druxey

You continue to amaze, Eberhard!

Painstakingly accurate work and construction sequencing, JD. No wonder it was so long since we last saw a post from you! Well done, indeed.

On a project of this nature, there will be more scrap. One needs a decent sized box. The good news is that much can be re-purposed along the way. Also, you will find the failure rate will go down as you get more experience under your belt. Been there, so I know! Boxing joint looks good now.

Wrinkled paper suggests that you were using a water-based varnish. Paper does not like moisture. For the length of a build, rubber cement is a good alternative 'glue'. Eventually it will turn paper brown and peel, but that usually takes more than ten years! Enjoy the process of buldign up a model like the real thing.

Sorry to contradict, but regular beeswax is acid! Use Renaissance (conservators') wax, if you have to.

I quote a retired civil engineer (I hope she won't mind) who designed bridges world wide: I saw the newsreel of the bridge collapse in Baltimore yesterday. I had always felt that these American 'girder bridges' were too lightweight (part of America's planned obsolesce design practice in place in those years). But I was astonished to see how little protection was provided to the main supports. It's a no brainer - if you knock out a main support, the bridge collapses! And the main supports next to the navigation channel require special attention. On the Queensferry Bridge, which was downstream of the Forsyth Naval Dockyard where they build and maintain aircraft carriers, we carried out a study, including model simulation, of just such an event and designed the main pier caissons not to fail. Luckily, the Americans loved simple span construction for their approach viaducts and this acted as a fuse . . . [for] progressive collapse of the whole crossing! . . . . what happened using 'the past is a foreign country' adage. It was opened in 1977! I was working on the Itchen Bridge then in a similar, but not as exposed, location upriver from the port of Southampton. Our River piers were protected by a massive caisson that extended out from the main columns by sufficient distance to guard against the superstructure hitting the bridge even as the hull of the vessel crumpled onto the caissons. So, there you have it.

Well done - particularly with such a tricky specie of wood! Impressive work.

Looks like you are off to a very good start, Adam.

Fascinating and amazing detail!

Coming along nicely! I've noticed that a framed model tends to spread at the toptimbers until things are tied together by deck beams, etc. Glad you spotted this early enough to correct.

On a smaller vessel, the bowsprit was sometimes constrained by an iron hoop attached to the bulwark. The heel was secured to the bowsprit step with an iron fid.

The bow ports were not armed: no space for working a gun! The were used as bridle ports for anchor handling. The vertical half-port lids illustrated were 'for example' and not drawn for all the other ports. You could not have a conventional lid as there was nothing but the rail above the port opening. There was no place to fit a hinge to! The advantage of these lids was that in a heavy sea you would not ship as much water over the decks as would happen with open ports.

Nice to see you back at it, Marc!

mnl is correct; watercolor is a transparent medium. You can also see the background through the ships' masts and the knee of the head.

There are several suggested routes you might take. Try this first, though: If you used white glue, rubbing alcohol will soften it so that you can disassemble the planks and try again. Wetting the planks , you can re-shape them, then let them dry. The second time you now know what to look for and check on. It's always a learning process, no matter how long you've been building models! 'Sea' what you can do! (groan)

Lovely touch and a tip of the hat to SeaWatch!

Only 1,100km or 684 miles for me! More economy with a Honda Civic....

Jaager: Your reference to the Unimat saw attachment made me smile. Back in 1970 that was the only way I could cut plank and other stock. A lot of hit and miss with any cut depths or widths! And the dust everywhere....

Perhaps a thin wash of brown to tone it down a bit more? It draws my eye just a little too much. Again, it's a matter of personal taste.

You would definitely need a wider stance on board anyway with the motion of the ship under you, as well as bracing yourself against the pressure of the rudder/tiller combination. I see you've been at Mots d'heures gousse râmes again, Steven. Sometimes I worry about you!

Interesting solution, Chuck. Does it account for the angle of the deck that the cupola sits on?

Lovely clean work, Erik!

Spare spars might have been lashed to the bulwark tops except that, in your case, the rail does not continue over the ports! Possibly they were lashed vertically to the foremost shrouds. Very nice work on the spars and the finish looks excellent.

Very effective and grungy!

Looking excellent, Patrick.