druxey

Excellent result, Marc!

I wonder whether a piece of tempered glass, shattered, would provide granules of the scale size?

Ah! Flanders and Swann, those were witty entertainers, worth revisiting. But we digress.... Penultimate is a good word, Patrick.

I think part of the reason that the alignment of the chains looks a little off has to do with the fact that the Heller kit was not designed for the main and fore channels to be beneath the main deck guns.  They were originally designed to mount above the main deck guns.
 
That meant that my shrouds had to navigate safely around the f’ocsle/q’deck guns, and the main deck guns, while the chains had to be clear of the port lids of the middle battery.
 
With all of that in mind, I tied a string around each masthead and plotted both the shrouds and their corresponding chains.  By necessity, in some instances, the angle of the chain breaks plane with the shroud.
 
As with so many details of this modification process, it is an imperfect compromise.

Excellent result, Marc!

Don't laugh at these batchelors: many if these rather eccentric but highly skilled men men were PTSD sufferers from WWII. This was their self-prescribed therapy.

It was articles on builders like him in The Model Engineer that inspired me as a kid.

Both those weathered looks seem fine on camera, even if the first was unintended!

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

Ah! Flanders and Swann, those were witty entertainers, worth revisiting. But we digress.... Penultimate is a good word, Patrick.

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

Exemplary miniature work as usual, Daniel! Looks like it was a great exhibition and meeting as well.

I've also had this problem to solve. I cut a blank, longer than the finished ellipse, and PVA glued it to a backing block. This reduced the chance of breakage cross-grain. I then very carefully scratch molded the section. After soaking the piece off the backing, I was able to cut the joints with the straight sections of the moldings.
 
If there are any 'tricks' to this, a really good piece of boxwood is needed and patience while running the molding along it.

It was articles on builders like him in The Model Engineer that inspired me as a kid.

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

Well, what can I say. I'm only away for a few weeks because of work and already my tinkering room doesn't want to let me back in ...

"What does THIS strange man want here?!" was one of the nicer questions I had to listen to ...

After some persuasion à la "man cave whisperer", I was allowed to do something in there after all. In the meantime, I had revised my lists of blocks for the Victory again. I had noticed that McKay had left out some quite some blocks in the AOTS and that there were also some errors among them. I had therefore plowed through the entire Steel of 1795 and worked through the various entries, compared them and selected the most plausible variant, possibly adding variants. All in all, there were significantly more blocks added, both the standard blocks and the special types. But more on that later.

The last thing I did was to replace the square shoulder blocks, which are used on the ship today and which McKay also shows, with contemporary round ones. The main yard continues to serve as a model playing field. Here is a reminder of the last status.





Next came 3 x 2.5 mm blocks on each side for the belly and nock gordings.



Check on the tweezers whether the paint application is complete and either brush on the tweezers immediately ...



... or after the block has been pinned. Place a strop around the fixed block as described before ...



... and checked the length in place. Since the block hangs in front of the yard, the legs must of course be different lengths.



The pointed tweezers with clamping function do a good job here, first one side ...



... and neatly trimmed, and the other and you're done 🙂



Here is a comparison of the simplified version with a simple knot on the top of the yardarm and the more correct solution with a lashing.

Since the lashing is tricky to thread, a classic needle helps.



And this is how it should look 🙂



With this technique, I'm now just as fast for the small blocks as I am for the large ones 🙂

XXXDAn  

It was nice again and my little one with the black and yellow stripes really enjoyed the trip 🙂

As every 2 years there was a big meeting in Augsburg, around 70 modellers, some with their partners, met, chatted with each other, had a nice evening together and many even had a great Sunday breakfast together.

Here are a few pictures of my little one with her accessories.











I was also able to take part in and witness a Guinness of World Record attempt: Matthias registered his ship in a bottle as the largest free-hanging ship in a bottle. Now we're just waiting for the certification 🙂



Well then, a nice greeting from both of us, DAniel and Vicky

The next adventure and small intermezzo were the blocks under the fore fighting top. Here, leech- and buntline run colorfully mixed with the braces of the sprite sail yard and top yard through a wonderful collection of blocks.

The first attempt was the classic way of doing the strop first ...



... and then pull it through to the top from below and push the toggle through the upper loop.



It worked, but it was a rather messy and uneven act.



Then prepared another block, but didn't tie the top loop ...



... and pushed the free end from the bottom to the top, tied a loop there with an auxiliary thread and brought the free end back down.



Now I was able to pull the loop at the top tight from below, insert the toggle and adjust the length with the free ends of the binding, knot everything and neaten the whole thing.

It looks much better http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif



You can see the 3 different blocks, with the outer one having two differently sized wheels.

This is due to the fact that there are four rope thicknesses in use at this point, resulting in simply beautiful details.





And it also looks very tidy from above.



And if one wonders about the different layout of the battens, very simple: the Admirality Order from 20. Nov.1802 defines the tops of great ships to be done out of fir instead of oak and to be fitted in two halves http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif
This made the tops less haevy and far more easy to be exchanged if damaged.

Yay!

XXXDAn

Sooner you than me, mate 
 
"Penultimate" = second last - the one before the last one.
 
"Antepenultimate" - third last - the one before the one before the last one. As in "her antepenultimate breath" at 2:04 in the Flanders and Swann song "Have Some Madiera M'dear"
 
 

Thank you for the nice comments.
 
The planking at the bow has been further sanded and fitted with treenails.

Back to the rear castle.
Smaller wales (4) are placed on the clinker planking. Of course, none of the four have the same dimensions.
The drawings and photos are partly used to determine the "right" location. The dimensions between the wales are also taken into account for future painting works.
According to Mary's remains, the Wales certainly continue as far as sector 10 (the penultimate cannon port)
 
"penultimate"  A new English word for me (hopefully Mr. Google translate is correct 😳)

After applying these wales I have to read my books and think first.
The "frames" of the rear castle are much too thick. And the clinker planking on the transom also feels wrong.
This means extra sanding and cutting, probably a redo and a   smiley.
 
Thanks for following
 

Excellent result, Marc!

Excellent result, Marc!

So, I had a small pocket of time to snug and snip the fore, port channel. I was able to finesse that first knot up a little higher. Really - and considering that they do tighten up just enough more under slight tension - I am very pleased with this experiment. Black touch-up paint to follow:


I am at least confident that these long links would not look better as wire. I may have over-calculated the angle of the two furthest aft preventer plates, but I was just following what the test line told me to do. Also, technically, the preventer plate links should span to the lower wale, but the first batch I made just looked over-long. I can live with this compromise. It is still a vast improvement over the stock kit. The important thing is that the chains no longer interfere with the port lids.

There are three backstay deadeyes that I have yet to prepare, but I will get to them in the next few rounds of deadeye prep.

Are those wooden plugs in the hawse holes?