druxey

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?

Lovely curves that you've cut. I also enjoy your sense of humor. Building one of these models requires that, I think!

Well, you got there, Aleksandr! An unorthodox method, but it worked for you. Well done!

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.

But, if the second set is the correct thickness....

Big guns are brought in for assistance...

better control and results but also lots of noise from machine itself and vacuum..

Happy modelling..
 

This business of learning to make the chains continued to confound me as I discovered yet another mistake in my process.
 
For anyone who may also be new to this aspect of the hobby - BEWARE: jewelry wire (brass/copper) is coated with an anti-oxidation layer.  Brass black will not take without first stripping the coating (acetone bath, 99% purity - available at the pharmacy), and then roughing the wire surface with ScotchBrite.  I failed to do either of these things.  For your own sake, just buy untreated, soft copper wire.
 
My first dipping in JAX brass black almost didn’t take at all.  Whatever oxidation there was, was very spotty and wiped away easily.  After thoroughly rinsing the parts in acetone, my second JAX bath did much more to blacken the parts, but the depth of oxidation was highly irregular, there were still lots of completely bright brass patches, throughout, and the oxidation that was present still rubbed off too easily.
 
What to do, now?  I quickly decided that I absolutely was not going to re-make all of these fittings, as I had at least bent them into nicely uniform parts.  The only reasonable solution, IMO, was to spray-prime the lot black:
 

After inserting the deadeyes, and any necessary touch-up, the deadeye strops looked like this:

Quite satisfactory, I think.  On the inside, bottom edge of each deadeye, I placed a drop of CA, in order to fix the orientation of the deadeye.
 
I needed to make a run of split-rings, both for the gun out-haul tackles, and for between where the chains attach to the middle wales.
 
For these, I really like how tight a twist I get with galvanized steel wire.  Given that I was going to paint these, as well, it didn’t seem quite so important what the material was, but how it behaved.


I found it quite easy to close the eyes with my parallel pliers, a decent set of which are essential for this work (Thanks Druxey!), and I sealed the rings with a spot of common, brush-able CRAZY GLUE.
 
The eyes on deck:


In preparation for the deadeyes, I made ready the channels.  Because I found it necessary to shift a handful of deadeyes, so that the chains do not interfere with the gunport lids, I found it necessary to widen a number of the channel slots.  I then drilled for short sections of .030 styrene rod, so that I could favor one side of the slot:


Next I made capping strips for the outside edges of the channels, and simulated the nailing with shallow slices of triangular styrene rod.  I used the same “heat flashing” technique to dome over the heads:

With my masts in-place and a guide-string, I penciled-in the preventer plate locations.
 
The important thing, I think, was that the join of the preventer plates and the small loop-links be in a consistent plane, along the upper middle wale - just slightly higher than mid-wale.
 
Following a tip from fellow SR enthusiast Eric Wiberg, I purchased the following dome-headed rivets:
 
https://www.eugenetoyandhobby.com/products/plastic-rivets-round-head?_pos=3&_sid=320937e14&_ss=r
 
My idea was to use these with plastic cement to secure the preventer and loop links.
 
After drilling the top preventer plate/loop-link hole, I secure the position of the preventer plate with a common sewing pin in the top hole, and then swing a short mechanical pencil arc for the bottom hole location.
 
There are very slight differences between preventer plate links, so you do have to drill specific links for a given location.  It is very fiddly to fix the plates with these tiny styrene pins, but it can be managed from the bottom up with plenty of patience and a sewing pin to guide mating eyes into alignment.
 
Now, my hope for some time and results redemption depended upon whether or not I could make appropriate diameter thread look like the long connecting links.
 
Among my stash, was some really nice line that Dan Pariser very generously donated to my cause.  Although light in color, I found I could “paint” lengths of line with two passes of a black sharpie, which also gave the line some stiffness when dry.  I found that a single bow-knot gave me the ability to introduce tension to these links:
 
Obviously, it is important to ensure that the loop links and deadeye strops are in the correct orientation to each other.
 
The proof of concept on this first link gave me sufficient confidence that this idea will produce a nice result.  It is only important that one wait to stiffen the knot with CA until after you have pulled the knot up close behind the deadeye strop loop.  On this first one, I glued before doing so, and the knot is less perfectly concealed than the others will be:

This picture above was before pulling the knot up.  Eventually, when the lower deadeyes are lashed to their corresponding upper deadeyes, these chain links will pull fully taught with just the slightest tension.
 
Here is where things stand as of now:

I quickly learned it is wise to cover the gun ports, so that you are not continually losing links into the hull.  After pinning the links in place, I brushed over the link assembly with thin CA, to give it a little extra holding power.  I then left it to dry overnight.
 
Next, I will draw all remaining loops taught, and then the whole of it will receive a thinned acrylic black wash to homogenize the assembly and touch-up any bright spots.
 
There are, of course, many better ways to go about all of this.  For me, for now - I’ll take this all as a learning experience and move-on with it.
 
Thank you all for looking-in!
 
Best,
 
Marc
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

But, if the second set is the correct thickness....

Superb work, as ever!

Lovely curves that you've cut. I also enjoy your sense of humor. Building one of these models requires that, I think!

But, if the second set is the correct thickness....

But, if the second set is the correct thickness....

The basic forms of the cockpit area can be framed up in ply, & I'm using 2mm birch. The footwell was done but doing the deck & scuppers area in one required some joggle stick style paperwork as it's enclosed on 3 sides, & 2 of them aren't vertical. It looks unlikely in the photo, but actually it was easy to do accurately. I could slide a metal ruler below the paper to be able to press the tape down onto something at the right level without distorting it.

 
And sitting loosely in place. In the photo it's sitting 2mm too high at the stern - it will mitre to the top of the transom & so sit down lower, as this boat has no timber trimming piece or fashion piece there to cover a join that could split later. The alignment at the sides (to the hull) isn't critical, the raking strips of hull above the ply will be built up to 6-7mm thick or about 70-85mm actual, which can sit on top of the plywood. Unlike many remarkable builds on this forum, I'm not concerning myself with the inner parts of the vessel being true the actual boat.

Chapter 7 (unplanned).
About how the author reflects on time and finally gets to the main thing.
 
As I said at the end of the last chapter, the original plan was to put the issue about the side gallery dome in one issue. But then I decided that it would be better to split it into two parts because the text was too long. It was too tedious to type a large text. And even the online translator began to hang, swear and complain. So I decided to publish half of it before the translator completely destroyed everything I had time to translate.
In the morning, when I decided to continue publishing the story, I thought of one nuance.
 
And indeed, it is now the last days of May. Just a moment more and summer will come. Which means that about a year ago and took up this project. And I saw it as my usual carving work. I put my lion projects on hold because now was my chance to tackle new ways of carving. Except that in order to start carving for the Fulminant, I'd have to prepare a bridgehead first, build the stern of the ship. I expected it wouldn't take me very long. And what happened? It's been almost a year and I'm not even halfway through building the stern yet. I have the most challenging design and fabrication phases ahead of me. When will I get to the point where I can do the carving? And that realization was kind of scary to me. It told me that I had misjudged my strength. And one has to accelerate a lot to keep this project from becoming a perpetual thing. On the one hand, doing what you love and building a ship is wonderful. I certainly don't dare to start building my own ship. And this opportunity to do the ship is ideal. If I enjoy it, then let it go on for as long as possible. But at the same time, the thought makes me very sad. If it were my own project, I would not rush, but rather stretch the pleasure of each stage and each new task. But I made a promise to the customer. And I've already broken it. I've missed deadlines. And it's always weighing on me. 
Also, as much fun as it is to build the stern structure, I get a sense of longing when I look at the lion figurine I've put aside. When will I get back to this project? So eager to get back into carving again. I really miss the process.
And now, while finishing the dome structure of the side gallery, I realized my dream of returning to chisels and cutters. But first things first.
 I put the arch in its place and began designing the rest of the dome. 
 

 

 


On the historical sketch this element is drawn loosely. And this drawing can be represented in the finished design in different ways. I was faced with the task of making the design look realistic and at the same time not too different from the original. There were a lot of questions, for example, how to make the dome look three-dimensional, because in fact it is a flat part. Or what kind of materials to use so that the end result would be a balanced combination. Some time ago I already tried to rebuild Beren's drawing into my own version, and they differed from each other, as the ship's hull and the historical drawing had many differences. So now I was faced with having to make changes for the second time. I was not quite satisfied with what I had drawn once. I needed to look at certain nuances in more detail. For example, I came to the conclusion that I should change the original shape and size of the false window. 
The painted version now looked too big compared to the windows on the stern. And I didn't like it. I also decided to correct the dome and make it smaller.
Unfortunately, I can't show photos of intermediate stages of production. They just do not exist. At this point, my son left for a few days on a small trip with friends and took the camera with him. And before that, I broke my phone, so there was nothing to take photos with. So right after photos with paper templates will immediately follow photos with already finished dome.
 


This picture is the only one that can be called intermediate and working. Here I glue the inner part into the frame. At the same time I will explain a little what is this strange bar, which “stuck” to the dome. I made the frame of the dome the way it would be made in life. And in a shipyard, it would be assembled from several separate segments. And the sides would be made of separate boards. And because the joints are so small, it's easy to break off when working. So I glued a temporary strip on top of this joint, which gives additional rigidity. So now it will be a little clearer to look at the following shots, where you can also see this temporary detail.
 

 


And this is how the dome looked after I removed this temporary stiffener.Now there is no point in it anymore. I've already done all the work, so it's not so dangerous to accidentally break off the gluing point. Besides, now the inner field has taken over the role of a rigid base. And the frame will be safe. 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
And now for a historic moment in the history of this project. I have finally gotten to the stage that can be called carving! Yay! Opening the champagne, setting off the fireworks and dancing on the balcony! 🙂

 

 

 
 
And the final frames are now left. This too can only conditionally be called a finale. Other elements with decorations will appear here in the future. But these details will be made of another material, not wood. So it will be a different story. And I am finished with the wooden part at this point. 
Carving has appeared so far in a very small form. But it is even more logical to begin with. The first appearance by all laws and should be small and insignificant, like a fresh sprout. Some time will pass and it will turn into something more significant and big. Maybe even like a huge tree. Hopefully my story too will someday be filled with carvings that will finally become many and will finally become the main theme of this story. We'll live to see...
 

 

 

 

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.

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

But, if the second set is the correct thickness....

Well, you got there, Aleksandr! An unorthodox method, but it worked for you. Well done!