druxey

I think I saw you say in a YouTube video interview with David Antscherl that "The Fully Framed Model" series might be appearing again in print (I know they are available electronically). Just wondering if that's happening and when they might appear? I was considering getting a copy of Vol. IV to help with thinking about rigging - even if I have no plans for many many years to consider a build like the Swan.

Thanks again for your interest !
 
********************************
 

Anchor-winch 3
 
The winch drums were fashioned from 3 mm Ø round acrylic rod. Each side was built up from two pieces. The problem here were the square holes for the handle-bars. In principle, one could cross-drill two holes and file the square, but at 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm this would have been quite a challenge. There would be other options, such as broaching, but this requires specialised tools.
The simplest thing is to divide the drum into two parts, to slot the end of one part, cement the two parts together and one ends up with perfect square holes.

Set up for slotting the ends of the winch drums

Slotting the winch drums
 
To this end, a piece of rod was faced on both ends, and drilled 0.5 mm for the axle. It was then transferred to the dividing head on the micro-milling machine and the ends were slotted 0.5 mm deep with a 0.5 mm circular saw. Finally, a round disc of the same diameter was cemented to the end, leaving two perfectly square cross-holes.

Milling the eight sides of the winch drums
 
In the next step, the axle of the dividing head was tilted by 1.5° for milling the eight sides of the drum that is slightly conical. The drum is bound by iron hoops at both ends. These were generated by milling the drum to 0.2 mm diameter above the target dimensions. Then, the diameter was reduced by these 0.2 mm, leaving two ‘bands’ of 0.3 mm width and 0.1 mm thickness at both ends.

Close-up view of milling the eight sides of the winch drums
 
The thinner ends of the drum were faced off on the lathe to the correct length and then the drum halves parted off to the correct length.
 
The spill-heads were done in the same way, but are cylindrical (or eight-sided prisms), rather than conical (or eight-sided truncated pyramids). A smaller burr had to be used, as the distance between the reinforcement bands is only 1 mm. Before parting-off, the outside ends were slightly dished with a round-burr in the lathe tailstock.

Milling the spill heads
 
For the ratchet wheel a short length of 3 mm acrylic rod was turned down to 0.1 mm above the target diameter of 2.0 mm. The geometry for milling the ratchets was worked out on the computer. I arrived at ten ratchets 0.2 mm deep (= 32 mm on the prototype, which appears reasonable). In watchmaking there are special ratchet-wheel milling cutters that can also cut curved teeth, but I don’t have any, so I had to make do with a dovetail burr, which is good enough, as the ratchet wheel does not need to be functional. Also, two 0,2 mm thick discs as flanges were parted off.

Milling the ratchet wheel
 
Unfortunately, these transparent parts are difficult to photograph and, indeed difficult to see during machining. A first coat of paint will eventually show any errors …

The parts of the anchor winch made so far assembled

The anchor winch at its future location
 
To be continued …

Thank you Pat ...  Back from another travel, I turned my attention to the
 
Anchor-winch 1
 
I spent quite a bit of time perusing contemporary drawings and near-contemporary models of small mid-19th century Baltic vessels in order to get a good idea of what, at that time, the anchor-winch of a modest small vessel might have looked like. While the archives of the Danish Royal Shipyard in Copenhagen indicate, that winches with mechanical advantage, such as those driven via gears and an idler-shaft or patent-winches seem to have been known by the mid-1830s, they don’t seem to have been common on more modest vessels. Vessels, such as this Rahschlup, were built in small shipyards with limited forging and other iron-working capabilities, let alone gear-cutting facilities. Gears could have been bought in, but this would have been too expensive probably for this kind of ‘subsistence’ shipping.

Profile of the winch – Detail from the Original drawing by Möller.
 
This research was needed, because the original drawings show the profile of the cheeks, but there is no plan view, that indicates the length and shape of the barrel. In the Danish archive I found the drawing of a single-masted jagt of comparable size with relatively detailed rendering of the winch. It may be a bit older than the Rahschlup, but the original drawings indicate an eight-sided barrel, which at that time was already a bit old-fashioned. Other drawings from the Danish archive of the mid-1840s showed already more modern looking round barrels.

Jacht THETIS (1842) – Late 19th model from original drawings in the Altonaer Museum, Hamburg.
 
The Danish drawings and various photographs from similar vessels under restauration confirmed that the cheeks were surprisingly thin, only about half a foot in thickness. Similarly, the post against which the bowsprit will rest was only ¾ of a foot in cross-section.

Detail from a drawing F150-119 for a Jagt, Rigsarkivet Copenhague.
 
Based on this information, I drew the barrel and the cheeks as working drawings. The drawings for the cheeks will be printed and stuck onto 1 mm acrylic glass as a guidance for sawing them out.

Working drawing for the anchor-winch of the Rahschlup
 
Workshop results coming hopefully soon …

Anchor-winch 2
 
As planned, the drawings for the cheeks were printed to the correct size and stuck to a piece of 1 mm acrylic glass. A straight edge of the piece was used as reference surface.
 
The first step was to drill the 0.5 mm hole for the axle of the winch-drum. This hole serves, together with the straight edge as reference for aligning the two cheeks so that they can be made identical. The drilling gives me the opportunity to show the watchmaker’s pillar drill (https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/tools/drills/drills.html) in action.
 
Using the micro-mill as a router, the parts were roughened out with the aid of a fine cylindrical burr. Then a process of hand-filing began, using a variety of small and fine watchmaker’s files.

 
The edges were slightly rounded using a three-sides scraper and a fine abrasive stick in the handheld electrical drill. Finally the parts were polished with a rotary bristle-brush.

 The lower edge of the cheeks is 9 mm long. Unfortunately, the transparent parts are difficult to photograph.
 
To be continued …

Ambitious, but will be fun to fit those pieces!

On YouTube:
 
 
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

I was initially going to paint different colours on the suspension but I have not yet received my airbrush system. I am going to paint the model as per photos in the build manual.  Front friction dampeners added.

I have started on this build, my first car in over 50 years.  It will be a slow build as I am still waiting for my airbrush set up.  There will be a learning curve and lots of practice before putting paint to the model.  Step 1 and 2 complete

A bit of progress forward . . .
 

 
. . . and aft.
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

I didn't know how to make the draught marks on the bow; I had the idea of using old lead alloy printing type that I had used to cast the guns. This is the result, still to be finished.
 




 

Not quite sure Rich.   
 
Well everyone, I’ll be out of town till Monday.   So no updates. 
 
Rob

Thanks guys.... I can regain my focus and clarity.  Last couple of days I've been distracted by home repairs.  My sweetheart wants to redesign the master bedroom in the French country style.   Good thing I know where to keep my focus.
 
I'll be getting back to Staghound soon.  Sneaking in a little work hear and there......
 
Rob

Rob,
Mon Dieux! Is she thinking along the lines of Louis IX, the "Sun King" like the Palace of Versailles or more subdued like Monet's Garden Home in Giverny?

A few small accessories:
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

I also got the boat cradles complete, now they are waiting for their boats...

I now fussed around with the spare rudder, and found two ways in which it could in fact be stowed aft...
The rudder is presently stowed on St. Roch's main deck, from where it would be tremendously difficult to get it aft, past the full breadth superstructure, if it was ever needed. The larger superstructure would also preclude the rudder from being stowed aft. I also don't believe the mizzen mast that was installed in 1944 had the geometry or capacity to replace the rudder if needed, unlike the previous main sail boom. 
I wasn't sure if there would be room after my 1930 deckhouse was built, but pictures do not show it on the main deck, so where else would it go? The next pictures give a couple of options:


I think the last picture is the best guess, since the rudder would not interfere with the boat lashings.
I intend to send my pics off to the Vancouver museum and ask their opinion... wish me luck!
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

On YouTube:
 
 
 

I took the Admiralty workshop offered by David years ago and it turned out wonderfully!
I have it framed and hanging in my workshop as a reminder of a weekend well spent.

I have never made sails for models before, so the old dog will try to learn another new trick, mentored by David Antscherl and his Appendix to his Sphinx series of books. Thanks you very much in advance David!
Silkspan is proving very hard to come by, so I can't say enough good things about people in the modelling fraternity who open themselves and their stashes to help those in need! Needless to say, like my sailor figure, I was saved by a fellow modeller who kindly donated enough Silkspan for my St. Roch... there may even be scraps left over for lifeboat covers!
My sails will be furled, to hide my inevitable mistakes as much as giving a clear view of the decks, therefore I reduced the height of each sail about 30%, to allow for scale thickness of the material!
The first picture shows the paper templates I made, sitting on the Silkspan. This lets me size the required sail-making frame...

I marked the foot of each sail and oriented them in the same plane, so when it is time to mark the cloths that make up each sail it should be a matter of drawing the lines in parallel across the entire sheet. I hope!
I found a suitable sized piece of plywood in my garage scrap lumber stash, and using measurements taken from the templates and allowing for the required overlap of the Silkspan onto the wood, I marked out the hole to cut, creating the frame and insert in one operation.

A clearance hole and one pass with my scroll saw was all it took, then a bit of finishing with my palm sander.  The cut is not perfectly square because the scroll saw throat is a bit smaller than the length of cut!

The insert will support the Silkspan while it is being worked on, and the frame will hold it taut.  
Here is the frame checking for size on my templates. I flipped over the foresail template which reduces the amount of Silkspan needed.

Next step is to start painting and tinting the Silkspan to look like canvas... David recommends mixing and thinning artists' tube acrylics, but this is expensive and will be almost all left over, so I am going to try my Tamiya acrylics on an offcut piece... my experience is that the paint will remain flexible after drying, so fingers crossed!
If anyone has tried this I would love to know how it turned out!
Thanks for looking in!
 
 

Today work :