or two planks lower than the lower wales. So I carefully scraped off the paint again, down to the first waterline I drew. It became a bit of a mess. 
 

 
By the way I added a thin 1mm. strip of wood underneath the railing. I kept that white.
 

 
A coat of Osmo decor wax - oak colour goes on top of everything.
 
 

The swivel guns took about a month. After I mounted those on the quarter deck, I realized I was one short for the fore deck! Been counting constantly, just to make sure they were all there. So, of course, one is missing. Looked everywhere. Anyway, making one more shouldn’t be a major deal. Just beating my head!! Also, one of my LED leads broke off where it exits on the bottom of the keel. No slack. Oh well. I might cut a section out of the keel to retrieve the end of that lead. Haven’t decided.
Henry

IMG_0149.mov

Incredible accuracy! Something I tried to aim for, but was not as pedantic as you are, so have a few minor alignment issues here and there
Please resist the temptation to lower the bar and make shortcuts. It is common to see people being super precise and detailed when making a keel and deadwood, and then speeding up when it's time for frames. You seem to keep the same precision from the beginning of the build!

Magnificent! Love that "light through the frames" shots

Really admire your courage to do the reconstruction instead of saying "meh, will make it right on a next model"! 
Now it would be definitely right.

Hoorray! This is a major milestone indeed!
One thing about the finish - if you use oil, be ready that it might sip through the frame and end up on the inner side as well. Testing on a few scrap frames would be useful
It sounds impossible, especially with grain running along the futtock, but happened for me. If that will be the case for your finish as well - probably better to apply it after gluing in the deck clamps and inner planking, if you plan any?

Chocks form a nice contrast "dotted line", good idea!

Really like your approach, it is a pleasure to read. So organised! 
The build board is truly great, I am envious