Wintergreen

Horsehair filled...or straw. 
 
Finally have solved the gilding issue. After some experimentation I am using Golden artist color brand acrylic tube paint. It is called Iridescent Gold (fine). The particles are much finer than in other brands I've tried. Photographing this is difficult, but the photos give some idea of the result. Keen eyes will notice I've repainted the blue strake a dark green-black, referred to as merde d'oie. (If you don't know French, look this up!)

Thanks for the tips and support, everyone. It is much appreciated. I will be experimenting with different 'gilt' finishes over the next few days.
 
The first photograph shows the ends finished in gold paint. This was unacceptable, as previously mentioned.
 
The second picture shows the inner side of one end piece and the other stripped of finish. There is a channel running across the lights between the layers which will enable me to slide the frames for the lights and glazing in after I finish the outer sides.
 
The third photograph shows the ends of the coach temporarily in place. After the seating is in place the ends will be permanently installed and the sides constructed to a sliding fit.
 
Next be to constructed will be the seating inside the coach.

I finished the 2nd long gun as well (see images below). I am quite happy now to move on to something else .
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 
 

Image 2
 
 

Image 3

I finally completed the paddle wheels to the point I can start tying the drive train to the engine.  This week I was able to get most of the pittman/crosshead assembly done.  Just the feedwater pump and reach rods to finish before moving onto the boilers.
 
 
U-joints for the reach rods.

 

 
Crosshead slides.

 
Testing the fit of the crosshead and end of the pittman.

 

 

 
Pittman ends freshly milled.

 
 
Straps soldered to pittman ends.

 
Finished pittman strap with bearing, wedge and keys before blackening.

 

 
 
After blackening with bolts added.

 
Flywheel end of pittman.

 
Crosshead end of pittman.

 

 

 

Thanks for the likes, the comments, and the ideas.
 
Carl, I think you might be onto something. I never thought about coming in from the top.  I'll take another look this week and see.  
 
Pat, I seem to recall that build also... too many years ago,.. <sigh>  Oh yes, I'm logging the lessons.
 
 
Here's the rudder in it's not quite or maybe it is, final form.  (Rudder coat notwithstanding).  I've added the strop and the chains.   Now that's back in it's jig, I'm going to attend to several things...  the rudder coat install from the top, the carvings <takes a deep breath>, the quarter galleries, and a bit if finishing up the sanding on the inside of the hull.
 
And the pictures.  I'm pretty happy with it even with some issues that the macro brings up..  
 

 

 

For the coachwork there are numerous repetitive ornamental mouldings. The first of these to produce is a five-reeded column. This is ⅛" wide, so it was tricky to work. I used a micro-milling cutter (Proxxon) on my mill using an x-y table to incrementally cut reeds into the stock. Also required were columnar capitals. Again, two different micro-milling cutters were used. One was a flat-bottomed cutter, the other a very small ball cutter. These produced a fair imitation of the design. 
 
The millwork is gradually being built up on the pattern piece. The pattern will be integrated into the coach, as the assembly will be painted when completed. The outer corners still need to be bevelled. Each column consists of three pieces. The reeds are stopped; that is to say, they do not extend the whole length of the column. Plain pieces of stock are grafted on the top and bottom to produce the effect of stopped reeding. In addition, there are small fielded panels in the column bases. These were cut in using a scalpel and a micro chisel. The panels in the doors and on either side were added using stock a scale ⅜" thick. 

This week I tried to finish up the Paddle wheels.  I just about made it, just the nuts on the starboard wheel to finish.
 
The buckets for the paddle wheels were 15 to 16 inches wide, 60 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick.  Each was attached to the spokes with two U-bolts.  The U-bolts were about 3/4 inch in section with a 2 inch nut.  Some of the bolts were entirely square in section, some were round and as in the photo, some were a little of both.  I'm not sure if there was a reason for the nuts being put on flat side out.

 
The area around where the bolts went through the bucket was reinforced with a short plank about 14 inches by 8 inches by 1 1/2.  Sizes varied and the seemed to be crudely cut.

 
I made several attempts to bend the u-bolts by hand but I couldn't get them to sit properly against the spokes.  I made a simple jig to swage each bolt and it worked well.  I was able to make the entire pile of 96 in less than a half an hour.

 

 

 

 
The individual pieces of the buckets going together.

 

 
The completed port wheel (minus the throw-out bearing) and the almost complete starboard bearing.

 

 

 

 

 
Kevin and I had the pleasure of a visit from Mitch Michelson this week.  Mitch, we enjoyed the day and hope to see you again soon.

I finished the first long gun – the second one is about one week behind . I followed the long gun design in Chuck’s Syren plans (with a few small changes) as basis for the build. Images 1, 2 and 3 show how the wheels and the axles were made. I glued 4 roughly square pieces of pear wood on a beech dowel (img 1a and 1b), turned them on the lathe to the required diameter, drilled the holes for axels and bolts (img 1c and 2a), and cut them apart with a little saw (img 2b). The finished wheels are shown in img 3a. Images 3b, c and d present how the axels were made and how the axels’ bearings were built by turning a brass tube down to the correct size. For stabilization a second tube was inserted during the lathe work.
 

Image 01
 

Image 02
 

Image 03
 
 
Images 4 and 5 show the making of the carriage parts. I glued 6 correctly sized pieces of pear wood together with a piece of paper between each pear wood layer (img 4a). The paper insures that the pear wood pieces can be separated from each other later on (img 5). The resulting block of layered pear wood was processed with mill, drill, and sanding wheel to arrive at the desired shape (image 5a). After painting the finished pieces the gun carriage was assembled on a jig (img 6b). The result is presented in image 7.  The finished gun can be seen in images 8 and 9. Image 10 shows the long gun in its place on the Syren.
 
Thomas
 

Image 04
 

Image 05
 

Image 06
 

Image 07
 

Image 08
 

Image 09
 

Image 10
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Lovely!
 
Yes, the blue sticks out a bit too much. But I wouldn't go with regular black. Instead blend green with black or go with some blue-black. The main thing is to keep in the color range of the green and red. I cant express in words what I mean, but the blue and green as of now doesn't play together in my eyes.
There is probably some university degree in color matching (which I don't have) but think cars. "Wow, that is a black car." and then you go up to it and discover it is actually very dark green och very dark blue. Something like that.

Quick update
 
I roughed out a boom today it is clear fir
 

 

 

 
I will sit on this for a day or so and see how it feels then/
 
Michael

The rest of the cannon have been rigged and mounted!
 

 

 

 

Thanks again, folks. No further finish on the surface of the base is necessary, Tom.
 
The latest progress has been slow. Making and installing the gunwale was tricky. It is a scale 2½" wide by ¾" deep. That translates to about 3/64" by 1/64" full size. I cut this to shape from sheet Castello and carefully rounded the outer edge with fine sandpaper. The gunwale was carefully glued to the upper edge of the sheer strake and frame tops.
 
At the bow, where the fore deck is flush to the upper side of the gunwale, revision was needed. I sanded off the paint and applied a very narrow strip of Castello over the sheer strake to match the rest of the gunwale. As masking off the top accurately would be almost impossible, I scribed the line dividing the painted area and re-painted the deck. 

Thank you for the "likes" and the comments.
 
Well.. to paraphrase Clement Moore...  "The rudder was hung on the sternpost with care in hopes that I won't pull out my hair".   Yeah.. bad verse.. Oh well.
 
This part took some sorting out on exactly how to hang it properly rather than sort of cobbled like I did the kit models...   Thank heavens for the Optivisor as the holes for the bolts were pretty tiny.  I've half a mind to build the next one at 1:48 or 1:36 even just so I can see without eyestrain.  Like the Admiralty would be receptive to that.     
 
Next up will be the rudder coat (hopefully), the strop, and the chains.   Thanks to seeing Giampero's rudder coat, he gave me some ideas on how the Licorne's should look.  
 
Anyway, pictures.....
 
  

Thanks for all the positive comments and likes.
 
Continuing on with the goose-neck the filing of the opposite side.and the ends
 

 
I also needed to thin down the tongues a bit.
 

 
Next the holes for mounting to the mast were drilled and countersunk.
 

 
Then some final polishing, this was done with some wet and dry narrow strips and a brass wire hand brush. the piece was now ready to be unsoldered.
 

 
The releasing from the bar did not work in the way I had imagined, I had expected the short piece of bar to drop off because of its weight, but this did not happen, the capillary action of the soft solder was greater that I had anticipated, and by the time the assembly had gotten quite hot I realized that I would need to assist the parting. this I did with a steel scriber.
 

 
I had to work at removing the scale next, more work with the wet and dry and wire brush, the resulting look was now more like aged bronze with actually works for me. the swiveling part of the boom end was made from a couple of pieces of brass rod drilled out to be a loose fit on the pin.
 

 

 
The goose-neck is now temporarily attached to the mast with some dressmaker's pins.
 

 

 
Michael
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you, everyone!
 
The next thing to tackle was the 'go faster' stripe along the sheer strake. Old paintings and extant ceremonial barges show either a green or scarlet strake. I opted for green, to contrast with the red paint. Securing the model on its side gently was a problem. Clamping was not an option! I decided to use a piece of dense styrofoam, which worked very well. I simply cut a slightly wedge-shaped piece out of the block and lowered the model into the gap. The masking used is Tamiya flexible tape.

I find it interesting...there is nothing in this build log that whatsoever reveal that there is somewhat of a temper involved. On the contrary, you seem to have all the patience, perseverance and endurance in the world when I look your ruler straight deck structure. Meticulously made long boats and everything else.
Inspirational!

The baseboard has now been completed and the pedestals installed. The model has been temporarily mounted and the rudder hung.

Wow five pages in. There is so much amazing shipbuilding going on in these five pages, so I had to do a lot of reading catching up as I scrolled down looking for my own. Oh I know there is a quicker way, but this was so much more fun and educational
 
Belated thanks to all the comments and likes that I missed here in the last month indeed a whole month has passed where does the time go?
 
In order to get my head back into the Herreshoff mindset if that is at all possible, I went to the catalogues of the replica hardware and looked at a lot of pictures for the rigging. 
 
I have made a start on the classic goose-neck that Herreshoff used for the small boats. The line drawing in the product catalogue shows that they were sized for 3 1/2 to 5 inch diameter. The printed off the page 7 sheet drawing of the goose-neck is exactly 5/8 inch in diameter which is the scale diameter as the low end of my mast. A great bit of serendipity.
 
After doing a small scribble in my sketchbook detailing the steps to create the piece in bronze and what cutters to use to rough out the form. Then rummaging around in the scrap box produced a small bar of said bronze about 1 5/8 inch long by 3/8 wide by 11/32 thick checking the cross section with the plan of the goose-neck it was just a little bit larger covering the plan view.
 
This first pic shows the drill chuck I took the picture after all the first steps of milling and drilling the hole for the pin, I do not want to give the impression that I used this chuck for milling, I have commented on this practice in previous posts, and never mill with the drill chuck. 
 

 
In order then:
 
I set the bar vertical in the mill vice, and milled straight down with a 5/8 end mill so that it cut the resulting chord to match the edges of the 3/8 width.
The mill was retracted and the vernier dials on the mill were all set to zero, the end mill was changed to a 1/4 diameter mill then the edge was lined up with the opposite side and the in out axis reset to zero then offset first to the left by .172 inches next I took .020" cuts into the block for .250" this was repeated until I reached a depth of .3 inches, in retrospect I should have gone .350 deep.
 
The mill was returned to the starting point at zero and then offset to .172 and the same depth cut was repeated on the opposite side. again the mill was returned to zero and then changed up to the drill chuck all I had to do was reset the in out with a pointer to the edge so that I could index the piece in by .062" I then drilled it out to the .3 depth with a .047 drill after using a centre drill to ensure that the bit didn't wander. this concluded the first set up in the vice.
 

 
the bar was reset horizontally so that the gap could be milled out, if I had had a T slot cutter this would not have been necessary as I could have slotted it while still vertical.
 

 
I changed the chuck in the mill back to the milling one and set up a 1/8th end mill and milled the gap and a small relief at the top and bottom.
 

 
Next I switched the bar back to the vertical position and carefully reset the position so that the .047" drill slid easily back into the previously drilled hole it is a bit nerve wracking but I needed to tap the hole in the bottom bar of the body 0x80 and I wanted to make sure that it was all in line, it is so easy to break these small taps the pivot pin for the boom will thread into this later.
 

 
Now comes the work with the files and sanding stick of wet and dry paper. I cut off the milled end of the bar and clamped it in the precision vice. Remember I mentioned it would have been better to go to a depth of .350" on the first machining well the small tab is the reason. I had to file this extra bit off, it can be seen in the next picture. I used a small piece of 9/16 brass rod to act as a clamp jig.
 

 
That's all for now, this evening I will continue with the filing.
 
Michael
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So, the "boat" is finished. However, I wont publish any overall pics until I have the surrounding items in place.
The boat will have a dedicated table to sit on. The table will match the other items at the podium.
It also needs a small box to have the candles in. The first one I put together were far to chunky in appearance to please my eye.
The finish is a clear lacquer, matte or satin. This to protect the wood from the anticipated far too many greasy fingerprints...
The candle-ring is just some plain copper that I went over with a ball point hammer. 
 
Nothing on this boat is "perfect" in the meaning of alignment, appearance, finish, wood texture (for instance, see the crack on the candle holder...). Why? Well, my thought is that we, as persons, are far from "perfect". We all have our small dents, cracks, soft spots and so on. And the boat reflects all that... (Rev 21:5)
Nuf said.
 

 
To be continued...